EPILOGUE! That's right folks, I've finally delivered your epilogue. Now, I feel like I'm the only person on Fanfiction that manages to make an epilogue thats longer than any individual chapter, but hey, whatevs.
In all seriousness, I really like this epilogue. This is where I was going with this story in the first place.
DISCLAIMER: Nope.
It had been about three weeks since Robin and Kid Flash had begun their parkour escapades. Throughout that time, they continued to suit up in their costumes, and leave to cave without any explanation to their teammates. They would make their way into the heart of the city, and Robin would begin swinging; and jumping, and flying about.
During those three weeks, Kid Flash became more and more involved. He still focused on the running aspect of free running, tailing the raven haired boy and throwing in suggestions and tips where he could, (his knowledge of physics was an enormous aid when Robin was struggling to perfect a trick). But as the weeks went by, Wally started to become part of Robin's track. At points, he wasn't sure if Robin saw any difference between his friend and the buildings. They were both things to swing and jump on.
Which was okay with Wally.
And then it happened...
It started out as a simple mission. The League had gotten word of a museum robbery that was going to take place; and thinking it would be an easy stop, they sent the kids. But of course, for the lives of said kids, things were never that simple.
When they arrived on the scene, they were shocked to discover that they were greatly outnumbered. Like… eight to one outnumbered. And since there were six of them, that meant there were almost fifty guys involved in this large scale heist. Big guys. Bug burly guys. Big burly guys with guns.
As soon as the team entered the scene, their first reaction was to freeze in shock upon seeing the amount of people. They had devised a very specific plan for the crooks' downfall, but it was made to take out fifteen people, tops.
And obviously, they had been wrong about that. They were probably wrong about what they were even doing at the museum in the first place; as a simple robbery wouldn't take this many men. There was something larger at hand that the goons seemed to be trying to accomplish.
But! Right now, figuring out what that 'something' was wasn't the problem. The problem was that Superboy was strapped to a support beam with chains infused with Kryptonite in the basement of the edifice. He wasn't alone though; the whole team was locked down there with him, in similar states of captivity. Artemis was tied to a chair that was haphazardly placed in the corner just for this purpose. Her hands were tied behind her back, her feet were tied to the chair legs, and her body itself was tied to the back of the chair. Each of those bindings was covered with a thick layer of duct tape, plus, she was gagged so she couldn't speak (much to Wally's delight). Miss Martian and Aqualad were tied together, back to back, sitting with their legs out on the floor. As an added precaution, their feet were chained to the ground on the spot, so there was really no standing up on their part.
Robin and Kid Flash seemed to be in the worst shape; though that wasn't too bad. Cuts and bruises- maybe a fracture or two, but nothing in the realm of real, dangerous injuries. They had both been knocked unconscious at some point in the fight, but thankfully, it wasn't from an explosion, or knock out gas, blood loss, or any other horrific accident. Really, they had both just gotten hit in the head in completely unrelated incidents. Robin had been thrown bodily into a wall, and Kid Flash was running when a henchman went to swing a crowbar at Kaldur. Coincidentally, on the backswing, he hit the running boy directly in the head.
Because of their state of unconsciousness at the time of capture, the two weren't restrained with the same thoroughness as the rest of their team members. Robin was dangling by his wrists from a rafter in the ceiling, his head hanging limp as he had yet to regain consciousness. It seemed that the creeps had run out of rope and chains by the time they reached Kid Flash, as he was only bound in duct tape. Effective- yes. Restraining- no. Well… Not as restraining as rope or chains at least. Duct tape had a bit of elasticity. It had more give. He had been taped to a support beam, same as Superboy, from his elbows up to his shoulders just below the neck. He, too, had his head hanging limp.
…But they were bound to wake up eventually. It was Robin that came through first.
"…to escape somehow." It was fuzzy, but he could just make out Aqualad talking to the rest of the team.
"There's a door at the top of the stairs." He could hear a bit clearer now. He could clearly distinguish the voice as belonging to a tired sounding Superboy. Robin groaned and hastily shook the darkness from his eyes.
"Mmmpp phhh nnggg!" Robin looked over to where he heard the mumble from and saw Artemis attempting to speak through the gag. She was looking back and forth from her teammates to the door Superboy mentioned, trying desperately to get her point across. Robin followed her gaze.
"She's right." He immediately chimed in, realizing what she was trying to say "The door's been wired. There's a bomb tapped to it, it'll blow as soon as we try to open it. Probably the whole basement."
"Robin!" Miss Martian called gleefully, "You're awake!"
"Hey, hey, Miss M," Wally slurred, shaking his head and blinking rapidly in an effort to open his eyes, "Don't forget about me, I'm awake, too."
Artemis audibly groaned and dramatically rolled her eyes.
"We're glad to see you're both okay." Aqualad commented, "Now, we must continue in our efforts to find a way to escape."
"And we've already established that the door is bombed." Robin added.
"Right," Said Miss Martian, "So that's out of the question…"
"If I could just… get out of these chains… I could break a wall down…" Superboy added stubbornly. The kryptonite was beginning to make his breaths come in deep tired sighs.
"It's okay, Superboy." Megan comforted.
"Is there any other way out?" Aqualad questioned.
There was a pause.
"Hello Megan!" Miss Martian proclaimed, "There's a window up there. See? Over by the ceiling in the top right corner!"
Everyone looked to the place she had pointed out, and sure enough, there was a window. Problem was, it had to be at least 70 feet up, and they were all still captured.
"So… How do we get there?" Superboy asked.
There was another silence. Then…
"Um… KF? What ummm… What's that you're doing there?" Robin asked mockingly. While the rest of the team had been discussing their options for the past few minutes, Robin had been silently watching Wally…
Who was awkwardly wiggling back and forth strapped to the pole. He was snaking his head from side to side, hair flopping, as if awkwardly dancing, the rest of his body following in tow… At least… you know, as much as possible given the whole duct tape situation.
"I'm trying to loosen the tape." Kid Flash finally answered.
"Alright, alright…" Robin nodded acceptingly, "And uhh… how's that working out for you?" He still mocked.
"Actually…" Kid Flash immediately answered. "I think if I just…" he wiggled a little more to the left, "…shift this way a little…" he bent his knees and tried to lower himself, "…I can just…" and his elbow finally came free. "Ah!" Kid Flash gloated, "There we go!"
Everyone smiled enthusiastically, adding in their own calls of "Nice!" or "Good one Kid Flash!" or in Artemis' case "Mmphhh!"
Robin was the only one to react with less eagerness. "I'm assuming you've got a plan to go along with that. Because all you've really done is free your elbows. So now you can bend your arms… at the elbows."
"Actually I do have a plan, Boy Blunder." Kid Flash stuck his tongue out at his friend. Robin made a face back. Kid Flash made a more gnarled face. Robin made a face to match.
"PppPp Mnnggt!" Artemis brought them both back to reality.
"Right!" Wally shook his head. "Anyway. Right. Plan."
"Yes, please tell us your plan, Kid Flash, we must hurry." Aqualad implored.
"We may still be able to stop these men if we can get out in time!" Megan cheered.
Wally nodded at the two teammates strapped back to back. "Okay, here goes," he began, turning to Robin.
"Rob… do you remember that flicky flap flop thing?"
"The one with the flippy thing and the flack thing at the end?" Robin asked, tilting his head.
"No, no, no," Kid Flash hurriedly replied, "That's the flacky flip flop thing. I mean the one that goes like… Like flip! And then like ba-whoooosh, and then floploploplop…"he trailed off.
"Oh! Right, the one that always comes after the fluppity plop spring one!" Robin perked up, smiling.
"Exactly! We can do that!"
"Yeah, dude, totally!" Robin nodded excitedly, "Hostage five!" he demanded.
Both he and Kid Flash made a simultaneous high five sound effect (HWH-CH!) while twitching their hands to the best of their captured ability.
The was an awkward silence that followed when the two best friends looked back at their team was disappointing.
"Come on guys!" Wally cheered, "This is great, why aren't you excited?"
"Bmmcmmm mdtt, mmmcmm nndtdt mt mm ssnbgg." Artemis mumbled. Because idiot, no one can understand what you're saying.
"I'm not sure what Artemis said…" Superboy began, "But then again… I'm not sure what you guys just said either."
"Robin and I have been… working on something." Kid Flash lamely tried to explain.
"Working on what?" Megan asked.
"Just… Just trust us on this one, okay?" Robin assured. Miss Martian nodded skeptically.
"Alright, so you think you can get the momentum going to swing over here?" Kid Flash asked, pointing with a bob of the head toward the rope Robin was suspended with.
"Totally. Are you gonna be able to move enough for the lift?"
Kid Flash experimentally flexed his arms more, and kicked his legs around. "Yeah… Yeah, I should be good. I'm ready when you are, man."
"Good." Robin stated simply, as he had already begun to swing. The rest of the team watched him swing back and forth, eyes bouncing around like the audience of a tennis match.
"Just count off when you're gonna go, dude." Kid Flash requested when the younger boy began gaining more and more momentum.
"Okay…" Robin began, "One…" he said as he swung once toward the red head, "Two…" he counted, swinging again toward Wally, this time a bit further, "Three!" Robin swung towards his friend and kicked himself out just a little further than before.
Immediately, Wally lifted his left leg about 45 degrees out to the side, foot flexed. Robin put his boot snuggly into the crook of Wally's ankle, and pushed off to jump up. With a grunt and a face contorted into concentrated effort, Wally kicked up just a little bit to give Robin the extra push and oomph in his jump.
Kid Flash caught Robin's other foot in his left hand, and Robin jumped again, this time into Kid Flash's right hand. Wally stuck his tongue out to the side, concentrating and awkwardly trying to balance Robin in his hand for the quick moment. It was, to say the least, exceptionally difficult, considering he was tied to a pole and could only move the lower part of his arm.
Robin seemed to be having much less trouble, despite his hands being tied. He simply jumped gracefully, as if the rope were no hindrance at all.
After the quick second it took for Robin to gain his balance, arms still tied above his head, he looked down at Kid Flash.
"Ready?"
"Just go dude, I can't hold you." Kid Flash managed to grumble through the effort of holding his friends.
"Okay… Now!" Robin commanded. Kid Flash flung Robin as hard as he could back in the direction he had swung from. The rope slacked a bit between Robin and the rafter, as he was no longer dangling because of gravity.
Because gravity had nothing on him.
Robin somehow figured a way to flip twice, despite the rope barrier, as he made his way through the air to the wall opposite Kid Flash. He did a sort of horizontal landing; slamming his foot into the wall, and pushing off again to fly upwards.
"That's the 'ba-whoooosh!' part." Kid Flash whispered to the side. Kaldur just shook his head. Everyone else ignored Wally and refused to unglue their eyes from the flying bird.
With his arms extended in front of him, and his feet pointing straight out behind, Robin soared. He soared almost straight upward and toward the rafter his rope was tied to. With his wrists still bound, Robin put his hands side by side and grasped the rafter just as he reached the peak of his jump. He used the momentum to swing himself around it twice before slowing into a sort of balanced handstand and landing one foot at a time onto the beam in the ceiling.
"…Wow." Was all a shocked Superboy could muster.
"Yes. Wow." Kaldur agreed.
"Where did you learn to do that?" Megan asked curiously.
"Where did I learn it? Oh… I'll tell you where…" Robin baited. His teammates raised their eyebrows.
He and Kid Flash simultaneously shouted/sang "PARKOUR!" and enthusiastically began to air guitar… To the best of their ability, seeing as how Wally could only move his arms from the elbow down, and Robins wrists were still tied.
Obviously, the rest of the team was missing some inside joke.
"Mmmn p gnnnt." Artemis mumbled, somehow still getting her annoyance across.
"Geez, fine." Robin defended, "I'll untie it, but you guys asked…" He drifted off and reached down to untie the rope tying him to the ceiling. As soon as that was finished, he gracefully jumped down and plodded toward Wally. He began peeling the duct tape away, layer by layer. (He did not hesitate when he got to the bottom layers and Wally complained that it was peeling from his skin. In fact, he smirked evilly and pulled harder.) Once freed, Kid flash used his now free hands to untie Robin's wrists.
The two swiftly went about freeing the rest of their friends. (Wally tried to persuade everynoe to leave the gag in Artemis' mouth, which earne him a prompt kick in the shin.) And once that was done, getting to the window was no problem. The six teens then rallied together and successfully stopped the museum robbery, or destruction, of whatever it was. Point was, they stopped it.
A bioship ride home, and a debriefing with the mentors later, the team found themselves walking into the cave with Batman and Black Canary.
"You did good work today." Batman commented stoically. "Though the mission didn't go as planned, you improvised well and still accomplished your end goal."
"Thanks, Batsy!" Kid Flash beamed, flopping onto the couch, putting his feet up on the table. The rest of the team followed him and gathered in the room. Artemis sat on the floor to Wally's right, Kaldur took his chair, and Superboy and Megan sat together on the couch (with just a little less space between them than friends might sit). Robin leaned on the arm rest of the couch, still standing with his arms crossed over his chest.
"Yes, you guys did do well today," Black Canary agreed. "Robin and Kid Flash, you two did great with that whole parkour business. We didn't know you guys have been working on it. Nice job."
"Yeah, well… Thanks." Robin shrugged, shyly.
"Yeah it's just kinda been a fun thing…" Kid Flash added.
"Well we all can see, it obviously came in handy. Maybe we can add it to training somewhere." Black Canary suggested. Both Wally and Dick flinched at this.
"Well its just… its kind of been our thing…" Wally trailed.
"Okay, I can understand that." Blak Canary accepted, "Then maybe you two could just show us a few things every once in a while that you see might be useful."
"Yeah, I think that sound go-
"No!" Robin cut Wally off, "Didn't you just hear him? It's our thing!"
"Rob," KF began, "It's no big deal, we could totally just show them little useful things every once in a while."
Robin pointed a finger at the two older League members. "You guys just can't leave well enough alone, can you!" His voice cracked at the last two words.
"I think someone's going through puberty…" Wally audibly whispered to Artemis on the floor. She rolled her eyes, but silently agreed.
"I am not!" Robin yelled back, pushing off the couch and storming off.
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Yes, you are, Rob." Wally smirked, amused.
"SHUT UP!" With that, Robin slammed the door behind him and stalked off toward his room.
The team sat in a confused silence for a moment.
"Ah well," Wally shrugged, turning back to everyone else in the room.
"Teenagers…" he said dismissively, "You know how they can be." He looked toward Batman, as if to warn him of the troubles he'd face with an angsty teen in the house.
He then added "They need to brood sometimes…"
FIN
So! What'd you think? I'm really happy with how it turned out :]
Please review! Thank you so much to everyone who read! I'm sure I'll be back soon with another story. In the meantime...
This is moolikeallama... signing out. (dramatic fade to black)