Disclaimer: I don't own Justice League Unlimited

Rest and Relaxation

Chapter Five: New Game, New Rules

Bart didn't even notice the angered yells of the people of Central City as he sucked their belongings from their person with a gust of wind. Even if he had, he wouldn't have stopped. He was having the time of his life as Impulse.

He smiled as it hit him again.

Bart Allen. Was a superhero.

And he was patrolling his city. His city. Okay, technically it was his elder cousin's city, but as far as Bart was concerned, right at that moment, it might as well have been his city. All of his life he had felt slightly restless, as though he should have been doing something else. He had simply thought it some annoying habit of his that was only getting worse as he got older.

But now, he understood. In some unconscious way, Bart knew he was going to get these powers, just as he knew now that he was destined to help people. Ever since he was old enough to understand his uncle's police stories and seen superheroes like Superman and the Teen Titans saving the day on a regular basis, he had wanted to help people. Maybe not in this exact way, but now that he had these powers, he wasn't about to complain.

He turned another corner sharply, once again oblivious to the loud protestations of the drivers in their cars. He only stopped when he heard the noise of one car colliding with another. Freezing in his tracks, he turned to look at the wreckage.

"Oops."

He sped over to the two mangled cars. Thankfully, it was only a minor collision and the passengers where out of their vehicles giving him death glares as he approached. Nervously raising his hands, the teenage speedster backed away slowly.

"Heh… sorry about that…"

Bart quickly turned on his heel and sped away, hoping that he would be of some better use elsewhere. As he sped away, he didn't notice the angry shout from a man whose toupee had been blown off.

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"Ooo, that looks nasty."

Flash hissed through his teeth as saw the trail of devastation that had (however unintentionally) been left in Impulse's superspeed wake. Trying to avoid John's accusatory glare, he made his way over to the various bystanders who were collecting up their belongings from the sidewalk.

"Hey guys. Can I help you with that?"

Their faces lit up instantly at the sight of the speedster, all of them crowding around him with questions.

"Oh, Flash, am I glad to see you!"

"There was some kid running about causing trouble; real tiny, snotty looking kid, too."

"Are you kidding? He was about seven feet tall! He was huge!"

"You're both wrong; he was average height, but he had the build of a wrestler."

Flash raised his hands to stop the downpour of information. "Woah, woah, guys, guys… calm down. I just want to know which way he went, and how long ago he passed by."

"A few minutes ago, and that way."

"Yup, pretty much."

"That seems about right, yeah."

Wally's Flash grin shone as he handed some papers to one of the crowd around him. "Thanks guys. You've been a great help. I'll see you later, okay?"

He gave the crowd a wink before turning to GL and indicating the direction in which they needed to go. With an eyebrow seemingly permanently cocked, John flew in pursuit of the speedster as he ran in that direction. Floating alongside him, he made sure he was close enough to Wally so that the speedster could hear what he was saying.

"Since when did you have such a good rapport with the public? Last time I saw you talking to civilians in costume, you were only there to flirt with them."

"Yeah, well… I just thought it was time for a change, y'know?"

John didn't respond right away, taken aback by the maturity of the statement. "So when did this happen?"

"You remember that first year when the League expanded and I wasn't around too much?"

"Yeah?"

"That was when," he said nonchalantly.

John nodded, impressed, and then turned his attention back to the road ahead. As they approached a turning, he saw two cars with their fronts wrapped around each other.

"I think it's safe to say Bart came this way," John said, and Wally smiled.

"I guess this is gonna be more trouble than I thought, huh?"

John sighed as they both turned the corner. "Maybe." John frowned. "I'm more worried about Bart running into the Top."

Wally's eyes widened as he came to a halt. "Now that's a point…" He scratched his chin in thought, looking up and down the street. "This isn't gonna work. By the time we catch up with him, he could be in a world of trouble."

John nodded. "I'll see if I can find him from the sky."

"Aye, skipper," Flash responded, giving him a salute and a wink.

John opened his mouth to tell his speedster friend about how he didn't appreciate Wally's jibes about his military days, but decided against it. The Lantern had given Wally too much damaging information concerning those days anyway. He didn't need Flash getting angry at him and telling everyone is old nickname from before his marine days.

Shuddering at the thought, John just shook his head and took to the sky, looking over the city with glowing emerald eyes.

Nothing.

Grumbling, he put his hand to his ear piece.

"I've got nothing."

Wally sighed on the other end. "Well, let's keep on looking. Bart can't keep out of sight forever."

John brought his hand away from his earpiece. Taking another look around the city, he saw Wally take off down the road in search of his younger cousin. Sighing, he went on his way over the city, scanning the streets as best he could.

Meanwhile on ground level, Wally sped through the streets of Central City without the trademark Flash grin on his face.

"Dammit Bart, where-?"

A high pitched screech interrupted his thoughts, and he quickly made a u-turn in the direction of the scream. He put his fingers to his earpiece.

"John-"

"Heard it. I'm on my way."

Flash sped around the corner and into Central City Park, his eyes frantically scanning the area for the source of the noise. An old lady stared up at a tree with concerned eyes, and Wally saw the reason; a white and tan brown cat was up in the tree. After recognising the woman, he sped over, plastering a polite smile on his face.

"Hey, Enid. What's up?"

She turned to him and smiled. "Oh, Flash! Could you get Johnny out of the tree for me?"

He nodded, but paused before climbing up the tree. "How'd he get up there?"

The old lady scowled, a facial expression that seemed out of place on her gentle features. "Some young hooligan as fast as you came shooting through here, scaring Johnny into the tree!"

The speedster sighed and put a hand to his head. "Bart, Bart, Bart…"

"Do you know him?"

"Uh… kinda… lemme just get Johnny down for you."

John landed behind the two, and Enid seemed slightly taken aback by his sudden appearance. She looked up at Wally, who was halfway up the tree, struggling to find a foothold for his left boot.

"Do you know him?" she asked, pointing to John, all the while keeping her eyes on the speedster.

He quickly glanced back and smiled. "Yeah. That's Green Lantern. He's a buddy of mine from the League."

"Oh, I see," she said, grinning. "Pleased to meet you."

John nodded respectfully, not sure what to say to the old woman. "Ma'am."

"Ah! There you go, Johnny." Wally said with satisfaction, now having a firm grasp on the feline.

John frowned. "Huh?"

"What?"

"You said my name."

"No I didn't."

"I distinctly heard you say 'John'."

"No, I said 'Johnny'. It's the cat's name."

He looked down at Enid for confirmation, who nodded with a smile. John grumbled as he crossed his arms, looking out over the park with annoyed eyes.

"O-kay, now let's just… uh… ah… AAAAH!"

John looked up in time to see Wally crashing to the ground, and promptly resisted the urge to seem unprofessional and laugh in the speedster's face. Johnny the cat leapt from Wally's arms and into Enid's, purring contently.

"Thank you, Flash," she said, smiling gratefully at him.

"No problem," he said, dusting himself off as he got to his feet. "Did you see which way the boy went?"

Enid nodded, and pointed to the west side of the Park. With a wink and a grin, Wally turned and prepared himself to speed away, but paused. He turned back to Enid, a polite smile on his face.

"Say, Enid. Do you always call him Johnny?"

"Well, I call him John sometimes, but only when he's been a bad kitty."

Visibly fighting for control of the smile threatening to spread over his face, Wally just nodded. "Huh. I see. Well, thank you Enid." He looked over at John and winked. "Come on, Johnny," Wally said, breaking into a fit of giggles as he sped away.

John sighed and shook his head, a scowl working its way on to his face. Enid leaned over to talk to him.

"Isn't he wonderful? He must be nice to work with."

"Oh yeah. He's a real hoot."

After a polite nod to Enid, John activated a green field of energy around his body and took off in pursuit of the speedster, who was still giggling away as he ran back into the City.

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"I think he's been here, too."

John floated down to the ground beside Wally, cocking an eyebrow at the newspaper stand before them. Said newspaper vendor was irritably picking up magazines and newspapers that had been strewn about the sidewalk, as though a strong gust of wind had come through.

"You think?" John said, cocking an eyebrow.

Wally put up his hands defensively. "Hey, hey. It's not like it's my fault that Bart got super speed."

John looked over at the speedster, his expression a complete portrait of disbelief.

All right, that's it.

"Not your fault? Flash, you saw the storm clouds coming towards the building on an otherwise sunny day. You wheeled the same chemicals that gave you your powers to the same window where you were stood when lightning struck you. Then, you lead Bart over there, where - and here's the surprise – he got struck by lightning! Tell me, how is this not your fault?"

Flash paused, his face unreadable. Suddenly, he smiled, letting out a fond sigh. "I've missed this."

"Missed what?"

"This," Wally emphasised with a grin, wagging his finger back and forth between the two of them. "You, yelling at me for doing stupid stuff. We never do that anymore."

John crossed his arms. "I think Shayera's taken over that position…"

Wally smiled and nodded. "Oh, so that's what this is about…"

"What?"

"I thought you came here because of Shayera and that Hawkman guy."

"I- no I didn't."

"I know. You're here because of me."

John scowled. "What?"

"It's like a custody battle kinda thing. You and Shayera broke up, and now you're fighting over me. It's sweet, really, but I gotta say, it's kinda weird."

John's face contorted into several different emotions, as though he were trying on different expressions for size.

"But I didn't come for that!"

Wally smiled, obviously enjoying this. "John, John… it's okay. I'm likeable kind of guy. It's okay for you to want to keep me around."

John struggled to find the correct words to express his feelings as his rage choked him.

"But- I-! You…! He-! What…! I-!"

Wally's smile disappeared as he put a finger to his lips. "Shhhh."

John was instantly silent as his ears perked up, searching for the noise that Wally had detected. Hearing nothing, he looked at the speedster incredulously.

"What?"

Wally put his fingers to his lips and then raised it before his face in a 'wait a minute' gesture. Slowly but surely, John began to hear the noise of… something approaching. Wally crept to the edge of the sidewalk and peeked around the corner to look down the street on their right.

Pulling his head back quickly, he gestured for John to get ready.

"It's him. Get ready to catch him."

John's expression grew slightly concerned. "Catch him? Why, what are you going to-?"

Before he could continue, Wally darted into the middle of the street, his leg extended outwards. The approaching blur or Impulse tripped up on Wally's leg and went flying into the air. Using honed reflexes, John activated his ring and caught the young speedster in a bubble of green energy.

Bart shook his head to reorient himself.

"Hey, what the-?"

He looked down and saw John and Wally, both of them with displeased looks on their faces.

"Hey guys. How'd the meeting go?"

Wally scowled, and it was something new for John to see. Sure, he had seen Flash's 'I hate you for saying something embarrassing' glare, but this was a totally different type. This looked like a Superman 'I'm going to ground Kara to the farm for a year' glare.

If he was honest, it scared him a little bit.

"The meeting went fine. They said you could stay here and work with me," Wally said, and Bart pumped the air in triumph. "…though I'm beginning to think that was a bad idea."

Bart's face fell. "Huh? Why?"

"Why? Look!" Wally said, gesturing to the newspaper vendor on the street corner. "I've seen cats scared up trees, important business files that peoples' jobs depend on thrown all over the place, and car crashes! Car crashes! People could have been killed!"

"Uh… well-"

Wally looked over to John and nodded at him to let Bart out of the bubble. John lowered him to the ground and then removed the bubble. Sheepishly, the costumed hero Impulse made his way over to John and Wally, both of them with their arms folded in front of them like disapproving parents.

"Hey, I was only trying to help," he said, though sounding increasingly unsure of himself as he spoke.

Wally sighed. "I know, Bart. But you've got to think before you do this stuff. If we go too fast, we cause all kinds of trouble without even noticing. That's okay if there's some emergency somewhere, but you've still gotta be careful. When I can, I stick to the rules of the road."

John cocked an eyebrow. "So you stop at traffic lights?"

Wally shrugged. "Yeah, sure. If it's just a patrol."

Despite finding the image of Wally jogging on the spot at traffic lights highly amusing, John resolved to remain silent.

Bart looked down to the ground sheepishly. "I guess this means I won't be your sidekick, huh?"

Wally sighed and knelt before his younger cousin. "Look, Bart… I just think you need a little more practice before you're put out on the streets by yourself."

"But if I'm with you, I won't be by myself."

"I'm not always gonna be here, Bart. I might be away with the League, or the Ti-"

Wally stopped in mid-sentence and grinned. John looked at him curiously, mirroring Bart's expression of confusion.

"Flash?"

Wally looked over at John. "Watson, I just had a splendid idea."

Bart and John waited for some kind of elaboration, and when none came, decided to intervene.

"Well?" they asked simultaneously, knocking Wally from whatever reverie he had sucked himself into. He shook his head and looked at the two.

"Sorry. Yeah, Impulse could join the-"

An explosion from downtown cut him off yet again, and drew their attention to a plume of smoke in the distance. Wally stood to his full height, keeping his eyes on the billowing smoke.

"Top," Wally said, though he had no way of knowing for certain. John nodded and powered up the aura around his body, taking off for the scene of the crime.

Wally turned to Bart. "We'll talk about it later. Right now, I want you to go to my apartment and stay there, okay?"

"But I can help-"

"Bart, please. If something happened to you…" Wally paused. "Well, I wouldn't want that to happen. Okay?"

Impulse sighed. "All right," he mumbled, kicking up some dirt from the sidewalk.

With a satisfied nod, the Flash turned and headed towards the source of the explosion, quickly disappearing from view.

Bart smiled. "He said to go back to his apartment… he didn't say when I had to go back to his apartment."

And with that, the Fastest Boy Alive followed his elder cousin to the battle.

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John cleared the roof of a skyscraper and saw the explanation for the explosion. An overturned police car was churning out thick black smoke as the two previous occupants of the vehicle lay unconscious on the ground next to it.

Seeing the culprit responsible spinning out of the way of police weapons fire, John scowled and made his way down to ground level. Top managed to incapacitate the offending police officers before John encased the spinning villain in a green bubble, who instantly stopped to look at him, a curious smirk on his face.

"Ah. I'd heard you were in town. 'Bunking in' with the Flash or some such, I suppose?"

John didn't reply.

"Ah-ha, very good. Never let your enemy disorient you with inane chatter." He looked down at the ground and traced up to where John was stood. He let out an impressed grunt. "You must know about my new ability; you've put yourself far away, hoping to put yourself out of range."

His smirk intensified. "Nice try."

John's firm scowl became a grimace of displeasure as his world was tipped upside down, his stomach contents begging to tip up with it. His concentration lost, the bubble around the Top faded to nothing, and the villain grinned maliciously.

Turning faster and faster until he became a miniature tornado of green and yellow, the Top charged forward and slammed into John, tossing him aside like a rag doll. Unable to focus, John couldn't put up a force field in time to shield him from the impact against the wall. Still conscious, John managed to throw up his lunch before he saw the Top approaching again, closing in for the kill.

A red blur slammed into the spinning Top, sending him hurtling off to the side. Wally came to a halt in front of John.

"You okay?"

John groaned and nodded, still struggling to get to his feet. Wally nodded in response and charged towards Top again.

Going into a spin, Top managed to divert Flash as he reached him, tossing him into the wall of the building opposite. Wally quickly recovered and turned to face the Top.

"What's the matter, Top? No hoity-toity upper class 'I'm better than you' crap?"

The villain smirked. "Not today."

Wally shrugged and charged forward again. A familiar bout of nausea suddenly overcame the speedster, causing him to trip and fall, skidding across the street until he came to a halt in front of the still recovering John. Top walked towards the two, confident in his victory.

"You see… this is why I am better than Cold and Mirror Master and the others. They couldn't beat two of the original seven Leaguers. They couldn't even beat you," he said, looking down at Flash with disdain.

"Hey, I'm a pretty impressive superhero. It's not a bad thing they couldn't beat me. Even you couldn't beat me, Dillon. And you still haven't."

The Top ground his teeth, effectively distracted enough so that John could put his plan into action. Silently praying for Wally to keep up the chatter, John tried his utmost to concentrate through the spinning and blurring perceptions his eyes were feeding him.

"In fact, I have to say you're the easiest one to beat most of the time!"

Using his ring, John aimed at a fire hydrant on the other side of the street. Slowly wrapping a beam of light around the fire hydrant, he got to work pulling it from the sidewalk to which it was attached.

"Hey, stripey!"

Top turned to see Impulse stood up the street, his hands on his hips. Wally buried his head in his hands.

"Oh no…"

Distracted, Top's powers waned slightly, giving John and Wally a brief respite from the waves of nausea that were once pounding through them. Using all the strength he could muster, John wrenched the fire hydrant from the sidewalk and tossed it at the Top.

Unfortunately, the Top had begun walking towards Bart just as John tossed the hydrant, accidentally managing to avoid it completely as it passed behind his back and into the wall above Wally and John. They both covered their heads as they were sprayed in dust and chunks of brick.

Wally coughed irritably. "A fire hydrant? That was your big plan?"

John coughed back, scowling at the speedster. "I didn't see you coming up with anything better."

"I could have done better than a freakin' fire hydrant!"

"I-"

The bickering heroes were cut off by another bout of nausea and dizziness, hatefully administered by the smirking Top, who had taken to completely ignoring Impulse.

"Hey! Buddy!"

Top turned in time to be see a white and red blur slamming into him at full speed, knocking him backwards. Bart came to a halt next to the downed Wally and John, who were still recovering from the vicious attack from the Top.

Impulse sucked up his fear with a deep breath and charged towards the recovering Top, who was struggling to his feet. Top held up his hand.

"Spin."

The entire world went upside down, and Bart went off course, running headlong into a parked car behind the Top. The villain turned on his heel, smirking the entire time as he continued to send wave after wave of nausea through the teenager.

"The Fastest Man Alive couldn't beat me. Why would you think the Fastest Boy Alive could? Who do you think you are? Kid Flash?"

"I'm… Impulse…"

Top laughed derisively. "'Impulse'? What kind of idiotic name is that?" He turned to Flash and Green Lantern, who were trying to get to their feet, and once again manipulated their perceptions, dropping them to the floor.

"Did you two give him that name? Hilarious!" He turned back to Bart.

"At least the original Kid Flash was doing it out of respect. What are you being Impulse for? Kicks?"

Bart struggled off the front of the chewed up car, landing in a crouch. He attempted to get to his feet, and fell backwards. Top smiled, waving his hand dismissively.

"Don't even try. I can bend and twist the way your retinas interpret light rays. Effectively…"

He knelt down in front of the struggling teenage speedster. "…I can turn your world upside down… and inside out."

Bart froze as something occurred to him.

…the way my eyes interpret light rays…

Suddenly, Impulse stood to his full height.

Wally and John frowned in confusion, sharing the Top's slowly panicking expression. He tried to send another wave through the boy, with no result.

He backed up as Bart took a step forward. Wally grinned.

"He closed his eyes…"

John looked over at Wally. "What?"

"Top's messing with the way our eyes interpret the stuff around us. So if we close our eyes…"

John paused. "I'm feeling pretty stupid right now," he sighed.

"Ditto," Wally replied, closing his eyes and getting to his feet.

The Top's eyes widened. "What… how are you…"

Bart smirked. "Buddy, I'm being Impulse because I want to be. Because I want to help people. I'm a superhero now. And guess what superheroes do, buddy."

Bart leapt up and kicked out with his right leg, knocking Top in the chin with his boot. He stumbled back, disoriented. He felt a tap on his shoulder, and turned in time to see a gloved red fist, soon replaced with blackness.

The three heroes steadily opened their eyes, and breathed a collective sigh of relief when they saw the Top unconscious on the floor. Acting quickly, John encased him in a bubble of green energy.

"I'll take him to jail before he wakes up."

Wally nodded. "Take him to Iron Heights; they'll be able to handle him there."

"Right." John looked over to Impulse, who was still looking down at the Top in amazement. "You did good, kid."

He flew away, taking the villain with him. Wally put a hand on the shell-shocked speedster's shoulder.

"C'mon. I've got an iced mocha at my place with your name on it."

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Bart sipped contentedly on his iced mocha, happy to be out of costume, at least for the moment. John had returned about half an hour after they had arrived at Wally's apartment, and seemed equally happy to put on some normal clothes.

Not to mention the compulsory iced mocha.

"They've got a special cell rigged up for the Top; he won't be escaping any time soon."

Wally shrugged. "He'll get out eventually. They always do. But at least we know how to fight him now." He put a hand on Bart's shoulder, who was sat down on the sofa. "Thanks to my new partner there."

Bart's eyes lit up. "You're kidding."

"Nope," Wally replied, shaking his head. "You pretty much proved you can handle yourself, just with a bit more practice. But, I do have one condition."

Bart's face fell. "What?"

"You have to join the Teen Titans for training."

Bart seemed to take this as a punishment at first, but then his face came back up again. Then went back to sadness, then happiness again. Finally, he settled on confusion.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"Well, you've got Cyborg teaching you, so that's good. But you've got Beast Boy teaching you too, to that's bad. It's kinda both."

Bart seemed slightly ambivalent. John cocked an eyebrow.

"Something wrong, kid? I know plenty of people who would love to join the Titans."

"Well, I was just wondering about something."

Wally prepared himself for the worst.

"The Top said that Kid Flash was doing the superhero stuff out of respect for the Flash. And, since you were Kid Flash, then…"

Wally could see where this was going.

"…was my dad the Flash?"

The Scarlet Speedster anxiously scratched the back of his head. "Well, I uh- that's a uh-"

"Yes. I was."

Everyone in the room turned to see Barry Allen stood in the doorway, his wife Iris by his side.

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(A/N: Yes, it was a rather simplistic way to stop the Top, and yes, it does make John and Wally look slightly stupid, but hey – it's lifted straight from the comics, and it worked there! Besides, I wanted to highlight the simplistic and IMPULSEive way that Bart solves things.

Next chapter: The Flash family discuss all past, present and future Flashes while John looks on in complete and utter confusion.

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