Dick groaned as he woke slowly, everything was aching and felt dull, like his body was far far away and his consciousness was just drifting in a fog. He heard voices through cotton, one he recognized as Wally, but there was another that was new, female. He dragged his numb limbs closer to his body, he then got his hands under him and pushed up, only to fall back down.

"Ugh- what-?" Dick felt so discombobulated, he was so dizzy and there was this annoying weight on his back along with an uncomfortable pricking sensation.

"Dick! Dick wake up! How are you feeling?" Wally's worried voice echoed in his brain, spiking the headache throbbing behind his eyes.

"Wah's... h-heav-vy?" He slurred with tight eyes. The child gathered his hands under him again but paused to more accurately felt the oppressive weight on his back.

"Dick... they uh... they activated your Metagene." Wally said cautiously.

It took a second for Dick to process, his eyebrows knitting together before his heart leapt to his throat. "What?!" The ten year old jerked up, the heavy weight was not thrown back but stayed with him like a heavy blanket, like that time he tried on Bruce's cowl and the cape's weight alone dragged him to the floor. But this wasn't dress up in the cave, he was in some sort of lab, in a cage. He scrambled backwards until his back slammed into some bars, electing a wounded cry from him as pain shot down his back.

"Agh! Wh-what they'd do?!" He asked frantically, eyes bursting open and wide. Another panicked shout came from the acrobat, not understanding what he was seeing. "What's wrong with you?! You're- the colors-!" Dick's legs came up trying to push himself away from the weird bright form of his friend.

"Dick what's wrong?!" Wally said in alarm.

Dick breathed heavily, too many things were going on. His head hurt so much, it was right behind his eyes, it might as well BE his eyes. He focused on staring at his speedster friend in the cage opposite to his. Wally looked sad, but not uninterested, but that's not what Dick was worried about. His emerald green eyes had PINK in them, or at least he thought it was pink, he didn't understand. Everything seemed sharper, brighter, and it was messing with Dick's head.

Dick felt like retching. The world was swimming with too many bright colors, and wrong colors. Colors that shouldn't even be there, colors he didn't even have NAMES for. The pain was getting to be too much.

The boy leaned to the side, dipping his head down as he held himself up with one arm. He was feeling hot and cold, clammy and sick. His stomach clenched and his jaw started to tingle. The ten year old groaned in annoyance as suddenly his dinner made a reappearance on the floor.

"Dick? Dick are you okay?" Wally's voice barely penetrated the fog drifting over Dick's head.

He breathed shakily, focusing on keeping down whatever remained in his stomach. The boy kept his eyes closed, trying to understand what was going on. He swallowed loudly, lips smacking, but the scent and taste of acid was slow to come. In fact it was barely there at all.

A shiver ran through his body, reminding the boy he had other feelings to deal with like whatever was on his back. "W-What's going on...?" He groaned quietly, trying not to move despite his shivering. "Wh-What happened to me?"

He couldn't taste his own vomit. He spoke from experience when he said it was the worst taste ever, but right now, when he really should be tasting it, he couldn't. He had never wanted to taste his stomach acids more in his entire life.

The silence was terrifying, was he alone? Was Wally just a figment of his spiraling imagination?

"Wally PLEASE!" He cried, just barely feeling the tears start to roll down his cheeks and nose.

"Dick... you have wings..." Wally said gently.

The young boy froze, quieting his gasping breaths just so he could sense if what his friend said was true. He didn't dare open his eyes, he didn't want to see the world all wrong again, but the feelings he was receiving weren't making any sense.

Dick lifted himself, leaning heavily on one arm as he slowly turned his head. He swallowed any threatening bile as he gently opened his eyes.

Ignoring the colors for now, he focused on the feathers that spread from either side of him. The ache he felt in his spine and shoulder blades now extended to the two extra limbs protruding from his back. He felt muscles and bones, live flesh that was his own.

Okay scratch that, he couldn't ignore the colors. It looked all types of wrong, green, red, fading into a gray-like yellow, he didn't understand. Wings were NOT supposed to look like that, was he a parrot now?!

He would be lying if he said it (it being the wings- not the colors) wasn't cool, but at the moment he was terrified.

Dick screamed in fright, trying to scramble away from the wrongly colored world. He slammed his eyes shut and jumped away, ultimately hitting his head on the top of his cage. The boy huddled in pain, cradling his head and finding himself in a ball in the corner of the cage. The image of all the wrong colors on the feathery appendages that belonged to him was seared in his mind.

The wings just followed him, settling on his back in an awkward fold, like his wings didn't even know how to behave. Well it was true, he had no idea how to get his wings to do anything.

His wings.

HIS wings.

He had WINGS.

What else was wrong with him?! His sight?! His taste and smell?!

"Dick! Dick calm down!" He heard Wally shouting through the blood rushing in his ears and then felt ashamed.

Dick had no reason to freak out like this, he was being irrational and insensitive to Wally. But he has WINGS now, the world was all the wrong colors that didn't make sense. He was... he was a freak. More of a weirdo than his Romanian origins ever gave him, at least then he was still human. But now he wasn't even that. Now he was the people getting slaughtered in droves. He was the people getting trafficked and abused. HE was the people getting experimented on. He was a Meta.

"Dick! Breathe! Deep breaths!" Wally said, voice still raised to get through the mound of feathers that landed over his friend's head.

The young Romanian boy shakily pushed back the wing, finding he couldn't do it with his wing muscles alone. He had no idea how to even communicate to his wings, it was a whole new slew of nerves and muscles that felt weak and unsteady like a newborn calf. He started to lean up, one hand blindly latching out to the bars to help himself up. His sweaty hand slipped and he lurched forward with a choked gasp. The boy caught himself and tried again, using two hands and leaning heavily on the bars. He gulped in the chilled air as sweat made his forehead damp.

Dick was so tired. His limbs felt like led and his wings even more so. They were sprawled awkwardly around him, bent at odd angles he knew shouldn't be comfortable, but everything in his body was just so... fried that he didn't think comfortable was even an option. His eyes kept closed and he couldn't hear anything but his own heartbeat and ragged breathing. Everything was hot and sticky, but freezing cold at the same time. And numb, frayed, any synonym he could come up with for the word numb. But not the good kind of numb, that bad one that made everything feel like pins and needles were getting stabbed into every pore of his skin.

Dick shifted slightly onto his rump, his hands tightening around the bars as he mentally started counting out the breathing exercises Bruce taught him for when Scarecrow gassed him.

His brain was starting to clear through the fog, weather it be panic or disorientation, he didn't want to be in the dark anymore. He didn't understand what was wrong with his eyes or if he'd ever be okay, but at that moment he was too tired to fight it. He pulled on his training and treated it like something he knew and went from there.

Breathing was finally getting easier, his head was pounding less and he was the most aware of his surroundings since waking up. Sitting here on his legs at a weird angle was starting to get uncomfortable, everything was buzzing and sharp.

Ever so slowly, Dick managed to meticulously and methodically drag himself to the bars near Wally and laid against them. His hot and sweaty head laid limply against the cold bars. Man what he'd do for one of Alfred's special cold rags that were never wet but were still ice cold. He had told Bruce it was magic when he was sick once, Alfred hadn't denied and Bruce just chuckled warmly and rubbed his sickly head.

He'd give anything to be home right now. To be somewhere safe and happy with everyone he loved, including Wally now too. Wally deserved a chance at happiness, Dick wanted to make sure it happened, but now they're both freaks and no human would ever want to even look at them again unless it was their corpses.

"S-sorry." The young acrobat croaked and his wings twitched, sending a weird feeling throughout his body and a grimace across his face. He was still panting slightly and his arms laid limp before him, hands feeling raw from gripping the bars so tightly. Wally was next to him, holding onto the bars of his cage as he kept on shifting in place like he wanted to get closer. But obviously he couldn't because of the bars separating their cages, he wished those weren't there either.

"I-it's ok Dick, you're gonna be ok." Wally said, worried bright eyes scouting across his friend's new appendages. Dick let loose a heavy breath, Wally sounded scared, that scared him but he didn't have the energy.

"Right..." Dick said tiredly, letting his eyes limply shut instead of forcing them closed.

"...Hey you've got really cool wings now," Wally said in the thickening silence, swallowing his fearful tone to try to lighten the mood. "I knew you and your family could fly, but now you can REALLY fly!"

Dick huffed, it might have been a laugh or it might have been an annoyed huff. He was too tired, so he just sat in silence, focusing on getting air into his lungs and pushing through the shock.

He desperately tried to ignore how much his eyes screwed everything up.

"It 'urts..." Dick groaned eventually in the silence. He needed to know he wasn't by himself, he would surely combust if he had to figure this all out by himself.

He wanted Bruce, Alfred, even his parents, he needed somebody to be there because he couldn't do this on his own. The colors were terrifying, everything was wrong. Not to mention the pins and needles stabbing everywhere, but his back and wings were the worst. It felt like he was getting to know each individual feather and each tiny barb on their shafts. His muscles jerked and tensed, twitching as random messages of movement would be sent to the wings to try to alleviate the pain, but it ultimately caused more.

Dick finally recognized it, it was like when a limb fell asleep, and then when it was used again it was all pins and needles, and sometimes it hurt. That's exactly what this was, except for two giant appendages he didn't previously own, and multiply the pain by six.

"It might," Wally said, really taking a stab in the dark here, he never had to deal with extra limbs spontaneously sprouting. Dick panicking had panicked Wally, but Artemis had been mouthing advice to him and he himself eventually calmed down enough to actually pay attention to his friend. "A-are..." he tried, glancing over to the blond girl in an attempt to make sure trying to start a conversation was okay. "Are you making them move? Have you got any type of control over them?"

He wanted to ask about the colors, and what he thought was wrong with Wally, but considering Dick had thrown up and refused to open his eyes again he decided that wasn't the best course of conversation. Intense dizziness could cause vomiting, and with Dick's verbal distress it was clear something was wrong with his eyes.

Dick panted heavily, releasing a tense breath he didn't know he was holding. Wally was here, he wasn't alone. He could do this, he could do this.

He took a deeper breath to answer, determined to have a conversation, if only to make sure Wally stayed. "S-sorta... it's... it's like w-when 'ur leg f-falls asleep, p-pins a-ah ow- 'nd n-needles."

They lapsed into silence, Dick's shaky breathing filling the air while Wally and Artemis seemed to have a silent fight. Artemis was gesturing to Dick, mouthing the words 'make him feel better'. Wally only shrugged expressively and raised his hand in surrender, his question of 'how?!' being obvious. Artemis slapped her face with her hand, making a gentle rattling sound with her cuffs. She rolled her eyes and gestured again to the boy in pain. 'You're his friend, he doesn't know what's going on, help him.'

Wally sighed and settled his own pained look at his damaged friend. He could only imagine what was going through his mind. Artemis was right, he needed to get him out of his head.

"So it's not like... pain pain?" He attempted lamely, then dropped his head into his hands. "I-I'm sorry I'm not sure what to do Dick." Wally winced at his own words.

Artemis threw her hands up, rolling her eyes again and sagging backwards against the bars. If she could have folded her arms she would have, glaring away from the stupid speedster and glancing at the other occupied glass cage across from her. The male occupant was frowning, sitting oddly in his element, eyes respectfully lowered but she could see the concern in his aqua gaze the times he did glance over.

"'S not your fault..." the ten year olds faint voice rose from his shuddering form. "I-I don' know wh-what to do either."

In the resulting awkward silence Wally felt an increasing inchy need to break the silence, or at least get rid of the awkwardness. "Hey you had a plan to find Bruce and Uncle Barry right?"

Dick huffed and shook his head, "Wally... I..." he sighed and Wally felt tense. The ten year old didn't want to talk about what might have been, how much better off they'd be if this had never happened. He didn't want to think of how nice his messed up life had been before this.

"Sorry..." Wally said, deflating and twisting around to lean back against the bars in front of his friend. The only consolation he could give was his presence and his words, and apparently neither was helping.

Dick swallowed dryly, opening his mouth to once more gain more air. "Would... would you tell me a story?" He whispered hopefully. He didn't want to converse, he just needed to know Wally was there.

Wally blinked in surprise, fumbling for a moment before nodding and shifting in his seat. "Sure, yeah, I can do that."

-0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0-

The door opened with a startling 'BANG' and Dick jumped awake. His eyes flew open, then promptly closed them at the flash of swirling colors. He then hissed in pain at the return of pins and needles. 

"And how are we today my little Metas?" The man's joyful tone sent fear through the child, the flash of colors he had seen put a purple sheen to the man's presumably white coat. He immediately disliked being called a Meta, or specifically HIS Meta. Dick shuffled back a little, finding the corner he shared with the other cages as Wally did the same, somehow he knew that by sound alone.

Wally trained a hard glare on the man in question, the four of them there in the center of the room being the subject of the man's obsession.

Wally was scared. Dick was still recuperating from his turn, something was still wrong with his eyes and his big black wings seemed only able to shiver or be limp.  Artemis—while fiery— seemed scared as well as she scooted closer. He didn't know the Meta boy diagonally from him, he'd been kinda busy with Dick, but he was in a tank of water. He was dark skinned and clearly in his element, the gills on his neck flared and his webbed hands shifted his position in the water. The water boy knelt on the ground, close to the corner they all shared, his feet and hands chained together.

They all inched towards the meeting corners of their cages, the man that brought them here circling like a vulture around them.

"How about you mister Grayson? Can you do anything with those feathers yet?"

Dick flinched at being called out, ducking further into the corner. His hands grabbed onto the sides of his cage, his knuckles white with ferocity.

"Mm, how about food? Anybody hungry? I know you are Little Speedy." He continued without missing a beat. The mans prowling reminded the young Romanian boy more and more of a predator— or was that the bird in him? No! Did the Metagene change his head too!? "Oh, seems like something didn't agree with the birdie's stomach. Hmn, well that explains the smell."

Wally was stone faced but his hands also gripped the bars, if only to keep from getting dragged out of the cell if he was chosen to be taken like Dick had earlier. That's when he realized the man was holding a thick black collar, similar to the one Wally had around his own neck. His eyes immediately glanced to Dick, not wishing his already scared friend to be put through more than he already had.

"And you, Miss Crock, how on earth are you going to eat? Those hands are a bit too dangerous to leave unattended." He came closer and the group flinched collectively.

Then Wally realized he might be worried for the wrong cell-mate.

The evil man approached the girl's cage, ringing all the alarm bells in the speedster's brain. The man paused at her door and he took out a card that beeped and a clank resulted in its unlocking. Artemis pressed her back into the corner, glaring and failing to hold onto the bars because of her cuffed hands. Wally could only watch with worry and anger, it was written all over his face and his grip that was oscillating between weak and strong. He wanted to do something about it, but the other half of him felt absolutely terrified, half of him screaming to hide and hope Artemis was the only target. It was a completely selfish thought, that's what scared him most because he never wanted anyone to get picked. Diagonally from him, the water boy had his hands pressed against the glass, eyebrows drawn up in worry as he too could do nothing to help their fellow meta prisoner. Wally noticed Dick huddled deeper into himself,  seeming to want to disappear. Wally couldn't blame him in the slightest.

Artemis screamed in outrage, throwing mean names and profanities at the man. He winced and did shuffle back as her cries cut short with a sharp yank on her hair and the inhibitor collar snapped around her neck. She was tossed back and the cage door slammed shut, another loud clank as the lock slid into place.

The man slid back his hair, unusually long and kind of greasy looking. "There, that's better. Tricky little power you have there Miss Crock, but I must congratulate you on helping us learn, improving the inhibitor collars is always a welcome change."

"Yeah, some genius you are." Artemis grumbled, lifting herself up from the ground but not looking the man in the eye. "Took you like a week."

Wally felt the blood drain from his face, was Artemis ASKING for a beating?! It also occurred to him this meant Artemis had tried to escape once and the regular inhibitor collars didn't work on her, but her escape attempt had obviously been thwarted.

The man only huffed through his nose, almost like he laughed. "It took a few cups of coffee, we were sure the first design could handle your powers, but evidently not." He looked down at the girl, for the first time frowning. And it looked wrong. "If it was me with that brain there would be no need for collars, or the 'human' part of Metahuman."

If he had any more blood left in his face Wally would be a raisin. His mouth ran dry and his breath caught in his desert of a throat. This man wanted to de-humanize them more than they already were, and the scary part was Wally felt it wouldn't take much to get there.

Thankfully no one responded to his not-quite-threat threat, but the silence felt deafening.

"Food will be out shortly my little Metas," The man said eventually, starting to walk around the group of cages and almost dismissing them entirely, "But how much you get depends entirely on how well you behave. Mr. Grayson your cage will have to be cleaned, but that can wait till later when you're not in it, so until then eat up and I'll see you when the fun begins."

The group stayed silent as the man left.

It worried Wally that Dick didn't even move after he was gone, like he still wanted to hide. it made sense, the scary scientist guy promised Dick would be his next target.

The speedster broke the air first, twisting onto his knees and turning around to speak to the bushy yellow-haired girl. "Are you okay Artemis?"

Artemis sat up more, breathing out a solid breath like she was calming herself down, or releasing tension. One of her hands came up and rubbed the shoulder she fell on, her hair frazzled and messy. It suddenly registered that her hands were separated now, but the cuff on each hand was thick and came up to her knuckles like a cast.

"I-I'm fine." She said, shakily but also angrily. She released another breath and glanced over at the huddled avian boy, "What about you... Dick?" She hesitated at his name and honestly the speedster could understand why.

There was no response for a little bit, Wally and Artemis exchanged glances in silence. But then his small voice rose from the pile of black feathers. "B-better... I-I think..."

"Earlier you said they were hurting, do they still hurt?" Artemis continued to probe, again looking over to Wally.

The ten year old nodded imperceptibly, "'urts less i-if I d-don't move."

"Can I...?" Wally started nervously, "can I ask about the colors?"

Dick seemed to take a deep breath, at least that's what he took the gentle shift of feathers as.

"I don't- I don't understand what's wrong with my eyes." He said quietly, "I'm seeing colors where they shouldn't be, a-and some things glow. It... it hurts my head."

Wally sat down, thinking. "Umm... maybe look at something simple, do it slowly a-and maybe talk us through it."

"Us?" Dick asked, a slight waver to his voice digging into the young speedster's heart.

"Just me, Artemis, and the water guy." Wally said, taking a glance around just to make sure they actually were alone. Yeah, no guards, but there was those two uh... people(?) in pods along the wall. He didn't count them, they seemed to be unconscious 24/7.

"W-water-?"

"We don't really know who he is, the glass is thick and he's talking through water. Actually I'm not even sure he speaks English." He hoped he didn't offend the boy by describing him that way but he didn't seem to acknowledge his words. He just sat and stared sadly at what must be Dick's back.

"Oh..."

"So pick something, like your hand or something." Wally said, desperately trying to fix his friend and get the passionate no-nonsense wisdom Dick back.

"T-the ground..." the boy leaned forwards, exiting the cuccoon of feathers and leaning over the metal floor of the cage. Wally watched trepidatiously as Dick breathed heavily through his mouth and his eyes started to flit open.

There was a whole lot of nothing, Dick just stared at the ground, eyes growing wider by the second. Then his breathing started to falter.

Wally kneeled closer, grabbing a bar. "Dick? Talk to me buddy."

"I-it's..." he swallowed, "its blue... it-it shouldn't be blue." Wally didn't know what to say to that, but the boy's arms started to shake. "I-I can't... I can't smell. Or taste. Wally I can't taste my own puke."

"Hey don't focus on that, just the colors Dick." The speedster said, noting the information but deciding Dick didn't need another panic attack or throw up. The advice also came from personal trial and error, he had to focus really hard to just get only his hand to vibrate, too many times he accidentally vibrated his entire body and made a mess by accidentally making a mini tornado or earthquake in his room.

"It's not just blue..." he breathed loudly, "it's gray... and black, t-there's some pink too. I-I can see every crevice... l-like mini mountains and valleys, but if I run my hand over it... it's smooth."

As if to demonstrate his point Dick lifted a shaky arm and his hand drifted over the floor in front of him. Then he reared back like he was burnt, crying out and slamming himself on the bars. This spooked the water kid, resulting in him also jerking backwards through the water.

"Dick?! What's wrong!?" Wally shouted, feeling panicky again as the boy's eyes screwed shut.

"M-my hand..."

"What's wrong with your hand?" Wally asked quickly, wondering if the colors really were so surprising.

"I can't... I can't feel the cold of the floor Wally. Is it cold?" He spoke quietly, the question rising up from his lips like a childish plea.

Wally felt guant, if that was a thing... "Yeah... the ground is cold."

"W-why can't I feel...?"

"Dick," Artemis said for the first time in awhile, "you have wings, your eyes are enhanced, you can't feel the cold. Your Metagene obviously has a thing for birds. I'm sure this is all normal for birds." She sounded smart, like it was good advice, but Wally could tell by the look in her eye she was just as lost as the rest of them.

"I don't- I don't want to be a bird." The ten year old choked on the lump in his throat and the tears started to fall. "I want to go home. I-I want Bruce and Alfred."

No one knew what to say to that, they couldn't console him.

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