Reset!: Blackout - Chapter Six

[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 Six: Burst

Helen came home to an unusually quiet house. Where were the sounds of her wards arguing, of the dog barking, and of a videogame playing? She found Thad in front of the computer, playing solitaire. Her gaze darted to the taskbar. Email and instant messenger were minimized in a hasty attempt to hide the active sessions. "Internet girlfriend again?"

Thad exploded with denial, "I do not have an internet girlfriend!"

"Internet boyfriend, then?"

Confusion interrupted his rage and he stared at Helen, not quite believing his ears. "What? No!" Distaste added another layer to his befuddled expression. "What?"

"Just asking. You can never know, these days." Helen held up her hands defensively, "Not that I'm saying that you look the type. I was just covering the bases."

Thad was still confused. "What?"

"Nevermind." Helen waved the matter away. "How was school?"

"Boring, as usual," he answered, "A couple of girls tried to rope me into drama club. They tried to sucker me into Mock Trial a few weeks ago, too."

Helen was surprised to hear this. "Why don't you join?"

"Because I may leave at any time. I don't want to start a commitment that I can't keep."

Thad squirmed in his seat and frowned, catching Helen's attention again. "You all right?" she asked.

"I know I've been doing my laundry correctly, but my pants keep shrinking."

"Your pants aren't shrinking, Thad," Helen grinned, trying not to laugh. For all of his picking on Bart for being so obtuse, there were occasional moments where Bart seemed to catch on a little faster. Not that she would tell Thad that, of course. "You're just growing. Stand up." When he obliged, Helen crossed her arms and stepped close. They now stood eye to eye, even though Thad was not wearing shoes and Helen stood on modest heels. "See? With the way you two eat, I would be worried if you weren't getting taller."

Thad seemed genuinely surprised at this development. He stared down at his feet, which didn't seem as big as they used to be. "Oh."

She patted his blond hair. "Remember to watch your head and try not to laugh at Bart when he doesn't, even though it is funny." She took a step backwards and looked around the room. "Speaking of, where is he?"

"At Carol's," Thad answered, "He's staying there for dinner tonight."

Bart's injuries had long since healed, much to his relief. He had started to wonder if there was something wrong with him. Helen assured him that he healed at a normal rate, but how was he to know otherwise? Carol set a washed and peeled white onion on the cutting board in front of him. "This is ready to chop up," she told him.

As he diced the onion, his eyes began to sting and water. Blinking back tears, he chopped as fast as he could without slicing his fingers. Sliding the knife down the board over the pan that he had recently cooked bacon in, he dumped the onion in. "This onion is nasty," he remarked as he turned the range back on, "I'm gonna get these cooked before they blind me." He added the celery he had chopped up earlier to the pan.

"I'll do that. You mash up the potatoes and carrots." Noticing his tearing eyes, she snickered. "Are you okay?"

"Not fast enough for onion anymore, but I'm okay," he answered, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand, "I just want my goggles."

Carol grinned teasingly, "So, the goggles actually do something?"

"Yes! Goggles are awesome! Blind speedsters can't run!"

Carol frantically hushed him. "My little sister is still in the house!"

Bart cringed and looked over his shoulder, expecting to see Casey already standing there. "Sorry."

"How half of Manchester doesn't know, I can't figure out." Behind her glasses, she blinked against the onion's sting. "Wow, you weren't kidding. This onion is strong."

"At least Eddie's off my case," Bart remarked as he mashed the cooked potatoes and carrots, "That was a close one."

"Instead, he's spreading the rumor that Impulse is dead. It's open season in Manchester now."

"That's okay. Impulse will be back as soon as the Speed Force is and, if things get really bad before then, I'll call for help." He blew a thick lock of hair away from his eyes. When that failed to move it out of the way, he reached up and tucked it behind his ear. "I think I need to cut my hair back or something. It's always getting in my face now."

"Well, you're not using supersonic speeds for styling anymore." She ran her fingers through the chestnut mane. "And if you do cut it short, I'm going to hurt you." Carol pecked a kiss on his cheek and went back to sauting the onions and celery.

It was then that Casey stepped into the kitchen. The preteen wrinkled her nose at the pair. "You're not making out in here, are you?"

"No," Carol answered sharply, "And don't grab any snacks. You can wait. We're making dinner right now."

Casey stuck her tongue out at her older sister and left the kitchen. Bart raised an eyebrow and asked, "Why can't she have a snack, if she's hungry?"

"Because she'll just fill up on junk, instead of this dinner that we're spending so much time making." Carol blasted a hard sigh. "Sometimes, I hate having to be the mom. Casey gets mad at me a lot for it and I don't like fighting with her. She fights with Bobby, too. My brother gets tired of it pretty quick and just kinda shuts it out. So, I have to fight with Casey more." She added the onions and celery to the pot of mashed potatoes and carrots. "I wish my parents were still alive. Maybe we would all get along better, then."

Bart measured out the milk according the recipe he had read earlier and added it to the pot. "Maybe, maybe not. My family's kinda the same. If Thad and I weren't taken away, would he still be a raging jerk? Sometimes, I wonder if that's just him."

"I guess so." Carol stirred the soup until the milk was mixed in. "Hopefully, Casey's just in a phase and she'll grow out of it." Picking up the waiting biscuit recipe, she scanned through the ingredients list. "Baking powder? Do we even have any?" She searched through the cupboards until she found the canister. "Great. Thanks, Bobby. You had to put it on the top shelf." Planting a hand on the counter and standing on her toes, she reached up with her other hand and brushed the canister with her fingertips. Bart approached and reached up, grabbing the container and handing it to her. "Thanks," Carol automatically replied. She gave him a double take and grinned. "You know, when Impulse comes back, people are going to be surprised. He's got a reputation for being a zippy little guy."

Bart's brows knitted as he tried to figure out what Carol was talking about. "But I am. Well, I'm not so zippy right now."

"A zippy little guy," Carol repeated, gesturing a height shorter than hers with her free hand.

His eyes brightened with understanding. "Oh! Heh, right. Yeah, I guess so." He shrugged and shoved his hands into his pockets. "I'm not that much bigger."

"Can you still fit into your suit?"

Bart shrugged again. "It's stretchy."

He suddenly felt dizzy and he braced against the counter. Blinking, he realized that Carol was gripping his shoulders. He winced at her fingernails digging into his skin.

"Bart?" She didn't let go of him until he regained his balance and looked around the kitchen. "Your eyes were glowing."

"What?" He wrapped his hands around Carol's wrists. "They were?"

She nodded and grimaced. "They were glowing yellow. So were your veins. It was a little freaky looking."

Bart pulled his hands away and examined them. They looked normal now, but he tried to imagine what it would look like to have glowing veins. "Ew. That's never happened before."

"You were tranced out for a minute, too," Carol informed him, "That scared me."

"I don't remember. Heh. I guess I really was tranced." He tried to keep the matter light, but he could feel that something wasn't right. "I hope my connection to the Speed Force was trying to restart. If it was, it didn't work."

In Helen's house, Thad turned off the water in the bathroom sink, suddenly aware of a prickling sensation dancing up his spine. All of the little hairs on his arms stood on end, perplexing him. He wasn't cold, so that couldn't be the cause. This seemed more like an odd case of static buildup, which still didn't make any sense to him. Why would there be an increase in electrical charge while he was washing his hands? He looked at his reflection to see if his hair was standing on end.

It wasn't, but the golden glow from his eyes startled him and he jerked a couple of steps back. In the mirror, the glow changed color to a vibrant violet and it felt as if ants were crawling all over his skin. A man's deep voice spoke loud and clear within his ears. "Let's see if this one will do."

In the next instant, Thad found himself lying on a quiet residential street that he did not recognize. His hands and knees complained sharply to him, warning him about the bloody mess he was going to find. Carefully climbing to his feet, he tried to get a bearing on his location. Kansas license plates on the parked cars gave him one clue, which was better than no clues at all. Now, he just needed to narrow it down to a city.

Picking a direction, he strode along the sidewalk, ignoring his injuries and taking note that his speed was gone. Obviously, it had briefly returned, but there was something unsettling about how it did so. After a couple of miles, he finally found a strip mall. Stepping into a minimart, he asked the nearest clerk what city he was in.

"Keystone," she answered, "Do you need help?"

"No, I'm fine." Thad sighed and recanted, "Can you show me on a map where this is?"

The clerk pulled a map off of the display stand nearby and pointed out to him where her shop was. Soon, he was back on the sidewalks and navigating the sprawling city. It took an hour, by his best guess, for him to finally find the house with the mailbox reading "Garrick" outside.

Thad lifted his hand to knock on the door, but it opened before he could touch it. Jay Garrick's wife, Joan, stared at him in surprise. The boy's yellow eyes gave her the clue she needed about his identity. "Jay! It's Bart's brother!"

Thad grimaced at the tag, swallowing down the sudden flare of rage that clenched his fists. He was not going to beat up an old lady! He could control himself! Joan gasped when she saw the dried blood crusting over his knees. "Come on in," she invited while putting a hand on his shoulder to guide him inside, "Let's get you cleaned up. How did you get here? Aren't you supposed to be in Alabama?"

Once inside, Joan set aside her purse and shrugged off her jacket. "Wait here, dear. I'm getting my first aid kit."

Nodding absently, Thad stared at Jay. He looked much like a man at his advanced age would. Flashbacks to Max's rapid deterioration ran through the boy's mind. A rare, but familiar, feeling of dread dredged up from his gut. "Jay?"

The elderly man stood up from his chair, displaying his good health and vibrant spirits with his movements. "It's all right, son. I'm fine. I still have plenty of years left in me."

Joan returned with her trusty kit in hand. "Come on to the kitchen and you can tell us all about how you made the trip here."

While Joan cleaned and bandaged his wounds, Thad recounted his last memories in Manchester. "And then I was laying on the street here in Keystone."

Jay nodded gravely to the story. "That voice talking to you before you blacked out is what worries me the most about this. Did you recognize the voice at all?"

Thad shook his head, "No, nothing positive." He paused and thought it over again. "There was something familiar, but I can't pinpoint it."

"Hmm," Jay mused to himself, "After I call Helen and let her know what happened, I'm going to call Wally to take Thad back home."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Joan asked, "What if his speed comes back and disappears again? That's always so disorienting to you and, from what I've heard, to Wally too. I don't want Wally to be behind the wheel when that happens."

"I think we can risk it," Jay replied, "I'm betting that someone on the other side of the force was trying to possess Thad here. I can only think of two people that would do that. In either case, I want Wally to be nearby if it returns."

Thad snapped around to face Jay. "What?! Are you sprocking kidding me? Possession?"

"Like what happened to Max," Jay reminded, "You've become a target. My guess is that whoever wants to take a ride in your skin also wants to use your reputation to disguise the hijacking."

Thad rolled his eyes and curled his lip in disgust. "Right, I'm the evil twin."

Later that evening, Wally arrived at the Garrick house. Standing in the living room with his hands in the pockets of his jacket, he eyed Thad. "Well, this is going to be fun. It's a good thing I don't have work tomorrow."

Thad crossed his arms and glowered at Wally. "The sooner we leave, the sooner I return home."

"Oh, yeah. Tons of fun. I don't know which would be worse," Wally remarked, "Eleven hours cooped up with Captain Cranky here, or Bart."

Thad's scowl darkened. "Why can't you put me on a plane and have Helen pick me up in Birmingham?"

It was Wally who answered first. "Because you're a minor and I would have to fly with you. Linda did some searching and last minute tickets aren't cheap. On top of that, the earliest flight you could get departs at six in the morning tomorrow. Personally, I'd rather owe the Green Lantern some beer and fancy pencils for shuttling you, but he's out of the solar system. So, road trip it is."

Joan handed Wally a small paper bag. "Here, just in case you get hungry."

After saying their goodbyes, Wally and Thad left the house. Thad was mindful about his head as he ducked into the car. As they left Keystone City, Wally's voice rose over the sound of the engine and the road. "Have you and Bart been hearing hums that aren't really there, too?"

"Yes," Thad answered.

"I've been talking to S.T.A.R Labs, but they still haven't figured it out. I don't know how many tests I went through, but it hasn't really helped." When Thad didn't say anything in return, Wally changed the subject, "How have you and Bart been doing?"

"Fine."

Wally waited for anything else, but when Thad remained quiet, he sighed. "Yep. Lots of fun." He turned up the radio and decided to just focus on the road.

Four hours into the trip, Wally pulled into a gas station with a fast food restaurant next to it. He yawned and looked at the restaurant. "I hope their coffee is okay."

"If you're tired, I can drive for a while," Thad offered, "I don't want to die because you fell asleep on the road."

Wally frowned at that. "Do you even know how to drive?"

Thad pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and opened it to the Alabama-issued learner license. "Yes. I took the learner's test and Helen has been giving me and Bart lessons. We'll be applying for our graduated licenses in due time."

"Whoa," Wally blurted, "Already?"

"I'm sixteen," Thad bluntly reminded, "And Bart's identification papers list him as that age, as well. We are certainly eligible."

"Well, there's a scary thought," remarked Wally, "Bart behind the wheel."

Thad snorted and rolled his eyes. "Tell me about it."

A couple of hours later, Thad relaxed behind the wheel. He glanced askance at Wally, who was sleeping with his head propped against the passenger window. Seeing that there was little traffic on this particular stretch of highway, he jerked the wheel and sharply swerved on the road. Wally snapped awake in a panic. "What?!" Then he saw Thad's amused smirk. "You are a jerk, you know that?"

After a while, Wally drifted to sleep again, leaving Thad to continue driving along the highway. As he drove, he tried to spot familiar landmarks from when he used to run across the countryside. Halfway through Arkansas, a golden glow to his right caught his attention. He was certain that he didn't pass any lights along the dark road. Wally's eyes were glowing brightly and tendrils of lightning sparked around them. The light quickly shifted to a brilliant violet. Thad's heart pounded hard in his chest and he slammed on the brakes. Pulling over, he stopped the car.

Wally turned to Thad with a cruel smile on his face. "Hello, again."