Those Darn Dogooders

3

Jinx

"DON'T YOU DARE-!"

That's all I manage to yell out before Kid Flash picks me up, again, and starts running faster than sound to God-knows-where. You never even realize how fast he really is until he picks you up and takes you with him for the ride. I swear, he has a fetish for picking people up. Or maybe it's just me…

The air rushes by you so fast that if you just stopped suddenly, the expression on your face would probably be frozen into place. Dammit, Kid Flash! I'm not going to have a good hair day for a month. I have to close my eyes to keep them from drying out, because at this speed, the air just hits you so hard that it seems to take all the moisture out of your body before blowing past. I doubt we're even visible, except for maybe Kid Flash's characteristic red-and-gold glowy tail thing.

I bury my face into his chest, where it's warm and comfortable. I can't really tell where we're going-I'm not even going to bother trying to guess-butI bet thatat the rate we're going at, we're probably a good 5 or 6 states away from wherever the hell we were.

And I think he definitely noticed that I'm using him as a pillow, because I can feel his arms tighten a bitaround me. He's such a pinhead, I swear, but he's probably the sweetest, most annoyingly cute pinhead I've ever—

Ahem. Forget I said that. Can't make it seem like I'm falling for the good guy, because I'ma villainand he's a hero, and that would be kind of problematic. "Kind of" as in, Kid Flash is kind of fast...

…But I can't help but wonder…Am I falling for the good guy?

...No, that can't be right. I can't be thinking straight. I'm not allowed to like the 're running so fast that it's screwing up my mind.

Or at least, I hope so...

Kid Flash

Oh, I am good. Everybody fall on your knees and praise the Fastest Boy Alive, because he is a genius!

Well, not necessarily right now, because I'm sure that as soon as I stop and put Jinx down she'll hex me straight into the Speed Force. But…in the meantime…I am brilliant.

What is so incredible about me, you ask? My plan, I'll answer. So here's the grand scheme: I am taking Jinx with me on my rounds. Simple, you say, but, no, it most certainly is not.

Let me make that clear: I, Kid Flash, am taking Jinx, the most beautiful, incredible, somewhat misguided supervillainess on the planet with me so that she can help me out as I kick bad-guy butt.

So? you may say. So, it means that this may be the thing she needs to finally help her realize that she canchoose to be good. And if she doesn't figure it out on her own…well, then I'll help her, because I've decided that I never want to find her hurt and alone in an alleyway again.

Brilliant, you might say. Thank you, thank you, I'd like to thank the Academy and my mentor Jay—

Uh oh-better watch where I'm going. Jinx just pulled herself closer to me, so I wrap my arms tighter around her, but in the midst of our little who-can-hug-better contest, I nearly tripped over a speed bump, of all things.

I've been going around in circles for the past 15 seconds, and Jinx is probably wondering where we're going to end up. I've had people tell me that after a good few seconds of running with me at my speed, they're so disoriented that they can't tell if they're either a kilometer or a country away from where we started. But, just for the record, we're still in Star City, just about .15 seconds away from the city's most notorious crime spot, affectionately known to the insiders as Lightning Lane. I wonder if that's a coincidence? The name, I mean.