February 20, 2056
Outskirts of Gotham City (AKA the Village)
3:15 AM
Bart and Derek looked out their bedroom door. They looked up and down the hallway and both, with backpacks full of supplies, they quietly went down stairs. They heard CJ sleeping in his room. They saw Madison sleeping with her head on Jayson's shoulder on the couch. The twins where sleeping on two separate recliners across from the sofa. Damian had fallen asleep on the old wooden floor that used to have carpet on it but it was now torn up. Without making a sound, the two fourteen year olds snuck out of the building and made their way to the nearest manhole cover. Using a crowbar that Derek had in his backpack, they wedge it under the cover and opened it. Bart was the first one to jump in, followed by Derek who made sure the lid was back over the entrance into the sewer.
The two clicked on the flashlights that where attached to the straps of the backpack. Derek pulled out a map of the sewer ways. "Your sister is going to kill us," said Bart. Derek laughed, "Then, stay whelmed." Bart rolled his eyes at his friend that used the new vocabulary that his father 'invented'. "And if we get in trouble, we call for help," said Derek he tapped the wrist communicator, that just looked like a large square watch. The tapping echoed down the sewer. Derek and Bart had goose bumps from the creepy tunnel. Derek started to walk, as Bart followed the map keeper. It took them over an hour before they got to the closest exit to Wayne Manor. Derek hurried up the ladder along with Bart. The two boys popped out of the hole and hurried for cover by an over turned car. "There," pointed Derek to the large gates with a giant 'W' above it. "Wayne Manor" the boys said together, sounding like they were hypnotized by the giant, crumbling building about two miles away from the gate.
Rocks from a building across the road fell down and the boys jumped. They both let out uneasy laughs, "Okay," said Derek not sure that they should be doing this now, "Let's go." Derek and Bart ran to the gate and took no time at all to climb over the fence. Then Derek ran as fast as he could, and Bart matched his speed. It took them two minutes to get to the front doors the building. Derek and Bart hesitated before they slowly opened the doors and went inside. There was nothing left on the inside, only dust marks from where old portraits where hung. "Wow," said Bart. "I know," said Derek, "Maddi used to live here along with Dad." Bart could only say one thing, "Wow." Even though the old house was falling apart, it was still elegant, with a hint of dark secrets behind it.
Derek looked up the stairs, "There," he said pointing up, "Those stairs still looked intact. I am going to guess that Mr. Wayne's office is up stairs. And where there is an office, there are files for communication, along with-" Bart finished Derek's sentence, "addresses." Derek nodded and started up the stairs. Each stair creaked and sounded like they were about to fall. Soon they made it to the top. "Okay," said Derek, "You take the left side of the hallway and I take the other. First one to find the office, shout out to the other." They started down the hall. Bart was the one to find the office; there were still books and other papers left in the room. "Found it," he said. Bart walked in and started to look at the papers; Derek walked in shortly after and looked to the bookshelves. "Hey, D," said Bart using the pet name he had almost forgotten about but looking at an old burnt out computer reminded him of the old Derek from their younger years.
Derek walked up to the computer and pushed the button, the screen lit up and went black again, "I can't believe it's still working" said Derek as the computer got to the lock screen. He started to try and type up the right password. Bart continued to look among the drawers in the desk, then moving to the papers on top of the desk, then to the ones on the floor, then to the book shelves. "No!" Derek said loudly but still managed to grab hold of the volume of his voice. Bart looked to Derek who was trying to get the screen to the computer to stop flickering, then, it shut completely down. Derek pounded the top of the computer, sending vibrations throughout the whole room. Everything went still, Derek sighed, "Well, that was our only chance of finding it." Bart looked at the books around the room, "Maybe-" just then the floor under Derek collapsed.
He screamed as he fell through the second floor and through the non-existing first floor. Bart ran at his top speed and made a miniature tornado to catch Derek on the basement floor. He set Derek safely on the ground, whose face had turned pure white. "Thanks," he said almost out of breath, "You were right, Bart. We should have never done this," Bart left Derek and looked around; he spotted something out of the corner of his eye. Derek got up and dusted off his pants, "This is a dead end," he said. Bart shook his head, "No it's not. Look," Bart pointed toward the object that looked like the picture in the time machine blue prints. "That's it!" said Derek excitedly as he ran up to it and started to look it over. Even Bart smiled, thinking of how they are going to be able to change the future now.
As Derek pulled off his backpack, the whole Manor shook. "It's coming down!" yelled Bart. The two boys looked scared. Leaving Derek's backpack, the two headed to a stair way that headed above ground. They managed to lug it all the way to the over grown field behind the giant house. Bart ran back inside, going as fast as he could and grabbed Derek's backpack and made it back out just as the whole mansion collapsed on itself. Derek grabbed the backpack from Bart's hand and slipped it on. Derek looked to the skies, "We should move the machine to a different place." Bart thought for a moment, "I know just the place. It is just outside of the Village."
Before they were able to go, a glowing red person appeared above them and glared down at the boys. Bart and Derek didn't move and didn't know what to do. "What do you two boys think you are doing?" he asked in a menacing voice. Derek stepped up, "We are trying to get to a place outside of the Village, so that we can work on this," he said pointing to the time machine. The glowing red man looked at the machine and then back to the boys, "And what do you plan to do with this, machine?" he asked. Bart stepped up this time, "We plan to fix this time. So that Beetle isn't in control." This peaked the red man's interest. He thought for a moment and said, "I will help you. Anything so that I'm not trapped in this suit, and Beetle isn't in control." The boys looked at each other with shock expressions, "Okay," said Derek, still a bit confused, "I'm Derek, and this is Bart." The glowing man nodded, "Call me Neutron. For now anyway."
The boys didn't dare ask any questions. "I know where we can keep this time machine. Ever heard of a place called Happy Harbor? It's completely deserted now. Perfect place plus Mount Justice used to be there, so it already has good supplies to fix it." The two boys lit up with glee, "Okay!" said Derek, "Let's get to it!" Neutron nodded and in minutes they were at Happy Harbor. Derek put his backpack down and took out a couple of blue prints. "D," said Bart, "You are just like your sister. I didn't see you take those off the table." Derek only smiled. Then finally said, "We just need to find what is wrong with the machine, find the right parts and put it together."
Derek, Bart, and Neutron took an hour to find what Madison had missed. Derek quickly made a list and split it between Bart and Neutron. "Okay," said Bart, "As long as we get everything, don't get caught by Beetle and your sister," he looked at Derek, "We will have the future fixed in no time!" Derek nodded, "Yes, but very bad pun." The two boys laughed, even Neutron let out a chuckle. "Okay. Same time tomorrow?" asked Derek as he looked to Neutron. "You can count on it," said the man in red. As they began to go their separate ways Neutron was shot in the back by a tranquilizer and fell to the ground. Derek and Bart knew what that meant. They tried to run but were blocked by Blue Beetle himself. The boys stayed where they were as Beetle let out a terrifying laugh, "It's so easy now a days to find people," he said, "Especially when they have super powers." Bart and Derek remembered that Bart had used his powers to save Derek from the fall, Beetle tracked the use of Bart's metagene, just like a tracking device.
Meanwhile, Madison, Jayson, and Damian found their way toward Wayne Manor. "I can't believe you used to live here, you two," said Jayson as he looked to the collapsed building, "It's a dump." Madison gave Jayson a little glare and Damian laughed. "It didn't look like this when I or Damian lived here." Jayson smiled, "Well, that's good." Madison just rolled her eyes. Then Madison's wrist communicator went off, along with Jayson's and Damian's. She looked down at it and saw it was from Derek and Bart. "Oh no," she said. Even Jayson and Damian looked worried. Madison quickly opened her little pouch on her side and she controlled the little metal scales. She made a platform where Jayson and Damian got on. It didn't take them long to get to Happy Harbor.
When the three got there, Madison lowered them a foot above the ground and made the scales go back into the little pouch. They all landed safely in a crouch but the three bounced up quickly and got ready to fight. "Back away from the boys Beetle," yelled Madison. Beetle looked from the scared little boys to the nineteen year olds who stood ready to fight. When Beetle wasn't looking, the boys started to run. Beetle quickly turned around and shot an energy cannon toward the boys. Madison one of her tiny little scales toward the beam, deflecting it. Jayson took out an arrow full of foam and shot it at Beetle. Beetle didn't even try to dodge it; he only laughed and exploded out of the foam shooting an energy cannon at the archer knocking him to the ground and out cold.
Damian and Madison knew they were no match for the alien tech. Beetle turned back to the boys who had stopped and looked back to see if they could help. While they looked, Beetle shot a sound wave at them knocking them out, but not harming them. Madison jumped at Beetle, who in turned just hit her with his arm. During this, Damian had disappeared. Beetle looked at the passed out teens. Beetle looked to Madison and Jayson first then quickly went over to the two younger boys. He reached down to pick up both of them then stopped half way. "You're right," he mumbled and only picked up Bart who was half awake now. "No-" protested Bart but he was still a bit woozy. Then went over and picked up Neutron.
Beetle shot a flare in the air. Jets came out from the back of Beetle, and he shot in the air with the little speedster and old metagene experiment on his shoulders. Bart opened his eyes as they took off. Beetle stopped and hovered in the air above the Bart's three unconscious friends. "Take a look, Impulse," said Beetle as the same wolves that attacked the orphans started to surround the three. "And say good bye to your friends. And your last hope for freedom." Bart heard Beetle laughed and passed out again.
When Bart woke again he was in a middle of an ash covered area surrounded by tall wire fences, with an inhibitor collar on.
He slowly got up and looked around. There were many other people as well, he didn't know if any of them had powers but he guessed that they didn't. A shadow came over Bart, he smiled up at the sort-of familiar face, "Hey Neutron," said the little teen. Neutron was now human but still looked sickly. "Please," said Neutron, "Call me Nathaniel." Bart looked at him with his head tilted. Nathaniel laughed, "My real name Nathaniel Tryon. Anyway," said Nathaniel waving his hand in dismissing the matter, "The time machine isn't far from here," he pulled out a little round pill. "Here is what I need you to do when you go back. It should fix the future and prevent everything from ending up like this. Are you still in?" Bart thought for a moment and nodded. Nathaniel smiled, "Great,"
Bart had stopped crying during his story but his eyes where still blood shot and there was still tear stains on his face. Wally looked at the clock; it was now 1:30 AM. "Wow," he said, "So, you didn't actually know what happened to the others." Bart shook his head, "Not even a hint. Until I was about to leave for the future." He felt sobs coming back on. Wally pulled Bart into a one armed hug, "It's okay. If they are anything like their parents, then they should be thriving, right?" Bart nodded and in only a couple of minutes Bart fell asleep. Wally put Bart down, he looked out cold and Wally decided to go sleep on the chair by the couch. Soon he was asleep as well.
Wally woke up at nine as his cell phone went off. "Hello?" he mumbled into the phone as he tried to wake up. "Hey. It's me Dick," said Dick on the other line. Wally looked over to the Bart who was still sleeping on the couch, "Hold on," he whispered into the phone as he ran up the stairs into his room. "Okay, I got a lot of the story from Bart. And I know what he's acting like he is," said Wally. Dick didn't say anything then said, "Well?" Wally sighed, "He's had a pretty bad past. Just as bad as yours, maybe even worse," Dick stayed quiet, "And you were right. The future is just as bad as we think it is. And I only know half of the story." Dick stayed quiet a little bit longer and said, "Okay, start talking." Wally started to tell Dick everything that Bart had told him.