Fic: Up To Speed
Subsequent events in the DCU may or may not affect events in this ficverse and if they do, it's at my discretion because I'm god, so there nyah.
...... do you ever feel a little like Calvin, when you're writing fic? :-P
Title: Up To Speed
Author: Katzedecimal (with inspiration from joasakura)
Rating: PG
Characters: Pipster, Captain Boomerang
Summary: Owen confronts Trickster about the whole 'Zombie Boomer' thing.
Owen woke up to the sounds of birdsong, a gentle breeze, and a rat sitting on his head -- he wondered briefly if he should have taken the offer of a hotel. The bed was a pull-out in a small room that served as library and den. The house was a single-wide trailer out in the boonies in the mountains. His hosts had decided to take him deep underground; this shacky little place hid some heavy defences.
His hosts. Owen thought about his hosts. "If you're ever in trouble - I mean real trouble, not the kind that gets you into jail but real trouble - go find this guy," Digger had said, "Hartley Rathaway, used to be a Rogue, the Pied Piper. Tell him who you are, tell him what kind of trouble you're in. He'll help you."
"Friend of yours, Dad?" Owen had asked.
"Couldn't stand the freaky little fairy," Digger had replied, "Hated him, still do. But you can trust him. And if he can't help you, you go find James Jesse, the Trickster. He's a G-man now, so helping you might mean putting you in the cooler for a bit, but if you're in the kind of trouble that sends you looking for help from the Trickster, the clink'll be looking like the soft option. Got it?"
"Okay, Dad," Owen had said. He'd humoured him. He hadn't understood quite what Digger had meant by 'real trouble'.
Now he knew. Now he was in real trouble. He looked up and saw that sweatpants, a shirt and a towel had been provided by his thoughtful hosts. He pulled on the clothes and followed the smell of coffee.
The Trickster was in the kitchen. Owen hesitated; he'd been hoping it'd be Piper, wasn't sure he was ready to face Trickster. "Morning, Owen. How'd you sleep?"
"Better," Owen admitted, "Thanks for putting me up."
Trickster shook his head, "No problem. You want coffee?"
"You got decaff?"
"I got better than that, I got espresso. Less caffiene per shot."
Owen shrugged, "Okay." He watched Trickster - James, he supposed, since he was in yellow sweat pants - put a small bowl of milk in the microwave. After dithering about it, he decided just to plunge in, "Piper said I should talk to you about what you did to my Dad."
James pulled the moka off the stove and poured the coffee into the milk in silence. "You know I quit because of that?" Owen took the offered coffee bowl and shook his head. "They had a devil of a time wooing me back. Had some vigorous arguments with Piper about it too. Wasn't my idea, the orders were coming from higher up. I only went along with it for one thing."
"And that was?"
James turned to face him, "Your dad never got the chance to tell you who you are. It was a long shot, but we were trying to use that opportunity to give him that chance." He sighed and shoved his hands through his hair, "The idea was for Piper to put the other Rogues under, then get you into the lab to talk to Digger. But Cold had you take out Piper's flute."
Owen nodded slowly, sipping his coffee. "You guys were right about them," he said in a low voice, "I broke my leg and they just left me to die in the explosion. If the Outsiders hadn't come back..." He watched James slicing fruit. "Dad said if I was ever in trouble, I should come to you. Seems like I've been in a lot of trouble lately."
"Digger knew that I knew," James smiled, "'Course he didn't know how I knew, but nobody knows that."
"Knew what?"
"You got speed," James looked at him frankly, "And everyone's gonna want to know why the son of plain ol' Digger Harkness is a speedster."
"Yes!" Owen leaned forward, "When I was with the Outsiders, there was this maniac who was torturing me to try to find out why I had the speed. But I don't know! I just do!"
James nodded, spooning ricotta into a small bowl and arranging the fruit on it, "And everyone's trying to use it."
"Yes!"
James nodded again then turned to face Owen, "Digger did his best to protect you. He knew he couldn't keep you, not only because of the life he had but because it would raise suspicion. When the tabloids got wind of you, he sought you out so he could teach you to protect yourself. He didn't tell you about your mother because he knew that knowledge would get you killed. Problem is, not knowing it is also going to get you killed."
Owen shook his head, "All Dad said was that she wasn't Golden Glider."
James handed him the bowl and a pastry, "Okay, siddown, have some breakfast and listen up while your ol' Uncle Trickster gives you a history lesson. Bear with it, 'cause it's necessary to make the personal stuff make sense. It gets goony and sci-fi in places, but remember, you got speed, you're goony and sci-fi, so just roll with it. Now, there's two clans of speedsters, the Allens and the Thawnes..."
Owen listened as James explained about the rivalry between the Flashes and the Reverse-Flashes, and the mysteries of their powers. Trickster was right, it was sounded lunatic - the whole point about the future was that it hasn't happened yet! But he had speed and he was talking to someone who had died and come back to life, and that was apparently a stunt even Captain Boomerang had somehow pulled, so he just shut up and took it all in.
"...Still with me?"
Owen grinned and nodded, "Flashes, Reverse-Flashes, Velocity 9, cosmic treadmills... Yup."
James grinned back, "Okay, 'cause here's where it starts to get personal. Digger never did figure out exactly what happened to him but he figured he somehow got swept into the wake of one of those cosmic treadmill trips. However it happened, he landed a thousand years into the future, in the 30th Century. The trip scrambled his memory, so he wound up on the streets of Futureland going who am I, how'd I get here, why am I dressed like a flight attendant..." Owen tried not to laugh at that, he really did. "Anyhow, a girl found him and took him in. Her name was Meloni Thawne."
Owen gasped, "And she's my mother?"
"Quick boy," James grinned, "Yes."
"If she's a Thawne... she's from the rival clan, right? So I get my speed from her?"
"Here's where it starts to get complicated. Her family were trying to create a Reverse-Kid-Flash to rival Barry's Kid Flash. They were injecting Meloni with Velocity 9 but nothing was happening, it just wasn't taking, she wasn't getting any speed. What they didn't know was that she was newly pregnant at the time, and the embryo was absorbing all the juice."
"And that was me?"
"That was you," James confirmed, "Thing is, she hadn't volunteered for the experiment; they told her it was booster shots or vitamins or something. She was pretty ticked when she worked out what they were doing to her, but when she realized she was pregnant, she became afraid. She was afraid, quite rightly, that since she wasn't taking to the speed, her family would turn their attention to her baby. She disappeared with Boomer for a while but things didn't work out between them and her family were looking for her. So they split up, Meloni went back to her century and sent Boomer back to his, with you. Now..." James leaned forward and his expression was serious, "I don't know what kind of life you've had before this, but I'm telling you right now, putting you up for adoption was the best thing Boomer could've done for you. For one thing, you've lived this long. Boomer made a lot of wrong decisions in his life, but he made them for himself and he was smart enough not to make them for you. He knew he couldn't protect you by himself, so he did the best thing he could and hid you. Because he knew, if the Rogues find out who you are, who your mother is, they'll kill you."
"But.... why?"
"Was just building up to that," James sat back and sipped his coffee, "Meloni went back to her century and got on with her life. She got married, to one Don Allen - s'right, one of the Allen speedsters, she married into the rival clan, a real Romeo-and-Juliet thing going on. She had another son, Bart Allen. But something about his speed, or maybe she still had Velocity 9 kicking around in her system after all those years... Anyways, Bart was growing like crazy. They sent him back to the 20th Century to slow the effects - he became Impulse. And after the third Flash and his family disappeared, Bart became the Flash."
Owen felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. "Piper said something about... you didn't want to watch another kid die...."
James was nodding slowly. "Bart was the Flash that the Rogues murdered."
"Oh god.....!" Owen covered his face. After a moment he looked up again, "He was... my brother? Half-brother, I guess..."
James nodded again, "Yes. But wait, there's more!"
Owen risked a grin, "I ain't buying the Ginzu knives, man."
James grinned then grew serious again, "The Thawnes still wanted their 'Reverse Kid Flash', especially once Bart was running around as Impulse. They created a clone of Bart, named Thaddeus Thawne. They sent him back to cause trouble as Inertia. Now here's the thing: Inertia looks like a 14-year old kid, but he's got the mind of a 50-year old sociopath. Inertia set up the Rogues to kill Bart. When the third Flash came back, he contained Inertia for a bit but he got loose and they found a guy's intestines wrapped across three city blocks. This kid's not on the level of Captain Cold or even Axel Walker; this kid's more what you'd expect to find in Gotham. Okay? And if he finds out you're Bart's brother, you're dead."
Owen shuddered and paled. Suddenly he wasn't very hungry. "That all makes sense now," he said, "Thank you."
"The only reason I went along with the whole Project Zombie thing was to try to give your dad a chance to tell you all this himself."
"Thank you," Owen whispered. He sipped his coffee with shaking hands. "...Now what do I do?"
James shrugged, "We've been watching you. You've been with the Rogues, the Outsiders, you're on the Squad... You've got experience now, you've learned how to fight, how to use your speed and weaponry. You need to learn how to fight a speedster but you should do alright if you're not over-confident. But whatever direction you choose to take your life - whether you go rogue or on the cape side or try to go back into anonymity, Inertia's your enemy. Remember that."
Owen sipped his coffee, digesting it all in silence. "How do I fight a speedster?"
"Banana peels are my favorite."
Owen blinked at the mental image this produced and started to laugh, "That works?!"
"Superspeed meets reduced friction surface, woo!" James grinned, "Black ice worked too but not nearly as much fun, in my not-so-humble opinion. Best you learn all this stuff so you can watch out for it yourself... right?"
Owen stared at him and swallowed, "How'd you know? I mean, I tell people I can only do the speed throwing and catching but..."
"Smart boy," James nodded, "Never lie if misdirection is enough. As long as there's a chance that you might be his nephew, Cold won't touch you."
"But he'll leave me with a broken leg in a place that's about to explode."
"That's not 'touching you,' that's collateral damages, incidental losses, can't be helped, gotta look out for Number One, so sad."
"That's awfully..."
"...cold?"
"......"
"Yeah. Ask us how we know. He roped Piper in with the whole 'family' thing. Piper's a wise kid, though, didn't take him that long to figure out that Cold's idea of 'family' wasn't any different from what he left at home."
"So... all that stuff he said about my Dad... and at his funeral and stuff.... he was just roping me in," Owen said quietly.
"That's not how he looks at it, but yeah, that's what it is. Did a good job of it too; you've got blood on your hands. He never pushed Piper and me that far," James sighed, "Cold's been breaking his own rules for some time now. You never met Sammy Scudder, the first Mirror Master, he was before - heh, before your time.. He saw it coming, maybe he felt the tremours that set the waves in motion. Maybe Piper felt it too and that's why he went for high ground while there was still plenty of time. I was still putzing around in the shallows when I saw the first wave coming and went for high ground, myself. I got hit but I managed to pull myself out of it in time."
"What... wave are we talking about here? You lost me."
"Evil. See, back when we were Rogues, being bad basically meant grand larcenies and vandalism -- woohoo, we're the Rogues, we're here to steal your lipbalm!" Owen laughed. "We'd go to movies in our little suits and people'd give us bad looks for talking too loud. Nowadays, you want criminal cred, you gotta murder, rape, run drugs and have a hard drive full of kiddy-porn."
"I got a bunch of ripped mp3s," Owen grinned, "Does that count?"
"Sorry, you're just a poser. Who'd you get 'em from?"
"Nightwing."
"See, it's getting so you can't tell the good guys from the bad guys anymore."
Owen laughed again then grew serious, "Actually.. that's pretty true."
"It's very true. You've been down the Pipeline, haven't you. Yeah. But it's okay for them to do it because they're the good guys." James sighed heavily and brushed a hand through his hair, "Used to be I could ride the line real easily. But the slider's moving more and more towards evil and it's dragging the good guys along with it and pushing the bad guys to be even worse. I'm still me, but I look like a good guy now because the slider's moved so far over." He looked over and saw that Owen was deep in thought.
"That's what happened to my Dad, isn't it," he whispered, "That's why he died. He got caught in the wave and tried to keep up and the wave drowned him."
"Digger made his own decisions," James said, "Seems to me, though, that you haven't been able to make any of your own."
Owen shook his head, "Everyone thinks I'm just like Dad."
"Are you?"
He shook his head again, "I don't know."
"You can stay with us until the heat's off and you can think about what you want to do next. Maybe take some time to yourself, without any other influences, even us."
"Yeah... that's probably a good idea," Owen sighed, "Thanks for doing all this for me."
James shrugged, "No problem. We've been there." He was silent for a moment. "We squared?"
"Yeah," Owen nodded, "Yeah, we are." He offered his hand and James shook it. Owen sat back, feeling enormously relieved. His eyes flicked towards the main bedroom, "Is he still asleep?"
"Either that or he's waiting for the right time to make an entrance," James said. He listened for a moment then shrugged, "But I'd say he's still asleep. He was up late last night, though not for the usual reason." Owen smirked. "Speaking of which, we'll try to keep it down but, uh, sometimes it can get a bit, uh... loud. That bother you?"
"No, not at all."
"Good.... good," James nodded, "It bothers me."
Owen blinked, "Uh, really?"
"Never been into boys." James pointed to his left wrist, "See this? I did that to myself." He shrugged again, "Always got along best with Piper. Used to joke that it was too bad he wasn't a girl but never really thought about why. So I thought, if I was missing him so much that I was mutilating myself, I better think about why."
"Wow," Owen said, impressed, "Well, for the record, y'can't tell. I mean, you just seem..."
"Gay?"
"Really into each other. I mean, I was with the Outsiders for a while, right? They're all pretty much bisexual but they don't really..." Owen frowned, looking for the right words, "They don't really seem to click with anybody. Not like you guys do."
James flicked him a look of genuine appreciation. "Well, they say that happiness is marrying your best friend... They were right." He looked up as rats streamed into the kitchen, "Aha! Finally. Was starting to think you ran afoul of a spinning wheel!" He got up to make another bowl of coffee.
Hartley shuffled in, stumbling over to James and flumping onto his shoulder with a soft grunt. James scritched his hair and kissed him, then handed him his coffee. Hartley grunted again and shuffled to a chair, sat down and faceplanted onto the table. Owen laughed, "Not a morning person?"
"Why, whatever makes you say that?" James grinned, setting a breakfast bowl beside Hartley. He pulled his lover's head up and kissed him, and let him thunk back down. After a few moments, Hartley sat up and blearily took his coffee. "Morning, puppy."
"..m'rn'ng.."
"Morning," Owen grinned, then looked at James, "Uhm, what should I be calling you guys, anyways? Piper, Trickster? Uncle Trickster? Mr. Jesse?" That got a black look. "Not Mr. Jesse."
James smirked, "I dunno... Piper, Tricks... I'm James, he's Hartley after he's had his coffee. Until then, he's protoplasym."
"..mmh.."
"What about you? We've been being presumptuous out of necessity but what do you prefer?"
Owen shrugged, "Owen, Boomer..." He looked away for a moment then looked back, "Maybe Georgie..."
"'Georgie'? Oh that's right, you were named after your dad -- George Owen Mercer."
"Yeah," Owen smiled, "You know an awful lot about me."
"Don't ask how," Hartley said, "Nobody's ever figured out how Trickster knows what he knows. That's why the feds knock themselves out to try to keep him. Just be glad he's on your side."
"Yeah," Owen said softly then sighed and pushed his hands through his hair, "I guess Dad was right. I should've trusted you guys from the start."
Hartley shrugged, "Not your fault. Cold thought you might be his nephew. He set everything up to reel you in. If you think back to everything he said to you, you can see how he was shaping you."
Owen nodded thoughtfully, "Yeah.. yeah I do see that now."
"That's how he works," James added, "He doesn't see it like that, of course. But that's why he's none too fond of Piper'n'me. Manipulation is our schtick too and we're better at it. We can spot it a mile off."
"Well some of us can," Hartley smirked.
"Shut up!"
"I'm thinking of the Penguin, here."
"Shut up, shut up, that's different! I was under stress!"
"Funny, I was under the same stress and I still spotted it."
"Listen to him! Will you listen to him? This is what I have to live with!" James draped an arm around Owen's shoulders, "My friend Georgie here does not want to hear about..."
"...your fuck-ups?" Owen started giggling and Hartley laughed, "Dude, you look like Daffy Duck!"
"Is it any wonder?! I ask you! After everything I do for these guys and what do I get, they gang up on me! What'd I do to deserve this! I ask you!" James continued ranting in his exaggerated accent and Owen laughed with relief.
You said I could trust them and you were right. I'm gonna learn everything they can teach me. I think I'm safe for a little while. Thanks, Dad.
...... do you ever feel a little like Calvin, when you're writing fic? :-P
Title: Up To Speed
Author: Katzedecimal (with inspiration from joasakura)
Rating: PG
Characters: Pipster, Captain Boomerang
Summary: Owen confronts Trickster about the whole 'Zombie Boomer' thing.
Owen woke up to the sounds of birdsong, a gentle breeze, and a rat sitting on his head -- he wondered briefly if he should have taken the offer of a hotel. The bed was a pull-out in a small room that served as library and den. The house was a single-wide trailer out in the boonies in the mountains. His hosts had decided to take him deep underground; this shacky little place hid some heavy defences.
His hosts. Owen thought about his hosts. "If you're ever in trouble - I mean real trouble, not the kind that gets you into jail but real trouble - go find this guy," Digger had said, "Hartley Rathaway, used to be a Rogue, the Pied Piper. Tell him who you are, tell him what kind of trouble you're in. He'll help you."
"Friend of yours, Dad?" Owen had asked.
"Couldn't stand the freaky little fairy," Digger had replied, "Hated him, still do. But you can trust him. And if he can't help you, you go find James Jesse, the Trickster. He's a G-man now, so helping you might mean putting you in the cooler for a bit, but if you're in the kind of trouble that sends you looking for help from the Trickster, the clink'll be looking like the soft option. Got it?"
"Okay, Dad," Owen had said. He'd humoured him. He hadn't understood quite what Digger had meant by 'real trouble'.
Now he knew. Now he was in real trouble. He looked up and saw that sweatpants, a shirt and a towel had been provided by his thoughtful hosts. He pulled on the clothes and followed the smell of coffee.
The Trickster was in the kitchen. Owen hesitated; he'd been hoping it'd be Piper, wasn't sure he was ready to face Trickster. "Morning, Owen. How'd you sleep?"
"Better," Owen admitted, "Thanks for putting me up."
Trickster shook his head, "No problem. You want coffee?"
"You got decaff?"
"I got better than that, I got espresso. Less caffiene per shot."
Owen shrugged, "Okay." He watched Trickster - James, he supposed, since he was in yellow sweat pants - put a small bowl of milk in the microwave. After dithering about it, he decided just to plunge in, "Piper said I should talk to you about what you did to my Dad."
James pulled the moka off the stove and poured the coffee into the milk in silence. "You know I quit because of that?" Owen took the offered coffee bowl and shook his head. "They had a devil of a time wooing me back. Had some vigorous arguments with Piper about it too. Wasn't my idea, the orders were coming from higher up. I only went along with it for one thing."
"And that was?"
James turned to face him, "Your dad never got the chance to tell you who you are. It was a long shot, but we were trying to use that opportunity to give him that chance." He sighed and shoved his hands through his hair, "The idea was for Piper to put the other Rogues under, then get you into the lab to talk to Digger. But Cold had you take out Piper's flute."
Owen nodded slowly, sipping his coffee. "You guys were right about them," he said in a low voice, "I broke my leg and they just left me to die in the explosion. If the Outsiders hadn't come back..." He watched James slicing fruit. "Dad said if I was ever in trouble, I should come to you. Seems like I've been in a lot of trouble lately."
"Digger knew that I knew," James smiled, "'Course he didn't know how I knew, but nobody knows that."
"Knew what?"
"You got speed," James looked at him frankly, "And everyone's gonna want to know why the son of plain ol' Digger Harkness is a speedster."
"Yes!" Owen leaned forward, "When I was with the Outsiders, there was this maniac who was torturing me to try to find out why I had the speed. But I don't know! I just do!"
James nodded, spooning ricotta into a small bowl and arranging the fruit on it, "And everyone's trying to use it."
"Yes!"
James nodded again then turned to face Owen, "Digger did his best to protect you. He knew he couldn't keep you, not only because of the life he had but because it would raise suspicion. When the tabloids got wind of you, he sought you out so he could teach you to protect yourself. He didn't tell you about your mother because he knew that knowledge would get you killed. Problem is, not knowing it is also going to get you killed."
Owen shook his head, "All Dad said was that she wasn't Golden Glider."
James handed him the bowl and a pastry, "Okay, siddown, have some breakfast and listen up while your ol' Uncle Trickster gives you a history lesson. Bear with it, 'cause it's necessary to make the personal stuff make sense. It gets goony and sci-fi in places, but remember, you got speed, you're goony and sci-fi, so just roll with it. Now, there's two clans of speedsters, the Allens and the Thawnes..."
Owen listened as James explained about the rivalry between the Flashes and the Reverse-Flashes, and the mysteries of their powers. Trickster was right, it was sounded lunatic - the whole point about the future was that it hasn't happened yet! But he had speed and he was talking to someone who had died and come back to life, and that was apparently a stunt even Captain Boomerang had somehow pulled, so he just shut up and took it all in.
"...Still with me?"
Owen grinned and nodded, "Flashes, Reverse-Flashes, Velocity 9, cosmic treadmills... Yup."
James grinned back, "Okay, 'cause here's where it starts to get personal. Digger never did figure out exactly what happened to him but he figured he somehow got swept into the wake of one of those cosmic treadmill trips. However it happened, he landed a thousand years into the future, in the 30th Century. The trip scrambled his memory, so he wound up on the streets of Futureland going who am I, how'd I get here, why am I dressed like a flight attendant..." Owen tried not to laugh at that, he really did. "Anyhow, a girl found him and took him in. Her name was Meloni Thawne."
Owen gasped, "And she's my mother?"
"Quick boy," James grinned, "Yes."
"If she's a Thawne... she's from the rival clan, right? So I get my speed from her?"
"Here's where it starts to get complicated. Her family were trying to create a Reverse-Kid-Flash to rival Barry's Kid Flash. They were injecting Meloni with Velocity 9 but nothing was happening, it just wasn't taking, she wasn't getting any speed. What they didn't know was that she was newly pregnant at the time, and the embryo was absorbing all the juice."
"And that was me?"
"That was you," James confirmed, "Thing is, she hadn't volunteered for the experiment; they told her it was booster shots or vitamins or something. She was pretty ticked when she worked out what they were doing to her, but when she realized she was pregnant, she became afraid. She was afraid, quite rightly, that since she wasn't taking to the speed, her family would turn their attention to her baby. She disappeared with Boomer for a while but things didn't work out between them and her family were looking for her. So they split up, Meloni went back to her century and sent Boomer back to his, with you. Now..." James leaned forward and his expression was serious, "I don't know what kind of life you've had before this, but I'm telling you right now, putting you up for adoption was the best thing Boomer could've done for you. For one thing, you've lived this long. Boomer made a lot of wrong decisions in his life, but he made them for himself and he was smart enough not to make them for you. He knew he couldn't protect you by himself, so he did the best thing he could and hid you. Because he knew, if the Rogues find out who you are, who your mother is, they'll kill you."
"But.... why?"
"Was just building up to that," James sat back and sipped his coffee, "Meloni went back to her century and got on with her life. She got married, to one Don Allen - s'right, one of the Allen speedsters, she married into the rival clan, a real Romeo-and-Juliet thing going on. She had another son, Bart Allen. But something about his speed, or maybe she still had Velocity 9 kicking around in her system after all those years... Anyways, Bart was growing like crazy. They sent him back to the 20th Century to slow the effects - he became Impulse. And after the third Flash and his family disappeared, Bart became the Flash."
Owen felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. "Piper said something about... you didn't want to watch another kid die...."
James was nodding slowly. "Bart was the Flash that the Rogues murdered."
"Oh god.....!" Owen covered his face. After a moment he looked up again, "He was... my brother? Half-brother, I guess..."
James nodded again, "Yes. But wait, there's more!"
Owen risked a grin, "I ain't buying the Ginzu knives, man."
James grinned then grew serious again, "The Thawnes still wanted their 'Reverse Kid Flash', especially once Bart was running around as Impulse. They created a clone of Bart, named Thaddeus Thawne. They sent him back to cause trouble as Inertia. Now here's the thing: Inertia looks like a 14-year old kid, but he's got the mind of a 50-year old sociopath. Inertia set up the Rogues to kill Bart. When the third Flash came back, he contained Inertia for a bit but he got loose and they found a guy's intestines wrapped across three city blocks. This kid's not on the level of Captain Cold or even Axel Walker; this kid's more what you'd expect to find in Gotham. Okay? And if he finds out you're Bart's brother, you're dead."
Owen shuddered and paled. Suddenly he wasn't very hungry. "That all makes sense now," he said, "Thank you."
"The only reason I went along with the whole Project Zombie thing was to try to give your dad a chance to tell you all this himself."
"Thank you," Owen whispered. He sipped his coffee with shaking hands. "...Now what do I do?"
James shrugged, "We've been watching you. You've been with the Rogues, the Outsiders, you're on the Squad... You've got experience now, you've learned how to fight, how to use your speed and weaponry. You need to learn how to fight a speedster but you should do alright if you're not over-confident. But whatever direction you choose to take your life - whether you go rogue or on the cape side or try to go back into anonymity, Inertia's your enemy. Remember that."
Owen sipped his coffee, digesting it all in silence. "How do I fight a speedster?"
"Banana peels are my favorite."
Owen blinked at the mental image this produced and started to laugh, "That works?!"
"Superspeed meets reduced friction surface, woo!" James grinned, "Black ice worked too but not nearly as much fun, in my not-so-humble opinion. Best you learn all this stuff so you can watch out for it yourself... right?"
Owen stared at him and swallowed, "How'd you know? I mean, I tell people I can only do the speed throwing and catching but..."
"Smart boy," James nodded, "Never lie if misdirection is enough. As long as there's a chance that you might be his nephew, Cold won't touch you."
"But he'll leave me with a broken leg in a place that's about to explode."
"That's not 'touching you,' that's collateral damages, incidental losses, can't be helped, gotta look out for Number One, so sad."
"That's awfully..."
"...cold?"
"......"
"Yeah. Ask us how we know. He roped Piper in with the whole 'family' thing. Piper's a wise kid, though, didn't take him that long to figure out that Cold's idea of 'family' wasn't any different from what he left at home."
"So... all that stuff he said about my Dad... and at his funeral and stuff.... he was just roping me in," Owen said quietly.
"That's not how he looks at it, but yeah, that's what it is. Did a good job of it too; you've got blood on your hands. He never pushed Piper and me that far," James sighed, "Cold's been breaking his own rules for some time now. You never met Sammy Scudder, the first Mirror Master, he was before - heh, before your time.. He saw it coming, maybe he felt the tremours that set the waves in motion. Maybe Piper felt it too and that's why he went for high ground while there was still plenty of time. I was still putzing around in the shallows when I saw the first wave coming and went for high ground, myself. I got hit but I managed to pull myself out of it in time."
"What... wave are we talking about here? You lost me."
"Evil. See, back when we were Rogues, being bad basically meant grand larcenies and vandalism -- woohoo, we're the Rogues, we're here to steal your lipbalm!" Owen laughed. "We'd go to movies in our little suits and people'd give us bad looks for talking too loud. Nowadays, you want criminal cred, you gotta murder, rape, run drugs and have a hard drive full of kiddy-porn."
"I got a bunch of ripped mp3s," Owen grinned, "Does that count?"
"Sorry, you're just a poser. Who'd you get 'em from?"
"Nightwing."
"See, it's getting so you can't tell the good guys from the bad guys anymore."
Owen laughed again then grew serious, "Actually.. that's pretty true."
"It's very true. You've been down the Pipeline, haven't you. Yeah. But it's okay for them to do it because they're the good guys." James sighed heavily and brushed a hand through his hair, "Used to be I could ride the line real easily. But the slider's moving more and more towards evil and it's dragging the good guys along with it and pushing the bad guys to be even worse. I'm still me, but I look like a good guy now because the slider's moved so far over." He looked over and saw that Owen was deep in thought.
"That's what happened to my Dad, isn't it," he whispered, "That's why he died. He got caught in the wave and tried to keep up and the wave drowned him."
"Digger made his own decisions," James said, "Seems to me, though, that you haven't been able to make any of your own."
Owen shook his head, "Everyone thinks I'm just like Dad."
"Are you?"
He shook his head again, "I don't know."
"You can stay with us until the heat's off and you can think about what you want to do next. Maybe take some time to yourself, without any other influences, even us."
"Yeah... that's probably a good idea," Owen sighed, "Thanks for doing all this for me."
James shrugged, "No problem. We've been there." He was silent for a moment. "We squared?"
"Yeah," Owen nodded, "Yeah, we are." He offered his hand and James shook it. Owen sat back, feeling enormously relieved. His eyes flicked towards the main bedroom, "Is he still asleep?"
"Either that or he's waiting for the right time to make an entrance," James said. He listened for a moment then shrugged, "But I'd say he's still asleep. He was up late last night, though not for the usual reason." Owen smirked. "Speaking of which, we'll try to keep it down but, uh, sometimes it can get a bit, uh... loud. That bother you?"
"No, not at all."
"Good.... good," James nodded, "It bothers me."
Owen blinked, "Uh, really?"
"Never been into boys." James pointed to his left wrist, "See this? I did that to myself." He shrugged again, "Always got along best with Piper. Used to joke that it was too bad he wasn't a girl but never really thought about why. So I thought, if I was missing him so much that I was mutilating myself, I better think about why."
"Wow," Owen said, impressed, "Well, for the record, y'can't tell. I mean, you just seem..."
"Gay?"
"Really into each other. I mean, I was with the Outsiders for a while, right? They're all pretty much bisexual but they don't really..." Owen frowned, looking for the right words, "They don't really seem to click with anybody. Not like you guys do."
James flicked him a look of genuine appreciation. "Well, they say that happiness is marrying your best friend... They were right." He looked up as rats streamed into the kitchen, "Aha! Finally. Was starting to think you ran afoul of a spinning wheel!" He got up to make another bowl of coffee.
Hartley shuffled in, stumbling over to James and flumping onto his shoulder with a soft grunt. James scritched his hair and kissed him, then handed him his coffee. Hartley grunted again and shuffled to a chair, sat down and faceplanted onto the table. Owen laughed, "Not a morning person?"
"Why, whatever makes you say that?" James grinned, setting a breakfast bowl beside Hartley. He pulled his lover's head up and kissed him, and let him thunk back down. After a few moments, Hartley sat up and blearily took his coffee. "Morning, puppy."
"..m'rn'ng.."
"Morning," Owen grinned, then looked at James, "Uhm, what should I be calling you guys, anyways? Piper, Trickster? Uncle Trickster? Mr. Jesse?" That got a black look. "Not Mr. Jesse."
James smirked, "I dunno... Piper, Tricks... I'm James, he's Hartley after he's had his coffee. Until then, he's protoplasym."
"..mmh.."
"What about you? We've been being presumptuous out of necessity but what do you prefer?"
Owen shrugged, "Owen, Boomer..." He looked away for a moment then looked back, "Maybe Georgie..."
"'Georgie'? Oh that's right, you were named after your dad -- George Owen Mercer."
"Yeah," Owen smiled, "You know an awful lot about me."
"Don't ask how," Hartley said, "Nobody's ever figured out how Trickster knows what he knows. That's why the feds knock themselves out to try to keep him. Just be glad he's on your side."
"Yeah," Owen said softly then sighed and pushed his hands through his hair, "I guess Dad was right. I should've trusted you guys from the start."
Hartley shrugged, "Not your fault. Cold thought you might be his nephew. He set everything up to reel you in. If you think back to everything he said to you, you can see how he was shaping you."
Owen nodded thoughtfully, "Yeah.. yeah I do see that now."
"That's how he works," James added, "He doesn't see it like that, of course. But that's why he's none too fond of Piper'n'me. Manipulation is our schtick too and we're better at it. We can spot it a mile off."
"Well some of us can," Hartley smirked.
"Shut up!"
"I'm thinking of the Penguin, here."
"Shut up, shut up, that's different! I was under stress!"
"Funny, I was under the same stress and I still spotted it."
"Listen to him! Will you listen to him? This is what I have to live with!" James draped an arm around Owen's shoulders, "My friend Georgie here does not want to hear about..."
"...your fuck-ups?" Owen started giggling and Hartley laughed, "Dude, you look like Daffy Duck!"
"Is it any wonder?! I ask you! After everything I do for these guys and what do I get, they gang up on me! What'd I do to deserve this! I ask you!" James continued ranting in his exaggerated accent and Owen laughed with relief.
You said I could trust them and you were right. I'm gonna learn everything they can teach me. I think I'm safe for a little while. Thanks, Dad.