Sometimes we all need guy time.

[slowspeedster]

Bart had an idea. Especially since the entire Bat!Clan was in a slump. He had a plan, but it probably measured up about as well as his typical plans. On the other hand, it might work. And he had the box with his Nintendo and games under one arm as he went to abscond with a future Batman.

Some things took a friend, not family. He'd done it from time to time for Tim, so maybe he could do it for Terry, too.

"Enough brooding, man. Otherwise I might think you really need that suit," Bart told him.

Comments

[slowspeedster]

"I grew up in a VR chamber. Full neuro-tactile immersion. When I finally got out, it was really confusing," Bart said, quietly. "But that is in the future, even for you. Right now, they have some gloves and other immersive tech, but it's all one way. The best they can do is put in some kind of vibrating alert to represent contact. No smells or anything more ephemeral."

[beyondthesuit]

"Heavy," Terry says. He pauses the game so he can turn his full attention to Bart. "I knew a girl who was raised, basically, in a tank. When she went out, she had to wear a vibro belt and even standing in the water, she wouldn't get wet."

He shakes his head, unable to imagine it. "Must've been strange."

[slowspeedster]

"I didn't know any other life. The hardest part was realizing that in the real world, there is no reset button when you make a mistake," Bart said. As much as he wanted to shrug it off, he couldn't.

"I was born with superspeed, and I didn't know how to turn it off. The only thing that could keep up was a computer. I was something like twelve the first time I was really unplugged. And I was in high school before it really sank in that I don't even think like normal folks."

[beyondthesuit]

Again, Terry thinks of the people he's come across. There was a man, once, who couldn't turn off his power to walk through walls and sank to the center of the earth. He wants to tell Bart that it could be worse, but that's not the point of the conversation.

"Was it hard?"

[slowspeedster]

"Which would you choose, given the opportunity? A life that catered perfectly to your every whim but didn't actually have any substance, or what's out here? I couldn't make mistakes that had any lasting effects to learn from, the way you have to.

"It was frustrating, more than anything. Not being able to do what I knew I was capable of because it would get those around me hurt. On the other hand, saving the world is certainly addicting," Bart said, not sure how to think about it, really. Things had changed so much since he'd first became Impulse.

"I mean, could you really see yourself going back to just being a 'normal' teenager? And all you Bats have is training and cool toys."

[beyondthesuit]

"I think you know the answer to that." Terry knows that he would never go back. No money. No measure of anything.

Maybe only if he could get his dad back.

[slowspeedster]

"Which is why people tend to doubt our sanity," Bart quipped. "I don't mind the break here,though. Especially since I'm just a guy who used to be able to run really fast. Means best use I can do is evacuation and triage in a disaster."

It was part of why he was teaching running. Because knowing how much you could cover, and how quickly, without injury, the type of awareness it brought, that could save lives. He'd thought about joining the police or the task force, but they both required certain things he wasn't comfortable with.

[beyondthesuit]

It could be worse. Terry has to agree on that part. The flying car didn't come with him, sure, but at least he can still move and fight. Even if there's no crime coming.

"I'm still getting used to the whole break part of things."

[slowspeedster]

"Well, you can go swimming in water you won't need a full medical workup after contact with. Learn something new. Check out the dinosaurs," Bart said. "Or just veg out and play primitive video games."

[beyondthesuit]

"Hey! Gotham's not...that bad. And, if it's all the same, I've had my fill of dinosaurs." Terry's only elaboration was to gesture to a faint scar that peeped out from under his shirt sleeve.

"But the video games can stay."

[slowspeedster]

"Well, I remember Tim mentioning that there's a lot of Joker Toxin and stuff like that in the harbor. He didn't even like me running on it," Bart commented.

"And I'll trade you dinosaur stories...although I don't have any scars. Not even from the time Deathstroke kneecapped me."

[beyondthesuit]

"Uh, it involved Kobra, splicing, and a really weird kid trying to date my friend Max."

In the short version, it almost sounds funny, like a setup for a joke.

[slowspeedster]

"Mine involved a spin on the cosmic treadmill and a pack of velociraptors following me home," Bart said. "It was really a pain to hold one long enough to get it back to when it belonged."

[beyondthesuit]

Terry finds himself smiling at the mental image. He's never really swapped stories with people; Barbara had only told him about the past in warnings and Bruce just didn't do stories. And here he is with Bart, just slagging it out.

It's not bad.

"They're slippery like that."

[slowspeedster]

"You don't have to tell me twice," Bart said, shaking his head a little. "I never watched Jurassic Park the same way after that."

But it could have been worse. Maybe. "I think the Flash would have read me the riot act on that one if Max hadn't stepped in. I mean, it wasn't like the time Young Justice accidentally triggered a self-destruct of a secret base in Mount Rushmore."