A mysterious Fiddler breaks into the Watchtower to steal something, and it's up to Hal and Barry (in their underwear no less!) to stop him. There will be a couple of dance numbers between them and the control room, and certainly some friends to save.
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“Hal, I’m, I’m kind of nervous,” Barry said as he slipped the suit from his legs, left only in his underwear. The wound in his leg had already healed in the time it took them to get back to the Watchtower.
“Why?” Hal said, the charm slipping from him even with the bandages covering most of his right side, flesh wounds from their fight with Onomatopoeia.
“Because…”
“Don’t think about it so much,” Hal said, getting closer to him, holding his face, looking at him, just looking at him.
Barry drifted away. He grabbed his costume and exited Hal’s room without speaking to him again. Walking down the hall in his underwear, he didn’t even realize until he got to his room and had a moment alone. It had just happened, but it felt right. It had been so long, a while since he and Iris ended it. They both needed time to get to know themselves again, but was this him? Barry was the guy that was always running late, or saying the wrong thing. He wasn’t impulsive, or at least, not quite like this.
A small buzz filled the room. Each room came equipped with a ringer. His thoughts still going a mile a minute, he didn’t even realize that he answered the door still only in his underwear. It was his brown eyes, his smile, the way his hair moved.
“I don’t like the way that ended,” Hal said.
“Me either,” Barry replied as he pulled Hal into the room by putting his arms around his neck and nearly falling back towards the bed. The door slid shut, and Barry felt Hal’s warm hands slowly slipped down past his hips, towards the underwear, sliding them down his thighs.
“Is this okay?” Hal asked.
“Yeah,” Barry said, allowing the underwear to fall to his ankles, shaking them off when they wouldn’t quite let go of his feet.
His fingers slipped through Barry’s fine hair. The ring caught in a small curl, and the two of them laughed to themselves. Hal’s shirt sliding over his shoulders, and the way that he kissed Barry’s chest.
This was happening. The thoughts quiet, and for a moment Barry didn’t think 3,000 steps ahead, but was curious about what could actually happen.
Hal took him into his mouth.
~~
The breath left his chest in short cascades. The rhythm was low, and there was a beauty to the stilted silence of the room. Barry took deep breaths, looking up at the ceiling. The room smelled like him now.
The small chirp of a violin outside Barry’s room was odd enough to cause him to sit up. He looked over at the door, and as soon as he did, as though the person playing knew, the little tune stopped. The quiet was unnerving, not quite the level of Gotham the day before, or at least he thought they had slept through the night, but still enough to send plenty of worry.
“Hal, Hal wake up,” Barry said.
“What’s the matter,” Hal said earnestly.
Barry looked over at him, and he looked frightened. Not of the situation, but for Barry. Barry realized that he probably just saw him staring at the door, an image not exactly comforting given everything that had happened recently.
“It’s too quiet,” Barry said, getting out of bed and putting on some underwear and a shirt.
Hal wasn’t too far behind him, and when the two of them opened the door, there wasn’t anyone. Sure, the Watchtower wasn’t a bustling kind of place, but there was usually someone around, but here, there was no one. It was all eerily similar.
“Communications are down,” Hal said trying the intercom.
Every time he hit the button, a small piece of classical music started and stopped. Stepping out of the room, the two heroes started to head towards the main control room. It would be the first place that needed defending, their computer systems and data all stored there. If something had happened to everyone else, it would be up to them to secure the area. Stepping into what might be called the foyer of the Watchtower, there were a bunch of panels set up on the ground and a strange man standing at the far end of them, heading into the medical bay.
“That’s...that’s the Fiddler…” Barry said.
“Who?”
“It’s one of Jay’s old villains, though I haven’t heard about him in a long time. He looks kind of old, doesn’t he?” Barry said.
“Step right up, Flash! If you don’t, all of your friends will hear their last,” The Fiddler said.
The threat certainly put Hal and Barry at attention, and they made their way to, up close, what looked like a raised dancing platform. The Fiddler explained that the only way to cross the room was to dance a Swing, failure to do so, or stepping out of turn would force them back to the opposite side of the room, away from the Medical Bay.
“Wonder Woman loses herself more and more the longer you take. Do you have the skill to make it across the room?” The Fiddler said as he dragged his bow across the strings and skipped away into the Medical Bay.
“I don’t know how to swing,” Barry said.
Hal took his hand, twirled him gently, and Barry felt the man’s hand on the small of his back, stopping him from getting dizzy. The corners of his mouth dragged to his cheeks as Hal gave a little wink.
“You can dance?”
“Cotillion, five years. Mom thought it’d help me get over some things,” Hal said, dipping Barry and then looking up when music began to play over the loudspeaker.
“Begin, or she dies!” the Fiddler shouted.
First Song
A fast tempoed swing started playing, and immediately Hal started to tap his feet, showing Barry the basic steps before pulling him onto the floor.
“Now step back, and pull with the weight of your body,” Hal said, dipping Barry and then spinning him out from a crouched position and towards the next square.
Barry, thinking he got the hang of it couldn’t help but smile at the way they moved, despite the fact that their friend’s life may hang on them failing.
“Watch your back foot, Barry,” Hal said before the part of the platform they were on sprang up and threw them back across the room to where they started. The song continued and the Fiddler laughed over the loudspeaker.
“I thought we were doing well,” Barry said, a look of worry growing on his face. “I’m sure I’m faster than the platform,” he said, dashing across only to be hurled back across the room and next to Hal.
“Looks like we have to dance across it, and you were doing well, just stop worrying about your feet, and start feeling me,” Hal said, pulling him up while Barry looked pasted him blushing at his comment.
Again they started, left, right, back-step, forwards, again, into a twist, pretzelling their way across the floor. After a quick dip, Hal slung Barry over his shoulders, helping him to land on his feet. Another move had Hal stepping over Barry, pulling him between his legs, and then dipping him one last time, deep, near parallel to the floor and planting a small kiss on his cheek. Barry didn’t even realize that they made it all the way across the room, and he certainly didn’t notice Hal pulling him into the Medical Bay. He just floated, feeling the tension of his body, of yesterday, the fear of falling for Hal floating away behind them, into the bass, the trumpet.
In the Medical Bay, the lights were low, only some of the equipment giving off any brightness. It was cold, silent, and strange.
“Barry, why are you moving so slowly,” Hal asked.
“Sorry, kind of lost in thought,” Barry said.
When they reached the center of the room, there was no sign of Diana or the Fiddler, until that familiar screech of strings played from the corner of the large hall. The lights came up and a smoke machine started filling the room with a hazy atmosphere. A disco ball at the top of the ceiling started spinning, lights bouncing around the room as Diana, Princess of Themyscira, stepped forward in shining platform heels, and a white glittering dress. The pumping synth of a disco classic started echoing through the loudspeaker.
Second Song
“What?” Hal and Barry said at the same time.
“Her mind is mine for the time being. A person so fueled by strength, the only way you can save her is if you beat her in a disco contest. Now, no cheating, only one of you can face the Queen of Disco.”
Hal started to step forward, but Barry grabbed his hand and shook his head, saying, “No, I’ve got this one.”
Hal obliged and stepped back, the floor of the medical bay started to blink in a multicolored checkered pattern. Diana stepped to one edge of the platform, the disco ball’s light shimmering off the countless sequins on her dress. Barry, still in his underwear and pajama shirt stood at the other end of the platform, hearing the song starting up from over the loudspeaker. The dazzling light show gave the Fiddler a perfect escape.
When the music was at full volume, Diana struck a pose, and her face turned fierce, the look she gave her enemies just before she ended their lives. Barry took a step back, but turned it into a pose himself, a move that brought a smile to Hal’s face, and a bit of a snicker. Diana started moving towards the center of the dancefloor, fingers in full force, hips rounding, and her head in a perfect back and forth motion, her movements were perfectly precise.
Barry moved forward as well, feet in a rhythm that seemed to slightly eluded him in the last dance, though a quick turn and a quick motion to his knees and then back up with a little hop gave him the edge against the Queen of Disco, though it didn’t cause her much fear as she immediately started into a few spins before striking another pose, doing a grapevine step, and ending in a perfect split.
Hal couldn’t help but clap a little bit. He didn’t realize that Diana had it in her, but she was really quite good at dancing Disco, even if she didn’t even really know she was doing. Barry countered by wiggling his hips, getting low and squaring off, then pointing across the medical bay, and finishing up with pretending to cuff his none existent long sleeves, ending with a little backflip...that also finished in a split.
Hal’s eyes widened as the faux diamond tiara that Diana wore fell from her head. The warrior looked up at the disco ball, then down at her dress. Hal had to come over and help Barry up as he wasn’t exactly sure he was going to be able to get out of the position he’d gotten himself in. When Barry was back on his feet, they both looked up at Diana.
She pointed to the dress and said, “I’m keeping this.”
The nodded because it looked really good on her. The three of them ran into the next room, closer to the control room. They decided that teaming up could save them and their compatriots much faster, and given the fact that they didn’t know what was coming up next, or who the Fiddler might have taken over, Wonder Woman knew that she was the best heavy hitter they had aside from Superman, so watching out for the boys would be her prime responsibility.
“Where did you learn to disco?” Hal asked.
“Saturday Night Fever was one of my dad’s favorite movies. When he got out of jail, we watched it all the time,” Barry said with a smile as they entered the hall in front of the control room.
What they saw when they entered the room just before the control room was...rather odd. Aquaman and Cyborg were both wearing flannel and baggy jeans with plenty of holes and cuts in them. The Fiddler stood behind them, striking another terrible chord before telling them that it was time to mosh.
“You know the rules! When the music starts, you mosh, and the last person standing in the square is the winning team.”
Third Song
The Fiddler again ran off into the control room, no doubt where he kept Batman and Superman, and whatever else his dastardly scheme was.
“How do you mosh?” Diana asked.
“Well, it’s kind of like hitting each other,” Barry started.
“I can do that,” Diana said, running into the middle of the floor when the music started and punching Arthur square in the jaw, knocking him to the floor.
“No, Diana, you hit each other with your shoulders, by jumping into each other,” Hal pointed out, jumping into the ring and nearly getting knocked out immediately when Victor’s larger and stronger body simply brushed him aside and to the floor.
Arthur recovered quickly and shoulder bashed Barry as soon as he walked into the middle of the floor, though Barry used a little of his speed to get around most of the direct hit. Victor took no time alternating between checking Diana and Hal before the two of them fought back in unison and crushed Cyborg, causing him to crumple to the ground, though the force of Diana’s hit to his right side knocked Hal off the platform to the left.
“Sorry, Hal,” Diana said with a laugh as she bumped Cyborg off the floor with a quick bash from her hip.
“It’s fine. Just make sure Arthur doesn’t hurt Barry,” Hal said as Arthur chest bumped Barry back to the edge of the floor, knocking the wind out of him.
A huge hit from Diana easily knocked the unprepared Arthur Curry off the floor, and lifting her arms to the sky, her sequined dress mustering great glory, Diana helped Barry off the ground and declared herself the Princess of Mosh.
Unable, unwilling, and out of time, the three heroes didn’t actually tell Arthur and Victor what was happening, but dragged them along in their crusade to the control room.
“Why are you guys only in your underwear?” Victor asked.
“She’s wearing a white sequined dress, and you’re wondering why we’re in our underwear?” Barry questioned.
“He’s got a point,” Arthur, Hal, and Diana said at nearly the exact same time.
Busting through the door to the main control room, the Fiddler was nowhere to be found. Superman and Batman however were in the midst of a battle, a lip sync battle!
Fourth Song
“Don’t look at me,” Batman said as the music started in the room.
Clark quickly jumped in front of him, taking the stage as the song continued to work it’s magic, moving his lips perfectly to the sorrowful lyrics, hitting the high points, accentuating the subtle optimism.
But truly, it was Batman that conquered the song, taking brief moments to gaze upon the audience, not in performance, but in the true pain of the song, of knowing one’s self, and of needing to reach out. Even with glass in his arm, held by a sling, he was able to move with such grace, and dignity.
Try as he might, Clark didn’t quite have the personal stake in the song the way that Bruce did. Sure, Clark had known sorrow, but not the same way that the song portrayed it. When it was over, the five heroes that banded together started clapping for both of them, though they knew who the clear winner was. As the applause died down, so did the Fiddler’s spell, and the two heroes looked at each other, confused and foggy about what had just happened to them. Trying to explain, Hal and Barry talked of the swing, the disco, the mosh, and now the somber lipsync.
“But what did the Fiddler want?” Clark asked, looking around with his x-ray vision in an attempt to see what he might have destroyed or stolen.
“It looks like he stole our mapping software,” Bruce said, looking over the computer to find some indication of why.
“What could he want with a bunch of maps?” Arthur asked.
“He’s clearly looking for something, and there is no doubt that it has to do with the event in Gotham city,” Victor pointed out. “It’s too coincidental not to be related.”
“The better question is how did he get into the Watchtower without triggering any of our alarms?” Hal questioned.
“He must have had help unknown even to us,” Diana answered.
Barry looked around the room, puzzled as the rest, but slightly amused at the course of the evening. Hal walked over, arm around Barry’s waist, motioning for them to leave since they were the only ones not wearing more than underwear and t-shirts. The other five heroes looked their way, their secret now easily revealed to everyone aside from just Batman.
“Thank you so much,” a mysterious voice said over the intercom. It was soft, sweet, and above all chilling. “Now, celebrate that you are with each other, stable minds and all.”
Final Song
Another song began to play. An uptempo waltz. Batman watched as the others enjoyed each other’s company. He didn’t have time for dancing. There was a powerful enemy to find. A smile spread across his face when Clark dragged him away from the computer, at least till the end of the song.
Amongst the dancing, Hal pulled Barry away from the reverie. He placed a hand on the back of his head, pulling him in for a kiss.
“But what if they see,” Barry said, a bit embarrassed.
“Let ‘em watch,” Hal said.
He waltzed with Barry until the song finally ended. The Watchtower was quiet once again, and all the questions still stood. It was time to take action.
That didn’t mean action couldn’t take a detour to the bedroom.