Bialya – March 11, 2011
"What the hell?" Wally murmured.
"Why does my head hurt?" he wondered.
Kid Flash looked around—sand and more sand was all he could see. (What the hell?) he thought, searching for shade before opening his wrist-mounted communicator.
This is Kid Flash, code name The Wave, June 26, 20XX. Batman sends us on a mission to Queen Bee's territory in Bialya. The team is heading out on a mission to extract information on Queen Bee's experiments. The team consists of Aqualad, Robin, Miss Martian, Artemis, and Superboy. We're heading there.
Kid Flash finished listening to his reminder and read everything he needed to know about the mission and his teammates as his memories came back. He had to find the rest of the team and get out of Bialya—they had been discovered and couldn't stay any longer.
Once the headache faded, Kid Flash needed to find the others. Luckily, Robin had done his part and placed trackers on everyone. He just had to go to the nearest one and orient himself from there to find the rest, so he didn't waste time and started running.
The Watchtower
Batman studied the trackers Robin had placed on his team. They were separated and had been immobile for some time. One was moving very fast—that had to be Kid Flash—who was approaching another nearby teammate. It seemed he also had access to the trackers.
"Is there a problem?" Dinah asked. Batman remained silent.
"Possibly," he replied calmly. "But Kid Flash seems capable of handling it," he stated while calmly watching the screens.
"You have a lot of faith in that kid," Dinah commented, looking at Batman.
"His actions speak louder than his words," Batman said calmly as he watched the dots.
Bialya
"Well, looks like I found you, sweetheart," Kid Flash murmured when he found Artemis unconscious. Her vital signs were stable. (How convenient), Kid thought when he found a cabin in the desert. It didn't make sense, but now he had to decide whether to leave Artemis here and go look for another member, or wait for her to wake up so they could both go search for the rest. Luckily, he found her bow and quiver.
Kid Flash brushed off the sand and turned to see Artemis aiming her arrows at him.
"How about you lower that and we talk, sweetheart?" Kid Flash suggested with a smile.
"Who are you?" she asked, without lowering her bow.
"I'm Kid Flash, Flash's partner," he replied calmly. "So please lower the bow, sweetheart."
"Don't call me sweetheart," she declared.
"Then this means nothing to you," he said as he displayed a hologram photo of the two of them on the beach with Megan and Conner. Artemis' eyes widened when she saw herself hugging someone with the same eyes and hair as Kid Flash—it was her hugging him.
"You and I… are we dating?" she asked, confused.
"No, we're just friends," Kid Flash said calmly as he turned off the hologram. "Looks like we have company. Are you ready for battle?" he asked calmly as his suit shifted to a darker color.
Artemis grabbed her arrows. "We'll talk about this," she declared.
Kid laughed and just winked at her before standing up and pulling out his brass knuckles.
Kid Flash stepped out of the cabin and began disarming the soldiers while scanning for the biggest threat to neutralize it. Artemis didn't waste time and fired her arrows at each of the soldiers.
Kid Flash heard an explosion and a roar that could only belong to one person.
"Keep your distance, this one's all mine, sweetheart," he said calmly.
"Men—why do you always have to act macho?" Artemis told him.
Kid Flash laughed out loud. "Because it makes us look awesome," he said as he watched Superboy's shirtless figure fall from the sky.
"Come on, buddy, it's me—do you remember me?" he asked Superboy, who roared and leapt to strike him. Kid Flash easily dodged the blow and connected his right brass-knuckle punch with Superboy's face, delivering enough kinetic force to bend him and make Superboy taste sand.
"Easy, buddy. I don't want to hurt you too much," Kid Flash warned him as Superboy got up angrily.
"I'm sorry to have to do this," he said as he placed a kryptonite collar around Superboy's neck. Superboy collapsed to the ground.
"Sorry, but it's time to sleep," Kid Flash said before knocking his teammate out.
"He weighs more than I thought," he said as he carried Conner back to the cabin. "Cover me!" he shouted to Artemis, who nodded while checking the area.
"Now what?" Artemis asked.
"He's close," Kid Flash said, showing the trackers. One was still immobile, but two were approaching from different directions. "Two of the three missing members are closing in," he said calmly as he treated Superboy.
"Once they arrive, we'll go get the last one and then get out of this God-forsaken place," he added calmly as he pulled out some nutrition bars. "I'm running low on fuel," he stated seriously.
"Can't you think about anything besides eating?" Artemis said, but she froze at the look Kid Flash gave her.
"These are my arrows," he said seriously. "I run out of food, I lose energy. If I lose energy, I slow down. If I slow down, I die."
She nodded at his words.
"I'm the Wave!" a voice shouted outside the cabin.
"What's up?" Kid Flash shouted back as the door began to open. Artemis didn't trust it and aimed an arrow. Robin raised his hands with a cocky smile.
"You're not that fast, sweetheart—lower it," he said calmly.
"Don't call me sweetheart," Artemis snapped, one eyebrow twitching.
"Whatever you say, sweetheart," Robin replied, glancing over to see his friend sitting on Superboy. "What happened to him?"
"He didn't know his place," Kid Flash replied as he stood up from the unconscious clone.
"I just showed him who was stronger," he declared.
At that moment, a green-skinned young woman entered. Artemis drew her bow.
"Enough, sweetheart—she's with us," Kid Flash said.
"You got your memories back?" she asked, surprised.
"Something like that, but make them get theirs back," he replied. Miss Martian nodded and tended to the other three members while Kid Flash watched the one remaining dot on the tracker.
"Done—we all have our memories restored," Miss Martian said.
"We're still missing one member. Our mission has failed. It's best we get out of here before we're captured again," Kid Flash said seriously as Robin and Artemis readied their weapons and Superboy checked his outfit.
"We're leaving," he said. The team nodded.
Three hours later
"Damn scientists," Kid Flash muttered as he dropped the last scientist who got in his way. He pulled out the USB drive containing the downloaded research the Queen Bee's dogs had been working on.
"Do we have everything?" he asked Robin, who was planting explosives in the tents.
"More or less. Artemis has Aqualad. Miss Martian and Superboy seem to have dealt with the guy who wiped our memories," Robin replied. Kid Flash growled.
"Tell me they made him feel a lot of pain," Kid Flash snarled.
"Not sure—I left them to it," Robin said as he withdrew. He heard his friend growl; Kid Flash didn't forgive easily when someone messed with him.
They regrouped with the others.
"We're getting out of this damn place," Kid Flash declared seriously. The rest nodded at the order.
"Get us out of here, Miss Martian," Kid Flash ordered.
"On it," Megan said as the Bio-Ship took off, leaving Bialya.
"By the way, what's that thing?" Kid Flash asked when he noticed the sphere next to Superboy.
"Sphere followed me," Superboy said.
"You're responsible for anything that thing breaks," Kid Flash said seriously. Superboy nodded.
"We've left Bialya's airspace. We can communicate with the rest of the world now," Megan informed them.
"This is Kid Flash to the Cave—anyone read me?" Kid Flash called.
"This is Black Canary," Dinah replied.
"How did your mission go?" Dinah asked.
"Nothing good," Kid Flash said with a sigh.
"Explain," Batman appeared on the screen.
"One of Queen Bee's dogs—a guy named Psimon—wiped our memories. We were separated. Luckily, we recovered our memories and destroyed the research lab. We took the research data, and Superboy adopted Queen Bee's experiment," Kid Flash explained calmly.
"Understood. How likely is it that you were recorded and the League will have to operate in your image?" Batman asked.
Kid Flash considered his answer. "Hard to say. No one captured us—we were just separated. But it's possible more groups know about us now. We're pushing our luck in Santa Prisca and now in Bialya. It's not a good streak," he said calmly.
"Understood. Return to the Cave," Batman ordered.
"On it," Kid Flash replied, cutting the call.
Unknown Location
Deathstroke watched the few recordings taken at the Bialya camp, observing Kid Flash sabotaging the place.
"The kid's still a bit rough, but efficient," the mercenary murmured.
"That's the kid who gave you that nasty scar," Cheshire said with a smile beneath her mask.
"Seriously—you lost to that kid?" Talia al Ghul argued as she appeared. The two mercenaries looked at the Leader of the Shadows' daughter cautiously.
"That kid isn't like your bat-obsessed lover," Deathstroke growled calmly.
"That kid is willing to get his hands bloody," he declared evenly.
"If I hadn't moved at the last moment, that kid would've pierced my heart without any mercy," he said seriously, touching his shoulder where Savitar's hand had pierced him—not Kid Flash's. That might be the name he used with civilians, but to Deathstroke…
"Oh, come on. That can't be true—you probably just underestimated him," Cheshire said casually, recalling her fight with the kid. But she remembered Kid Flash hadn't used any powers—just speed—yet it didn't look like the videos.
"The kid played you," Deathstroke said as he calmly walked away. Cheshire remained silent, thinking, before leaving as well.