More Young Justice Trash

Separated (Part 6)

-Some Wally Angst in this one-

"Good to see you getting some sunlight." The commissioner joked wryly. 

"Where are they?"

"We stuck him in a secluded holding cell." Jim Gordon lead the way into the building. "We can't actually hold him on anything more than petty shoplifting, but I figured you'd want to know if there was a metahuman running around undocumented."

"You were right."

The two went silent, standing side-by-side in the elevator. "Bats, go easy on this one okay? He must be my daughter's age, if he's a day."

Batman didn't say anything for a long moment. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Thanks." They stepped out onto the sixth floor. "We haven't actually been able to cuff him, too damn fast, that kid." Jim almost laughed, "I wish they'd keep that shit in Central..." He muttered.

"Me too."

As soon as they entered the bullpen, Bruce saw immediately what the commissioner meant: a redheaded boy no older than fifteen sat on the floor of the cell, a bandanna tied under his eyes.

"Don't open the cell door, he's quicker than he looks." Jim said. The kid's head shot up and his eyes locked onto Batman. Instantly, he was pressed against the back wall, staring up at the bat like a cornered animal. "I'll leave you to it then." The commissioner shut the door behind him.

"There it is, GCPD..." Artemis confirmed. "My parents tried to bomb this place when I was a kid."

"How do we get in?" M'gann asked.

"We don't need too, we just need to get Wally out." Kaldur replied, scanning the building from the alley they were hidden in. "M'gann, camouflage and scan the windows. Artemis, do you have any of your special arrows left?"

"Who are you?" Batman said.

"I'm not supposed to talk to strangers." The boy replied, voice slightly muffled by the fabric.

"You aren't supposed to take things that don't belong to you either." He replied. The kid looked at the ground and Bruce felt a slight wave of guilt for coming on so strong.  "Look, if you cooperate, we can get this over with quickly, Wallace. "

The child stiffened. So he had been right. "How did you know?"

"When I heard the meta being chased had super speed, I remember a colleague telling me about his nephew, who disappeared shortly after being hospitalized in a lab accident..."

"Stop." The kid said suddenly.

"A boy who-- from what I heard-- might have had reason to runaway from his parents."

"Okay, stop!" Wallace exclaimed, covering his ears. "What do you want?"

"How did you get to Gotham?" Bruce ordered.

"I wasn't in Gotham at first." The boy conceded, swallowing hard. "but I couldn't stay in Blue Valley, or Central or Keystone, uncle Barry would've taken me home, and then..." He held in a choke. "...yeah."

"Wallace, Who do you work for?"

"Work for?" He laughed. "I'm fifteen! Nobody will hire me."

"I suspect that you were involved in the hijacking of 23kg of Cocaine this past week." Bats growled. "If you tell me who was directing you, I'll have you let off without much corrective action." The boy was starting to sweat, fidgeting, he was getting somewhere. "Wallace."

"No one made us do it, we just wanted to get laced drugs out of circulation." He burst out suddenly.

"Laced?"

"With Fentanyl..." The kid replied shyly. "We... we traced the fentanyl overdoses in Gotham's skid row to this particular strain, and then we..."

"Who is we?"

The boy went very silent, and very still. "I can't tell you. They're my friends."

Before Batman could ask further, there was a deafening crack that rocked the building. The boy flew off the back wall just in time as the cinderblock crumbled. It wasn't a support wall so it crumpled quickly.

In the light which poured in from the demolished wall stood a... very familiar silhouette. "Kid?" Asked an equally familiar voice.

"'bout time." Wallace sprung to his feet, leaping into Superman's arms. Or at least, what looked like Superman, say a half-foot shorter than Clark and half his age. But it was so easy to see, no thanks in part to the Superman crest plastered across his shirt.

In a second, the youth had stepped off the ledge and were falling.

Batman ripped the cell opening, sprinting to the demolished wall. He dropped to his knees, just in time to see the kids hit the concrete below. It cracked beneath the not-Clark's feet. The two tore off and in under three seconds, had escaped view entirely.

Damn it.

Wally was still kind of in shock, they wrapped him in Kaldur's Jacket and sat him behind the gas station. They needed reliable cover, but at present their biggest concern was getting their friend to calm down. 

A couple tears dribbled down his freckled cheek, he wiped them away quickly.

"You want a smoke?" Artemis whispered. She didn't know what else she could offer. 

Wally shook his head. "He--- He knew me." He tried to slow his breathing. "He knows my identity. He'll tell uncle Barry and Barry will tell dad, and..."

"Slow down." Dick said. "We'll be fine. We got away."

"We'll need to lay low for now." Kaldur said. "What did you tell them?"

"I just told them that we took cocaine off the street because it was laced." He said, his voice shaking. "I didn't tell him about your guys!"

M'gann rounded the corner, returning from the gas station and shedding her humanoid appearance. "The only hot drink they had was coffee, I hope that's okay." She passed Wally a Styrofoam cup that smelt rancidly bitter. "And something for your blood sugar." She passed a candy bar too.

"Thanks." He tore into both  with energy, desperate to feel safe again.

"We'll need somewhere to sleep tonight." Kaldur replied. "I think we should leave the immediate area."

Almost instantly there was a wail of sirens  as several police cars tore past the service station.

"I second that." Dick agreed, rubbing Wally's back sympathetically. "Maybe we should head uptown."