More mullet!fic (finally)....
Delayed for quality control and added length: the next chapter in this steadily unfolding, poorly groomed, and still nameless saga!
CHAPTERS: { Prologue }{ Chapter One }{ Chapter Two }{ Chapter Three }{ Chapter Four }{ Chapter Five }{ Chapter Six }{ Chapter Seven }{ Epilogue }
<-{ previous story: The Redemption of Booster Gold } { next story: Midst Of Rough Earthliness }->
~3rd Chapter
By the time Booster managed to disarm and subdue Ted, the man had already done significant damage. Zombie Max's nose was completely missing, making his visage even more disturbing and skull-like, and the angle of his neck was even more unnatural.
Also, Ted's hair was a mess.
"Let me go!!" Ted shouted, struggling against him.
Booster grunted as Ted's elbow connected with his midsection, though it seemed more an accident of flailing limbs than a deliberate attack. "Not until you calm down."
"I'm calm!!!" Ted snarled. "Now let me go so I can rip his f--"
"Children present!" Booster yelped, clamping a hand over the man's mouth.
"Aw." Junior lamented, nudging the closet door closed again with the baseball bat. Then Ted yelled incoherently again and he perked up. "This is so cool! You didn't tell me he was psycho!"
Booster huffed with effort as he trapped Ted's arms behind his back and tried to get him in a leg lock. "He's actually--ngh!--taking it better than I expecte--hurk!" He jerked back to avoid getting hit by Ted's head, then ended up spitting out the man's hair. "I thought he'd be--gh!--freaking out over being dead."
All of a sudden Ted's whole body tensed into stillness. Then, eyes widening, he shouted "OH MY GOD!!"
"Crap." Booster winced.
"Oh my god!" Ted shouted again, voice rising in hysteria. "I was dead! I was--I was--Why am I not dead?!"
Feeling Ted was sufficiently distracted by his own mortality, Booster gave up on restraining him and instead wrapped his arms around his friend. "Magic" he said in what he hoped was a soothing voice.
"Muh?"
"I...brought you back with magic." Booster admitted slowly.
Ted slumped back against him, eyes closing as he murmured, "Oh. Okay."
There were a few moments of silence and stillness before Junior started to fidget and send longing glances toward the stairs. Booster caught his eye and tilted his head toward the stairs in silent permission and the boy uncertainly shuffled off, taking the bat with him. If Ted noticed any of the exchange, he gave no indication.
A few more moments passed, then "Booster?"
Booster lifted his head and did his best to project wasn't-sniffing-your-hair vibes. "Yeah?"
"I'm gonna take a nap."
Booster blinked. "'Kay."
That resolved, Ted settled against him and drifted into sleep.
Left alone in the basement with his sleeping best friend, Booster tightened his arms around him and then squeezed his eyes shut as he rested his forehead on Ted's shoulder. "Missed you, Ted," he whispered.
-----
In the groggy state of regaining consciousness, Ted could almost pretend it had all been a bad dream brought on by eating things that were probably very unhealthy right before bed. As he opened his eyes, however, there was no fooling himself.
There was no mistaking Booster's black hair and blond eyebrows.
There was just something very wrong about the man's new hair. But then, who was he to judge? He had come back from the dead with a mullet.
Back from the dead.
He had been dead. Deceased. No longer living. Ceased to be. Pushing up daisies and not pining for the damned fjords but an ex-Ted!
It was a bit to take in.
Ted remembered joking about it. "How's so-and-so?" "Oh, he died. But he's much better now!" It was a long-standing slightly serious joke that the afterlife had a revolving door policy with regards to the superhero community.
It wasn't as funny when it was happening to him.
And what had Booster said about bringing him back with magic? When had Booster learned magic?
Ted peered at the man curiously, slumped over an old desk with his head pillowed on his crossed arms. He was clearly exhausted, so Ted was careful to be quiet as he sat up on what turned out to be a cot and slowly got to his feet. He had a vague idea that Booster's...young ward? Teenage sidekick? Illegitimate son? Visiting neighbor kid? He had a vague idea that the boy was upstairs somewhere, and silently made his way up the stairs, skillfully avoiding the places that he knew creaked.
The house was...a mess.
The basement was the same as ever, with its tidy sprawl of things that had no place upstairs, so it hadn't registered in his mind that the rest of the house would reflect the attack that had put Booster in the hospital...however long ago it was. Fire damage was everywhere, though the extent varied. Water damage shared space with it, apparently both from efforts to put out the blaze and rain in the areas no longer covered with a roof.
There also appeared to be a pathway through the destruction and debris. Several pathways, actually, leading to various rooms. Soft sounds drifted from the same room from which a glow of light could be seen around the partially open door. Peering through the crack between the door and its frame, Ted could see part of a TV, which appeared to be the source of the light.
As he pushed open the door, it creaked a little and he remembered that he had to oil the hinge occasionally and had been meaning to replace it. Apparently no one had taken care of it in his absence. A breeze from a gaping hole in the roof blew past him, tossing a few strands of hair in his eyes, and reminded him that perhaps basic maintenance of a house with such extensive damage to it was a bit pointless.
"I've been meaning to fix that," a quiet voice brought his thoughts back to the room.
Sitting on the floor staring up at him, eerily illuminated by the television's glow, was the boy. The yellow goggles -- his goggles, now that he thought about it -- were shoved up on top of the boy's head, and Ted recognized the (hopelessly baggy) shirt he was wearing as one of his own.
The kid had been going through his stuff.
The kid had been staying at his house long enough to have considered basic maintenance.
The kid was staring at him expectantly while sitting in his house, watching his TV, wearing his cast-offs, and...eating his raisins.
"Who are you?" Ted asked.
-----
Junior stared at the man who, as Booster had absently explained it, had contributed DNA to his genetic structure via a hair clog from a bathtub drain, helping to give birth to him from beyond the grave. He decided against mentioning that for the first ten minutes of his life he had been confused as to whether his name was "Um" or "Ohcrap." He considered that he was the genetic offspring of a dead superhero and a man who hadn't been born yet but was still making a go at supervillainy, and that he had childhood memories originating from both.
Junior held out his hand and said, "Booster calls me 'Junior'. Should I call you Ted or Beetle?"
"Ted...works for now." Ted muttered, staring at Junior's hand for a moment before cautiously reaching out and shaking it.
Nodding, Junior picked up the box of raisins at his side and held them up. "Want some?" He popped one in his mouth. "They're good."
When Ted tentatively took a few raisins from the small box, Junior beamed at him. Due to being able to count the entire span of his life in days rather than years, fragmented childhood memories that weren't actually his, and the only other person around for his entire life that didn't actively try to eat his flesh being a very distracted and busy supervillain, the sum total of Junior's life experience was rather limited. As such, he had formed in his mind an odd sort of connection between food and affection.
When he first came into being, he had been cold, hungry, confused, and a little worried by the nearby smell of smoke. Booster, meanwhile, had been confused, panicking, and just about useless for taking care of a newborn, even if the newborn was about five feet tall and already knew how to walk and talk. Junior had been mostly ignored for a while except for the occasional worried look and the "Um"s and "Ohcrap"s that he had initially taken to be his name.
The very first thing Booster had done to take care of him, after several minutes of trying to figure out where he'd gone wrong, was absently hand him the can of corn he had been eating (nonperishables being the only edible food in the house). True, it was only because he had heard the boy's stomach growling and his instincts for handling hungry children were apparently functional in some limited capacity, but Junior didn't know that. So the first kindness in his life was not a hug but cold corn.
Ted didn't know any of that and Booster hadn't thought about it, but quite a lot was probably explained by it.
"What are you watching?" Ted asked, motioning toward the TV screen from which the word "PAUSE" glowed brightly.
"Silence of the Lambs." Junior answered, then picked up the remote and wiggled it a little. "Wanna watch with me?"
Ted considered the question seriously. He had come upstairs looking for answers, but the lure of mindlessly staring at a movie featuring the mundanity of (living!) cannibals, senseless violence, and good old fashioned detective work was strong.
"Sure." He said, sitting next to the boy.
On screen, the detective and the serial killer stared at each other through a clear wall. In the room, the newly resurrected superhero and the newly born teen sat side by side and stared at the screen.
"Skinning people is bad, right?"
"Yes." Ted said as he scooted further away. "Yes it is."
-----
[ETA of chapter the fourth: Unknown, currently being written.]
CHAPTERS: { Prologue }{ Chapter One }{ Chapter Two }{ Chapter Three }{ Chapter Four }{ Chapter Five }{ Chapter Six }{ Chapter Seven }{ Epilogue }
<-{ previous story: The Redemption of Booster Gold } { next story: Midst Of Rough Earthliness }->
~3rd Chapter
By the time Booster managed to disarm and subdue Ted, the man had already done significant damage. Zombie Max's nose was completely missing, making his visage even more disturbing and skull-like, and the angle of his neck was even more unnatural.
Also, Ted's hair was a mess.
"Let me go!!" Ted shouted, struggling against him.
Booster grunted as Ted's elbow connected with his midsection, though it seemed more an accident of flailing limbs than a deliberate attack. "Not until you calm down."
"I'm calm!!!" Ted snarled. "Now let me go so I can rip his f--"
"Children present!" Booster yelped, clamping a hand over the man's mouth.
"Aw." Junior lamented, nudging the closet door closed again with the baseball bat. Then Ted yelled incoherently again and he perked up. "This is so cool! You didn't tell me he was psycho!"
Booster huffed with effort as he trapped Ted's arms behind his back and tried to get him in a leg lock. "He's actually--ngh!--taking it better than I expecte--hurk!" He jerked back to avoid getting hit by Ted's head, then ended up spitting out the man's hair. "I thought he'd be--gh!--freaking out over being dead."
All of a sudden Ted's whole body tensed into stillness. Then, eyes widening, he shouted "OH MY GOD!!"
"Crap." Booster winced.
"Oh my god!" Ted shouted again, voice rising in hysteria. "I was dead! I was--I was--Why am I not dead?!"
Feeling Ted was sufficiently distracted by his own mortality, Booster gave up on restraining him and instead wrapped his arms around his friend. "Magic" he said in what he hoped was a soothing voice.
"Muh?"
"I...brought you back with magic." Booster admitted slowly.
Ted slumped back against him, eyes closing as he murmured, "Oh. Okay."
There were a few moments of silence and stillness before Junior started to fidget and send longing glances toward the stairs. Booster caught his eye and tilted his head toward the stairs in silent permission and the boy uncertainly shuffled off, taking the bat with him. If Ted noticed any of the exchange, he gave no indication.
A few more moments passed, then "Booster?"
Booster lifted his head and did his best to project wasn't-sniffing-your-hair vibes. "Yeah?"
"I'm gonna take a nap."
Booster blinked. "'Kay."
That resolved, Ted settled against him and drifted into sleep.
Left alone in the basement with his sleeping best friend, Booster tightened his arms around him and then squeezed his eyes shut as he rested his forehead on Ted's shoulder. "Missed you, Ted," he whispered.
-----
In the groggy state of regaining consciousness, Ted could almost pretend it had all been a bad dream brought on by eating things that were probably very unhealthy right before bed. As he opened his eyes, however, there was no fooling himself.
There was no mistaking Booster's black hair and blond eyebrows.
There was just something very wrong about the man's new hair. But then, who was he to judge? He had come back from the dead with a mullet.
Back from the dead.
He had been dead. Deceased. No longer living. Ceased to be. Pushing up daisies and not pining for the damned fjords but an ex-Ted!
It was a bit to take in.
Ted remembered joking about it. "How's so-and-so?" "Oh, he died. But he's much better now!" It was a long-standing slightly serious joke that the afterlife had a revolving door policy with regards to the superhero community.
It wasn't as funny when it was happening to him.
And what had Booster said about bringing him back with magic? When had Booster learned magic?
Ted peered at the man curiously, slumped over an old desk with his head pillowed on his crossed arms. He was clearly exhausted, so Ted was careful to be quiet as he sat up on what turned out to be a cot and slowly got to his feet. He had a vague idea that Booster's...young ward? Teenage sidekick? Illegitimate son? Visiting neighbor kid? He had a vague idea that the boy was upstairs somewhere, and silently made his way up the stairs, skillfully avoiding the places that he knew creaked.
The house was...a mess.
The basement was the same as ever, with its tidy sprawl of things that had no place upstairs, so it hadn't registered in his mind that the rest of the house would reflect the attack that had put Booster in the hospital...however long ago it was. Fire damage was everywhere, though the extent varied. Water damage shared space with it, apparently both from efforts to put out the blaze and rain in the areas no longer covered with a roof.
There also appeared to be a pathway through the destruction and debris. Several pathways, actually, leading to various rooms. Soft sounds drifted from the same room from which a glow of light could be seen around the partially open door. Peering through the crack between the door and its frame, Ted could see part of a TV, which appeared to be the source of the light.
As he pushed open the door, it creaked a little and he remembered that he had to oil the hinge occasionally and had been meaning to replace it. Apparently no one had taken care of it in his absence. A breeze from a gaping hole in the roof blew past him, tossing a few strands of hair in his eyes, and reminded him that perhaps basic maintenance of a house with such extensive damage to it was a bit pointless.
"I've been meaning to fix that," a quiet voice brought his thoughts back to the room.
Sitting on the floor staring up at him, eerily illuminated by the television's glow, was the boy. The yellow goggles -- his goggles, now that he thought about it -- were shoved up on top of the boy's head, and Ted recognized the (hopelessly baggy) shirt he was wearing as one of his own.
The kid had been going through his stuff.
The kid had been staying at his house long enough to have considered basic maintenance.
The kid was staring at him expectantly while sitting in his house, watching his TV, wearing his cast-offs, and...eating his raisins.
"Who are you?" Ted asked.
-----
Junior stared at the man who, as Booster had absently explained it, had contributed DNA to his genetic structure via a hair clog from a bathtub drain, helping to give birth to him from beyond the grave. He decided against mentioning that for the first ten minutes of his life he had been confused as to whether his name was "Um" or "Ohcrap." He considered that he was the genetic offspring of a dead superhero and a man who hadn't been born yet but was still making a go at supervillainy, and that he had childhood memories originating from both.
Junior held out his hand and said, "Booster calls me 'Junior'. Should I call you Ted or Beetle?"
"Ted...works for now." Ted muttered, staring at Junior's hand for a moment before cautiously reaching out and shaking it.
Nodding, Junior picked up the box of raisins at his side and held them up. "Want some?" He popped one in his mouth. "They're good."
When Ted tentatively took a few raisins from the small box, Junior beamed at him. Due to being able to count the entire span of his life in days rather than years, fragmented childhood memories that weren't actually his, and the only other person around for his entire life that didn't actively try to eat his flesh being a very distracted and busy supervillain, the sum total of Junior's life experience was rather limited. As such, he had formed in his mind an odd sort of connection between food and affection.
When he first came into being, he had been cold, hungry, confused, and a little worried by the nearby smell of smoke. Booster, meanwhile, had been confused, panicking, and just about useless for taking care of a newborn, even if the newborn was about five feet tall and already knew how to walk and talk. Junior had been mostly ignored for a while except for the occasional worried look and the "Um"s and "Ohcrap"s that he had initially taken to be his name.
The very first thing Booster had done to take care of him, after several minutes of trying to figure out where he'd gone wrong, was absently hand him the can of corn he had been eating (nonperishables being the only edible food in the house). True, it was only because he had heard the boy's stomach growling and his instincts for handling hungry children were apparently functional in some limited capacity, but Junior didn't know that. So the first kindness in his life was not a hug but cold corn.
Ted didn't know any of that and Booster hadn't thought about it, but quite a lot was probably explained by it.
"What are you watching?" Ted asked, motioning toward the TV screen from which the word "PAUSE" glowed brightly.
"Silence of the Lambs." Junior answered, then picked up the remote and wiggled it a little. "Wanna watch with me?"
Ted considered the question seriously. He had come upstairs looking for answers, but the lure of mindlessly staring at a movie featuring the mundanity of (living!) cannibals, senseless violence, and good old fashioned detective work was strong.
"Sure." He said, sitting next to the boy.
On screen, the detective and the serial killer stared at each other through a clear wall. In the room, the newly resurrected superhero and the newly born teen sat side by side and stared at the screen.
"Skinning people is bad, right?"
"Yes." Ted said as he scooted further away. "Yes it is."
-----
[ETA of chapter the fourth: Unknown, currently being written.]