Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice. No arguement or fuss, just a simple fact.
Bart's face is a combination of a grimace, a scowl and a frown as he stares at the small grey lump on his back. He had to contort his body and crane his neck just to get a glance at it in his own time, and even now with the help of mirrors he has to twist his body painfully to see it.
It isn't quite what would be expected of Reach tech, given the examples of the scarabs, but it's Reach tech nonetheless. Much smaller and lighter than the scarab, because it's not there to add anything and they didn't want to impede speed, flatter and smoother so that it doesn't affect movement – which ended up being useful because it meant it could be hidden under clothing easily – and despite this, just as firmly integrated with his bodily systems as the scarab is to Jaime's.
Once, he had daydreamed about getting it removed, of finally being free of the control over him it represented, but he knew that it had been based of the design of the scarabs and if they couldn't be removed then neither could it.
"Jaime, I don't believe that scarab is ever coming off. Not while you live,"
Well, there went that dream. He'd always be stuck with the reminder of the control over him in his own time then, and should he ever be followed he would be so utterly moded; one push of a button, BOOM bye bye Impulse.
That was the purpose of it after all. They, he and the other humans that was, called them 'chips'; the moment anyone was caught by the Reach they got one implanted into their spine, no matter their age. They grew with you, so one given to you at two would still fit at sixty...if you lived that long.
Chips allowed the Reach to easily monitor your body, so they could intercept weakening people and get rid of them before they slowed down production, and to track you, so you could never really run away. Because of their integration to your bio systems, they could be used to directly tap into the nervous system and directly cause pain; it was their favourite form of punishment because despite the sheer amount of pain that it caused, it didn't actually impede you in anyway afterwards. And right in the centre of the chips? A substance the Reach had cooked up that, when triggered, instantaneously disintegrated the host body. No one questioned it anymore; they were all too used to it. Though no one liked being nearby when someone new got chipped, no matter how often you heard it it was always disconcerting.
He allowed his body to relax out of the contortions he'd twisted it into, and then rapidly changed into his 'Impulse' uniform. He ran down the stairs, yelled a quick goodbye, and rushed off on the way to Blüdhaven for the meeting with the Team.
Maybe, once he was sure that he'd saved his timeline, he'd tell the Team about. One day. Maybe.
For now, he'd just have to live with the fact that there was something that had the potential to completely destroy his life attached to his spine.
Kinda like Jaime's, except his didn't talk back.
He wondered if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
...I blame the odd thing that lives in my head called my 'mind'. Sometimes even I don't know what goes on in there, all I know is sometimes I write something and have no idea of its origins. If I start thinking about something, eventually I'll end up thinking about something else with barely any idea how I got there looking back. Kinda like a wiki-walk, except in my brain.
For this one, I at least have an idea of its 'heritage' as it is. It's two words. Star. Wars. Just go on wookieepedia and look up slavery in the Star Wars universe. That's the only explanation I have for this.
