Wayne Manor, Gotham
May 15, 07:13 EDT
***The Reach ship's red lights cast an eerie glow in the lab, casting long shadows off the pods that lined the walls. Bart stood by the door, his spandex super suit clinging to him as he was just freed from his own electric torture pod. He glanced in the room and saw sparks of electricity arcing from metallic arms just outside a pod along the wall, he could hear Jaime screaming from inside the pod. The Reach Scientist was at the control console, monitoring the reports her test was producing. Bart bolted forward at superspeed and shoulder checked the Scientist, sending her flying from her spot, she collided with a pod and collapsed to the floor in a heap. Bart moved at superspeed again and ripped all the metallic arms from their perches, making sure that they couldn't send any more electricity into Jaime.
"Thanks, hermano," Jaime gasped out as he got control of his breathing again. "Now get me out of here!"
"No problemo," Bart said with a smirk. "Got you out of one of these before, shouldn't be an issue now." Bart looked down at the controls and realized they had changed from before.
"Is there a problem ese?" Jaime asked and started to look worried.
"Nope, totally crash on this end," Bart reassured him while glancing over the buttons. He pushed the button he thought he knew was the release one. The interior of the pod started to flash with a red light.
"Integration complete," a female robotic voice chimed from the pod. "Commencing phase two, scout activation."
"Ahh!" Jaime yelled as he arched his back. Bart saw the Scarab expand its armor and encase Jaime. Jaime looked at Bart, panic in his eyes, until his face was covered with the faceplate. Once the Blue Beetle armor was completely in place, Jaime went back to a standing position and was still.
"Blue?" Bart asked tentatively.
"Phase two complete," the female robotic voice chimed in again. "Commencing phase three, servant of the Reach."
The pod shuddered as it opened. A seam appeared from top to bottom down the middle of the glass and metal door. Each segment opening in succession from top to bottom. Once the pod was open, Blue stepped out. As he emerged from the pod, he changed from the Blue Beetle Bart knew in this time to the Blue Beetle Bart knew from the future.
"Time to put an end to your pointless mission once and for all," the older Blue Beetle said to Bart.
Bart stepped back and tripped over something. He fell to the ground, using his hands to catch himself from hitting his head. His hands felt something different than the floor of the Reach ship, he gripped whatever it was and pulled it up in front of him. His hand held a fistful of grey ash, but he also noticed he was wearing a different glove than his Impulse suit. He looked down at himself and saw he was wearing his clothing from the future, black fingerless gloves, black and white sneakers, dark blue tattered jeans, grey t-shirt, and dark green jacket. He glanced at the thing he tripped over, and the broken body of Tim stared back at him with lifeless eyes. Bart gasped and looked around, Gavin, Bria, Nightwing, and Wally were all around the area, lifeless on the ground.
The sound of shifting metal got Bart's attention again and he looked back up at Blue Beetle, who was now his teenage self in the armor, with a plasma cannon pointed at Bart's head.
"The Reach cannot be stopped," Blue said with certainty.
"Jaime please!" Bart begged as tears rolled down his cheeks.
"Guess your mission was a failure," Blue taunted. "Now it's time to take this world to its inevitable end." Blue fired the plasma cannon, sending out a beam of light blue energy.***
Bart jolted awake. He looked around and saw that he was in Wayne Manor still, in the living room. He remembered that Tim said Nightwing would be back shortly and they could at least sit comfortably on the couches and chairs while they waited. They had all fallen asleep waiting for Nightwing, he was on a dark brown cloth couch, Gavin was on the other end of his couch, sleeping in the fetal position, Tim was on a matching chair across the coffee table from them, his head slumped down as he slept, but his legs were up on a footrest. They all had blankets laid over them.
"Those nightmares will kill you," Bria said, causing Bart to jump as he didn't see her near the archway to the dining room. She chuckled at him being startled. "Relax kid, I don't mean literally, you'll just run yourself ragged."
"Sorry if I kept you awake," Bart said and wiped the tears from his eyes.
"I don't sleep," Bria replied with a shrug. "At least it's not required anymore. I can if I want to or if my injuries are too great."
"Did Nightwing come back last night?" Bart asked, pulling the blanket off himself and swinging his legs off the couch and placing his feet onto the floor.
"No," Bria answered. "I've inspected every room in this mansion and it's just us and Alfred."
"I'm going to head for a shower," Bart said as he stood up.
"Knock yourself out," Bria replied. "I'm going to wait for these night owls to wake up and see if I can scare them like I scared you." Bria chuckled to herself as Bart made his way out of the living room.
Bart worked his way to the guest bedroom that he stayed in previously and hopped in the shower. The hot water and steam helped clear his mind of the horrible dream he just had. I can still save Jaime, he thought to himself. Bria has the answers we need. Once he finished his shower, he threw back on his clothing, as he didn't plan on spending the night, and he made his was back out to the living room. Gavin and Tim were both awake, but still groggy from their less than restful sleep. Bria was sitting in a chair next to Tim's chair.
"So, Bria," Bart started, earning the gaze of everyone in the room. "You said before that you were part of the cleansing thing to fix Blue in the past, right?"
"Not quite," Bria corrected. "I don't do magic; I was the one who brought Blue to be cleansed. My sister, Tali, was the one who cleansed him. Her and a bunch of chanting priests, smelly incense, a bunch of instruments, and the temple it was all done in."
"This temple wouldn't happen to be in Bialya would it?" Tim asked and wiped the sleepiness from his eyes.
"I don't honestly remember," Bria shrugged and rolled her eyes. "National borders changed so much over the years. I know it is somewhere in what is now called the Middle East, so if Bialya is there, then I suppose so."
"Good to know we can come to you for history and not geography," Gavin sassed and yawned. "Thanks for the blankets by the way."
"You don't know if that was me or Alfred," Bria said and gave Gavin a sideways look.
"Alfred usually wakes us up," Tim chimed in. "He'd rather we sleep in a bed, since he usually does some cleaning in the morning."
"It's nice to know that you care," Gavin teased Bria.
"As fun as this is," Bart interrupted before Bria could banter with Gavin. "What was that ritual and why did you help cleanse Blue in the past?"
"The ritual called on the goddess Isis," Bria explained. "My sister was her high priestess, still is to my knowledge but I haven't seen her in years." Bria saw Bart getting impatient and decided to not go off on a tangent. "With Ancient Egyptians revering scarabs, beetles, and animals in general, a lot of their spells could summon, augment, or heal them. So, since this Reach Scarab looked like an animal, they used a healing spell on it, to hopefully make it less homicidal, as it had an issue with murdering people in the past. They thought it was a gift from Khepri or Ra, it depends on which part of Egypt's era and region you were from. They thought it was another god or goddess sent from Ra to exact vengeance, like Sekhmet, so they thought by healing it of its bloodlust, they would appease Ra. At the time, I was under the magical control of my sister and they needed my strength to battle against Blue. I barely managed to win that battle, as I was a lot younger then and didn't know the full extent of my powers. I brought Blue to the temple and had to hold him in place for the ritual to work. Unknown to my sister, the cleansing ritual removed all foreign control over those in the circle, including me. So once the ritual was complete, I was free and got out of there. As much as I wanted revenge, I was outnumbered and in the same room as the person who controlled me before, so I needed to regroup. What they did with Blue after that, I don't know, but the ritual worked as there were no more killings from the Scarab."
"Calling on a goddess," Gavin sighed. "That kind of magic is extremely potent. I assume your sister had years of study to pull that off?"
"She wears an ankh," Bria said. "It makes her immortal and amplifies her magic through Isis. But yeah, she trained to be a priestess from little on up."
"What's an ankh?" Bart asked, earning another glance from everyone in the room. "Sorry, again a lot of history was lost in the future." He blushed slightly.
"It's like a cross," Tim answered. "But the top part isn't a straight line up, it's a loop. It really isn't used that much nowadays, except in Egyptian museums or souvenirs."
"It's actually a very useful symbol for any spell involving necromancy," Gavin chimed in. "It's a symbol for life and rebirth, so healing spells, communicating with the dead, even spells raising the dead are all helped by using the symbol."
"Doctor Fate's spells use the ankh as its symbol as well," Bria added. "Although his spells are a little flashy for my taste."
"Can your sister do the ritual again?" Bart asked as he tried to think of what to do next.
"HA!" Bria let out a sudden laugh. "I'm sure she could, but she'd never do anything for me, except try to kill me."
"Could you do the ritual Gavin?" Bart asked, getting a little more desperate.
"I could see if there is anything in my family's spell book," Gavin answered and brought his hand up to his chin to think. "They did have a spell to put a soul back in a body and they have some more advanced spells for resurrection, so I could possibly find something similar, but I'm not sure I'd have the power to pull something like that off."
"We have to do something!" Bart shouted and threw his arms out in frustration.
"We may have just got the last piece of the puzzle we needed," Tim said calmly. Everyone looked at him, awaiting elaboration. "Batgirl, Wondergirl, Bumblebee, and Miss Martian found a temple in Bialya with scarab imagery on a mission. Batgirl took holographic images of everything and Doctor Fate said it was an ancient cleansing ritual, but he couldn't do the spell because it used magic of Earth origin. Zatanna has been working through the spell to see if she can do it, but she keeps hitting roadblocks. Maybe with your knowledge," he nodded to Bria, "and your family's spell book," he gestured to Gavin, "she may be able to perform the ritual."
"Crash!" Bart exclaimed and fist pumped with both hands. "Time to crash that Scarab's mode!"
The front door to the manor opened and a conversation could be heard from the doorway.
"This isn't what we agreed to!" Wally yelled.
"Missions never go as planned!" Nightwing shouted back. "You know this Wally!" Just then Nightwing and Wally turned the corner and saw everyone in the living room, which brought an abrupt end to their argument. Nightwing was in his superhero gear, but Wally was in blue jeans, red sneakers, and a red t-shirt.
"Hey cuz!" Bart happily exclaimed and burst forward at superspeed to wrap Wally in a tight hug. "I didn't expect to see you here!"
"Hey Bart," Wally strained to say while in the vice grip. "I was just coming to Gotham to visit Paula and figured I'd see Dick first." Wally managed to free himself from Bart's hug, a small smile on his face.
"Everything go well last night?" Nightwing asked the group.
"Just peachy," Bria deadpanned. "Funny how things work out when a traitor isn't in the group."
"Hey!" Bart raised his voice and pointed a finger at Bria. "Blue isn't a traitor! He's a prisoner of the Reach!"
"Sorry," Bria said with a smirk and raised her arms in mock defense. "What I should have said is, 'Funny how things work out when someone criminally insane like the Joker doesn't show up.' Better?"
"I can fill you in," Tim chimed in to Nightwing. "I think Bria and Gavin need to head to Zatanna, I think they could really help with her spell research. Bart can head home so the Garricks don't worry."
"Oh!" Bart gasped and pulled out his phone. "I completely forgot to let them know how the mission went."
"Not a problem Bart," Wally said. "I talked to them this morning and they knew you were doing some sort of mission with Dick. We can give them a call on our way to the zeta tube."
"Thanks!" Bart sighed with relief; he really didn't want the Garricks to be sitting there worried about him. Just then, Bart's stomach growled, causing him to blush.
"How about some breakfast?" Wally asked with a chuckle. "There's a great waffle place on the way to Paula's."
"Sounds crash!" Bart replied and then turned to the room. "Catch up with you guys later! Keep me updated on that ritual."
"Will do," Gavin replied with a smile.
Bart and Wally worked their way out of Wayne Manor and into Gotham City.
Gotham City
May 15, 09:03 EDT
Bart and Wally took their seats in the small eating establishment. Bart looked down at the menu and saw the name of the place was "Caroline's Diner" and it certainly had a small family owned business feel to it, comfortable seating, secondhand table ware and light fixtures, and only two waitresses manning the whole place. Bart opened the menu and saw that the most expensive item on the whole thing was steak and eggs for $8.99.
"Crash!" Bart exclaimed as he glanced over the menu. "This place is so cheap! How did you manage to find this place?"
"It's right next to West Mercy Hospital," Wally answered and gestured out the window to the large Emergency Ambulance Bay on the front of the grey hospital. "Stay in the superhero life long enough and you learn where all the best places near to hospitals are." Wally picked up his menu and opened it.
"Sorry, didn't mean to make you feel the mode," Bart apologized and lowered his menu to look at Wally.
"You didn't," Wally lowered his own menu and smirked at Bart. "Just a fact of life, even non-superheroes have to go to hospitals from time-to-time." Wally was about to bring his menu back up in front of his face when he realized that Bart turned to look out the window at the hospital, looking a bit forlorn. "Everything alright Bart?"
"No," Bart sighed and looked back at Wally. He noticed that Wally was looking worried and intently at him. "I mean, it's totally crash now, but I feel like we got the answer to the question we've been asking but now we don't know how to fix it."
"What can I get you two boys?" The waitress asked the two of them as she raised her pen to her notepad. She had an older style, mustard yellow and brown striped waitress uniform, her brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, and her silver rimmed glasses over her brown eyes.
"A cup of coffee for me," Wally answered her. "A cup of orange juice for him," he gestured at Bart, "and a stack of three pancakes each. That should get us started while we decide if we need anything else." Wally smiled up at the waitress as she jotted down their order and made her way to the kitchen. "What question did you have answered?" Wally asked Bart after the waitress left.
"We needed to know if Jaime was back on mode," Bart explained, talking with his hands. "Like, a slave to the Reach back on mode. Thanks to Gavin, we found out that Jaime is trapped in his own mind by the Scarab, but we couldn't do anything while we were in there. Bria has the answer on how to free Jaime, but she doesn't have to ability to do it herself. I just feel so moded right now!" Bart could hear his own voice getting higher pitched and breaking with emotion as he explained it to Wally, but he couldn't do anything to fix that. He felt like he was failing at his mission and that the future was nowhere near what he hoped it would be. Bart could feel his eyes stinging again and he hated how weak he felt with how much crying he'd done since coming to the past. He put his face in his hands to try and hide how flustered he was in front of Wally and tried taking a deep breath to calm himself, even if it was a bit shaky.
Wally reached over and put a hand on Bart's arm, causing the younger boy to bring his hands down to look at him.
"It's going to be ok," Wally said in a level tone and kept eye contact with Bart. "From what I heard this morning, Zatanna is working on a solution. When Z works her mojo, there's nothing she can't do. And from everything you just said, Bria and Gavin can help her with the spell."
"It's just been hard to get anyone to believe me," Bart choked out. "I knew something wasn't right and only a handful of people would even listen, really only Superboy and Tim, and I'm not entirely sure they believed me at first either."
"Maybe they didn't believe you at first," Wally said with a shrug, keeping a hand on Bart's arm and maintaining eye contact. "But you stuck to your guns and now everyone knows you were right. Now the next step of fixing it can take place." Wally saw the waitress coming back to their table with their drinks and food. "Better look at this menu quick and decide what we want to eat," he said with a smirk and picked up his menu.
Both ordered larger meals, and the waitress disappeared to put their orders in.
"What does 'stuck to your guns' mean?" Bart asked after he swallowed a mouthful of pancakes drenched in syrup.
"Oh," Wally chuckled as he cut his pancakes up. "It means you kept doing what you thought was right, even when everyone else was telling you otherwise."
"Crash!" Bart exclaimed and kept working on his pancakes. "So, who is Paula?" Bart asked with a mouthful of food.
"Artemis' mom," Wally answered somberly. "She's having a really rough time recently and I just want to be there for her."
"Sorry," Bart said with a lot less enthusiasm. "I didn't mean to bring up anything you don't want to."
"It's no problem," Wally sighed and took a drink of his coffee. "Unfortunately, stuff like this happens with the superhero gig."
"Do you want any company with Paula?" Bart asked sincerely.
"No thanks," Wally answered. "I just let her show me photo albums and tell me stories about Artemis, then we talk about anything that comes to mind."
"Are you crash?" Bart asked in a surprisingly serious tone. "I know I have my own problems right now, but I'm here if you wanted to talk."
"Thanks Bart," Wally said with a warm smile. "But I'm good right now. I think these visits with Paula really help."
They both finished their breakfasts in relative silence, bringing up some idle chitchat here and there, but simply enjoying good food and company.
Central City
May 15, 11:54 CDT
Bart ran into Central City a little bit before lunch. He couldn't stop thinking about the wonderful spread Mrs. Garrick would have waiting for him and Mr. Garrick. At least she knows how much speedsters love to eat, he thought to himself. As Bart blurred through the city at superspeed, he came across STAR Labs building in Central City, it was very different from the one in Taos. This was built like a skyscraper, each floor a row of window that shone in the sunlight, at least they should have been, instead the building was a sickly red color and cop cars and SWAT vans were forming a perimeter around the block.
"What's the problemo officer?" Bart said as he skidded to a halt next to the police officer giving out orders to his men.
"Geez kid!" The officer exclaimed as he brought a hand up to his chest. "A villain by the name of Bloodwork has taken over the STAR Labs building. We aren't sure what he's here for. Who are you, by the way?" After giving his detailed report he then gave Bart a questioning look, as Impulse was still not known to a lot of people.
"The name's Impulse," Bart beamed as he announced himself. "Another speedster who's taken residence in Central City and I'm here to help!"
"Well unless you can get into the building," the officer explained, "you can't really help right now."
"This will be crash!" Bart yelled. "Watch this!" Bart took off toward STAR Labs at superspeed and phased through the windows. He realized that the red stuff he was running through was liquid, it was warm, and it was sticky. When he stopped running on the other side of the window, he looked down at himself. "Yuck!" He yelled as he vibrated himself at superspeed, throwing the red liquid from himself and into the room. "I guess the name 'Bloodwork' was more accurate than I thought." Bart unfortunately had too much experience with the stuff, most of it recently. He looked around the room he was in and found himself in the lobby. Everything looked normal, except for the coating of blood on everything. "Guess I should check the place out." Bart took off at superspeed and ran through the building, room by room. He didn't find anyone on the ground floor and up, it was when he checked the basement that he found the intruder.
A massive being, very similar to Clayface, except red in color was tearing open crates near the zeta tubes.
"It has to be here!" Bloodwork shouted as he threw down a red jar that rolled across the floor.
"Whatcha looking for BW?" Bart asked, causing the villain to turn around.
Bloodwork growled and stretched out his hand and the blood on the floor next to Bart rose like a tentacle. The tentacle attempted to grab Bart, but with his superspeed, he easily moved a few feet to his left and dodged the attack.
"Another speedster!" Bloodwork shouted. "There seems to be a large supply of you guys anymore!"
"There's always room for another speedster," Bart said and rushed toward Bloodwork in a blur. He stopped right in front of Bloodwork and let loose with a barrage of lightning fast punches into Bloodwork's torso. It felt like punching Jell-O, each hit simply sending shockwaves through the villain without doing any real damage.
Bloodwork raised his right arm and backhanded Bart, sending him flying back and into the wall. Bloodwork raised his left hand and the blood coating the walls wrapped around Bart like a cocoon, only leaving his head exposed.
"Maybe you should have talked to the Flash," Bloodwork mocked. "I'm completely invulnerable to damage." Bloodwork turned his back to Bart and began tearing through the crates sitting next to the zeta tube.
"Ow," Bart sighed as he looked around. The crates all had large Justice League marks on them, so they must have come from the Hall of Justice after it was destroyed by Despero. The largest crate was marked "Star Diamond" and was about the size of a minivan. He vibrated himself and phased through the wall behind himself, coming to stand in a lab. He saw a large bronze key sitting on a table, and after another glance, he saw that this room had no blood in it. He walked over and looked at the key, it was actually a gun of some sort. Crash! He thought to himself. I bet this will have blood bags feeling the mode. Bart picked up the blaster and phased through the wall again, making sure to move a few feet to the right to avoid the crimson cocoon.
Bloodwork was at another crate now, what looked like a human head laid on the floor, its bright orange hair, red eyes, and pointed ears gave it away as an android.
"I thought they would have sent it here!" Bloodwork cried as he brought both fists down on the crate, splintering it.
Bart aimed the blaster at Bloodwork and fired, but he wasn't use to firing a gun and the yellow ray missed its target and hit the diamond's crate. Instead of blasting the crate to bits, it enveloped the crate in a yellow glow and disassembled the crate. Nails pried themselves free of the wood planks and the crate fell apart like dominos, revealing a large multifaceted diamond within.
"That's it!" Bloodwork yelled and turned to Bart. "The Key's Key Gun!"
"That's really its name?" Bart asked sarcastically. "Kind of on point but not crash at all. Where's the explosions?"
"You fool!" Bloodwork shouted and three tendrils of blood shot from his torso toward Bart. Bart easily dodged each attack, never standing in the same spot twice. "The gun opens anything it hits, even unraveling its target if the proper settings are put in."
"Why a gun for that?" Bart asked and dodged another flurry of tendrils. "Seems kind of pointless hair-man-oh."
Bloodwork shrieked and charged toward Bart, calling more blood from the room to himself. He grew in size, until he was roughly twice the size of Bart.
"Why this gun thing?" Bart asked and ducked under Bloodwork's arm as he swung at his head. "Can't you just ooze into places as needed?" Bart sidestepped a downward swing from his opponent.
"You talk nearly as much as the Flash," Bloodwork growled as his hits kept missing their mark.
"Still doesn't answer my question," Bart sassed as he masterfully dodged the attacks. He felt a sudden pain in his chest, causing him to drop the Key Gun and double over in agony. He clutched his chest and gasped for breath, but the pain wouldn't subside.
"Normally that ability would stop the blood in a person," Bloodwork said in a calmer tone. Bart looked up at him and saw the hulking monster was gone, instead a person stood before him, still made of blood, but normal sized. His hands, forearms, feet, and shins were blue, like veins, with blood tendrils coming out of his back. "I guess being a speedster means your blood runs faster than a normal person's, so the power only slows you down to normal human speed." A tendril unnervingly moved and picked up the gun, passing it off to Bloodwork's hands. "As far as the gun is concerned, The Key was a master chemist and this weapon can effect objects and people at the atomic level. I've got a score to settle with a rival of mine and I can't quite kill him without this gun."
In a flash of red movement, the Key Gun was removed from Bloodwork's hands.
"Guess that grudge match will have to wait," Barry said as he stood behind Bloodwork. He looked down quickly at the gun and changed its settings at superspeed. He then aimed and fired it at Bart.
Bart felt the pain in his body leave him and he could breathe normally again.
"Thanks, gra…Flash!" Bart corrected himself as he stood up. "Now let's take this blood bag down!"
"I'm impervious to anything you can throw at me!" Bloodwork shouted and sent his tendrils after the two speedsters. The tendrils couldn't find their marks and smashed into the floor, the walls, or crates as the two speedsters came together.
"How did you beat this guy before?" Bart asked as he dodged a tendril.
"Lots of water," Barry answered and ducked from a swipe at his head.
"What about a vortex?" Bart asked and sidestepped.
"We're indoors," Barry answered and looked around. "Maybe we can trap him though." Barry's eyes saw the Star Diamond. "Let's do your vortex plan and aim him at that diamond."
Both Barry and Bart took off and ran at superspeed clockwise around Bloodwork. They gained speed quickly and soon Bloodwork was lifted off the ground, shouting in frustration the whole time. Barry and Bart changed their course and aimed their foe at the Star Diamond, sending him careening at the large gem. Bloodwork splattered across the surface of the diamond and reformed to stand next to it, keeping a hand on it to steady himself.
"Fools!" Bloodwork shouted at them. "There's nothing you can do that can hurt me!" Bloodwork went to remove his hand from the diamond to move towards the speedsters but found he couldn't. "What?!"
The blood on the walls, floor, and ceiling began to pool together and form tendrils. They weren't moving my Bloodwork's power, as he even looked surprised at their actions. The tendrils all arced toward the diamond, touching its surface and being absorbed into the gem. Bart could see that more blood was moving in from the rest of the building, seeping through the air ducts and under the doors, all moving towards the diamond.
"NO!" Bloodwork shouted as he was also being sucked into the diamond. He resisted with everything he could muster, but the power of the diamond was too much for him, and he soon was encased in the gem. The gem took on a blood red hue.
"Great job kid!" Barry complimented Bart and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Totally crash!" Bart shouted. "How did you know the diamond would do that?"
"A while ago," Barry explained, "a villain used the diamond to trap nearly the entire Justice League, thankfully Green Arrow got us out with a diamond tipped arrow."
"How did the gun stop me from feeling the mode though?" Bart turned to Barry and asked.
"The Key Gun does work on the atomic level, like Bloodwork said," Barry explained and sat the gun down on a desk. "Bloodwork was, essentially, locking your blood in place, so I changed its settings and unlocked it."
Bart yawned.
"You alright?" Barry asked, concern creeping into his voice.
"Just a little tired is all," Bart shrugged off the concern. "Pulled an all-nighter with Tim, Gavin, and Bria." Bart yawned again, not realizing how tired he was until now, his adrenaline leaving his body.
"Go get some sleep," Barry said and put his hand back on Bart's shoulder.
"Don't need to tell me twice!" Bart exclaimed and hugged Barry tightly, catching the older speedster off guard, but Barry quickly returned the hug. "See you later gramps!" Bart took off at superspeed and ran back towards the Garrick's house.