Mount Justice
October 11, 16:15 EDT
"C'mon Rob! Help a friend out!" Wally groaned from the coach of Mount Justice as Robin sat on the floor, watching TV.
"I don't know what you want me to do about it. Just ask her," the Boy Wonder brushed him off for another episode of Superman: the Animated Series.
"Just ask her?" Wally repeated her.
"Uh, yeah. Dude, that's usually how you get dates." Robin rolled his eyes.
"Cyra!" a voice called from down the hallways of Mount Justice and the blonde turned around to see a blur of red coming towards her. For a moment Cyra was tempted to run for it, but realized she would never make it out in time.
"Hm?" Cyra hummed as Wally came to a stop next to her, slowing down to her strides.
"My parents are having another dinner tonight and I was wondering if you—"
"Can't, sorry," Cyra said, not even looking at the ginger speedster as she kept walking.
"What? Why not?" Wally insisted with a nervous stutter. Cyra's eyebrows twitched in annoyance.
"Busy."
"With what?"
"Why are you being so nosy?" the blonde snapped.
Wally frowned and his emerald eyes narrowed suspiciously, the nervousness from earlier drained out of him. He scanned the Green Lantern up and down, trying to find a difference. "What's up with you? You've been all weird since the mission with RT."
"No I haven't," Cyra brushed it off.
"Yes," Wally insisted as he stepped in front of Cyra to stop her. "You have. You've been brushing everyone off and running around the Cave without any words, which is weird for you. Like, really weird."
"And?"
"And I want to know why."
"And I want to know why your in my way—move!" Cyra pushed him out of her way as she kept walking.
Wally sped next to her again. "What's your issue? Did I do something?"
"No," Cyra rolled her eyes. "I'm just busy."
"Busy with what?"
"Bye, Wally!" Cyra yelled as she walked out into the Zeta-Tube and disappeared.
The ginger-haired speedster watched as the yellow particles faded, leaving the place where the Green Lantern once stood empty. Wally let out a sigh as his head dropped in defeat.
Coast City High
October 11, 16:45 EDT
"You want . . . to get into the Advanced Robotics and Engineering class?"
"And computer programming."
"Uh-huh," Cyra's school counselor, Mr. Zetters, hummed as he looked at his computer. "You do know you have to test into that class, right?"
"Yup."
"And that you are basically failing all your classes, right?"
"I'm only failing two."
"Math and science."
"Yup."
"The two classes that will be covered the most in Advanced Robotics and Engineering."
"Yeah, probably."
Mr. Zetters let out a groan as he rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands. The counselor was in his thirties with shaggy brown hair and brown eyes. He reminded Cyra of Shaggy from Scooby Doo. He has a little beard and wore black square glasses. Half of the time it seemed like he was hungover and the other half just really, really tired. Cyra liked him.
"Why, Cyra? Let's be straight with this: you have awful grades, is the post-child for being a horrible students, and obvious—like me—don't want to be here, so what's the deal? Why turn it around now?"
Well . . . Cyra liked him most of the time.
"In the little respect I have for you, it's not really your concern," Cyra grinned. "Just put me in the class."
Zetters sighed again. "Okay, you have to get at least a ninety percent on the test to get into the class and then they want recommendations, so good luck. I can arrange for them to test you on the fourteenth."
Cyra's amber eyes widened at his words. "Ninety percent? Like . . . more than half?"
"A lot more than a half," Zetters nodded apologetically.
"And the fourteenth," Cyra repeated, "that's in three days."
"Uh-huh."
"And what's on the test?"
"Mostly physics and Algebra l-ll. There will also be some geometry, I think."
"And that's for both of the classes?"
"Nope. That's just for the robotics class. For the programming class it'll mostly be math and some computer programming in JAVA."
"Oh . . . yay?"
Zetters smiled. "Good luck. You're going to need it."
Central City
October 11, 16:55 EDT
Wally was sitting at home, alone. For once he skipped out on a family dinner to sit in his room and drown in his own depression. The TV was playing the Real Housewives of Keystone when the phone next to his bed started to ring.
The ginger almost didn't answer it, but ended up putting the house phone to his ear and saying, "Hello, this is the West household and this is me, Wally West, how can I help you?"
"Well, you don't sound very happy."
Wally groaned loudly to make sure Cyra could hear it over the phone. "You have thirty seconds before I hang up the phone."
"I just called to say sorry about earlier."
Wally sat up from his bed. "Really?" he asked suspiciously.
"Well . . . it's part of it."
"Now it's only fifteen seconds."
"Alright, alright, I need your help with something."
"Ho ho ho," Wally laughed. "So you only want to hang out when you need my help with something, huh? Yeah, I'm hanging up."
"No—wait! Pleeeease? I really need your help."
"After you blew me off earlier?" Wally snorted. "I think not."
"Oh come on! I'm begging here."
Wally let his curiosity lead him. "What do you need help with?"
"Is that a chance of redemption I'm hearing?"
"Hanging up now!"
"Okay! I need help studying for some big test so I can get into some smart person class."
"You? A smart person class? Excuse me while I laugh." Wally pulled the phone away fro his ear and laughed obnoxiously loud.
"Ha ha ha, so funny," Cyra's voice was full of sarcasm. "So will you help me or not?"
"I don't know . . . you were a jerk earlier . . ."
"I'll bring food?"
A smile came to Wally's face. "Deal!"
"Alright, yay! I'll be there in fifteen minutes with books and pizza!"
The phone beeped as she hung up and Wally fell back onto his bed with a smile on his face.
A loud knock echoed through the West household, shaking the oak door as Wally raced down the stairs, leaving a trail of red in his wake. He stopped momentarily to straighten his hair in the entrance mirror before opening the door.
The Green Lantern protégée stood there in all her amazing green glory, wearing a pair of dry-fit running shorts and a Batman hoodie with her usual green aviators. Wally's eyes widened when he saw her but widened, even more, when he was the boxes of pizza she was balancing in her hands.
In a second, Wally swooped in and helped her with all the pizza before speeding Cyra up to his room and throwing her onto the bed as he carefully put the pizzas on his nightstand.
"I think I'm going to puke," Cyra admitted, looking a little green.
"Not on my bed," Wally ordered her as he opened the box of pizza and rubbed his hands together evilly before he dug in, filling his mouth with cheese and pepperoni.
"Okay, so these are the books I have," Cyra said as she emptied out her backpack, letting about seven different books fall out, all with varying thickness. "We have—uh—Algebra for Dummies, Physics for Dummies, my Algebra l book, an Algebra ll book I stole from the library, a book on academic geometry, and a few more on advanced physics and engineering—"
"Woah, woah, woah," Wally said through a mouthful of pizza. "You have to study all of that?"
"Uh yeah."
"And when's the test?" Wally asked, his eyes widening with every moment.
"Um . . ." Cyra counted on her fingers. "Um—uh . . . three days," she admitted sheepishly as Wally started to feel a twitch start to develop in his left eye.
"Three days! That's crazy!"
"Oh and I have to get a ninety percent or better on the test," Cyra grinned.
"You're not going to pass."
"Wally!" Cyra shouted as she fell back onto the bed with a groan. "Help me out here!"
"I'm going to help, but you do know I get a C in Algebra, right?" Wally nervously ate some more pizza.
Cyra deadpanned. "I have an E."
"Well then," Wally crackled his knuckles like some type of boxer getting ready for a fight. "Let's get to work then."
"We're going to need more pizza," Cyra whined, sprawled out on Wally's bed.
Wally sat next to Cyra's groaning figure with a sheet of paper in his hands. "Just a few more. What's the answer to number five?"
Cyra rolled over onto her stomach and looked at Wally with a bright smile on her face. "I got forty-two."
"The answers two."
Cyra looked down at her paper and squinted her eyes. "Then where did the other forty come from?" she asked, confused.
It was Wally's turn to let out a groan as he fell onto the bed next to Cyra. It's been hours and they were still only on Algebra l and there was still a million other things they needed to cover.
Wally opened his eyes to see Cyra watching him closely. "What?" he asked.
"If you want I could just go home and do this by myself. I know it's not exactly heart-shattering fun!" Cyra said cheerfully, but it sounded empty behind the false tones.
"No, no," Wally shook his head. "It's been fun. You know, with me and you," Wally added with a flirtatious smirk and Cyra laughed.
Cyra's own smirk grew on her lips. "You're going have to be quicker than that, KF."
Wally rolled his eyes and tried to fight the smile twitching open his lips. He wasn't lying by any means—it has been fun, but that was mostly because it was Cyra he was with. He couldn't stop the smiling coming to his face the time Cyra had to sing the Order of Operations Song to the Duck Song tune or when she did a little happy dance when she got the challenge question right despite getting the previous questions completely wrong.
"Stop smiling," Cyra ordered, faking seriousness. "We have work to do."
"Mmm hmm," Wally hummed as he rolled over next to Cyra, who was sitting up. He watched as she worked on some math problems and the corner of his mouth tipped when he saw her tongue stick out of the corner of her mouth in concentration.
Cyra looked down at the speedster to see him smirking and his emerald eyes glittering with mischief. She blonde was just about to open her mouth to ask what he was doing when his fingers found her sides and Cyra let out a loud laugh.
Wally's smirk grew. "You're ticklish."
"Pfft," Cyra huffed. "Am not."
"Oh really," Wally laughed as he started to tickle her sides again, making the Green Lantern laugh and squirm away from him.
Wally rolled over next to her and continued tickling her sides, making her cry out to try and back him stop. Her face started to turn red and Cyra's sides started to ache from her laughing so hard. Wally laughed with her and Cyra eventually managed to roll off the bed and get away from him.
"We really should be studying," Cyra said, but she was grinning.
Wally rolled off the bed the other way so they were on either side. "Well it's not like you're going to pass anyway," the ginger joked.
Cyra mocked offense as she waltzed towards the door. "Then I might as well just leave."
The speedster ran up to her and wrapped his arms around her wrist before spinning her back onto the bed, where they fell laughing together.
Wally couldn't help but stare at Cyra as she laughed. She made his heart speed up in his chest past his already inhuman speeds.
"Alright, my hotness," Wally flirted. "We could always get back to work . . . or you could spend more time cuddled next to me." Wally rubbed his nose against her neck.
Cyra chuckled darkly as she looked Wally deep in his eyes. The ginger felt his heart stop. Cyra leaned in closer and Wally felt his eyes closed and lips pucker. Maybe this really was a dream minus the math foreplay.
Wally felt a long, wet object run right up his face and Cyra's obnoxious laughter followed.
Cyra laughed so hard that she fell off the bed. Wally opened his eyes and whipped the Cyra-slobber off his cheek from where she licked him and shook his head.
"I hate you," he said nonchalantly. "I hate you so much."
"You love me," Cyra grinned smugly.
You have no idea, Wally thought in a daze.
"So," Cyra smirked as she held up her math book. "We were talking about math."
Wally let out a groan. "This is impossible. You're illiterate and there is too much of this stuff for you to learn in three days."
A pillow hit Wally on the side of the head. "Hey!" Cyra barked. "I can read. Never very good, but I can do it!"
Wally grabbed the pillow that Cyra threw at him and screamed into it before raising his now messy haired head. "It's going to be a long night."
"Newton's First Law!" Wally shouted.
"An object in motion stays in motion until acted upon by another force!" Cyra yelled back.
"What's work?"
"Force multiplied by distance!"
"How many watts are in a horsepower?"
"Seven-hundred and forty-six!"
Wally threw the flashcards out of his hands and jumped up to his feet. "That's it!" Wally yelled, mostly in shock. "That's all of them! You got them all right!"
Cyra cheered as she jumped up and down and hugged Wally. "I did it! I did it! I'm amazing!"
"Well, you never would have done it without me," Wally smirked.
"Eh," Cyra waved her hand. "You're alright."
"Ha ha," Wally mocked, but he still grinned at her. "Looks like you won't completely bomb the test!"
"Yay!"
"But we still have four more subjects to go and hundreds of more topics to cover."
"Not yay!" Cyra yelled as she fell back on the bed and took a slice of cold pizza. She took a large bite of it and said with her mouthful, "I think my brains going to melt."
"What brain?" Wally joked as he joined her laying on the bed. "Why do you want to get into this smart class anyways?"
"I'm an interesting person with many interests."
"That's not an answer. I think after all that help that I deserve some type of real answer."
Cyra rolled over on her stomach as she shrugged. "I figure that I'm going to need a life outside the hero gig, so I might as well be rich."
"That's it?" Wally asked doubtfully. "It's all to be rich?"
"Like Bruce Wayne."
Wally chuckled. "Now that's ironic."
Around five in the morning, Wally crashed onto the bed, hugging the pizza box as he snored like a congested mammoth. Cyra was still pacing around his room with a book in her hands, muttering definitions, and formulas to herself. She was tired and hungry, but around three o'clock she got into the studying mode and didn't even seem to notice anymore.
She unconsciously took another bite of a cold piece of pizza before getting back to the flashcards. The blonde looked down at her science-whiz friend and smirked. She moved to sit next to his head as she picked up a pencil from the desk and tickled the redhead's ear with it.
Wally twitched a little but didn't wake up.
Cyra did it again and this time Wally scratched his ear and moved his head a little. Cyra put her lips close to his ear and waited for a second, trying not to giggle before blowing a strong gust of air into his air.
"Ahh!" Wally jumped up, rubbing his ear vigorously and Cyra fell back onto the bed laughing.
"C'mon, Sleepy-Head. We only have two days of studying left!"
Coast City High
October 14, 16:35 EDT
Wally tapped his foot impatiently as he sat on an uncomfortable bench outside of Cyra's high school. People were giving him odd looks as they walked by. The speedster has already been waiting for a few hours now and wondered how long it would take her to finish these tests.
The pair studied three days straight with little sleep and a lot of fast food before finally, the test came up. Wally smirked, remembering how nervous the usual iron-blooded Cyra was.
Two girls next to Wally's bench giggled at each other as they kept throwing him glances. Wally grinned at them and gave them the 'sup' head nod, causing them to laugh some more. Wally just hoped they were laughing with him and not at him.
"Get out of here ya vultures!" a loud voice yelled from the entrance of the school.
The girls frowned but moved away as Wally looked over to see the Green Lantern-in-training swaggering down the steps. Emerald eyes scanned over her as she was wearing ripped jeans and a leather jacket. Her green aviators hid her eyes, but Cyra's smirk told him all he needed to know.
Wally stood up as she approached. "So how was it? How did you do? You got in right?"
Cyra handed him a sheet of paper and kept walking with her confident swagger. Wally opened the envelope and looked at the test, his eyes expanding.
"Ninety percent on the dot!" Wally yelled. "That's crazy!"
Cyra turned around a grinned. "I know, I'm awesome and I complete genius!" Cyra threw her arms out. "Bow to your new queen!"
Wally shoved her shoulder, rolling his eyes. "So how was it like in there?"
"Well . . ."
"I'm surprised you even showed up," Mr. Zetters said as he was signing off some papers on his desk.
"Just hand me the test," Cyra deadpanned.
"First, any recommendations?"
Cyra slid over two pieces of paper and Mr. Zetter examined them closely and his mouth dropped open.
"You got a recommendation from Oliver Queen and Bruce Wayne! How?"
"I have connections," Cyra shrugged with a smug smile on her face.
"But Bruce Wayne! Gotham billionaire!"
"I know, I was surprised too," Cyra said knowingly.
"Alright! Here are the tests you can take as long as you want because I don't have anywhere to be, but be quick about it. The quicker you finish the longer I get to watch Netflix."
Mr. Zetter scanned Cyra's test. She just spent three hours taking two seventy-question tests and was absolutely drained. Not to mention the three days with little sleep.
"Welp," Zetters said and Cyra braced herself, anxiety building up in the pit of her stomach. "Eighty-nine percent."
"No! Not fair! I call cheats! Cheats, I say!" Cyra yelled and jumped to her feet.
Zetters showed her the test blankly and Cyra fell back onto the plush chair.
"I think I'm going to start to sweat milk."
Zetters looked at her test score with an interested look. "You got Bruce Wayne recommendation."
"Will that get me in?" Cyra asked hopefully.
"Oh no, you need to get the test score," Zetters said and Cyra let out an overexaggerated groan. "But . . ."
"But?"
"But you only got one percent off. One. Little. Percent. I don't see when we can't bump it up a little."
"Really?" Cyra cheered. "Thank you! Thank you so much! I will name my goldfish after you! Promise!"
"But first, you have to get my Bruce Wayne's autograph."
"Wait . . . what?" Cyra stopped cheering.
"Do you want to get in the class or not?" Zetters questioned aggressively.
"Yeah," Cyra nodded her head. "Sure, I can get you an autograph or whatever."
"On his headshot."
Cyra gave her counselor a weird look.
"Don't judge me!"
"Your counselor sounds awesome," Wally laughed and he and Cyra shared a high five.
"Not as awesome as me though!" Cyra grinned brightly.
"So," Wally said with a smirk as he rubbed his shoulder against Cyra as he walked. "Shouldn't you repay the person who helped you study for this test?"
"Hmm. Whatever could you mean?" Cyra said thoughtfully.
"Kiss your hero," Wally shrugged as he grinned wolfishly at the Green Lantern.
Cyra laughed obnoxiously loud. "You're funny, you know that."
"Oh come on," Wally whined. "I had to put up with you for three days. Three days! That is too much Cyra for one person to handle."
"Yet here you are, wanting even more," Cyra smirked.
"What can I say? I'm talented," Wally shrugged and Cyra shoved his shoulder.
"I can lick you again if you want."
Wally faked a gag. "Eww. No more Cyra-slobber."
Cyra went to lick his face again, but he held her back laughing as they continued to walk along the sidewalk, further away from the school.
"So what you want to go? Go back to the Cave and brag? Or maybe we could see a mov—
"Cyra!" a voice yelled from behind them and the pair turned around to see a boy with blond hair and electric blue eyes running over to them. "Did you pass?"
"Ninety percent!" Cyra whooped and the boy ran into her, hugging her and spinning her off her feet, causing the blonde to laugh.
Wally stood off to the side, scowling at the interaction.
"That's amazing!" the stranger grinned, showing off his too-white teeth that were blinding Wally. "Let's celebrate. Pizza on me!"
Cyra held her stomach. "No more pizza! How about Chinese?"
"Whatever you want." Charlie seemed to notice Wally for the first time. "Oh, hi. I'm Charlie McHugh." Charlie held out his hand.
Wally reluctantly shook it. "Wally. So, you two know each other?"
"Small school," Charlie shrugged, still smiling.
Wally looked back at the huge school that probably hosted every student in Coast City. It probably had at least three-thousand kids. Wally suddenly remembered the letterman jacket Cyra was wearing one day. McHugh. This McHugh.
More like McDouche, Wally thought to himself and he chuckled out loud. Cyra would have laughed.
"Uh . . ." Cyra started awkwardly. "You can come with if you want."
"Nah, not hungry," Wally growled, giving Charlie a sideways glare.
Cyra narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "You're always hungry."
Wally crossed his arms. "Not hungry right now. You two have fun."
"Okaaay," Cyra drew out, still unsure. "If you insist."
Wally opened his mouth but before he could get any words out, Cyra's hand started to buzz and Cyra shoved her hand into her pocket. Charlie didn't seem to notice.
"Wait—I just remembered! I have work soon," Cyra lied, giving Wally a pointed look. "I have to go."
"Oh really? Where do you work?" Charlie asked curiously, tilting his head and it reminded Cyra of a golden retriever puppy. She melted a little on the inside.
"Uh—"
"Alfonso's Restaurant, duh!" Wally swooped in. "Best Italian in town!"
Cyra threw Wally a great full look. "Yeah, what he said. Work starts in a few minutes, see you later!"
"I can walk you if you like. Alfonso's is across town," Charlie offered, but Cyra shook her head.
"I'm good. See you later, Wally," Cyra said, waving a hand at Wally.
Charlie kissed Cyra's cheek, making her face turn red and mouth fall open slightly. "I'll call you later," Charlie said quietly.
Cyra just nodded, not trusting herself to speak as she turned and disappeared around the corner. A few seconds later, Wally say a green blur zip into the sky and disappear behind the clouds.
Wally looked back down, ready to go home and sleep to make up for the lost hours and noticed that Charlie was smiling at the sky where Cyra disappeared. Wally started to panic. Did Cyra tell him about her being a Green Lantern? She wouldn't have. She wouldn't have had to lie about where she was going if she did.
Wally calmed himself down. It was safe. What would Charlie do anyways? He has no real proof.
"Ah," Charlie breathed. "Green Lanterns are always so damn heroic. Its kind of refreshing."
Wally's eyes widened, but before he could act he was pulled into the ally and thrown against the wall. The speedster tried to get Charlie's arm off his chest, but he was stuck to the wall as if Superman was holding him there. Charlie pulled up, lifting Wally's sneakers off the ground as the ginger struggled uselessly against him.
"You've really been getting in the way. I don't have a lot of time left and I really need Cyra's full attention. You've been distracting her," Charlie sounded apologetic as if he didn't like having to beat Wally up.
Wally threw a punch at Charlie and manage to super speed a few steps away. Charlie didn't even flinch and seemed unaffected by his punch.
"A speedster," Charlie smiled, still looking like a pop star. "Let me guess—Kid Flash? I'm a big fan and it's nice to finally meet you."
"What are you?" Wally growled, ignoring Charlie's words. He was ready to run and alert Cyra that her boy toy was a complete psychopath.
"Well, I guess I can't kill you know," Charlie said, more to himself. "Then I would have the whole League on me and I can't have that, but I also can't let you leave. Then you'd tell Green Lantern Youth and ruin everything."
"What are you planning to do with Cyra?" Wally demanded sharply. He put his hands up as if he was about to go into a boxing match.
Charlie just smiled at him and in seconds he was standing right in front of Wally, leaving a blur of gold behind him. Charlie's hand grabbed Wally's shoulder so Wally couldn't run away and pulled something out of his pocket. It looked like a silver pen.
Wally punched Charlie in the face, but ended up swearing as he only hurt his own hand. He tried to grapple Charlie's grip off him to no avail. Annoyance flashed on Charlie's usually perfect face as he threw Wally back onto the brick wall, knocking the air out of the speedster.
"You won't get away with this," Wally struggled out as his lungs fought for air. "You douchebag!"
Charlie gave Wally a look like one you would give to a little baby trying to act all tough. "That the best you got? You would think being a big and good superhero on some Mini-League would make you a lot more able to handle this situation."
Wally's lip curled, but before he could speak Charlie slammed him into the wall again—causing Wally to emit a low moan and Charlie just laughed. To him, it was as if it was all just one big game.
"Oh come on, Wally—is that short for Wallace? I'm going to assume that's short for Wallace, but I just want you to know that this is really refreshing. I've been having to hide my strength, my speed, my superior genius and now I can throw you around like you weight nothing. It's a good way to get that built up frustration out."
"I'm going to—"
"Going to do what?" Charlie slammed him back into the wall again and the speedster winced in pain. "Beat me up?" Charlie threw a punch hitting Wally on the cheek and then another punch to his gut, making Wally groan in pain. "Forgive me if I'm a little doubtful."
Wally's eyes flared like green fire and Charlie smiled. At least the kid had spunk.
"Now, you won't remember any of this," Charlie said as he waved the silver pen in his face. "You will go on with your pitiful life drooling after Cyra Brion, who—by the way—isn't into losers whose only skill is being able to run kind of fast and you can go on until you finally die your little heroic death. Sounds like a pretty good deal right?"
"No," Wally croaked, his voice sounding like nails on chalkboard. "I'm not going to let you hurt, Cyra."
"You're not going to stop be from doing anything. You won't even know."
A flash went off as Charlie clicked the top of the pen. It wasn't really a pen, but a memory eraser from the planet Juno near the edge of the Milky-Way galaxy. They are known to create some pretty high tech stuff there dealing with the mind and telepathy. Very useful.
Wally's emerald eyes widened slightly before his head dropped and he started to snore. Charlie let his limp body fall to the ground. Charlie pulled a yellow rock out of the back of his pocket the pressed it to the runner's forehead for a few moments before pulling it away. The bruises and cuts on his body started to heal up. That would have been a clear indicator of what Charlie did. The speedster would be a little sore, but that was it.
"It's been really nice meeting you, Wally," Charlie said to the sleeping figure. "It's been fun. I hope we get to do this again soon."