"That time of year again, huh?" the guard at the front ask Mallory as she checked in. She grinned at him over the rim of her mirrored sunglasses, clicking her tongue and nodding. It was the same every year, just once a year, that she visited her father. And even though it was just once a year, the guards had come to expect her visits as even though not much was said, the entertainment was worth it. And they all had figured out what today was, because they all knew it wasn't his birthday. It had only been a few years, but the guards were sharp; they had to be with their job.

"Yep. And he still has me on his approved visitor's list. It's like he's a masochist or something." She put down the pen and emptied out her pockets and pulled off her belt, tossing it all into the tray before stepping through the metal detector. She chewed on a fresh piece of gum while she waited, before being given the all clear to go through. Her booted feet landed heavy on the floor with each step before grabbing the chair and spinning it around. She straddled it and waited for her father to be escorted in on the other side of the glass, resting her arms on the back of the chair. He sat down and they stared at each other for a moment, him looking positively annoyed and her looking bemused. He still had no idea why she was here, on this day, and that just added to her enjoyment of his circumstances.

Finally he reached over to pick up the phone and she did the same. "Again, you come here. Just once a year. Why's this day so special to you, Mallory? Is it your mother's birthday or something?"

Mallory's mouth twitched ever so slightly at how close his guess was. "Or something. It's my one enjoyment in life to see you, sitting there, in that ridiculous color, knowing you're stuck."

Mardon stared at her, and once upon a time that stare meant something to her. It still made her skin crawl, still made her stomach churn, but it did not scare her nearly so much as it used to. Because there was bullet proof glass between her and him. And he wasn't going to lay a hand on her ever again. Because no one was going to get him out of prison. None of the rogues came to visit him, or send him any letters. She was his only contact with the outside world.

He acted quickly, slamming his hand against the glass and yelling at her a few very colorful obscenities and Mal jerked back. That was her cue to leave. He started blaming her for his situation, and while it was indeed her fault, she just kept looking at him like he was crazy as the guards came in and dragged him away. He was probably going to get some liberties taken away for that outburst. Good.

She got up and made her way back out, giving the guard at the front a small wave before she shoved her hands in the pockets of her beat up leather jacket and just started walking. After she got a bit away, she flew back to Central City, trying to figure out what to do with the rest of her day. She landed in the park and looked around for something to do. Mallory didn’t mind the park, though it seemed lots of people had the same idea she did. Lots of joggers, people with dogs, or babies. Most people steered clear of her, which she didn’t mind. Stomping around in combat boots tended to give her an air of “don’t bother me”. Also they were comfy and good for kicking people in the crotch so she tended to have several pairs.

Stopping by a pavilion that seemed to have a kid’s birthday party going on, she watched. The parents were all standing around gossiping, drinking what she was sure was not punch, completely ignoring the kids. The kids all seemed to be under the thumb of the birthday princess. The tiny tyrant was holding court and everyone was either listening to her or doing their own thing and having her yell at them for it. All except one kid, off by himself, looking a little sad that he wasn’t asked to join in all their reindeer games. Shoving her hands in her pockets, she slinked over and leaned on the outside of the pavilion next to the kid.

“Hey.” He looked over at her, startled. He pushed his glasses back up his nose as he turned to face her. “You having fun at this party?” He shook his head.

“Yeah, didn’t think so. Wanna go home?” He nodded. She pulled a compact umbrella out of her pocket and handed it to him. “You’re gonna need that.”

She held up her hands as the sky grew dark and clouds swallowed up the sun. Even the screaming children and gossiping parents grew quiet as it grew dark. Thunder rumbled as Mal grinned and wiggled her fingers, the kid watching her wide eyed and slack jawed. Then she clapped her hands and the sound that came out was a deafening thunder crack as lightning lit up the sky. Then the sky opened up and the rain began to pour down in sheets. The children shrieked and the parents yelled, trying to herd them all to somewhere dry and out of the rain. The kid in front of her laughed and opened the umbrella, running over to his dad. Smiling, Mal wandered over and grabbed an abandoned piece of cake before it was completely destroyed by the rain.

All in all, not her worst birthday. She even had cake! Not a bad birthday at all. She wondered what else the day had in store.

Walt stood in the kitchen of his father's home in Keystone City. Walt looked down at his hands, which were covered in flour.

Walt looked up and around at the walls of his father's home. They were also covered with flour.

Walt was not a baker.

Despite this, he knew it had been a long campaign to make it even this far, and it wasn't long now before his plan, after months of revision, would be in effect. But first, he needed the cake.

"Alright." Walt exhaled in one long, smooth breath. He looked down at the recipe on the counter, barely intelligible to begin with given that it was written in his hasty scrawl, as well as almost completely covered in flour."Six eggs."

He turned to the open refrigerator behind him. His expression turned comically flat.

"Daaad, we're out of eggs." From the next room, a blue blur appeared to take the shape of a man in a bathrobe, gently placing two cartons of eggs on the powdered counter with a humorously considerate expression on his grizzled face.

Walt grimaced. "Did you go out in that?"

Wally West replied with obvious pleasure at having embarrassed his son.

"Sure did. I also had time to drop off an album of your baby pictures to the Tower. Lydia seemed grateful."

Walt offered a good-natured, ostensibly perfunctory single laugh.

"No wonder it took you so long. These are probably spoiled." Walt reached for one carton of eggs while his father retrieved a couple himself and began juggling, forming what appeared to be a solid ring of white. As he switched to making the motion with one hand, he tucked the other behind his back, grinning theatrically at Walt, which finally made the latter crack into joyful laughter. Satisfied, Wally began to speak to his son as he set the eggs down gently.

"So who's this girl again?"

"She's a criminal."

Walt's swift retort, delivered sincerely without any hesitation, made Wally snort laughter.

"I believe you. Well," Wally watched as his son began (and finished) whipping a half-dozen eggs together. "Is she sweet?"

"I can't tell. She's always trying to kill me or steal something." Walt dropped the bowl and grabbed a nearby sack of sugar with the same theatrical grin that his father had shown moments before. "But if this doesn't do it!..." The joke was received with a slow, smiling shake of the head from his father.

"Horrible," said Wally.

Walt kept smiling his idiot's smile. It was a special day, indeed.

Marty set down in the backyard of the West residence. He'd been hanging out at the Ferris facility in Central City lately, working on the Stark-Ferris space plane project. It was green lighted shortly before his return from the other universe and since then, Marty had taken a leave of absence from the Titans to work on the project full time. He needed to get some space and some perspective after everything that happened.

Today was different though. Today was a chance to get out of the lab and hang out with Walt. Jor said he had taken Marty's disappearance badly and that Walt was hanging out with a bad crowd these days. Marty had some questions about the strange man that showed up with the other three Titans, but he wouldn't pass judgment until he actually knew everything. He knocked twice and then opened the door to the kitchen, only to see every surface covered in flour.

Marty's eyes widened slightly. "Uh... I'm not an expert, but I think you're doing something wrong, Walt. I don't know what you're doing, but I think more of it is on the walls, than in the bowl." Then he tossed a two fingered salute to Wally. "Hey, Uncle Wally." He slipped off his leather jacket and hung it on a hook by the door. Marty caught the tail end of their conversation.

"Who's the cake for? Wait... Walt... Did you meet a girl? Because killing them with whatever horror story you're trying to concoct here, might not be a good thing. I can call Superboy. We can see if he's got Super-baking in his power set. He had to have picked it up at some point." Marty sighed. "I need details, man. Details."

This would have the to be Aaron's second favourite day of the year. Mal's birthday! The only thing that beat this day was his own birthday, April fools would also be high on that list but it fell on his birthday. He was preparing everything he had planned while she was away doing whatever she usually did on her birthdays. Aaron had an entire armoured car filled with party surprises, bags of confetti, a piñata of the Flash and a neatly wrapped gift. Aaron was sitting in front driving the armoured car with a birthday cake in a nice white box with a clear roof which had crudely written "Hapi Bifdia Mal!" on it.

The long story of how he got the armoured vehicle was not important right now, and the consequences which would follow would be possible for another day other the this one, but right know Aaron was driving around waiting to hear or get a signal from where Mal might be, the easiest way to notice where is in areas of freak weather misfortune. "Come on Mal some signal would be..." He then easily saw the sudden formation of rain clouds over the park "Always on queue with the weather. Hopefully not for the bad reason." Aaron said as he drove, badly, down to the park.

Of course Aaron being a man with no perceived notion of safety or the rules clumsily drove down the road to the park and then through the park till he came across a ruined party and Mal eating a piece of cake. Aaron got out of the car and walked to Mal "Geez, how slow was I to miss the start and timely end of your party?" He said before giving her a gigantic hug. "Happy Birthday 18th! Congratz! You are now legally allowed to bang, die for your country and legally smoke!" He said happily.

"Now get in the van! I've got candy and cake and presents galore!" He said over enthuastically. "Also maybe not take that out of context"

Mal didn't smile often, laughed even less. So it was a rare occasion when either happened. Usually Aaron was the reason, which was one of the perks of being friends with the Trickster. There was always something funny going on. So for a few moments she simply watched in awe and confusion as the armored vehicle made it's way into the park. Then she simply shook her head and laughed at the ridiculousness of it all, the rain stopping as suddenly as it began with her mirth. She laughed louder as her best friend came out of the van and swept her into a hug. She gladly returned it back.

"Do you even know how....you know what...No I don't want to know. The answer is probably no and you'd still drive it anyway. Lead on, creeper in a van. Candy sounds like the best thing ever. Oh! Can we take this thing to the Diamond Trade Show happening in town? You know how I like shinies." Mal made her way over to the passenger side of the van, checking to make sure there was a seat belt before climbing in. Today was turning out to be a pretty nice day. Normally she didn't make a big deal out of it. Only reason she even remembered when it was, was to visit her dad and have that small bit of satisfaction at his circumstances. Of course, Aaron always made a massive deal out of it. He made massive deals out of anything that struck his fancy, but apparently her birthday warranted stealing an armored van and cake. These were things she could definitely get behind.

"...And contrary to what the internet would have you believe, it is not, in fact, a "fun" or "easy" recipe. It's Hell, Marty. This is my fourth try. And I-"

Walt's anxious tirade was interrupted by the ding of the oven. Turning and bending to open the door, Walt's frustrated grimace slowly morphed into a delighted grin.

"...And I nailed it."

Walt whipped the cake out of the oven and placed it on the counter before Marty. Mr. West had returned to the sitting room, from which he shouted, "How does it look?" The cake had indeed been baked to golden-brown perfection, and before Marty's eyes, Walt frosted and topped it with strawberries and powdered sugar.

"Breathtaking!" Walt shouted in response. He set about ransacking the cupboards in the kitchen for chocolate chips, jellied candies, and sprinkles. "Now, this'll do it. Yeah... this'll do just fine..." Walt was grinning feverishly, staring at the cake with a manic pride before his snapping his head up to meet Marty's gaze.

"Voila! And now, we must find her!" Walt, of course, had no idea where she was, which he, of course, did not consider to be a problem.

"You carry the cake alright? Put it in a little green basket? I don't want the wind to ruin it. I have to go get her present on the way."

Things were very confusing, currently. It seemed Marty had been out of the loop long enough that Walter West had met a girl. And completely forgot to mention it to his best friend in all of the excitement lately. He did have to admit, that the cake was rather nice looking though. It seemed like Walt had nailed it. "Nice job... Lydia would be proud. Make sure you take a picture to show her when you see her." He didn't want to tell Walt that they weren't currently speaking, so he left it at that.

Marty sighed as Walt tore around the kitchen decorating the cake. This was their day to hang out and though Marty wanted to be annoyed, Walt never blew him off for a girl. This was a very strange occurrence. He realized he was more curious than anything else. "Walt, I realize that I did spend a period of time in another universe and I might have missed out on a couple of things, but maybe we could slow down for 15 seconds and you can tell me what's going on? I've been back a full week and I have no idea who you're talking about." He paused as he looked down at the cake. "I could have sworn that there was a cake under all this stuff."

A slight exertion of will created a construct basket around the cake and then his ring produced his costume. Clearly, Marty wasn't getting much of an explanation here, so he would just have to keep up with the high speed hijinks until Walt felt like sharing. He took a deep breath and waited. "You want to tell me where we're going or is that a mystery too?"

He smiled at the fact that the weather stopped instantaneously as he showed up. There was one thing he enjoyed about being friends with Mal and being part of the Rogues, sure he had no powers to speak of, but he could make Mal feel better with a single action which in itself was pretty special. Sometimes he worried what would've happened if he never met Axel or even saved Mal from her abusive dad, but now that terrible part of her life was over and Aaron tried what he could to keep her happy.

"Of course. Though of course please, please, please! Put on a seatbelt. I don't know how this whole 'stick' thing works so I just have had it the entire time to six, which has been working out for me so far. Only destroyed 3 light posts, 5 post boxes and scratched up more then a couple of cars. I'm still surprised I've not ended in a car chase with the police." He said as he got into the back of the car and picked up the cake and showed it to Mal.

"Sure Mal! Today, I'll be your personal chauffeur before something bad happens in the form of tight red suit and annoying. But first. Cake!' He said presenting the cake to Mal and taking taking out the dagger in his robotic arm, pouring some water on the knife, and cutting a slice for himself and Mal before giving her a slice "Okay, Diamond trade show! Here we come." Aaron said recklessly driving out of the park back onto the road and almost crashing into a Sedan. Aaron the entire time had a giant grin on his face and did a few doughnuts and reckless things you really shouldn't in a armoured vehicle.

"Okay Mal. Two things! I need you to muster all the concentration you can and make it foggy, very foggy. I bet the DTS is going to be surrounded by police excepting the rogues to do something. Second I need you to find out where we are. I have no clue, but I do know the shortest way to get from anywhere the the exhibition building." He said making a U turn into oncoming traffic and turning left into the right lane with right direction in traffic before colliding with a truck.

"Well, don't jinx it," Mallory said in reference to his lack of police chase so far. To be honest, she was also surprised, especially with all the havoc he was wreaking. Central City cops must have been on their donut break to not notice something this big and stolen running around. Still, she took the cake, thinking she'd just take whatever the day would throw at her. If she had Aaron next to her, she could deal with anything. Usually with explosions.

"'But first, cake!' sounds like the title of a book I'd love to read, or a really great band." She ate the cake with aplomb, even though she'd already eaten one piece, this one was hers, from her cake, which was promptly smeared all over her face as she tried to take a bite while Aaron played dodge cars and doughnuts. She looked over at him, cake smeared all over the side of her face, then looked at the piece of cake, or what was left of it, picked it up with her hand and smeared it on the side of his face she could reach.

"It is amazing we're not dead. I guess we're just too pretty to die. Now. One smoke screen coming right up." Mal focused on the dashboard in front of her, taking a deep breath, letting her mind clear, trying not to think about the crazy driving Aaron was doing, and willed the fog bank into existence. Then she pulled out her phone and plugged in coordinates into the maps app, letting it tell Aaron when to turn while she ate more of her cake.

"They can expect us to do something, because we are. But you know, I think I might actually pay real cash money for something. That way they can't confiscate it as evidence when we get arrested. It'll be mine. MINE. AHAHAHAHA. Ok....evil laugh needs work...I sound like a dying cat."

"I'll tell you where we're going once we get there! Now put your seatbelt on!" Walt put his arm around Marty and shouted behind him towards the adjacent room.

"Okay, Dad, I'm going out! You want me to get you anything while I'm out? A job, perhaps?"

"Grandkids!" Mr. West's retort was instantaneous. "Show 'im a thing or two if you can, Marty!"

Walt smiled to himself, and then to Marty. "Shut up," he said warmly.

***

On the roof of the Keystone Convention Center, Walt shuffled from one foot to another, anticipating Marty's next smug remark. "Strange place for a date", or the like. Still, he chuckled to himself under his breath, holding the cake in both his hands with dedicated care. 

She'll show up. No way would she pass this up. Probably with Hoodie or Tricky Dick. He might show up without her, actually. Can't waste any time with him today... Walt shook himself out of his thoughts and turned abruptly to Marty. 

"Well, flyboy! We may have some time to kill! Whaddyouwanna talk about? You adjusting alright to being alive and in this dimension? What was the food like over there, anyway?" He and Marty hadn't really discussed the latter's time over the gap since he got back- not without a hushed, serious undertone, anyway. Walt was truly curious, but he didn't mean to force his friend to struggle with the experience against his wishes, so he kept to his classic tone of playful jostling.