Max has *got* to be watching from somewhere. Bart is sure of it, and as he
makes his way down the street with his classmates and teacher on this
field trip to the Big Apple (and why is it called the BIg Apple? It
certainly isn't red and shiney) he is constantly looking over his
shoulders. The bus ride here alone was enough to almost kill him, as he
couldn't use his speed, and it was so *looooooooooooooooooooooong*. Yawn.
Bart yawns and looks about for Max more. What is he here for again?
Something about learning and cloning facility, New York and ... man, why
can't he just speed about and look and all that interesting stuff? Because
Max would kill him, that's why. He's got a blahblah secret identity
blahblahblah to maintain blah. Bart sighs again and stops to inspect a
newspaper vending machine, as they really have this old things still
about, just as the teacher starts to lead kids into the building. "Mr.
Allen, would you please keep up?" She calls back to him, as some kids
chuckle to each other about that 'slowpoke Allen.'

Meanwhile, over at the New York branch of S.T.A.R. Labs, your standard
teenager-versus-authority argument is taking place. The only difference
is, the authority is Dr. Kristin Falkes, an eminent scientist, and the
teenager is everyone's favorite clone, Superboy!

"No," says Superboy darkly, crossing his arms and scowling at the good
doctor.
"No arguments please, Superboy," replies the doctor, typing out the
entrance restriction codes for several wings of the building. "You owe us
for that time you..."
"Hey, hey now! No need to bring /that/ up," says SB smoothly, holding up
his hands, eyebrows up. "No problems. I'll tell the li'l tykes all they
wanna know about clones and the Labs--"
"--except what's top secret, right?"
"Right...<sigh>"
"And they're not 'li'l tykes', they're all about fourteen. Maybe fifteen."
"Maaaaaaaan..."

Bart isn't either of those! He's younger! Mwhahahaha! Time to suffer! Or
is it Bart that is suffering? He yawns as he enters the building, at the
back of the pack of kids, who all oooo and aaaaah as they look about.
Bart? he's seen better. He was raised in better. Thoughts of dinosaurs
dance in his head, when he finds he has drifted from the group again. "Mr.
Allen, please!" The teacher calsl to him and he wakes up from his brief
daydreamers of Dinosaurs Marauders from Mars, a cool vid movie from his
time. "Sorry," Bart says mostly to himself as he walks forward to keep up.
Now,w hat was it that Max said about this place again? MOON Labs? Heavenly
Bodies Works? Something to do with space, and a lot of highly advanced
stuff, so he'd have to be *real* careful about his secret identy thing
because they might want to talk to him about ... oh, cool! A picture of
Superboy! KInda' lame powers, but not a bad kid, maybe. Saw him a while
back, right? Bart is lost in thought again as the group loads into the
elevator. "Now kids," the teacher begins, "We're going to meet someone
very special who is going to blahblahblahblahblah..." And Bart is off
thinking about Dinosaur Marauders from Mars again.

With a long-suffering sigh, the Kid takes a seat in midair and waits for
the tour to come through. "You owe /me/ after /this/ one, Falkes," he
mutters, scowling again. It's not long before the kids start trooping in,
though, and he plasters a smile on his face. "What up?" he calls, cupping
a hand around his mouth. "Welcome to S.T.A.R. Labs, home of the
radioactive cheeseburger!"

Most of the kids giggle and the teacher flutters a little, being before a
genuine superhero. Or rather one that will likely be such someday soon.
The kids seem in awe and have a million questions to ask, all of them
trying to speak at once, overwhelming the poor teacher who can't seem to
calm them as they get louder trying to get Superboy to answer there
questions. Then, suddenly, beside you, Kid, is ... Impulse! "Whoa, whoa,
slow down everyone. Take your time. One at a time. My new sidekick here
can't go as fast as *me* so he'll need you to take your time." Impulse
grins, from ear to ear beside you as the kids begin to quiet some. What's
Impulse doing *here*?

Superboy just stops. Stops dead. He looks down at Impulse, eyes *wide*.
"Kid, who the hell are you, and what the hell are you *doing* here?" he
hisses, just loud enough for the boy to hear. "No, don't even answer.
Answer later." He looks up at the kids, and smiles ingratiatingly. "What a
sense of humor he has, huh? Anyone here know who this guy is?" He shakes
his head. "No matter. He /is/ right, I can't asnwer your questions all at
once. I'll start with the first, then you gotta raise your hands. I /will/
get to everyone, though, don't worry."
        Superboy hops down off his 'seat', and clasps his hands behind his
back. "Okay! So! For the first question. What is a clone? Well, a clone is
a person, animal, or plant, grown from the DNA (or genetic information) of
another person, animal, or plant." He winks at the teacher, almost as an
afterthought.

Impulse rolls his eyes and can't believe you are trying to act this
smooth. With her? The teacher? She's like ... oh, wait, you asked him a
question. Whispering to you, he leans in to share, "I'm saving you. I'm
Impulse, and I know these kids, so I can help." And then he is back to
grining like an idiot. Oh,a nd you did ask the kdis if they knew who this
guy was. "He's Impulse," one of the front row kids say. "Soem new kid
speeder from back home. Why he's here, I don't..." And then Bart's head is
reeling as he has to try and come up with an answer to maintain his secret
identity. "Well, " he cuts in, "I'm here because .... because ... ah ...
er..." Adn then he looks to Superboy for help. Help?

"Ah! Okay, cool. Yeah. I heard about you guys coming, so I put in a call
for local supers to tag along if they wanted to help. Great to meet you,
Impulse. I guess you know who *I* am," he grins, light glinting off his
pearly whites with an almost audible *ting*. Under his breath, Superboy
adds, "And you owe me, kid." Louder, "Okay, next question? Did someone ask
about X-ray vision or something?"

"I owe you?" Bart says this aloud as he looks at you, getting a little
cross, folding his arms. Good thing that the kids are clammering again and
that isn't heard. "I owe you?" This time he whispers to you. "But I saved
you teh first time.' Didn't he? He looks confused for a moment. But, by
now the kids are yelling, mainly, to know how much you can lift, and to
show them. Bart is pffting to himself. Superstrength. "I'm faster," he
mutters under his breath. "And yeah, it's good to meet you, SuperKid,"
Impulse says before you cn answer a question, offering you his hand to
shake.

Superboy rolls his eyes, and shakes the impatient kid's hand. Then he
looks back up at the kids. "Woah! Calm, calm! Okay, you wanna know how
much I can lift?" he grins. He walks closer, then starts gesturing, "Here,
you hold hands, and...everyone hold hands, okay? No, geez, no one has
cooties, okay? Holding hands doesn't mean you're going out. It just means
I told you to hold hands! No teasing! There. Yes. Okay. Yes." He looks
down and smiles at the girl on the end - a real cutie, with glasses and
long black hair. "Now, give me /your/ hand."

Impulse takes his turn to roll his eyes. "Showoff," he whispers to you,
while looking about all the more impatiently. "You know, I could lift them
all as well without superstrength, with a cyclone or something. Max
Mercury taught me...!!!" And then he clamps his hands over his mouth, to
shut himself up as he starts looking about for Max, who is surely out
there watching him mess this stuff up and is going to blahblah him to
death for this! But, now the kids and teacher seem completely
underinterested in Impulse, and adoring Superboy. 'How doe you have your
stregnth? did you get it in an accident? Were you born with it?' Lots more
questions go out to you, while Bart ... is bored. Ignored he turns his
back on you guys and zips over to some of the machinery looking at it.
"Hummmmmmm."

Taking Superboy's hand, the girl blushes slightly and grins. "'S'right,"
says the Boy of Steel with a smile. Then, once everyone's hands are
linked, Superboy lifts - utterly ignoring Impulse - the entire class. They
ooh, aah, and squeal, respectively. "How's that for a demo?" laughs the
Kid, not even straining a muscle. And the coolest thing is, neither is
anyone else. "I do this by using something called 'tactile telekinesis',
which means that I envelop anything I touch in a kind of mental
forcefield, and lift, carry, or control it."

"Neat!" "Cool!" The kids are oooing and aaaahing more. "Where I get those
powers?" One kid has to ask, and the teacher looks to you thoughtfully as
all eyes seem to turn to you ont hat one. Can they be as cool as you as
well? HUn? Hun? All but two eyes are on you. See, Bart's eyes are on the
panels before him. "This is just like Killer Monkeys from the Great
Beyond!" A video game. "This button should starty the game," he says as he
reaches to push the big red button...

It suddenly occurs to Superboy that he hasn't been bugged by that fast kid
in awhile, and his head whips around in a wild search. "IMPULSE!" he
yells, still holding the class up. "Don't TOUCh that!" He carefully lowers
the teens, and dives for the boy in red. And white. You know.

And there is a blur of moment and then Impulse is standing where you once
were,a s you now head for the red button. "All you had to do was say so."
And he stands there, rocking on his feet, hands held behind his back
looking innocent. "What does it do any way?" He's curious. But maybe you
don't hear him over the kids that ooooo and aaaaah at your near flight,
asking if you can fly, and how? All while the girl's hand that you held
stands there with her eyes fluttering. In love.

It's a damn good thing for airbrakes! Superboy stops in midair, inches
from the button, gigantic scowl on his face. He slowly lowers himself to
the ground, brushing imaginary dust off himself, getting composed. "Ahem.
Sorry." A killer glare at Impulse. Then a smile back at the class. "No, I
don't think you'd be able to just kind of 'get' powers. I was born with
the ones I have. Well, boriwas stretching it, but...y'know..." He runs a
hand through his hair, rearranging it, and puts his sunglasses on. "I'm
sorry, did I miss a question in there?" Obglitory grin aside to the cute
chick on the end.

Impulse looks to himself, putting his hands to his chest. "What?" He looks
at SuperKid. "What did I do?" But then he sighs and shakes his head, his
hair going all about in his face, which he then pffts and bffts and tries
to comb out of the way, but gets himself tangled in his hair and thus
wrestles with it. He's detained for the moemnt, in the background, as
there is a highspeed struggle with himself to straighten himself out. The
cute girl bats her eye lashes at SuperBoy, as the teacher notices what is
up and clears her throat, placing her hand on the girl's shoulder. "What
do you do with your powers, SuperBoy?" The teacher asks this one.

With a somewhat sheepish grin, Superboy straightens and tugs on his
jacket. "Well, a couple of documented uses are flight, strength, a limited
amount of speed, invulnerability...you know, the usual." He raises his
voice slightly, and says jokinglly so everyone can hear, "And I'm not
vulnerable to kryptonite, so don't anyone get any ideas!"
        With a look to Impulse, and then a doubletake, the Kid raises his
eyebrows. "Um." He looks at the teacher and the girl. "Is he /always/ like
that?"

Impulse loosk up just as all eyes turn to him and he seems to be in quite
a mess, with legs over his shoulder and everything. He smiles a little and
looks to the Kid. "Pardon?" And then the kids giggle some, bart doesn't
seem to clue into why, and all eyes turn back to SuperBoy. Ther overall
inpressin, while nothing is said, is that yes, Impulse is always like
this. "I mean, SuperBoy," the teacher continues, "What heroic acts do you
do? T o be an *inspiration* to these children?" And then *blur!* and
Impulse is by your side again. "Neat jacket. Can I try it on? Why won't
Maaa.. er, why can't I have one? Can I? Hun? Try it on?" He even goes to
help you out of it.

"Hey! Y'don't tug on Superman's Cape, /or/ Superboy's leather jacket!
Okay?" yelps the Kid, yanking his jacket back from Impulse, then stifling
an extremely annoyed look. "Um! Right! What I actually /do/. Well, you
know, saving cats out of trees, battling giant monsters and robots,
helping put fires out, keeping cars from falling off broken bridges...'s
all in the paper." Then he looks around, almost begging for more
kidquestions. Why won't someone ask about S.T.A.R. Labs? Or what they do
here? Or how old he is? (That's a fun one!) This tour isn't supposed to be
about /him/, after all. There're a million questions to ask about cloning,
too.

"Even Jesse gets a cape," Bart frumps, as Impulse, as he lets go of the
jacket. SuperKid here isn't much fun. Well, he is fun, but he can be ..
well, he's cool, but why can't he just share his ... okay, so he is cool.
But the questions all abut *you* continue. "Have you ever fought Desparo?
ever met the Batman, and is he real?" More questions. The cute girl from
before even bats her lashes, and asks, "Do you like girls?" Teh teacher
sighs as her attempt to save this didn't work, and then bgins taking a
head count. Wait, where's Allen? And Bart looks up just in time to see the
teacher looking about. "What's that?!?!" He says, loudly, while pretending
to listen to his ear wingtip. "I've got to go! Trouble in the Great Lakes
and Aquaman needs *my* help!" he proclaims as no one is really listening
or watching, and then ZOOM! He's gone. But then, as you may notice from
where you are standing, SuperBoy, a kid with rather large feet and messy
large hair is getting intot he back of the group fixing his clothing. The
teacher notices Bart now and thinks all is well.

Pausing slightly as Impulse disappears, and the group gains a kid. Hmn.
This bears further investigation...later. "Naw, I've never fought
Despero...seen him, though. He's not that interesting. Looks kinda like
that comic book character, Savage Dragon, only purple. Yes, the Batman is
real, and I've worked with his partner, Robin." A wry grin. "Yes, I like
girls. Earring's on the left."

The kids giggle at the Savage Dragon joke. All save one. The new kid at
the back of the group. "What does the earring have to do with liking
girls?" He looks about and notices many of the girls that have earrings in
the left ear. Does that mean ...??? He looks confused. But now the kids
are asking many questions about Robin, and Bart crosses his arms and
starts grumbling to himself how even Robin gets a cape. The teacher says,
"Now, now, kids. We only have time for a few more questions before we have
to get downtown to the museum."

Superboy nods, agreeing with the teacher, sitting crosslegged in the air..
"Any relevant questions? Any questions about cloning or S.T.A.R.? You'll
probably get quizzed afterwards, so make 'em good." He raises his
eyebrows. "Any takers?"

Everyone looks about at each other and doesn't seem to have any questions
pertaining to *that*. Only about you. The cute girls still bats her lashes
at you while the teacher frantically tries to come up with a good question
that will cover everything to be super-informative tt he kids. But then,
suddenly one hand does go up. From Bart. "Do you guys make cloned sheep as
well?" He remembered Max saying something about a British cloned sheep
named Dolly. All of the kids look at him and then start to giggle, while
he loks more confused.

Well, he could be offended or annoyed, but he'll just take this as a
lovely opportunity to be educational and informative! Yes! That's what
this is, a godsend of rationality! A pocket of wisdom in a cloudy present!
A dash of wit in an ocean of indignity! Or none of the above. It works,
though. "No," grins the Boy of Steel, taking off his shades and placing
them in his jacket pocket. "Dolly, the cloned sheep, is a resident of the
United Kingdom. No one is actually cloned here, anyway; S.T.A.R. labs is a
government research and detainment facility, dealing mostly with metahuman
genetics and powers. I'm here as a favor to Dr. Kristin Falkes, who wasn't
abe to be here today." A charming grin. "I was actually, well, /made/ at
Project Cadmus, about a year and a half ago."

And at this the kids oooooooo and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah even louder, as they
seem to be let in on a secret. All start to talk to one another as the
teacher approaches to shake your hand and thank you, and STAR Labs, for
their and your time, and sorry that they have to go. MOst of the kids
don't want to go, but do with some coaching, most saying, "He's so cool!"
to each other. The cute girl winks and blows you a kiss, as the teacher
personally escorts her out, blushing. The last one is Bart, who just
stands there. "Kind of like me," he says, perhaps loud enough for you to
hear. Then, "Mr. Allen!" and Bart turns, oops and dashes off to catch up
to the rest. At normal speed.

At this comment from the suspicious kid, Superboy's eyebrows positively
rocket upwards. "Like him...?" he wonders, softly. Then he laughs, turns,
and wanders off to bother Dr. Falkes.