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Help Save    Impulse



Robin's Perfect Future By: Mary Rahmel


Part 2 Bad Impulses.

The Future:

Robin stared out at the dark expansive room. “Quite a set up you have here, Prefect. A huge secret base and everything, but you’re still just a supervilian. You can’t hide from the heroes forever.”

The Prefect flicked a button on a controller he had in his hands. “Yes well, I had to get rid of all the heroes because, quite frankly, they would’ve stood in the way of my plans for world domination.” The mammoth wall behind the Prefect lit up with viewing screens, they displayed video surveillance of certain world capitals.

Robin looked like he had been hit by a brick. “W… w… world domination?”

Robin stared, repulsed at the display behind the Prefect. “What did you do with all the heroes you didn’t kill them all did you?”

“No of course not,” the Prefect waved his hand. Secret floated into the room her eyes slightly downcast. “She did mostly.”

Robin looked at her. She was the same age as she’d always been. Externally she hadn’t aged at all. But her eyes were no longer those of the innocent girl he had known. She stared vacantly cold, and unfeeling, and strangely at the same time, terrified.

Secret coolly looked toward Robin. Then the Prefect simply waved his hand and Secret floated away again.

Robin stared at the floor. “World domination? Why would you want to conquer the world?”

“To do what we always did save the world.”

“Save it, you’ve enslaved it. You’re insane.” Robin said angrily.

“I am completely rational. You misjudge me because you are the one who is blind. After tonight though, you’ll open your eyes.”

“I suppose you’re Mr. Perfect huh, Prefect. You never make a mistake.”

“That is an absurd and illogical premise. I make mistakes. I make lots of mistakes. In order to learn anything, one must make logical conclusions given the available facts. In order to learn more facts, and furthermore, in order to learn whether certain facts are indeed factual, requires making mistakes. Some would say that it was a mistake that led me to you. One cannot learn and grow without making mistakes. But if I see a mistake, I correct it, half of the time you ignore it, that is where we differ, for now.”

Robin motioned to the video screens. “What gives you the right to control peoples lives?”

The Prefect smiled at this and gave Robin a disparaging look. “Right! Ha, you’re a fool I can’t believe I was ever that stupid and naive. Right and wrong, that’s what your on about now, isn’t it? Good and evil, black and white.”

“Sometimes it’s that simple.”

“That is, in fact, relatively complex. Black and white are two and describe none, while gray is one and describes all. Right?”


The Present:

“All right! Here we are Japan.” Cassie called out. The group landed in the supercycle.

Bart scrunched up his face, and hunched his shoulders forward. He rubbed his palms together evilly. “Ha, ha, ha. Already you have fallen into my trap.”

Kon said annoyed, “Bart will you quit it already with the evil bit.”

Cassie explained, “Kon, he has to think like an evil genius if we’re going to find Robin.”

“Robin is doomed. Doomed I tell you. Ha, ha, ha.”

Kon rolled his eyes at her. “Come on Cass, I mean, do you honestly think that’s going to work.”

Cass read the note given to them by the Joker. “Go to Japan to see Van Dam.”

She stared thoughtfully. “What does he mean, Van Damme the actor -ahem- or does he mean there’s a dam whose name is Van.”

Bart laughed, “Both of them you fools,”

Anita questioned, “Both of them? How can it be both of them?”

Impulse asked one of the people passing by, “Do you speak English and do you know of, I dunno, a big dam with Jean Claude Van Damme’s face painted on it?”

The man in British military uniform replied. “Why yes, I speak English. Why, I’m an English Major. As for your question, yes it’s over there.” The man pointed over the ridge.

There over the ridge, overlooking the area was a big dam with an action movie ad stamped over the face of it.

“Here heroes. Here you will meet your doom! Ha, ha, ha.” Bart rushed off toward the dam, the group followed.

The group approached the dam, near where they stood was another TV set, again it began to play when they approached it.

The Jokers image smiled on the screen. “I see you’ve brought some old friends to help you out, Batman.“

“He thinks it’s Batman, these must be all pre-recorded messages, he doesn’t know it’s us.” Anita noted.

“Hmm…” Impulse looked around. “Dam, water?” He looked up crazed. “Ha, ha, ha. I’ve just thought of a fiendishly clever plan, I’ve got to stop me before its too late.” He rushed off.

Joker continued to speak. “So friends it’s been super. But you’re about to be aqua- manga-led. Damn you all. Ha, ha. Damn you all to swell.”

Just then the ridge behind them shook a bit and two loud but minor explosions could be heard from it. A small amount of smoke drifted in the air.

“Ha, ha.” Impulse returned laughing. “I would have used seismic generator cannons to pulverize the dam, sending an avalanche of water into the densely populated valley below.”

“Wow, you thought of that? That is really good Bart. I mean, it’s really bad too, evil in fact. But do you know how many people you saved.” Cissie remarked.

Bart beat his fist into his palm. “Curses! Why am I foiling my own evil plans?”

“Hey look here’s another envelope.” Anita picked it off the ground. Cassie immediately grabbed it out of her hands. Cassie tore it open and read aloud:

Hello Batman, the boy wonder and me are getting really close. He’s almost like my own son. Harley even says Robin could end up just like Mr. J’s son. (J’s son, get it, or do you think it’s too odd.)

“I don’t get it.” Cissie exclaimed.

“Makes no sense to me.” Cass agreed.

She continued to read:

Anyhow… here’s your next clue, you’re anxious for it are you not? (Or are you nuts?)

Go to Greece to eat the Fleece.


Harley used a cloth to wipe the spittle from the mouth of the zombie like telepath. “How are you supposed to control this lady when she can’t even control her own droll.”

Joker took out a switchblade and carved the air with it. “During the operation, certain parts of her brain were removed, she has no true consciousness. Although she couldn’t mind less, being mindless. Ha, ha.” “How does she work as a telepath then?”

“Well Harl…” he held up a color coded, sectionalized, plastic model of the human brain. “Even before we’re born into this chaotic, demented, fragmented world. Our minds are fragmented. Each part of the brain does a different thing. The part of her brain that speaks and thinks, I want Jello…” He removed his pistol and removed certain sections of the plastic model. “Has been replaced by Jello…” He threw the plastic pieces into the air, and shot them apart cleanly, they shattered in mid air.

“The part that understands language,” Joker held up a small card, with a word written on it, to the telepath’s eyes. “And the part that does telepathy,” he held his fingers to his ear and mouth, emulating a telephone. “Is still operating. Ha, ha.”

Harley rubbed her hands over her body. “Wow. What did you do? I feel all frisky all of a sudden.”

He turned around the card so Harley could read it. Drive was written it. “She projects a single word into the minds of people and whatever that word triggers in that person, says a lot more about the person then the word. In this special isolation tank, Robin is stripped of all sensory input. He can’t see, hear, smell, touch, or taste anything. Robin is now in a state where he can’t tell reality from fantasy. He will talk move and act near the same as he would in waking life. I’ve triggered changes in his brain that will make him relieve his memories. We can manipulate those memories with our tele-pathetic. Ha, ha.”

He stared at the infrared image on the screen. Robin, suspended in mid air, was in a crouched position as if he were seated. He held both his hands in front of him as if he were grabbing a steering wheel.


The Past:

“Come on Robin baby, drive her.” Robin jerked the wheel to the right; correspondingly thrust his body was thrust to the left. He hit the accelerator again crossing over the finish line on the computer screen surrounding him.

The words: New Record appeared on the computer screen. Robin smiled as he unlatched his safety belt and climbed out of the simulator.

“Playing video games Master Tim? Peculiar, I’ve noticed you work on cases and train, but you’ve never come to the cave for recreational purposes before.”

“I was training. I was learning how to drive on the simulator.”

Alfred scoffed. “Indeed. I see you achieved a high score, did you receive a free game as well.”

“It’s a state of the art machine, designed to actually reflect real world driving physics. Batman ordered it, he been too busy to teach me with all that’s been going on.”

“Hmpf, a video game will not teach you proper driving skills, pardon my saying so, but it is a token gesture on the masters behalf.” Alfred reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. He tossed them to Robin.

“A video game token gesture, huh.” He caught the keys. “The keys to your minivan? We going for a spin?”


Robin started the car from a stopped position. The minivan’s tires squealed.

“No, no, no, you’re spinning the tires.” Alfred chastised him from the passenger seat. “You have to be more controlled. All that forward momentum is wasted until the tires start to catch. Try it again, let out the clutch slower.”

The minivan pulled ahead, coming off its starting line more quickly. “That’s better.”

Robin revved the engine and thrust the car into another gear.

Alfred gasped. “My god man what are you doing? This is my minivan not the Batmobile. Keep revving the motor that high, you’ll blow the engine and you’ll soon be training with the world’s greatest mechanic.”

Robin picked up speed he approached a corner.

“Young sir, I do suggest you slow down. This is my minivan; as such there are no inverted wings on its roof for down force. If you fly around that curve we will undoubtedly fly off the road.”

“Yeah I guess,” said Tim as he hit the brake. He frowned and gripped the wheel tightly.

“Relax your grip so you get a better feel for what’s happening to the car, and the road beneath you. Make the car an extension of yourself.”

“You mean trust my feelings? No pun intended.”

Robin gritted his teeth in concentration. Alfred noticed this.

“The master, of late, is rather grim. More stressed than normal, if that is indeed possible. He has come into the habit of gritting his teeth constantly. I suggest that you relax lest you become so grim and gritty as well.”


The Future:

Robin gritted his teeth as he watched the Prefect raise a controller he had in his gloved hand. He depressed a button and they were instantly transported to another area. “Oh you’ll love these. Not now maybe but in the future. Robin meet the Redbirds.”

On the endless paved plain before him, Robin could see many strange looking red vehicles. Their tires were soft and puffy like those of an ATV. Their domed top looked to be of thick glass. Several cannon were mounted out through the glass. Inside was space for one person. An array of controls could be seen through the glass.

Then one of the vehicles started to move, of its own accord. A new cannon emerged from its underside. It rode over to a nearby well and stuck the cannon in the well.

“What is it doing, refueling?” Robin asked.

“Eating.”

“You mean they’re alive?”

“They are a marvel of genetic engineering. I designed them myself. Reaches speeds of 200 km an hour. Hummingbird was very useful for that part. They can go over any type of terrain. They never break down as they are self repairing, although they do have a limited life span. The only fuel they need is a combination of certain nutrients and sugar, like that ones eating.” He went over and tapped the feeding Redbird on it’s domed top. “That’s not glass that’s a transparent insect exoskeleton.”

The Prefect hit another button on the controller. “They are the perfect vehicles for the Robins.” A group of Robins marched into the large yard, which stretched as far as the eye could see.

Robin stared flabbergasted. “The Robins, they’re all like the one who brought me in here. They all have my face. Are those genetic constructs?”

“Yes as a matter of fact they are. I’ve become quite the godfather at mixing DNA originally created by random natural selection. I’m the splice the dice Don, Rob. “

Robin stared at the Robins as they returned back again, marching under the darkened night sky. “They’re a gang of mutants.”

“Actually no. Not much mutation was done at all with the Robins. I used primarily unaltered DNA.”

The Prefect approached one of the Robins. He pointed toward his overlarge bicep. “The code for the muscle structure and basic bone structure comes from old Bruce being the strongest and toughest.”

He then pointed to the neck. “The ligaments and basic reflex nerve fibers and spinal column belong to Dick, being the fastest and most agile.”

Finally he pointed to the head. “And of course all higher neural functions are ours.”

He spread his arms before his creations. “They are my police force keeping order around the world. They grow quickly until the age of 19 then stay that age for about 4 years before they quickly break down and expire. I’m experimenting, working on longer lasting models. I expect a breakthrough in the near future.”

He smiled crookedly. “A breakdown of sorts of one of the Robin models is what informed me of the time travel capabilities of the cycle.”

“The cycle never traveled through time for you?”

“The relationship I had with the cycle soured after that night, so I had to end the cycle’s life. It wasn’t until one of the Robin’s made a mistake, that I realized its threat to me, and to all of humanity.”

“The Robins?”

“Yes at first I experimented with many different genetic combinations. I wondered if the risk taking, confrontational, predisposition of Jason Todd would be of benefit to their genetic makeup. The first Robin that utilized these traits did something absolutely reckless and stupid, he used the time machine that I had invented and when back in time to try and kill Superman. He arrived back here and I found out what he had done, and that you had followed him into the past to stop him. It was an incident I didn’t, at all, remember. It was then I realized that Robin had created some kind of ripple in the continuum, and that the events leading to my creation were somehow endangered. So I endeavored to recreate the type of circumstances that led to the cycle hopping back through time so that I could lure it and you back to the future. I sent another Robin back to the place where the Dalton gang had originally found the kryptonite, now thanks to you by Chinese miners. Although the circumstances of how it came to be there in the first place I do not know. Yet. Nor why it was surrounded by such an amount of gold…”


The Present:

“Golden fleece. That’s what I think the clue refers too. I’d say the Joker was talking about classic Greek mythology Jason and the Golden Fleece.” Cass remarked. They flew over an area of old Greek ruins.

Anita added “And the Argonauts, yeah, I know what you mean.”

Impulse rubbed his stomach. “Hmm… I’m hungry, be right back after I get a snack.” He returned instants later with a package of nuts.

He popped handfuls of them in his mouth. “Hey these are good,” he looked at the package, which read: Jay and Son’s Astro Nuts.

“Hmm… didn’t that note say something about Astro Nuts?” He rushed off again, returning instants later yelling. “Boy oh boy, I found it, c’mon I’ll lead you strait into my trap. Ha, ha, ha.”


They flew low over the moonlit countryside to the factory, following Bart to where he had found the TV.

Anita looked down, “Look at all the deer crossing signs, you wouldn’t figure there would be many deer in Greece. I have seen a deer yet.”

Suddenly Cass spotted a deer frozen in the headlights of a car. “Look there’s one deer, caught in the headlights.” She flew out of the cycle to rescue both deer and driver.

“One deer?” Anita looked quizzically at the deer. “Wonder Girl, no. Damn there’s no time to warn her.”

“Time-Warner? What? Is this some sort of copyright infringement?” Bart looked around from the ground.

Cassie reached out to lift the deer out of the way, the moment she reached it however she instantly froze in the position she was in. The car crashed headlong into both her and the deer.

They went flying into the brush surrounding the road.

The group flew over to them. Kon reached the automobile. Its door was flung open. A crash test dummy leaned out of the drivers seat. Its face was painted with a huge smile. A tape-recorded voice came from it. “Fooled you! This wasn’t a real crash, it was only a crash test, dummy. Ha, ha, ha.”

Anita rushed over to the deer. “It’s been drugged. It’s probably been standing there for hours.” She took out her sword baton. “It’s very badly wounded. It’s never going to make it, I don’t guess.” She said a few words, and then slit its throat.

Cissie ran over to Cassie. “Cass you ok?” She noticed Cass was lying on the ground in a strange position. She turned her over. She held the position she was in, like a statue. “She’s frozen in place but she doesn’t look too banged up.”

Kon raised an eyebrow. “Man does she look awkward in that position, almost like she has a broomstick up her…“

“Broomstick! Of course!” Impulse shouted. He again rushed off and returned with a stack of books. “I suspect that she was somehow hexed by evil magic, and I’ve got several books about hexes and such right here that I can quickly read and learn.”

“Kind of a hex education.” Anita commented.

Impulse opened the first book. He looked up and raised a pointed finger into the air. “Ah ha!” Impulse went off and came back with a big bottle of spritzer water. He doused the area where Cassie was, instantly Cass could move again, she was no longer frozen in place.

Cassie slumped down slightly dazed. Kon caught her. “What the heck did you do?”

“It’s the number one cure for hexes. I doused her in holy water.”

“Holy water? But that’s a bottle of spritzer, did our friend the pope drop by and bless it or something.” Cissie asked.

“No dummy, the bubbles, it’s holes in the water.”

Kon shook his head. “Ya know really can’t believe that worked, I woulda never figured, guess I don’t have a diabolically evil mind like you Bart.”

Anita climbed back into the supercycle. “C’mon lets get that clue, this is not over yet.”


The Past:

“Damn, I can’t get over this knot.” Bruce Wayne said, struggling with the laces of his shoe.

“Can’t get the shoe off huh?” Tim went over with a small knife, bent down and cut the shoelace.

Bruce leaned back in a large armchair of the Batcave and smiled, “Alexander’s rope trick.”

Alfred helped him change uniforms.

“Heh funny.” Bruce smiled again. He hadn’t been smiling much of late and his face haggard face was paler then normal. “That’s what put you in really, the ability to think on your feet.” He took off his shoe and held up the cut lace.

“Your reasoning ability, because of your logical and ordered mind, all the skills and talents necessary for a great detective.”

Robin furled his eyebrows. “I thought it was my sense of caution, that I don’t take the risk…”

“Caution? Robin, if you didn’t take risks you’d be useless to me. There’s a difference between recklessness and risk taking. Besides a good strategist tends to lower the amount of risk taken…”

Robin completed the sentence. “By knowing and controlling as many elements of a situation as is possible, before combat is even engaged in.”

Batman half smiled as he pulled on his cowl. “Don’t underestimate yourself Robin, heck if you were on the wrong side, you’d be dangerous.”

End of Part 2

“Robin’s Prefect Future.”

1