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randomality) wrote2009-11-09 05:39 pm
randomality) wrote2009-11-09 05:39 pm
Reset! - Chapter Two
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.
Carol couldn't help but share Bart's energy and was smiling along with him. She didn't understand what he was talking about yet, but it sounded pretty epic. In a way, she wished that she was there along with him, having grand adventures.
"Hey, d'ya think I'll get that kind of help when I go rescue Max? That would be so cool!"
Carol pushed her glasses higher onto her nose. "Aren't the Flashes going to help you?"
He settled on the couch with some of his energy already quenched. "Well, yeah. They keep saying they will and that they're working on it. But nothing's happened yet." Picking up his videogame controller, he unpaused his game and continued from where he left off. "I kinda feel like there's something they're not telling me." He frowned and tried to let the game take up most of his attention. He didn't much like thinking. Too many thoughts he didn't like would come up and then he couldn't get them to leave him alone. But sometimes he just couldn't avoid them. "It's kinda like they don't think they're gonna be able to get Max back. Like they've already given up on him. So what if they don't know when Rival went to! Can't they find some way to find out? If I had an idea of when he went, I could send out a scout and track him down that way. But I don't know if he went forwards or backwards." At a lull in the gameplay, he let the controller sit idle in his hands. "I sent a scout to Mom and asked her to look into it. Wally and Jay don't know I've been doing that."
It took Carol a moment to remember that the scout Bart was referring to was an energy-based duplicate of himself that he could create and reabsorb. Not only did the duplicate copy Bart's appearance and speed, but it could also move through the timestream. "Has she found anything?" Carol remembered the time she spent with Meloni Thawne, a resident of the thirtieth century. It was adventurous and educational in a way she could never have experienced in the present time.
Bart shook his head. "Not yet and I've sent a scout to her a few times to get updates. But if she hasn't found anything, it doesn't really mean much, right? Maybe Rival went further into the future. Or maybe he's in part of Mom's past that they've lost records on. Right?"
Carol nodded in reaffirment. "Keep trying, Bart. Maybe the Flashes are working on this too, but they're just at the same point you're at." When the game's action picked up in a boss battle, Bart let the conversation drop. Carol watched commands fly across the screen as Bart pushed buttons as fast as the console processors could keep up with. "Have you ever thought of what you were going to do once you caught up with Rival? I mean, he's been fighting Jay for decades and took out Max. He's going to be one tough boss to fight."
Shrugging, Bart didn't let up on his pace. "Kick his butt, get him out of Max, and make sure he can't ever do it again."
Carol bit her lip softly, not surprised in the least by this answer. "Bart," she ventured, "I think you need to level up a little first before you take on Rival."
"In what? Fighting? I'm already working on that."
"In everything, not just fighting. You need to learn how to track him down and how to figure him out before a fight."
Bart looked away from his game, pausing it again. "You really think so?" When Carol nodded, he fingered the controls thoughtfully. "How'm I supposed to do that?"
"Well, training with Jay is a start. Maybe your friends in Young Justice could help you, too." Carol frowned; this was a difficult question to answer. "You could research Rival, find out his strengths and weaknesses, and find out how he would act in a fight. Jay could help you with that, too. Maybe you could even find a way to free Max while you're at it." She pointed to his game. "If you only had one shot at a boss battle in that game, no resets, how would you do it?"
"Um, well," he gathered his words together, "In this game, it's easiest to do all of the little sidequests and minigames to level up and get all of the items and upgrades. It takes a lot longer to get to the fight though."
"But you get through it on the first try?"
Bart nodded, "So, what are my sidequests?"
"I don't know. You'll probably know them when you get to them."
"Huh." Bart slumped down and shook the stray brown hair away from his face. "This is gonna be harder than I thought."
"C'mon, let's go," Carol said as she pulled Bart to his feet. He saved his game and shut it off before following her out the door and locking it behind him, as Helen had drilled him to do. Despite drilling him to remember to lock the door when he left the house, Helen had yet to get him to remember to bring his keys.
In another house elsewhere in town, a black eyepatch and short-cropped blond hair made Eddie easy to recognize. Most of the others in Bart's Manchester posse were not so thrilled to have the abrasive wannabe gangster hanging around, but Rolly insisted that he was a friend. Rolly brought in the popcorn and settled on the couch, while Eddie set the television to the correct channel. After pressing "play" on the remote control, the boys were treated to the opening scene of a crime drama. A coroner spoke to a couple of crime scene investigators, elicting a line of dry wit from the lead before the title theme and credits. Rolly looked to his friend. "Why don't you record this show at your place?"
Truth be told, Eddie started watching the genre to learn how the police traced down criminals. It was a sort of preparation for his future career as a third generation meta-criminal. Or that's what he told himself. After a while, a couple of the shows grew on him and he didn't want to miss any of the episodes. Then his dad's work schedule changed, which meant that he was home in the evenings. Not wanting to admit to anyone other than his closest friend about his television habits, Eddie convinced Rolly to start recording the shows for him. Not wanting to admit all of that to Rolly, Eddie said what he thought would be reasonable. "I told ya, my old man takes over the t.v. when he's home, so I don't get to watch what I want."
Rolly decided not to make an issue of it and let it go. "So, there's supposed to be a CSI with superpowers in this one?"
Eddie nodded, still intent on the screen. "Uh-huh. That's what the previews said." He slipped into his best television announcer voice, "A CSI from Central City shows up to help with the case. Will the team discover his secret?"
After the episode ended, the boys were visibly thrilled. Rolly turned off the television. "Henry was awesome!"
Eddie nodded in agreement. "I wanna be able to go through walls and have bullets go through me like that!"
"And he almost blew his secret! I though they were on to him for a while." Rolly headed for his computer. "I wonder if he's gonna show up again?"
He navigated to a fansite's forums to look for spoilers. Eddie hover over his shoulder. He thrust out a finger and pointed to a link. "Henry's based on a real guy? Go there!"
Rolly clicked the link and they read the post. "A guy who used to be the Flash was a police scientist in Central City."
Another line caught Eddie's attention. "Barry Allen and he's been dead for years. Huh. I wonder if Bart's related to him?"
Rolly shrugged. "Maybe, but I bet, if he is, that's it's so distant that he doesn't even know about it. He would have said something if he was. Right?"
"Yeah, you're probably right," Eddie agreed. That reminded him of something else that he was meaning to talk to Bart about.
Later, Eddie rode his bike and caught up to Bart on the sidewalk in front of his house. After abandoning the bike in the yard and glancing over his shoulder as if to check that no one was watching, he leaned close and spoke quietly. "I know that you've been in my grampa's lab."
Bart froze and stared into Eddie's one good eye. "Wh-what? Um..." He managed not to blurt out every explanation solely because they had all jammed in that single synapse between his mouth and brain.
"That necklace you were always carrying around while Carol was gone," Eddie added, "I saw it in the lab." They continued walking towards Bart's door. "What were you doing there?"
"Um..." Bart reached for the doorknob and found it locked. He reached into his pockets to search for the keys, and then realized that he left them inside. Normally, this wasn't a problem. He could easily vibrate through the door or a wall, like he usually did when he locked himself out. But now he had a witness to complicate the situation. "I left my keys inside."
Eddie rolled his eye. From his jacket pocket, he produced a set of lockpicks. "Here's the deal: I get you in and you talk to me." He didn't wait for Bart to agree. Instead, he knelt in front of the door and began picking the lock. Bart watched in fascination as Eddie worked. His movements were still awkward and clumsy, but quickly adapting and adjusting to the skill. Soon, the door swung open.
"Where did you learn that?" Bart pointed to the picks as they walked inside.
"None of your business." Eddie closed the door behind him. "So, how do you know my grampa? Why were you in his lab?"
Bart glanced around the room, wishing that someone other than Eddie and Dox were there with him. Maybe Helen would come home early? Maybe Carol or Preston or Mike would stop by? What should he say? What should he do? How could he explain this? "Um, he was friends with Max." It was part of the truth, which made things easier.
"So? That doesn't explain why you were in his lab. He doesn't like me in his lab."
Bart remembered the various times he had been in Morlo's lab. All of them were as Impulse, even though Morlo knew his civilian identity. The last time was to investigate his then-recently acquired duplicating-ability. "I was with Max." Another partial truth. Those were easier to keep track of than lies. Besides, he was never very good at lying. "He had something he wanted Dr. Morlo to look at." Bart felt pleased with himself. He was answering the questions truthfully without spilling his secret. Max would be proud of this performance, he was sure of it.
Eddie crossed his arms. "What was it?"
Bart had no good way to avoid this, except for a shrug and, "I can't say."
After scrutinizing Bart for a few agonizing long moments, Eddie finally nodded. "Okay. Whatever." He surveyed the room. "Nice place. Later." With that, he left the house.
Bart let his breath go, relaxing in the empty house. He looked down at Dox, who wagged his tail. "That went pretty good, huh?" After having a hefty sandwich, Bart passed the front door again and found his dog waiting there. Dox barked and whined at the door, giving Bart an imploring look. Bart raised an eyebrow. "You wanna go for a walk?"
Dox perked up at the keyword of "walk" and barked again. When Bart had the red leash in his hand, the dog spun about in a few circles. As Bart took Dox for a walk, he began recalling the work Dr. Morlo did with Max and the Speed Force. That work saved Max's life once before. Perhaps it could help again? As soon as Dox was back in the house, Bart suited up and ran to Dr. Morlo's lab.
As soon as he vibrated through the door, he realized that he should have called first, but he was already there. "Dr. Morlo? Hello? Anybody home? Hello?"
From a corner of the lab, behind some equipment, Morlo's voice answered, "Be quiet, will you? I'm working with some volatile materials!"
"Sorry!" Impulse looked at his hand through a large magnifying glass attached to a workbench.
Dr. Morlo, with his conspicuous white-streaked wild hair and goggles, soon emerged from his work. "What is it, Impulse? You should have called first. I work with dangerous materials in here. The last thing I want is a surprise explosion."
"I know, but this is important," Impulse replied, "I need your help." He recounted Rival's possession of Max and subsequent disappearance to the retired mad scientist. "And now I don't know how to find him. I thought that maybe, since you did so much work with Max and the Speed Force, you could help."
Morlo leaned against the workbench with a heavy sigh and settled his goggles atop his head. "This won't be an easy project." He shuffled to a file cabinet and pulled out a thick manila folder fastened shut with a string. He brought it back to the workbench with the magnifying glass. Inside the folder were pages upon pages of handwritten notes and charts. He flipped through the papers, reviewing the reams of information, muttering under his breath from time to time. Impulse tapped his foot impatiently, for lack of anything else to do and he was incapable of staying still. Eventually, he spoke to the youth. "I can't guarantee anything. As far as the Speed Force is concerned, I have barely scratched the surface in terms of understanding it. I doubt I can locate Max for you. I doubt I can even point you in the general direction. But I will see what I can do. I may need to use you as a reference and I will call you should the need arise." He shook his head. "I'm sorry to hear about this, Bart. I know how much Max means to you."
"Thanks, Doc." Impulse felt himself smile in spite of the agitation he felt about Max's disappearance. Even though no revelation was made in the matter, he felt he had made some progress in the case. "You'll let me know if you find anything?"
"Of course."
After thanking Morlo again, Impulse raced away. Now that he didn't have any pressing needs to address, Impulse decided to take a run through the countryside, just to enjoy the sunshine. A brown splotch on his sleeve caught his attention and quickly became distracting. Pausing in a field, he pulled at the fabric, finally noticing that layer of grime that dulled the white and red of his costume. His last epic fight was a messy affair on a muddy battlefield and he had simply put his suit away like he always did when he came home. He rubbed at the stain on his sleeve, but it didn't simply brush off. Maybe it was time to wash the suit? Orienting towards home, he dashed away.
Once in the safety and privacy of his bedroom, Bart peeled off the suit and changed into his normal clothes. Instead of collapsing the suit and returning it to its compartment in his ring, he left it out. Holding it up, he sniffed at the fabric. It didn't smell too bad, in his opinion, just a little stale. He stuck his face down the neck of the suit and sniffed once. Jerking back with a wince, he wrinkled his nose. That odor burned in a combination of ripe teen boy sweat, electrical tang, and something akin to fried plastic. Just to verify, he sniffed it again and confirmed the stink. He tossed the costume over the back of his desk chair under his lofted bed and sniffed at his arm. A trace of the odor clung to his skin. Wrinkling his nose again, he walked to the bathroom.
He heard the door open and Dox's greeting bark, which meant that Helen was home. "Helen!" he called as he walked out of the bathroom, "My uniform is really stinky and I need to get it washed!" He stepped into the living room and spotted Helen with her boyfriend, Matt Ringer. He was a muscular and tall widower, whom Helen met when she needed to have her office restored after an act of a New God.
Matt raised his brow. "Uniform? I didn't know you played sports."
Bart fumbled for words and simply said, "Uh, yeah."
"What do you play?" He settled on the couch, while Helen stared at Bart.
"Baseball," he quickly blurted. "I play baseball. I have a baseball uniform. My baseball uniform is really stinky. Because I played baseball. That's why I have a baseball uniform." Turning about, he stiffly walked back to his bedroom, barely holding back the urge to run.
Helen patted Matt's shoulder, "Can I get you anything to drink?"
"Sure, whatever you have would be fine," he replied. Then he added quietly, "If Bart wasn't underage, I'd say he could use a stiffer sort of drink."
"He gets a little strange sometimes," Helen admitted, "It just goes with the territory."
Disclaimer: DC owns the DCU. Impulse created by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo.
Reset! - Chapter Two: Game On
Carol couldn't help but share Bart's energy and was smiling along with him. She didn't understand what he was talking about yet, but it sounded pretty epic. In a way, she wished that she was there along with him, having grand adventures.
"Hey, d'ya think I'll get that kind of help when I go rescue Max? That would be so cool!"
Carol pushed her glasses higher onto her nose. "Aren't the Flashes going to help you?"
He settled on the couch with some of his energy already quenched. "Well, yeah. They keep saying they will and that they're working on it. But nothing's happened yet." Picking up his videogame controller, he unpaused his game and continued from where he left off. "I kinda feel like there's something they're not telling me." He frowned and tried to let the game take up most of his attention. He didn't much like thinking. Too many thoughts he didn't like would come up and then he couldn't get them to leave him alone. But sometimes he just couldn't avoid them. "It's kinda like they don't think they're gonna be able to get Max back. Like they've already given up on him. So what if they don't know when Rival went to! Can't they find some way to find out? If I had an idea of when he went, I could send out a scout and track him down that way. But I don't know if he went forwards or backwards." At a lull in the gameplay, he let the controller sit idle in his hands. "I sent a scout to Mom and asked her to look into it. Wally and Jay don't know I've been doing that."
It took Carol a moment to remember that the scout Bart was referring to was an energy-based duplicate of himself that he could create and reabsorb. Not only did the duplicate copy Bart's appearance and speed, but it could also move through the timestream. "Has she found anything?" Carol remembered the time she spent with Meloni Thawne, a resident of the thirtieth century. It was adventurous and educational in a way she could never have experienced in the present time.
Bart shook his head. "Not yet and I've sent a scout to her a few times to get updates. But if she hasn't found anything, it doesn't really mean much, right? Maybe Rival went further into the future. Or maybe he's in part of Mom's past that they've lost records on. Right?"
Carol nodded in reaffirment. "Keep trying, Bart. Maybe the Flashes are working on this too, but they're just at the same point you're at." When the game's action picked up in a boss battle, Bart let the conversation drop. Carol watched commands fly across the screen as Bart pushed buttons as fast as the console processors could keep up with. "Have you ever thought of what you were going to do once you caught up with Rival? I mean, he's been fighting Jay for decades and took out Max. He's going to be one tough boss to fight."
Shrugging, Bart didn't let up on his pace. "Kick his butt, get him out of Max, and make sure he can't ever do it again."
Carol bit her lip softly, not surprised in the least by this answer. "Bart," she ventured, "I think you need to level up a little first before you take on Rival."
"In what? Fighting? I'm already working on that."
"In everything, not just fighting. You need to learn how to track him down and how to figure him out before a fight."
Bart looked away from his game, pausing it again. "You really think so?" When Carol nodded, he fingered the controls thoughtfully. "How'm I supposed to do that?"
"Well, training with Jay is a start. Maybe your friends in Young Justice could help you, too." Carol frowned; this was a difficult question to answer. "You could research Rival, find out his strengths and weaknesses, and find out how he would act in a fight. Jay could help you with that, too. Maybe you could even find a way to free Max while you're at it." She pointed to his game. "If you only had one shot at a boss battle in that game, no resets, how would you do it?"
"Um, well," he gathered his words together, "In this game, it's easiest to do all of the little sidequests and minigames to level up and get all of the items and upgrades. It takes a lot longer to get to the fight though."
"But you get through it on the first try?"
Bart nodded, "So, what are my sidequests?"
"I don't know. You'll probably know them when you get to them."
"Huh." Bart slumped down and shook the stray brown hair away from his face. "This is gonna be harder than I thought."
"C'mon, let's go," Carol said as she pulled Bart to his feet. He saved his game and shut it off before following her out the door and locking it behind him, as Helen had drilled him to do. Despite drilling him to remember to lock the door when he left the house, Helen had yet to get him to remember to bring his keys.
In another house elsewhere in town, a black eyepatch and short-cropped blond hair made Eddie easy to recognize. Most of the others in Bart's Manchester posse were not so thrilled to have the abrasive wannabe gangster hanging around, but Rolly insisted that he was a friend. Rolly brought in the popcorn and settled on the couch, while Eddie set the television to the correct channel. After pressing "play" on the remote control, the boys were treated to the opening scene of a crime drama. A coroner spoke to a couple of crime scene investigators, elicting a line of dry wit from the lead before the title theme and credits. Rolly looked to his friend. "Why don't you record this show at your place?"
Truth be told, Eddie started watching the genre to learn how the police traced down criminals. It was a sort of preparation for his future career as a third generation meta-criminal. Or that's what he told himself. After a while, a couple of the shows grew on him and he didn't want to miss any of the episodes. Then his dad's work schedule changed, which meant that he was home in the evenings. Not wanting to admit to anyone other than his closest friend about his television habits, Eddie convinced Rolly to start recording the shows for him. Not wanting to admit all of that to Rolly, Eddie said what he thought would be reasonable. "I told ya, my old man takes over the t.v. when he's home, so I don't get to watch what I want."
Rolly decided not to make an issue of it and let it go. "So, there's supposed to be a CSI with superpowers in this one?"
Eddie nodded, still intent on the screen. "Uh-huh. That's what the previews said." He slipped into his best television announcer voice, "A CSI from Central City shows up to help with the case. Will the team discover his secret?"
After the episode ended, the boys were visibly thrilled. Rolly turned off the television. "Henry was awesome!"
Eddie nodded in agreement. "I wanna be able to go through walls and have bullets go through me like that!"
"And he almost blew his secret! I though they were on to him for a while." Rolly headed for his computer. "I wonder if he's gonna show up again?"
He navigated to a fansite's forums to look for spoilers. Eddie hover over his shoulder. He thrust out a finger and pointed to a link. "Henry's based on a real guy? Go there!"
Rolly clicked the link and they read the post. "A guy who used to be the Flash was a police scientist in Central City."
Another line caught Eddie's attention. "Barry Allen and he's been dead for years. Huh. I wonder if Bart's related to him?"
Rolly shrugged. "Maybe, but I bet, if he is, that's it's so distant that he doesn't even know about it. He would have said something if he was. Right?"
"Yeah, you're probably right," Eddie agreed. That reminded him of something else that he was meaning to talk to Bart about.
Later, Eddie rode his bike and caught up to Bart on the sidewalk in front of his house. After abandoning the bike in the yard and glancing over his shoulder as if to check that no one was watching, he leaned close and spoke quietly. "I know that you've been in my grampa's lab."
Bart froze and stared into Eddie's one good eye. "Wh-what? Um..." He managed not to blurt out every explanation solely because they had all jammed in that single synapse between his mouth and brain.
"That necklace you were always carrying around while Carol was gone," Eddie added, "I saw it in the lab." They continued walking towards Bart's door. "What were you doing there?"
"Um..." Bart reached for the doorknob and found it locked. He reached into his pockets to search for the keys, and then realized that he left them inside. Normally, this wasn't a problem. He could easily vibrate through the door or a wall, like he usually did when he locked himself out. But now he had a witness to complicate the situation. "I left my keys inside."
Eddie rolled his eye. From his jacket pocket, he produced a set of lockpicks. "Here's the deal: I get you in and you talk to me." He didn't wait for Bart to agree. Instead, he knelt in front of the door and began picking the lock. Bart watched in fascination as Eddie worked. His movements were still awkward and clumsy, but quickly adapting and adjusting to the skill. Soon, the door swung open.
"Where did you learn that?" Bart pointed to the picks as they walked inside.
"None of your business." Eddie closed the door behind him. "So, how do you know my grampa? Why were you in his lab?"
Bart glanced around the room, wishing that someone other than Eddie and Dox were there with him. Maybe Helen would come home early? Maybe Carol or Preston or Mike would stop by? What should he say? What should he do? How could he explain this? "Um, he was friends with Max." It was part of the truth, which made things easier.
"So? That doesn't explain why you were in his lab. He doesn't like me in his lab."
Bart remembered the various times he had been in Morlo's lab. All of them were as Impulse, even though Morlo knew his civilian identity. The last time was to investigate his then-recently acquired duplicating-ability. "I was with Max." Another partial truth. Those were easier to keep track of than lies. Besides, he was never very good at lying. "He had something he wanted Dr. Morlo to look at." Bart felt pleased with himself. He was answering the questions truthfully without spilling his secret. Max would be proud of this performance, he was sure of it.
Eddie crossed his arms. "What was it?"
Bart had no good way to avoid this, except for a shrug and, "I can't say."
After scrutinizing Bart for a few agonizing long moments, Eddie finally nodded. "Okay. Whatever." He surveyed the room. "Nice place. Later." With that, he left the house.
Bart let his breath go, relaxing in the empty house. He looked down at Dox, who wagged his tail. "That went pretty good, huh?" After having a hefty sandwich, Bart passed the front door again and found his dog waiting there. Dox barked and whined at the door, giving Bart an imploring look. Bart raised an eyebrow. "You wanna go for a walk?"
Dox perked up at the keyword of "walk" and barked again. When Bart had the red leash in his hand, the dog spun about in a few circles. As Bart took Dox for a walk, he began recalling the work Dr. Morlo did with Max and the Speed Force. That work saved Max's life once before. Perhaps it could help again? As soon as Dox was back in the house, Bart suited up and ran to Dr. Morlo's lab.
As soon as he vibrated through the door, he realized that he should have called first, but he was already there. "Dr. Morlo? Hello? Anybody home? Hello?"
From a corner of the lab, behind some equipment, Morlo's voice answered, "Be quiet, will you? I'm working with some volatile materials!"
"Sorry!" Impulse looked at his hand through a large magnifying glass attached to a workbench.
Dr. Morlo, with his conspicuous white-streaked wild hair and goggles, soon emerged from his work. "What is it, Impulse? You should have called first. I work with dangerous materials in here. The last thing I want is a surprise explosion."
"I know, but this is important," Impulse replied, "I need your help." He recounted Rival's possession of Max and subsequent disappearance to the retired mad scientist. "And now I don't know how to find him. I thought that maybe, since you did so much work with Max and the Speed Force, you could help."
Morlo leaned against the workbench with a heavy sigh and settled his goggles atop his head. "This won't be an easy project." He shuffled to a file cabinet and pulled out a thick manila folder fastened shut with a string. He brought it back to the workbench with the magnifying glass. Inside the folder were pages upon pages of handwritten notes and charts. He flipped through the papers, reviewing the reams of information, muttering under his breath from time to time. Impulse tapped his foot impatiently, for lack of anything else to do and he was incapable of staying still. Eventually, he spoke to the youth. "I can't guarantee anything. As far as the Speed Force is concerned, I have barely scratched the surface in terms of understanding it. I doubt I can locate Max for you. I doubt I can even point you in the general direction. But I will see what I can do. I may need to use you as a reference and I will call you should the need arise." He shook his head. "I'm sorry to hear about this, Bart. I know how much Max means to you."
"Thanks, Doc." Impulse felt himself smile in spite of the agitation he felt about Max's disappearance. Even though no revelation was made in the matter, he felt he had made some progress in the case. "You'll let me know if you find anything?"
"Of course."
After thanking Morlo again, Impulse raced away. Now that he didn't have any pressing needs to address, Impulse decided to take a run through the countryside, just to enjoy the sunshine. A brown splotch on his sleeve caught his attention and quickly became distracting. Pausing in a field, he pulled at the fabric, finally noticing that layer of grime that dulled the white and red of his costume. His last epic fight was a messy affair on a muddy battlefield and he had simply put his suit away like he always did when he came home. He rubbed at the stain on his sleeve, but it didn't simply brush off. Maybe it was time to wash the suit? Orienting towards home, he dashed away.
Once in the safety and privacy of his bedroom, Bart peeled off the suit and changed into his normal clothes. Instead of collapsing the suit and returning it to its compartment in his ring, he left it out. Holding it up, he sniffed at the fabric. It didn't smell too bad, in his opinion, just a little stale. He stuck his face down the neck of the suit and sniffed once. Jerking back with a wince, he wrinkled his nose. That odor burned in a combination of ripe teen boy sweat, electrical tang, and something akin to fried plastic. Just to verify, he sniffed it again and confirmed the stink. He tossed the costume over the back of his desk chair under his lofted bed and sniffed at his arm. A trace of the odor clung to his skin. Wrinkling his nose again, he walked to the bathroom.
He heard the door open and Dox's greeting bark, which meant that Helen was home. "Helen!" he called as he walked out of the bathroom, "My uniform is really stinky and I need to get it washed!" He stepped into the living room and spotted Helen with her boyfriend, Matt Ringer. He was a muscular and tall widower, whom Helen met when she needed to have her office restored after an act of a New God.
Matt raised his brow. "Uniform? I didn't know you played sports."
Bart fumbled for words and simply said, "Uh, yeah."
"What do you play?" He settled on the couch, while Helen stared at Bart.
"Baseball," he quickly blurted. "I play baseball. I have a baseball uniform. My baseball uniform is really stinky. Because I played baseball. That's why I have a baseball uniform." Turning about, he stiffly walked back to his bedroom, barely holding back the urge to run.
Helen patted Matt's shoulder, "Can I get you anything to drink?"
"Sure, whatever you have would be fine," he replied. Then he added quietly, "If Bart wasn't underage, I'd say he could use a stiffer sort of drink."
"He gets a little strange sometimes," Helen admitted, "It just goes with the territory."