August 08, 2017:
In the aftermath of the riverside monster attacks, Spoiler crosses paths with a certain Speedster.
East River, NYC
Dead fishmen everywhere.
Characters
NPCs: None.
Mentions: Red Robin
Plot:
Mood Music: None.
Fade In…
Start tending to civilians, Red Robin had said. With the last of the fishmen dropped, Spoiler collected her first aid kit from her skycycle's saddle bag and started to work. Scouts First Aid with Batling field medicine and Avengers training helps Spoiler triage efficiently, stabilizing unless medical services can arrive. She's using disposal gloves between victims to minimize infecting them, but it's gotten on her suit and on her cheek, and in her hair.
With this group secured, and a tweet sent to NYPD and EMS so they know where to go, Spoiler returns to her bike to repack and go find the next group.
After doing a sweep of the area to make sure no fish nor giant rats had managed to slip away further into the city, Impulse had switched over to civvy assistance. Reuniting people that had lost track of each other in the chaos, suggesting getting checked out if anyone had been exposed to the river water (which seemed generally a good idea even without the taint of whatever had made those creatures so huge); he seemed to be just about everywhere at once, hanging around only as long as necessary before he moved on to another area.
All in all, it seemed like those who had been around and arrived at the scene earlier had done a good job of containing things. Sure, there's a lot of clean-up to handle, but at least for now, things were over. The red and white blur comes to a halt by a slowly growing pile of fishmen carcasses, poking the toe of his shoe at one as he finally gets a good look at them. He'd been too busy trying to keep people from drowning and being fried to do so before.
Still near the pile of fishmen, the blur and faint crackle has the hairs on the back of Stephanie's neck standing up, and her blue-green eyes - hidden by the cowl - flick up to track the too fast motion right to the slender and unfamiliar red and white suit.
Unfamiliar except for the yellow lightning bolts. That motiff is far too familiar.
He'd told her he could run fast enough to do weird things to time. It's a bit hazy, like a forgotten dream but, he wasn't really from here. Atlantis's King mentioned it over dinner. Barry was younger than the last time the two had hung out. Stephanie had filed that tidbit away for later, for some other time.
The saddle of her bike clicks in the silence as the aubergine and charcoal colored blonde batling stands in broad daylight. Red Robin may no longer wear bat motiffs or symbols or anything to identify that he's connected to Gotham's caped vigilante, but Spoiler does. It's there on her chest for the world to see: I'm a batling.
"They smell about as good as fish do," Spoiler notes aloud, chin canted down as if looking at the fasteners of her bike seat while safely hidden by the AR lens of her cowl, her eyes are on the youthful looking speedster. Very early twenties she may be, but Spoiler is often mistaken for a teenager.
The speedster lifts his head, stepping away from the pile of fish corpses in a manner that suggests 'I didn't do it! -whatever 'it' is.' When no scolding of any sort follows, he nods, scratching his head as he turns away from them. Dead fish people aren't really all that interesting when they're not moving, and they don't drop coins and loot like in video games. "Yeah. Never really liked fish either way." Especially not sushi. Uggggh.
He's a lanky thing and it shows for the fitted red and white suit he wears. Age-wise he's been registered to be just at the edge of teenage-dom, although select few know in truth he's not nearly as old. Ah, the complications of being a natural born speed monster.
Finally getting a good look at Spoiler, Impulse quirks a brow behind his yellow tinted visor. "Aaam…I s'pposed to know you?" he asks, a finger drumming against his chin. Tim had mentioned something about Avengers on scene but to be honest, Bart had only been half listening.
Bart was a lanky thing for late twenties. Having not met any other speedsters until just now, Stephanie highly suspect lanky is inherit in most speedsters. Their metabolism. The thought has Spoiler reaching into a thigh pouch to pull out one of her emergency bat-rations. A granola bar sized thing with four thousand calories, perfectly engineered to burn clean and burn long. She holds it out… and a non-decription bottle which contains vitamin water. Also, Bat-formula. Let's see if this speedster is also aware of forensics.
"Maybe. Maybe not. I'm Spoiler," she introduces herself.
His earlier curiosity dissipates almost instantly at the offering of a snack. He'd been due to clean out a bit of the Titan's fridge after this was all said and done, but it's not bad to have something to hold him over.
"Thanks!" Impulse chirps, tearing open the bar's wrapping and making short work of its contents. He doesn't really hesitate with the water either, only giving it a swish before he has a gulp, the rest following suit as it's chugged down. It's only in afterthought that he wonders if he was only supposed to share the water as he hands back the bottle looking somewhat sheepish.
Snap-point. "-oh! You're the one Rob' mentioned," he says, grinning as though glad to have that detail down. "I'm Impulse," he adds, thumbing at himself.
Easier than she thought, even if she doesn't have Batman in her ears demanding she learn who the new speedster is.
"Impulse," she repeats as she takes the wrapper and the bottle, screwing the cap back on and placing both wrapper and bottle back into thigh pouch.
At least he's not saying he's Flash. The distance from that name is calming, even if finding another speedster still has her a bit on edge.
"Yes. I'm the one.. Rob… mentioned," Spoiler confirms, clearly not as at ease at calling Tim 'Rob', as others. But, it's better than calling him Red. Jess did that and it was confusing.
Nodding, Impulse doesn't seem to think too much of that pause in reference of Red Robin. He figures not everyone calls the guy that, but at least it also confirms that Spoiler knows who he's talking about. And he won't even go so far as to call himself Kid Flash as some people tend to mistakenly do so now and then. It gets kind of annoying, really.
"Um. So good job, I guess? I mean, all the beasties taken care of, collateral damage at a minimum, no casualti- wait no, scratch that…" He pauses as he counts off on his fingers, recalling the sailboat that had been swallowed by the oversized goldfish. "-not as bad as things could have gone, anyway." There'd been a lot of assistance, not just from the Titans, small as their own number of reps had been.
Casualities. Spoiler's lips, painted a dark plum-purple that in the shadows and darkness batling tend to favor would read as pitch black, press together.
"Not as bad. Right. Could have been better though," she quips, voice faintly tense.
"Thank you, by the way, for the part you played in helping," Spoiler says finally.
"I think it could have only been better if whatever had happened with that truck, didn't," he notes, glancing back at the river. That had been the most outstanding thing to happen before the water exploded with giant monsters.
Impulse looks back at Spoiler, forcing a smile. "Oh, sure. Wasn't any trouble. I just happened to be around. Always glad to help." Not that it would have made too much of a difference if he hadn't been in the area, given his tendency to cross statelines in seconds.
"Tanker," Spoiler corrects without malice. But details, especially correct details, are important. Her tones softens a moment later.
"But, you're right. Things would have been better if it hadn't happened at all… Or if teams had responded sooner," she says, sounding like she's annoyed with herself for NOT having gotten here at 7AM to start looking into things… which is a bit stupid given that at 7AM there was no way to know that this would have happened. It's the forced smile that softened things, and she turns her face away to cut her line of sight from him.
"I've got your comm frequency now, and I can register pings on this from you all, if it's needed." Which Spoiler admits to herself is stupid. Tim's amazing and the group of people he could pull together, has pulled together, no less amazing. She's not needed, and… starting a friendship with a speedster is likely not the best idea, nor the safest choice… for him. Steph's pretty sure she'd be done forever if a random not Barry speedster got hurt because Ravager's dad had a grudge against him because of romantic entanglements. Former entanglements, Spoiler reminds herself and she throws a leg over her bike, mounting smoothly. As serious as he had gotten, the simple fact remained, he wasn't the Barry origin to here and that time explosion thing a few months ago… hopefully it sent him home. Or at least closer.
"Yeah, that." It's not said dismissively. He figures he shouldn't be surprised at the insistence for getting details right, especially if Spoiler's uniform motif says anything about who she hangs with. Still, Bart isn't sure how else to reassure her for how upset she seems about not having been able to do more, which even to him, seemed impossible short of having some sort of psychic vision.
Trying not to jump too eagerly into the next subject as Spoiler switches things up a little, Impulse nods, pauses, and then resumes nodding. Yeah, shouldn't be surprised of that either. "Cool deal. Good to have, especially if something like this happens. Well. Maybe not exactly like this, but. You know." He gestures lamely. As it seems she's intent on resuming whatever duties she'd been about to perform, the speedster doesn't try to keep her from it. "Guess I'll see you around or something then."
This is a little dejavu a little not. Spoiler turns to Impulse, and stops to study him again. She's silent for what she knows for speedsters is near to hours while a tiny frown, sad and heavy, pulls at her painted lips.
"Can't happen. And you need to be careful. The last one who wore those lightning bolts pissed off the wrong people. You're a lot younger, but I'd rather not have then try to take tensions they still have about him out on you," is the warning Spoiler gives. Because, seeing that motif again, the same sort of build, and a too similar hair color hurts. It's not him, and he's innocent of it all… and yet. If she can keep this kid in Flash's heraldry out of harm's way, then maybe she'll have succeeded in something.
Unlike getting over the bad romances in her life. Stephanie is worse than an anime girl. Ugh. Thanks so much inner-nerd-Tim.
Spoiler turns and sets her hands on the handles of her bike, more than aware that Impulse can stop her before she goes if he wants to. She knows the speed potential in the blur and the lightning she witnessed.
Had he said something wrong? As brief a quiet as had fallen between his last word and what might as well have been a chasm of silence that followed, it seems like longer than necessary for a response that should have been a simple reciprocal. His foot taps once before he forcibly keeps it from repeating in a n impatient tattoo. And then at last Spoiler speaks.
Impulse blinks.
Okay. That wasn't a 'sure, see ya.' And quite frankly, once he gave it some thought, it really wasn't as surprising to hear. Troubling? Sure. But ultimately Steph's words of warning bring up nothing but more Questions.
So it's to be expected that he's there, hand grasping at her wrist, brow furrowed behind his goggles. "That's it? Really? You can't just say stuff like that and…and not explain!"
Fidgets. She saw Barry do that too, when he thought she wasn't looking. It happens a lot when you live with someone.
She also suspected, because Speedster, that he'd blur to stay her departure. She hd hoped he'd be stunned enough that she could get some distance, but he was - as expected - too fast, much much faster than she is.
Really, it shouldn't jar her as much as it does. It jars because of how much she missed it, because of how much it frightens now when it didn't used to, because of a hundred different conflicts. It jars her into a physical body jerk, and she looks over. Lips press into tense near-frown, but otherwise her face is expressionless. Thank God for the opacity of her cowl's lens, for beneath them her blue-green eyes are wide.
"What do you want me to explain, Impulse? Every little detail? I can't talk as fast as you can listen, and knowing won't stop them if they think you're related or can find him. I told him the truth: I don't know where Flash ran off to; but wearing his symbol, right now, until I can confirm there's no more heat on him, is a target in the middle of your forehead," Spoiler says, reaching over to counter Impulse's grip on her wrist with a grip on his. She's learned a few things, some like pressure points, places on the wrist joint to press fingertips into that cause hands to open, and while Spoiler is under no delusion that if he wanted, Impulse could blur himself free of her grasp and the way she plans to twist his hand off her wrist, she does it regardless.
"I have your comm frequency. You don't need to look into this."
"I- No, I just…" The speedster sighs exasperatedly, but his amber eyes are suddenly on her again like a marksman seeking a target in the crosshairs of a rifle scope.
He looks…confused, really. Stunned too, more so than he had been upon her initial warning. His hand releases her wrist easily enough at Spoiler's 'encouragement,' and even if he could essentially pull away easily, he doesn't. If he had to mentally picture his own train of thoughts right now, it would be a literal train derailed and crashed into a wall with each subsequent car piling up thereafter. As it is, his thoughts are about the closest he's ever gotten to blank as he takes a moment to really digest the implications of what he's just been told.
Crash.
Spoiler lets Impulse's wrist go gently, returning her hand to the controls of her skycycle.
"And stay out of Gotham," she adds, turning to her bike so move away. For her, she speeds away. For a speedster, she jogs away. Speed is relative. All she can do is hope he listens to her, unlike that OTHER speedster. Even if, at the end, she was the one who summoned him. If she'd… just… not panicked, let Ravager do as she wanted. Sure, it would have hurt, and Spoiler would have just now be getting back on her feet… but… Barry wouldn't have…
Spoiler forces her mind not to recall what Flash had done and the lives that choice ruined. And now, there's someone new she's got to protect from the weight of Barry Allen's choices.
His hand falls to his side easily, his eyes squeezing shut as he shakes his head as though to physically jumpstart his brain back into function. When he opens his eyes again, Spoiler's already heading off, and as much as his first instinct is to take off after her, his feet feel like dead weights with the unusual inclination not to pursue.
Bart stares after her until she's well out of his visible range, maybe even a personal record for how long he's ever stayed in one place of his own accord. Frowning, he takes a step back, his gaze slipping towards the pile of dead fish as its smell ever intensifies, the breeze puffing it towards him like a reminder as to what he's even doing here in the first place.
"…right," he mutters to himself. Duty first. Questions later. Fat chance he'll stay out of Gotham though. He needs to bug Tim. Because Tim Drake knows practically everything.