I'm Fine I'm Invulnerable

October 10, 2018:

Bart catches a not so stealthy Superboy treating his injuries after his romp through the Triskelion.

Titans Tower - Infirmary

Characters

NPCs: None.

Mentions: Captain Marvel, Nico Minoru, Raven, Red Robin, Zatanna Zatara

Plot:

Mood Music: None.


Fade In…

It's late in the evening when Superboy makes his way back to Titans Tower, stealthily, as he is a master of. The Dude of Steel makes his way to the infirmary, casting a dubious eye towards potentially slumbering teammates as he makes his way to the first aid supplies, peeling the top of his blue-and-red suit off.

If he weren't a Kryptonian, the results of the last few days would scar, and badly. His torso is a mess of claw and bite marks, some scabbed over, others puckered and closed longer, and a whole new set fresh from tonight. Along with what looks like a brutal case of frostbite in patches all over him.

The Kryptonian hybrid stifles a groan, and collects a few things swiftly and close-to-silently, with only a rattle here and a clatter there as he collects antiseptic and gauze… and a few potent stims.

**

There's a soft glow coming from beneath the sheets of one of the beds, and it probably won't take more than a guess to figure whose. Bart's always been notorious about taking forever to fall asleep, and now that he was better and not so strictly confined to his bed, his habits were back in full.

The blankets shift slightly, the sounds faint but standing out because they're not coming from the one earbud he's got plugged in. Very slowly Bart peeks out from under the covers, squinting in the mostly dark room. He slips out of bed, dressed casually in a t-shirt and maroon sweatpants, his bare feet creeping quietly, carefully across the cold floor.

Sneaky sneaky..!

"Halt, who goes there?" he whispers near Superboy's ear- probably a bad idea in retrospect but given it's Bart, he probably hasn't thought that far ahead.

**

Kon-El's initial response when he hears Bart is less of the jump-scare and reprisal some might have given, partly because Superboy was already kind of obsessing about being caught. Still, he starts a little, and then frowns at himself in the darkened mirror.

"Uh, you can see that Bart!" He retorts under his breath, turning and dropping his weight to a stool as he pockets some of the supplies, and fiddles with some antiseptic wipes. Not at all halting. "Glad you're back up and about, how you feeling?"

The last time he visited, Impulse -was- out cold. He's been busy; and he's bad at this stuff. No small amount of weight and responsibility is instead shifted to his capable shoulders. No slowing down, no chance to realize how fucked it all is.

**

Bart grins over his shoulder, stepping back then as Kon sits himself down and continues poking about first aid supplies. The speedster's expression fades into something more curious as he watches.

"Bored. Restless. I think I'd be tied down to the bed if I snuck out for a run. But I'm feeling a whole lot better. I just wanna… make sure, you know?"

Not feeling stiff or in pain is one thing, and he's pretty sure his connection to the Speed Force hasn't changed any. But some things you just had to confirm in certain ways, and if a speedster couldn't run, then what good was he?

He knows things had been bad; he knows it could have been a lot worse. But like he'd told Zatanna, he's glad that it wasn't.

"…what about you?" he asks, head tilting. "You okay? Looks like you've been busy. More demons?" A frown.

**

"If you were fast enough, no one would even notice." And Bart's definitely fast enough. Kon: positive influence. Of course there's the security logs, but anyone paranoid enough to be obsessively checking that is probably Tim and not going to rat Impulse out to Raven.

Superboy sets to dutifully but somewhat haphazard and hurriedly cleaning the worst of his injuries as he considers. There's a million ways it could all be worse— but it's starting to feel like all they're doing is holding back the tide against that entire million.

"Attack from inside the Triskelion, trying to wipe out SHIELD and the people they were protecting." Yep. From inside. He may not be the detective of the team, but Superboy's jaw is set grimly with the implications he sees. "I'm fine. I'm invulnerable." Duh. All appearances to the contrary.

**

That grin of his flickers back across his face. "Well, yeah." It's not like Bart hasn't considered it. A quick in and out of the tower. A lap around the island, what's the harm? Thanks Superboy, all he needed was a vote in favor. In all likelihood it probably would be Tim who would catch it of all people, him being, well, Tim.

Circling about the seated Kon, Bart pauses again only when he's given the rundown of what had happened and where his friend had been. His eyes widen at the news.

"Whoa, seriously? But how'd they get in? Did they open a hole inside or something?" That seemed like the most reasonable conclusion given that portals were dropping demons just about everywhere else. He folds his arms, frowning again. "Invulnerable. Yeah. I can see that," he murmurs, brow arching. "Was anyone else hurt?" It feels like forever since he'd talked to anyone from S.H.I.E.L.D., but he still considers some of them friends, despite Red Robin's paranoia about getting too chummy with other groups.

**

Thumbs up. They're on the same page. At least until Bart breaks both his legs trying it, then it was definitely Bart's idea. Besides: Keeping Impulse cooped up in here is -clearly- driving him stir crazy, and that's how speedsters turn evil. Kon grimaces a bit at the process of cleaning demonic-tainted wounds, but can't stifle a chuckle at Impulse's answering sarcasm. Which also hurts.

"Yea, something. I sealed up one of them, tunneling in through this like… hidden passage attached to the front lobby." There's a pensive study of Bart. He doesn't get the implications, and Conner isn't entirely sure he wants to enlighten his more innocent comrade. "This crazy, fire-runed circle, like a summoning ring from a movie, drawn under there all intricate and creepy." Superboy moistens his lips, draws a deep breath, and tightly wraps the tears he cleaned.

"I smashed down the tunnel with the Triskelion's front door, smooshed them all against their own entrance, it was great." Might as well toot his own horn instead of explaining how an intricate summoning circle gets inside a secret passage in the SHIELD headquarters.

**

Thankfully Kon doesn't voice such possibilities regarding re-broken limbs. As confident as Bart sounds about sneaking out for a jog, the horrors of what had happened are still relatively fresh in his mind and easily circled back to, like a vinyl record with a scratch in it. It's part of why he wants to make sure, really sure, that he's all right- so he can get past that record skip.

"Uh… fire rune summoning circles don't just appear though," he says, brow furrowing as he pictures what Kon tells him. He's not stupid though. Naive, but not stupid, and Kon can tell that the implications begin to dawn upon the speedster from the subtle shift in his expression, concern easing his brow from the more severe angle for lack of understanding. He looks away, still frowning, still thinking about it as Conner goes on.

"Great, yeah. Good thing you were there," he says, smiling crookedly as he turns his head back towards the other Titan. "So that means the demons can't get in that way anymore, right?" Suspicions aside, closing off a demon entry's still good news.

**

"Yea." Kon echoes Bart's concern, even as neither Titan voices it directly. "They sure don't." It takes a certain amount of expertise -and- access, in fact. "I followed Captain Marvel in and damn. That lady lives up to her rep." It's possible Superboy is a little starry-eyed right this minute.

"There were a bunch of others, fighting pretty much in the whole place from what I could tell. If anyone hadn't come through as hard as they did…" Well. It'd be a very different scenario.

"But yea, no one's getting in that way again. I sealed it down and tore the runes apart pretty good." And if 'tearing it apart' doesn't fix the problem, you probably have the wrong Titan. "They cut the lights to put the whole thing in darkness, but someone kicked in an auxiliary source and blasted 'Cherry Bomb' through the whole Triskelion." The key play of the game.

**

He's circling again, but comes back to carefully set another stool down beside Conner's so he can sit for a little. "Heh, yeah? I haven't gotten to meet her." Peering at Superboy's star-stricken expression, Bart laughs a little, covering his mouth as he wonders if it was too loud, eyes trailing over towards Nico's bed before he relaxes again.

Demons were serious business, so it's a relief to hear that despite the unexpected attack, Kon and company had gotten the upperhand.

"…dude. So you were fighting with background music? That sounds awesome." It's pretty easy to distract him from the concerns that had been hinted at, but it's a bit of a welcome one in this case.

**

"Yea I hadn't either." At least, not in anything but a passing maelstrom— it's possible they dealt with the same crisis at some point before, just not in tandem. Who knows. These things blur together. "But she took one look at my fine 'S' and was all, 'You are exactly what we need to save SHIELD.'"

It's… kind of true?! Kon isn't really making any effort to hide the hyperbole, though; Impulse knows the score. Plus, he kind of wound up being exactly what Carol needed, so he's retroactively entirely accurate. He ties off a couple bandages and apparently calls it good enough, pulling an S-shielded t-shirt on, gingerly, over his injured frame.

"Yea-nnh.." he pauses a minute to draw a deeper breath, carefully. "With background music, and of course in rhythm. The real trick is bouncing the demons around to the beat." Which isn't hyperbolic at all, this is a thing that happened. "They didn't like the lights, either, so for a few it was kinda like a rave."

**

"..pff." Shoulders hunched, Bart ducks his head as he stifles another laugh. Well, whether it was true or not, Superboy had ended up being a valuable asset and Bart wasn't going to deny that. It sounded like S.H.I.E.L.D. had needed all the help it could get at the time.

He smirks, picturing a dance rave battle against demons. It's…probably way more flashy in his head, but it's an amusing thing to think of regardless. "Wonder if Tim'd be open to blasting music whenever we have to get into a fight?"

**

As expected, Bart understands the situation completely. Or at least, well enough! In fairness, the whole thing is probably way more flashy in Kon's head as well— it helps balance out the consequences of doing it if it was just that goddamn awesome.

"No." Superboy hypothesizes with fair certitude as to Red Robin's willingness to blast rock every time the Titans roll out and engage. "But the real question is whether he can stop us." Conner finger-guns his compatriot and winks.

"Like taking you out of this room and stretching your legs, come on, I'll fly along and make sure you're okay." And share the consequences of doing it regardless of anyone else's concerns, at that. He's a true friend.

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