#nerdwrites

This day just so happened to be where their childish spirits were exposed.

Upon entering the lounging area of Mount Justice, Red Tornado had walked upon such an unusual sight- a secluded area with no such noise to be heard, along with the absence of his young prodigies. Even the t.v was untouched, and appeared to have stayed that way for a while. If the metal man could, he would raise an eyebrow in curiosity, but the most he could do was bear a single expression (human expression still strung a wire in his tin body; he would voice his thoughts later to express himself thoroughly). The sounds of metal footfall clanged lightly against the polished floor, the noise vibrating from the mountain walls. It was too quiet- had something bad happened? Had Young Justice been kidnapped by unsuspecting villains, and were in need of being rescued at this moment? But with the area clean and the furniture untouched, his suspicions were met with a dull conclusion.

His head whipped around when his sensors picked up on feet rushing against the floor, a wooden stool nearby being pushed slightly from the hurry. The superhero merely observed the location of the noise, watching until the seat no longer shook and vibrated. He received the idea that maybe hewas the one to be kidnapped, that this was all some sort of sabotage, and was instantly on the defense. He didn’t exactly show it physically, but if any threat were to appear before him, he would be ready to fight the enemy. He continued walking, the familiar sounds of his footsteps meeting his sensors, and stopped when he came across an odd object- a dart bullet stuck to the side of the lounge’s kitchen counter. His head cocked, and he kneeled down to get a better look at the yellow foam of the fake bullet.

Again, more with the expressionless stare at the thing that fixed his interest, and when he analyzed that this was most certainly not a threat, he removed it from its target- or at least, the default target. It appeared that its shooter was rather sloppy, and hadn’t meant to shoot the toy ammo at the kitchen table. It came to his surprise that right near the bullet was a trail of multiple duplicates of the object, all starting from the floor all the way to the crease of the wall. Red Tornado once again stood on his feet, and watched the trail lead to its end.

Very, very unusual.

His attention was taken away when he heard the shout of a familiar voice. “Dude! For someone who’s supposed to be great at coordination and stuff, you really suck when it comes to nerf guns! You’re supposed to be Boy Wonder, not Boy Blunder!”

“Hey, Batman and I don’t use guns on patrol, hence why we use Batarangs and smoke pellets, Stupidest Boy Alive!”

“Oh man, when this is over, I am so going to fight you for that.”

“Busted, boys!”

“Shoot!”

Never had Red Tornado heard such a ruckus in his life. The screaming, the breaking, the rapid firing of nerf gun bullets plopping onto smooth surface- this was, as the others would call it, a bigger nuisance than the teenagers acting as their regular selves. He whipped his body around to see Artemis and M’gann, the girls bearing green nerf guns in arms, firing previously said projectiles at Wally and Robin, who bore yellow nerf guns of their own all except for the fact that they weren’t shooting at the female heroes. Instead, they tried to take cover behind anything in the area, and judging by the looks on their faces, they were not pleased by this event.

“Jeez, Give us a break, guys! This isn’t fair!” Wally shouted with arms above his head, and for a quick moment, Red Tornado wondered why he wasn’t using his superspeed to easily escape the situation.

“All’s fair in war and game, Baywatch!” Artemis shouted back. She shot another bullet, aiming for the back of Wally’s head, but unfortunately missed. M’gann took Robin as her selected target, and with an incredibly big smile on her face, she ruthlessly pounded the sidekick with yellow nerf bullets. Of course, this was Batman’s ward and partner- he barely missed each one with his acrobatic skills and flexibility, albeit his technique was very sloppy.

Red Tornado was an innocent bystander until the boys decided to hide behind their mentor, using his body to deflect the girls’ hits and attacks. Nobody seemed to mind, and the tin man couldn’t muster up the expression to show his discomfort with him being used as a shield. Darn those robot expressions.

He decided to voice his emotions instead, startling the teenage heroes with a flat voice. “I see you all are in a game of ‘Nerf Tag’, although I do not wish to be used as a barrier of any sort.” He turned his head over his shoulder to meet the boys, his hollow eyes gazing into the startled blues and greens of the speedster and boy wonder. “If I may ask, I would like to be released from the situation.”

Robin, the one who had chosen to hide behind him first, released his grip from his arms, and instantly blushed in embarrassment. Wally followed suit, realising their reckless mistake, and the girls tried to stifle their laughs at how ridiculous the others looked. Red Tornado quickly turned to face the blond and ginger, causing them to bear alarmed expressions of their own. “And if you two girls could be of assistance, I ask that you remove your bullets from my metal being, please.”

Now it was M’gann and Artemis’ turn to partake in the embarrassment; M’gann hung her head low as she tried to cover the ashamed blush that began to spread on her martian green face, while Artemis took for the stiff look, arms folded over her chest with her head turned to her left. Her stare was uncaring, though it was obvious she felt humiliated of her actions. Their nerf guns were no longer held proudly in their arms- instead, their one hand let their toy guns hand loosely on their fingers, no longer holding that special significance as it had before. The room was back to its silence, though the awkward tension made it a bit more unsettling. The girls did as told while the boys took to cleaning the rest of the lounge area.

No kidnappers. No enemies. Just simple teenagers being… very childish. Red Tornado had never seen such a phenomenon take place, and in all honesty, he had expected them to be much more mature as the Justice League had promised (excluding Barry, because he knew well enough that his speedy nephew would break that expectation). He supposed they were still kids, and had to agree that this childish game was possibly a way for them to escape the reality of being a superhero.

Was he accustomed to this? No. Did he have any experience with children? Not in the slightest. But he supposed this was a first, and possibly the first of many to come.

He’ll have to be well prepared next time this occurred.

“Incoming!”

Screaming, breaking, firing and popping. From the ceilings of the cave appeared Aqualad and Superboy, and to the mentor’s surprise, they bore joyful, mischievous expressions on their usually serious countenances. To his disappointment, they also bore nerf guns of their own.

And were firing at Wally, Robin, M’gann, and Artemis, who were still in the process of cleaning their own mess.

Again, the voice of a 15 year old speedster rung in his audio sensors. “Nerf war!”

And that’s when Red Tornado left the area, the sounds of yelling and laughing fading in with his steps. They mixed to create a noise even Batman wouldn’t even handle, something that would probably irritate the metal man if he were capable of feeling negative emotions. As he moved further from the lounge, the team’s voices drowned out. The last of the racket he heard was a loud crash, along with an ‘Oops’ from the team’s troublemaker himself.

Red Tornado will never understand teenage shenanigans such as these. These things were even more complex to understand than human expression and emotion.