So, Ally Marton mentioned wanting to see the first time the Rogues met Kid Flash and the idea just wouldn't budge. This is where I start cursing myself for not planning the Rogues' ages better, because three years ago is actually quite a long time for people in their twenties. I'm basing the fact that Wally knows the Flash's identity right from the get-go on the Young Justice tie-in comics. Also, in the main comics Wally starts off with a smaller version of Barry's costume, which he's doing here too, rather than being in his Kid Flash costume from the start.

"I'm not sure if making you my sidekick's such a great idea, Wally."

"Come on, Uncle Barry, what's the worst that could happen?"

Wally sped through the maze of lasers lining the corridor of some business building that the Mirror Master was robbing – he really should've stopped to check which building when he was outside, but it was too late for that now.

The lasers were easily deflected with a mirror Wally had 'borrowed' from a secretary's desk. The hardest part was making sure he knew which way the laser were coming from. It had almost cost him his fingers when he'd misjudged one laser. Luckily the back of the mirror was shiny too and hadn't resulted in breaking Wally's only method of getting past unscathed.

As annoying as the booby-traps were, they did make sure Wally knew he was going in the right direction. Mirror Master wasn't likely to trap areas he wasn't in.

Sure enough, Wally ended up running into a room with several hostages being held at gunpoint by a man in green and orange.

"Mirror Master," Wally said, drawing everyone's attention.

"Fl–" Mirror Master did a double-take, "Have you been hit by a shrink-ray or something?"

"No!" Wally snapped.

"De-aging then," Mirror Master nodded, "Well your bad luck is my gain."

Wally dodged to the side as Mirror Master shot at him. Wally ran at Mirror Master and threw a punch. His fist merely passed through Mirror Master as the villain's form shimmered. A hologram.

"I can't believe you fell for that, Flash," Mirror Master said, "You're really not thinking clearly today."

The lights started to flicker rapidly and suddenly Wally couldn't see. That was weird. He could remember the Flash mentioning that he'd specially formulated the lenses of his mask to deal with Mirror Master's various light attacks.

Wally stopped moving. The office room he was in had several large windows on one side, if he ran too fast there was a chance he would crash through one of them and wind up splattered on the pavement several stories below. Instead he focussed on listening for signs of where Mirror Master was.

"Looks like I've finally cracked your secret," Mirror Master's voice was slightly echo-y, which meant Wally couldn't pin-point the villain with any accuracy.

Uncle Barry had warned Wally against giving his enemies anything to figure out his secret identity. However, Wally was certain Flash would place Wally's life above his identity. Wally started clawing at the lenses of his cowl. The fabric was tough, being made to resist friction at over the speed of sound, but Wally managed to get one of the lenses loose, then completely free.

He was working at the other when a click made him duck just in time to dodge a laser. Wally decided that one eye able to see would have to be enough, he wasn't going to have enough time to get the other one free.

Wally turned to see not one, not two, but five Mirror Masters, all aiming their guns at him. Identical grins were on their faces and when they spoke it was in unison.

"So, Flash," the Mirror Masters said, "Are you fast enough to stop me?"

As he said the final words there was a shimmer of light and three more Mirror Masters appeared. This was going to be tricky.

Wally sped forward and threw a punch at one of the Mirror Masters. As he'd expected, it went straight through. Wally made the sharpest corner he could and ran through another two Mirror Masters. A laser blast caught him in the back and Wally went tumbling head over heels.

"If I were a better man, I'd be concerned at your performance," Mirror Master's voice echoed out of all his copies, "But I'm not. Goodbye, Flash."

Wally rolled out of the way as a much stronger laser blast hit the spot he'd been lying a moment ago. The floor was smoking and made Wally gulp. However, it did show him which direction the real Mirror Master was in. Wally got to his feet and started moving before Mirror Master had a chance to shoot again.

This time Wally's punch connected. Mirror Master stumbled back, but didn't fall over as Wally had hoped. He'd have to work on his upper body strength.

"You're going down," Wally said.

"Maybe next time," Mirror Master replied.

A blinding flash of light caught Wally of guard. He blinked furiously, but only managed to get his vision clear in time to see Mirror Master's foot disappearing through the rippling surface of one of the large windows.

Wally rubbed his eyes then got to work unbinding the hostages. At least no one had died.

Flash appeared just as Wally was getting the last of the rope into a pile. The CEO had been making noises about getting Wally in trouble for not stopping the Mirror Master, but thankfully Flash managed to calm him down. Wally stayed quiet and waited for Flash to finish.

"We're going to have to fix your costume," Flash said, when they finally got free of the building.

Wally fingered the torn edges of his eye-holes and was struck with an idea.

"Can I have goggles instead?" Wally asked, "That way if Mirror Master does something weird with the lights it's easier to take them off."

Flash considered it, then smiled at Wally. "Why not," he said, "I'll see if I can't get a few pairs we can make modifications to."

"Awesome!" Wally whooped, grinning back, his earlier failure all but forgotten.

Sam held his spoils close as he wandered back to the hideout through the mirror-dimension. Today had bordered on surreal and that was saying something for a guy who'd seen more weirdness than humanly possible through reflections.

He wouldn't mention this to the rest of the Rogues.

Well... not unless they mentioned Flash being little first.

Wally ran through the door of the bank safe and stopped dead. It wasn't exactly his choice, he could barely move. Something had turned the air so thick it was like molasses.

Not thick, Wally realised, cold. Heat means motion and a lack of heat means a lack of motion.

Wally would safely put money on which particular Rogue was robbing the bank at this moment.

"Told you it would work!"

The words came through all distorted and echo-like. Muted, the way sticking your head underwater made sound. Lack of motion means lack of vibration means sound can't travel easily. Wally pushed himself forward as hard as he could and gained about an inch.

"...that's not the Flash," another voice filtered through the frozen air.

"What d'you mean?" two men appeared in Wally's view, one in blue and white while the other held a flamethrower, "Shit, that's a kid."

"Turn it off."

"I can't just turn it off!"

"Brilliant idea, make something that you can't reverse. What if you'd gotten one of us with that?"

"What if you'd been dumb enough to walk into it yourself you mean."

Wally was gaining ground and it looked like the villains were too busy arguing to pay him much attention. His fingers brushed the edge of the 'cold-field' and the warmth on the other side.

Fire burst out of Heat Wave's flamethrower. "What's it going to do if I try to heat things up?" he asked Captain Cold.

"It should get him moving again," Cold replied, "But it hasn't been tested before."

Wally had just about managed to get one arm up to his elbow out of the cold-field when Heat Wave turned his flamethrower on the frozen air. A few large blasts and Wally felt the air thin. He stumbled as the force he was pressed against suddenly vanished.

Wally straightened up and did his best to look menacing to the villains, who were both looking down at Wally with something like confusion on their faces. Wally had to admit that it would've helped to look menacing if he wasn't a clear foot shorter than both of them.

"You ok, kid?" Heat Wave asked.

"I'm here to take you in," Wally said, putting his hands on his hips the way he'd seen Flash do when taking to villains.

"You're not the first Flash-fan to try this," Cold said, "Go home, Kid Flash, or whatever you're calling yourself."

Wally paused, he hadn't really thought of a nickname yet. Except 'Speedy' of course, but according to Flash there was already someone working with Green Arrow with that name. Which was completely unfair and he was so complaining to this 'Speedy' when they met.

"I'm not leaving you two to rob the bank," Wally proclaimed.

"Look, kid," Heat Wave said, moving forward to pat Wally on the head with his free hand, "It's a good costume, but this is a bit more than –"

Wally dodged Heat Wave's hand at superspeed. Both villains reacted and Wally had to keep moving to avoid the fire and ice that was sent his way.

"Since when do the fan-boys have speed?" Cold snapped as Wally raced past him.

"Beats me," Heat Wave said.

A lucky blast of fire made Wally skid to a halt to avoid the conflagration, which unfortunately allowed his legs to be coated in ice. Having been posed unsteadily, Wally toppled to the ground. Heat Wave and Cold approached, though this time they had their weapons trained on Wally and were being much more careful as they neared.

"So you actually are Flash's sidekick?" Cold asked.

"You bet," Wally said. His legs were starting to feel numb.

Cold hit the wall of the safe and started cursing. Wally had a moment of wondering what his mum would say if she knew Uncle Barry was exposing him to language like that. He shook it off quickly enough though.

"The Flash expects us to shoot at a kid?" Heat Wave said.

"You just did!" Wally said, indignant. He was twelve years old, dammit, not some kid.

A look passed between Heat Wave and Cold then something seemed to be decided. Wally tried to make use of their distraction to vibrate his legs out of the ice, but it didn't work. The cold must've been slowing him down too much to get enough energy up.

"Alright, kid," Cold said, training his gun on Wally, "It's been real good meeting you, but we're on a schedule."

"Maybe we'll see you around another time," Heat Wave said.

Ice shot over Wally and the next thing he knew, Flash was helping him out of a tepid puddle and bundling Wally up in a blanket.

Flash was talking a mile a minute and there were several security guards and reporters in and around the vault. Wally settled into Flash's arms as he lead Wally out of the vault. The reporters descended upon both speedsters as soon as the first one realised Wally was lucid.

"Flash! What have you got to say about your new sidekick?"

"Flash! Any comments on the most recent theft from the team of Captain Cold and Heat Wave?"

"Flash! Does the boy have superspeed?"

"Flash! Did you send Flash-boy alone to investigate two known criminals that you yourself have had trouble stopping?"

Wally couldn't let that last one go, so he shrugged Flash's hand off his shoulders and turned to the reporters.

"I saw the bank in danger while I was patrolling the city. Flash was alerted, but too far away to arrive quickly enough, so I decided to help on my own," Wally said, "And it's Kid Flash."

Mick dumped his loot out onto a crate and leant against the wall. Len added the contents of his bag and started counting it all up.

"'Kid Flash', then?" Mick said.

Len finished counting through a wad of notes and put it down before he answered. "Means we're gonna have to up our game."

"Flash doesn't seem the irresponsible type," Mick noted, "What's he doing putting a kid up against us?"

"We're not gonna kill the kid," Len said with a dark glare.

"I know we're not," Mick said, "You know we're not. I'm just surprised Flash thinks the same way, that's all."

"He knows we're not like those Gotham whack-jobs," Len said, "And the kid's gotta learn to control all those superspeed powers one way or another."

"You know," Mick said, "Flash goes up against 'those Gotham whack-jobs' on occasion. What's to say he's not going to take the kid with him?"

There was something definite about the way Len slapped another wad of bills down on the crate heavily. The eyes behind the blue glasses were hard and when he spoke his voice was harsh.

"This is Rogues' city," Len said, "Those are Rogues' capes. No one better forget that and hurt our sidekick."

Mick nodded and fought back his smile at Len's slip-up.

Central City zoo was the last place Wally expected any villain to strike, but sure enough, there was the Pied Piper playing a tune to a herd of elephants. He was in costume, but in a restricted area. If Wally hadn't been actively searching, he wouldn't have found Piper.

"Stop!" Wally called, "Stop playing!"

Piper lowered his flute and smiled down at Wally from his perch in the stable rafters.

"There isn't a law again playing music," Piper said.

"There is if it's you," Wally said.

"Don't you trust me... Kid Flash, was it?"

Wally couldn't help the grin that spread across his face at being recognised. He hadn't even been doing the sidekick thing for more than two weeks and already one of Flash's Rogues knew who he was on their first meeting.

"I'm just playing to keep the elephants calm," Piper continued.

"But they're fine," Wally pointed toward the elephants, "And you're not even playing any more."

Though, now he looked closer, the elephants were looking a little restless to Wally.

"Well don't blame me if there's an elephant attack because you wouldn't let me play my pipe," Piper said, twirling the aforementioned pipe between his fingers.

The elephants were definitely looking restless now. One or two of them gave a loud trumpet and the ground was beginning to feel unsteady with how much they were shifting about.

"Kid Flash?" Piper called down.

"What?" Wally snapped. He couldn't decide if letting Piper play was better or worse than trying to handle a whole herd of stampeding elephants.

"Have you considered a different colour uniform?" Piper asked, "It'll make it easier for people to tell you apart from the Flash."

"Why would I want that?" Wally asked, though he was curious about the answer.

Piper shrugged. "It might be good for you to establish your own superhero identity. Think about it," Piper added, when Wally remained sceptical, "I'll keep the elephants calm for free this time if you do."

Wally looked over at the elephants again. One of the larger ones was shoving his considerable bulk against the fence toward the bystanders. Screams and panic filled the air as people saw what was happening.

"What good is it to you if I change my costume?" Wally asked.

"Nothing really," Piper said, "Though I'd prefer to know when I'm being beaten by Kid Flash instead of the Flash himself."

"Alright," Wally said, glaring at Piper through his goggles, "I'll think about it. You can play."

"How kind of you," Piper said mockingly.

He raised his flute to his lips and a gentle melody filled the stables and the elephant enclosure. The soothing sounds swept around the elephants and the fight left them, bit by bit. One by one the elephants sank to the ground and started to sleep.

It was only when Wally let out a yawn did he realise the tune wasn't only aimed at the elephants. However, it was too late to stop it and Wally slumped against the wall and started to doze off.

Wally was woken up some time later by the Flash, who got Wally to fill him in on what had happened and they started making plans for the next time – and there would be a next time, Flash assured Wally – the Pied Piper pulled that stunt.

"Hey, Flash," Wally said, as they sped out of the zoo and onto the streets, "What do you think about some different colours in my costume?"

"Done," Piper announced as he slid into his place at the poker table next to Heat Wave and opposite Mirror Master, "Kid Flash's suit's going to be another colour next time he's out."

For the first time since starting this gig, Wally had ran into one of Central's major villains with the Flash running alongside him. Which he was immensely grateful for, considering his track record.

The Weather Wizard was tearing up Central City's baseball park with several tornadoes and a hail storm, because... actually Wally wasn't entirely sure why he was doing it. Whatever the reason, he had to be stopped and that's just what the Flash and Kid Flash were going to do.

"Kid," Flash shouted, his voice barely making it to the communicators they were wearing and certainly not getting anywhere in the howling wind, "You can unravel the twisters by creating your own opposite ones to counter them. Clear them out of the way before they get too far. I'll handle Weather Wizard."

With grim determination, Wally headed for the nearest tornado. As much as he disliked being relegated to clean-up duty, when he hazarded a glance at the Flash, the other speedster was moving so fast he was almost invisible in order to avoid the lightning Weather Wizard was sending down. That was a bit above Wally's current skill-level.

Wally found that the hardest part about running backwards around twisters was keeping his feet on solid ground. Not to mention the various papers blinding him and bits of stands that kept trying to take his head off.

After dissipating one tornado and moving onto the next, a jagged piece of metal – presumably from the stands – caught the top of Wally's cowl as he didn't quite duck in time. He put his hand up to feel the rip. No blood, thankfully, but his hair was poking out of the gash.

Wally shook it off and continued running. He had to stop the tornadoes. If he couldn't... well Flash might have doubts about letting him continue as a sidekick.

Wally pushed himself to his limits, his feet pounding on the ripped up ground, not letting up for one moment. It was hard and he could feel himself tiring as his energy levels depleted. He'd have to figure out some way to be able to eat when he was in the middle of a fight like this.

As the last tornado weakened and shrunk and finally vanished, Wally stumbled to his knees. No wonder Uncle Barry had wanted backup with this villain, he couldn't imagine doing all that and fighting off the Weather Wizard.

Wally forced his head up, just in time to see Flash get flung through the air by a particularly vicious combo of hail and wind. Wally's disbelief was cut short when another scrap of metal tore at his cowl. This time the metal bit into his scalp too and blood started leaking down his head and into his ear. Although, the rushing wind felt pretty cool whipping through his hair.

Wally staggered to his feet as Flash pushed himself up too. After a quick, assessing glance at each other, they both turned to the source of the trouble. Weather Wizard was hovering several feet above the ground, holding his weather wand like a conductor's baton and bending the heavens to his whim.

"I'm going to bring him down to ground level, Kid," Flash said through the communicator, "Get that wand as far away as you can."

Wally barely had time to reply an affirmative before Flash started to move. Weather Wizard was prepared and the split-second Flash got within thirty feet of the villain, lightning started to arc down again.

Flash avoided the bolts and took advantage of the way the ground was being exploded upwards to give him something to kick-off of and reach much higher than he normally could. He didn't get high enough to properly punch Weather Wizard, but Flash did manage to grab his ankle and use his momentum to bring both of the down onto the churned up stadium grounds.

Wally ran forward and yanked the weather wand away from its owner. He made it about a mile before the thing gave a bzzt and zapped his hand. Wally fought to keep ahold of the wand and ran into the police department. Someone there had to know what to do with it.

The wand was buzzing ferociously in Wally's grasp as he skidded to a halt by the front desk. Wally skimmed the department names until he came across one that sounded promising: 'Meta-human Hostility'. Wally ran further into the building and found the right room.

The office was empty. Wally yanked open the drawer on the filing cabinet marked 'T-Z' one-handed and rifled through until he found the Weather Wizard's file. There was a long heavy box included. Wally hoped it was what he thought it was and snapped it open then stuffed the weather wand inside. It was that or get his hand burnt through.

Thankfully, the humming from the wand stopped the moment the lid was locked down. Wally breathed a sigh of relief and left the box and file on the desk. Hopefully whoever owned the office would know what to do with it.

Wally trotted back to the reception area of the police department. He was just in time to see Flash dumping an unconscious and bound Weather Wizard for the cops to take. Confident the police could handle themselves with the villain – and not wanting to hang around too long for fear of exposing his secret identity – Flash waved Wally outside and onto patrol.

"Can I leave the top of my cowl off in future?" Wally asked as they headed out of the police station.

"It's too much of an identity risk," Flash said, "We don't want you or your family being attacked."

"Weather Wizard and all those cops have already seen my hair," Wally pointed out, "Plus it feels so much cooler when I'm running."

"Kid..." Flash sighed.

"Please please please please please please," Wally begged, "Robin doesn't have to cover up his hair and you said Speedy's only got a hat."

"Alright, Kid," Flash said, though he didn't sound too happy about it, "Just don't complain to me when you get your hair pulled by a villain."

"Hah, they wouldn't do that," Wally said confidently. His grin faltered when Uncle Barry just smiled, "They wouldn't do that, right?"

"Race you back to the house, Kid," Flash said, kicking up his pace.

"They wouldn't do that," Wally insisted, upping his stride to keep level, "...would they?"

"Don't say 'I told you so'," Mark snarled as Len blasted his cuffs off.

Mark sat down heavily and scowled at the other Rogues.

"You were warned," Len said.

"I didn't expect him to be useful," Mark said, pride stung, "You all got away."

"He wasn't with Flash then," Sam said, amidst a few sniggers, "I got you out of lock-up quickly enough, didn't I?"

"Oh just forget it," Mark sighed, reaching for a drink. He needed one after the cock-up today had been.

"Looks like he'll be sticking around then," Piper commented.

"Looks like," Len agreed, "What colours was he in, Mark?"

"Hmm?" Mark thought back to the fight, "Yellow. Yellow and red. Mostly yellow. And he's ginger."

His comment made everyone glance at Piper, who folded his arms defensively. "There are plenty of people with red hair," Piper said.

"Right," Len said, ignoring Piper, "He's easily identifiable, so don't say you thought he was the Flash."

"We're not going to try and kill him?" Mark confirmed.

"Try all you like," Len said, "Just don't succeed."

"We're going to have to step things up," Mick noted, "More backup, for starts."

"All my tech's going to have to be re-calibrated to deal with two speedsters," Sam said.

As the Rogues started discussing which strategies would have to change and which could stay the same, Mark let it all wash over him. He'd have to make sure he was prepared next time, but for now, it was time to relax and temper down the frustration at being caught – he would just make sure to get the Flashes doubly so next time.

After all, as a very fine writer once said: 'there is more real pleasure to be gotten out of a malicious act, where your heart is in it, than out of thirty acts of a nobler sort'.

"See, Uncle Barry, everything went fine."

"I suppose so, but you have to be careful Wally. You never know what they're going to plan next."

"So, kid, why d'you want to be a Rogue?"

"It's all a bit of fun, isn't it? And money's always useful."

"No offence, but you're a bit young for this. Why are we even offering this to him, Cold?"

"You know why we're looking for recruits. Shut up, Mirror Master."

"Hey, I might be young, but Kid Flash is younger, right? I could be useful when you're fighting him."

"That's the capes' choice, not ours. But... if you can get through the trail process, I don't see why we can't have you. What's your name, kid?"

"Ja– Trickster. It's Trickster."