“Of course I’m running away, I would be crazy to fight Superman”

-Joker

"I took you back myself because thirty minutes ago, a group of Villians started to attack Central City." Both Dick and I freeze at the news, but the Flash just keeps talking. "I've captured two villains already....."

Those words ring in my head, and as I keep going over and over the short sentences they start to dissolve in my head becoming less and less meaningful. Only a short question interrupted the rapid repetition of that phrase-

Why weren't we doing anything?

If villains were attacking Central City, why was Team Flash just standing around- inactive? Sure, Both Flash and Kid-Flash were in their suits, and so was a person I knew had to be Killer Frost, and with the absence of Dr. Snow, my theory that they were the same person looked more and more promising. This was Team Flash assembled to fight, sure, but they were just talking, no frantic movement, no streaks of red lighting while Flash saves a group of civilians, just an assortment of superheroes all talking like there wasn't a care in the world.

A glance at Dick made me even more disappointed, as even he had an empty look on his face- no stress, no rushed movement suiting up and running to try and save civilians, or more likely, fight villains. He looked disinterested, even though all but a declaration of war was announced to us a couple of minutes ago. I knew he rarely cared to go on rescue missions for civilians, apparently, this one saving me was the first one he had done in months, but I thought he would at least show some excitement for fighting supervillains, and yet-

Why weren't we doing anything?

I looked at the list of the assembled villains, projected onto a large cement wall, and felt despair rise in me as I looked upon the names. Reverse-Flash, Weather Wizard, King Shark, Captain Cold- they were all villains I knew and from what I remember could each do a tremendous amount of damage just exerting a fraction of their powers, not even taking to account the massacre if they targeted civilians first. You might be able to starve out Weather Wizard with a sturdy basement, but given enough time the damage a tornado or hurricane could do was incalculable, and from what I could remember was one of the least dangerous.

Reverse-Flash could kill hundreds of people in seconds if he put his mind towards that goal, and only Flash's intervention usually staved off the worst of the damages he would create. King Shark and Captain Cold weren't perceived as dangerous as some other villains in the DCU, but if I didn't have the Omnitrix I wouldn't think of coming close to either of them and even with it I was having doubts. Captain Cold seemed like a pushover if Heatblast were to be used, but without some heavy physical hitters, I had almost nothing for King Shark.

I was a rookie hero, however, without years of training, or complete mastery of my powers. Just the people in this room could each have gone toe-to-toe with any villains assembled, and I knew that in the DCU that the Flash did do that very thing. And yet- "Why aren't we doing anything?"

As everyone suddenly turns to me, I blush, realizing I spoke out loud without meaning to. I took a deep breath, trying to articulate my rambling thoughts into a cohesive sentence. "I mean, we're just standing around, not doing anything, and as we speak a group of supervillains rampage across Central City, doing whatever they want, and we are just letting them? I thought heroes were supposed to protect those who can't protect themselves, and I think that a giant Shark bent on eating people counts as something they couldn't protect themselves from." I finished my rant, breathing heavily, looking around at the recipients of the speech. Cisco seemed stunned, mouth soundlessly opening and closing, but no one else had any notable reaction. My right hand brushed up against the Omnitrix, and I realized that I had moved it ready to transform subconsciously, dropping my hand. Confusion welled up in me as no one spoke for a second, but I caught several glances between the heroes causing a small feeling of anger to rise within me as well.

Seeing Kid-Flash smirk at me, turning sideways and murmuring something too soft for me to hear, made that small feeling of anger get much much larger. That little shit- I kicked his ass with Heatblast, and as I slowly moved my hand back over the Omnitrix, this time very much on purpose, I realized I wanted to show him a "lesson" one more time. My hand was starting to turn the dial, set on fighting even though I knew it was a very bad decision when a hand on my shoulder made me pause.

"Hey, hey.. just breathe, everything is going to be alright." I hear the Flash say, and flinch at the knowledge he had moved across the room without my ability to even know that fact. "So far no civilians have even seen any signs of villains, besides from your tussle with Heatwave, everyone in the city is fine."

(I)What?? "But you said.. attack on the city" I manage to get out, head spinning. How would there be no civilian encounters? "What kind of attack-"

"Man, you are making yourself look like an idiot, you know that?" Dick's voice cuts me off, and a turn to try and glare at him, but as he starts hastily marking a symbol on the wall of the room, my expression goes back to confusion. "In the whole world, there's one superhero that is all but unstoppable, and he can be anywhere at any time," Dick starts to explain, stepping back from the logo he drew, a stylized S in a pentagon. "If a group of villains began killing civilians out of nowhere, it would take him only minutes to be there, and then the villain either has to give up or they get thrown in jail so fast they get whiplash."

"What Dick is trying to explain, and he should've explained this to you a long time ago, is that there are some common boundaries most villains follow when being villains," Flash interrupts, moving to show a detailed logo on the screen. "Most villains and some do break this rules-and it never goes well for them- do not attack several kinds of locations, if only to not get a superhero they cannot defeat assigned to capture them, and barring some very rare exceptions, Superman himself goes to deal with those individuals. Captain Cold might rob a museum, or perhaps a bank, but if he massacred a hospital or orphanage, within the day Superman would either have killed him or... well neither option is good."

"So villains don't kill people?" I ask, trying to wrap my head around what I was told. "Don't villains usually not play by the rules anyway though, that's why they are villains in the first place?"

"I didn't say villains haven't killed anyone, just that, I'll give you an example so you can understand alright?" I nod at Flash slowly, unsure of where he was going with his "example." "Okay, let's assume there are two people, each with uh... pyrokinesis committing crimes," Flash starts to explain, "if one robbed a bank, and the other burned down a hospital, the emphasis would be to focus on the one committing the most amount of harm. Sure, no one forgot that the bank is robbed, but comparing it to someone more dangerous, soon the hospital burner gets arrested, and the bank robber gets away. Over time, the majority of crimes committed by supervillains tend to be in the same realm of criminality, bank robbing, and a lot of theft from museums and jewelry stores places where the death toll is lower. If all the people committing heinous crimes always get Superman on their case, the population of people willing to do so is lower. And over the past decades, the dumb villains who murder have all gotten arrested leaving only those who did lesser crimes to be more famous." Flash finishes, and I'm left slightly more confused, but more and more things start to make sense.

"So, you are saying that because of natural selection, the only villains that are still around are ones that are more nuisances than terrorists, and those villains keep doing the same level of crime so they don't get vaporized by Superman?" I slowly ask, head still spinning. While I didn't expect all villains to be mass murderers, I assumed some of them had to be. That seemed like an understood pardon to commit or try to commit felonies, as long as you were not committing a felony, which could not be legal at all.

"That is a complete oversimplification of a very complex policy that all officials will deny, but pretty much," Flash says, highlighting Captain Cold's mugshot of the surrounding villains. "Take Captain Cold, his rap sheet, while extremely long, consists of only crimes where he had stolen something of value, and most of the time no one gets hurt, and if you compare that to... Cicada, for instance, who popped up, killed three people, then immediately got captured and will never escape prison. The logical villains see the pattern, and the villains who either don't see it are too inconsequential to actually harm someone, and the villains who willfully go against it are the ones focused on, like Cicada."

"So when you say these villains attacked Central City" I start to ask, pointing at the projected images, "you meant that they robbed a few banks? That seems like an overexaggeration even with that deluge of information that you just explained."

"Well, a bank had its vault doors frozen and the money stolen, so probably, but it was even more inane than that. The attack on the city was more the lower level goons, Heatwave for example, sent to cause trouble before the actual villains step in to try and accomplish their plan, but from the small note Weather Wizard expressed, we still have more time." Flash's fingers blurred across the keyboard, and a video of a news anchor appeared, minimizing all of the villains' pictures. In the newscast, a picture of the sky was being shown, and the picture being shown made my draw drop.

"24 hours until Central City is ours-Rougues" was clearly visible, and I couldn't tell if the fact that the lettering was made out of clouds made it better or worse. "You rushed me here, got me scared because I thought a group of psychotic villains was going to attack the city we our all in, because of sky vandalism?" I don't wait for a response, just reach out for the nearest chair and quickly sit down, rubbing my forehead with my hand, trying to relieve the headache that has only grown in the last minutes.

"Well, considering that the Rogues will try and prove their ownership of Central City would be by killing us all, I don't think sky vandalism covers the breadth of their claim" The unfamiliar voice makes me look up, and I can only barely tell it was Kid-Flash who spoke before he stops talking. I put my head back in my hands, but can still hear a muffled thump, and a small "ow" from Kid-Flash, making me smile a bit.

"As Kid-Flash, so ineloquently said" Flash voice make me bring my head up again, this time trying to pay more attention to what is being spoken, "The Rogues will very much attack locations if I do nothing, so it means a bit more than just vandalism, and while they haven't attacked yet, they will soon." He looks over to me, and then to Dick pointedly, and continues to talk. "Because you are both non-official heroes, and especially because you are so young, neither of you are being allowed permission to attack any of the Rogues."

"That's not fair at all," Dick says, voice frustrated, "Just because Beau is inept at being a hero doesn't mean I can't help."

"I don't agree with what Dick said at all, for the record" I start explaining, "But I can be of use against at least some of these villains, Heatblast matches up perfectly against Captain Cold, and XLR8 adds another speedster as well, I can totally help."

"If you wanted to transform into Heatblast to fight Captain Cold, are you 100 percent sure that that alien is who you will turn into, because if not you are not an asset but a liability."

The Flash's question stops me cold. Sure, the Omnitrix turns me into a different alien a couple of times in the past, but it always turns out well anyway. "Yes, I'm su-" I start to say when liability is repeated by my own brain, freezing my mouth, stopping my words from coming out. The truth is, that even considering I almost always get who I wanted during training, when it really mattered against Heatwave, the Omnitrix gave me a random alien that was ill-suited for the battle. If I wanted to be a hero, I would have to make sure that the variance wouldn't matter.

"Fine, then." Dick's voice shakes me out of my thoughts, even more so when he agrees with the decision. "But just for the record, you do agree that if Beau could turn into Heatblast, we could defeat Captain Cold?"

I open my mouth at the weird question, but the angry glare he gives me makes me reconsider, and I close my mouth. I look at Flash and his face is deadly serious, looking at Dick's expression. he looks at me, and I try and give the most neutral expression I can manage, which isn't that hard due to me, not truly understanding what's going on.

"In my personal opinion, I think Heatblast could easily defeat Captain Cold, and he might be able to defeat Weather Wizard as well, especially if XLR8 got a surprise attack on him."

Other than a boost of confidence that I received, I'm still unsure of why Flash's opinion of my fighting ability would matter if we couldn't fight. I am about to risk asking a question to get a semblance of what is happening when Dick whirls at me and grabs me by the arm.

"We are going to get some extra rest, we both are extra tired due to our mission, so don't try to wake us up tomorrow, we need the extra sleep for rest purposes," Dick says in the most monotone of voices, dragging me out of the room and down the hallways, lightly mumbling as he leads us both.

"Where is the godforsaken room, I could've sworn.... no it's not that... ah there!"

I look at the sign, and gulp, my brain quickly catching up on all of the misread social cues between the two heroes. Looking up at the sign simply labeled "Garage," I turn to Dick, realizing what we are about to do.

"I thought Flash didn't give us permission to fight?"

My only response is a slow smile forming on his face.