AN: Wow, another wip. Yes, I know, I'm a terrible person. Also 'What on Earth? Traya? Really?' Um, yeah.

AN2: So this is set in an AU where Reverse Flash stayed dead and so while certain things from post-Final Crisis that weren't due to him still happened or happened slightly differently (Flash: Rebirth would be more about Savitar for instance) Flashpoint definitely has not and it's still New Earth, and though not relevant Barry still has his pre-Crisis backstory. It's also set around about 2011 with bizarre comic timelines though if I failed to make that clear in context somewhere it's important then I really want to be called out on it.


Finally Traya was off the bus and back at her school. It wasn't that the bus ride had been horrible exactly – she'd mostly just listened to Aunt Clara on the news on her pocket radio (mass breakout from Tartarus in multiple cities which the sentinels of magic and the Wonder family and other assorted heroes were responding to, carnage at LA airport with Beast Boy and Flamebird arriving too late to stop anything and one of the Green Arrows passed out in a hallway – the only clue was that a men's restroom had so many torn-apart ninjas that the coroner was going to be spending days figuring out which body part belonged to which person, and a celebrity fashion faux pas as Gar Logan and Bette Kane had turned up to an event in identical outfits which was almost certainly deliberate and Aunt Clara almost certainly knew was deliberate and was almost certainly trying not to laugh at her editors. In other words a regular day). She was however much later getting back than she'd have wanted. The only good thing was that she'd completed her homework at the university bus-stop so that was one less thing to worry about.

It wasn't much of a walk from the bus-stop just outside the school to her dorm and soon she slumped into her room, sipping from a bottle of lemonade in one hand while sifting for her finished homework with the other. She wanted to stop thinking about school as fast as possible and so put the stuff away in her desk. At least she had no extracurriculars today; as it was a Friday she didn't have her tutoring (Wednesday – she helped people at Gateway University practice their Bialyan after her own Robotics 145 class before catching the later still bus back to school) or her martial arts class (Thursday – taught by Artemis now that the former Wonder Woman had some free time, though Bobby Barnes/'that short-lived Wonder Boy' helped out there a lot), not that she would mind any of those things as they didn't involve her boring school classes but it was nice to have unscheduled time. She just had to decide how best to fill it.

Cissie wasn't there which maybe wasn't the hugest surprise – she flew out on Fridays to spend the weekend shooting with Natalie down in what was left of San Diego often enough not to be unusual though usually she wouldn't leave until late in the evening (some other weeks she had to go to LA for her budding bit-part actress career or other assorted celebrity thing but she usually mentioned those well in advance). Greta was out somewhere (Traya had no idea where), and Ellen had her hatmakers-club today (she herself had been a member for a while too but it also met on a Monday and that now clashed with her evening flute lessons). And of the other people in her dorm, Emily liked to practice music – alone – and wasn't all that friendly with her anyway, Gemma was probably in the lounge watching reruns of Star Trek – it was possible to hang out with her but while Traya was a casual fan Gemma would try to start conversations during the commercials about things like 'Should Edward Jellico have been Enterprise's captain for longer?' and Traya wasn't that interested, Brittany was probably fantasising about ways to deflower the Jonas Brothers and even if by some improbable chance she was welcome with her Traya didn't want to talk about that, Marta was a freshman and thus about her own age but if Traya read her correctly she would currently be in the school's swimming pool de-stressing after a test she'd had and probably wished to be if not alone then with people who were already her close friends. And Traya wasn't close enough to any of her other dormmates to even guess. So clearly hanging out with them was not an option.

Hanging up the floral themed top-hat she'd been wearing, she used her other hand to brush some of her dark hair away from her eyes (taking care not to spill the lemonade) as she looked around the room trying to find something to interest her. Her eyes were first drawn to the box at the end of her bed, where she kept her special projects. So what if her grandfather decided to gift the wind powers to someone else, she could improvise. Besides, while she didn't know exactly what T.O. Morrow had done give a girl those powers she'd heard enough to know it wasn't anything kind.

Anyway, back onto nicer subjects Traya had taken an air-hose that started life as a leaf-blower and modified it to blow the air out at over 200mph, the problem was that because she didn't have high quality power units it burnt through its batteries in about 8 seconds doing it – though with the right adapter on the end and set to low power mode it was good for inflating tires and blowing up balloons. And her propeller-boots were an even bigger failure – she was able to hover about an inch off the ground for a few minutes but she couldn't move while using them and struggled to reach down to turn them off. About the one thing she'd managed to do well was improve the vacuum and her hair-dryer – two appliances that ran on mains electricity. Still, she was dismayed but not discouraged; one day she would be a tornado too whatever anyone else had to say about it. Still, that couldn't help her at that exact moment.

Eventually her eyes landed on her computer and almost on instinct she turned it on – she'd learned to always check her emails every day in case- well, just in case. (It wasn't to check if anyone else she loved had died. No, it wasn't. No, really.) (Besides, Conner and Bart were living again now, and she was really glad she'd received the email before meeting them in person because otherwise she'd have thought she'd gone mad or worse still mistaken them for Match and Kid Zoom.)

Having pressed the power button on her PC she waited out the time it took to run through the boot spiel. She was proud of her computer, built from the best components Wayne Tech and Queen Industries produced for her budget (no way was she trusting anything by LexCorp, or for an entirely different reason Gord Industries). 12Ghz Quad-core processor, 22 GB ram, 2x4TB hard drives, Blu-ray rewriter, floppy drive bundled with card slots (personally she felt that should be marketed the other way around – the card reader was so much more useful than a floppy disk drive), enough connector cables and ports (and M3 screws) to cover all that, and a fuzzy mouse-shaped mouse.

Of course her ability to put computers together led to her side-income as the school's tech girl (which was how she'd managed to afford her own). It wasn't just computers – she could repair or assemble almost anything provided she could get the bits, from desk fans to the school bus.

Still, proud as she was of her workmanship she wished her computer would be faster. Finally the Experience logo appeared (at least the shop had still had a cheap operating system that wasn't Backdrop, thank whichever god was responsible for small miracles in every religion she could think of – Lucky had at the time been too new to be reasonably priced). Logging in she checked her emails as she'd wanted: one of her college project partners had sent a message saying he was stuck in that mess at LAX and so may not be able to get anything done or at least not that day, the school chaplain had sent another biblical passage – this one from some point during Joshua's Canaan campaign (along with a message saying that he was confident The Spectre's immolating General Lane on live television was not as some extremists argued proof that God hates America but rather that he had judged a specific individual that happened to be a U.S. general for a specific crime – after all there was several prominent politicians there who'd been snarled at but otherwise ignored), and there was a notification that her gym membership fees were soon due.

Nothing needed immediate attention so she took care to change her active network from the badly secured local wifi to a very secured satellite uplink before typing in the address for a superhero web-hub one of Rob's acquaintances had set up years ago and logging into that as well she was soon at her homepage. (She of course had no publicly accessible content – the network was for superhero things, not general blogging, and she had no superheroics-related anecdotes to share – but she was still a member.)

Hey, maybe she should see if the others had posted anything while she was at it? Cassie was probably having a very busy day – the breakout was still ongoing after all – but while she didn't know of anything happening with Bart lately his stories at least were always good for a laugh. His accounts were probably accurate but he tended to get distracted by minor things so something like a battle with Mirror Master in a multi-story garage would have as much focus on the worn seat cushions in someone's parked Buick as it did on the fight.

She was about to click to look at the latest uploads from the Teen Titans when she saw the green lettering that indicated a new topic in the Young Justice board. That was unusual. Maybe Anita wanted advice on whatever new thing was going on with her parents? Couldn't hurt to look. In the unlikely event of it being on just the right subject she might even be able to help! Or Pokémon – she and Bart had used to play together – well, played the card game together anyway (since then she'd only really used them for her failed attempt at a magic act; though variations of card tricks were often hard when several cards were the same they were still easier than getting someone to watch her so that came to an end). If on the other had the post involved Wendy specials (again) she'd leave it to Bart, Cissie and Conner to sort out. She just hoped Donald and Oshi hadn't been kidnapped again though, and if they have been then because she hates kidnappers she hopes that that-Supergirl-who-isn't-Linda-or-Matrix brings the kidnappers in with bits missing this time.

What was her name again? Oh, right, 'Kara'.

Anyway, she clicked on the message.

It was an image, clearly newish – there wasn't a sign of Anita's old purple hair streaks. In fact it almost looked brand new. Wait a minute-

No no no no no. This could not be happening. She checked the picture again. There was Cassie and Conner, and Rob or Alvin or Tim or whatever name he was currently using in what looked like a Doctor Mid-nite cosplay (she only recognised him as Rob by his posture and the staff), Bart in the yellow and red that didn't suit him, Anita whispering something to Cissie – both in full costumes! And as it was uploaded to Greta's account Traya had to assume that she'd been the one taking the photo (why not Rob?).

Maybe the comments could shed some light on it.

Young Just Us meetup. It's a pity Ray and Red and Snapper were busy and nobody's seen the cycle in ages but we got as many as we could for a snack. Back to the fight soon – well, except for Secret and Arrowette obviously.

It said 'as many as we could'. She'd been forgotten? Really? Not again. While the last time they'd met up it had been the evening after she'd had an accident during her SATs and had been so embarrassed and needed friends, she'd also understood that they'd booked things well in advance and thinking the worst that might happen was that she'd be stressed they'd decided she might've needed time to herself to unwind after the exams so she couldn't really blame them for that one (never mind that spending time with them might've helped her destress in general anyway). And OK, she understood that when Cassie was on the run she probably didn't want to involve her for good reasons (though she was still amazed Cassie had managed to recruit Cissie for the 'Rescue Helena' mission). And she knew that even Bart hadn't been able to enjoy his last party owing to various people in his life using it as an excuse to invite all their friends rather than his so she could hardly blame him for not inviting her then (and let's not forget when he had to organise his own 'Welcome Back' party – he had his own issues with being overlooked). But what could possibly be the good reason for it this time? Other than that they just don't love her any more of course. No, it was bad to think that way. Still, it hurt and it was a strain to think otherwise.

The one thing she'd thought would always be true was that they'd welcome her even if everyone else wouldn't. Maybe they couldn't invite her to everything – they were a superhero team after all and therefore there would be some things that were genuinely dangerous but a photo? And with Greta at that? Greta hadn't done anything heroic in ages.

On instinct she reached out and grabbed a doll, wrapping her arms around… urgh, Wonder Girl. She threw it back onto her bed before more carefully picking up her plush Stargirl, hugging it as tightly as she could. The extended JSA and All Stars rosters were massive but even so she was sure Courtney would never have forgotten anyone.

But maybe she'd missed something important. She checked the comments again.

Hey, I'm so glad I saw you mon. Sitting around feeling sorry for myself just wasn't cutting it any more. That was Anita.

Don't sweat it girl. I know what Maad and my mother are like. She overshares, a lot. OOOXXX

Traya could picture Cissie's face as she'd typed that – she'd been there for many of Cissie's venting about Bonnie King's tendency to over-describe her encounters, though Cissie had spared Traya as many details as she could.

Ewww, mon. That is gross gross gross. OOXO

I know.

As the rest of the conversation was similarly inane Traya turned it back off in the hope she could put it out of her mind, but she just couldn't. At least she discovered the early part of their meetup was legitimately too dangerous – according to one comment they'd come together when Cassie asked for help dealing with the various escaped monsters – but it also made it clear that once they were taking a break for a late lunch they'd gone to fetch Greta and Cissie so they could be together again, and completely forgotten her.

Wait – had she been busy at the time? She checked their timeline against her own schedule. 14:05 Greta and Cissie joined them, and her Engineering 201 class finished 15 minutes earlier, even after considering that it overran. At that time she'd have been getting on with her homework either in the foyer or at the bus stop having missed her preferred bus because she'd needed to speak to her professor about her term paper and that took far longer than she'd thought and by the time she was done she could technically have run for the bus but she'd absolutely needed to use the restroom. Maybe Bart, Cassie and Conner hadn't known where she was- no, Cissie would've told them, or she hoped anyway. And it's not like they couldn't have called her – she had her flip-phone for a reason.

Wait? She checked her pockets. Yes she did, and it was still on vibrate.

Still, she couldn't help but think Anita had one valid point in her comments at least. Sitting around feeling sorry for herself was not the way to go. She'd show them. She'd find her friends and have the best day ever, without any help from them. She could-

Oh, right. Her brain caught up and reminded her. Ellen was busy and she had no other friends.

Mostly she loved skipping several years of school but some aspects were not so great and her lack of friends was one of them. Her classmates were too old to want to befriend her, her all-ages martial arts class thought she was weird, the other students in the classes she was taking at Gateway U tolerated her, the school's junior hero club throw her out after she spent 'too long droning on' about the Croatoans. She didn't dare to even bring up her membership of the Action Agency Appreciation Society lest they make fun of her for it, which they would – of the people in her own age range, the ones that were into that sort of thing preferred Professor Leyton and of her classmates (who actually were old enough to remember it) they just laughed at being reminded of the source material, never mind the fanworks. And her school didn't have a mechanics and engineering club.

Still, none of that helped with her problem. The only person close to her own age she'd met who didn't think she was odd was Irey – that new Impulse – who she'd only met because Bart had lead her around trying to introduce her (well, show her off) to everyone and she'd been with Cissie and Greta when he'd presented her to them and the two had hit it off. (And even that was only true for a given value of 'close to her own age' – Traya was nearly 15 and Irey was what? 10? 11? Traya guessed she was probably closer in age to Bart but having known him before it felt longer.)

"Wait a minute…" she said to herself. She still had Irey's number. And Irey was Impulse now. They could make their own pictures. That could work. She'd just have to make sure not to mention her nerdier interests like computing, mechanics, children's puzzle book fanworks or the like – otherwise Impulse might not want to hang with her either.

She reached for both her flip-phone and her contacts book and dialled the number she'd written down, not at all surprised to have it answered almost as soon as the first ring started.

"Hello unknown number this is Irey. If you're selling something please hang up – I don't know what insurance is but I'm pretty sure I can't afford it. If you're a Nigerian prince and you need help then try the Birds or Prey, and if you're trying to warn me about a crazed religious cult led by someone about my age I thank you but ask that you send that to the Teen Titans. If on the other hand you are a friend whose number I don't have listed yet then hello, it's lovely to hear from you." It was strange to hear her voice over the phone, fast yet drained of all the boisterous speedster energy.

"Hey Irey, it's Traya – Bart introduced us? Any-"

"Ah yes, I remember. Hello. I'm waving at the phone with my spare hand right now. Can I help you? Are you in danger and can't call Bart or Conner or your father for some reason?"

Traya shook her head before remembering Irey couldn't see her. "No, I was just wondering if you maybe wanted to hang out with me?" It sounded stupid when she said it out loud.

"Um sure, just let me ask my mom a sec."

The line went dead for a few moments before Irey's voice came back on the other end.

"She says 'sure'. Where are you?"

Traya blinked. Was asking someone to hang out with her that easy? Oh well, survive and succeed. "I'm in my dorm at Elias Girls School," she replied.

"Be right there." The line cut off and Traya took a long moment to compose herself before she looked out the window just in time to see a blurry red and white after image blitz along the road towards her before knocking on her door at what she assumed Irey thought was the slow and steady pace of about jackhammer speed. Traya answered before wrapping her arms around her, partly for her own comfort and partly because she knew from Bart that speedsters loved hugs, eyes about level with Impulse's hair, tied in bunches with lightning bolt hairbands. She just hoped the 'loves hugs' thing wasn't exclusively Bart because if so that would be truly embarrassing.

"HiTraya,SorryI'mlate,IhadtostopforabreakwhilegoingthroughNavada–I'msureyou' ?Howareyou?Whatdidyouwanttodo?Yourmessagewasn'tveryclear."

"Hello Irey. Sorry, I didn't catch that."

Irey leaned out of the hug and put her hands on her hips. "Please when I'm wearing this in public call me Impulse." She still spoke fast but not impossibly fast.

Traya nodded; it was a more than fair request that truthfully Irey shouldn't have needed to ask. She must be really off the ball today. Quick, thought Traya, compliment her. "Hello Impulse. Your costume looks lovely. You've really made it your own." Left unsaid was the follow-up about how Bart always looks so out of place in Irey's father's hand-me-down colours. "And your hair is so striking, I could just lose myself in it." That was true at least – it was quite an effort not to fixate on those hairbands, and her hair coming out of them like handlebars. She wondered how aerodynamics affected them – whether or not they were flattened by downforce or rose up under lift at extreme speeds – or whether the speed force annulled that altogether. Then she realised she was really starting to lose herself in it and forced her mind back to reality.

"Thank you. Your hair looks uh, um, unique too."

Even after all this time Traya's hair still looked lopsided from when that mob had attacked her. Nobody else noticed it but she knew it did. She would much rather wear a hat. Or a turban. She'd even tolerate a burqa. Or just well, any head covering really. She'd even prefer overly-elaborate Mardi Gras headgear to her uncovered hair (and she'd have to try and remember to ask Anita what they were called when she wasn't mad at her, and yes, she was aware enough to know that she wouldn't stay mad at her forever). If headwear was genuinely unavailable for some reason she'd wear it hanging down over the cut side but the only time she usually had to resort to that was in bed.

"It's OK. I know it looks stupid. It has for years."

This time Irey shook her head. "It goes with your top. Now, I ask again, what did you want to do?"

Traya smiled at the thought of getting the perfect picture, and then frowned as she remembered why it was necessary, before smiling again at the friend in front of her. "I was hoping you could help me with a photo."

"Oh." Irey spun around so she was standing next to her as she reached a hand down her costume and pulled out a minicam (Traya decided she did not want to know where she was concealing that). "Smile." And before Traya even had time to do that she pressed the button and snapped the two of them standing in her dorm room's doorway. Then Irey let out a sigh. "Honestly though, if you want really good pictures you're better off with my brother. He seems to have inherited Great Aunt Iris's gift for photography and she and Red Robin have been teaching him, but I acquired Great Uncle Barry's speed." She leaned forward as if about to impart a great secret. "I think I got the better deal."

Traya shook her head, trying not to think about the fact that she had not heard about Jai West's photography from Tim, or Bart for that matter. "You don't understand. I want us to replicate a specific picture." She went over to her desk and sifted through it, finding the old Young Justice photo album from way back – the one she was actually in, along with the whole team, and showed Irey the cover image. "Do you think we can do it? I know we can't have everyone, but there's a newer Superboy and a newer Robin at least, do you think they'd be interested?"

Irey shrugged. "Zod's kid? Wouldn't know. Demon brat? Unlikely – that guy is the most cocky, annoying and obnoxious heap of flesh unfortunately called a boy that I have ever come across, and that includes Thaddeus Thawne."

That was definitely a setback. If new Robin was even more annoying than Inertia then she'd have a hard time. Somewhat ironically she actually had mostly positive memories of Bart's doppelgänger – at least until he'd killed him – he had helped her with her homework which with hindsight should've been a big clue that that wasn't Bart (as that was long before Bart memorised the San Francisco library and in his Impulse days he wasn't very studious) but as she had reassured Bart later Thad had probably only been nice to her because Bart was too and he was trying to impersonate him – she'd take a less-academically-inclined friend over a hundred jerk geniuses. Still, if Robin was even on the same scale it would be hard. And even Irey had no clue on Superboy? That was surprising. Still, if neither of them were friends with him then that further lessened the chances of an agreement.

Traya's face fell as she realised how unlikely it would be. "I guess it was too much to hope for. I'm sorry if I wasted your time."

In an instant Irey was back at her side. "Are you kidding me?" She pulled her into a side-hug. "If we stop now I'll have to go home, do you know how boring that is? This is probably not going to work but sure, let's give it a shot anyway – it sounds like fun. Just get changed into something first – a superhero running with someone in a school uniform is going to attract attention just for how odd it is and I got the sense you wanted to keep this quiet?"

Traya stopped short. She knew Irey was right but how could she possibly get changed in front of her? She knew how lean and fit speedsters were (just compare Jay to his Joan, or Barry or Wally to Iris or Linda, or- actually she wasn't sure how Hourman being a superhero in his own right compared to Jesse) and she did not want to make it too easy for Irey to compare them, especially since she'd felt muscle in Irey's arm while hugging and knew she didn't come close despite Irey being a kid.

"I did actually, yes." But how to approach this? How could she explain to her guest that she felt intimidated by her? Especially given how much younger Irey was.

A loud but melodic sound drifted down the corridor.

"In case you're wondering, that's Emily practising with her glockenspiel," Traya spoke on autopilot, still trying to think of a way to explain her situation that wouldn't sound bad.

Irey glanced up towards the ceiling. "I've always wanted one of those."

"Oh?" Traya asked.

"But all I get to play is some stupid triangle. I can't enjoy music with a triangle."

Traya's mind instinctively went to her flute, a gift from her mother before she came here. Sure it gave her her music credits for graduation but while she could recite some well-known compositions and play things put in front of her she'd never be a concert virtuoso. That said, she was so glad she had an instrument of her own and didn't have to rely on the school-supplied ones any more. While playing for her teachers and classmates was hugely stressful there was something strangely pleasing about just playing to please herself and she wished everyone could know that joy. Then she thought of the time in music classes before she had her flute.

"It could be worse." Traya tried to comfort Irey and so forced herself back to the conversation. "Before I got my flute, whenever we were doing something musical in school I always, always, ended up with the castanets."

Irey looked back at her. "I don't know what those are."

"They're those things that look like micro-cymbals that you hold with sort of one in the thumb and one the other under the fingers, makes you look like you're trying to make a talking shadow puppet."

Irey shuddered in superspeed. "Oh those. Yeah, that is worse."

"Of course that was my old school," Traya continued, trying not to reminisce about how miserable she'd been. "So, you like the glockenspiel huh?"

"Of course. My mom says if I can find one for less than 10 bucks I can get it but so far no luck. And she made it clear nobody was allowed to buy one for me for at least a year. Though I am allowed to play with the one in Bart's house as long as I leave it there." She wrapped an arm around Traya and turned her to face the closet. "But enough about me and music, you still need to get changed."

"Um, good point." Traya started towards her closet, self-consciousness making her shake. She glanced back at Irey-

"Would you like me to wait outside?" Her voice was full of concern.

It was all Traya could do not to breathe a sigh of relief in front of her. "Could you?"

Irey picked up the photo album. "Mind if I flip through this? I need something to do while I'm waiting. Actually while I think about it where's the girls' room?"

"Sure." Traya nodded, wrapping an arm around Irey and directing her out the door and pointing her down the corridor. "And it's the fourth door on the left, the one with the female stick figure; you can't miss it."

And with that Traya closed the door behind her and finally let out that sigh.

She forced herself to think of something else. So, what did she have to wear that was superhero appropriate? And not her old would-be magic-routine costume (itself derived from her old witch Halloween costume) either – she did not want Irey or anyone else thinking she was a dork or anyone they ran into thinking she was an actual sorceress. She knew she basically had to jury-rig a superhero costume out of her clothes and what else she had to hand.

OK, she could do this, she thought to herself. Tights obviously – Rob used to rock his and they were kinda a superhero tradition. All she had were black ones but they would do. And maybe those green shorts over them? Right. Then she chose a red shirt and pulled a thin black top over it, with the red sticking out the ends of the arm holes. Her bandoleer – formerly one of Rob's belts that had ceased to serve him even back when they were still Young Justice as it didn't have enough pouches – was strapped from her left shoulder to her right hip and she loaded the pouches with the 'supplies' from her 'My First Explorers' kit (torch, flask, orienteering compass that Rob had made sure she knew how to use) along with her pepper spray (gift from Anita one time), flare (gift from Rob) and an air horn (gift from Cassie). She had her emergency panic button around her left wrist. She'd loaded her hikers' backpack with her purse, flute-case, phone, emergency drinks and snacks (a habit Cissie got her into), assorted hygiene products (something Anita, Cassie and Cissie were very active in encouraging both in her and each other after one time when they were all out and had to ask a luckily over-equipped Rob for help), and even a non-fitting dress her mother had given her in case they met a child who needed rescuing and whose own clothes were damaged. And of course her camera bag – which while not even close to the same standard as Tim's was perfectly reasonable for her needs. Over her face went some goggles Bart had grown out of way back (with any luck they'd match Irey's) and she picked out a really cool padded top-hat styled helmet with chin straps Cassie had given her that was made of the same metal as Amazonian helmets.

There was just one thing left – one thing that would take her from wannabe to true budding heroine. She went over to her box and pulled out her leaf-blower. Should she? Looking for people to hang out with was already a groundbreaking thing for her, and it's not like the blower was finished yet? But she wanted to. She so wanted to, and it did work, if only for a few seconds at a time.

Taking the straps she fastened it over her right shoulder, and squeezed her spare batteries into her bag. She might look like a superhero who got dressed in the dark, but she felt like she belonged with them now, and she was no longer going to look too bizarre in Irey's company, and she believed her kit made her a budding adventurer worthy of the Action Agents themselves (so long as they didn't encounter any mountains as she was missing that book – damn Usborne's poor titling). She took a deep breath and opened the door.

Impulse looked up from where she'd been studying a picture of Cassie and Cissie hugging Bart from either side (that too had been just after that whole Inertia thing and they had also wished to reassure him that they loved him more than his doppelgänger). Irey's eyes darted all over Traya and she tried not to feel overly judged.

"OK." Irey's arm blurred up and patted the top of her head. "That's… OK." She walked back in and looked around. "Do you have a map?"

"Of what?" Traya asked, already moving to go through her stuff.

"The biggest thing you can think of. I was thinking It wouldn't do us much good running up and down the highways haphazardly until we find someone would it? As much as it hurts me to say it we need to be methodical – and that means knowing where we're going."

Traya went over to her bookcase and pulled out an old 500 page hand-me-down road map Cissie had given her back when they were still spending lots of time together (Traya had kept on borrowing it to plot out imaginary journeys, none of which she could remember now, until Cissie had simply given it to her and bought herself a newer one) and opened it to the nationwide overview double-page, placing it on her desk over her computer keyboard.

"So, we know where Superboy or Nightwing or whatever he's going by at the moment is likely to be found…" Irey placed her gloved finger on the area that roughly corresponded with Metropolis, "…and we know where Bratty Wisecrack should be even if he won't help…" she moved to point to the Gotham/Bludhaven blob on the east coast that marked it as an old map (modern ones of course had Gotham, a small Bludhaven, and a wreck where the rest of Bludhaven used to be – this one was so old it had an intact Coast City) "…but we will need help if we want to find anyone else – especially anyone willing. For that reason I suggest we start our search here." She moved her finger again, until she was pointing at almost the very bottom of the map, on the US border with Mexico.

Traya strained to see the city name. "El Paso?" That didn't make any sense. The only superhero that lived down there was Blue Beetle – he had no sidekick that she knew of at least though she could admit her sources weren't the best in that area – and it wasn't like he himself matched even slightly with any of the Young Justice members even if he had been about their age (not that not matching would be a 'reject' option – if nothing else that would be hypocritical). "Why El Paso?" Traya hoped for a straight answer.

Irey smiled. "Correct me if I'm wrong but Young Justice included more than just Robin, Superboy and Impulse didn't it? Do you have any idea who you could get to fill in for any of the others?"

Traya shook her head. She'd tried not to think about that – Secret had no successor, Empress didn't either. Arrowette didn't and neither did any of the other more famous arrows and anyway after what happened to Lian Harper the subject was considered unspeakable. Technically there had been a Wonder Boy but that was basically a publicity stunt and Bobby Barnes – also president of the local Wonder Woman fan-club – had never actually done anything heroic beyond study Amazon martial arts, plus he and Cassie were pretty much the same age, plus Traya knew for a fact that he was busy that afternoon, and she knew him from her martial arts class so didn't think he'd be interested (though unlike certain people she could name she would check with him first). And if there was a new Slobo around she didn't know him. Mind you, she'd accept any child or teen hero or heroine or even hanger-on like her in her picture who wanted to be there whether they resembled a Young Justice member or not – she wanted to make friends if possible and the photo was just how she planned to do it. If pressed she'd run down the list of everyone involved in the Zandia invasion and the reserve team, that should find someone they'd be close enough to.

"I didn't think so," Irey was saying. "And I think El Paso is the right place to start our search."

Wait? Irey thought there was something hopeful in that area?

"Can you find those down there?" Traya asked, trying not to sound too hopeful. "I thought it was just the Beetle. Anyway, let me text Wonder Boy just to absolutely make sure he's not interested?"

Irey snorted. "There are sorcerers that live down in that area but I wouldn't trust them as far as well, my no-longer superstrong and untrained brother could throw them and they're probably too old for what we need anyway well except for the actual baby who I think is too young." She stretched and Traya was happy for the brief respite in interpreting her still fast speech, especially as she was trying to type at the same time. "I don't know anyone who meets our descriptions or even if there is anyone but I know who would be able to point us their way if there is." She grinned. "We are going to El Paso so that we can ask Blue Beetle where to find his girlfriend."

"I don't follow." Traya was a genius, yes, but she needed something to work with.

Irey pointed to where Metropolis was situated on the map and took care to speak slowly. "Girl Thirteen lives in either a mansion or an apartment somewhere in Metropolis but she spends most of her time travelling the world dealing with magical and supernatural stuff right. So if there is a budding ghost or maybe a religion-based swordstick-fighting sorceress floating around she's the person best placed to point us their way. Sadly though she's hard to track down and I don't wanna search every spot on Earth, which means we need to ask someone in contact with her, like her boyfriend, where she is."

Traya nodded – that made sense now! She wasn't used to an Impulse who made sound points like that. No, wait, that was unfair – Bart had make sound points occasionally even back then, he just didn't think them through to that degree often enough.

And then another thought occurred to her. 'Girl Thirteen' was also known as Traci the magic detective! Traya had a poster of the Croatoans on the wall. She had their calendar (well, the PG one anyway, though she suspected Conner had been joking about there being an X-rated version. Sure Traci could do it – she was absolutely gorgeous after all – but Traya couldn't wrap her head around an X-rated Detective Chimp). And owing to her additional interest in science Traya had a 3 foot landscape poster of Steel (the woman one) and Traci together (with an odd space next to them that suggested either a poor picture or something very strange had happened) that was hung up on her bedroom wall back home. She'd once tried taking up street magic in an attempt be like her despite Traci being an actual empowered sorceress, before realising that instead of impressing people it only made them think she was even more of a dork so she gave it up (it didn't help that her 'newton meter' hadn't worked properly and even using her flute didn't help). She'd even once written a crossover fanfic pairing Traci with Agent Arthur (she'd titled it 'Agent Arthur's Magical Mystery' and it focused around a stolen Rod of Arion – at the time she'd just wished she'd had the art skill to upload something other than plain text for the readers to puzzle through – now it was all she could hope that the real Traci had never seen it because if she'd read the bit where Traya had her character kiss Agent Zoe in order to distract some Spider operatives long enough for Arthur to sneak in then Traya would die.).

Anyway, put simply, Traci was stunning and they were actually going to meet her?

"Eeeeeee!"

Irey grabbed her hands. "Are you OK?"

Traya took some deep breaths and nodded. "It's just, we're going to meet Traci Thirteen? This is huge."

Irey looked at her a bit weirdly. "Just checking, you have met heroes before, right?"

"Of course but this is different somehow." Traya struggled to articulate what she was feeling – and what she could safely say out loud within the comfort of the thin walls of her religious all-girls school dorm. "Imagine you're about to meet Bart for the first time?"

Irey took a sharp breath as her face blurred, no doubt running through different expressions at hyperspeed. "It'll be fine." She pulled her into a hug. "Bart likes me, perhaps not as much as I liked him at first but I know he cares about me, and I'm sure Traci will like you too."

Traya forced herself to think about other things by looking again at the map. She'd never been to El Paso, or even driven by it. She had no idea what it was like and no idea what-

Oh, another problem. She can't get there. How had she missed that. Her face fell again.

"What's wrong?"

Traya sighed. "I'm not like you. I can't just run across the country. Or fly. Or even drive. The Super-cycle won't come for me. I'm just annoyed that I didn't spot that problem before phoning you."

"That's no biggie." Irey moved so that her back was in front of Traya. "Climb on."

"What?" Traya asked. Was Irey seriously suggesting what she thought she-

"Climb on me. I like giving piggy-back rides. Just, please remember that while it might look like it my hair is neither handlebars nor reins and attempting to use it like that hurts."

"You want to piggy-back ride me all the way to the Mexican border?" Traya asked, trying to make it sound like she was double-checking rather than disbelieving.

"It won't take long. I figure even with the balance issues from carrying you I can still get there lightning fast, and I picked up a lot of snacks at a couple of places Bart recommended – I'm storing them in my speedster-ring. Well, anyway, for me running there will feel like about 20 minutes but you get the point. I might need to find somewhere stop for a break along the way – I can't squeeze a porta-potty in my ring after all and it's a long way – but even so that wouldn't take long."

Well that was unexpected. She knew vaguely that speedsters registered time differently to everyone else when hyperspeed was involved as the Speed Force slowed time around them which meant they were able to tell where they were going, and she also vaguely knew that it wasn't slowed all the way to normal speed because if it was then a cross-country trip would take subjective months and supplies to match but it was something she hadn't given much thought to.

"Is something wrong?" Irey asked.

Traya shook her head.

"Well then hop on already," Irey implored. "I'm getting bored."

Traya took a deep breath before deciding to trust her, and leapt onto Irey's back, legs wrapping round her waist and arms hugging her around the top of her chest. It was actually kinda fun to be carried like this, it made her wish she'd had people to exchange rides with when she was younger. Still though, she couldn't help but worry.

"Are you comfortable?" Traya asked her would-be transport. "Are you sure I'm not too heavy?"

Irey laughed. "Trust me, compared to some people I could name you may as well be The Atom. What about you? Grip OK?"

Traya almost nodded before realising that wouldn't work. "Yeah, your Impulse outfit is surprisingly grippy when it needs to be."

She was interrupted as her phone beeped. A quick check revealed what she'd expected – Bobby wished her well but said that he was far too busy studying for an upcoming AP test.

Then she gasped as another thought occurred to her, this one however a bit more immediate. "I forgot to pack the map."

"I got it." Irey speed-ran to pick it up and at the sudden change of view Traya very nearly brought her lemonade back up. Irey seemed to sense something was wrong. "You OK?

There was a moment before Traya trusted herself to answer "Must remember to close my eyes" and before anything else could happen she did, placing her trust fully in Irey not doing something stupid.

"By the way, we can phase through things if we wish – that means a costume doesn't need to be smooth all over the outside," Irey told her before tensing. "Are your eyes closed?"

"Yes," Traya replied.

And before she could say or even think anything else Irey whisked her off on their great adventure.


AN3: So what did you think? Especially, has my attempt to give Traya 'dorky' hobbies overshot the mark? (Also, have I posted this in the right category?)

AN4: Characters and the canonicity (ignoring the obvious ones):

'Aunt' Clara - the 'daughter' of T.O. Morrow and Professor Ivo. She was made to infiltrate the Justice League but found she preferred being a hero. Last I saw her she was working as a reporter in LA. I'm not sure if she's ever actually met Traya, and that makes me sad.

Natalie [Rodriguez] - an archer from the Young Justice Olympics storyline. She helped prove Cissie and Bonnie were innocent.

Ellen [Donnell] - one of the classmates. Was orphaned when her parents were blown up by terrorists in Bialya in Young Justice #43, which led to a mob attacking Traya, which led to Ellen given Traya her hat to cover her mangled hair.

The other 'school' characters mentioned (apart from Cissie and Greta obviously) are my OCs.