Chapter Text
The blaring alarm clock woke Bart up from his sleep, which was weird. Usually, his alarm only went off for school.
It was a Saturday.
Still, he stumbled out of bed and towards the dining room. He saw Barry but no Iris. “Barry?” Bart asked after noticing a stressed Barry speed walk around the kitchen ten times.
Barry looked up and stopped, “Bart!” He exclaimed, “you are needed in the watchtower something is wrong and we need everyone on board.” Barry said this quickly before speeding out the door and expecting Bart to follow, so Bart did what any sane person would do… and followed him.
They both ran to a zeta tube and beamed up to the watchtower where most of the league and league associates were there. “Just in time, Flash” Batman said before looking at the shorter one, “Impulse, good morning.” He greeted before turning back to the rest of the team. Bart continued to stand where he was since Barry didn’t move.
“As I am sure you are all aware, we are missing some members, more specifically; Superboy and Wonder Girl.” Batman explained and Bart’s heart quite literally stopped. His friends were missing… he needed to find them. He needed to save them. He needed to-.
“Bart.” Tim’s soft voice cut Bart off of his thoughts, “hey Bart you need to breathe.” Bart looked up at Tim, who was in his full Red Robin suit, and tried to copy his breathing. “You doing so well Bart, just keep breathing.” He explained, it was at this point that Bart noticed that Tim’s hand was on his shoulder. Was it meant to be grounding? It felt grounding.
Eventually, Bart’s heart returned to a semi-normal rhythm and he felt much calmer. “Sorry” he muttered.
“Don’t be. You were panicked it was completely fine. I would be too.” Tim explained. Bart looked at him, he was confused. “What do you mean I would be too? Tim our entire team is missing, we don’t know where they are or what they are doing or even if they are alive! The fuck you mean you would be too?!?” Bart almost shouted at Tim but Tim just sat there and didn’t say anything until Bart’s breathing returned back to normal again.
“Bernard is missing too.” Tim told him. Bart felt like an idiot.
“I am so sorry. I didn’t know. I just thought that you were being- well you know being like Batman and- shit I am so sorry. I should just stop talking.” Tim just chuckled at him.
“Bart it’s chill. I’m not upset.”
“You’re not?”
“Why would I be? My boyfriend is missing and so is our team but you are here and so am I.”
“Meaning?”
“Let’s find them.” Tim offered his hand out to Bart and Bart took it, “are you going? Because if you’re going I’m definitely going.”
Tim chuckled and pulled Bart up.
“You’re still in your pyjamas, you know that right?”
Bart looked down and saw his Buzz Lightyear pyjamas, he spluttered, “in my defence, my alarm woke me up.”
Tim fully laughed before saying, “oh yeah I did that.”
After Bart changed into his Impulse suit and made Tim explain what he did to his alarm, apparently Tim hacked his alarm so it goes off whenever there is emergency as well as for school, they arrived at Mount Justice and immediately headed towards the computer (because Bart was with Tim and what else would Tim do?).
Tim sat on the computer and typed in something and then all of the sudden there was millions of information flashing on the screen.
“What is this?” Bart asked, looking as Tim scrolled through the information.
“Missing person reports from this year in Central,” Tim explained.
Bart was shocked, why was there so many? “If you think this is a lot, you should look at Gotham.” Tim pointed out before grabbing a cup of coffee and goes back to reading the reports.
Bart stood behind him and read them with Tim, his mind was filled with questions that he wanted to ask but also he didn’t want to interrupt Tim.
“You want to know why you weren’t told about these missing people?” Tim asked him and Bart couldn’t help but nod, “it’s because Central Police Force isn’t used to dealing with this many missing person reports so they thought not to tell any of the Flashes because usually they can handle it.” He explained, still reading and occasionally making note.
A ding from the computer could be heard and suddenly a new missing person appeared.
Date: 23rd August XXXX
Name: Iris Allen
Birth date:
Last seen: 20th August XXXX
Bart’s heart stopped again. Tim turned to look at him, “that must be why Flash was stressed.” Bart just nodded, shell-shocked. “Bart?” Tim asked and Bart brought himself back.
“Yeah?” He asked.
“Look if you don’t want to do this…”
Bart shook his head, “no because if you’re going then I’m definitely going.” He told him firmly.
Tim nodded, “just checking.”
The two of them fell into a comfortable silence with Tim reading through the reports and Bart getting a poster-board ready to put information about each missing person and seeing how they all link.
“Hey Tim?” Bart asked to which Tim hummed in acknowledgment, “how did you know that something was wrong… other than Bernard being missing?”
“B told us that we needed to be aware because Central was gaining more missing person reports and so were other places like Star and Metropolis.”
Bart just nodded, dumbfounded before going back to work.
“Okay so,” Tim turned to Bart taking his tenth(?) cup of coffee that hour with him, “I looked at all the missing person reports from Gotham, Blüd, Star, Metropolis and Central and found that at least 30 people per city was stolen by the same group or person including and not limited to: Kon, Cassie, Iris and Roy. Our job? We need to find where these people are and try and save them and the world from whoever or whatever is happening.”
Bart nodded, “easy enough” he joked to which Tim chuckled in response.