randomality | Reset! - Chapter Fourteen

Summary: Faced with being shipped out to Denver to live with Jay Garrick after the disappearance of Max Mercury, Bart argues to remain in Manchester with Helen. Impulse begins to search for ways to save Max on his own and reaches out to friends and allies. AU.

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

Reset! - Chapter Fourteen: Back to the Future

The pod popped into the thirty-first century deep in the Himalayan Mountains. The tiny valley that sheltered them was void of any sign of civilization. Inertia stepped out of the pod and nodded at the steep granite slopes that surrounded them with approval. "These mountains should have partially obscured our energy signature coming in," he remarked, "The Science Police will be looking for chronal discharges."

"Time travel is illegal here, right?" Impulse recalled, "The Russells got in trouble because of it."

Inertia nodded in affirmation. "The Science Police may also be on the alert for our own energy signatures when we access the Speed Force. So, we must use it sparingly until we reach the laboratory."

Impulse sighed at that. "So, how are we gonna get out of here? It's gonna take forever to walk anywhere."

"We use the pod to travel strictly in space," answered Inertia. "Where does your mother live? She is on planet, correct?"

"Yeah, she's on Earth, but I don't know where." Impulse kicked a stray rock.

It was Inertia's turn to sigh. "Metropolis will be the best starting point. If she's been staying near her father, it would make sense that she would be in the Earthgov capital with him."

A few minutes later, the pod popped into a wilderness refuge on the outskirts of Metropolis. The hike into the city took far longer than Impulse liked, but if it meant that the Science Police would leave him alone, he would tolerate it for the time being. As soon as they entered the park that adjoined the refuge, Impulse jogged to the nearest group of people. The elderly folk practicing tai chi under the shade of sprawling trees did not pause their coordinated exercises when he approached.

"Excuse me," Impulse started, "I'm looking for my mom."

The nearest white-haired woman paused and stared at the boy. In Interlac, she spoke, "Pardon?"

"Oh, right! Interlac!" Impulse switched languages and tried again. "I'm looking for my mom. Can you help?"

"Don't you have an omnicom?" the woman asked.

Inertia approached and replied, "Our bags were lost on the way here. Do you have an omnicom we can borrow?"

The woman nodded and broke from the group to open her bag. Producing the handheld unit, she offered it to Inertia. "Here you go."

It took a little while for Impulse and Inertia to track down Meloni Thawne. She was living in Tokyo again. They hiked back to the pod and popped onto the roof of the building that she lived in. Vibrating through the roof access door, the navigated through the building until they came to Meloni's apartment number. When the door chime and knocking failed to produce an answer, they slipped through the door.

"Mom!" Impulse called out in Interlac, "Are you home?"

The open floorplan was spacious and sparsely furnished. A ginger housecat hopped onto the kitchen counter that overlooked the dining area. Impulse reached his hand out to the cat and let it sniff his hand. "Have you seen my mom?"

Inertia approached the windows that looked out on the cityscape. "It looks different than it did in the simulation."

"That's 'cause it's real," Impulse replied, "The simulations don't have as much stuff in them. The textures and smells are missing too." Impulse stroked the cat's fur and felt its purr through his fingertips. "There are some smells I could have gone without learning about."

Inertia smirked at that. "Considering the state of your bedroom when I started impersonating you, you adjusted to them quickly."

"It wasn't that bad," Impulse defended.

"Do you want to know where I found your underwear?" Inertia retorted, "And the food? I'm amazed that you only had rats in a cage."

"It wasn't that bad," Impulse repeated.

"It was disgusting."

The sound of a door down the hall sliding open brought the conversation to a halt. Both boys turned to see Meloni enter the room. Her chestnut brown hair was damp and she wore a bathrobe of pale orange with a pattern of white flowers curling along the hem. "Bart? What are you doing here?" Before she could blink, Bart was wrapped around her in a hug.

Meloni stared at the blond boy standing before her. "Who are you?"

"Thaddeus Thawne, codenamed Inertia," he answered while slipping his goggles off of his face, "I'm a clone of Bart that President Thawne created to enact vengeance on the Allen bloodline, specifically by impersonating and destroying Bart. It didn't go according to plan."

"A clone?" echoed Meloni. "Are you sure? You don't look quite right to be a clone."

Thad sighed at that and dutifully explained, "There were modifications to the genetic sequence to correct some of Bart's defects. The hair color was incidental."

Brown eyes flicked from side to side as Meloni thought. "So, my father made a blond boy to pose as one with brown hair?" She tilted her head and frowned. "That's odd."

Bart looked up at his mother and let her go. "So, how are we gonna stop President Thawne?"

"President Thawne?" Meloni shook her head. "My father left office a couple of months ago. Jeanne Chu is the President of Earth, now."

Bart and Thad looked at each other in confusion. "Are you sure we got the right time coordinates?" Bart asked.

"This is the time I left, yes," Thad answered. "So, if he's not the Earthgov President now, where is he?"

At that, Meloni shrugged and shook her head again. "I don't know. He just disappeared." Her lips pursed together in thought. "What I do know is that he wasn't happy about leaving office. Jeanne Chu ousted him after working so closely under him for all of these years. I wouldn't be surprised if she picked up where he left off." She glanced to Thad and sighed. "I thought I was finally free of him. I was hoping to bring Bart home in a week. But if my father's still stuck on his schemes, then it's still not safe here."

Bart surveyed the apartment that his mother called home. Could he call it home, too? It looked like there was plenty of space here. He quickly explored the layout and spotted a bedroom that was definitely furnished for a thirty-first-century teenaged boy. Near the bed sat a holo of Meloni and Don, smiling at him. He approached the image and picked it up. He had no memory of his father. He had never seen him or heard his voice. For most of his life, he could have said the same about his mother.

"Would you leave Manchester?" Thad asked from the doorway.

Bart spun around to look at him. He glanced down at the picture again. "I... I don't know. What about Helen and Carol and all of my friends? What about Grandma Iris? She's still in the past, too. What about Max? What if he comes back, but I'm not there anymore?" He pressed a button and a part of the wall turned transparent. The glowing cityscape and its towering buildings cast its light into the room. "Manchester's my home. And even if I stay here, the Legion doesn't want me. Well, when it finally forms, it won't."

"Who said you had to be a superhero?" Thad flopped down onto the bed and closed his eyes, savoring the comfort.

Meloni peeked into the room and smiled. "Do you like it?"

Bart turned around to face his mother. "What?"

"Do you like it here? I've waited so long for this." She smiled, "The best thing about time travel is that it's not that long for you. I'll still get to see you grow up."

Bart sat down on the edge of the bed. "It's great, but I'll have to leave everything behind."

Meloni joined him and ruffled his hair. "I know, sunshine, but this is where you were born."

Thad shifted to the other edge of the bed to give himself a little more space. "There is another option and I think I know where Bart gets the majority of his genes from if you haven't seen it, either."

"And what's that?" Meloni asked over her shoulder.

"You go to the past for a few years," Thad answered, "If all you're interested in is watching him grow." He frowned and stared at the ceiling. "I don't understand why you would want to waste your time in doing so. "Watching paint dry" is the appropriate metaphor."

Bart thought about that for a second. "Y'know, I don't think that was what she was talking about. I think she meant that she actually wanted to act like a mom. Like doing all of the stuff that Helen does for us." He did not notice his mother flinching at his words.

"Oh, well, that's certainly more involved," admitted Thad. He yawned and closed his eyes. This bed was far more comfortable than any other he knew and it begged to be slept on.

"I don't belong in the past," Meloni told the boys, "My English is bad and it's so primitive there. Besides, I don't want to impose on Max and Helen for that long. They weren't very thrilled about it the last time I came to visit."

Resting his elbows on his knees, Bart sighed. "Max is in the Speed Force now, so it's just us and Helen right now."

"Oh, I see." Meloni shifted to look at Thad. "And what about you? I'll have to upgrade my living quarters to add an extra room to take both of you, but that's not hard to do."

Thad frowned at her with suspicion. "You don't know me. Why would you take me in?"

"I do have a little responsibility for you," she answered, "And I would rather have you with me than with my father. I can imagine what sort of plans he has for you and I won't let him use you like that. We were lucky that Iris helped Bart escape and now that you're out, that's all the better."

Bart was obviously thinking hard about something. When it finally clicked for him, he asked, "What about the other clones? Can they stay here, too?"

Meloni stared at her son in alarm. "The other clones?"

"Yeah," Bart replied, "President Thawne made a bunch more and he's gonna make them into the Hyperguard and we gotta stop him before he does that. You remember what happened the last time he made the Hyperguard, right?"

Meloni shook her head, still trying to process everything her son said. "I haven't heard of the Hyperguard, sunshine, but it does sound like something my father would come up with."

"There was a hyperray, remember? And Carol had be taken out of the timeline, so she couldn't come to the thirty-first century and do the research that made the hyperray, so you took her to the sixty-third century. But then my scouts saved Max and Helen, so that timeline wouldn't happen and Carol didn't need to be sent away, so we brought her back home and you helped! You don't remember?" Bart's hands were moving in a blurry frenzy as they illustrated the narrative.

Shaking her head again, Meloni answered, "Sorry, sunshine. You said that it was a timeline that wouldn't happen? I'm guessing that the me that helped you was from that other timeline. She never existed here, so I don't remember any of that."

"Oh."

Thad rolled his eyes and snorted. "I can't believe you had to be told that."

Bart scowled at him. "Jerk."

"Retard," Thad shot back.

Meloni stood up and pushed her drying hair away from her face. "I'm going to go get dressed. If you're hungry, help yourself to the kitchen."

Soon, she returned to the main room to find Bart foraging through her kitchen for food and Thad using her omnicom to gather information. "If you're looking for my father and where he would hide a clone laboratory, try Metropolis."

"I know where the lab is," Thad replied, "I'm trying to learn more about this time. There are gaps in my knowledge base concerning it. It was intentional, I'm sure. Ignorance is easier to control."

Turning towards the kitchen, Meloni strode towards the blur that was Bart. "Sunshine? Are you looking for something?"

Thad deridingly mouthed "Sunshine" with a sneer. He shook his head and said, "We should leave for the lab as soon as possible."

"I'll get a transport scheduled," Meloni remarked, "I just need the coordinates."

"That won't be necessary," Thad told her, "We have our own transport."

"Your energy signature when you run might be detected by the Science Police," she warned.

Bart paused his foraging. "Our ride is on the roof."

Meloni looked up at her ceiling and raised an eyebrow. "The roof?"