Kory Anders walks in, humming softly.

One of the chairs from the table has been pulled over to the mainframe,
and (in addition to the fact that it's the chair with the lightning on the
back) you can /so/ tell it's Bart because there's a big foot shod in a Doc
Martin with neon green shoelaces on it, hanging over the side of the
chair. A clattering can be heard from behind the chair.

Kory Anders says "Hello, Bart."

The clacking stops, and Bart's crazy mop of hair (followed, of course, by
his head) pokes out from the opposite side. He looks for who said
something, then waves. "Hi, Kory. This is boring. You wanna do it instead?
I'm hungry."

Kory Anders walks over and looks over the top of the chair. "What are you
doing?"

Bart Allen gestures to the mainframe. "Really really boring text stuff. I
wanna know why there's no pictures! It's stuff about the Titans, but I
don't know why I'm supposed to do it - someone'll just end up editing it
afterwards."

Kory Anders looks at the screen. "The current group?"

You say "Yeah. Us. Here. In this HQ. What we do. It's like a report, I
think."

Bart Allen scowls, and slouches further down in his chair. "It's /so/ not
character building."

Kory Anders nods. "It's important, though. So people know what happened."

Bart Allen makes a face. "But it's double the effort, because someone's
gonna go over what I wrote anyway, so why don't they just write it
themselves? I don't /get/ it. I don't want to write about it anyway. The
Times did a better job."

Kory Anders says "Because they don't know what happened for your point of
view. A good historian will take all the versions and distill them down.
We have to provide them with what we know to have happened.""

Bart Allen sighs, and runs his hand through his hair, pushing it back from
his face. "I wish I didn't have to do it now, though. I don't want to
think about it at /all/." He reaches over, sits up slightly, and continues
typing one-handed.

Kory Anders pulls a chair over. "What happened?"

Bart Allen ehns. "Green Lantern didn't tell you? About the fire at
Columbia last week?" He reties his shoe, then goes back to typing. The boy
mutters darkly, "An omni would be very good. Very very good. I hate
typing. Haaaate. Didn't they have, like, dictaphones or something?"

Kory Anders shakes her head. "No, he didn't."

Bart Allen sighs, and stops typing for a bit, letting his hands fall into
his lap - which may strike you as odd, since he's usually constantly in
motion. "We got almost everyone out...but this girl I pulled out of the
basement - we tried so hard.."

Kory Anders says "She didn't make it?"

Bart Allen bites his lip and says quietly, "The paramedics said she's been
gone for at least fifteen minutes by the time I got to her. Smoke."

Kory Anders nods. "I'm sorry, Bart."

Bart Allen looks at you, "And her sister was up there, and her sister was
fine...and she blames me. I don't know what to do. I don't know if there's
anything I can ever say to her, or do for her, that'll ever make her want
to forgive me.."

Bart Allen sighs, and starts typing again. "I dunno how to /deal/ with
this," he mutters, more to himself then to Kory.

Kory Anders says "There's nothing you could have done, Bart."

Bart Allen says, slightly irritated, "I /know/. I know there wasn't. And
it /hurts/ that there wasn't. I feel like there should have been..." he
trails off, and sets his face. "But there wasn't. I just hope her sister
ends up realizing that, at some point or another."

Bart Allen finishes typing, and saves the file.

Kory Anders nods. "I'm sure she will. She hurts and you are an easy
target. That's all."

Bart Allen rubs his eyes tiredly, then stretches. "I'm always an easy
target, I think. Which doesn't make a lot of sense." He gets up and puts
his chair back at the table, then logs off the network. He grins at Kory,
"I don't know how you put up with us."

Kory Anders grins. "I'm used to it."

Bart Allen hehs. Then he looks at his watch. "You hungry, Kory?"

Kory Anders says "It just got in from dinner. Why don't you go eat and
I'll do some work here?"

Bart Allen looks extremely grateful. "Cool. Thanks /heaps/. I'll be at the
pizza place down the street if y'need me."

Bart Allen disappears in a blur, out the door.

Kory Anders chuckles softly.