I don't know where this idea came from, but I just randomly had it and voila, here we are! Please enjoy and review!
Disclaimer: I don't own young Justice, though I wish I did.
"Ta dah!"
It's very much a Wizard of Oz moment, when he emerges from the time machine and sees a pair of crushed feet poking out from under it. Bart blanches, and turns round to see none other than Lex Luthor coolly glowering at him (if that's possible).
"You crushed Mercy," Luthor says flatly, eyes moving to the crushed pair of feet. Bart shuffles and laughs a little nervously, eyes darting about as he wonders if he can get away before Lex calls on any of his other bodyguards. For someone who just lost someone close to them, Luthor doesn't seem very bothered.
"It was an accident," Bart offers, unconsciously skittering away from the billionaire and pondering how the time machine ended up in LexCorp. "If that helps any, which it probably doesn't but hey, gotta count for something, right?"
Lex raises one eyebrow at the young speedster, seeming entirely too calm for the situation.
"You seem to have a tendency to babble, but I suppose that can be fixed," he muses, almost to himself. Bart frowns, wondering exactly what he seems to have gotten himself into.
"Uh, what? 'Cos you're kind of not making sense there and…"
He trails off, noticing the smug smirk Lex Luthor is sending his way.
"Other than that, you've got the job."
Bart stares with bemusement at the older man, still wondering exactly what is going on.
Somehow, and he's not entirely sure how, Bart Allen becomes Lex Luthor's personal bodyguard, replacing the one that he flattened.
"I'm Bart," he offers, even though Luthor doesn't ask and he's not entirely sure if the older man even wants to know. "Bart Allen." He half expects Luthor to go into some sort of big rage about how the Allens are scum and evil and must be killed, like some of the old Reach he used to hear talking, but much to his pleasure, nothing of the sort happens.
Luthor simply nods, taking it in, looking, if anything, like he already knew this piece of information.
"Any powers I should know about?" the villain asks, actually pulling out a damn notebook and beginning to jot down notes on his new bodyguard (though Bart's still not entirely sure why he's in this position to begin with).
"Yep!" the speedster chirps, grinning insanely wide at the cool, one-eyebrow-raised look that his apparent new boss sends him. When he simply stands there smiling goofily, Luthor's eyebrow raises even further.
"Care to elaborate?" he questions dryly, and it takes all of Bart's willpower not to smack a palm to his head the way he's seen people in his time do when they're pretending to be from a time before the invasion.
"Oh right yeah," he says in a single blur of words that seem to blend together into one, even to his own ears. He mentally winces – it's been a rather bad habit since he got his collar off. He still hasn't properly learned to control his speed. "Here. Let me demonstrate."
He runs around at super speed in circles a couple times, darting out the office to snag the gun off a guard in a blur of wind before gently placing it on the desk (because, really, it wouldn't do to slam it) in front of Luthor. The businessman stares at the gun for a couple seconds, then his eyes travel up and he stares at Bart, then he stares at his notebook and jots something down.
"Impressive," he comments, and even that one remark is enough to make Bart beam brightly. "But, that still leaves one rather important question unanswered."
Bart waits for several seconds, wondering if Luthor is going to carry on and, if he does, what will he be carrying on about and will it be bad or good or villainy and will Bart have to run or sit down or get shot (maybe he shouldn't have brought that gun in) and…
And he blinks, realising that Luthor has already said whatever it is he was going to say and is now staring at him expectantly.
"What?" he asks dumbly, trying not to zone out again because that would doubtless be very, very bad…
"I said," Luthor begins again, sounding half amused and half irritated. He's got this little quirk at the corner of his mouth, and it takes all of Bart's willpower not immediately focus his entire attention there and actually listen to what is being said. Luthor is speaking very slowly to the speedster, as though he is stupid and, okay, Bart can admit, he has kinda given that impression. "Why are you here?"
It takes several seconds for that to sink in, but as soon as it does Bart is running away at a colossal speed thinking I am so moded because around about now Flash should be fighting Neutron and he knows how badly that ended the first time (don't think about that don't think about it don't think don'tthinkdon'tthink…) and Grandpa Barry!
Bart gets there in time to grab Flash's wrist and tug him away from the exploding shockwave coming from Neutron, ignoring the tug in his chest when he thinks of Nathaniel and instead focuses on Barry, the grandfather he never knew. He focuses on pulling his granddad away from the danger and meets surprisingly little resistance from the Flash himself.
When they pull to a stop quite a bit of distance away, Barry Allen collapses in exhaustion, looking up at Bart with what the younger speedster guesses is wide eyes behind the cowl.
"Who're you?" he pants out, and all Bart can think to do through the shock and the adrenaline pumping rather dramatically through his system is beam.
"I'm your grandson!" he announces, like that's supposed to clear everything up, and he supposes that it kind of is, but for some odd reason Grandpa Barry just looks even more confused.
"What – but…" The Flash can't seem to get that little fact around his head (and Jesus, Bart thought he was supposed to be fast) and the young boy wonders for one terrifying second if he's broken him. He's about to ask if he's done anything of the sort when Grandpa Barry finally manages to splutter out, "but Iris and I don't even have kids!"
Bart frowns, because he knows for a fact that Grandma Iris should be pregnant by now and if she somehow isn't then there's going to be all kinds of unforeseen complications.
He decides to ask his Grandpa Barry, because the one fact that has been drilled into his head since he was little is that Grandpa Barry is a superhero and likely knows the answer to everything.
"Isn't Grandma Iris pregnant? You know, with twins?" he says, and when Grandpa Barry makes an odd squawking sound that is eerily like he is choking on his own spit Bart then remembers that oh, right, Grandpa Barry died before she could tell him. It makes him feel kind of sad, but then he remembers that he changed that now, so now Barry Allen will know his kids because he wasn't killed by…
"OhmygodNeutron!" Bart blurs out, as soon as the realisation comes to him, and he sprints away again, ignoring Flash's call for him to wait. He can't believe he's been forgetting these things. First saving Flash, then Nathaniel, and he's seriously wondering if he's going to be as good at being a hero as he originally thought. Probably not. Maybe he would be better as a bodyguard.
Upon reaching the sobbing and scared Nathaniel Tyron, Bart hastily pulls out that little blue ball, what's it called? He can't remember so he decides to call it the un-moder. Yeah, that's a cool name. Anyway, he pulls out the Un-Moder (because it definitely deserves capital letters) and drops it next to Neutron, watching as it merges with his skin and gets rid of the glowing completely.
Bart smiles, satisfied, and suddenly senses a disturbance of wind that implies a speedster has arrived behind him. He turns to see not one, but three (three!) Flash-people behind him – one is obviously Grandpa Barry, looking exhausted but unharmed, another is someone he recognises as a much younger version of Wally West (his second-cousin-once-removed! Here!) and the third, well… That's Jay Garrick.
Bart wants to melt into a little puddle on the floor at the sight of three of his greatest heroes… No, the three greatest heroes, but the sight of Kid Flash/Cousin-Wally barging towards him is enough to derail that train of thought.
"What the hell?" Wally asks, voice bordering on hysterical, and Bart vaguely wonders if this means he saw how close to death Barry just came. Kid Flash looks around taking in the now shaking Neutron being helped by Jay Garrick (and oh my god, Jay Garrick is here) before his so very, very green eyes shift back onto Bart, flickering up and down and taking him all in. "Seriously, though, dude, what the actual hell?!"
Grandpa, who looks significantly more calm but still very shaken and standing with a permanent confused-face (maybe Bart did break him, after all) steps forward and places a hand on Wally's shoulder, ignoring the way the red-head flinches.
"Wally," he says, dropping all formalities. His voice is shaking. "He saved me."
"I know that," Wally huffs, folding his arms and looking very much like his future daughter Irey. Bart blinks at the sudden comparison. "And it was very cool, yes, but, kid." He turns to Bart, expression caught somewhere between a glare and complete and utter awe. "What. The. Hell."
Bart opens his mouth to explain, but then he remembers (belatedly, he realises) that he left his time machine at LexCorp and Lex Luthor is a confirmed villain and leaving a time machine, even if it is fried, in his hands is probably a very bad idea.
He zips away without another word.
000
For some reason, none of the other three speedsters follow him, and Bart doesn't know why but he isn't complaining. Explaining why he's going to LexCorp of all places is probably going to be very hard to explain.
Much to both his surprise and not-surprise, Luthor is waiting for him when he gets back, and the time machine has not been moved but Mercy (the last bodyguard, which Bart squashed and feels rather bad about) no longer has two feet poking out. That's a welcome change. The former… well, Bart's not quite sure whether Luthor waiting is welcome or not.
"Hi," he says, because he's not quite sure what else to say, and instead of pulling out a gun and trying to shoot him (as Bart kind of expects) Luthor just tilts his head and blinks.
"Hello, Bart," he says, and Bart doesn't really know how to handle a supervillain from all the old stories greeting him by his first name. "I knew you would return."
And Bart blanches, because that's slightly creepy and then he remembers that for some reason he's suddenly become Lex Luthor's bodyguard and if that isn't an indication of how messed up his life is then he doesn't know what is.
"So, do I, like, work for you now?" he asks, just simply because it's confusing him and he doesn't quite know how he's supposed to be reacting to the current situation. What would be the heroic thing to do? He doesn't know. Kill Luthor, maybe? But he's already accidently killed the man's bodyguard and he'd feel a bit bad if he didn't either now leave him alone or get him a new one.
"Yes," Luthor replies, without any hesitation, and okay, Bart, how do we deal with this? This… kinda wasn't in the plans. "That is, if you want to."
Bart thinks on that? Does he want to? He could learn quite a lot of information from the Light, sure, and he'd have closer ties with the Reach, and seeing as how Lex Luthor already knows of his existence…
"Of course," Luthor goes on, and god, he sounds like a proper businessman now. "The pay would be good. Very good. You'd require some training, obviously, but you've proved fairly competent and removing any threats, so far… That little debacle in Central City you just pulled off, very impressive…"
Luthor is almost muttering to himself by now, and Bart briefly wonders how Lex Luthor already knows before his brain reminds him that it's Lex Luthor, of course he already knows.
"And you'd be provided with somewhere to stay, of course," Luthor finishes, and that seals the deal.
Bart doesn't want to turn his back now and quite possibly make a powerful enemy, and the benefits seem to outweigh the risks, and he could always run if need be…
And after that little slip to Grandpa Barry (and oops, spoilers) Bart has no doubt that if he goes to his family then he will be asked countless awkward questions that he doesn't want to answer and he'll be asked all about the future and they'll assume it's great and he'll have to look them in the eyes and tell them that it's not and…
"I think," he says slowly, and it's the first time he's been slow ever since he arrived in the past. "I would like to be your bodyguard, Luthor." Then he remembers his manners, and adds, "please."
Luthor is horribly silent for a couple of tense seconds, and then he nods.
"Very well," he agrees good-naturedly, adding," and, please, call me Lex."
Bart doesn't let himself feel any regret and beams.
"Crash."
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