DON'T KNOW WHY, BUT THERE IS AN 'I LOVE IMPULSE AND WILL GET OVERLY AND TOO EMOTIONALLY ATTACHED TO HIM' BUG THAT'S BEEN HARRASSING ME, AND THIS IS THE PRODUCT. I JUST...WOW. THAT KID IS AMAZING. TO GO THROUGH WHAT HE WENT THROUGH...AND STILL LAUGH, SMILE AND JOKE...DANG. ANYWAY, I GET WWAAAYYY TO ATTATCHED TO CHARACTERS, ESPECIALLY THOSE WITH SUCH A RICH AND AWESOME BACKSTORY.
ALSO...DAKOTA NORMAN, AKA SCARLET SCARAB, IS JAIME'S REALLY CLOSE FRIEND/LOVE INTEREST, KAY? SHE'S NOT AN EVIL JAIME OR WHATEVER. HER SCARAB IS NAMED KHARI-DA AND IS KHAJI-DA'S BROTHER. ANYWAY, AS ALWAYS, PLEASE ENJOY!
GOD BLESS AND GOOD DAY!
~ONE SEPTIC MARKIPLITE
As Bart Allen pumped his legs down hall after hall, into room after room without success, tearing through so many labs he lost count, he kept repeating one thought, a single desperate prayer, over and over, until it was a mantra, running constantly through his very being. All consuming, because he can't bear for it not to be true.
He cannot possibly be too late. Fate can't possibly have him fail in his mission. No! Life just...couldn't be that harsh! It couldn't! He had one purpose, coming back here, to this almost primitive past; to ensure that Blue Beetle and Scarlet Scarab would forever remain out of the Reach's, uh...reach. He'd give anything to make sure he was not too late.
But, lab after lab turning up empty of the pair of heroes he was truly here to save (not that he was unwilling to rescue everyone he could, mind you), Bart's heart clenched in despair. Please, please, please...let me find Jaime and Dakota. Please! I can't be too late! I can't. Bart pleaded to whatever powers existed, though he had given up on religion a long time ago. After all, if there was a higher power or god or whatever, he'd never have let the Reach conquer Earth in the first place, right?
No God would have let Barry Allen die for no reason, leaving a wife behind that had yet to tell him that she was bearing his children, two beautiful twins who would grow up to witness the fall of humanity to a tyrannical alien race. And certainly not because he'd simply misjudged the time til meltdown on a villain that shouldn't have even posed a threat. Barry was such a good man, and yet Bart had never met him. Of course, there were the famous stories from Grandma Iris and crazy cousin Wally, driven insane by the Reach's takeover, as well as the loss of his uncle, but Bart had always wanted to meet the man who should have been a big part of his life. Instead of baseball games and Sunday evening ice cream runs and all manner of normal family activities...they got Reach slavery. Humanity under Reach tyranny was the most torturous experience of young Bart's life. He kept his super speed a closely guarded secret. He had to, or who knows what the Reach would have done to him. He yearned to run away, never look back, but that was the coward's way out. And a suicidal venture, as the Reach was everywhere. But seeing the rejected, hopeless state of the human race... It was horrible to have to watch, knowing you might be able to do something, but have to hold back, be nothing more than an obedient slave. And then Bart had been told of an attempt to build a time machine. He'd leapt at the chance. And here he was. Surprisingly, no one questioned the date he chose. Iris gave him a look.
She knew why it was that date in particular. After all, she was the one who told him the story of how she lost her husband late one night when Bart had first discovered his speed. She was shocked and crying and hugging Bart and sobbing the story out into her grandson's shoulder as he begged to hear why she was suddenly sobbing hysterically. As the time pod was finished, Iris snuck out and hugged him and left to report for duty, giving him a final smile and a 'Good luck, sweetheart.' as she sighed heavily and walked away.
Bart shook himself. He had to focus. There was only two more labs to search, then...then he didn't know what he'd do. There was no sign of the beetles in the first lab. Bart's heart sped up, if that were at all possible as he ran into the final lab. His eyes desperately scanned the room, and just as he was about to panic...his eyes settled on a grim scene before him. Jaime was screaming and Dakota was banging against the pod's sides and front to get to her friend/brother figure. Bart was never sure what the deal was between the two, just happy that they were clearly not on mode when he'd met them. It seemed so long ago now...
=#=#=#=#=
He'd gotten back to Mount Justice under Wally's close, careful supervision after the whole Neutron fiasco. Boy, he'd nearly moded everything just because he was so happy that he had come back to the right time of day, that the time pod had worked and that no one in his family had that dejected, hopeless, depressed look in their eyes, even when things were almost happy and normal. Operative word being almost. Bart shook himself and walked calmly inside, barely registering the fact that the computer had narrated his presence and that of Kid Flash behind him.
None of that mattered because they were right there, chatting amiably amongst the other heroes (probably about Bart's crazy run through the mountain so shortly after his unannounced arrival) and not even noting their eventual slaves' presence. Bart couldn't do it. He couldn't just walk up, join in the conversation like he normally would, he couldn't. Not with the memories of punishments and threats and them so close to mind. He had suffered much more than a boy his age ought to suffer and all at their hands. They'd enjoyed the punishments they were to deal out to unruly or underworked (to them, anyway) slaves. And now he was watching them as...heroes, chatting with other heroes as if there was nothing wrong (and they couldn't know that there was something wrong). He halted for a moment, gulping so thickly, it was as if he were trying to drink mollases. calm down, Bart. They're not villains yet. That's why you're here: to get to know them, keep them on our side.
"You alright, kid?" Wally asked. Bart was still not ever the fact that his crazy cousin was not in a detentional asylum and only allowed visitors once a month because the sight of famiy only reminded him of what he failed to do. But he'd at least tried to act calm and natural around him and so far it seemed that it was somewhat working. Bart gave Wally an easy false smile.
"Y-yeah...just taking out super-villians at the speed of sound leaves my stomach feelin' the mode, yah know?" He talked at his usual speedy rate and Wally smiled.
"I hear that. Let's get some grub." He suggested.
"Sounds crash!" Bart eagerly chirped, easily falling into step astride his whacky first cousin (once removed, albeit). He tried to ignore the look Scarlet Scarab was sending his back. It wasn't evil, but it was too close to the way she'd look at him in the future for Bart to be at all comfortable. He shivered and walked a little faster.
=#=#=#=#=
He slammed into the whack-job zapping the guy he was just getting to really know. He found that Jaime was one of the most crash people there were to hang out with. And that included Dakota Norman, the girl Jaime was always seen with. He knew that Jaime Reyes (or whatever poor soul was fused with Khaji-Da and forced to work for the Reach) had a wife in his time, the future, but could never remember the woman's name. Not that it mattered. She was evil, and so was he. The pair was behind everything that was wrong in Bart's dismal future existence. He was still getting used to them not being the evil overlords they had been to him all his life. But right now, they needed his help. They were helpless to stop the experiments being done to them, just as Bart himself had been not minutes ago. He ripped away the odd machines and the pods opened with ease. He was somewhat worried when the pair merely flopped into his arms. He swallowed, hoping against hope that whatever the Reach do to their beetles to get them 'on-mode' wasn't completed as he draggged them toward the door. Almost instantly, Dakota srang to her feet. After all, she was conscious when he'd entered.
"Sorry, Bart." Bart merely smiled easily at her.
"What for?" She just shook her head, grinning.
"Need any help?" She asked, nodding toward the boy still in his arms. He was out like a light. Dakota winced in sympathy. They'd shocked her, too.
"Nah. we may need you're fighting skills, hermana." Dakota groaned a little at her friend's poor pronunciation. Regrettably, he couldn't run very far or fast with such a burden, so he was stuck walking. Ugh. However, before Bart had even gotten to the door, Jaime groaned heavily and rubbed his head. He looked around, fear filling his eyes until he got his bearings and realized he was moving, and everything was not reddened by the pod's red lid.
"Wh-what are you doing here?" Jaime asked. Bart was tempted, too tempted, to make some saucy and sarcastic remark and laugh it off, but the reality of what he had almost failed to do was crushing him, more so than ever before. He just couldn't hold it back any longer, even though he may regret the decision later on. He spilled everything, how Barry's death had affected his family, the loss of the Justice League to mind control or death, and the fall of the earth to the Reach. Jaime and Dakota's eyes widened in horror and shock. And Bart had yet to finish as they walked toward the doorway (it was a big lab, after all, and the beetles' pods had been stationed on the far side of the room.). He finally got the horrid truth he'd been hiding for so long out. And to the very people who would one day look upon him with a taunting sneer and sonic cannon to deal out hefty punishments for such small crimes as talking. They staggered under the weighty implications of Impulse's words.
Dakota was crushed. She...no. There was no way they'd ever do anything like that! Never! But Impulse's eyes were revealing the horrific memories and hauntedness his own words left him with. She was shocked at how his spirit hadn't been crushed, how he'd managed to avoid despair and brokenness, but didn't dare ask. She knew it would adversely affect him and that was the last thing she wanted. After all, she apparently would cause him enough pain and suffering for a lifetime after the Reach got her and Jaime back on-mode-whatever the frick that meant-and used them to bring about the end. Not only of the Justice Leaue, but of humanity itself, as it stood currently. Free and without much care. She was left panting and staggered.
"Wh-what are you talking about?" She managed, voice shaky and uncertain, hardly there at all. "W-we would-wouldn't...ever..." Bart merely looked at the floor, jaw and eyes hard and grim. Dakota half-expected a shrug, a laugh, a reassurance that he was pulling some stupid prank. But it never came. [Of course not, Dakota Norman. There is no lie in the Impulse's words. You can sense it, even without my help. And...and I've seen that exact thing on far too many worlds. It's always the same with the Reach.]
"That's how it was-er, how it will be." Bart's voice was soft, broken, haunted. He focused on the floor, guiding Jaime's still-weak form toward the door as Dakota trailed a little behind. "Somehow, the Reach get you two on-mode, and Blue Beetle and Scarlet Scarab became the biggest, baddest big-bads in history." The poor girl gulped. Jaime just stared, lifeless and stunned, at the ground. He groaned.
"No...I wouldn't...I would never..." He breathed, trying to reassure his friend that he would never go through with it.
"Jaime...they could have most likely simply flipped some switch on some device and turned us into their deadly, conquering puppets, brain-washed into doing their evil will." Dakota replied half-heartedly. [I agree. In fact, I have seen it done. I'm unsure of why they subjected us to those tortures, but it was clearly not for our amusement.] {Agreed, brother. Countless natives of countless worlds have been given a scarab that's been activated. the beings inside are then completely at the mercy of the Reach, helpless but to obey their every whim.} You two are super uplifting. Dakota grumbles internally. She receives no response.
=#=#=#=#=
"Gah! NNOOO!" The scream alerts Khari-da first. Who in turn alerts both his brother scarab, who then proceeds to alert Jaime. Needless to say, they all knew what it was about. They ran for a room directly across the hall from them. Sure enough, the young white and red speedster was hypervetilating and panicking on his bed, twitching at the speed of light, it seemed. [The bed could catch fire if this continues, Dakota Norman.] the Scarlet Scarab is oh-so-quick to point out. Dakota shook herself and ran forward faster than Jaime.
"Bart! Its alright! Its okay! We're still the good guys! We haven't turned! You got us out in time!" She cried, trying to wake the poor kid up, to no avail. Dakota sighed, and regrettably slapped him. It did the trick.
"No! Please! I-I'll get right back to work, I promise! Please!" He screamed, thrashing and coming around, hands raised in a defensive gesture. Dakota's heart clenched. Poor guy...but at least the bed wasn't on fire and Bart was awake and Dakota would wipe that scared, haunted look from her friend's face. He didn't deserve what had happened to him. At all. He gazed around. His eyes went wide and he tackled her with the force of his elated hug. Dakota's shirt grew damp in minutes as she shushed him gently, rubbing his back and humming a lullaby she heard from Mrs. Reyes at some point as Jaime joined the hug. "It-it was-I had-it all moded! Everything I worked so hard to prevent...happened!" Silence reigned in the three-way hug for so long, the beetle's legs fell asleep, but so did Bart, so it was worth it.
And this time, he had a smile on his adorable little face.