Reset!: Blackout - Chapter Three

[randomality]

Summary: Cut off from the Speed Force, Impulse and Inertia cope with mundane life trapped with each other in Manchester. What is behind the outage and will they be able to restore the source of their powers? Sequel to Reset! AU.

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

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Reset!: Blackout - Chapter Three: Coping

 

Helen leaned back in her chair and put the phone to her ear. Wally's voice greeted her from the other side. "Hi, Helen. I was just checking up on the boys."

"Bart and Thad are doing fine," she answered, "They're adjusting. Not too happy about it, but they're coping. What about you?"

"Actually, I'm starting to like all of this time off," Wally admitted. Helen could hear the sheepish grin through his voice. "The day job is a little boring, but it keeps me busy. The best part is that Linda and I have more time together."

"How is she?" Helen hadn't heard much from Wally's wife since she suffered a miscarriage.

"Doing good. She got a new contract for her show here in Central City. We're living off of her income and putting all of my paychecks into savings. We're living pretty comfortably now." He chuckled at that briefly. "She's talking about having kids again."

Helen smiled and sat up a little taller. "That's wonderful! The two of you can't let what happened stop you from having a family. Trust me, you only have so long before the chance passes you by."

"Yeah, I know. It doesn't stop me from worrying that we'll have a repeat or worse, though." A quiet pause interrupted the conversation. Helen could tell that there was something Wally wanted to talk about, so she waited. Finally, he spoke, "Time's catching up to Jay. Without the Speed Force, he's sliding downhill pretty fast. It's not like he's sick or anything. It's just that he's so old."

"It's hard to watch," Helen remarked, remembering how quickly Max deteriorated when he was cut from the Speed Force. "Hopefully, his link will reestablish soon. He'll bounce back when that happens."

"It's been almost two months, Helen," Wally reminded, "I got nothin' on what's going on with Speed Force. STAR Labs can't even figure it out. Jesse's given up on it, but she has other abilities to fall back on." Wally blasted a sigh into the receiver. "Whatever's wrong is inside the Speed Force itself and we can't even touch it."

"Then we just have to wait and see what happens. I'm sure that everything will work out in time," she reassured. After a silent pause, she changed the topic. "Wally, Bart said that you were the one who managed to get him the identity papers he needed to enroll in school."

"Yeah, I had to pull a few strings to do it, though," he answered.

"Could you do it again for Thad? His mother still hasn't come to pick him up and I don't want to leave him cooped up in the house all the time. He doesn't like the idea of going to school, but if he's going to be here indefinitely, he needs to go through the system enough to let him build a future for himself."

"I'll see what I can do." There was some rustling in the background as he reached for a pen and paper. "I.D. for Thaddeus Thawne. Does he have a middle name?"

"I don't know, I'll ask and get back to you on that."

"Okay."

A commotion in the backyard grabbed her attention and she saw Bart and Thad duking it out again. "Oh, for the love of... Wally, I'll call you back. The boys are really at it, this time. I swear, Thad needs to get out of the house and get a life and Bart needs to stop antagonizing him."
Marching out of the back door, Helen planted her hands on her hips and barked, "Boys! Get over here!" Bart and Thad paused in mid-fight. Thad had a fistful of Bart's hair and Bart was giving Thad a wedgie. "What are you two fighting over now?!" When they didn't answer, she shook her head and clutched at the broad white streak in her dark hair. "You don't even know?! Get in here and go to your rooms!" The boys let go of each other and sulked past Helen. "I swear, you two, if you were girls, I would be blaming hormones for these outbursts." That prompted both boys to hunch down lower on their way to their rooms.

A couple of weeks later, a large envelope landed in Helen's mailbox. Whatever it was, Wally had sent it. Inside was a set of identity papers for Thad: Birth certificate, immunization records, and a few school records, including some notes that Thad had been homeschooled by his maternal grandfather since the second grade. Helen chuckled as she sorted through the papers. "Oh, Thad is going to be so mad at me."

When Thaddeus came in from the garage for dinner, Helen slid the package to him. "Here, you're set for our time, now."

He flipped through the pages with a scowl deepening on his face. "What is all this for? I don't need these."

"Your mother still hasn't come," Helen reminded him, "And there's no telling when she'll show up. So, these are to help you integrate while you wait."

"Integrate." The word came out with a suspicious sneer. "What do you mean by that?"

"I'm enrolling you in school." Helen braced herself for the tantrum she was sure to follow.

"School?! No! Absolutely not!" Thad stormed, "I do not need to go to school! My education has already surpassed what it can offer me!"

"Then test out of it, genius," Helen rebutted, "Apply to get a GED at the community college. I don't care what you do, as long as you satisfy the education requirements set by the State of Alabama in the twenty-first century. I don't need a social worker visiting my door and asking why you're not in school."

Thad glared at the papers and clenched his fists. "If I pass some tests, I won't have to go, correct?"

"That's right."

"Then I will take those tests."

On the day the Thaddeus was scheduled to the take the tests, Bart came home from school to find his twin sulking at the kitchen table. "Uh oh, what happened?"

"I excelled in Math and Science, as expected," Thad replied, "But I was inadequate in English and Social Studies. My knowledge of history before this time period was not adequate, as well as literature. Obviously, there are different priorities given to what is studied in those to fields than what I had anticipated."

"Carol says you just tell the teachers what they want to hear in those two subjects and you get a good grade," Bart remarked as he slid into a chair. "She's right."

"Grife," Thad swore, "My brain will atrophy and leak out my ears."

"It won't be that bad." Bart was grinning and trying not to laugh, even though he was trying to help Thad feel better. "Mom can show up at any time. This will just keep you kinda sorta busy for a little while. Maybe you'll even make some friends and have a little fun." Bart noticed a few papers on the table and pulled them towards him. "Hey, you even got a schedule! Aw, we don't have any classes together."

"Good."

"That means that we can't work on our homework together." Bart pouted at that. "Well, I still got Carol and the guys helping, so that's okay." Then he straightened up and grinned. "Hey, you gotta come hang with us at lunch on your first day, okay? We can help you figure stuff out!"

"I went to school when I posed as you," reminded Thad, "I know my way around."

"Oh yeah, that's right." Bart slid the papers back to his brother. "Well, you gotta come hang with us, anyways."

Thad was not thrilled with the idea either then or on his first day at school. Once the lunch period started, Bart found him and pulled him by the arm to the table his group claimed. The group greeted the newcomer and went back to their previous conversations. Thad observed the group, remembering when he used to hang out with them while posing as Bart. None of them knew about that, so he couldn't try the old jokes that had made them laugh before.

With a mischievous grin, Bart flicked the wadded candy wrapper at Preston, scoring a hit on his arm. Preston's confusion only lasted a moment and he flicked the wrapper back. The exchange went on for a few minutes, evolving into a game where each boy would try to flick the wrapper through the "goal" that the other made with his fingers. Thad watched this for a while with a frown and furrowed brow. "Was this what you were trying to do when you hit me with those things?" he finally asked his brother, "You were trying to get me to play with you?"

"Yeah," Bart answered as he flicked the wrapper through Preston's goal.

"Why didn't you say so?"

"Because you were too busy yelling at me and trying beat me up for it." Bart shrugged and set up a goal for Preston. "After a while, I just figured that fighting was your play."

Thad's eyes widened with realization. He knew about games and how to play when he fooled everyone into thinking he was Bart. All around him were other people his own age. They talked, laughed, played games with each other, and enjoyed themselves despite the drudgery around them. Why couldn't he do it as himself?

A cluster of girls at another table tittered and giggled while looking at him. "Omigod! Is that Bart's brother? He's cute!"

The corner of his mouth twitched upwards, but pulled back into a scowl as he listened to them further. 'I'll always be compared to Bart. Defined by Bart. That inferior...' Angry yellow eyes shifted towards Bart in a seething glare. He squeezed them shut and let a long breath slowly slide. 'I can't go back to that. I can't let our dear grandfather win. I'm not a pawn. I'm not a dog.' The bench under him settled when Carol sat down next to him.

"Thad? Are you okay?" Warm brown eyes behind the lenses of her glasses reflected her concern.

"I'm fine." He got up from the table and picked up his backpack. "I'm going to the library. It's quieter there."

The school's library was indeed quieter and Thad spent the rest of the lunch period browsing the shelves. Some of the books were severely outdated, even by early twenty-first century standards. To Thad, it was almost like reading texts from when people thought the sun revolved around the earth. He drifted to the literature shelves and sifted through the various genres that were crammed together. It seemed like no time at all passed while he was among the books and the bell soon rang to tell him to go to his next class.

Later in the evening, Helen dropped a booklet on the table in front of the boys as they ate dinner. "Here, I want both of you to read this."

Thaddeus picked up the booklet. "Alabama Driver Manual?"

Bart leaned over to look at it. "Serious? Driving?"

"Both of you have to read it before I take you in to get your learner license or give you any lessons," Helen dictated, "You're both legally old enough to start learning. Even if you get your speed back, it's something you should know how to do." She poured a fresh cup of coffee, before sitting down at the table again. "Thad, you should be glad I got you enrolled in school. That's one of the requirements to get the learner's license. The rest of the papers are the same ones we needed to get you in school in the first place."

"Fake papers," Thaddeus remarked while flipping through the booklet's pages. "Bart and I are engaging in identity fraud."

Helen sighed and shook her head. "And you two used to be vigilantes," she reminded, "You're also from a thousand years in the future."

Bart glanced at the clock and pushed away from the table. "I'm gonna be on the computer," he announced.

Tonight, he was going to hang out with his Young Justice friends online. Cassie had arranged to whole thing well in advance and badgered Tim and Kon into getting the game that they were going to use as their medium.

Bart logged into Warquest Online and went through the character creation process. "Don't blow your identity," he repeated the warning from Cassie to himself. Before long, he had a long-haired male ranger ready to go. What to name him? He pulled up the random name generator and clicked through until he got enough elements to come up with Stormrunner Quickbow. Now to go find Cassie in the beginning zone, who was under the name of Sophia Shieldmaiden. The raven-haired warrior stood under a tree, dressed in the Grecian-looking beginning armor. "Hi Cassie!" he sent to her.

The private reply was quick and terse. "Bart! What did I tell you?"

"Sorry!" After a pause, he added, "How'd you know it was me?"

"A guess," Cassie answered. A few clicks later and they were in a team together.

A brawny male priest by the name of Ralph Healsalot approached the group. "Hey everyone."

From his seat at the computer, Bart stared at the screen in confusion. As soon as Ralph was added to the team, he sent on the team chat channel. "Who are you?"

"Cissie," was the reply.

"Why are you a boy?"

"Because I wanted to do something different."

Bart spoke to the screen aloud, "Okay, Cissie, you're being weird today, right?"

A dark-skinned female necromancer with royal purple hair and sporting the name Idu Vudu joined the team. That had to be Anita! Soon after, a scantily clad female mage also joined. Bart furrowed his eyebrows as he stared at the name on the screen. Who was Elissa Hottie? Three responses on the team chat admonishing Kon for his choice in character name gave him the answer. He added his own text to the session. "Why are you playing a girl?"

"They look better," Kon answered, "Did you look at the girl mages?"

"No. Why would I?" Sometimes, Kon was weird too.

"Boobies!"

Bart wasn't impressed with the answer. "You're weird." He took stock of all of the team members and noticed that they were one short. Aloud, he wondered, "Where's Tim?"

Soon, an elegant female enchantress by the name of Luna Spellbinder joined the party. "Hi everyone."

Bart sent his greeting on the team chat. "Hi, Tim. Why are you a girl?"

"They looked better," Tim replied.

"You're weird too."

An hour later, Thad approached Bart and leaned over his chair. "What is this?"

"A game," Bart answered, not letting up on his rapid ranged attacks. Cassie's warrior was surrounded by monsters, getting healed by Cissie all the while. Kon's mage was flinging firebolts, Anita resurrected the dead monsters to serve her, and Tim was busy with buffs to his friends and debuffs to his enemies.

Thad squinted at the characters on the screen. "Is that the rest of Young Justice?"

"How'd you know?"

"A few giveaways," Thad remarked, "Superboy especially."

"But he's a girl in here!"

"Exactly." He watched the virtual battle continue. "Is this some sort of training exercise?"

"No," Bart answered, "It's just a game."

"It could be a training exercise."

"There aren't any speedsters and nobody can fly in this game."

Thad crossed his arms. "That doesn't matter. It's about tactics and teamwork."

"It's also about having fun." Bart's character followed after Cassie's onto the next battle.