Young Justice Season 5 - The Fifth Generation

Episode/Chapter 19 - Gone Too Fast

"Wh-what?"

Impulse pulled his goggles off and rubbed his eyes, "where..." 

"Impulse!" 

At the call, Impulse turned to face the sound of that voice, "Nightwing?! Nightwing is that... You... Holy crap..." 

When he turned around, he found himself on a deserted cliff looking over Happy Harbor. The scene was dreary and dark, almost dead. Just from the first glance, Impulse's face went pale and he realized where he was. 

"Welcome to the future, my boy. Or rather, your present. You're not from where we were, are you?" 

At the sound of that voice, Impulse turned around, took off running, and slammed his fist into the palm of Vandal Savage's hand, which caught his punch before it could hit him. 

"Vandal Savage!" Impulse yelled between clenched teeth, "how did I get here?! Where's the rest of the team?!" 

"They're safe." Vandal Savage only looked down on the speedster calmly, "you, on the other hand, I have business with." 

"Wh-what?" Impulse stepped backward, "are they here?" 

"I know you're already aware of Inertia's plan to steal your speed from you, then end your life. I'd like to beat him to that and kill you before he could get your speed."

Impulse furrowed his brows in confusion at the man, "you want to oppose your own partner?"

"Inertia only played a small role in my larger scale plan. He's slightly useless to me now. And the only way to keep him from actually gaining more power over me is to eliminate his sources of speed."

Impulse readjusted his goggles over his eyes and stood to face Vandal Savage, "I'll make a deal with you. If you let me be, I'll find a way to eliminate Inertia myself."

"Oh, but my boy." Vandal grinned, "I need to hold up my end of the agreement."

Impulse threw his arms in the air, "you're trying to kill him, for Pete's sake! I don't think agreements matter here!"

"Oh," Vandal Savage clenched his hand into a fist, "but I never did say who that agreement was with, now did I?"

Impulse quickly avoided Vandal's punch, "is that really the best you could do?"

The two fought like this for almost five minutes before Impulse caught sight of something happening below them in an open field of ash by the harbor.

"Impulse! Get out of the way!"

Impulse turned around, grinned, and jumped out of the way of Superboy, who jumped over his head and sent a hard punch to Vandal Savage's jaw. He sent him flying backwards and into the ground with a slight cough.

"Well..." Vandal Savage chuckled, "if it isn't the rest of the team."

"You okay?" Superboy glanced over at the young speedster, "the others are on their way. Flash is down there fighting Inertia."

"What?!" Impulse looked down by the harbor, "that's what that was..."

"Hermano! Get out of here!" Blue Beetle flew in, followed by Artemis, Miss Martian, and Aqualad, "we got Vandal Savage!"

"Roger that, Blue!" Impulse nodded and took off towards the harbor, where the bolts of lightning were coming from, "Gramps!!"

He started running, following the two speedsters as they fought, "Inertia!!"

"Well, well, well. Come to join us, Bart?" Inertia cackled as he suddenly stopped, punching Impulse in the gut just as he came up behind him, "too fast!"

Impulse coughed as he fell onto the ground, Inertia planting his foot on Impulse's back with a cackle, "you'll always be faster than me, and that's your downfall!"

"Kid!" Flash took off running towards them, but before he could grab Impulse from under Inertia's shoe, Inertia swiped him out of the way and sent a kick to Flash's jaw, throwing him back a few meters.

"Your family's pathetic!" Inertia laughed as he held Impulse by the collar of his suit, raising him up above his head, "tell me, Bart! What's it like being higher than everyone else, huh?! Think you can save everyone?! You're back to the present, there's nothing you can do!! Don't you see?! Barry Allen is. Still. Dead. All that work for nothing! Who am I kidding. You're still too slow. And you'll never be as fast as me."

"Bart!"

Before Inertia could do or say anything, caught off guard, a speedster came through, throwing themself against Inertia and sending him flying back.

Inertia's grip on Impulse's suit slipped and he dropped the unconscious speedster. Before he could hit the ground, a pair of red-gloved, strong hands grabbed Impulse's torso and held him steady.

"Huh...?!" Inertia wiped the blood from his mouth before chuckling to himself, "well, well, well... You got your speed back, huh?"

Before him stood Kid Flash holding Impulse in his arms.

"Care to explain what's going on here?" Kid Flash glared at Inertia before turning back to where Flash was laying, "Kid, you got him?"

From not too far behind, Alacrity came running up to Flash, slinging his arm over her shoulders, "yup."

Inertia groaned as he slowly opened his eyes, "W-Wall-man?"

"Before you start asking questions," Wally looked down at him, "Alacrity got me and with our speed, we were able to come here. Robin gave us the time period, but it was all really her idea."

"Actually," Alacrity came up to the two, dragging Flash alongside her, "it was really Barry's idea to go get you."

Impulse looked back at Kid Flash, "but... Your speed... Did you...?!"

"I took the serum." Kid Flash shut his eyes, "my speed was beginning to naturally return, somehow, but the serum made me faster than I really was. It worked."

"Heh..." Inertia slowly made his way to stand up, "this is perfect... I'll just steal the Speed Force from all four of you! Yes!"

"K-kid..." Flash coughed and rubbed his jaw, "glad you two could make it."

"Barry." Kid Flash looked over, "you doing okay?"

"Yeah. Just peachy." Flash managed to stand on his own, "thank you, Alacrity."

"Mhm." Alacrity slowly released his arm from her hold, "so what now? We're just going to chase him in circles like we did back then."

"That's why..." Kid Flash lowered his voice, "we take that time travel device and we send him to another time era without his speed. But..."

"That means we need to take the Speed Force from him." Alacrity muttered, "anyone know how?"

Impulse pursed his lips, "I do."

The three speedsters looked at him, "can you do it?"

Impulse shut his eyes before nodding decidedly, "yeah."

"Here's the plan." Flash scanned the three, "we grab the device. Once we have it, don't let him get it. We'll have to get him into a corner so Impulse can take his speed."

"Sounds good." Kid Flash nodded, glancing over at Impulse, "you good? What's on your mind?"

Impulse nodded, "I'm just... I'm ready to get rid of Thad for good."

Alacrity smiled as she took his hand, "we've got this. And we believe in you, too."

"Good." Flash smiled as he set his hand on Impulse's shoulder, "then let's move out, team."

- To be continued... -