It was around 6 o'clock when Young Justice arrived at the forest where the DEO mentioned the escapees were. Robin landed the Super-Cycle in a small clearing in the forest. The group climbed out of the cycle and took a look around. Dark trees encircled the teen heroes from all sides with hand-like branches reaching out ominously. The sinister trees reached up to the sky blocking out the sun and the dry ground was covered in dead, crackled, foliage.
"Like something out of a horror story." Arrowette muttered under her breath. The truth was the area and the whole idea was really creeping her out. Sneaking around in the dark forest with DEO agents crawling all over it, searching for two-escaped subject, one of which was poisoned. She hated to think what lurked behind the amoral looking trees. Of course, she wasn't afraid. The place just creeped her out a little. Just a little.
"Imp," Robin whispered, he didn't want to speak too loud in case any DEO agents were nearby, "search the forest-" Before Robin could finish, and as predicted, Impulse was already gone.
"Right!" Impulse yelled as he ran at top speed to search the forest.
"Does he ever learn?" WonderGirl asked rudely placing her hands on her hips. She wanted to get the creatures and go already. WonderGirl was feeling a little wary as well. She was annoyed that she had to stay on guard and watch for DEO agents or an escapee. Not to metnion, none of the Young Justice members knew what this thing looked like or what its strange powers were. So, how were they ever supposed to find it? Maybe Secret will know a little about it. WonderGirl thought. Of course she wouldn't, Cassie you moron! She doesn't know it's name, it's powers, or what it-. Right then to interrupt her thoughts, Impulse came barging in through the woods into the clearing (mind you that these thoughts were taking place as she was speaking).
"HEY ROB!" Bart yelled so loud that the crows flew from their perches high up in the maple trees, "Whatdoyouwantmetosearchforagain? Iwasjustaboutto-" Robin grabbed Bart and clasped his hand over his mouth.
"Shut up you moron!" Rob hissed cruelly, "You want to give us away? Tell me when you become the next Flash so I can shoot myself before you screw up the world!" He let Impulse out of his grasp and turned him around, "Now go find out the locations of the DEO agents in this forest and do something right for once!"
Robin's harsh words stung Imp. Rob was supposed to be his friend, but how could he say such horrible things? The hurt was clear in his expression. Impulse slowly nodded his head and zwipped off to do as Rob had requested.
Arrowette was shocked and confused at what she had just overheard Robin say to Impulse. For God's sake, he was only two years old! This just kept getting weirder and weirder. First the outburst at the cave, now this? There was obviously something wrong with Robin.
Impulse sped through the dark foreboding woods with Rob's words still ringing in his ears. Tell me when you become the next Flash so I can shoot myself before you screw up the world! …do something right for once! "I was only trying to help." Impulse mumbled sadly, "I mean, he asked me to search the forest…although I didn't stay long enough to hear the rest." Whilst Bart quietly chatted with himself, he failed to see the object in front of him and promptly smacked into it. "OOF!" Imp flew backward and missed crashing into several trees when he hit a large wet rotting oak. The decaying bark crumbled as Bart hit the tree with an amazing force causing the speedster to fall inside the moist corroding wood. "oowwwww" He let out a pitiful cry, "Whad I hit?" He growled getting up a little. Impulse was having problems getting out of the inside of the tree when his hand started to itch a little. Then, his arm started to itch, then his legs, all the sudden he began to itch all over! He looked down at his arm to see that thousands of termites were covering his limb! "AHHHHHH!" Imp screamed and practically leapt out of the tree, for some reason he could get out of there easily now. The young speedster spun as fast as he could which made the termites fly off his body. When Imp stopped spinning, he heard loud shrieks from behind him. Bart turned around and saw a man rolling on the ground with termites on him.
"Get it off of me! GET IT OFF!" The man frantically tried to scrape the crawling insects off his skin. The force of the flight off the teenager had caused some of the bugs to break a few layers of the man's flesh leaving termite-shaped holes in it. "AHHHHH!!" The man screamed in utter horror.
"Oops." Bart went over to help the poor hysterical man when Robin's words came back in his head: …do something right for once! Imp frowned realizing that he had probably screwed this up. Impulse shook off his feelings of self-pity and started to pull the little bugs off the flailing man. When he noticed the hat that he wore said: D.E.O. He stopped to think for a minute, something he rarely did. He's from the D.E.O and I'm supposed to look for people from the D.E.O…what would Robin do? Bart pondered this for a minute. Than took another minute. The man was still panicking. "Ah ha!" The teenage speedster said triumphantly. "Tell me what you're doing here and what the escapees look like or I won't get the bugs off you!" Impulse smiled proudly.
"AHHH! No I—AHHH!! OK, OK!" He screamed starring at the tiny termites that covered his body. If it weren't for the man's immense fear of insects, he would've never told. Luck was certainly on Imp's side for this one. "We-we were spying on y-you! AHHH!! Get them off p-please!!!"
Bart felt pity for the man but needed the information, and giving in was not what Robin would've done. He took one termite off and chucked it to the side.
"The rest will come off after you've told me what I want to know." The sudden thought of himself dressed in the Robin costume popped into his head.
"O-ok! W-we were spying and waiting for y-you to get the escapee for us. T-then my partner a-and I would signal f-for the other agents to come and take the s-subject from youuuuu—AHHHHHH!!" The man screamed and grabbed the speedster, "J-just HELP ME!!"
