New Kid on the Block

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Wally West is the newest Rogue in The Flash's Rogues Gallery, with superspeed nearly as impressive as the Flash's own. Hunter Zolomon is the Flash's sidekick, so he's going to bring down this new thief...

Wait, what?

A brilliant Alternate Universe Fic by "X meets Y" on the Young Justice anonymous meme that features Wally as the Kid, the new wise-cracking thief, who struggles to balance his civilian life (and his relationships with his uncle, aunt and friend Hunter) with his new criminal career. Of course, things are never that simple...

Can be read here.

Tropes used in New Kid on the Block include:
  • Abusive Parents: Wally's dad ignored him for years, and when he finally did take notice, he attacks Wally and steals the notebook which contained the notes on Wally's experiment.
  • Affably Evil: Blacksmith is depicted this way, mostly because working with a network of even more dangerous criminals requires civility and careful negotiation.
  • All There in the Manual: The comments contain a lot of extra material.
  • An Ice Person: Captain Cold. Chillblaine.
  • Ascended Fanboy: Wally was a fan of the Flash II (Barry Allen), who was a fan of the first Flash (Jay Garrick). Ironically: Wally was a fan of the Flash and became a criminal; Hunter was more fascinated by criminals than heroes but became a vigilante.
  • Batman Gambit: Wally's dad sets up a pretty cruel one to have a distraught Wally letting him into the house with his guard down.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: In a conversation with Iris and Hunter, Barry wished for another speedster to exist. He got it but the guy's on the wrong side of the law.
  • Berserk Button: So far, the Kid's been smart enough not to bring up the Golden Glider around the Rogues.
  • Black Market: The Network is set up to be one of these.
  • The Cameo: Artemis made a brief, voiceless cameo in "Marathon".
  • Cerebus Syndrome
  • Cliff Hanger: Oh so much. Author is practically abusing this trope.
  • Collateral Angst: It's a superhero thing. Hunter's been known to put himself through it from time to time. From a limited point of view, Wally may also count, feeling responsible when Hunter injured his leg. To be fair, he was.
  • Combat Pragmatist: Rather than stick around for a fight, Wally would rather run away. At one point, when he couldn't run away from a fight, he played dead. In one of the first and few times he was the one to pick the fight, he ran in, grabbed Weather Wizard, and dragged him away from the rest of the Rogues.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Wally has his moments.
  • Defeat by Modesty: Kid manages to get away from Arsenal and Superboy by kissing the first and groping the other.
  • Demoted to Extra: The Team and the League, with a few exceptions.
  • Did Not Do the Research: Central City is not in Kansas, it's in Missouri.
  • Dragon-in-Chief: Magenta is this to Blacksmith. She's more powerful than Blacksmith, but plays a smaller role in the Network syndicate due to the fact that Blacksmith is the Chessmaster and she is more of the muscle.
  • Dysfunctional Family: Wally's started pretty normal but things went downhill later on. Now it's at a relatively steady level of functional.
  • Embarrassing First Name: Wallace West. Leonard Snart.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: The Rouges. They refuse to "rock the boat"; as long as they don't go around crossing the Moral Event Horizon they don't have to worry about anyone besides Flash and Zoom. They're even horrified to learn what Wally's dad did to him. Unfortunately, Wally's presence is inadvertently bringing in trouble anyway...
  • Evil Feels Good: The Kid is basically one giant form of catharsis for Wally.
  • Extra Ore Dinary: Blacksmith can turn into metal, Girder is made of metal scraps, and Magenta has magnetic, metal-manipulating powers.
  • Face Plant: It's not a prime example of a slapstick moment, but Captain Cold is pretty amused when the Kid hits the concrete.
  • Femme Fatale: Amunet "Blacksmith" Black, head of the Network.
  • Foe Yay: The Kid has this with everyone.
  • For Want of a Nail: Why did this Wally become the Kid instead of Kid Flash? The insurance in Central City became too expensive.
  • Foster Kid: Hunter.
  • Gentleman Thief: The Kid appears to be this at first. A closer look, and he's actually a kid running around in grown up clothes.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: Zoom's eyes glow red. Weather Wizard has yellow-gold eyes.
  • Heel Face Turn: Harley AKA the Pied Piper.
  • Happily Married: Barry and Iris. They want to have a baby.
  • Hero Insurance: Wasn't big back in the day.
  • It Gets Easier: Wally doesn't feel bad about his double life very much anymore.
  • Just Friends: Wally and Hunter are these to each other though everyone around them thinks they're more than that.
  • Karma Houdini: Wally is getting away with pretty much everything so far.
  • Kneecapping: The Kid accidentally does this to Zoom in a fight, not expecting to do as much damage as it did.
  • Lovable Rogue: The Kid, of course. Arguably, the rest of the rogues.
  • Motive Decay: In-universe example. The Kid went from stealing to support himself to stealing to spite people to it just being a habit.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: When Hunter makes a mistake and is left alone, he melts into a puddle of this.
  • Names to Run Away From Very Fast: Arsenal was an alias Roy used when he went undercover as the muscle for an underground heroin ring.
  • Nebulous Criminal Conspiracy
  • Nice Hat: The Kid has quite a few of them. Robin uses one to give him a message once.
  • Non-Action Guy: Everyone thinks Wally is this.
  • Odd Friendship: Robin and the Kid are developing this.
  • Oh Crap: Wally's reaction to Zoom being part of the trap for him.
  • One of Us: "X meets Y" is a troper.
  • Parental Neglect: Rudy and Mary West, but she got better.
  • Put on a Bus: The Pied Piper
  • The Profiler: Ashley Fox and Hunter Zolomon.
  • Recursive Fanfiction: Can be found here.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Somewhat averted. Zoom is a superhero, but he's not exactly a great one. If his eyes turn red, it's probably because someone is about to get their butt kicked.
  • Roof Hopping: Wally uses this while being chased to test the extent Zoom's abilities and conclude that Zoom's ability is time-manipulation, not superspeed.
  • The Scrappy: An in-universe example, as Hunter mildly views Garth, the second Aqualad, as a poor replacement for Kaldur but is willing to help him adjust to working above sea level anyway.
  • Secret Secret Keeper: Wally is one for Zoom aka Hunter. He even went as far as fighting and lying to the rogues out of costume to keep him from being discovered.
  • Serial Killer: Before Hunter’s father committed suicide by cop, he was a serial killer who targeted young girls. Magenta's role in the Network is as Amunet's right hand, which usually entails offing people.
  • Shipper on Deck: Iris tries to set up Hunter and Wally as friends. When Barry tells her that Hunter and Wally were out having dinner together, she automatically assumes and then spreads the assumption that they're dating.
  • Shirtless Scene: Wally hangs out at the Rogue hideout shirtless for a while until he recovers from his injuries enough to go back to his own personal hideout to find some new clothes.
  • Shouldn't You Stop Stealing?: The Kid really could have retired from stealing a long time ago.
  • Shout-Out: In a text conversation between Wally and his father, his father mentions air hockey, which is a vague reference to the Young Justice episode "Schooled" where Wally and Kaldur played air hockey.
  • Shrouded in Myth: The Kid never interacted with other villains and never went through the process of creating a "supervillain identity", so no one knew much about him until he moved to Central, where he ended up drawing the Rogues' attention. Even afterwards, the Rogues avoided exposing the Kid to other criminals. As a result, many people know about the Kid's existence but are left guessing about the Kid himself.
  • Sidekick Graduations Stick: Red Arrow and Aquarius.
  • Stairs Are Faster: In a scene where he's trying to keep Hunter and Captain Cold from running into each other, Wally manages to get ahead of Hunter this way.
  • Superpower Lottery: Miss Martian as lampshaded by The Kid.
  • Tempting Fate: The Kid is taking more and more risks as he successfully gets away with, well, everything.
  • There Are No Therapists: Subverted. Black Canary acts as an unofficial therapist for the team offscreen, but Zoom usually more or less knows when to keep his mouth shut.
  • Time Master: Zoom.
  • Time Stands Still: In a story with a speedsters and a character who can manipulate time, it happens.
  • Token Good Teammate: First, the Rogues had the Pied Piper. Now they have the Kid.
  • Unresolved Sexual Tension: Wally and Hunter. Even Cold could see it.
  • What Could Have Been: Flash's sidekick could have been Mas y Menos.
  • What Were You Thinking??: Wally plans and takes extra precautions not to get caught because of all he has to risk, but he's still prone to recklessness when he comes across things he didn't plan for. For instance, his failed attack on the Rogues. Hunter also frequently has these moments, where he generally disregards civilian safety when he gets into fights.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: It's kind of Wally's thing for most of the story. Then there's Kaldur for leaving the team to help Roy, which wasn't necessarily a terrible thing, but the team was nearly broke up after that until Robin reluctantly took over after him. Roy started investigating a drug ring and was about to a part of it himself. Hunter sometimes has this tendency to ignore civilian safety in favor of pursuing a criminal.
  • Wild Card: Wally. So long as he doesn't get caught, he doesn't care what side he's on.
  • Word of God: Abundant in the comments.
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