trans_9 | (no subject)

||Why it is classified is also classified.|| Stacy answered Bart. ||You will reach the Clothing Chamber shortly.||

They were now walking up a looong, winding walkway, like a spiral staircase, but much larger, that gave them a good view of the immensity of the Pod Caverns below.

There had to be millions of pods there, faintly glowing like clusters of fireflies.

"Thank you," Tim said, nodding to Bart. He glanced at Kon. "Even Bart agrees with me. You're outvoted." He glanced around them as they climbed and let out a low whistle. "What is this place...?"

"Bad. I vote that that's what this place is: bad." A slight shudder. "It's like we've been dropped into Alien Facesuckers 4."

Meep.

"You don't think stuff laid eggs inside us or anything while we were out, do you?" Kon asked ponderously. "We'd better not have gotten face-fuls of alien wing-wong..."

"No, the production values here are way cooler." Bart replied, reflecting briefly on the words of his friend Preston back in Manchester.

"Wing-wong?"

Tim shot Kon a glare. "Eew, and no, and that is another thought I never want to have again." He glanced over at Bart's question and smirked, looking back at Kon again. "And you can explain that to Imp."

"I'm king of horrible mental images today. Aaannnd not touching it."

A pause.

"It is Imp, isn't it. Not Kid Flash," he remarked astutely. Bart'd done that whole personality turnaround after he's gotten his knee capped by Deathstroke, and here he was acting like he used to. "And you said you just came from the thing with Bedlam, right?"

And he was a touch shorter than Kon last remembered.

"Do we have a weird time thingy going on here? What's the last thing you two remember? Like big stuff, that we'd all know about."

"Last thing is.. uh.." Hesitant? Well he didn't like talking about the time his scout got destroyed, so- "ApokalypseandRobinandmequitting." he said quickly, "Then I was in Manchester, Bedlam pops me into a energy box and uses all my scouts to change history, I break out as Kid flash so you're half right but I find you guys and we head to face Bedlam and then I wake up here."

Amazing how he doesn't have to breath when he talks like that.

Tim blinked. That had been a while ago. A long while ago. Back during the first time he hadn't been Robin--which hadn't been real. "With Tim Stalker-Boy Drake?" he asked, amused.

"For me..." he eyed Kon. "It's just after the Luthor thing. You're hiding out in Smallville. My arm's fine, so don't ask." If Kon was doing better now, he didn't want him throwing himself back into his depression over something that was over.

"Oh...damn," Kon said, looking worried. "I'm ahead of you guys. A liiittle ahead of you, Tim, but big stuff is happening. Big...bad stuff. I nearly bit it, we've--some of the former Titans are dead. I was going off with Nightwing, and Cass to try to stop it. It's...we're talking WWIII, there's ten things happening at once. Brother Eye, the tower, the other Earths in the sky--"

His expression was dead serious.

"The world's--it's like the world's ending. I knew, the Luthor thing or not, I had to--I had to go back out there."

Tim's eyebrows went up. That... sounded bad. But if it had snapped Kon out of the funk, he guessed he couldn't object too hard. He just hoped his friend still had his mojo when they came out the other side of the crisis. "Guess I'm in the calm before the storm," he said with a wry smile. "Sounds like life's about to get very interesting." He grinned a little. "And I guess if you have to have anyone at your back, Nightwing's a good pick."

When was the world not ending? Bart shrugged and moved forward, seeing the lights come to a slight stop. "Oh. Good. ARE WE THERE yet?" Please say yes.. please say yes.

"What am I doing in all this anyway? I'm not really Kid Flash am I?" No immediate answer, he darted between them, "Am I?"

Kon cringed.

"Um. See. Well, we join the Titans and a thing happens--"

Oog.

"So, Stace, we there yet?"

They finally reached the top of the walkway. A room, round, empty but for a metal circle on the floor, and vines dangling from the ceiling.

||You are now in the Clothing Chamber, Kon-El. Please step into the center of the room.||

...

"How about no..."

"Weird.." Bart said as he peered inwards. "I'll go first!" he then chirped.

Tim reached reflexively toward Bart--long used to trying to stop his friend from making rash decisions. "No--wait--"

Simultaneously, Kon (also used to trying to stop Bart from being stupid) instinctively reached out. "Bart, you idiot, don't--"

But he was a speedster.

But it was too late. Bart had stepped into the center of the room and the vines had grabbed a hold of him.

Second thoughts, Bart? No.. No not really. He gasped slightly as the vines snatched him up, and by reflex, attempted to vibrate his molo- He's not really having alot of good luck with that.

Oooops.

Okay so he could neither put obvious clues together to tell him that if he stepped into the middle of the room the vines would do what they're doing. "Okay Leggo!" He yelled.

Poor kid making a fuss for nothing, probably.

Tim's eyes widened almost comically as he watch Bart get snatched up by the vines. He reached reflexively toward his belt for a batarang... and hit skin. He was still naked. He glanced over at Kon. "Can you help him?"

"Kind of! Trying!"

When he looked over at Kon, he'd see that he, too, was tangled in the vines. Because as soon as they'd grabbed Bart, he'd reached forward and gotten tangled himself.

But even as he ripped down down from the ceiling, they unfurled into a leafy, plantlike substance, that started to wrap around him.

"Bart!" he barked. "If I get eaten by a man-eating hyacinth because of trying to help you, you're gonna regret it."

But his worries were unfounded, as he and Bart were unceremoniously dumped to the floor, now wearing veiny jumpsuits. Bart's even had a sort of cowl--though his hair was free to bush out at the top--and goggles.

Bart was on his feet in a second, gazing up at the ceiling where the vines had grabbed him, then down at himself at the skintight outfit that was strangely remniscent to his Impulse uniform. "Didn't see that coming." he said. Then, looking to tim and gesturing to the vines, clothing chamber, right?

Whether what they were wearing counted as clothing? Another story for another day.

Tim eyed the vines and the jumpsuits his friends were now wearing. "Is this seriously the only clothing option?" he asked skeptically. "Because I think I'd prefer jeans." Or his Robin suit.

He made a face and stepped forward, bracing himself for the "attack" that had clothed Bart and Kon. This was going to feel so weird...

Yeah. Yeah, it totally did.

But by the end, he was clothed, in a similar jumpsuit to his friends.

Kon was looking down at his chest, poking at it.

It was...missing something. He wore plainclothes, but his plainclothes were the costume. His real clothes always, always had a little something important in the chestal area, a certain letter...

He poked at his chest and pulled a face. "I still feel naked."