Disclaimer: DC owns the DCU. Impulse created by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo.

Reset! – Chapter Thirteen: In Between

Bart's alarm clock did not make it through its first beep before he shut it off. Hopping off of the loft, he approached the guest room door and peeked in. Thad was fast asleep on top of the bed, still fully dressed in his borrowed civilian clothing. Helen was already out the door by the time Bart finished with the bathroom. That meant that she had an early appointment drilling into someone's teeth. That also meant that he was on his own for breakfast. Glancing at the guest room door again, he decided against waking Thad.

Just as Bart served up his breakfast, Carol knocked on the door. "Is he still here?" she asked when she came in.

"Inertia? Yeah." Bart pointed down the hall. "He's still sleeping. We beat Rival, but we didn't get Max back. He's kinda not happy about that. Neither am I, but Max said he still had stuff to do in the Speed Force, so I'm sure he'll come back on his own."

Carol glanced down the hall, before following Bart into the kitchen. The aroma of his bacon and cheese omelette was enticing and she wished that she hadn't settled on toast. Her eyes widened with surprise when he offered her his ready plate. "Here," he grinned, "I got enough stuff to make another." He started heating up the pan again. "Putting milk into the eggs helps a lot with it," he remarked off-handedly, "And Helen said that you can put almost anything you want into an omelette. But we don't have too much stuff that I want to put in it right now. We have cheese and bacon and that tastes good with eggs. Helen made one with avocados before and that was good too."

"So, how long is he staying here?" Carol asked as she put her fork into the omelette.

Shrugging, Bart answered, "Thad said that he doesn't want to stay in this time period. He doesn't like it here. It's too primitive, he says. He didn't say when he was going to leave, either." He shrugged again. "I guess he really doesn't know."

Carol took another bite of the omelette. "You know, Bart, I should come over here for breakfast more often now. Maybe that can pay back for all of the toast you kept eating at my place."

"Yeah, you can come over for breakfast whenever you want."

"Just don't tell the guys about it," Carol warned, "They'll want in on it, too. Before you know it, you'll be cooking for the entire crew."

Bart thought about that for a moment, imagining all of his friends crammed around his kitchen table. "Yeah, I don't think we got enough food for them all."

"So, what is Max doing in the Speed Force?" Carol asked.

"I dunno. He didn't say. It's probably really important, though." Bart felt a little unsettled by that. He wished Max had said more about it. Whenever Max paid a lot of attention to the Speed Force, bad things for speedsters usually followed after. "If it was so important that he decided to stay inside of the Speed Force, instead of come home... Maybe I should tell Wally and Jay about it. Maybe they already know something." Another possibility dawned on him. "What if that's why they weren't doing much to help Max in the first place?" His vision tunneled on the skillet he was cooking with and he clenched his jaw. "Why didn't they tell me? Why do I always have to be left in the dark?"

Thad's voice broke in, "Because you're an idiot." He sauntered to the table and sat down. "You would just brainlessly jump in and do the stupidest thing possible."

Bart glared at his blond clone. "I'm not making breakfast for you."

Thad rolled his eyes. "I can take care of myself." He glanced towards Carol. "Why are you here?"

"It's Monday," she answered, "We're going to school after this. By the way, Bart, did you get your math homework done?"

"My what?" His yellow eyes widened and he cringed. "Grife! I forgot!" He darted out of kitchen and reappeared at the table with his backpack. In an instant, his textbook, notebook, and paper were scattered on the tabletop. His pencil became a blur in his hand as he raced through the problems. Once he was done, he returned to the stove to attend to his breakfast.

Thad peered at the warm page. "You did the second, seventh, and twelfth problems wrong."

Bart fumed over the skillet. Carol put the homework page into the textbook and closed it. "Seven and twelve are hard and we'll probably be going over them in class, anyways. It's not bad if he gets just a few problems wrong. The teacher just wants us to get our homework done. Our grades depend more on the tests." Then she grinned, "Besides, he did all of that without a calculator."

"The calculator is too slow," Bart complained, "I have to hold the buttons down too long to get it the numbers in, and then it takes too long for the answer to show up on the screen."

"My dad had a slide rule," Carol recalled, "It's still somewhere in the house. I don't really know how to use it, but it could be really useful to you. I'll try to remember to look for it tonight."

Thad frowned at another gap in his knowledge. "What's a slide rule?" he asked in unison with Bart. He glared at Bart for echoing him.

Carol thought for a moment to choose her words accurately. "A mechanical analog calculator. You'll have to see it to know what I mean. But there's no buttons to push and no screen to wait on." She took her empty plate to the sink and rinsed it off. Bart served up his omelette and sat at the table to quickly devour it. After shoving his books back into his bag, he joined Carol on the walk to school.

Soon, Thad found himself alone in the house. Under the table, Dox laid and wagged his tail. After a breakfast of cereal and toast, he cleaned the kitchen and fed the dog. He looked at the clock on the microwave. It would be hours before Bart returned from school. "Now what?" he asked himself. There was nothing for him to do. After a while, he decided to tidy up the house. That always made Helen happy. He cleaned the bathroom and then ventured into Helen's bathroom to clean it, too. He turned on the television and vegetated on the couch for a whole ten minutes. He needed to go for a run. Perhaps he could even do a patrol? That would at least make the run useful. He dug his uniform out of the bottom of a dresser drawer in the guest room. The green zigzag pattern on the black was his, but it didn't feel right for a patrol. Inertia wasn't a hero, after all. Inertia was a trained attack dog. He clenched the fabric in his fists. Dox stood in the doorway and panted loudly, breaking the buildup of seething rage. Thad held out his hand and petted the dog when he approached. After shoving the costume into the bottom of the drawer again, Thad stood and paced the short length of the small room. "Now what?" He needed to do something useful.

Bart and his friends gathered on a picnic table and benches under the trees at one end of the schoolyard. The lunch break was halfway through and everyone had finished eating, leaving them a little leisure time. Rolly and Wade were engaged in a collectible card game with Eddie and Preston watching. Mike and Ayana were busy trying to finish up a homework assignment for their next class. Carol and Bart were working on homework they had just received.

Preston glanced away from the card game to look at a group of girls that were strolling by. Behind them, at the water fountain, he spotted someone very familiar. "Hey! It's Impulse!"

Everyone glanced at the brown-haired boy in the white and red costume, who was blithely refreshing himself at the fountain. In an eyeblink, he was gone. Bart's jaw hung open. "Wh-what?"

Carol nudged him with her elbow. "Stay quiet," she whispered to him. How would he ever manage to keep his secret without her?

In class, Bart stared out the window, wondering if the Impulse he saw was Inertia or another clone. The clock could not move fast enough to count down to the end of the school day. As soon as the last bell rang, he ran home at a normal pace. There were just too many people around for him to go any faster. Someone would be bound to notice him disappearing into a blur.

The house was empty, except for Dox. Bart dropped his backpack and jacket on the floor. Just before he opened his ring, the other Impulse appeared before him. The costumed boy lifted his mask and pushed his over his head, demonstrating that the brown mop of hair was just part of a cowl. Shorter blond hair appeared along with a familiar face. "I thought that this could help you keep your already frayed secret identity," Thad remarked, "It took a little while to make this costume, but I think it incorporates a rather elegant solution to our different hair colors without resorting to dye."

"What were you doing?!" Bart stared at the costume. Was Thad trying to make him look bad?

"Running a few patrols," he answered, "I didn't have much else to do." He tugged at the costume. "I'm going to take a shower."

Bart watched Thad enter the bathroom, still confused by the choice of costume. Dox barked at the front door, reminding him that it was time for a walk.

Later in the evening, Bart finished his homework and Thad flipped through the television channels. Dox perked up at the sound of Helen's car pulling into the garage. He hopped off of the couch to wait for her at the kitchen door. Soon, she called out, "Boys, would you help me put away the groceries?" Twin whirlwinds blew around her while the refrigerator and pantry opened and closed. Before she could put down her purse, the groceries were all put away. She set down the take and bake pizza she held onto the counter and set the oven to preheat. The boys immediately moved to inspect the choice of pizza toppings.

Helen grinned at the scene. "Thad? Should I get you enrolled in school?"

He turned around with a frown. "What? No! I have no intentions of staying here any longer than I need to. I don't belong here. As soon as I have a viable plan put together, I'm going back to my time and ending the Hyperguard project."

"And after that?" asked Helen.

"Get President Thawne out of power," Thad answered, "Ensure that he won't be able to start any more of his pet projects."

"You might want to work with your mother on that one," Helen advised.

"My mother?" Thad frowned at that. "I don't have a mother."

"Your genes are Bart's genes," she reminded, "So, half of you comes from Meloni. She's just as much your mother as she is Bart's." Thad seemed uncomfortable with the idea and opted to open a bottle of juice, instead of answering. Helen continued to speak, "The only reason why she hasn't deposed him yet is because there are worse forces waiting for her father to fall. She's between a rock and a hard place. Before you do anything rash, you should talk to her."

Bart grinned. "Yeah! We should visit Mom first! Maybe she can help us stop the Hyperguard too. She's awesome like that. She's like a superhero without any powers! She's like Batman!" He reconsidered that last statement. "Except really, really nice and a girl." He thought about it a little more. "And she uses guns." His grin fell as he remembered how much he missed her. Catching himself, his bright smile renewed. "She's awesome!"

Helen grinned at Bart's enthusiasm. Still speaking to Thad, she said, "So, after you take down President Thawne, then what?"

He glanced askance at her. "What do you mean?"

"What are you going to do with your life?" Helen set her cup on the table and folded her hands around it.

Bart heard the oven click to signal the end of preheating. He put the pizza in the oven and set the timer. "If you're going to stay in the future, maybe you can join the Legion?"

"The Legion?" Thad repeated, "What's that?"

Bart stared at Thad in disbelief. "You don't know about the Legion of Superheroes? Our cousin Jenni's in it! I tried to get in, but they wouldn't let me. Which is okay, since I got to be in Young Justice, but that's technically gone now."

"More teams?" Thad didn't seem very thrilled about that.

Helen raised an eyebrow and looked at Bart. "Technically gone? What does that mean?" Then a sly smile spread on her lips. "Well, it does make me feel better when I know that you're not out there alone. I had been a little worried about that since your team was shut down. I would prefer that there was an adult with you, but..." She bit her lower lip, debating with herself. "Don't tell Wally this, but if the Justice League was so concerned about you kids, they would be training you themselves. Teaching you kids how to function as a team, based on the lessons they have already learned."

"Yeah, and then Wally would rip on me for every little thing I did," Bart grumbled, "I wouldn't do anything right, and then he'd just send me off to train with Jay."

Thad just walked out of the kitchen and to the guest room. The door clicked softly shut behind him. Bart zipped to the hall and stared at the closed door. He could hear the old bedframe creak and then there was silence. Dox trotted to sit beside Bart's ankle. When Bart returned to the kitchen, he checked on the pizza. He knew it wouldn't be done yet, but he had to check anyways. "What's up with him?"

"Maybe he's just tired. You should leave him alone for a little bit."

Bart decided to go back to his videogame to pass the time. Many experience points later, he heard the oven timer ding and shut the game off. Getting up from the floor, he strode down the hall and paused at the guest room door. It was still quiet. Did Inertia sneak out? Was he still there? Bart knocked on the door before opening it. It was dark in the room and Bart had to give his eyes a moment to adjust. Thad was curled up on the bed with his back to the door. "Food's almost ready," he announced. Thad did not move. Warily, Bart approached the bed. "You awake?"

"Yes," Thad replied, "I heard you."

"You okay?"

Thad's tone was harsh and sharp. "I'm fine."

"Okay, just checking." Bart backed out of the room and retreated to the kitchen.

Thad soon joined Helen and Bart at the table and loaded his plate with the rest of the pizza. "We should leave tonight. I'm not going to work on any strategies until I have some input from..." He paused at the foreign word, "...Mom. Since we have the chronopod, we don't have to rely on the Craydl interface."

"But it's Monday!" Bart reminded, "I have school tomorrow!"

"We're traveling through time, moron," countered Thad, "We can return later tonight, no matter how long it takes."

"Thad, no name-calling," Helen rebuked, "You're better than that."

He scowled and continued to eat his pizza. After a couple of slices, he spoke again. "So, are you coming with me?"

Bart looked up from his plate. "To visit Mom? Yeah, sure." Then he remembered, "But we can't let President Thawne or the Science Police spot us. Mom made a deal to protect the rest of the family and I'm supposed to stay in this time period."

"And I'm up for immediate termination due to insubordination and desertion," Thad dryly added, "I think I understand the importance of stealth in this mission."

"Cool beans." Bart continued to munch on his pizza. His thick eyebrows furrowed together and Thad waited to hear what was grinding through his head. Finally, Bart spoke, "Why are we going back to take on President Thawne when you said you took centuries to develop? Wouldn't that, y'know, stop you from existing?"

Thad's brow rose in pleasant surprise. "Well, you do have two brain cells to rub together, after all. Tell me, how long, subjectively speaking, did you spend connected to virtual reality?"

Bart shrugged and answered around a mouthful, "I dunno. Years. Grandma told me when I was physically eight, I had already spent nineteen subjective years in there, because that's how fast I could process everything."

"That's how I took centuries to develop," Thad pointed out, "It was subjective time. That my chronological age matches my subjective age is yet another lie I was told. That became obvious the moment I stepped out of the Craydl facility in my own time." He snorted and picked a slice of pepperoni off of the pizza. Holding it up for investigation, he continued speaking. "I should have realized that President Thawne wouldn't have the patience or the guarantee of resources for a project with such a supposedly long lifespan. He certainly didn't wait for you to leave or mature before he started the project. As far as I can tell, he created me shortly after getting possession of you. Chronologically, I really am the age I look or very close to it." He popped the pepperoni into his mouth. "What I don't understand is why I was released prior to full maturation. An adult me against an adolescent you would certainly end in my expedient victory." He shook his head and picked off another slice of pepperoni. "This entire endeavor makes no sense."

Bart pointed to the last slice of pizza on Thad's plate. "Are y'gonna eat that?" Thad sighed and slid the plate towards him. With a grin, Bart took the slice. "Thanks!"

Now that his plate was empty, Thad returned to the guest room. Opening the dresser drawer, he pulled his black and green costume out from the bottom. He scowled at the colors. "Reverse Impulse," he muttered bitterly, "Was that the best he could come up with? Hidebound dolt."

He donned the costume and strode out of the room. Pausing at the doorway to Max's bedroom, he looked inside. "Come back soon."

As soon as Bart spotted Inertia entering the kitchen, he changed into his Impulse gear. "We're gonna go visit Mom now," he told Helen.

"Make sure you come back in time for school tomorrow," she replied. Standing, she gave Impulse a quick hug. "Be careful." Then she did the same to Inertia. "You, too."

Inertia tensed at her touch at first, but let himself relax. He remembered this warmth and didn't realize how much he missed it until that moment. Impulse dashed into the garage, where the chronopod was waiting. Inertia followed him, pausing at the door to glance back at Helen. After making sure that Impulse wasn't watching, he darted back to her and gave her a quick hug of his own. In an instant, he vanished into the garage.

Impulse was already entering in the space-time coordinates when Inertia joined him in the little pod. After quickly checking over the settings, Inertia made a few adjustments, and then nodded in approval. "There. We shouldn't be noticed when we land."

"Awesome! Let's go!" Impulse punched the last button and the pod popped into another time and place.