Happy Boostlethon, idiosyn!
Title: Trapped on the Merry-go-round
Author: Muccamukk
Recipient: Idiosyn
Rating: M
Prompt: "Find a way to add Ted to DCnU."
Neither Max nor J'onn, and certainly never Bruce, had ever done much to encourage unit cohesion. Most likely, they decided that if everyone got through the day without killing each other, they should call it a win. Consequently, the team had been left to form friendships, and enmities, on their own time, and any trust building exercises were done while fighting Khunds or Para-Demons.
Booster, however, declared it Victory Over the Dark Side Night, and insisted they all go out and bond. Out of costume. Using real names. Ted could only assume this was because he was new.
Predictably, Guy laughed in his face and called him a loser; Bea said she had better things to do on a Saturday night; Tora went with Bea, and Fang claimed that he didn't drink. Ted tried to say that he was technically support staff and thus didn't need to bond, and besides he had work to do, but Booster gave him one of the most woebegone puppy dog looks he'd ever seen, and he'd folded like a bad hand.
Which was how Ted ended up jammed in the corner of a both absolutely not meant for five people, in a bar he'd never much cared for in any incarnation in any timeline. For the second night in a row. Gavril and Mari sat on either side of him, clutching drinks and giving each other the blank stare of two people who'd had to spend all day together, might not actually even like each other, and absolutely couldn't think of anything else to say. A hockey game was playing full blast on all screens, drowning out most attempts at conversation anyway. Across the booth, Dorcus - Dora, Ted reminded himself - was edging further and further into Booster's space, and if Booster shifted over another quarter of an inch, he was going to fall off the edge of the bench. Ted finished his sangria and considered ordering a pitcher.
"As much fun as this is, I need to..." Ted gestured vaguely at the back of the bar.
"Ah, yes," Gavril said, sliding out of the booth so that Ted could get up. "The room for small boys." As he twisted to get between tables packed with men in jerseys, Ted heard him yell to Mari, "I think I will soon pack in the night." And Mari say she thought that was the best idea she'd heard all night.
The men's room had a trough instead of urinals, which Ted could only hope was meant to be ironic not historic, and only one of the stalls still had a door. Ted would have locked himself in it for the rest of the night, but he didn't think he'd be able to take the smell. Peraxxus' brig had had better facilities, and it hadn't even been meant for humans. Ted was willing to concede that this bar wasn't either. Nonetheless, he took his time washing his hands and mending his shredded nerves. Booster was so wrapped up in Dora, literally as well as figuratively, that he probably wouldn't even notice if Ted slipped back to the lab. He had a shoe box of surviving robot bits that he needed to look at if he was going to keep his promises.
A couple of young bucks pushed past him on the way out, the taller one laughing so hard that kept collapsing against his friend's shoulder. Ted shook his head, remembering how he and Booster used to crawl worse bars than this when they'd first joined the league. Hell, last night he'd been too smashed to care what the toilets looked like. All a matter of perspective, he supposed. Maybe he should get that pitcher after all.
Looking across the bar, Ted saw that hockey fans had taken over the booth. He could see Dora at the bar, but none of the others. They must have taken Red's suggestion and gone home. He shook his head and started towards the door, deciding to go back to his hotel and get an early start tomorrow.
On the big screen, puck connected with net, and the whole bar roared in triumph. Someone behind Ted threw up her arms, toppling him forwards and straight into Booster.
"Hey, sorry," Ted said, grabbing Booster's shoulders for balance.
"Are you leaving too?" Booster was frowning at him, and Ted started feeling guilty all over again.
"Long day." He had to yell it twice to make himself heard over the noise of the game. "Sorry."
"I'll give you a ride."
Ted wasn't completely sure where his hotel was from here, so he wasn't going to turn that one down. The rush of wind in his face undid most of the wine's good work, but he didn't mind. He'd missed this.
"That went well," Booster grumbled after he set them down on the tiny balcony. "I think they hate each other more now."
"The team'll come together," Ted told him, squeezing his shoulder before he stepped away. "I think you kind of just have to let it happen on its own."
"You're not the one who ended up telling Godiva he was gay."
"You what?"
"It seemed like the only way to get her off me. I told her I thought Red and General Iron were together too, so hopefully she'll set her cap for Guy next."
"But..." Ted couldn't actually think which part of of that he thought was the worst idea, so he just shoved the sliding door open and waved Booster inside. Some conversations he absolutely wasn't having on a minuscule hotel room deck in the middle of a windy night in December. "But you're not gay. You can't just say youíre gay if you're not. It's like misrepresenting minorities or something."
Booster shrugged, pushing the door closed so he could lean against it. "Who says I'm not?"
"But you're not." Ted wasn't going to let that point go. "I mean, what about..." he had to struggle to think up an example that he was supposed to know about. "What about all those women with you in the magazines?"
"Those were mostly models and actresses in it for the PR." Ted mentally high-fived Tora. "My first manager told me there wasn't a lot of good press to be made by dating other guys, not if I wanted to get national product endorsements. Then again, that was the guy who turned into a supervillain and stole all my money, so maybe I shouldn't have taken his advice so seriously. It doesn't matter right now anyway, and it does look good for the team's diversity." When Ted didn't respond, he added, "Okay fine, technically I'm bi or pan or whatever, not gay, but Godiva doesn't need to know that. Give that woman an inch, she'll take a foot, and pretty soon I won't have a leg to stand on."
"This really is a brave new world," was all Ted could think to say. All those nights on the town. All that tom catting, surely...
Booster folded his arms. "You're not a 'phobe or something, are you?"
"No, no, of course, not," Ted protested hastily. "I'm just... surprised." I've known you half my life and you never told me, he wanted to say. But then, I never told you either. That, at least, he could change. "I am too. Bi, I mean. I'm bi too."
"Ha!" Booster crowed, grinning that brilliant, victorious grin again. "I knew it."
"You did?" Aside from the conspiring parties in a few college flings, and maybe Murray Takamoto, no one knew. He hadn't even told Barbara Gordon, and he'd told her pretty much everything, whether it was overshare or not. And, of course, he'd never said a word to his best friend, and old Booster, his Booster, had certainly had shown no sign of knowing.
"Kinda/sorta. I hoped you swung my way." Booster shrugged as if he saw no difference between a finely-tuned working gaydar and one powered by positive thinking. "I mean, I've already seen you without a shirt, and you look pretty good, and you're scary smart and good in a fight, and I think you like me. At least, you haven't told me to fuck off and leave you alone, though possibly that's in my near future."
Ted felt like the Red Queen's slower brother, running as fast as he could and still two steps behind. "Wait, hang on. You brought me to a hotel room to try and seduce me?"
"Um... sort of?" Booster muttered, looking at the floor. Colour had started to rise in his neck and cheeks. "Only if you want me to."
Ted gaped. Then he pointed at Booster, snapped, "You. Stay right there!" turned on his heel and locked himself in the bathroom.
Bracing on the edge of the basin, Ted stared into the mirror. He didn't think he looked a lot different than he had ten days ago, or whenever this mess had started. A little leaner, a little paler, maybe, but the same guy. And if that guy, the old him from the other timeline, had been propositioned by Booster Gold be wouldn't have said anything besides, "Yes, please!" and taken his pants off. If he hadn't been so sure Booster had been one-hundred-percent completely and utterly straight, he would have made the move himself.
Only it seemed that hadn't been the case, or maybe it wasn't the case anymore (seriously, what the hell did "pan" even mean?). So either his old Booster had kept that secret for years - the same one that Ted himself had he had to admit - or somehow he wasn't the same person. Surely people's sexualities didn't get reshuffled with timelines, did they? This Booster was the same as his own Booster in almost ever other way. Different costume, slightly different history, and of course he didn't know Ted. Ted considered for a moment that his superpower might be making people straight. Which was ridiculous, obviously, but so was his life.
He really didn't know why this particular event had pushed beyond ridiculous into completely ludicrous. The facts were not complicated. Even back when they barely knew each other, Ted would have slept with old Booster in a heartbeat. The reason he hadn't was that he didn't think Booster was interested. This Booster was more or less the same as his Booster. This Booster wanted to seduce him in a hotel room. Ergo... Therefore... Logically...
Something.
Splashing cold water on his face didn't seem to make any of it more clear.
Logically, there was was also the lying his ass off to Booster. Which, despite what Rip Fucking Hunter said, wasn't firm footing for anything. That and killer robots of unknown origin were trying to hunt him down, and his life was a total mess, and everything in the world had changed and this was just too damn much. This could be the step that tipped his life into the Gordian Knots of mare's nests and he'd never swim free, and wow, that metaphor had gotten out of hand.
On the other hand, when it came down to it, he trusted Booster, and no matter that he was lying about a few minor details, like his entire life history, Booster could always trust Ted to have his back. Blue and Gold forever. Besides, when were killer robots of unknown origins not trying to kill him?
On the third hand - and why not? having three hands was less outrageous than the power to make people straight - this could endanger the most important relationship in his life. Which was, on a forth hand, a completely ridiculous excuse given that his life was apparently made up of time travellers, killer robots and lies. When would he have time to screw anything up? He'd be too busy fighting robots.
He drew the line at five hands.
Ted dried his face, sucked in his gut, and reached for the door. Logically nothing. He had a gorgeous, willing superhero standing in his bedroom. Life didn't get a lot simpler than that.
Booster had clearly been pacing around the room, and stopped, frozen in mid stride beside the TV when he heard the latch click. He watched Ted with wide, confused eyes.
"Sorry about that," Ted told him, closing the door behind him and going to stand by the bed. "I've had kind of a strange week; just needed a minute to catch up. I'd love to..." Take you up on your offer sounded to financial, and have you spend the night was outright pathetic. "Do whatever you'd like," he finished awkwardly, then immediately decided that the first two had been better.
As though someone had flipped a switch, Booster melted from fight or flight to on the prowl. "Is 'I was just abducted by aliens' going to be your excuse for everything?" he asked, sauntering over. "Because I think it's starting to get old. But since," he looped his arms around Ted's neck, "you'll let me do whatever I'd like, I'll let it go. This time." He said the last right into Ted's ear, the hiss of the 's' making him shiver in anticipation.
All the things he'd seen surfing porn on the Internet flashed through Ted's mind. He tried to remember if he'd seen Booster bookmark any alarming ones. His physical porn collection had always been pretty tame, and entirely heterosexual. "What, uh..." he swallowed. "What do you have in mind?"
One of Booster's hands kept a light grip on the back of Ted's neck, the other smoothed down his shirt until his fingers could slide under his belt to trace his hip bone. "Why don't I get you out of those clothes and see where it goes from there?" And then he kissed him.
It started almost tentative, just a brush of the lips on the corner of Ted's mouth, like Booster still wasn't completely sure what was going on, or if Ted was okay with it. When Ted opened his mouth instead of protesting, or pulling away, Booster moved in again, a little more confidently this time.
Ted's hands had been plucking at Booster's jacket, but as their lips touched, he clenched a double handful of leather and yanked Booster against him. He pushed up, deepening and intensifying what had been an exploratory kiss. Moaning, Ted bit at Booster's lower lip, then swiped his tongue along it. That wasn't close enough so he tilted his head so they could open their mouths against each other. Their tongues touched, and he pushed forward again, pressing their bodies together. He felt as though someone had lit a fire under him; this was everything he'd ever wanted, and he didn't care what happened, he just wanted more now.
He felt Booster's hands everywhere, tugging his shirt out of his pants, running open palmed across the planes of his back, dipping under his belt, sliding lower to grab his ass, then up to run though his hair again. They couldn't get closer, but they both kept pushing. Booster fell back a step, then another, until he stumbled and thudded into the wall. Their teeth collided, drew blood, and Ted only paused long enough to lick his lips, then he pushed forward again. He nipped at Booster's jaw, then at his pulse point. The leather bomber jacket got in the way of anything further down, and he pushed at it impatiently, exposing a flash of shoulder. He kissed the tanned skin, then sucked enough to make a mark. Booster moaned into Ted's hair, clutching at his shoulders, pushing down.
They didn't need to say anything. They didn't even need to get to the part of the plan where Booster stripped Ted's clothes. Booster pushed, and Ted sank to his knees. He rubbed his cheek against Booster's erection as it pressed against his jeans, and hummed as Booster tried to stifle a cry. For once he didn't fumble with buckles or buttons or zippers, and the jeans came open just like he wanted them to. Booster, of course, wasn't wearing any underwear.
Only then did Ted pause. He looked up, savouring Booster above him, still fully dressed, but flushed, eyes wide and dark, and mouth open and gasping. "Don't st-" Booster started to say but then Ted grabbed his ass with one hand and the base of his cock with the other. His head snapped back, striking the wall, and he gasped. "Fuck, please don't stop." His fingers dug into Ted's shoulders. "Don't ever stop."
"Don't let me," Ted said recklessly. He took Booster's right hand and moved it to the back of his head. Then he squeezed Booster's cock again and licked. Hips snapped forward, both hands holding his head in place, but he had his mouth wide and ready. He took in as much as he could, then ran into his own hand. Loosening his hold made Booster ease up, and he pulled away a little, sucking hard as he did. He could feel Booster's whole body shudder, and he shook with it. Ted didn't know if he'd ever been this turned on, and Booster had hardly touched him yet. This was going to be the one thing that he could have that wasn't fucking complicated. More. Now.
Another push, and he relaxed into it, tilting his head to swallow even more this time. His lips folded in to cover his teeth, the tip of his tongue tracing zig zags, and he growled deep in his throat. Booster made fists in his hair, trying to push and pull at the same time. His hips jerked spasmodically now, having lost all control. It only took a tiny graze of teeth to make him yelp, stiffen, and fill Ted's mouth.
Ted meant to swallow but it had been a long time since he'd done this, and it didn't quite work out. He ended up coughing and and spluttering, falling to all fours. Booster, who'd been using him for balance, tumbled after. Booster's shoulder hit Ted squarely in the kidney, and then breathing wasn't happening at all. The room faded a moment, and he squeezed his eyes shut, tears leaking out of the corners.
When started breathing again and could open eyes, Booster was kneeling over him, holding a glass of water. "Sorry," Ted croaked. He pushed himself up the wall enough to let Booster feed him a sip. "Been a while."
"Are you joking? That was the hottest goddamn thing I've ever seen. Up until the part where you fell over and almost died, that is." He held the glass solicitously until Ted could take it on his own.
Ted took a few larger sips, swirling the taste of semen out of his mouth. "Thanks." He let his head fall back against the wall. "I think my boner's dead."
Booster took the glass and set it next to the TV. His smile was full of teeth and promises. "Don't worry, I can fix that."
Later, much later - after Booster had got Ted's clothes off, and his own, and the boner had lived again, and again, after they'd changed the sheets and showered and used all the towels drying each other and mopping the water off the bathroom floor - they stretched out in bed together.
Booster sprawled bonelessly on his back, somehow taking up most of the queen-sized bed. Not that Ted minded, it made an excuse to lie half on top of him, legs intertwined, ear pressed to Booster's chest. He sighed and wriggled until they fit together just right, then relaxed to the regular thud of Booster's heartbeat as it settled back to normal.
"I guess it's been a while for you, huh?" Booster said, lazily tracing his name in cursive on Ted's back.
"You have no idea." True on every level.
"Did you leave anyone behind, when they took you?"
Ted went still, trying to read Booster's tone, it seemed warm, just casually interested. "Do you usually wait 'til after you've blown a guy to ask about his exes?"
"I just want to know more about you." Booster protested. "Which is not something I usually do."
That brought back the guilt again, and the longing to be just plain old Ted Kord. Secret identities could turn into such a pain in the ass. He told the truth again, but this time it felt less true. "I was pretty serious about a girl, one of my lab techs, actually." He smiled, lips curving against Booster's skin. This Booster didn't wax his chest. "I guess what goes around comes around. Anyway, when I got back, I found out she'd moved on, married another guy." That phone call had only felt slightly less awkward than the one to his dad, though they'd both been pretty similar in content.
"I'm sorry." Booster stroked down Ted's side to his hip, where it rested, warm and reassuring.
"Nah, it's okay. It was actually kind of a relief. I don't think it would have worked out; I'm not the same person as I was back then." It was possible he'd never been the same person as Melody fell in love with. Was he the person Booster seemed to be falling for now?
As if he could read his mind, Booster asked, "Oh, yeah, who are you then?"
How to sum up your life, leaving out the secrets but keeping the important bits, in a hundred words or less? "Ted Kord. Do not call me Theodore. Genius engineer, inventor and chemist, and sometimes adventurer. Experience in alien abductions, fighting robots and running for my life has fostered an adrenaline addiction and a sense of humour that has been called inappropriate. I am, therefore, not ideally suited for a conventional relationship and should probably exclusively date tall blond superheroes."
"You mean date a tall blond superhero exclusively, right?"
"I don't know; I may leave you for Ms. Marvel."
Booster smacked his butt, which normally would have got him going again, but he was just too damn tired. "You know she's fictional, right?"
"Keep harping on details, and I won't invite you for a threesome."
His hair ruffled, tickling, as Booster snorted. "You know, you do sound like my kind of guy."
"You have no idea," Ted murmured again. Then he let the rhythm of Booster's hands as they absently glided up and down his arm and that steady, dependable heartbeat lull him into sleep.
He woke twice in the night: Once when Booster claimed his arm was falling asleep and nudged him off, and once to a nightmare. In it, he was back on Pago Island with Dan Garrett and Uncle Jarvis, but watching himself from the outside. Jarvis laughed and ordered his nephew's execution; Dan transformed and fought valiantly while Ted did very little, same as last time. He didn't want to watch this happen again, but in the dream he had no choice. Then it changed; more robots arrived and pressed Dan back by weight of numbers, swarming over him. Young Ted tried to circle round to Jarvis and the control panels, but before he made it two steps, a robot he hadn't seen grabbed his arms and held on relentlessly. Something at the base of the dog pile exploded, throwing the robots back, and, oh, god, Ted didn't want to look, but the dream still focused relentlessly on the carnage. Dan had died for him, again, only this time, Ted wasn't there to promise that it wouldn't be for nothing. This time Jarvis took one last moment to gloat, and when young Ted, through his tears, told him to rot in hell, Jarvis gave the robot holding him a final order. Now Watching Ted and Young Ted were one and the same, and he saw through his own eyes as the metal arm swung down and blackness surged up around him. Four final words flashed in his mind, clear and absolutely certain: That's it. I'm dead.
His eyes snapped open, body clenched in a spasm of panic. It took a full minute to see past the darkness to the city lights edging around the curtains and the red glow of the alarm clock. Only then did the street noise and the gentle breathing in bed beside him filter in. Ted sat up slowly, pressing two fingers to his neck to monitor his racing pulse. Getting up and making tea would probably calm him down faster, but that would wake Booster, and he couldn't begin to explain this nightmare to him. Instead, he sat perfectly still, taking slow, deliberate breaths until he settled enough to lie back down.
The sheets felt clammy and clung to his legs as he rolled to curl up on his side. It was an old, familiar nightmare, one that had played in unending variation ever since Dan's death. They usually came out to play when grief or a guilty conscience were already plaguing him. Sometimes the dreams just replayed what had actually happened, Dan dying to save him, sometimes they both died together; in particularly gruesome variations, he himself was the robot and killed Dan with his own hand. That one was close enough to the truth to keep him awake for days, but somehow this one had felt worse. He couldn't remember ever having a dream that seemed that real. If anything, it had felt more like the time Amanda Waller had hypnotised him to get at his suppressed memories of Queen Bee's brainwashing sessions.
Ted tried to wrap his mind around how many layers of fucked he was if he was brainwashed on top of everything else, then gave up. He was too tired and wound up and freaked out to figure anything out right now. Not that sleeping seemed like it was going to be an option either. Irritably, he flipped onto his other side, yanking at the bedspread to get an edge of it away from Booster, then stared into the dark some more.
Behind him, Booster grunted and tugged at the covers, then, when Ted held on fiercely, rolled over to wrap himself around the lot. A long leg snuck between Ted's and an arm pulled them together until Booster was half spooned against him and half sprawled on top of him. His breath felt warm against the back of Ted's neck, and he could feel the rise and fall of Booster's chest. "Okay?" Booster asked sleepily.
"Yeah, I'm good, buddy." Ted interlaced his fingers with Booster's and shifted to lean against him a little. Thus entrapped in a warm, friendly octopus embrace, he barely heard Booster's satisfied grunt before he fell asleep again.
Booster was singing in the shower. Ted flopped onto his back, absently trying to pick out the tune, but Booster had either mangled it beyond recognition or it was something from his own time. He smiled and relaxed back into the warmth of the bed. The previous night's dreams still tugged at this mind, but it was nine in the morning on a Sunday. The biggest decision he wanted to make right now was whether to order room service before or after he interrupted Booster's shower. He left the choice too long, and the water cut off, now he had about twenty minutes while Booster fussed with his hair, then he'd probably insist on going to work. Which is what Ted should be doing. He'd just lie here and enjoy this for another ten minutes, then get in gear.
An insistent rap on the door woke him up from a light doze. "Did you order breakfast?" he yelled at the bathroom.
"No. But I'll get it."
Ted rolled over hoping to get in a good leer at Booster in a towel, but he'd already dressed. He couldn't quite see the door from this side of the bed.
"Can I help..." Booster's voice trailed off in confusion. Then he heard another voice, too soft to make out, and Booster called back into the room. "There's a little kid here looking for her 'Uncle Ted.'"
"Rani?" Had to be. "Tell her to hang on one minute." He rolled out of bed next to his pile of clothes, throwing them on so fast he got his sweater on inside out. Swearing under his breath, he left it like that, and ran for the door.
Booster was still standing holding it half open, and Rani hunched on the other side of the threshold, stolidly not looking at Booster. This time she had on a crisp denim skirt and white blouse, with a little leather messenger bag over one shoulder. It would have made her look like any polished little second grader on her first day at school except for the mini combat boots and a pixie cut implemented by someone who absolutely did not know his way around a pair of scissors. Ted gave Rip a few points for trying, but none for actual implementation. "Hi, Uncle Ted," Rani said in an even smaller voice than before.
"Hey." Ted struggled for something to say, or rather for which thing to say first, he settled on, "Why don't you come in?"
"I thought you didn't have any family," Booster said, stepping aside and closing the door behind her.
"He's not my real uncle," Rani told him, eyes still fixed on the carpet. "I just call him that."
"Oh," Booster said, sounding unenlightened.
"She's the daughter of a friend." Which was probably why she wasn't looking at Booster. Here she was talking to her adopted father for the first time in God knew how long, and he didn't even remember her. Ted could empathise. "What are you doing here, sweetie?"
Rani circled around Booster as widely as she could, putting Ted between them. "Boppy said I needed you to look after me this morning."
Of course he had. Hunter was probably planning to vanish off into another dimension to battle intergalactic whatever the hells, and decided to dump his kid on Ted with zero notice. As if Ted knew anything about kids. "I've got a pretty busy day today, Rani," he said, though he knew he was fighting a losing battle. What was he going to do? Kick a seven-year-old out to fend for herself? In this neighbourhood?
"I can come to work with you." Her voice was growing in confidence. "I used to live in Boppy's lab, and I won't get in the way at all."
Ted cast Booster a helpless look, and Booster frowned and shook his head. "I don't think that would be very safe." Rani tried the wide-eyed lip quivering thing, aimed at Ted but Booster was the one who succumbed. "Why don't you take the morning off, Ted?" Booster was backing for the door like the coward he was. "I'm going to swing by my place and get changed, so I won't be in for a while anyway." He didn't quite run out, but it came close.
Rani sniffed loudly, and made to wipe her nose on her sleeve. Ted tossed a box of tissues at her before she could.
"And when is 'Boppy' going to come pick you up?"
She shrugged. "He said time was solidifying, and he'd come get me after."
"Did he say anything else?" Like that wasn't enough. He remember the buzzing, swirling feeling from when Old Booster had tried to save him. That had ended with the universe in tatters and most of his friends dead. He hoped that wouldn't be how it worked this time; if all of time changed at once, everything should just stay the same, shouldn't it? The whole thing made his head hurt.
"Not really." She looked around the room, taking in the rumpled sheets, pile of towels on the bathroom floor and clothes spilling out of Ted's suitcase. "So you and Michael are having sex now, huh?"
Ted had nothing sensible to say to that and asked, "Why isn't Rip here?"
Rani shrugged. "He needs to stay outside of time, or else he might mess things up and make himself not be born."
That certainly sounded like a problem one should worry about. "And that doesn't matter for you?"
Another shrug. "No, you and me are already dead."
"But..." Ted broke off, shaking his head and deciding to quit while he was ahead. He was dead in the past, Rani was dead God knows when, and none of it made very much sense to him. He glanced around the room for something less morbid to talk about. It really did look pretty sordid. Ethically speaking, he should remove the young child from the situation. He never had got that room service, either. Next time Hunter assigned him to minion sit, he had better send along coffee. "Hey Rani, have you ever had banana pancakes?"
Apparently she had, as that got Ted far more enthusiasm than he'd ever seen out of her, but on the elevator down to the lobby she said, "I don't like the dreams."
"What dreams, sweetie?" Ted asked, putting more attention into trying to remember the nearest dinner. Maybe he should just cab it to somewhere nicer.
"Sometimes I dream about the other me, the one who died."
It took Ted a second to switch tracks and catch up with what she was saying. "What?" he asked, but in his gut he already knew.
"Boppy says they'll stop after time solidifies."
The elevator doors opened with a ping. "Did you dream about dying last night?" A terrible question to ask a child, but Ted needed to know.
Rani looked out into the empty lobby, then back at Ted. The doors started to close, and Ted put his hand in the way, not budging. "Yes," Rani admitted.
"Fuck." Ted said it with enough feeling, clarity and volume to earn him a disapproving frown from the clean-cut young man behind the reception desk. Stepping out of the elevator, Ted took Rani with one hand and rummaged though his pockets for his JLI-issue cell phone with the other. It rang before he could start dialling.
He opened the phone to the hiss and crackle of wind hitting a mic, then Booster's voice urgently saying, "Something big's come up. Be on the street in a minute and a half. I'll pick you up."
"What about Rani?" Ted asked, already half way to the door, Rani keeping pace beside him.
"I'll pick her up too. We don't have time for anything else."
Ted spent his remaining sixty seconds simplifying a chemical formula to text and sending it to Murray Takamoto with the question, Present in scraps? Right on schedule, Booster descended in a streak of blue and gold with Skeets beside him. He barely touched the pavement long enough to scoop up Rani and balance her on one hip, and slide an arm around Ted's waist and pull him to the other. Ted had to close his eyes against the snow as Booster rocketed towards the JLI offices. None of them could say anything over the wind, and Booster didn't bother to try filling them in. Ted barely had time to drop Rani off in an empty office before he found himself whisked up to the conference room on the second floor. The rest of the team, plus Briggs and a woman Ted hadn't met yet, were already there.
"Fifteen minutes ago," Briggs said, taking over the meeting with Skeets providing the graphics, "We lost communication with much of central Washington DC. What information we've been able to get has been incomplete and conflicting, but it seems as though there has been a co-ordinated attack on several key political and military figures. We have confirmation that they are in the White House, but we do not know the status of the President or his family." The screen showed shaky cell phone footage of a black figure moving through a hallway, before the camera bounced off the floor and stopped recording. "Similar attacks are taking place in Beijing, London, Moscow, Paris, Jerusalem, New Delhi and Islamabad. We've attempted to contact Pyongyang, but officials from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea have yet to reply. Given that there have been attacks made on the leaders of every other nuclear state, we can only assume the worst."
Skeets pulled up and expanded the fleeting image of the White House assailant. Despite the poor resolution, Ted could tell that everyone recognised it. "As you can see," Briggs continued, "These are likely to be the robots JLI engaged yesterday in Chicago. Local police and military forces are moving in, and I've already sent them what information we have. Given the potential hostage situation and the lack of communications, they weren't too happy to hear about near-invulnerable robots."
Booster was staring at the world map, with it's nine red dots over world capitols, lips pressed into a tight line of concentration. He looked as if he expected the map to produce a solution, if he only searched hard enough. "We don't have enough people to begin to cover this," he said.
"What about the Justice League?" Tora asked. "Has anyone tried to contact them?"
"We can't-"
The General in Iron cut Briggs off, metallic voice filling the room. "In the face of a great threat to mutual interests, it is foolish not to work with other invested groups, setting aside dissimilar methods or ambitions."
"Bats already called me on the way over," Booster interjected. "He says they're working on Washington, but he needs to know more about what Ted did yesterday."
Ted still had his cell clenched in his hand; any moment he would know if he was right or wrong. "If they haven't radically changed the dampers since yesterday, I should still be able to hack them, but we'd need to get the shuttle pretty close. They're using tech pillaged from the Signal Men, and I don't know if even Batman would have time to replicate it." He calculated the work he'd need to put into eight copies of the ship's comms, even with the original robot parts to work with. None of his estimates came up with an answer that sounded like fast enough. "I have some other ideas, but nothing concrete right now."
That started a brief debate about where to prioritise, with Red and Godiva each advocating their own country. Beside Ted, Vixen slumped further into her chair muttering, "This is why people hate the UN."
Ted could sympathise. He looked at Booster, who was still considering the map. He was supposed to be leading this, wasn't he? J'onn would have stepped in ages ago.
His phone beeped at the same time that Booster stood and set off a flare of light bright enough silence the room. "We're not looking at this right," Booster declared. "We shouldn't be trying to cover all the targets at once. We'll only spread ourselves too thin, and I don't think any of us has enough individual fire power to take those things down. Going after them one at a time only risks the civilians at the other locations."
"Then what's your plan?" Bea asked. She, like everyone else in the room, was looking at Booster like she genuinely expected him to have one.
"We should be hitting the dot that's not on the map," he explained, gesturing to the empty spaces. "We need to find the source of these attacks and take that out."
Red was shaking his broadly enough for his armour to transmit the motion. "One problem: where is source."
Ted closed his phone. Yes. Murray had sent a single word, but it was enough to tell Ted what he needed to know. It could be enough to ruin the life he'd set up here, to expose all his lies to Booster and the team. He couldn't imagine they'd think that much of him after that. He remembered how furious he'd been at Captain Atom for playing a double game. Only back then, he'd known Nate far better than Booster knew him now, and had had a lot more reasons to like him.
However, the world was in danger, and if these last few weeks had proved nothing else, it was that Ted could counted on to reliably sacrifice his life for the cause. "I think I know where it is." Everyone turned to stare at him. Ted hunched in his chair and avoided looking at them, turning to the little gold security droid instead. "Skeets, stick another pin on Pago Island."
"Where?" Booster asked, with Briggs and Godiva echoing him.
"It's a about five miles of rock and scrub in the mid-Atlantic." Ted explained, watching as Skeets projected a rotating three-dimensional map of the island, with satellite images running along side. "I think Portugal or someone technically owns it, but it's never been inhabited, or used for anything since they stopped using sailing ships to cross the Atlantic. What very few living people know is that there's an underground lab complex carved into that peak. The high natural metal content in the rock makes it close to undetectable, not that many people have bothered looking. I'm close to certain that we'll find the man responsible for the attacks there."
"It does seem like an ideal base of operations," the General mused.
"Right," Godiva added. "Where else would a mad scientist live but under an island volcano?"
"Is not volcano," Red corrected. "Look at rock: is metamorphic, not igneous."
"What I want to know," Guy said, speaking up for the first time. He'd tipped his chair back on two legs so he could rest his boots on the corner of the table, and was sitting with his arms folded, smirking at the rest of the room. "Is how sparky here knows about this place. Especially since he spent the last few years getting probed by space monkeys."
"I wasn't probed!" Despite the speculation in the press to the contrary. Ted made himself take a breath and turn to look at Booster. "This is from before I ever met the Cluster. I know about the island because I kind of accidentally helped to invent the robots, and Godiva's mad scientist is probably my uncle."
After a painful moment of silence, Rocket Red started to laugh. The crackly guffaws continued until he realised that no one else was going to join in. "Sorry." He touched his gloved fingers to his faceplate. "I think was funny joke."
Ted sighed. "No more than the rest of my life is."
Booster was staring at him, mouth open. "That..." he started, then hand to pull himself together and try again. "Never mind. The clock's ticking, and this is far and away our best lead. I want everyone in the shuttle in two minutes. You, too, Gardner." As everyone filed out, he leaned down and told Ted, "And while we're on our way, you can explain how you managed to leave this little gem off of your cover letter."
"I swear I thought he was dead," Ted promised for the third - or possibly the forth - time in his still-edited recap of his early adventures, with the addition of Murray's testimony from the day before. He was sitting in the back of the ship, wedged between Tora and the door, with Booster opposite him and Rocket Red in the pilot's seat. Skeets floated next to Red's helmet, offering unsolicited piloting advice. "I checked the news reports when I got back. The search party that went looking for me and Dan found the whole side of the island was a fresh avalanche slope." Which, considering that his uncle had faked his death before, Ted really ought to have held as suspect. Maybe he'd been too weirded out by reading his own obituary. "And he'd never been a patient man. I thought if he were going to try to take over the world, he would have done it ages ago." And he'd remembered Jarvis dying, but of course that hadn't happened this time around.
"He's making a pretty good go of it now," Booster said. Ted hated how cold his voice sounded. It had been just a few hours ago that they'd been lying in bed together, wrapped in each other's arms. That, Ted suspected, wasn't going to happen again any time soon, if ever. "You seemed to know him pretty well," he continued, tone implying that that was to be held against Ted, "What are his weaknesses?"
Ted considered it. There was a risk that Jarvis here had a different personality than Jarvis there, in which case he'd be feeding Booster faulty information. However, his dream memories made them to look like very similar men. "His ego, probably," he concluded. "He loves to gloat, to show off how he's better than everyone." He'd been almost happy to have Ted and Dan burst in on him, just so he could monologue them to death. "He's paranoid. He's not a brilliant engineer, especially with software, but he is he's a perfectionist and will pour elbow grease on a project until he makes it work. He also tends to over plan, and can panic when things go off script."
Booster nodded to himself and glanced at the General. "I can work with that."
"Listen, Booster." Ted reached across the space between them and grabbed Booster's knee, shaking it lightly. "You have to be careful. He's a technical genius, a very good liar, and if he thinks he's cornered, he'll burn the world before he loses. And he has an army of near-invulnerable killer robots."
"And they might all blow up, kill the hostages and/or cause a nuclear holocaust." He bounced his knee, dislodging Ted's hand. "I'm familiar with the 'Don't screw up, Booster' speech. I've got it from Briggs and Batman, and that's just in the last thirty minutes."
"I didn't mean it like that." It probably came out more snappish than it should have, but they didn't have time for Booster's insecurities. They didn't have time for Ted's either, but the team was kind of stuck with them right now. Absolutely nothing would prevent the amazing yelling match in his future, though he could try to put it off a bit longer. "Dealing with Uncle Jarvis puts me on edge. It's never ended..." He struggled, trying to find the end of that sentence. He could feel something inside him vibrating, like he was sitting on a train track and a hundred thousand tonnes of locomotive was just around the corner. "Ended-"
Tora's voice, far away: "Are you okay, Ted?"
In a Checkmate castle, bound, beaten and on his knees: "Join me or die time, is that it?" "That's it exactly." "Rot in hell, Max." The explosion of an automatic fired at close range. A split second to know that he's actually going to die, and he hadn't even said goodbye to.... He doesn't feel the bullet enter his skull.
In an underground lab, grieving, and trapped in an inviolable steel grip: "So this 'you die by your own hand' take two?" "You always were a smart boy." "Rot in hell." "Sadly, not smart enough. Ah well. Android: Smash his skull in." A split second to see the arm swing down, and know that he's utterly failed Dan, his father, the whole... He feels the first impact, but nothing after that.
In a stolen time sphere, lost, bleeding, just barely propping himself up, Rip Hunter not looking much better: "Give me a hand, will you." A pause, a hesitation. "What do you need?" They go to work. Later: "Booster Gold needs your help." This time, he doesn't hesitate.
They poured into him thick and fast afterwards, the memories of two, sometimes three, lives merging like two rivers coming together just in time to tumble over Niagara Falls. He couldn't move; he couldn't see, and this sucked about five hundred times worse than the time with Black Beetle. He thought he he heard himself screaming, but it could have just been a memory of that short-lived fight with Doomsday, or of Booster dying, both of which he seemed to be reliving at once.
Then it stopped.
All his lives settled in his head, distinct but not alien, and that, it seemed, was the end of it. Except he couldn't seem to see anything other than the colour blue.
He blinked over dry, scratchy eyes, and realised that was because of his head resting in Tora's lap and Booster kneeling in front of him.
"I'm okay." He thought his voice sounded pretty good, considering.
Skeets, who was hovering next to Booster's shoulder said, "All vital signs seem to have returned to a normal range, though his heart rate is still elevated."
"What the hell was that?" Booster demanded. "You stopped breathing for a minute there."
Ted tried to think of a plausible explanation, failed, decided fuck it, and said, "Localised disturbance in the space-time continuum. Won't happen again. I promise I'll explain later." Gingerly, he rolled off of Tora's legs and into a sitting position.
He was starting to think that Hunter's whole mission was based on some perverse enjoyment in screwing with Ted's mind. Like this morning... "Oh my god, Rani," he said just as the comms beeped, and Briggs called into to say that the little girl Ted had left with him was curled in a ball on his office floor chanting, "Save me, Mikey," over and over.
Poor little thing, Ted thought. The experience had scared the pants off of him; he couldn't imagine trying to deal with it when he was seven. He had been supposed to look after her, too. "Tell him..." Ted licked his lips. Fuck it was just going to have to be his motto. He'd sort it out later. "Tell him she'll be fine. Someone named 'Rip Hunter' will probably be there to pick her up pretty soon. He's her guardian." Or as close to it as mattered. He wasn't about to confuse a bureaucrat like Briggs with details.
"What the hell, Kord?" He couldn't even tell what Booster was thinking anymore. The main components of his expression looked to be anger and incredulity, but Ted was sure betrayal and disgust would settle in soon enough. If there was one thing in the world Booster couldn't bear in a friendship, it was being lied to. Too many people had dicked him around over the years, and his trust was too slight.
"Yes, I know Rip Hunter," he snapped before Booster could figure out what to accuse him of. "I really will explain when we get out of this." Though he honestly couldn't imagine how. Even the truth seemed to be getting more convoluted by the minute. He should probably feel amazed at how quickly absolutely everything could fall apart, right when neither Rip Hunter nor God himself could step in and help anymore, but then, he'd seen this happen before, hadn't he? The first time, he'd thrown up his hands, said he didn't give a damn and walked away from his father and the ruins of his life. Then again in a collapsed league, no home and a pile of pizza boxes hidden under his bed. Finally, it seemed, he'd hunted down Max until it killed him, even as Max had pulled his life down around him. Now, he didn't even know what the bargain was supposed to be. Everything was moving too fast. He rocked forward to kneel right in front of Booster. Looking his friend and team leader right in the eye, he tried to put every ounce of sincerity into his voice when he said, "I know I haven't been completely honest about my past, and you have every reason not to trust me, but I'm on your side, Booster. I always have been, and I always will be."
Booster's fists clenched, his body tensing like he wanted to take a swing. Ted could almost feel his stare burning into him, judging him. He held his breath and only let it out when Booster nodded tightly, saying, "We'll see."
"Thank you."
"We have other problem," Rocket Red announced. "Time to island five minutes."
Booster took the time to bang his head against the bulkhead a couple times, then said, "You know what? Fuck it. Red, drop us under the water and hold position. Gardner, get me Hal Jordan on that ring of yours; I'm going to need a favour. Now," he said, steepling his hands, a manic gleam in his eyes, "Here's the plan."
That's the spirit, Ted thought.
* Part One * Part Two * Part Four *
Author: Muccamukk
Recipient: Idiosyn
Rating: M
Prompt: "Find a way to add Ted to DCnU."
Neither Max nor J'onn, and certainly never Bruce, had ever done much to encourage unit cohesion. Most likely, they decided that if everyone got through the day without killing each other, they should call it a win. Consequently, the team had been left to form friendships, and enmities, on their own time, and any trust building exercises were done while fighting Khunds or Para-Demons.
Booster, however, declared it Victory Over the Dark Side Night, and insisted they all go out and bond. Out of costume. Using real names. Ted could only assume this was because he was new.
Predictably, Guy laughed in his face and called him a loser; Bea said she had better things to do on a Saturday night; Tora went with Bea, and Fang claimed that he didn't drink. Ted tried to say that he was technically support staff and thus didn't need to bond, and besides he had work to do, but Booster gave him one of the most woebegone puppy dog looks he'd ever seen, and he'd folded like a bad hand.
Which was how Ted ended up jammed in the corner of a both absolutely not meant for five people, in a bar he'd never much cared for in any incarnation in any timeline. For the second night in a row. Gavril and Mari sat on either side of him, clutching drinks and giving each other the blank stare of two people who'd had to spend all day together, might not actually even like each other, and absolutely couldn't think of anything else to say. A hockey game was playing full blast on all screens, drowning out most attempts at conversation anyway. Across the booth, Dorcus - Dora, Ted reminded himself - was edging further and further into Booster's space, and if Booster shifted over another quarter of an inch, he was going to fall off the edge of the bench. Ted finished his sangria and considered ordering a pitcher.
"As much fun as this is, I need to..." Ted gestured vaguely at the back of the bar.
"Ah, yes," Gavril said, sliding out of the booth so that Ted could get up. "The room for small boys." As he twisted to get between tables packed with men in jerseys, Ted heard him yell to Mari, "I think I will soon pack in the night." And Mari say she thought that was the best idea she'd heard all night.
The men's room had a trough instead of urinals, which Ted could only hope was meant to be ironic not historic, and only one of the stalls still had a door. Ted would have locked himself in it for the rest of the night, but he didn't think he'd be able to take the smell. Peraxxus' brig had had better facilities, and it hadn't even been meant for humans. Ted was willing to concede that this bar wasn't either. Nonetheless, he took his time washing his hands and mending his shredded nerves. Booster was so wrapped up in Dora, literally as well as figuratively, that he probably wouldn't even notice if Ted slipped back to the lab. He had a shoe box of surviving robot bits that he needed to look at if he was going to keep his promises.
A couple of young bucks pushed past him on the way out, the taller one laughing so hard that kept collapsing against his friend's shoulder. Ted shook his head, remembering how he and Booster used to crawl worse bars than this when they'd first joined the league. Hell, last night he'd been too smashed to care what the toilets looked like. All a matter of perspective, he supposed. Maybe he should get that pitcher after all.
Looking across the bar, Ted saw that hockey fans had taken over the booth. He could see Dora at the bar, but none of the others. They must have taken Red's suggestion and gone home. He shook his head and started towards the door, deciding to go back to his hotel and get an early start tomorrow.
On the big screen, puck connected with net, and the whole bar roared in triumph. Someone behind Ted threw up her arms, toppling him forwards and straight into Booster.
"Hey, sorry," Ted said, grabbing Booster's shoulders for balance.
"Are you leaving too?" Booster was frowning at him, and Ted started feeling guilty all over again.
"Long day." He had to yell it twice to make himself heard over the noise of the game. "Sorry."
"I'll give you a ride."
Ted wasn't completely sure where his hotel was from here, so he wasn't going to turn that one down. The rush of wind in his face undid most of the wine's good work, but he didn't mind. He'd missed this.
"That went well," Booster grumbled after he set them down on the tiny balcony. "I think they hate each other more now."
"The team'll come together," Ted told him, squeezing his shoulder before he stepped away. "I think you kind of just have to let it happen on its own."
"You're not the one who ended up telling Godiva he was gay."
"You what?"
"It seemed like the only way to get her off me. I told her I thought Red and General Iron were together too, so hopefully she'll set her cap for Guy next."
"But..." Ted couldn't actually think which part of of that he thought was the worst idea, so he just shoved the sliding door open and waved Booster inside. Some conversations he absolutely wasn't having on a minuscule hotel room deck in the middle of a windy night in December. "But you're not gay. You can't just say youíre gay if you're not. It's like misrepresenting minorities or something."
Booster shrugged, pushing the door closed so he could lean against it. "Who says I'm not?"
"But you're not." Ted wasn't going to let that point go. "I mean, what about..." he had to struggle to think up an example that he was supposed to know about. "What about all those women with you in the magazines?"
"Those were mostly models and actresses in it for the PR." Ted mentally high-fived Tora. "My first manager told me there wasn't a lot of good press to be made by dating other guys, not if I wanted to get national product endorsements. Then again, that was the guy who turned into a supervillain and stole all my money, so maybe I shouldn't have taken his advice so seriously. It doesn't matter right now anyway, and it does look good for the team's diversity." When Ted didn't respond, he added, "Okay fine, technically I'm bi or pan or whatever, not gay, but Godiva doesn't need to know that. Give that woman an inch, she'll take a foot, and pretty soon I won't have a leg to stand on."
"This really is a brave new world," was all Ted could think to say. All those nights on the town. All that tom catting, surely...
Booster folded his arms. "You're not a 'phobe or something, are you?"
"No, no, of course, not," Ted protested hastily. "I'm just... surprised." I've known you half my life and you never told me, he wanted to say. But then, I never told you either. That, at least, he could change. "I am too. Bi, I mean. I'm bi too."
"Ha!" Booster crowed, grinning that brilliant, victorious grin again. "I knew it."
"You did?" Aside from the conspiring parties in a few college flings, and maybe Murray Takamoto, no one knew. He hadn't even told Barbara Gordon, and he'd told her pretty much everything, whether it was overshare or not. And, of course, he'd never said a word to his best friend, and old Booster, his Booster, had certainly had shown no sign of knowing.
"Kinda/sorta. I hoped you swung my way." Booster shrugged as if he saw no difference between a finely-tuned working gaydar and one powered by positive thinking. "I mean, I've already seen you without a shirt, and you look pretty good, and you're scary smart and good in a fight, and I think you like me. At least, you haven't told me to fuck off and leave you alone, though possibly that's in my near future."
Ted felt like the Red Queen's slower brother, running as fast as he could and still two steps behind. "Wait, hang on. You brought me to a hotel room to try and seduce me?"
"Um... sort of?" Booster muttered, looking at the floor. Colour had started to rise in his neck and cheeks. "Only if you want me to."
Ted gaped. Then he pointed at Booster, snapped, "You. Stay right there!" turned on his heel and locked himself in the bathroom.
Bracing on the edge of the basin, Ted stared into the mirror. He didn't think he looked a lot different than he had ten days ago, or whenever this mess had started. A little leaner, a little paler, maybe, but the same guy. And if that guy, the old him from the other timeline, had been propositioned by Booster Gold be wouldn't have said anything besides, "Yes, please!" and taken his pants off. If he hadn't been so sure Booster had been one-hundred-percent completely and utterly straight, he would have made the move himself.
Only it seemed that hadn't been the case, or maybe it wasn't the case anymore (seriously, what the hell did "pan" even mean?). So either his old Booster had kept that secret for years - the same one that Ted himself had he had to admit - or somehow he wasn't the same person. Surely people's sexualities didn't get reshuffled with timelines, did they? This Booster was the same as his own Booster in almost ever other way. Different costume, slightly different history, and of course he didn't know Ted. Ted considered for a moment that his superpower might be making people straight. Which was ridiculous, obviously, but so was his life.
He really didn't know why this particular event had pushed beyond ridiculous into completely ludicrous. The facts were not complicated. Even back when they barely knew each other, Ted would have slept with old Booster in a heartbeat. The reason he hadn't was that he didn't think Booster was interested. This Booster was more or less the same as his Booster. This Booster wanted to seduce him in a hotel room. Ergo... Therefore... Logically...
Something.
Splashing cold water on his face didn't seem to make any of it more clear.
Logically, there was was also the lying his ass off to Booster. Which, despite what Rip Fucking Hunter said, wasn't firm footing for anything. That and killer robots of unknown origin were trying to hunt him down, and his life was a total mess, and everything in the world had changed and this was just too damn much. This could be the step that tipped his life into the Gordian Knots of mare's nests and he'd never swim free, and wow, that metaphor had gotten out of hand.
On the other hand, when it came down to it, he trusted Booster, and no matter that he was lying about a few minor details, like his entire life history, Booster could always trust Ted to have his back. Blue and Gold forever. Besides, when were killer robots of unknown origins not trying to kill him?
On the third hand - and why not? having three hands was less outrageous than the power to make people straight - this could endanger the most important relationship in his life. Which was, on a forth hand, a completely ridiculous excuse given that his life was apparently made up of time travellers, killer robots and lies. When would he have time to screw anything up? He'd be too busy fighting robots.
He drew the line at five hands.
Ted dried his face, sucked in his gut, and reached for the door. Logically nothing. He had a gorgeous, willing superhero standing in his bedroom. Life didn't get a lot simpler than that.
Booster had clearly been pacing around the room, and stopped, frozen in mid stride beside the TV when he heard the latch click. He watched Ted with wide, confused eyes.
"Sorry about that," Ted told him, closing the door behind him and going to stand by the bed. "I've had kind of a strange week; just needed a minute to catch up. I'd love to..." Take you up on your offer sounded to financial, and have you spend the night was outright pathetic. "Do whatever you'd like," he finished awkwardly, then immediately decided that the first two had been better.
As though someone had flipped a switch, Booster melted from fight or flight to on the prowl. "Is 'I was just abducted by aliens' going to be your excuse for everything?" he asked, sauntering over. "Because I think it's starting to get old. But since," he looped his arms around Ted's neck, "you'll let me do whatever I'd like, I'll let it go. This time." He said the last right into Ted's ear, the hiss of the 's' making him shiver in anticipation.
All the things he'd seen surfing porn on the Internet flashed through Ted's mind. He tried to remember if he'd seen Booster bookmark any alarming ones. His physical porn collection had always been pretty tame, and entirely heterosexual. "What, uh..." he swallowed. "What do you have in mind?"
One of Booster's hands kept a light grip on the back of Ted's neck, the other smoothed down his shirt until his fingers could slide under his belt to trace his hip bone. "Why don't I get you out of those clothes and see where it goes from there?" And then he kissed him.
It started almost tentative, just a brush of the lips on the corner of Ted's mouth, like Booster still wasn't completely sure what was going on, or if Ted was okay with it. When Ted opened his mouth instead of protesting, or pulling away, Booster moved in again, a little more confidently this time.
Ted's hands had been plucking at Booster's jacket, but as their lips touched, he clenched a double handful of leather and yanked Booster against him. He pushed up, deepening and intensifying what had been an exploratory kiss. Moaning, Ted bit at Booster's lower lip, then swiped his tongue along it. That wasn't close enough so he tilted his head so they could open their mouths against each other. Their tongues touched, and he pushed forward again, pressing their bodies together. He felt as though someone had lit a fire under him; this was everything he'd ever wanted, and he didn't care what happened, he just wanted more now.
He felt Booster's hands everywhere, tugging his shirt out of his pants, running open palmed across the planes of his back, dipping under his belt, sliding lower to grab his ass, then up to run though his hair again. They couldn't get closer, but they both kept pushing. Booster fell back a step, then another, until he stumbled and thudded into the wall. Their teeth collided, drew blood, and Ted only paused long enough to lick his lips, then he pushed forward again. He nipped at Booster's jaw, then at his pulse point. The leather bomber jacket got in the way of anything further down, and he pushed at it impatiently, exposing a flash of shoulder. He kissed the tanned skin, then sucked enough to make a mark. Booster moaned into Ted's hair, clutching at his shoulders, pushing down.
They didn't need to say anything. They didn't even need to get to the part of the plan where Booster stripped Ted's clothes. Booster pushed, and Ted sank to his knees. He rubbed his cheek against Booster's erection as it pressed against his jeans, and hummed as Booster tried to stifle a cry. For once he didn't fumble with buckles or buttons or zippers, and the jeans came open just like he wanted them to. Booster, of course, wasn't wearing any underwear.
Only then did Ted pause. He looked up, savouring Booster above him, still fully dressed, but flushed, eyes wide and dark, and mouth open and gasping. "Don't st-" Booster started to say but then Ted grabbed his ass with one hand and the base of his cock with the other. His head snapped back, striking the wall, and he gasped. "Fuck, please don't stop." His fingers dug into Ted's shoulders. "Don't ever stop."
"Don't let me," Ted said recklessly. He took Booster's right hand and moved it to the back of his head. Then he squeezed Booster's cock again and licked. Hips snapped forward, both hands holding his head in place, but he had his mouth wide and ready. He took in as much as he could, then ran into his own hand. Loosening his hold made Booster ease up, and he pulled away a little, sucking hard as he did. He could feel Booster's whole body shudder, and he shook with it. Ted didn't know if he'd ever been this turned on, and Booster had hardly touched him yet. This was going to be the one thing that he could have that wasn't fucking complicated. More. Now.
Another push, and he relaxed into it, tilting his head to swallow even more this time. His lips folded in to cover his teeth, the tip of his tongue tracing zig zags, and he growled deep in his throat. Booster made fists in his hair, trying to push and pull at the same time. His hips jerked spasmodically now, having lost all control. It only took a tiny graze of teeth to make him yelp, stiffen, and fill Ted's mouth.
Ted meant to swallow but it had been a long time since he'd done this, and it didn't quite work out. He ended up coughing and and spluttering, falling to all fours. Booster, who'd been using him for balance, tumbled after. Booster's shoulder hit Ted squarely in the kidney, and then breathing wasn't happening at all. The room faded a moment, and he squeezed his eyes shut, tears leaking out of the corners.
When started breathing again and could open eyes, Booster was kneeling over him, holding a glass of water. "Sorry," Ted croaked. He pushed himself up the wall enough to let Booster feed him a sip. "Been a while."
"Are you joking? That was the hottest goddamn thing I've ever seen. Up until the part where you fell over and almost died, that is." He held the glass solicitously until Ted could take it on his own.
Ted took a few larger sips, swirling the taste of semen out of his mouth. "Thanks." He let his head fall back against the wall. "I think my boner's dead."
Booster took the glass and set it next to the TV. His smile was full of teeth and promises. "Don't worry, I can fix that."
Later, much later - after Booster had got Ted's clothes off, and his own, and the boner had lived again, and again, after they'd changed the sheets and showered and used all the towels drying each other and mopping the water off the bathroom floor - they stretched out in bed together.
Booster sprawled bonelessly on his back, somehow taking up most of the queen-sized bed. Not that Ted minded, it made an excuse to lie half on top of him, legs intertwined, ear pressed to Booster's chest. He sighed and wriggled until they fit together just right, then relaxed to the regular thud of Booster's heartbeat as it settled back to normal.
"I guess it's been a while for you, huh?" Booster said, lazily tracing his name in cursive on Ted's back.
"You have no idea." True on every level.
"Did you leave anyone behind, when they took you?"
Ted went still, trying to read Booster's tone, it seemed warm, just casually interested. "Do you usually wait 'til after you've blown a guy to ask about his exes?"
"I just want to know more about you." Booster protested. "Which is not something I usually do."
That brought back the guilt again, and the longing to be just plain old Ted Kord. Secret identities could turn into such a pain in the ass. He told the truth again, but this time it felt less true. "I was pretty serious about a girl, one of my lab techs, actually." He smiled, lips curving against Booster's skin. This Booster didn't wax his chest. "I guess what goes around comes around. Anyway, when I got back, I found out she'd moved on, married another guy." That phone call had only felt slightly less awkward than the one to his dad, though they'd both been pretty similar in content.
"I'm sorry." Booster stroked down Ted's side to his hip, where it rested, warm and reassuring.
"Nah, it's okay. It was actually kind of a relief. I don't think it would have worked out; I'm not the same person as I was back then." It was possible he'd never been the same person as Melody fell in love with. Was he the person Booster seemed to be falling for now?
As if he could read his mind, Booster asked, "Oh, yeah, who are you then?"
How to sum up your life, leaving out the secrets but keeping the important bits, in a hundred words or less? "Ted Kord. Do not call me Theodore. Genius engineer, inventor and chemist, and sometimes adventurer. Experience in alien abductions, fighting robots and running for my life has fostered an adrenaline addiction and a sense of humour that has been called inappropriate. I am, therefore, not ideally suited for a conventional relationship and should probably exclusively date tall blond superheroes."
"You mean date a tall blond superhero exclusively, right?"
"I don't know; I may leave you for Ms. Marvel."
Booster smacked his butt, which normally would have got him going again, but he was just too damn tired. "You know she's fictional, right?"
"Keep harping on details, and I won't invite you for a threesome."
His hair ruffled, tickling, as Booster snorted. "You know, you do sound like my kind of guy."
"You have no idea," Ted murmured again. Then he let the rhythm of Booster's hands as they absently glided up and down his arm and that steady, dependable heartbeat lull him into sleep.
He woke twice in the night: Once when Booster claimed his arm was falling asleep and nudged him off, and once to a nightmare. In it, he was back on Pago Island with Dan Garrett and Uncle Jarvis, but watching himself from the outside. Jarvis laughed and ordered his nephew's execution; Dan transformed and fought valiantly while Ted did very little, same as last time. He didn't want to watch this happen again, but in the dream he had no choice. Then it changed; more robots arrived and pressed Dan back by weight of numbers, swarming over him. Young Ted tried to circle round to Jarvis and the control panels, but before he made it two steps, a robot he hadn't seen grabbed his arms and held on relentlessly. Something at the base of the dog pile exploded, throwing the robots back, and, oh, god, Ted didn't want to look, but the dream still focused relentlessly on the carnage. Dan had died for him, again, only this time, Ted wasn't there to promise that it wouldn't be for nothing. This time Jarvis took one last moment to gloat, and when young Ted, through his tears, told him to rot in hell, Jarvis gave the robot holding him a final order. Now Watching Ted and Young Ted were one and the same, and he saw through his own eyes as the metal arm swung down and blackness surged up around him. Four final words flashed in his mind, clear and absolutely certain: That's it. I'm dead.
His eyes snapped open, body clenched in a spasm of panic. It took a full minute to see past the darkness to the city lights edging around the curtains and the red glow of the alarm clock. Only then did the street noise and the gentle breathing in bed beside him filter in. Ted sat up slowly, pressing two fingers to his neck to monitor his racing pulse. Getting up and making tea would probably calm him down faster, but that would wake Booster, and he couldn't begin to explain this nightmare to him. Instead, he sat perfectly still, taking slow, deliberate breaths until he settled enough to lie back down.
The sheets felt clammy and clung to his legs as he rolled to curl up on his side. It was an old, familiar nightmare, one that had played in unending variation ever since Dan's death. They usually came out to play when grief or a guilty conscience were already plaguing him. Sometimes the dreams just replayed what had actually happened, Dan dying to save him, sometimes they both died together; in particularly gruesome variations, he himself was the robot and killed Dan with his own hand. That one was close enough to the truth to keep him awake for days, but somehow this one had felt worse. He couldn't remember ever having a dream that seemed that real. If anything, it had felt more like the time Amanda Waller had hypnotised him to get at his suppressed memories of Queen Bee's brainwashing sessions.
Ted tried to wrap his mind around how many layers of fucked he was if he was brainwashed on top of everything else, then gave up. He was too tired and wound up and freaked out to figure anything out right now. Not that sleeping seemed like it was going to be an option either. Irritably, he flipped onto his other side, yanking at the bedspread to get an edge of it away from Booster, then stared into the dark some more.
Behind him, Booster grunted and tugged at the covers, then, when Ted held on fiercely, rolled over to wrap himself around the lot. A long leg snuck between Ted's and an arm pulled them together until Booster was half spooned against him and half sprawled on top of him. His breath felt warm against the back of Ted's neck, and he could feel the rise and fall of Booster's chest. "Okay?" Booster asked sleepily.
"Yeah, I'm good, buddy." Ted interlaced his fingers with Booster's and shifted to lean against him a little. Thus entrapped in a warm, friendly octopus embrace, he barely heard Booster's satisfied grunt before he fell asleep again.
Booster was singing in the shower. Ted flopped onto his back, absently trying to pick out the tune, but Booster had either mangled it beyond recognition or it was something from his own time. He smiled and relaxed back into the warmth of the bed. The previous night's dreams still tugged at this mind, but it was nine in the morning on a Sunday. The biggest decision he wanted to make right now was whether to order room service before or after he interrupted Booster's shower. He left the choice too long, and the water cut off, now he had about twenty minutes while Booster fussed with his hair, then he'd probably insist on going to work. Which is what Ted should be doing. He'd just lie here and enjoy this for another ten minutes, then get in gear.
An insistent rap on the door woke him up from a light doze. "Did you order breakfast?" he yelled at the bathroom.
"No. But I'll get it."
Ted rolled over hoping to get in a good leer at Booster in a towel, but he'd already dressed. He couldn't quite see the door from this side of the bed.
"Can I help..." Booster's voice trailed off in confusion. Then he heard another voice, too soft to make out, and Booster called back into the room. "There's a little kid here looking for her 'Uncle Ted.'"
"Rani?" Had to be. "Tell her to hang on one minute." He rolled out of bed next to his pile of clothes, throwing them on so fast he got his sweater on inside out. Swearing under his breath, he left it like that, and ran for the door.
Booster was still standing holding it half open, and Rani hunched on the other side of the threshold, stolidly not looking at Booster. This time she had on a crisp denim skirt and white blouse, with a little leather messenger bag over one shoulder. It would have made her look like any polished little second grader on her first day at school except for the mini combat boots and a pixie cut implemented by someone who absolutely did not know his way around a pair of scissors. Ted gave Rip a few points for trying, but none for actual implementation. "Hi, Uncle Ted," Rani said in an even smaller voice than before.
"Hey." Ted struggled for something to say, or rather for which thing to say first, he settled on, "Why don't you come in?"
"I thought you didn't have any family," Booster said, stepping aside and closing the door behind her.
"He's not my real uncle," Rani told him, eyes still fixed on the carpet. "I just call him that."
"Oh," Booster said, sounding unenlightened.
"She's the daughter of a friend." Which was probably why she wasn't looking at Booster. Here she was talking to her adopted father for the first time in God knew how long, and he didn't even remember her. Ted could empathise. "What are you doing here, sweetie?"
Rani circled around Booster as widely as she could, putting Ted between them. "Boppy said I needed you to look after me this morning."
Of course he had. Hunter was probably planning to vanish off into another dimension to battle intergalactic whatever the hells, and decided to dump his kid on Ted with zero notice. As if Ted knew anything about kids. "I've got a pretty busy day today, Rani," he said, though he knew he was fighting a losing battle. What was he going to do? Kick a seven-year-old out to fend for herself? In this neighbourhood?
"I can come to work with you." Her voice was growing in confidence. "I used to live in Boppy's lab, and I won't get in the way at all."
Ted cast Booster a helpless look, and Booster frowned and shook his head. "I don't think that would be very safe." Rani tried the wide-eyed lip quivering thing, aimed at Ted but Booster was the one who succumbed. "Why don't you take the morning off, Ted?" Booster was backing for the door like the coward he was. "I'm going to swing by my place and get changed, so I won't be in for a while anyway." He didn't quite run out, but it came close.
Rani sniffed loudly, and made to wipe her nose on her sleeve. Ted tossed a box of tissues at her before she could.
"And when is 'Boppy' going to come pick you up?"
She shrugged. "He said time was solidifying, and he'd come get me after."
"Did he say anything else?" Like that wasn't enough. He remember the buzzing, swirling feeling from when Old Booster had tried to save him. That had ended with the universe in tatters and most of his friends dead. He hoped that wouldn't be how it worked this time; if all of time changed at once, everything should just stay the same, shouldn't it? The whole thing made his head hurt.
"Not really." She looked around the room, taking in the rumpled sheets, pile of towels on the bathroom floor and clothes spilling out of Ted's suitcase. "So you and Michael are having sex now, huh?"
Ted had nothing sensible to say to that and asked, "Why isn't Rip here?"
Rani shrugged. "He needs to stay outside of time, or else he might mess things up and make himself not be born."
That certainly sounded like a problem one should worry about. "And that doesn't matter for you?"
Another shrug. "No, you and me are already dead."
"But..." Ted broke off, shaking his head and deciding to quit while he was ahead. He was dead in the past, Rani was dead God knows when, and none of it made very much sense to him. He glanced around the room for something less morbid to talk about. It really did look pretty sordid. Ethically speaking, he should remove the young child from the situation. He never had got that room service, either. Next time Hunter assigned him to minion sit, he had better send along coffee. "Hey Rani, have you ever had banana pancakes?"
Apparently she had, as that got Ted far more enthusiasm than he'd ever seen out of her, but on the elevator down to the lobby she said, "I don't like the dreams."
"What dreams, sweetie?" Ted asked, putting more attention into trying to remember the nearest dinner. Maybe he should just cab it to somewhere nicer.
"Sometimes I dream about the other me, the one who died."
It took Ted a second to switch tracks and catch up with what she was saying. "What?" he asked, but in his gut he already knew.
"Boppy says they'll stop after time solidifies."
The elevator doors opened with a ping. "Did you dream about dying last night?" A terrible question to ask a child, but Ted needed to know.
Rani looked out into the empty lobby, then back at Ted. The doors started to close, and Ted put his hand in the way, not budging. "Yes," Rani admitted.
"Fuck." Ted said it with enough feeling, clarity and volume to earn him a disapproving frown from the clean-cut young man behind the reception desk. Stepping out of the elevator, Ted took Rani with one hand and rummaged though his pockets for his JLI-issue cell phone with the other. It rang before he could start dialling.
He opened the phone to the hiss and crackle of wind hitting a mic, then Booster's voice urgently saying, "Something big's come up. Be on the street in a minute and a half. I'll pick you up."
"What about Rani?" Ted asked, already half way to the door, Rani keeping pace beside him.
"I'll pick her up too. We don't have time for anything else."
Ted spent his remaining sixty seconds simplifying a chemical formula to text and sending it to Murray Takamoto with the question, Present in scraps? Right on schedule, Booster descended in a streak of blue and gold with Skeets beside him. He barely touched the pavement long enough to scoop up Rani and balance her on one hip, and slide an arm around Ted's waist and pull him to the other. Ted had to close his eyes against the snow as Booster rocketed towards the JLI offices. None of them could say anything over the wind, and Booster didn't bother to try filling them in. Ted barely had time to drop Rani off in an empty office before he found himself whisked up to the conference room on the second floor. The rest of the team, plus Briggs and a woman Ted hadn't met yet, were already there.
"Fifteen minutes ago," Briggs said, taking over the meeting with Skeets providing the graphics, "We lost communication with much of central Washington DC. What information we've been able to get has been incomplete and conflicting, but it seems as though there has been a co-ordinated attack on several key political and military figures. We have confirmation that they are in the White House, but we do not know the status of the President or his family." The screen showed shaky cell phone footage of a black figure moving through a hallway, before the camera bounced off the floor and stopped recording. "Similar attacks are taking place in Beijing, London, Moscow, Paris, Jerusalem, New Delhi and Islamabad. We've attempted to contact Pyongyang, but officials from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea have yet to reply. Given that there have been attacks made on the leaders of every other nuclear state, we can only assume the worst."
Skeets pulled up and expanded the fleeting image of the White House assailant. Despite the poor resolution, Ted could tell that everyone recognised it. "As you can see," Briggs continued, "These are likely to be the robots JLI engaged yesterday in Chicago. Local police and military forces are moving in, and I've already sent them what information we have. Given the potential hostage situation and the lack of communications, they weren't too happy to hear about near-invulnerable robots."
Booster was staring at the world map, with it's nine red dots over world capitols, lips pressed into a tight line of concentration. He looked as if he expected the map to produce a solution, if he only searched hard enough. "We don't have enough people to begin to cover this," he said.
"What about the Justice League?" Tora asked. "Has anyone tried to contact them?"
"We can't-"
The General in Iron cut Briggs off, metallic voice filling the room. "In the face of a great threat to mutual interests, it is foolish not to work with other invested groups, setting aside dissimilar methods or ambitions."
"Bats already called me on the way over," Booster interjected. "He says they're working on Washington, but he needs to know more about what Ted did yesterday."
Ted still had his cell clenched in his hand; any moment he would know if he was right or wrong. "If they haven't radically changed the dampers since yesterday, I should still be able to hack them, but we'd need to get the shuttle pretty close. They're using tech pillaged from the Signal Men, and I don't know if even Batman would have time to replicate it." He calculated the work he'd need to put into eight copies of the ship's comms, even with the original robot parts to work with. None of his estimates came up with an answer that sounded like fast enough. "I have some other ideas, but nothing concrete right now."
That started a brief debate about where to prioritise, with Red and Godiva each advocating their own country. Beside Ted, Vixen slumped further into her chair muttering, "This is why people hate the UN."
Ted could sympathise. He looked at Booster, who was still considering the map. He was supposed to be leading this, wasn't he? J'onn would have stepped in ages ago.
His phone beeped at the same time that Booster stood and set off a flare of light bright enough silence the room. "We're not looking at this right," Booster declared. "We shouldn't be trying to cover all the targets at once. We'll only spread ourselves too thin, and I don't think any of us has enough individual fire power to take those things down. Going after them one at a time only risks the civilians at the other locations."
"Then what's your plan?" Bea asked. She, like everyone else in the room, was looking at Booster like she genuinely expected him to have one.
"We should be hitting the dot that's not on the map," he explained, gesturing to the empty spaces. "We need to find the source of these attacks and take that out."
Red was shaking his broadly enough for his armour to transmit the motion. "One problem: where is source."
Ted closed his phone. Yes. Murray had sent a single word, but it was enough to tell Ted what he needed to know. It could be enough to ruin the life he'd set up here, to expose all his lies to Booster and the team. He couldn't imagine they'd think that much of him after that. He remembered how furious he'd been at Captain Atom for playing a double game. Only back then, he'd known Nate far better than Booster knew him now, and had had a lot more reasons to like him.
However, the world was in danger, and if these last few weeks had proved nothing else, it was that Ted could counted on to reliably sacrifice his life for the cause. "I think I know where it is." Everyone turned to stare at him. Ted hunched in his chair and avoided looking at them, turning to the little gold security droid instead. "Skeets, stick another pin on Pago Island."
"Where?" Booster asked, with Briggs and Godiva echoing him.
"It's a about five miles of rock and scrub in the mid-Atlantic." Ted explained, watching as Skeets projected a rotating three-dimensional map of the island, with satellite images running along side. "I think Portugal or someone technically owns it, but it's never been inhabited, or used for anything since they stopped using sailing ships to cross the Atlantic. What very few living people know is that there's an underground lab complex carved into that peak. The high natural metal content in the rock makes it close to undetectable, not that many people have bothered looking. I'm close to certain that we'll find the man responsible for the attacks there."
"It does seem like an ideal base of operations," the General mused.
"Right," Godiva added. "Where else would a mad scientist live but under an island volcano?"
"Is not volcano," Red corrected. "Look at rock: is metamorphic, not igneous."
"What I want to know," Guy said, speaking up for the first time. He'd tipped his chair back on two legs so he could rest his boots on the corner of the table, and was sitting with his arms folded, smirking at the rest of the room. "Is how sparky here knows about this place. Especially since he spent the last few years getting probed by space monkeys."
"I wasn't probed!" Despite the speculation in the press to the contrary. Ted made himself take a breath and turn to look at Booster. "This is from before I ever met the Cluster. I know about the island because I kind of accidentally helped to invent the robots, and Godiva's mad scientist is probably my uncle."
After a painful moment of silence, Rocket Red started to laugh. The crackly guffaws continued until he realised that no one else was going to join in. "Sorry." He touched his gloved fingers to his faceplate. "I think was funny joke."
Ted sighed. "No more than the rest of my life is."
Booster was staring at him, mouth open. "That..." he started, then hand to pull himself together and try again. "Never mind. The clock's ticking, and this is far and away our best lead. I want everyone in the shuttle in two minutes. You, too, Gardner." As everyone filed out, he leaned down and told Ted, "And while we're on our way, you can explain how you managed to leave this little gem off of your cover letter."
"I swear I thought he was dead," Ted promised for the third - or possibly the forth - time in his still-edited recap of his early adventures, with the addition of Murray's testimony from the day before. He was sitting in the back of the ship, wedged between Tora and the door, with Booster opposite him and Rocket Red in the pilot's seat. Skeets floated next to Red's helmet, offering unsolicited piloting advice. "I checked the news reports when I got back. The search party that went looking for me and Dan found the whole side of the island was a fresh avalanche slope." Which, considering that his uncle had faked his death before, Ted really ought to have held as suspect. Maybe he'd been too weirded out by reading his own obituary. "And he'd never been a patient man. I thought if he were going to try to take over the world, he would have done it ages ago." And he'd remembered Jarvis dying, but of course that hadn't happened this time around.
"He's making a pretty good go of it now," Booster said. Ted hated how cold his voice sounded. It had been just a few hours ago that they'd been lying in bed together, wrapped in each other's arms. That, Ted suspected, wasn't going to happen again any time soon, if ever. "You seemed to know him pretty well," he continued, tone implying that that was to be held against Ted, "What are his weaknesses?"
Ted considered it. There was a risk that Jarvis here had a different personality than Jarvis there, in which case he'd be feeding Booster faulty information. However, his dream memories made them to look like very similar men. "His ego, probably," he concluded. "He loves to gloat, to show off how he's better than everyone." He'd been almost happy to have Ted and Dan burst in on him, just so he could monologue them to death. "He's paranoid. He's not a brilliant engineer, especially with software, but he is he's a perfectionist and will pour elbow grease on a project until he makes it work. He also tends to over plan, and can panic when things go off script."
Booster nodded to himself and glanced at the General. "I can work with that."
"Listen, Booster." Ted reached across the space between them and grabbed Booster's knee, shaking it lightly. "You have to be careful. He's a technical genius, a very good liar, and if he thinks he's cornered, he'll burn the world before he loses. And he has an army of near-invulnerable killer robots."
"And they might all blow up, kill the hostages and/or cause a nuclear holocaust." He bounced his knee, dislodging Ted's hand. "I'm familiar with the 'Don't screw up, Booster' speech. I've got it from Briggs and Batman, and that's just in the last thirty minutes."
"I didn't mean it like that." It probably came out more snappish than it should have, but they didn't have time for Booster's insecurities. They didn't have time for Ted's either, but the team was kind of stuck with them right now. Absolutely nothing would prevent the amazing yelling match in his future, though he could try to put it off a bit longer. "Dealing with Uncle Jarvis puts me on edge. It's never ended..." He struggled, trying to find the end of that sentence. He could feel something inside him vibrating, like he was sitting on a train track and a hundred thousand tonnes of locomotive was just around the corner. "Ended-"
Tora's voice, far away: "Are you okay, Ted?"
In a Checkmate castle, bound, beaten and on his knees: "Join me or die time, is that it?" "That's it exactly." "Rot in hell, Max." The explosion of an automatic fired at close range. A split second to know that he's actually going to die, and he hadn't even said goodbye to.... He doesn't feel the bullet enter his skull.
In an underground lab, grieving, and trapped in an inviolable steel grip: "So this 'you die by your own hand' take two?" "You always were a smart boy." "Rot in hell." "Sadly, not smart enough. Ah well. Android: Smash his skull in." A split second to see the arm swing down, and know that he's utterly failed Dan, his father, the whole... He feels the first impact, but nothing after that.
In a stolen time sphere, lost, bleeding, just barely propping himself up, Rip Hunter not looking much better: "Give me a hand, will you." A pause, a hesitation. "What do you need?" They go to work. Later: "Booster Gold needs your help." This time, he doesn't hesitate.
They poured into him thick and fast afterwards, the memories of two, sometimes three, lives merging like two rivers coming together just in time to tumble over Niagara Falls. He couldn't move; he couldn't see, and this sucked about five hundred times worse than the time with Black Beetle. He thought he he heard himself screaming, but it could have just been a memory of that short-lived fight with Doomsday, or of Booster dying, both of which he seemed to be reliving at once.
Then it stopped.
All his lives settled in his head, distinct but not alien, and that, it seemed, was the end of it. Except he couldn't seem to see anything other than the colour blue.
He blinked over dry, scratchy eyes, and realised that was because of his head resting in Tora's lap and Booster kneeling in front of him.
"I'm okay." He thought his voice sounded pretty good, considering.
Skeets, who was hovering next to Booster's shoulder said, "All vital signs seem to have returned to a normal range, though his heart rate is still elevated."
"What the hell was that?" Booster demanded. "You stopped breathing for a minute there."
Ted tried to think of a plausible explanation, failed, decided fuck it, and said, "Localised disturbance in the space-time continuum. Won't happen again. I promise I'll explain later." Gingerly, he rolled off of Tora's legs and into a sitting position.
He was starting to think that Hunter's whole mission was based on some perverse enjoyment in screwing with Ted's mind. Like this morning... "Oh my god, Rani," he said just as the comms beeped, and Briggs called into to say that the little girl Ted had left with him was curled in a ball on his office floor chanting, "Save me, Mikey," over and over.
Poor little thing, Ted thought. The experience had scared the pants off of him; he couldn't imagine trying to deal with it when he was seven. He had been supposed to look after her, too. "Tell him..." Ted licked his lips. Fuck it was just going to have to be his motto. He'd sort it out later. "Tell him she'll be fine. Someone named 'Rip Hunter' will probably be there to pick her up pretty soon. He's her guardian." Or as close to it as mattered. He wasn't about to confuse a bureaucrat like Briggs with details.
"What the hell, Kord?" He couldn't even tell what Booster was thinking anymore. The main components of his expression looked to be anger and incredulity, but Ted was sure betrayal and disgust would settle in soon enough. If there was one thing in the world Booster couldn't bear in a friendship, it was being lied to. Too many people had dicked him around over the years, and his trust was too slight.
"Yes, I know Rip Hunter," he snapped before Booster could figure out what to accuse him of. "I really will explain when we get out of this." Though he honestly couldn't imagine how. Even the truth seemed to be getting more convoluted by the minute. He should probably feel amazed at how quickly absolutely everything could fall apart, right when neither Rip Hunter nor God himself could step in and help anymore, but then, he'd seen this happen before, hadn't he? The first time, he'd thrown up his hands, said he didn't give a damn and walked away from his father and the ruins of his life. Then again in a collapsed league, no home and a pile of pizza boxes hidden under his bed. Finally, it seemed, he'd hunted down Max until it killed him, even as Max had pulled his life down around him. Now, he didn't even know what the bargain was supposed to be. Everything was moving too fast. He rocked forward to kneel right in front of Booster. Looking his friend and team leader right in the eye, he tried to put every ounce of sincerity into his voice when he said, "I know I haven't been completely honest about my past, and you have every reason not to trust me, but I'm on your side, Booster. I always have been, and I always will be."
Booster's fists clenched, his body tensing like he wanted to take a swing. Ted could almost feel his stare burning into him, judging him. He held his breath and only let it out when Booster nodded tightly, saying, "We'll see."
"Thank you."
"We have other problem," Rocket Red announced. "Time to island five minutes."
Booster took the time to bang his head against the bulkhead a couple times, then said, "You know what? Fuck it. Red, drop us under the water and hold position. Gardner, get me Hal Jordan on that ring of yours; I'm going to need a favour. Now," he said, steepling his hands, a manic gleam in his eyes, "Here's the plan."
That's the spirit, Ted thought.
* Part One * Part Two * Part Four *