Part 3 Young Justice, Rocking to the Oldies.
A young fair-haired freckled teen ran up to Bartha.
"Hey, hey Bartha, wait up. It's me Ritchie. Remember I asked you to the Halloween dance?"
"Yeah I remember. I can't wait to go."
"Well I was just talking to my friends Potsie and Ralph, and they said that you'd go with them to the dance too. What's that all about?"
"Yeah. You guys just wait. I've got my moves down. I'll go between your legs and everything."
"Wow! With all of us! What they say about you is true!"
Impulse was proud that his dancing renown had spread so quickly.
"That's right guys, get ready to shake, rattle, and roll."
"Kon, what are you doing here?" Cass turned around, as Kon entered the home ed. class.
"Well I thought, what do I care what a bunch of geezers think."
"Tell me about it. Glad to have you back," Cass grabbed him by the arm and pulled him toward the countertop. "Here put your apron on."
He sighed and put the apron on." Ok I'll wear the apron. I'll wear a whole damn rain slick if I have to with Bartha in the kitchen."
Bartha was mixing up something in a bowl. He looked up upon hearing his name. "Hi Kon, glad to have you back. Hey I got a way to help you with your whole, not in the closet to begin with, problem thing."
"Ok I know I'm going to regret asking this but what's your way to help me?"
"You could ask me to the dance. You're practically the only guy at the school who hasn't asked me yet, and ya know your reputation is bad enough already. What with the earring and the cooking and all."
"Yup should have worn that rain slick, here I am drenched in bad news."
Anita looked around the parking lot. A large crowd had assembled. "Wow! there are over 100 people here, not bad for an impromptu protest march."
Cass looked at a clipboard, "Lana, how come so many of the people on this list are guys?"
"Your friend Bartha signed up. After the fellas heard she was going, they wanted to go too." Lana handed out placards and fliers to the crowd of protesters. "Where is she anyway? We start marching soon."
Then Bartha showed up. "Hey Lana, I helped you with your posters and stuff, see I made up signs."
Indeed Impulse had made up several signs. One said "Say No to March," others said "Beware the Eyes of March," "March is a Bad Month," "March Sucks," and an assortment of others along the same lines.
"Um... Bartha?" said Cassie, "We're going on a protest march, we're not protesting March."
"That's good cause I think it's a pretty hopeless cause. I mean so what if March sucks, it's not like you're ever going to get rid of it."
"Bartha all these guys showed up here because of you. Why do you keep saying yes to all of them, I mean considering...?"
"Don't worry Cissie, I got it covered. Once these guys see that I'm a really good dancer, they'll be glad they asked me to the dance just because of that."
"You think that they'll respect you... as a person... because of your dancing ability?"
"Yeah! Why not? "
"Bart that is hopelessly naive. You can tell that you haven't been a girl that long. "
Just then Robin showed up.
"Oh, surprised to see you here, with us messing up the space time continuum."
"Actually Cassie, I figured that you were right. Plus I'd hate to change our name to "Young I Don't Give a Damns."
"Your problem is you're too uptight." said Kon. "You've got to learn to live on the edge, do something risky."
"Whoa. Wait a second." Robin said as he saw a car pull up and park along side the curb. A man in a white shirt and tie, carrying a briefcase, jumped out of the car and rushed into a nearby building. Robin looked at his watch. "3:45 of course. Heh. You guys want to see something risky?" He motioned for them to wait and he headed off toward the automobile.
"What's he doing?" asked Anita.
Cissie, with her good eyes, started calling out a play by play of Robin's actions for the group "He's in front of the car. He just went and lifted up the hood. He's reaching into the engine compartment. Looks like he's getting something from his backpack. Now he's reaching back into the car. He's closed the hood."
Robin ran back to the group.
"First you bug us about this protesting, then you go and do an spur-of-the-moment auto repair. Isn't that going to mess up the space time continuum?" Anita scowled.
Then from across the street, they saw the man with the white shirt and tie run out of the building and jump into the car. The man went to turn the key in the ignition. In the next second, there was a loud bang, the engine hood folded slightly outward. The man in the white shirt and tie stared in disbelief. Then from out of the building, several men in dark suits and sunglasses came out. They dragged the man out of the car. From their vantage point, the Young Justice team could see cuffs being placed on the man. A moment later a car pulled up. The man with the white shirt and tie was put into the back seat surrounded on either side by the men in the dark suits and sunglasses. They drove off.
"What the hell was that all about?" Kon put his arms up in the air.
"He was a commie spy." Robin folded his arms across his chest.
"Oh you gotta be kidding me." Kon shook hiss head in disbelief.
"He was caught passing information to the Soviets six months ago. He's been hiding out from the feds, here in Smallville, Kansas ever since."
"What you did changed the space-time continuum. If you hadn't bombed his car he might have gotten away." Cass pointed out.
"Actually what I did didn't make any difference whatsoever. I was looking up old papers yesterday and I ran across an article about this incident. In it stated he didn't escape because his car failed to start. I just made sure the car would do, what it was going to do anyway, and I didn't use a bomb. I put a little TNT into one of the cylinders through the spark plug hole. Once the spark hits, combustion, then explosion. The engine block bursts apart. It renders the car useless and it's more psychotically intimidating than slashing tires."
"Rob mon, I must say that I'm impressed."
"Better dead than red," said Kon.
Bart replied, "That's a weird thing to say Kon, I know that this guy is a commie spy we don't know and Red is a semi cool android, we all know and like. But to say that that it would be better if this guy was dead than Red well... it's pretty morbid you ask me."
"Well I guess we should get back to making the world a better place. We've already fallen behind the other marchers." Robin headed off.
"Hey Kon," Cass said to him. "I know another oppressed group we can protest for."
"Don't even go there," Kon replied with a slight smirk his face.
They marched to the Town Hall.
"Wow." said Kon as they approached the building. "Looks like quite a crowd has gathered."
There were people surrounding the building, curious about what was going on.
"Hey looks like they even have TV coverage. Do you see that TV camera? It's huge. " Cissie pointed at it.
Robin retreated from the crowd and motioned for the others to follow him "We better remain in the back. We don't want to get noticed."
"Omigod, look! They're interviewing Bart," shouted Anita.
"So you feel that women deserve more opportunities?"
Bartha replied into the microphone of the television reporter, "I just want to be respected for my abilities. I am sick and tied of being treated like a sex object."
"You look quite handsome in your mustache, Robin." Secret floated around the group dressed in their Halloween costumes.
Robin sported a trim Errol Flynn style mustache. He was clothed in black, had black cape, and a mask similar to the one he normally wore. On his waist he banished a small rapier.
"Zorba, the Greek, right?" said Bart.
"It's Zorro, Bart," said Cass. She was dressed in a toga, and wearing a crown of laurel leaves.
Secret turned to Cissie "That's quite a nice mustache you have as well Cissie." Cissie wore a similar style mustache to Robin, as well as a goatee.
"Took his name as well, me being dressed as Robin Hood and all. I figured, why let Bart be the odd man out... so to speak."
"You're sure you don't want to come with us to the dance." Cass asked Secret.
"I'd like to stay with Kent's as long as I can. They're such a nice family."
Kon came out of the bathroom. He was wearing a large white puffy shirt, black pants, high boots, and there was a huge earring dangling from his ear.
Anita stared in astonishment "Oh my god! That outfit's going to do wonders for you reputation, Kon."
"I think you look good, Kon. Hey, you can be the pirate Captain Cook," said Cass.
"You guys go on ahead to the dance. I've still got to get my costume ready." Impulse motioned them away with his hands.
"How come you won't tell us what it is? You're not thinking of going in your costume are you." said Robin skeptically.
"No, it's nothing like that. You guys go on."
"C'mon guys we're late already," Kon said impatiently.
They piled into the high school gymnasium. Small tables were placed along the sides on the wall, some people were seated around them, most of the students, however, were on the dance floor.
"Wow, people really used to dance like that," said Cissie, looking on at the dance floor.
"Would you like to dance?" Kon asked.
Cissie replied, "I'd think Cassie might like to dance."
"That's who I was talking to. Shyeah right, like I'm going to ask Robin Hood to dance. That'll sink me."
Cass smiled, "Thanks for asking Kon, I guess... I'd love too." She joined him on the dance floor.
"Where the heck is Bartha?" A group of guys sat around impatiently. One of them called out pointing at the door, "There she is I betcha, that crazy chick that just came in, dressed in the tight black leather outfit. Man that is one kinky broad."
"Oh my god! He didn't" Robin stared in horror as Bart came into the room dressed as Batgirl.
Bartha immediately grabbed Ritchie by the arm and brought him out onto the dance floor.
"Bartha?" exclaimed Ritchie. Bart tugged the mask off his face and shoved it into his belt. He grabbed Ritchie by the hand and began to dance. Ritchie twirled Bartha around. Bart swung out and dived through his legs feet first popping up and twirling around on the other side of him. "Wow, you sure can dance!"
"Everybody's staring at you in that outfit." Cass looked up at Kon, while they danced together.
"Really? I hadn't noticed."
"Bull. You really don't care what these people think?"
"Actually, I was hoping somebody would make a disparaging remark about me."
"Really, why?"
"So I'd have an excuse to punch his lights out, show them what kind of man I really am." He smiled at this.
"Punching somebody's lights out doesn't make you any more of a man, Kon"
"No, but it'd make me feel better"
"Now walking into that class today, that, was very brave. That… was very manly of you."
"Manly of me?" Kon said with pride.
"It took a lot of courage, it wasn't just manly, hell it was super-manly." said Cass with a smile and a slight tinge of sarcasm.
"Yeah, I guess it really was."
"You sure are one swinging cat," Ike said to Anita as they danced together.
The song ended. Anita was tapped on the shoulder from behind. "Hello miss, remember me from earlier."
Anita turned around and looked at a young Superman. "Yes, Clark right?"
"May I have the next dance?" He asked as the music started up.
"It would be my pleasure," she said as she grabbed his hand, and placed her other hand on his shoulder.
"That's quite an outfit," he said, remarking on her skull and crossbones voodoo outfit. "Quite elaborate."
Clark wore a plain cowboy outfit. His cowboy hat looked a little too small and instead of carrying a gun at his side he sported a bullwhip. "Yours is quite nice too, Indiana."
"Kansas actually," Clark remarked. "It's simple, but to tell you the truth, I dislike wearing garish costumes."
Anita pointed to Robin, "So dressing like Zorro over there in a cape and everything wouldn't be for you?"
Clark looked at Robin and shook his head in response "No, not at all."
Potsie hollered as he danced with Bartha, "You really know how to twist it sister."
"Twisted Sister? That's not for anther 25 years or so, and come on, my makeup isn't that bad, is it? Just a second, I'll redo it"
A short while later Bart came to one of the tables where the Young Justice wallflowers sat.
"Do I need a repair job Ciss?" he said pointed toward his face, "Is my makeup streaky again?"
"You look fine to me." She motioned to a group of boys seated in a far corner, "You seem really popular."
He seemed delighted, "Yeah all the guys are really anxious to dance with me. They say they could dance all night with me," He took a soda Cissie handed to him, "and you said my dancing skills wouldn't win them over."
Robin piped in, "Why Batgirl, for heavens sake? She doesn't exist in this time period and the space time continuum-"
"Oh come off it Robin," Impulse chirped, "wouldn't you like to be Batgirl?"
Robin considered for a moment Batgirl's complete mastery of the combat arts. A skill he admired if not envied, "That's not the point."
"Hey Robin, you wanna dance?" Impulse said suddenly, changing the subject.
"Sure," said Cissie standing, "Robin Hood will dance with you."
"Shyeah right," said Impulse, "Like I'm going to dance with a girl. What would people think of me?"
"You mean you're asking me to dance?" Robin's eyes widened.
Cissie interjected, "Bart I'm dressed as a guy, so it kind of cancels out the whole implication thing."
"Ya think?"
"Believe me she's right." Robin pushed Bart toward her, " Besides I'd rather she danced with you, than me having to."
"Well ok" Bart said. He and Cissie headed out onto the dance floor.
Later walking to the farmhouse.
"This is amazing." Robin seemed exasperated, "This was the night I figured for sure something was going to happen, what with it being Halloween and all"
"Yeah!" said Anita "I feel tricked or cheated... um."
"I dunno something about it being Halloween with the full moon and everything. It's kind of romantic." Cass looked up at the full moon.
"Halloween romantic?" Kon turned to her puzzled.
"Yeah," said Cassie trying to cover herself with a joke. "I just love it to death, uh never mind."
"And you said couple dancing wasn't sexy." Cissie whispered in Cassie's ear. All Cassie could do was give her a grim smile in return.
"Bartha how did you get all those guys off your back?" Kon asked
"They were too blown away by my dazzling dancing moves, that was enough for 'em"
"Actually Bart, I told them we'd meet them at make out point." Cissie intruded.
"What? I don't wanna go to make out point." Impulse was alarmed.
"Duh Bart!" said Cissie slapping her forehead." We don't go. They show up and we're not there. Get it?
Cassie threw her arms up into the air, "It's right up there with "I'm washing my hair tonight. "You have to learn these things if you wanna be a girl, Bart."
"You mean she really wasn't washing her hair?" said Kon, "I always wondered why that took up the whole evening."
Emmett Brown's farmhouse was quite small. Emmett Brown's corpse was kept in the bedroom where he died. Needless to say no one wished to sleep in that room. The Young Justice gang slept on mats on the floor of the living room. It was not as comfortable as their beds at home, yet it was far from uncomfortable. The group slept soundly except for Cass. It was not that she found the floor uncomfortable, or that empresses occasional snoring kept her awake. Cass stared at Kon as he slept. She had thought about him many times in her own bed at night but she had always managed to fall asleep, but now that he was here before her she couldn't bring herself to close her eyes. Even though he now a huge scar running down the side of his face, she couldn't help but gaze at him, he was beautiful, so still, more attractive now than ever. And all she could do was worry that he would die on her. She feared that if she closed her eyes, she might never see him again. At any moment Clark could be killed, and that was tragic enough, but then... No, she couldn't think about it. She had to stop this and get some sleep. Lying there, worrying and staring at him was doing absolutely no good. Suddenly it seemed to her like Superboy way looking paler. Then he began turn very decidedly green. Then, she noticed, he didn't seem to be breathing either. Her eyes widened in horror.
"Everybody wake up!" she screamed. She jumped on top of him, "Kon! Kon! Wake up! Wake up!" There was no response. Immediately they were all awake, "He isn't breathing..."Cass cradled Kon's head in her arms. Immediately she began to do mouth to mouth resuscitation.
Robin commanded, "Impulse scout outside see what's happening."
Immediately Bart was outside. He saw what looked like a silver Delorian in the distance. Its speed was impressive but nothing he couldn't match. Before he could run after it, the car crackled in electricity and disappeared from sight, leaving two flaming tire tracks in it wake.
Impulse was turning to run back inside the house when he slammed into a huge piece of kryptonite, several times his height. "Uh oh," he said. He rushed back into the house and yelled, "Robin come outside quick."
Robin left Kon's side, leaving his care to Cass and Cissie.
Cass was hysterical as she administered the breaths to Kon. "Please Kon, wake up, please."
It was a while before she noticed Robin shaking her. "What? What? Leave me alone, we've got to help Kon."
"There's a chunk of kryptonite outside the size of Toledo. You're the only one with enough strength to fly it out of here." The message took a while to sink in. She stopped her breaths and flew outside.
There it was before her, a huge chunk of kryptonite. "Holy Toledo!" she yelled. She picked it up and flew off with it. She noticed immediately she was heading in the direction on the Kent's farm, where she definitely didn't want to go. So she started to fly strait upwards. She thought briefly, "Now where can I put this." then an idea come to her. She put her lips together and whistled. The cycle immediately followed, flying up to greet Cassie. Cassie hopped in the cycle. "Now I should be able to fly…" She didn't complete the thought before everything shimmered around her. Her environment changed completely. She was in a flat, barren, and desolate land. All around he she could see the horizon, as far as the eye could see she could find no sign of life of any kind. "This looks like someplace where this kryptonite will do no harm." She tossed the kryptonite out of the cycle. The moment she did so, the world around her began to shimmer once again. She was back at the farmhouse. She ran back inside. "Please be ok, please don't be dead."
"His heart's stopped." She could see Robin and Cissie working frantically over Kon. "Damn it, we need real medical equipment," with that Robin rushed out.
Cass jumped in to replace him she cradled Superboy's head. "Don't be dead Kon, please wake up."
"Man I don't feel so good." Kon work up and looked around him. He was in a hospital style bed hooked up to a lot of medical equipment with sensors and wires and tubes strung about him.
"Kon you're awake!" Cass shouted.
"See I told you," said Anita.
"I've been kryptonited right. I know those headaches."
"You could be dead, my friend, if you didn't have the good fortune of Cass awakening suddenly in the night to notice you'd stopped breathing. Well it's a wonder you survived or Superman for that matter. "
"Where are we?" Kon looked around the room.
"Back to the future, Kon. Back in Happy Harbor." Cass replied.
"So we did it then! We saved Superman. Now if someone could fill me in on how we got here, and how we beat the bad guy."
"The bad guy got away." said Robin.
"Oh."
"So you were all but dead when I rushed out to get the cycle but I guess it already sensed you needed it. It phased into where you guys were and brought you back here."
"It left you back in the past?"
"Robin stayed behind to clean up any presence of our being there."
"How did you know the cycle would go back to pick you up again?"
"A hunch."
"And I thought you didn't take risks. What the heck is this contraption I'm hooked up to?"
"It's from Cadmus. It's to restore your strength if you get injured. I figured it'd be handy to have one around. Both Cass and Anita know how to operate it," said Robin. "If I'm going to take risks then I'm going to be prepared. Then I'm prepared to take risks."
"And Supes?"
"Well I called him after we got back and asked him. He said that after one Halloween dance he remembers coming home, and that night and the next day. Was the first time he can remember getting sick. But he was a lot further away from that huge piece of kryptonite than you were, so he wasn't nearly as effected as you. You're lucky to be alive."
"Huge? How big?"
"I'll tell you about it later." said Cass.
"Hey guys," Impulse came into the room. His transistor radio was playing loudly "...don't take money, don't take fame, don't need no credit card to ride this train..." The music on my radio sucks since we got back.
"Give it here." Anita said grabbing it and turning one of the knobs. "These aren't just decorative ya know."
"They aren't?"
Finally she settled on a station, "...people passing by you know they stop and say, well man that little country boy sure can play, go go, go Johnny go go go..." This should be more to your liking."
"Gosh, thanks Anita." Bart looked up at Kon in bed." Kon! You're awake. Wow, you're looking a lot better"
"I could say the same thing about you." Kon noticed that he no longer had on girl's cloths.
"Hey guys come here!" shouted Secret from the rec. room.
Kon started peeling the wires and tubes off him.
"Kon you shouldn't." Cass motioned for Kon to remain in bed.
"I'll be ok," said Kon, "I'm not going to sit around dwelling on my injury. I'm going to tough it out like a man."
"That's not really sensible Kon, you should be resting."
"What? You want me to sit around whining, the object of pity, like some girl?" he stormed off to the rec. room.
Cass sighed "You had to go and ruin everything by saying something like that."
The gang piled out into the rec. room. On the large TV screen, black and white footage was being shown.
"Look, they're showing protests from the 50's and 60's. There's one from Smallville. You guys are in it." Indeed they could see themselves in the background.
The picture changed as a young brunette was interviewed
Immediately Impulse was enthralled, "Wow! Who's she? How come I didn't notice her before? Man, she's really hot."
"Young Justice in the Fifties" m