Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice or any of their original characters.

Chapter 3

West-Allen House, Central City - Present

"Don, no! Don't eat that! Dawn! Come down from there! No super speed in the house! Seriously you two! NO! DON'T JUM-!"

Crash

"Bart! I could really use some help in here!"

Bart bit the inside of his cheek in an effort to stifle his laughter as he paused his game and slid off the bed. He knew his grandma would not be finding the situation nearly as amusing as he did and would not appreciate it. He extended his arms up in a brief stretch and in the blink of an eye, he was down in the living room, a squirming toddler under each arm.

He took in the upturned coffee table, downed book shelf, puddle of mixed juice and milk, and a harried, exhausted looking Iris standing in the middle of it all.

Bart shot her a grin and said sunnily, "Morning, Grandma! You look whelmed!" In response, she gave him a look that said if looks could kill, he and the twins would be a pile of ash right now. Nope. Definitely not whelmed.

"What did I say about the 'grandma' thing,'' she huffed in annoyance, raising a hand to pinch the bridge of her nose.

"Oh! Right! Sorry! No spoilers," he said with a laugh. She glared some more, clearly irritated with his peppy demeanor.

What could he say? Some people are morning people and some are not. While one should never approach Iris before she's had her first cup of coffee in the morning, Bart tended to always wake already in a good mood. Speedsters in general had a habit of rising with the sun, something he, Wally, Barry, and Jay shared. Unfortunately, so did the Tornado Twins. Thus, mornings were particularly difficult in the West-Allen house these days and Iris herself had become grumpier than usual in the mornings. Barry helped when he could, but as this was Central City and not Gotham, criminals seemed to thrive more in the light of day and he spent most mornings on patrol.

Bart readjusted the twins under his arms and shot a glance at the door, feeling again the itch to be out there with him kicking butt and taking names.

Never missing a thing, Iris caught the look and her expression got even darker as she shook an angry finger at him. "Don't even think about it, Bart. You are mine until later this afternoon when the other mom's show up for the playdate. You promised."

The speedster gave a nervous laugh. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Gra- Iris. I was just thinking about what a beautiful day it is."

A red eyebrow went up as she muttered a sarcastic, "Mhm", and bent down to right the coffee table.

"Just go put them in their play pin and then come and help me clean up this mess."

Bart hefted a toddler in one arm in a weird little salute with a cheerful "Yes ma'am" and zipped over to the bright red and yellow playpen in the corner. He plopped them both in and, before one or both could escape, immediately twisted the top of one of the poles, activating the discreetly hidden power dampener. This was specially built into the play pin by M'Gann to give a very normal Iris a bit of an advantage over her distinctly meta children. With just a twist of the knob, the twins were brought down to a more manageable pace and their harried mother was given a chance to recuperate and enjoy watching her children play without worrying about their incredible speed getting them in trouble.

As Bart turned to lift the bookcase back into place, he snickered to himself, remembering the day M'Gann gave it to Iris at her baby shower. Iris was a total badass, one of the toughest people he knew, but damn, did she cry like a baby that day. Bart had been both horrified and intrigued at the sight. Crying girls had that effect on him. And because his unfortunate reaction to such things was humor, he promptly made a crack about crazy pregnant women, relating them and all their feels to sweating dynamite. To say Iris had not been amused would be an understatement.

He had just finished putting all the books back on their shelves when his cell went off, indicating he received a text. As he went to check it, Iris pierced him with a glare from her place on the floor sopping up the spill and practically growled, "Don't. Even. Think about it."

Bart laughed nervously and put his hands up in a pacifying gesture before getting back to work. Not even a minute had gone by before it went off again. And again. And again. And again.

He did his best to ignore it, but his ring tone was anything but quiet and if the vein throbbing in Iris's forehead whenever he glanced up at her was any indication, it was bothering her was well. Impressively, they made it to the 20th ring before she exploded, throwing up her hands and snapping, "Oh just get it," as she stormed into the kitchen.

Bart shook his head and sighed. "She really needs to get whelmed," he muttered to himself before whipping out his cell. 20 new messages, all from his cousin, Wally.

He frowned.

Ever since he and Artemis had decided to leave the life behind and attend college in Palo Alto, Wally had kept his interactions with his former teammates and leaguers to a minimum, with the exception of Barry on holidays and birthdays and maybe the odd babysitting request every now and then. When Bart showed up from the future and joined the team, this distancing extended to him as well. It was rare for him to text him once every other week or so, let alone 20 times in the span of like, 10 minutes. Something must be really wrong.

He clicked open the messages and started scanning through them.

BART, NEED YOU TO CALL ME ASAP. NEED HELP WITH SOMETHING.

DUDE, SERIOUSLY. CALL ME NOW.

CALL. ME.

BART

COME ON

YOU ARE PRACTICALLY SUPERGLUED TO YOUR PHONE. I KNOW YOU'RE GETTING THESE.

CALL

NOW

BART

BART

DUDE

THIS IS NOT A JOKE.

NEED YOU NOW

DUDE

DUUDDEE

DUUUDDDEEE

DON'T MAKE ME RESORT TO BLACKMAIL

FINE, YOU ASKED FOR IT

IF YOU DON'T CALL ME IN THE NEXT 30 SECONDS, I AM TELLING CASSIE AND BARBARA EXACTLY WHO WAS BEHIND THE WHOLE BUTT PHOTOCOPYING FIASCO AT LAST YEARS NEW YEARS PARTY AND DICK WHO REALLY STOLE HIS UTILITY BELT AND HID IT IN THAT SYRIAN WAR CRIMINAL'S PRIVATE OFFICE

At that last one, Bart felt all the blood drain out of his face and had the phone up to his ear and calling his cousin in fast point two seconds. The second it connected, he was speaking.

"DUDE! That is so not crash! How do you even know about that anyway?! You're not even on the team anymore!"

He could practically hear Wally's smirk through the phone. "Oh Bartholomew, when will you learn? I know everything. I didn't spend pretty much my entire childhood and teen years with Dick Grayson and NOT pick up a few things. I've got spies everywhere"

He scowled mutinously at the use of his full name and crossed his free arm over his chest petulantly.

"I can hear you pouting," Wally practically laughed.

"I am not," Bart exclaimed indignantly and almost immediately winced when it came out as more of a whine, face palming hard.

At this Wally did laugh outright, but before he could reply a voice in the background growled, "Get to the damn point, Wally." A hushed argument then ensued on the other end of the line, culminating in a loud smack and muttered expletive.

Bart winced in sympathy. He could guess who was on the other end of the line with Wally and irked as he was, he'd been on the wrong end of that right hook one too many times to not sympathize with the victim.

"Ok, ok," Wally was muttering as his voice came back through, "I'm handling it. Freaking woman hits like a freaking mac truck." There was some more muttering about the dangers of dating a female ex-assassin before Bart cleared his throat loudly in irritation.

"Was there a point to your call," he asked in annoyance, "Ya know, besides being a total narc and complete pain in my ass."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm getting to it, Kid Fake," Wally snapped back, his eye roll practically audible before his tone turning suddenly serious, "Look, the crux of it is that we need you to come meet us and we need you to come now. Don't tell anyone where you're going. Just come now."

Bart sobered instantly at Wally's dark tone. "Why? What's going on?"

"Not over the phone. You should be receiving an encrypted message with our coordinates within the next few seconds."

There was a bright ping from his phone and he looked down to see that the message had in fact just appeared on his screen.

"I got it."

"Good. Now hang up and get here stat. Make sure you're not followed."

"Copy, that," he replied and immediately hung up the phone to run a quick algorithm to decode the message. As soon as he had the coordinates and a note written for Iris who had yet to reappear from the kitchen, he was in his uniform and out the door in seconds.

He grimaced momentarily when he thought of how pissed Iris would be when she realized he was gone. Good thing he was a speedster.

En route, he quickly switched to stealth mode on his uniform and made a few stopovers in other cities out of the way to be sure he wasn't somehow being tracked. Within moments he arrived in Bludhaven, the time difference leaving the city still caught in the shadows of night in the early morning hours. The coordinates placed him in front of an old warehouse in the wharfs, one he knew had been utilized by Wally, Artemis, Dick, and Kaldur before for secret briefings when Artemis had gone deep cover with Kaldur in Black Mantis' organization. With a quick scan of the area to be sure he wasn't seen, he darted in, stopping in a room deep in the belly of the building.

The room was shrouded in darkness, a lone lamp swinging gently from the ceiling and making the shadows dance along the walls. It wasn't long before several of those shadows disengaged from the wall and slowly took the shape of Artemis, Wally, and Dick. As the new leader of the Justice League, it was unsurprising that Kaldur was not present for this clearly covert meeting.

"Ok," he said, being sure to keep his voice hushed, "I'm here. What was so bad that I had to rush over here right this second?"

The words hadn't even finished leaving his mouth before a fourth shadow stepped into the light, revealing possibly the most beautiful and terrifying girl he had ever seen. The sniper rifle gripped in her hands didn't help much either. And while he stood there, stunned into silence for maybe the first time in his life, she gave him a quick once over in silent assessment.

Angling her chin in Artemis' direction, she said, "You're right. He doesn't look like much. But he'll do."

He couldn't even pull himself out of his shock long enough to take offense, only made worse when she stepped closer, her face only a few inches from his. Her black cherry lips curved up in a perfect smirk and she reached up to lightly tap his chin with her fingers.

"Pick your jaw off the ground, Red. We've got work to do."

Hey, y'all! I so missed my fanfiction world, but let me tell you, senior year of college is no joke. I am so happy to finally get some more of this story out there for you to read, even if it's just one chapter. Hope y'all enjoy and don't forget to leave a review! I always enjoy hearing from y'all! Thanks!:)

~SAA~