Electric Flame

2.27

Dick Grayson

In those quiet moments, I watched as my life flashed before my eyes. Thousands of memories resurfaced, affecting me almost twice as hard as they did previously.

"We picked the right guy to lead," I exclaimed, holding out my hands at the building in flames before me. "Automatically making you the right guy to explain this mess to Batman."

It was one of our first few missions as a team, almost five years ago.

Artemis and I raced through the library at the Cave, hiding from two Red Tornado equivalent robots, each with individual elemental powers. The sprinklers had already been triggered, so we were sprinting through soaked quarters, the wooden bookcases behind us easily catching fire and falling like dominoes. I pulled a big red book, revealing an underground tunnel to escape through.

I remembered that day like it was yesterday. We had to short circuit the entire cave just to lose a member of the League. Both M'gann and Kaldur suffered from excessive heat. It was the beginning of something big.

Superboy grunted as he lifted the semi-truck off his body, the obnoxious laugh of robotic monkeys draining my ears. They flew away with the disconnected individual pieces of the Amazo, and the clone of the man of steel followed, using his super leaps to travel at an even rate. "Superboy!" I yelled, trying to stop him but to no avail.

Our leader spoke through the comm system."Aqualad to Robin, we lost our cargo. Did you--"

I sighed. "It's gone, and so is my partner. This is definitely a disaster, heavy on the dis."

That was the day we gained Artemis, a valuable player and amazing friend. That was the beginning of my best friend's first crush; though at the time, Wally didn't know it. 

"Ah," Artemis complained, placing one hand upon her hip. "Listen, Superboy's not the only one suffering from bad DNA." She walked over to the holographic computer. "My mother is Huntress, an ex-con. The rest of my family aren't even ex. My father is Sportsmaster and he's sending my sister, Cheshire, to fly me to Santa Prisca, too."

"That's why--" Wally questioned, trying to wrap his head around the facts when he was realizing his feelings for the female archer.

Artemis scoffed and laughed sadly. "Yeah, I was so desperate to make sure none of you found out."

"I knew," I stepped forward, earning quiet gasps. "Hey, I'm a detective., but it never mattered. You're not your family. You're one of us."

That was when we confessed everything to each other, when our trust was at its height and before anything truly went wrong for any of us, when Wally was still alive.

Next, I was in Gotham, Gotham Academy to be exact. Today, (y/n) would start school here. Little did I know what our relationship would turn into. She walked in all alone, and I wanted to be her knight in shining armor.

"Need anyone to lead the way," I asked, bowing playfully as I held out my arm, but she just walked right past me. "Hey, is everything okay?"

"Not in the mood, Dick," she told me, keeping her head down.

"Come on, (y/n)," I encouraged her. I knew that something was wrong, and I wanted her to share it with me. "Tell me what's wrong."

"Why can't you just leave me alone?" she lashed out, revealing her sleep-deprived eyes and red, puffy, tear-stained cheeks. All I remembered from that day was the shock and pain I felt. It was like someone took a screwdriver and shoved it deep into my chest, twisting and turning it as it lodged deeper into my sternum.