[Book 2] Chapter 12: Campfire Smokes (Part 2)

[Clock - 22:52 | 10:52 PM]

[Calendar - 20/06/2010]

[Location - Mount Justice, Happy Harbor, Rhode Island]

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Wally West - Kid Flash POV

"Well, Lightning Phantasm Locomotive Kid, I purposefully blew myself up." Wally rolled his eyes as he dragged out Adam's "Electric Ghost Train Boy" nickname, but only using synonyms to make it sound even weirder. He plucked another piece of the bright strawberry pink fairy dough thing that was given to them by Adam and grinned: "I recreated the experiment that gave my- oh, by the way, the Flash's my uncle -uncle his powers in my bedroom and the results were rather explosive." Chuckling at his own bad pun, Wally ate another fairy dough piece and shrugged: "It was cool, kinda hurt though, and I had to spend a few weeks in the hospital. And now I can run pretty fast!" What he didn't tell them was the fact that each minute, each second, he felt this almost all encompassing deep need and hunger. It was growing stronger each day, at first it was just a normal increase in his metabolism, but now that he is older, he fears his body will eat itself inside out.

"Hey, that's cool-" The electric guy shrugged, making Wally narrow his eyes as he said: "I didn't really get hospitalized- Hey, did you break anything in the in explosion? I broke my leg and a few other bones, but the Empress healed me easily." Wally still couldn't believe... This guy spoke and praised a man that did something that Wally considered blasphemous- like Abra Kadabra, he uses magic to hide his rather advanced technology, not sharing the wonders of science with the world. Just thinking about it makes Wally sad and angry at the same time, just thinking about the advancements that could come from the contribution of their technology makes him sigh. Magic is the biggest hoax anyway, why would he believe in such a thing? "Hey, is it true that healthcare sucks in the United States?"

Huh?

"Yeah...?" Wally asked, also a bit confused at the suddenness of the question: "I mean, it does suck, but it wasn't that bad for me and my family." He remembers spending weeks in a hospital bed because both his legs were fucking broken as shit and his arms were so bruised that he could barely move them without damaging them further than they already were. He had to be fed by spoon and to go to the bathroom, he had help from a nurse... that was particularly humiliating. "I spent 6 and a half weeks in the hospital... Oh, yeah, it sucks. It was about twenty eight thousand eight hundred and eighty seven dollars or something like that."

"Seriously?" Adam asked- is he trying to act surprised on purpose or something? Wally doesn't understand people that criticize the American Healthcare system, it sucks and they can't do anythiny to change it anyway. "Damn! Back on Beastialis we have these free pools of blessed water that heals most damage, like, in a few seconds. If given enough time, they can heal anything short of a cut off limb- for that you go to the Healers of Khepri or the Empress." That sounded like some highly advanced regenerative liquid, like one that induces tissue regeneration or cellular division... How can they stimulate cell generation to such a ridiculous degree without causing cancer? Is that because of the animal DNA the majority of the citizens have? "So... You blew yourself up and got to the hospital, the later on you got super speed? Neat."

"I was wondering about Aqualad-" Megan, the light of his night, spoke. Immediately, Wally felt a stab in his heart at the dismissal of his origin story by the masses (two of the five people already knew that, one was interested in his own home more, one was interested in Aqualad's story, and one didn't give a fuck about anything), but his dramatization of his emotions were cut short as she continued: "-I heard from my uncle J'onn that you were chosen by Aquaman?"

There was a soft scoffing from Adam, which was ignored- Wally still doesn't fully understand the beef between Aquaman and this Empress guy, but it must be a heavy one because whenever he is mentioned, Adam either stops paying attention to the conversation or he scoffs.

Kinda rude.

"Well... It's not something impressive as you uncle might have implied." Aqualad- always humble, huh? Now that Wally thinks about it a bit, he hasn't seen Kaldur brag or act like he was good at something. I mean, his actions spoke louder than his words could ever, but Wally has never experienced or been the one to suffer from Kaldur's actions, so he can't really say. "I grew up in Shayeris and had to enter the military for mandatory service when I was 12... It was a great honor for me to serve my kingdom. I transferred to the Conservatory of Sorcery shortly after because I showed an above average affinity for the mystical arts... It was all different from Shayeris, with the vast majority of citizens not being exactly like the ones I grew up surrounded by, but I made great friends in Poseidonis." He paused, considering his words: "One day, Ocean-Master attacked the city, and after a fight that lasted hours, he defeated Aquaman. I and Garth attacked Ocean-Master to protect our King, but we were no match to him... He was strong enough  to easily overpower us. However, our actions allowed King Orin to recover, and defeat Ocean-Master. He was impressed with the courage that two students showed him, and decided wanted to have us be his protégés, like Batman and Green Arrow. I accepted and became Aqualad. Garth refused... And that's it."

It was a story he and Robin heard before, but the three new kids who hadn't seemed to be in thought.

"Huh, that is interesting." The first one to break the ice was the most annoying one- seriously, Wally didn't really like him that much, mostly because of how smug and annoying he acted. And he always brought up this Empress guy, who Wally didn't like by principle. Not because of the whole male Empress gay guy thing, but because of the "hiding scientific advancements using magic mumbo jumbo", which is veey bad in his eyes. "Anyway... I just wanted to ask you one thing-" The air seemed to grow tense as Adam leaned in, looking directly towards Kaldur: "-did you participate in the "culling" of Atlantis?" The word "culling" was said with such disgust that even Wally felt a chill go down his spine. He had heard a little bit about this whole culling thing, and the very definition of the word made him feel like there were thousands of little spiders running across his skin! Culling is the reduction of a wild animal population by selective slaughter. "Because I have heard some... unfavorable things about the militia of your kingdom, Aqualad."

Kaldur seemed to tense up a little, and with a heavy, heavy sigh, he shook his head: "...I was not part of the massacre that happened when the Pure Blood faction declared war against all those who didn't have their own characteristics." He looked a little lost as he said: "I don't know what opinion you have of me or my king, but I assure you- everything that could be done, was." It sounded almost like a plea for forgiveness, which made the whole mood of this chill campfire camping into a colder time. Wally wanted to intervene, but Kaldur didn't seem to want any intervention of any kind as he spoke: "I speak the truth, or what I know it to be, so whatever grudge you have against me for something I haven't done, I'd request you leave that grudge behind."

"I don't have a grudge for you." Was the immediate response that Adam gave. The coldness seemed to fade away as he smiled- until, of course, everything dropped again: "I have a grudge against your king. Fish Dick." The reaction of Kaldur was to tense more- He looked like he wanted to fight the stupid smug light blub guy, and Wally wanted so much to just shut the guy up! "You see, after he kicked out-"

"It was preemptive reallocation of endangered individuals!" Kaldur shouted: "We had no idea that Ocean-Master and his guards would infiltrate the ranks of the ones meant to protect the people of Atlantis. We didn't know that yhe would massacre them all!"

"-the people you were supposed to help." Without missing a beat, Adam continued: "...You are so lucky that the Empress decided to bring them all back." Nonchalantly, Adam leaned back, his whole body leaning in one empty air. Wally had to admit, the guy's ability to sit on seemingly solidified air was pretty cool!

"W-what...?" Kaldur looked shocked, like he hadn't expected to hear such words coming out of Adam's mouth. He looked, truly looked at the guy sitting there and leaning back as he stared up at the night sky full of stars: "He did? He brought them all back?"

"It wouldn't be the first time, would it?" This time, the one to speak was Robin. Attention instantly snapped back to him, making even Wally frown and look a bit confused- what did he mean by this? Thankfully, nobody had tl ask the obvious question because the true answer hit them like a brick in the face: "He did it before. When Beastialis was still underneath Gotham... I didn't really believe it, but Batman has in the Batcomputer a whole file about the events of No Deadman's Land." Robin shrugged nonchalantly, almost as if revealing one of the secret files of Batman wasn't a big deal to him: "Or that's what he calls it. He has a list of all names of all people who were brought back the first day... In the end, 10,972 people were brought back from the dead."

"Well, not really." Adam shrugged- A little rolled up tube of paper appearing in his hand? With a sparkle of electricity, he lit up the cigarette he had in his hand. "It was about 11 thousand people, a few died again because of a few accidents in the homes after the Day of Ascension, and the Empress had to do another Mass Resurrection ritual." He took a drag and allowed the smoke to be released in the air... Sighing. Adam seemed to be ignoring the incredulous looks he got from his fellow teammates around him.

Wally had to pause- Since when is he allowed to smoke!? Is that even allowed!? Legal!?

"Since when can you do that- isn't that illegal...?" Superboy was the one to ask the question that burned into their minds.

"Hum?" Adam blinked- he looked down at his hand and rolled his eyes: "It's okay. Your can smoke at any age, you can just buy them at 18... And besides, it fucks up your lungs and all that." Shrugging, Adam offered it to Superboy... Who just stared at it: "Chill dude, weed it's legal in Beastialis. Cannabis is used both recreationally and medically, which is awesome- I got Addiction Removal pills too, which remove any sort of addiction. A single pill and you lose any addiction. Another gift from the Empress... And don't worry about the lungs thing, a few seconds in the healing waters of any Healer's Bath House and you're good as new." Adam, seeing Superboy not take the cigarette, he pulled it back and took another drag: "Of course, in Beastialis, you need to be at least 16 to smoke. 18 to buy too... I am 15, and my mother doesn't particularly care about it because it has no real impact in my life."

Well, that made it seem... less bad? Looking at everyone around, Wally decided- why not? "Hey, can I try?" He reached out for it, much to the horror of Kaldur. Robin, however, just grinned at him- And like that, everyone (but Miss Martian, she didn't get along with smoke) was smoking weed under the night sky, sharing stories and little anecdotes about themselves, Superboy even got a little bit better at communicating... If you consider him muttering "I hate monkeys, they're stupid" over and over again was communicating.

It was kinda fun, and in the end, mostly harmless anyway! Wally could cross off "getting high" from his list of "Dumb Things to Do".