The Watchtower was quite the sight. Giant, and orbiting in space, surrounded by stars, the Earth a good hundred thousand miles away. But this late, spring night the vibe about the Tower was off. It usually was kept fairly serious place but welcoming to its members. Everyone and everything was so tense tonight, the air could practically emit it. Since Wally's disappearance, the Tower of course had gone through multiple changes and advancements. The basic computer and technology upgrades of course. But it also seemed to get bigger. Well it was bigger, slowly the headquarters expanded with new renovations. More space for its guests to explore had been added. While some of the newer rooms were yet to visited.
To Iris, some of these new rooms had no purpose other than to be explored. While some were conference rooms or had specific designations like medical or research areas equipped for such, Irey's favorite room was quite simple. An open room with a large window that overlooked outer space. She could glance out that window forever, it seemed like. Dwelling on nothing but the endless stars and of the unknown. When she could, the young hero would sit there and do school work. Or sometimes she would rest up after a long mission and prepare to deliver the report of a given mission with her team.
This evening, the young speedster gazed out on the horizons of space in her Impulse uniform. The cowl pulled back off her head, resting on her shoulders. Her goggles sitting up on her head letting free the puff of ginger hair that frizzed out to the sides, and let her naturally bright blue eyes glow, in their non-concealed glory. Her features were tensed in thought. Her mind visibly lost in thought and her pigtails noticeably lower on her head than usual.
"The meeting will begin soon." Came Damian's familiar voice, as he opened the large door slowly to peek his head in.
"Are we even allowed in?" She asked without turning around. Damian began to walk in toward her. The lights were off, but dim lights from outside the window, some being from other rooms of the Watchtower, illuminated just enough for the two teens to see each other.
"I made sure of it." He walked in, dressed neatly in his Robin uniform. She turned to glance at him now.
"Good…" She met his eye briefly and then looked down and away and everywhere else in the room, but at him. He was her weakness. For some strange reason that Irey could never figure out, no matter how hard she thought about it, she could not compute why Damian Wayne seemed so...significant? Why did he have so much hold over her? It was just plainly frustrating. "If this thing is all my fault, I want to help." She blurted out.
"This is not your fault, West." The Robin said, agitated at the fact that she would even think such preposterous things.
"Then whose can it be? I brought this whole…. scandal on the League and I should be the one to fix it." She retaliated and began to pace around a little quicker than most people. Damian sighed.
After a moment of Damian looking at her with his hard-blue eyes he spoke again. "The meeting will begin soon." he repeated, frustrated so much, he practically had to force the words out of his mouth. And yet he didn't want to fight with her. He would hate to see her get even more upset. She was his weakness. It wasn't like him to care but, Damian only seemed to care what Iris thought of him. Irey could see his exasperation and began to emphasize.
"Sorry Dami. I just-" She was cut off by the sound of the door opening. Bart Allen, dressed as the Flash, formerly Kidflash and formerly the original Impulse, popped his head in. "Sorry to interrupt, but it's time kid." The Leaguer said to his protégé and nodding to Damian respectfully, as he left.
"Impulse." Robin said as professionally as he could. The speedster nodded in response. "Robin."
/12 Hours Later/
"IMPULSE, NO!" Robin practically was screaming as Impulse sped out of the Mount Justice, past him, and past the small hideout the remaining members of the League sat waiting. She was going faster than she'd ever gone before. The sound of rapid gunfire and explosions mixed with yelling, toppled and the sounds of a swarm of military helicopters, which were only getting lower and closer, consumed the entire parameters of Mount Justice. Irey zipped towards her family and she could just see them being pulled into the farthest military vehicle all three on their backs unconscious. The speedster forcefully bolted through the minefield, zig-zagging and dashing through and around the valley of attackers.
It was a lost battle. They were outnumbered. It was all down to Impulse, Robin, Nightwing, Flash, Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. They had begun their strategic retreat but Irey had other plans.
The sound of electricity was heard and sparks and guns became so overwhelming Damian had to cover his head with his cape for a moment. When he looked up he could see something he didn't believe to be possible. A tall yellow figure vibrating faster that he had ever seen a speedster move. This thing was darting around Irey in what looked like a speedster-showdown of sorts.
"No way…." Damian heard the Flash say. "Zoom?!" the scarlet speedster asked louder. Damian turned his attention back to this Zoom character, just in time to see it launch itself towards Irey. He watched bewildered as the two seemed to be evenly matched. Impulse defensively dodged every attack thrown at her, in a standoff of speed.
But then something changed. It appeared as though this 'Zoom' was accelerating, if that was even possible. Like he was now commanding the electricity and controlling an unseen force. In a millisecond, the Zoom launched itself at Irey one last time and hit her. Smack. Straight down, full-force. Irey fell and was lying flat on her stomach, her arms and limbs sprawled out.
"IMPULSE?!" The Flash called out to his long-time sidekick. Before Bart could do anything Zoom began running around Irey who only showed a small sign of movement since falling. Zoom circled her. Faster, and faster and faster. He created a twister. A huge twister of lightning all by itself. Damian could barely hear as Bart said something fast about the the cyclone eliminating all oxygen inside of the epicenter and henceforth, that meant in short, Zoom was basically strangling Irey. And the Flash was off too. He bolted forward past his team into the battlefield that had been created outside the base.
The Flash ran straight towards the small twister and began attempting to stop it. He ran in the opposite direction, to no avail, the Flash sped himself into Zoom. Forcing his mass into the mysterious entity, hoping to get him away from his sidekick.
All Damian could see was the flashing and mess of colors; a battle of red and yellow. He felt helpless. He wanted to run in and do something but the little voice in his head told him that it would only make this whole ordeal worse.
The next thing anyone knew Zoom was pulled away from Impulse with the Flash atop of him. There was more spinning and Bart was launched back away towards the rest of the group. Looking back over at Zoom he made his way back to Irey and Damian could tell by the way he approached her, the sick bastard was smirking, pleased with his victory. He bent down and examined the knocked-out hero before picking her up, and carelessly flinging her over his shoulder and making his way to the one of the military trucks.
"GET YOUR GODDAMN DIRTY HANDS OFF HER YOU SAVAGE" Robin shouted only to be grabbed by Nightwing to prevent him from going after Zoom. Superman collected the Flash. "Retreat." The Man-of-Steel said a bit more forcefully than the first time he said it, 10 minutes ago. "LET ME GO. COWARDS" Robin yelled again.
The remaining few stealthily made their way to the secret entrance to the secret tunnels in and around the Cave
"She'll be okay Robin." Dick said his eyes narrowed, "I hope so…" he muttered under his breath as they all disappeared together.