i was not built to stay still for so long.
the only thing holding me back from leaving my post is annabeth, who glares daggers at me, as if she'd read my thoughts.
fucking wally and his fucking planned surprise birthday party.
finally, the man of the hour walks in. we jump up and yell, "SURPRISE!" he gasps with a hand to his chest, feigning surprise as he immediately gravitates towards the food table.
"aw, what? you guys, you shouldn't have." the collective eye roll is palpable as he digs into the cake.
as wally starts flirting with m'gann, artemis' expression sours. i catch her eye, and embarrassment flushes on her cheeks. my stomach clenches, understanding the frustration of having a crush on a serial flirt.
as rob walks over, trailed by zatanna, i elbow artemis lightly. "think we should tell wally? he's the only one that doesn't know about conner and mgann."
"please, allow me," artemis says, giving me a small but grateful smile. the gaggle of us break into laughter as wally's face reddens at the news.
"man, come on!"
the fun is cut short by the sweet, sweet sound of batman's monotone voice.
"attention, team. suit up in polar stealth. mission briefing in 5." grumbling, we oblige.
we meet up in the briefing room. bats explains the 5 ice fortresses to us. as he displays the fortresses and explains our mission, my stomach flips. why can we never have a mission entirely at ground level? it's like batman wants me to be smited.
in a shocking turn of events, batman hears my prayers and introduces the little girl in need of the heart transplant. my mission is to tail kid flash and keep both him and the heart safe through their trip.
"not to be that guy, but how is she supposed to keep up with me exactly?" kid asks. batman's deadpan stare turns on me as i fish a bronze whistle from my pocket, a gift from camp for emergencies.
"don't worry, i know a guy." i exchange nods with batman in thanks as he sends the coordinates to my brand-spanking-new tech watch. monster-proof, of course.
as the bay doors open for the bioship to take off, i blow into my bronze whistle. moments later, a large flapping beats through the air. the shadowy mane of my knight in shining horsehair flows elegantly as blackjack trots to a stop in front of wally and me.
hey, boss. you called for a dashing steed?
i laugh, patting his shoulder behind his gargantuan wings. "yeah, whatever. wally, this is blackjack. blackjack, wally. also known as kid flash."
wally gapes at the two of us. "tell me you're not talking to the fucking horse right now."
blackjack whinnies in disdain. who the fuck is this guy calling a horse? let me at 'em.
i snort. "watch your mouth, wally. he's a pegasus, and they don't take very kindly to being called horses. and yes, i can speak with him. don't think too hard about it."
now that the pleasantries are out of the way, i mount blackjack. i instruct him to follow the yellow blur, filling him in on the mission as he strains to keep up with wally's speed.
we reach the boston hospital in minutes and retrieve the heart. after giving blackjack some water and a chance to catch his breath, we hit the road.
we hit our first speedbump in south dakota, where we're intercepted by vandal savage. kid flash engages him before i can scream at him to ignore the villain. too slow, blackjack and i descend to retrieve the heart.
immediately upon grounding, savage hurls kid into blackjack, sending the three of us flying backwards. kid springs back into action, but i am stuck in place, pinned to the ground by blackjack.
