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Wally was missing.
Okay, yes, he did tend to be late sometimes (usually due to having to work with Flash, who was ALWAYS late, which Wally hated), but he always got to the Mountain by the time they were called for a mission.
But he was never missing. Wally wasn't sick, because speedsters just don't get sick, and he wasn't stuck doing schoolwork or anything; he would've told Robin or Artemis if he was busy. This time, Wally hadn't told Robin, Artemis, or anyone that he was going to be gone.
That, and he and Flash hadn't been heard from in a week. Nothing was going on in Central City, this Robin was sure of; he'd checked everything, from traffic cams to newspapers, and he'd found nothing. It seemed like the two speedsters had just disappeared off the face of the earth.
But instead of worrying, the team had their mission: go into Central City (because Flash and Kid Flash were missing, and they couldn't do this because of that), break into the abandoned STAR Labs building, and find out exactly what was going on there.
STAR Labs had been the site of a huge explosion of a particle accelerator many years prior, and the company had shut down that branch completely, as the explosion had not only killed many people, but was the cause of many humans (helpful or not) getting superpowers, and had created what the world know knew as metahumans. The Flash himself was one of those metahumans, although there were metas in other parts of the world who had gained powers from other ways.
Still, STAR Labs Central City had been abandoned for almost twelve years now. There had always been rumors going around, but none had really gotten the league's attention like this: there seemed to be another speedster running around Central, and whoever it was had been hanging around STAR Labs.
The team needed to make sure this other speedster was friendly, and if they weren't, they had to take them down.
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The bioship landed outside of STAR Labs in camoflague mode. The team left the ship and went towards the entrance to the building; they broke in and started exploring. They split up and searched almost every part of the building, and couldn't find any sign of anyone being there recently. The met up in the room nearest to the elevator. In that room, there was an open area, with desks in the middle of it, facing two empty mannequins on the wall opposite of it. There were computers on the desk, and a few tv screens on the walls. Attached to that room was what seemed to be a medical bay, and on the other side of the main room was a door that opened to another room that had some sort of treadmill in it.
Then they heard footsteps, coming from the hallway. The team hid, but could still see and hear what was going on.
A girl wearing a red superhero costume, walked into the room. She had brown hair tied up in a ponytail, and she was wearing a mask. On her chest was a lightning bolt insignia - the same design as Flash and Kid Flash, except hers was in black. She sat down at the computer, and turned it on. The girl checked her phone, put it down, and a second later she was gone; she had run off at superspeed.
The Young Justice team came out from hiding. "Well, I think we've found our speedster. But who is she?" Robin said. "I've got no idea, but I do know that Wally's been keeping secrets from us." Artemis had walked over and picked up the girl's phone. It seemed to be an iPhone, but it was a lot skinnier and bigger than they'd ever seen one. Artemis had pressed the home button and turned it on. Displayed on the screen was a picture of this girl (or at least they assumed it was her, she was in civvies), and Wally in front of the STAR Labs building.
If this girl was friends with Wally, why hadn't they heard about her? He usually talked about his friends outside the team but he'd never mentioned this girl. Also, if she was a speedster, wouldn't Flash have said something about her, or had her join their team as well?
"We should follow her. If she's a speedster, she might actually have a clue as to where KF and Flash have been." Robin said. He wanted to find his friend and he knew the others did too. "I agree. We can find out why she is here, to complete our mission, and if we are able to find out what happened to Flash and Kid Flash, that would be very helpful." The team decided to follow the girl in red.
The first thing they did was search the building, in case she hadn't left. Robin was able to hack into the computers and use the security cameras to search for her. It turned out she hadn't left, and she was downstairs in another part of the building. The headed down that way.
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Jesse was sitting in the breach room, waiting for the rest of Team Flash to come back from Supergirl's earth. They had been helping Kara out with a bunch of metahumans who had turned up there, but they had already had defeated on Earth One. She'd been covering Central City crime for Barry and Wally while they were gone, since they needed someone there to keep the rogues under control, and who better then one of the few other speedsters they knew they could trust to do that?
It really hadn't been a problem, though. The only thing Jesse actually had to deal with was some normal human criminals and trying to stay out of the spotlight. Now that the Justice League was around, she had to be careful how much she was out in Central. She didn't want to make it so Barry had to explain why there was yet another speedster around, or the whole "multiverse" thing. Barry had mentioned that the League didn't know about it, and that he didn't plan on telling them. So she kept quiet while putting criminals in jail, and tried to stay off the League's radar by running back to STAR Labs after every crime, and changing into civvies there and leaving after.
Suddenly, Jesse thought she heard a sound behind her, so she turned towards the entrance to the room. Nothing was there. She shook her head.
She turned back to the middle of the room as the breach opened. Barry, Wally, Caitlin, Cisco, HR, and Julian all eventually popped out of the breach. Wally ran straight up to her, and hugged her. "Hey Jesse!" He said happily. She smiled and said, "Hey, Wally." She had missed her best friend. Then, out of nowhere, as everyone was getting settled, an unfamiliar voice spoke.
"What was that?" yelled a boy Jesse had never seen before, who was standing with the weirdest assortment of teenagers Jesse had ever seen in the entrance. "Ohhhhh crap." Barry said. The boy looked mad and confused. Wally spoke up next. "Hey, Rob. Hi guys." The blonde girl in green seemed annoyed. Jesse recognized her; Wally had told her about this girl. He said her name was Artemis, and she was his girlfriend, and part of the team he was on. Which meant that this was that team. The team that worked for the Justice League. Maybe she hadn't stayed completely off the radar after all.
Whoops. Flash was going to kill her for this one.
Wally took a step back from Jesse, probably to make sure Artemis didn't think they were a thing. If they had been standing there the whole time, they had seen him hug her, and he probably was going to have to explain that later. Jesse stifled a laugh thinking about that. She and Wally were best friends, yeah, but they definitely weren't into each other like that.
Barry started to talk. "What are you kids doing here?" He asked. He figured it was for a mission, but why would they be sent to STAR Labs of all places?
"We're here on a mission from Batman. There were reports of someone sneaking around STAR Labs here in Central, and since it was the site of that particle accelerator explosion, we had reason to believe that someone could've been trying to set that off or use some tech that was left here after to do something with it. Also, there's rumors that there was another speedster in Central and since you two were missing, we thought it might've been someone else, and the only other speedster we know of is-" Robin answered, but Jesse cut him off: "The only other speedster you know of is Zoom, right?" She huffed. "I hate him."
Wally rolled his eyes. "Of course you hate him. He's the reason half your earth doesn't trust you. Don't worry about him, Jess. He's gone for good... I hope." He muttered. He looked back at his uncle. Barry nodded, even though he wasn't really sure; he'd heard stories from the Legends about another speedster, who was chasing Thawne down, who wore a suit a lot like Zoom's, but he really wasn't sure if it actually was Zoom himself.
Barry turned to the team. "You guys can go back to Mount Justice. Tell Batman that Kid Flash and I will be back tomorrow. Don't mention anyone or anything else. Tell him I'll take care of it, and if has any questions he can talk to me. Do you understand me?" The team members all agreed. They went to leave STAR Labs, still not happy at their lack of answers to what happened, or why there was a freakin' portal in the basement of the building, that Flash and Kid Flash had randomly jumped out of.
As they boarded the bioship, Wally came running out of the building, and straight up to Artemis. He kissed her. "Just so you know, that was the most boring week of my life. I missed you." He said. She smiled. "Yeah, I missed you too. Don't go off without texting me first, okay?" she said. "Okay." He ran back inside. Artemis got into the bioship, and the team returned to Mount Justice.
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This mess was added to the file Batman was now keeping, titled "Things Barry and Oliver are Keeping From Us", which includes:
- Thea Queen is "Speedy"?
- Malcolm Merlyn's involvement with Ra's al Ghul
- The Hood of Starling City
- Oliver was Ra's for a while?
- "Flashpoint"?
- Black Canary's Death/Resurrection?
- Portals to ???
- Another speedster in Central City?
- Flash working out of STAR Labs, with other possible metahumans, and scientists
Hope you liked it! :)
~ Etta