19th October
15:53 GMT -7
Kal-El floats down towards him, smiling in a welcoming fashion with his right hand slightly extended. "Welcome to the twenty-first century, Mister Hunter. I'm Su-."
"Superman, yes. I know who you are." He takes a moment to look around at the desert panorama. Green jumpsuit with dull red decoration, blue eyes and a ginger mullet. I.. don't remember Rip Hunter having a mullet. But.. this could be him from an earlier point in his timeline.
Or it could be someone entirely different. Now that he's out of the sphere I can scan him. Nothing special there, just a baseline human lousy with chroniton radiation. Which suggests that he wasn't involved in the murders in Washington, which is nice. Were time spheres distinctive? No,
Seven Days had a time travelling ball as well. Can't… Remember anyone else in DC…
Mister Hunter and Kal-El shake hands. Chroniton radiation is dropping off rapidly… No observable effect on Kal-El from touching him. Hm. Now that I'm past the event, the pattern of radiation makes a good deal more sense. This is the only locus, so… Nothing else to worry about. From
this site, anyway.
"…wned hero like yourself." Mister Hunter looks up at me. "But I don't think I know your friend..?"
I float downwards.
"Not a historian by any chance, Mister Hunter?
"
"
Amateur historian, sure, but professionally? Physicist. Why do you ask?"
"Because -while I fully appreciate that even in
this age of technological progress not everyone is going to recognise me- I'm getting a bit
peeved about time travellers not having the foggiest who I am.
"
He appears to find my statement a little disturbing. "Do you.. meet a
lot of time travellers?"
"Four so far, none of whom had heard of me.
"
Kal-El chuckles to himself. "I hadn't realised you needed public affirmation that badly."
"If there's no record of me, then I never did anything the world remembers. If I succeed in.. any of my longer term aims for the Earth, I would have done. Future people not knowing who I am means that I
fail.
" I grimace.
"That won't stop me
trying, but I won't deny that it's a bit off-putting.
"
Mister Hunter shrugs. "Since I
haven't heard of you, why don't you fill me in on what those aims are?"
"Arcane and technological revolutions, channelling the expertise of the human species in a more efficient way than the super-brawls and minority-participation cults it's limited to
now. There's no reason why children everywhere shouldn't learn to use magic in primary school, but all of the time travellers I've encountered so far made no mention of magic. I tried fighting the Reach, but apparently they still win
anyway.
"
"The Reach, huh?" He nods. "Kind of a powerful target you've picked out there."
"Yes. They're an efficient use of my time.
"
Kal-El focuses his attention on Mister Hunter. "Okay, before we get too distracted… Is there a particular reason why you're here, or are you just a surprisingly dedicated autograph hunter?"
He nods. "I came back in time to stop a political extremist called Per Degaton. He's building a support base for some sort of revolution, and we think he's using time travel to do it."
That's not
too surprising, at least.
"Abra Kadabra told me that Per Degaton ends up being successful.
"
"But we know that, now. With the foreknowledge I've got, stopping him shouldn't be too difficult for the Justice Society."
Kal-El looks mildly puzzled. "Either you're sixty years too late, or you've gotten the name wrong. We're the Justice
League."
Mister Hunter nods. "Guess that
I've got something to take up with future historians as well, then. But will you help me track him and his people down? I could.. probably do it myself, but it'll go a whole lot faster with powerful metahumans and people with contacts with the government and police."
"Wait. Wait. You're saying that changing the past is possible?
"
"Yes." He nods. "One of the first things I checked. If you're outside of time, you're not affected by the changes. Even changing your own history just.. produces some odd echoes. Of course, it doesn't help if you're
inside of normal time. Chroniton radiation just gives you a temporary buffer."
"So… How come the time travellers already here haven't popped out of existence?
"
"I'd need to study them and their techniques to be sure, but I'd guess it's either because they haven't prevented themselves being born yet or they haven't tried going home. Time doesn't correct itself all at once…" He shrugs. "Look, I'll be happy to give you a full lecture on temporal mechanics after we stop the time travelling fascist. Are we going to be working together on this, or do I need to hitch a ride to the nearest town?"
"What sorts of thing are his people doing in this era?
"
"We
think they're building weapons, then putting them in ultra-secure caches to be dug up again in the future. Beyond that, we weren't really
certain."
Kal-El nods, spotting the direction of my line of questioning. "Exactly what
sorts of weapons?"
"Ah…" Mister Hunter frowns. "All sorts. I think their main infantry weapon is some sort of.. exotic particle projector, but they also use light power armour and personal teleporters. Why do you ask?"
"There was a group murder a few days ago in Washington State by people using that sort of weapon. Genetic material left at the scene suggested that the attackers came from the future, and the slogan they left implied strong humans first ideology.
"
"That could be them. I don't have specific records of that attack, but that fits their profile. Were the victims aliens, or employed by aliens?"
"No. Demon cultists.
"
"Demon..? You're.. serious?" Kal-El and I both nod. "If they're not.. human then it's technically against their ideology for humans to cooperate with them. And if they're acting this openly, that's all the more reason to take them down as fast as possible."
"I think stopping a time travelling fascist is something the League can assist you with. Orange Lantern?"
"I'm on board, naturally. But I'd really like access to any other information you have on this era as well. If we're stopping
one warlord, I can't think of a reason not to stop any others as well.
"
"Sure, I'd be happy to."
I blink.
"Um. What?
"
"Per Degaton was my primary target because he's the one I've got the best information on. But it would make my day if we could prevent the Reach taking over the Earth in the
first place. And the best way I came up with to do
that is to stop their patsies. I think you called them… The Light?"
…
"No."
Lex? Lex is the one who sells out the Earth? I mean… I
know they use local collaborators. I helped
kill some. But Lex.. selling out to aliens. Satanus, yes, the Brain, sure, Savage… Just about.
Lex… I'd.. honestly have said that he'd rather die than put human destiny in someone else's hands.
"Now, hold on." Kal-El holds up his right hand. "The
Light are the ones who bring the Reach to Earth? Why would they do that?"
Mister Hunter shrugs. "I'm a time traveller, not a mind reader. I don't know the details. If I had to guess, they thought they could get something out of the deal and bit off more than they could chew. But the Reach don't arrive for
years. Degaton is here
now."
I nod.
"One zeta tube to the Hall of Justice.
"
