#flashwave

Hal Jordan/Guy Gardner:

no propaganda submitted

Barry Allen/Mick Rory:

Len and Mick like the story of how they met, even if they weren’t repeating it to anyone. Mick was waiting for his link to open for almost two years now. His own parents weren’t bonded to each other. The pair platonically bonded to his father were good people, but couldn’t afford to take care of him. His mother only had one bond, her second link never opened. He had never met that person before, but they took him under their protection, or so it was believed. The man was a capo of the Falcone family. As payment for his “good heart,” he asked Mick to do small jobs for him. Slowly, these jobs got more and more dangerous, in the end, it landed him in Central City Juvenile Detention Centre. He couldn’t complain so much, he was big enough that the other kids, and even the guards, left him alone.

One day, he was on the patio thinking about a better way to get a lighter from the guards when he saw a group trying to beat up the new kid. He didn’t like it, the kid was too smart for his own good. The moment he saw the metal reflex, he moved. He moved so fast that he didn’t even know what he was doing. One moment passed, and he was at their side stopping them.

Neither Len nor Mick noticed the link snapping into place, or the bond fixing into place immediately. Between the adrenaline and the hits both of them received on their heads, no one could blame them. The first to notice was Len, but he waited almost one week before talking to Mick. How he could do it was still a mystery. After all these years, they only told it to Lisa. It was her favorite story during her teenage years.

It has been around twenty-two years. Twenty-two years of ups and downs, fights and make-up… For a while, their bond seemed to miss something. It wasn’t as it was incomplete, but sometimes it was like their bond reached something clouded. After decades, they could say they had found a balance. Then they started to listen to it. It was very muffled, weak and unclear. They couldn’t believe it. They had a third.

When they started to hear a new voice, it was a surprise, even if big age gaps weren’t unheard of, they are very uncommon. After a big delight, the reality crashed their happiness, they are linked to a kid. The fact the kid didn’t like to be called a kid didn’t change the truth that he was a kid. For some reason, this was their first fight, resulting in one week of silence and cementing the nickname Kid.

With time, the Kid made his mark on their relationship. He tried to make them leave the criminal life, but Len and Mick were too good and liked the job too much, so they agreed to a no kill rule. The Kid always tried to meet them at the start. Len and Mick avoided it for years. When Kid should have been turning eighteen, he didn’t bring up meeting them. Len and Mick neither.

~~

It’s a clear night. A full moon is up in the sky, the stars shining like small diamonds. The man uses the few shadows that exist to cover his movement. He has the layout of the shop clear in his mind. He is highly skilled and doesn’t have a problem unlocking the door and bypassing the alarm on it. He takes his tools to open the safe, small stars compliment him, and he smiles.

The alarm sounds. Mick swears under his breath, and two distinct voices join him. He knows what he did wrong, but it doesn’t change that he doesn’t have time and needs to concentrate. He doesn’t have time. The two voices are always welcome, but so distracting, both voices urging him to run, to leave before it is late, to get himself safe. Unfortunately, it was already late.

The Kid shuts up after hearing he was caught; Boss just complains louder. Boss is pissed, and Mick can feel his rage and anxiety. Lisa, Boss’ sister, has been sick for a couple of days. High fever and a cough made it important that she not be left alone. Her two thirds were out of the city, they couldn’t make it to Central City in time. This heist was time sensitive, and missing it today would be throwing months of planning in the trash. Boss and Kid wanted him to let the chance pass, but Mick was anxious and needed the adrenaline of the job. Otherwise, Central City would have a couple of buildings destroyed before regular demolition teams showed up.

The cops catch him before he can make it to the car. He tries to remain calm so the Kid doesn’t spiral with worry. He can’t avoid sharing with Boss the bite on his wrists, where the handcuffs hurt from being extremely tight. Mick is loud and uncooperative. He can hear Boss making plans to break him out during the ride to CCPD.