A subpage where I dump quotes from DCU-related fanfic that I think mesh well with the characters involved. Much of it consists of commentary and thinly-veiled jabs at the path the mainstream universe is taking.

Format: Title, author name. Quotes are in Wikiquote format. Notes below quotes as I see fit.

Reset! (randomality)Edit

First in a currently-stalled series. Alternate universe, focuses on Bart's efforts to rescue Max from Rival, who has possessed his body.

I will be linking to each character's New Earth equivalent article, as this fanfic's universe is identical to that one before Impulse #89; the "divergence" point as seen in its first chapter.

Chapter 8: Spiders and Butterflies

(Impulse notices two speed trails over the ocean surface; he follows them to land and sees two speedsters fighting each other, one clad in his own red-and-white, the other in black-and-green. Inertia fighting another speedster...why? He feels a sudden chill; if the other speedsters saw him, they haven't given a sign.)

Inertia: (fury in his voice) I am not disposable!

NOTE: This line, right here, sums up why his characterisation 2006-onwards was completely wrong. He hates the manipulative and being manipulated, and would sooner beat the living daylights out of such people.

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Chapter 9: Devil's Deal

Impulse: (about the second clone) Why did you kill him?

Inertia: Why are you crying over it? He's just a clone.

Impulse: He was alive! You didn't have to kill him! You could have just stopped him!

Inertia: And then what? Where would you put him? What would you do with him? Eventually he would get out and finish his mission and that would be the end of you. We aren't playing games here, moron. The loser's run ends forever and there's no reset. You should be thanking me for doing the dirty, necessary work for you. You obviously have no chance of surviving otherwise.

Bart: I've never seen you in normal clothes. You look different.

Thad: (grinning) Heh, I suppose so. Were you expecting something else under the mask?

(Bart shakes his head.)

Bart: It's not that. You just look different.

Bart: What's wrong? Does your head hurt? When I'm thinking too hard, my head hurts, too.

Thad: Why am I not surprised?

Bart: (trying to figure out what name he should call his twin) Hey, Iner-, uh, Thad-, uh...

Thad: Thad will do.

NOTE: And it's the only diminutive the fans will accept.

---

Chapter 10: Before the Storm

Wally: I don't like this. More clones? One of you is more than enough, Bart.

Bart: (sourly) Ha ha, funny.

Wally: You're still not going anywhere alone with Bart.

(Thad rolls his eyes, clearly frustrated at his failing attempts to explain himself.)

Thad: Give me some credit. If I truly wanted Bart dead, I could have killed him a few times over by now. What would be the point of stringing him along, when I could have my redemption in the Thawne legacy so easily? Think about it.

Thad: (scowling at an obstinate Wally) There's just no explaining this to you, is there? Fine, whatever. What are you going to do with me? Try me, convict me, throw me in jail? I have no records here and neither did the other clone. We don't belong in this time and we don't even have recognition as people in our own time. And even if you did somehow manage to get your flawed legal system to prosecute me, what facilities do you have that can hold me?

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Chapter 11: 1932

Bart: (speaking about Superboy) He's gonna help me rescue Max!

Carol: Really? You found out when Rival is?

Bart: Yup! Empress helped with that! Now she's gonna help get Rival out of Max. Superboy and Inertia are gonna help :too.

Carol: (clearly dumbstruck at the mention of the last name) Inertia? (repeating herself) Inertia?

Thad: You called?

Carol: (turns around and steps backward) You're not going to hurt him!

Thad: (rolling his eyes) I'm getting tired of repeating that I have no intention to do so.

---

Chapter 13 - In Between

Bart: Why are we going back to take on President Thawne when you said you took centuries to develop? Wouldn't that, y'know, stop you from existing?

Thad: (raising an eyebrow) Well, you do have two brain cells to rub together, after all. Tell me, how long, subjectively speaking, did you spend connected to virtual reality?

Bart: (speaking around a mouthful of pizza) I dunno. Years. Grandma told me when I was physically eight, I had already spent nineteen subjective years in there, because that's how fast I could process everything.

Thad: That's how I took centuries to develop - it was subjective time. That my chronological age matches my subjective age is yet another lie I was told. That became obvious the moment I stepped out of the Craydl facility in my own time. (he snorts and picks up a piece of pepperoni) I should have realized that President Thawne wouldn't have the patience or the guarantee of resources for a project with such a supposedly long lifespan. He certainly didn't wait for you to leave or mature before he started the project. As far as I can tell, he created me shortly after getting possession of you. Chronologically, I really am the age I look or very close to it. (he eats the pepperoni piece) What I don't understand is why I was released prior to full maturation. An adult me against an adolescent you would certainly end in my expedient victory. (shaking his head) This entire endeavor makes no sense.

NOTE: This is presumably an explanation of Thad's "origin story" monologue in Impulse #53, but that doesn't explain why he even started with it in the first place.

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Chapter 15 - Lab Rats

(After much running around and disabling of traps, the trio eventually find a biometrically-locked door.)

Meloni: (grinning) Now, what could be here?

(Bart scoops his mother up and the boys vibrate through the wall, encountering a hall full of large tubes, of the kind one would expect from a mad scientist's lab. Inside each tube are more clones, none yet ready for release. Meloni gasps in shock and moves in to investigate.)

Meloni: Sprocking grife, he's really lost his spheres.

Inertia: (a bitter tinge in his voice) Meet my replacements. Or rather, our replacements. How does it feel to be disposable?
(He moves toward an empty tube and starts playing around with the control panel, looking for information.)

Impulse: (frowning) They're not all blond. Number four is, but the others are kinda red. Some are really red, maybe orange. (lifting up his goggles to get a clearer view) Well, maybe not. Maybe? (putting them back on) It's hard to tell with the other colors in the way.

Meloni: (also frowning) Is it really that hard to get the hair color right on these clones?

Inertia: (flying through the data the empty tube's control panel spits up) Possibly. This one was very close to the right color, but still not quite right. Still a little too much red. He would have to invest in some dye to cover it up, but I doubt anyone would have really noticed the difference.

Impulse: Anyone but Carol. She figured you out.

Inertia: (ignoring Impulse's remark) They're all being fed memories based on my impersonation preparations. It's possible that these clones may even believe that they're you.

(He darts from panel to panel, looking for more information.)
Except number four. (cringing) There's something not right with this one. I don't know what Thawne is trying to do with it, but I wouldn't let it out of this tube for any reason.

Impulse: Is he sick?

Inertia: It depends on your definition of sick. This one is meant to be more of an attack dog than me.

(He looks at the next block of data. Suddenly he sucks in breath and his voice takes on a visibly angry tone.)

He's giving him a copy of all of my memories! Mine! That sprocking bastard! He was going to replace me! He was going to replace me with this aberration! I'll kill him! I'll kill them all!

Meloni: (pulling him away from the panel) Calm down. Nobody is killing anyone.

Inertia: Then what are you going to do with it? (pointing to the sleeping blond clone) I doubt you can rehabilitate that.

Meloni: But we can't just kill them. They're living boys just waiting to wake up. They're all your brothers.

Inertia: (lip curling upwards in a bitter sneer) I don't have brothers. (glaring at the other clones) They were all made to kill Bart, me, and anyone else in Thawne's way. Obedient, well-conditioned dogs. Pavlov would be proud.

NOTE: A popular theory among certain segments of Flash fandom is that the version of Inertia who appeared in The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive and other related issues is not the original, but yet another clone. The "aberration" shown here is presumably that clone, not yet fully developed.

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Chapter 16: Fracture

Thad: (outraged) What business does anyone have in telling you how to help people? What business do you have in even listening to them? I don't see you calling yourself Kid Flash and running at Wally's side like an obedient puppy. You're not a sidekick.

Bart: I'm still a kid.

Thad: So? We've been in virtual training to be soldiers since we were infants. Granted, we were intended to be the personal strike forces of President Thawne, which is a little counterproductive to the fluffy, feel-good heroism that's touted as the ideal around here. Seriously, Bart, what did you think all of those games were designed for? They were made to create loyal minions who took out all obstacles in their path, no matter what they were, without concern for bystanders or any fear of death.

Bart: (a sudden burst of realisation) Going after the gunmen instead of the hostages first.

Thad: So, you get it?

Bart: Y-yeah. I think so.

Thad: You simply never made it to the final polishing stages. And I suspect that I was activated prematurely. In any case, we're more than capable of operating on our own. We don't need some nosy busybodies lording over us and expecting obedience just because of the legacy we inherited.

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Chapter 19: Subliminal

Cissie: Inertia, you haven't said anything since they left.

Thad: My name is Thaddeus. Thaddeus Thawne. (a beat) What do you want me to say?

Cissie: I don't know. Something. Anything.

Reset! Blackout (randomality)Edit

Sequel to the above story. Bart and Thad lose their powers, and now have to cope with living not only at normal speed, but with each other.

Chapter 1: Blackout

Bart: (grumbling) This sucks. I hate being slow and I hate having to make stuff up.

Thad: You mean lie? That's easy. All you need to do is tell people what they expect to hear. You should be used to it by now with the secret identity matter.

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Chapter 2: Rainy Day

Bart: Thad? You working on the timepod again?

Thad: (voice laced with heavy sarcasm) No, moron, I'm playing with a tesseract puzzle. What else would I be doing?

NOTE: Thad being some kind of techno geek makes so much sense now.

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Chapter 4: Black Eye

Bart: (scowling) Hey! How come he can have coffee and I can't?

Kon: Because you're you and someone would have to be crazy to give it to you.

Bart: What's that supposed to mean?

Thad: (smirking) That you're a hyperactive brat who would just get more destructive when introduced to sizable amounts of caffeine.

Bart: Shut up! I am not!

Thad: See? Hit the mark. I'm right.

Kon: Man, I kinda missed that.

Bart: Missed what?

Kon: You driving people nuts. Inertia's not Rob or Wondy, but he flips out pretty fast.

Thad: (snarling) They don't have to live with him...

NOTE: You'd shut up very quickly if you saw what happened to your mainstream counterpart.

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Chapter 7 - Legacy

Thad: What kind of evil twin do you think I am? (huffing in mock offense) I only beat you up and ridicule your intelligence, not withhold precious words of wisdom that can be thrown in Wally's face whenever he gets his tights in a wad about you not being the perfect little sidekick. (grinning) Legacies are more than a name and costume.

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