Chapter 1: Making a Splash
(Impulse P.O.V)
You know, life can be a crazy thing once you really stop to think about it. If you ever stop and look around, things are being created and destroyed every second. Every time I think about these things, I can't help but ask myself: why do we create things? What's more, how do we create things?
Obviously, a religious man would say that God/Allah/Chuck Norris/The Flying Spaghetti Monster created all life and matter. Ask a scientist and they'll probably say that certain scientific reactions, with the help of their counterparts helped to create the world in this way.
Any other person would probably say one or the other.
I, however, would say something completely different. To me, if you wish for something to be real and imbue it with a soul and personality, it will be real.
As for why, I'd say this: because we can.
For me, this would definitely how I viewed my life of loving comic books. Whenever I felt like it, I would just whip one out of my huge collection and read it for hours on end. Pretty much all of there are superhero based.
And yet, every time I would read one, I would always feel a sense of longing. Longing that this was all real. Longing that I could meet my heroes. Longing I could be a hero.
Let's just say that I got my wish granted.
Now, let me introduce myself.
I am Jacob Laverne.
I am this world's version of Impulse.
This is how I came to be...
(Normal P.O.V)
First day of the autumn semester
Chicago
It was the middle of a Monday afternoon. Traffic was usually quiet at this time, as most people were still at work at this time.
Outside the front gate of the St. Augustus High School, parents were waiting in their cars to pick up their kids.
Then, the final bell went for the day.
It was only a couple of seconds before Jacob Laverne came bolting out of the front doors, short dark hair blowing in the wind.
Spotting the dark red Citroen of his older sister, Natalie, he dashed up to it, opened the door and leapt in, shutting the door and pulling on his seatbelt.
"Thanks for waiting for me" Jacob said to his sister as they left the school site.
"Don't mention it, Jack" she replied. "My college classes were cancelled due to a water leak, so I decided to head home. Which I was going to do until I got a call from dad. He's apparently ready to test out the experiment he and his team have been working on at the lab and was wondering if the two of us were hoping to see its test run".
"Dude, miss out possibly one of the greatest scientific inventions of our generation?! Not on your life".
"I thought you'd say that".
What they were indeed talking about was the super secret work of their father, a scientist by the name of Derek Laverne.
However, despite his best attempts to keep his work secret, Jacob and Natalie quickly managed to deduce the kind of work he specialised in: pushing-the-envelope type work. Broadening horizons and understanding what was truly possibly.
He'd worked on many different projects in the past, but this one was one that seriously interested the two kids: Teleportation.
It seemed like a long drive, but the two soon arrived at the Ugotech laboratory, just outside the city.
At the front door, a tall male figure in a white lab coat was waiting for them.
This was Derek Laverne.
"Hey, glad you could make it, you two" he happily said to them, embracing his offspring. "How was the first day back at school, Jacob?"
Jacob shuddered. "The less I talk about it, the better".
Derek chuckled.
"I know what that feels like. Anyway, the test run is about to start in a few minutes, so we'd best head inside".
The group of three headed off into the lab.
As they headed towards the main testing room for the experiment, the two kids often found themselves looking around at many other strange experiments going on.
Finally, they arrived at a large, round room, protected by a thick glass shield.
Inside were all sorts of strange electrical equipment, hooked up to what looked like two large hoops.
"I take it those are the teleportation gateways you have been working on".
"Exactly".
Derek then handed his two kids safety goggles.
"Now remember, we don't properly know what will happen with this thing, so please remember to keep these on until the test is finished. Also, remember to stay out here and also..."
He pointed towards a large, locked door behind them.
"Don't try and go in there. There's all sorts of chemicals and substances in there".
"Good luck dad" Natalie said to her father as he put his own goggles on and stepped through a small door into the chamber, shutting it behind him.
"Alright then, start up the generator" he said to his colleagues.
As one of the scientists pressed a button on a small computer in the corner, the whole room filled with a low humming noise.
"Stabiliers are working at full capacity. Hydraulics are good. Sue, ready the testing drone"
One of the female scientists placed a small remote controlled testing drone on wheels in front of the portal.
Just then, the first archway began to course with electricity.
"Go for it"
The female scientist then drove the testing drone into the first archway.
As it reached the archway, it disappeared in as flash of electricity.
Everyone then eagerly watched the second archway, waiting for the drone to reappear.
However, for a short while nothing happened.
However, as the seconds ticked on, something happened that would change Jacob's life forever.
Suddenly, as they watched and waited, the second archway began to spark.
As the scientists scurried to sort the problem out, it unleashed a large bolt of electricity at the glass, breaking through and striking Jacob.
The force of lightning was so strong, it sent the boy flying backwards, crashing through the doors of the storage cupboard and flying onwards until he hit a wall of shelves, each one lined with chemicals.
As he fell to the floor, he found himself doused with hundreds of strange concoctions.
As he blacked out, he heard the sound of people rushing into the room.
Jacob felt like he'd been hit by a train.
As he slowly regained his consciousness, he found many pairs of eyes staring down at him.
"Jacob! Thank god you're alright!" Exclaimed his father as he hugged him tightly.
"Dad, what happened? The last thing I remember is your experiment going wrong, it sending me flying backwards and that's it".
"I'm not sure what happened, but something went wrong on the machine, causing it to unleash a large bolt of electricity at you. That then launched you back into the storage cupboard, where you hit a few boxes and ended up getting doused in chemicals"
Jacob was shocked at this.
"WHAT?! How the hell am I still alive?"
"I don't know, but it's lucky you are".
Jacob then realised something about his current situation.
He was lying in the middle of the floor, surrounded by a whole group of older people.
And he was naked.
"Oh yes, about that. Your clothes were soaked through as well, so we're cleaning them out until there's no chemical residue left"
He handed Jacob his lab coat as the teenager desperately tried to cover his man parts.
"Will anything bad happen to me?" he asked, worriedly.
"Well, nothing that we know off, but we'll need to run a few tests to see if anything will happen. Mainly aerobic tests".
Jacob groaned.
"Not more of those. I had gym class today! Ugh! So moded!"
However, he decided the best thing to do was to just quit whining and just get on with it.
The first test the scientists performed on him was a simple scan of brain and body functions.
For the most part, everything seemed to be normal. However, as they were about to move on to the next test, one of the doctors called his father over to the computer screen.
Much to their surprise, his registered nerve signals were travelling much faster than those of an average human.
As they studied this, Jacob realised something else about the accident.
It almost mirrored the same kind of accident Barry Allen had before he became The Flash.
"Is it really possible?" He thought to himself.
He shrugged this off, thinking this to be just a mere coincidence.
However, the following test was a simple running test on a tread mill.
The scientists attached a few sensor nodes to him, gave him a spare pair of pants and set him off on the treadmill.
Firstly, at a leisurely walk.
"Feel any different?"
"Nope. Pretty much the same".
The treadmill slowly picked up the pace, causing Jacob to break into a light jog.
Nothing was feeling different.
However, as he broke into a run, he noticed something was different.
At this point, he would usually be feeling fairly warn out.
This time, however, this wasn't the case.
He felt absolutely fine.
He jammed his finger onto the speed button, causing the treadmill to go even faster.
Then, when Jacob reached sprinting speed, he still felt fine.
He wasn't out of breath and he was barely sweating.
As he slowed the treadmill down to a stop, the group couldn't believe what they were witnessing: a teenage male had just been zapped by electricity and doused in chemicals, yet this had allowed his to run as fast as the treadmill would allow without being out of breath.
"Are you sure you're feeling okay?" Natalie asked him.
"Yeah. I'm feeling fine. In fact, I'm actually feeling better than when I got here".
Derek turned to his colleagues.
"I think it would be best if I got my son back home. We don't want to risk any more accidents happening to him".
He then turned back to Jacob.
"Jacob, if anything happens to you when we're back home, you let me know immediately".
"Will do".
Once the three arrived home, it seemed almost as if nothing had happened.
Dad was in his office, working on more scientific studies, Natalie went back to her college campus to do her studies.
However, for Jacob, things were a little different.
As he sat at the end of his bed, reading his copy of The Flash Rebirth #1, he couldn't help but reflect on the events that had happened to him.
For most of the day, it had been a typical "first day of the school year" scenario. Get settled in, meet the new teachers, put up with crap from any morons in class, the usual.
However, just a few hours ago, he'd just been involved in a Barry Allen-esque accident that appeared to have improved his fitness considerably.
"Could it really be possible?" he thought to himself. "All this time, I've wished that heroes like this were real, but am I turning into one? A speedster at that?"
He closed his comic and looked over at his bedside table. On it, in a small frame, was a picture of him and a friend of his at Comic Con a few years ago.
Alas, that friend of his had moved away earlier this year.
As long as they'd known each other, they'd both been into comics. In fact, it was his friend that got Jacob into comics in the first place. After that, they'd regularly gone to Comic Con, dressed as different characters each time. In the picture in the frame, the two were dressed as their favourite DC sidekicks: Robin and Impulse (Jacob).
Jacob then thought of something.
Getting off his bed, he went over to his wardrobe, opened it and began rummaging around, eventually producing a box.
Within this box was his Impulse Costume.
This wasn't just a cheap version you could buy at a costume shop, this was a custom made version, made to fit Jacob's physical profile, complete with gloves, boots and goggles.
The main difference between this one and the original costume was that his gloves had actual fingers to them.
"Well, here goes nothing" he thought to himself as he lifted the costume out of the box.
He began to slowly move his hand towards the costume, shaking it as he went.
However, his shaking hand slowly became faster and faster.
Then, finally, his vibrating hand slowly slipped through the fabric and into the costume.
As an insanely happy smile appeared on Jacob's face, his whole body began to vibrate uncontrollably.
Finally, he passed himself through the fabric and into the suit itself before calming himself down, stopping his body from vibrating any further.
He then went over and looked at himself in the mirror.
He nearly screamed with joy.
He had managed to get himself into his Impulse Costume without even touching a zipper.
And it still fit like a glove.
"Well, there's only one thing left to find out" he said to himself.
He dashed out of his room, down the stairs and out into the garden.
The garden wasn't that big, but it was still fairly wide, giving him plenty of room.
As Jacob examined the garden, he took a deep breath before sprinting off towards the end of the garden and doing a complete lap.
His first lap of the was only done at his usual sprinting pace at first. However, lap after lap, he slowly found himself building up speed.
Slowly, the teenager began to disappear in a blue of red and white.
Hearing all the commotion coming from outside, Jacob's father came out the back door.
"What on Earth is..." he began.
However, his jaw dropped at the sight in front of him: his own son was dashing around the garden in a blur of red and white.
As he ran, a tear of happiness fell from Jacob's eyes.
He'd done it. He was finally a superhero.
He ended his running by screeching to a halt in front of his father.
For a short moment, there was silence between the two.
Then, the two hugged each other tightly, laughing and cheering.
"I don't believe this" His father said happily to Jacob. "My own son is a superhuman".
"I know! This is all so crash!"
They broke the hug, sharing a high five.
"God, imagine what I could do wish these powers!"
"I know, and that actually kind of worries me".
"What do you mean?"
"I mean what happens if you use your powers for evil, like the villains in your comic books. The main difference is that there's always someone to stop them in the comics. In this case, however, you are wholly unique. If you went rogue, there would be no one capable of stopping you".
His dad placed both hands on his son's shoulders.
"Jacob, whatever happens, I want you to promise me something. Promise me that no matter what happens, you will always use your powers for good".
"I promise. In fact, that's what I was planning to go off and do now".
"Well, in that case, remember to take your mobile with you".
"Will do".
"Oh, and Jacob, please be careful".
"Always".
Quickly, Jacob dashed up to his room and grabbed his phone before dashing back down to the garden.
"Take care, Impulse"
Jacob grinned at this, nodding.
He then checked his goggles, slid his phone into one of his pockets and went dashing off over the back fence and into the city.
As Jacob ventured into the city, he realised just how big it really was.
That being said, he'd always known it to be big, but he'd never realised how big until he began his patrol.
Deciding to stay out of the light, he found himself running across the rooftops, giving short bursts of speed to allow him to jump any gaps.
Jacob was still struggling to believe that he was finally able to patrol the city as a superhero persona, protecting the citizens from the local scumbags.
There was only one thing left to do: find something happening.
Impulse didn't really expect much to be happening, as it was a monday night after school.
Yet Impulse knew there would probably be something happening, seeing as the was one of the most well known cities in the Midwest.
"I'd better just keep running around until something shows up" Impulse said to himself before taking off again.
However, much to his disappointment, Impulse struggled to find anything of note.
No fights, No robberies, nothing.
He did see someone trying to break into a car and was about to jump down there and stop him until he saw a police car come round the corner and start blaring its sirens, so he didn't.
"Ugh! This is so moded! There has to be something going on in this city" Impulse said to himself, desperately looking for action.
Impulse soon got his wish, as not too far off came the faint sounds of a vehicle crashing through something, followed by a few gunshots.
"Oh finally!" he said to himself, spinning round and dashing towards the noise.
As he eventually reached the scene from whence the noise came, he discovered what was happening.
Just across the road, directly opposite where Impulse was standing, was the reserve bank of Chicago.
The main difference here, though, was that the front doors had been completely broken by a large white van.
Impulse rushed over to the other side of the street and peered in through one of the upper windows.
Inside were four men, all armed with shotguns and wearing masks over their faces.
Three of them were holding the staff hostage whilst the fourth was trying to break into the vault behind the counters.
"Time to put these losers down" Impulse muttered to himself.
As he moved into position, the fourth guy managed to open the vault, revealing whole stacks of cash.
"WOO HOO!" He yelled out happily. "Guys, lets get the truck loaded up, for we are in the-"
"In the money? Wow. That is just so clichéd" Came a voice from the entrance.
Everyone looked at the entrance.
Impulse stood before them.
"Hi" He said to them, giving them a cheeky wave.
The four men didn't waste any time in raising their guns and firing at the young speedster.
However, anticipating this, Impulse simply zipped out of the way.
Deciding to end things quickly before one of the hostages ended up with a face full of shotgun shells, he aimed for the guy standing next to the safe, leaping over the counter and knocking into him, causing the man to bash his head against the steel, rendering him unconscious.
Turning his attention to the other three, Impulse went rushing towards them before dropping into a slide, knocking one over.
Leaping back up, he was able to land a successful quintuple charley horse, sending intense pain through his leg, making him unable to move.
Finally, he leaping up at the final remaining guy, knocking him over before landing a rock hard punch right between his eyes, rendering him unconscious as well.
"Damn it! I punched him wrong" Impulse said to himself as he picked himself up, checking his sore hand.
However, as he did so, he was suddenly engulfed by a massive hug from a female clerk, who had been held hostage.
"Thank you. Thank you!" She sobbed happily.
"Hey, don't mention it" Impulse said to her. "You guys are safe, nothing's been nabbed, those crooks are probably going away for a long time. It's all crash".
Just then, he heard the sound of police sirens getting closer.
"Well, that's my cue to get out of here. Gotta run!" He said to the hostages as he was just about to bolt out of there.
"Wait! Before you go..." the clerk said to him.
"What is it?"
"All that speed. None of us have ever seen anything like that on a person. Who...What are you?"
Jacob smirked before simply replying
"Call me Impulse".
With that, he dashed out of the bank just as the police arrived on the scene, running up one of the buildings and jumping across the rooftops, back towards his home.
"And with that, the first chapter in "The Man, the Myth, the Legend: Impulse" Jacob said happily to himself as he headed for the hills, grinning all the way.