With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Twelve)

[Mr Zoat]

19th October
17:16 -5 GMT

The crystalline growths extending over Match twinkle as the Jor-El neural clone takes his readings. Though not technically necessary for the medical work he's about to attempt, it is very much necessary to restrain a raging Kryptonian should he wake up. The genomorphs quite sensibly removed his solar suit once they took control of Cadmus and they've only exposed him to artificial light, but that's not really something anyone with any sense takes a risk on.

Kon stares through the crystal at Match's face. "So… Can you..? Do it..?"

"The form of genetic damage 'Match' is suffering from is similar to that suffered by early-generation clones during Krypton's own development of the process."

"So you can?"

"Those clones were destroyed before they reached full development, and the knowledge derived from their 'failed' creation was used to create improved versions. Eventually, a generation was created without the neurological deformity which causes Match's insane rage and only they were allowed to integrate into Kryptonian society."

"Cough cough blatant sugar coating is blatant cough."

"Sugar coating?" Kon grimaces at me. "He just said they kept killing them until they got it right. How is that sugar coating?"

"I believe that Orange Lantern is referring to the fact that clones were originally not considered to be 'people' for much of the period during which that form of reproduction was in widespread use. Much to my disappointment. In some cases, clones were kept in suspended animation and used for replacement body parts."

"What?"

"It's uncommon, but hardly unheard of. Cloning whole organisms is technologically far simpler than cloning a single body part. It's also a pretty good way to bring the Green Lantern Corps down on your head."

Kara nods. "It was the military council which eventually outlawed it and gave clones full rights. Partly because they used a lot of clones in the fleet. They also.. banned cloning…"

"The upshot is, Kryptonian science never bothered to develop a way to cure this condition in an already living person. However, by combining my own records and the scans given to me by Cadmus and by Orange Lantern, I believe that I can synthesize a retrovirus capable of correcting the systemic genetic errors in Match's body."

Kon nods, clearly relieved. "How long will it take?"

"This sort of viral genetic modification requires careful monitoring. I would much rather take this slow than further risk damage to Match's health. All being well I estimate a total time of three months until Match is a full clone of Kal-El."

"Couldn't-" He glances at me. "-Paul just do it all faster?"

"Yes, but given that we're altering the structures of Match's brain I don't recommend it. I'm going to be altering things as slowly as I can to give me enough time to react if something goes drastically wrong."

"Like..?"

"Like Match suffering neural architecture collapse because the parts of his brain which his mind runs on aren't connecting properly to the rest any longer."

"That can-?!"

"It's not likely, but that's why I'm going to be doing this slowly."

Kon nods as Diana walks over to me. "No, the League doesn't know any regular time travellers. Atom has expressed an interest in studying temporal phenomena, but he wanted to be clear that he doesn't know for certain whether what Nylor Truggs described is possible or not."

I nod. "I.. doubt that this is a trap. The coordinates he gave me are for an isolated location, but that just makes it easier for me to identify anything odd about the place."

"If someone is using some form of temporal manipulation, there might not be anything there for you to detect."

"Maybe." I shrug. "There are Maltusians who study time travel, but none of them are closely associated with the Orange Lantern Corps and.. other Maltusians tend to regard them as being a bit spacey. Someone's got to do it-."

"And you haven't even considered leaving it to the Justice League, have you?"

"No, but… That's because.. as you said, no member of the Justice League has any special knowledge of time travel. And I have a rather significant advantage in that area."

"Oh? And what would that be?"

"If someone wanted to erase you from history, all they would have to do was appear in the Old City of Themyscira when Queen Hippolyta was.. five? And shoot her dead. Or gas the whole place. You never come to be. With Kal-El they have similar options. Or with any other member of the Justice League. But with me, they'd have to travel to Earth Prime to do any of that, and as I understand it that's a lot harder. I should be safe up to the point where I arrived in orbit, then I've got a power ring."

"You weren't particularly skilled with it when you first arrived."

"It's still more security than anyone else has. Assuming there's anything to this. Truggs might just be testing my response speed or something."

She nods, considering. "How many League members could survive hits from phased particle beams?"

Ah… "Anyone super tough could take a few hits. Probably. Assuming that was all the attacker had. Anyone else would be torn apart by a direct hit."

"Superman said that he wouldn't mind getting away from his public speaking engagement. If you go to Metropolis you could fly on to the coordinates Truggs gave you."

Kon blinks. "We.. could go..?"

I raise my eyebrows, then look pointedly at Match.

"He's not.. going.. anywhere."

"A detailed examination of the site will take hours and if I get attacked and survive I'll be evacuating anyway. And after the Eden incident I imagine that the League wants one of theirs keeping tabs on me whenever I go anywhere."

I look at Diana with my eyebrows raised. She nods. "It.. has been discussed."

Kon nods, and I raise my right hand to my forehead. "See you when I've got something to report."

I appear in Metropolis, and look down from the top of a building overlooking Centennial Park towards the demonstration. This particular event is in support of attempts by President Horne to bring a large number of Bialyan refugees to the United States. Kal-El's usually a bit reluctant to appear at partisan events, but once the organisers agreed to reduce the blatant Democratocracy a bit he agreed to give a speech. Nothing exactly hair-raising-

Kal-El glances up and gives me a shallow nod before returning to the man he was talking to.

-but a definite departure from his normal mode of operation. He asked if I wanted to take part, but in the wake of the 'angel incident' I'm trying to limit my public appearances. Some of the interest I've been getting has been a bit.. creepy. And I was politely told that my preferred solution of flying in and winning the civil war by myself wouldn't be required. Still, I'm at a bit of a loose end until he finishes-.

A shimmering tear appears in the air a short distance from… Oh, come on. Really? There's a slash from… An axe blade? Looks like one of those 'barbarian war axe' things that no one would have actually used in combat, with a disproportionately large and unbalanced blade. Anyway, the magic axe cuts cleanly through the fabric of reality and some guy dressed like a… Yes, like a fantasy executioner, steps out.

"Superman!" The crowd is already fleeing for minimum safe distance and Kal-El clenches his fists. "Today I will kill you, and your tomorrow will die with you!"

Another.. time traveller. Three separate groups, or..? Don't know. Ring, scan-. The rift closes as whoever this is steps through. Has an axe, is from the future… That was the Persuader, right? I saw him in one episode of Justice League and in the comic as part of the Fatal Five Thousand. Not really sure how dangerous he is, but you know what happens to an idiotic supervillain hit by a crumbler round?

The same as everything e-.

Kal-El glances up at me and gives his head a very small shake.

Really?

I stare down and throw my arms up in the air, but he's gone back to focusing on the Persuader. I'd use his real name, but I don't actually remember ever hearing it. Scanning… Is jammed, empathic vision reveals… Someone with a lot to prove and who came back in time to kill the most significant historical hero in order to do it.

Well, fuck you, future historians.

Kal-El unclenches his fists and makes a mildly placatory gesture, prompting the Persuader to throw a small grenade-. Oh. Heh. There's a green blast as it releases a wave of kryptonite radiation, which Kal-El's environmental shield effortlessly absorbs. Persuader charges but Kal-El is already closing the distance, grabbing Persuader around the neck with his right hand while his left hand grips Persuader's left wrist to turn aside the axe's haft.

Huh. That was easy.

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th October
17:21 GMT -5

"Hyuughuh."

From the impression Persuader's making on Kal-El's gently squeezing hand I'm going to assume that he is super strong. Just, not super strong enough. Physiology is near enough Human-normal that pinching his jugular-. Yep, there he goes, his axe falls from his hands as his body goes limp. Kal-El gives it a second longer, then relaxes his hold and sets the other man down on the grass.

"Could somebody-"

Oh, right. Orange Lantern to Metropolis Special Crimes Unit.

"-please call the police? I left my phone in my other tights."

"Ye-aah?"

"Orange Lantern here. A time traveller with an axe just picked a fight with Kal-El in Centennial Park. The axe man is down, please send an appropriate transport vehicle."

There's a slight pause.

"What?"

Oh, for goodness-. "Orange Lantern, cake, eyes, moon turning around. Time traveller, coming back from the future to-."

"Hey, yeah, I get that. Why aren't you calling nine one one?"

"I thought I'd help you shave a couple of minutes off your response time. The axe man's name is Persuader, he's super strong and tough and Kal-El just-."

A very loud alarm starts going off on the other end of the phone line, and I hear the handset fall to the desk. Ugh, fine. I end the call, then float down off the building towards the fallen criminal. Some parts of the crowd who had fallen back are starting to get closer, camera phones in hand as if viewing it remotely will insulate them from the danger if he wakes up.

"No, I need everyone to stay back. He won't be unconscious for long-" Kal-El does his best to kick the axe away, but at his level of strength there isn't much margin for error between 'ineffectual' and 'sent flying into a nearby building'. "-and I don't want anyone getting hurt."

"Allow me."

Construct manacles form around Persuader's recumbent form, lifting him off the ground as I begin to create a kinetic bubble generator around him. Kal-El nods at me again before floating backwards in the air to give himself more room to manoeuvre if Persuader breaks out.

"Police are on their way."

"Good. Do you know who this guy is?"

"The Persuader. He's from the future and his axe can cut through anything. Including time apparently, which is more than a little disturbing."

Kal-El looks the axe over without touching it. "I don't think you have to worry about him doing that again."

"Well, no-."

"The sockets on the reverse side of the blade are slightly warmer than the surrounding metal, and I saw cables that would have fit in them when the hole opened. I think he was overcharging it."

"So he's less dangerous than a Danner enhancile with an x-ionised axe?"

He gives me a chiding look. "You do remember that those are supposed to be a US military secret, right?"

"Slipped my mind. You know, a Danner enhancile would have woken up by-" The Persuader pulls slightly against his restraints as the upper portion of the cage finishes and becomes active. "-now." I drop a multiphasic scrambler down next to the axe just in case it has some sort of remote recall function and withdraw my constructs, letting our captive slump at the bottom of a cage he can't break through with brute strength.

"I don't suppose you're going to tell me how you know what his name is?"

"I'm afraid not. But I won't correct you if you assume that spending a good deal of time with someone else from the future had something to do with it."

I can just about hear the sirens from the Special Crimes Unit's heavy transportation vehicle and its escort heading our way now.

"Superman! Are you-" I look around as a young black haired man steps forwards from the crowd. "-okay? That was kryptonite!"

"Thank you for your concern, but I'm fine. Kryptonite just doesn't have the same effect that it used to. Now, please: Orange Lantern's equipment is pretty reliable but I don't want to take any chances."

Persuader takes that as his cue to start hammering on the inside of the kinetic barriers, making precisely no progress. Based on the stress they're showing, I'd say that he's less strong than Estrogina. Never did work out where she ended up.

I should probably look into that, actually.

"Ah, sure. Sure thing." He backs up into the crowd, joining a blonde woman who is staring at me in a way I find somewhat disconcerting. He whispers something to her and she turns away, following him out of the area.

Hm.

"Kal-El, is now a good time for you to act as my chaperone while I follow up on Truggs' coordinates, or is clearing up after this going to take the rest of the day?"

"No, the MSCU and I have gotten the system for this sort of thing down to a fine art. They'll pick him up and then we can head out." He watches my face for a moment. "You're not complaining about it?"

"No. It's not an emergency situation, and I… I know that my.. commitment to the case I'm working on can be…"

"Disturb-."

"Disconcerting-" I nod. "-yes."

He smiles warmly. "Admitting you have a problem is the first step to sorting it out."

I frown and shake my head. "No, I just said everyone else has a problem."

"Ah…"

I smile. "Joke, joke." He looks decidedly sceptical, but doesn't say anything else. Okay, he knows the controls for the cage and the SCU know how to transport dangerous exotic weapons. Anything else I need to do?

Yes.

Oh, what-? Yes I do need to deal with that. "Excuse me for a moment." I run a filament under the ground until it reaches the subject of my ring's concern and then transition us both up two miles.

"Excuse me."

"Huh?" The young man looks mildly surprised for a fraction of a second, then covers it up with pantomimed extreme surprise. "What?! What's going on?! What did you do that for?!"

"Not Von Daggle, then? For a moment I thought that I'd irritated the Guardians far more than I thought I had."

"Who? L-let me-. Put me down!"

"I can tell you're not afraid, you know. And I can also tell that you're a durlan."

"I don't-?!"

"Please. My colleague Vril Dox has a durlan foster father, and he's the only person Dox trusts. I have no particular prejudices against your species. However, there is a group of durlans who have killed an awful lot of people in China over the past thirty years and I don't imagine that they'd have anything like my level of forbearance if they found out that you were here. They would capture you, interrogate you, and then use you to test their anti-durlan weaponry on. If it's an option at all, I would strongly recommend getting off Earth as soon as possible."

"It… Kinda isn't."

"Okay, but… Be careful."

He nods, and I transition us both back to ground level.

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th October
15:48 GMT -7

Truggs was certainly telling the truth about one thing.

There's sod all here.

Rock, dirt, cactuses… We're actually not all that far from the Lantern sparring arena. The particular point Truggs directed me to is a mesa which.. does slightly put me in mind of Rip Hunter's laboratory from… Was it Countdown? But all I'm getting is rock and… Okay, some exotic particle residue, but it's faint enough that I wouldn't ordinarily be suspicious of it.

"Find anything?"

"Not much. But.. then the problem with temporal phenomena is they don't always work in the right order."

Kal-El nods. "Like how radioactive substances decay over time, things relating to time travel could spread backwards in time from the point they occur?"

"Yes. Or… We might be seeing residue as a result of history altering, or… Anything, really. Pick your theory." And all I can do is stay here maintaining my scans in the hope of getting something useful. "How much time travel have you encountered?"

"Not a whole lot. Mxyzptlk made me repeat a single day on an endless loop once, but I think he's a special case."

I could riff off that, but attracting the attention of a Looney Tunes inspired 5th dimensional imp is the last thing I want to do.

"And I.. doubt that you could gather any useful intelligence from him."

"No. But I did get a whole lot of reading done. It was just a shame all the work I did got erased when I broke the loop."

I nod, then float slowly north, scanning constructs maintaining constant vigilance for anything of note or of use.

"Why did you pick that man out of the crowd?"

"He's a durlan."

"The same people who are terrorising China? You let him go?"

"Durlans are even less unified than humans are. While it's possible that he's associated with the group over there, I don't have any evidence of it. And since the Chinese are keeping quiet about their durlan problem it's quite possible that he doesn't know about it. I suggested that he might like to leave the planet before the Chinese locate him-."

"Suggest as in..?"

"Point out the problem and suggest that he leave. He said that it wasn't really an option."

"You didn't offer to give him a ride back home?"

"Durla's a radioactive mess experiencing total societal collapse. If he's here, he's presumably here for a reason. I'm not going to force him to go home any more than I'd force you to go back to Krypton."

"Somewhere else, then."

"He had a human appearance and he's not actually in China. He's probably more at risk from the other durlans…" And if they go after him first then we'll have an early warning system. Not a nice thought, but it's true and I did warn him. "I was actually a little worried that he might be a durlan by the name 'Von Daggle', but…" I shake my head. "Wrong emotional mix."

"I think you might have mentioned him before. Who is he?"

"I'm.. not sure what his official status is. The records on John's ring didn't mention him. But I have other sources of information. He's the head of the Guardians' black operations unit. Actual black operations, not the long-finger things the League used my former team for."

"But not a Green Lantern?"

"He might have been. He might still be, actually. But these days he mostly does things the Guardians need done but can't afford to be publically associated with. There was a brief period where I was concerned that they might send him after me."

"But you're not worried any more?"

"No. Not significantly."

He sighs and looks away. "But it's not because you met them and think that they're good people, it's because the Orange Lantern Corps already exists and you don't think it's worth their time any more."

"The Guardians are too important to be able to be 'nice'."

Kal-El shakes his head. "I don't believe that's true for a moment. Do you really think that important people can't afford to be nice?"

"Not if it interferes with their main job. Look, the Guardians are responsible for untold billions of people. You know what they were going to offer me when I bonded with the Ophidian? You know what they did give Larfleeze?" He nods. "They made a rational decision. They've got finite resources with which to do as much as they can. It wasn't nice leaving Vega to Larfleeze… And having seen the worst of that place, I.. fully appreciate that. But I wouldn't criticise them for the decision if that's really what it took to keep Larfleeze there. Because Abra Kadabra can tell you all about what happens when he leaves."

"Except it didn't. He didn't."

"None of us know everything. It reminds me of a… Okay, we don't have actual superheroes on Earth Prime, but we have the concept. And there was a.. television series.. where they put people in costumes and… In a series of challenges, assessed their suitability for the role. In one of the challenges they had to run an obstacle course as fast as possible… But near the start a little girl was crying. The guy running it wanted them to stop and find out what was wrong, because helping her should be more important to a hero than their time."

"Sure, if it's just a race."

"If a superhero's racing somewhere, then something very bad is happening there. If Barrage was shooting up central Metropolis, how many people would die if you took time out from stopping him to do anything?"

He nods. "Triage."

"Yeah."

"You know, I listened to that 'How To Succeed In Evil' story you told Lex about."

"You.. did..?"

"Edwin says that their version of the Flash has no concept of Triage, he just fights street crime because he likes fighting street crime. Even if it's not the best way he could use his powers. And since Edwin's job is showing people how to use their abilities efficiently, it-."

Warning. Temporal event-

Armour appears around my body, followed by construct armour and rail guns. Tachyon detector getting a lot more pings all of a sudden, and oh sugar those are chronitons!

"I can see.. something…"

The universe wobbles, and when it unwobbles there's a.. transparent sphere with a single figure sitting on a leather seat inside it. The sphere itself is glowing pale blue, presumably as a side effect of whatever allows it to travel through time. Arranged around the man inside are what appear to be the controls of his.. time.. sphere.. thing.

Okay, no immediate danger to either myself or Kal-El, chroniton emission has dropped right off… Can't scan the inside of the sphere, but I think we're safe. The man inside… That's a side arm, but it looks like a kinetic weapon. Probably not related to the killers from Washington.

The man inside checks his instruments, then notices us. He stares for a moment, then pulls a lever. That causes a section of the sphere to fade away, and he climbs out of his seat and walks through it onto the desert sands.

"Hi there. Name's Hunter. Looks like you were expecting me."

 

[Mr Zoat]

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."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Okay, Genomorphs situat-

I step into the hush tube and appear back in Challenger Mountain.

20th October
14:43 GMT -6

-ed, Dox busy, shipyards up and running, ship-building coming on acceptably… Tamaran can have a tick. Cranius has released Mister Blake on his own recognisance and he's reacquainting himself with Human civilisation, twin-man -and it turns out that his name is Ph'yzzon- well enough to return home, Karna firmly under friendly control… Mr Near is finalising our coup plans with Ms Savage. Mr Talbot is adapting well enough to his power ring. Admiral Oswin wants to know when I want to move against the Psions. He's a bit eager to move his fleet out of Vega so he can carve himself a duchy out of formerly pirate-controlled space, but I'd like to wait until the first batch of Tamaranian ships are ready for real combat. Ah, he doesn't need an answer right now…

Mother Box, anything interesting happen while I was gone?

Ping!

Hah! They did? What sort of idiot attacks three Kryptonians-?

Ping.

I suppose it's nice that they're spending time together. It's not quite on a level of that petty burglar in Happy Harbor, but that's still a pretty high difficulty curve. A little surprising that he legged it but I suppose that even an axe-wielding cosplayer can take a hint that big.

So: next item on the agenda. What am I going to say to the people who will be running the British government after we kidnap them and then kill their less moral colleagues? And what are we going to do about the monarchy? Now, I've got a lot of time for Elizabeth Windsor Prime, but I've seen a list of some of the things Cabbage 16 used to get up to and, damn. Nothing I feel obliged to kill her for, but-.

I dart back four metres as an axe blade cleaves its way through the air just in front of me, signalling additional drones and armouring myself as I do so. That slice matches-.

Someone in a metal face mask lunges through-. A woman, clearly. The helmet fully encloses her head but for the two red eye pieces and the hole at the back for her ponytail, but… Okay, I'd give her a pass on that. Compared to what most super people wear, not a bad effort. Except that the jacket.. thing she's wearing doesn't merely have a deep 'v' to show off her cleavage to its best advantage. No, it also shows off her abdomen as well. And I don't think it's even armoured. And her trousers are those stupid hip-hugging things…

"OhthankGod!" She waves the haft of her axe at the rift, which closes behind her. "You gotta help me! He's-."

"Yes, because I routinely help people who break into my home. Who are-?"

Wait, I… Dimly remember. Terror Titans, wasn't it? She was Clock King's… Oh, darn, what's his name? The guy from the Legion era? He was in an episode of Justice League Animated…

No, gone.

"Elise, my name's Elise Kimble! And I-." She waves the axe, then appears to notice it. "I'll, ah…" She takes a firm hold on it with both hands and sets the butt on the floor. "I was minding my own business when this guy dressed like a ren faire reject cuts a hole in the air in front of me and kidnaps me. He made me put this.. get up on."

"I see." Mother Box, is she more threatening than she looks?

Ping.

I think I can dodge a great axe.

Based on past performance, Corpsman, I wouldn't give exceptional odds.

Alright, I think the drones I've got lined up can shoot her dead before she can swing it.

Better.

"Would this be the same 'ren faire reject' who picked a fight with Superman and sons a few days ago?"

"Did he?"

Sinestro, hologram.

An image of whateverhisnameis appears just in front of me. "This man?" Ms Kimble nods. I dismiss the hologram. "And he forcibly abducted you?"

"Yes! He picked me up and threw me through this.. like, cut in the air. He said I was one of his ancestors or.. something."

"Yes, he's most likely from the future. Did he give any indication as to why he picked you, as opposed to any of his other ancestors?"

"It wasn't just me. There was this guy called Cole, and I think he was planning on getting more."

Oh, splendid. "I assume that the axe is a gift from him?"

"I… Yeah, he-?"

I raise my right hand to my ear. "Jean, highest defence status immediately, please. Make sure Circe and Adom know."

"Of course, Grayven. Whom should we expect?"

"Some guy with a super axe."

"He's really strong!"

I move my ring away from my head for a moment. "Strong, like a man who exercises a whole lot, or strong like super strong?"

"Super, super strong."

I move the ring back to my ear. "Some guy with an axe who is also super strong. And possibly some other people with axes."

"We will bear that in mind. Should I activate the 'special' drones?"

"For a guy with an axe? No."

"Understood."

I lower my hand again. "We've probably got a minute or so before he gets here. Are you planning on joining in?"

"What? No, no one saw me leave."

"Both your axe and your helmet are transmitting a locator signal, s-." I see the axe blade appear next to her neck and yank her out of the way as it cuts across where she had been standing. In its wake space itself is cleaved apart, revealing a.. squad of poorly dressed axe men.

Oh dear.

"Is one of you the…" P-something. Wasn't it? "Peruser?" No reaction, though the masks make it a little hard to tell. "Pursuer? Ppppp… Punisher?" The stare. "Perambulat-. Come on, give me a clue."

"I am the Persuader." The voice comes from the one nearest the front. "I chose the name for myself because-."

"Your axe is very persuasive, got it. Any chance I could persuade you to go back to bothering the Legion?"

He straightens slightly at the name. "You are not from this time? No, it is of no consequence. I do not care about you, but that bitch betrayed me. I will have her head."

"He's craz-!"

I raise my right forefinger at her. "Ah juh-juh-juh. Going out on a limb here… 'Betrayed' in the sense that she accepted your equipment and training but fled before your rematch with the Supermen?"

"Just so. Stand aside."

"You can't-!"

"Juh!" I take a deep breath and smile at the Persuader. "I don't.. really care about her, but you picked a fight with some friends of mine, and… Can I assume that if I refuse to give her up, you'll attack me?"

"Of course."

"Ah-" Open fire "-well, I-."

The drones behind me drop stealth and fire, purple light blazing through the air as I lunge forward, daiklave in hand. The Persuader is already reeling back as I jam -yep, more than normal Human toughness, must take samples later- my blade through his chest, through his heart and out through his back!

I flick his corpse off my weapon as the rest of the crowd raise their axes. "Lads… Get a clue. Drop your axes now."

There's a brief moment of hesitation… Then they comply.

"And you." I point backwards at Ms Kimble with my right hand. "Don't even think about running."

"Staying right here."

Another one. Pfff. Sod it, I'm going to find Cassandra Cain and Rose Wilson before someone throws them at me.

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th October
15:03 GMT -5

I wasted half an hour chasing down Adeline Kane. Though she initially didn't want to talk to me, she really opened up when she found out that I was responsible for beating the shit out of her ex-husband in Singapore. And making him spend four months in one of their utter shit hole maximum security prisons. I mean, he got out, but I'm sure he breathes a little less comfortably now. Anyway, she doesn't have any idea where Slade Wilson is hanging out these days, and she didn't have any daughters with him. Two sons, Grant and Joseph. Um… Let's see. Joseph was mute, which means that he's the one who ends up able to possess people. I suppose that means that Grant is the one who dies attempting to carry out a hit on the… Teen Titans, and whose death results in Mr Slade himself coming after them.

I didn't know that Adeline was the one who shot out Mr Wilson's eye. Nice to know that he's even worse at romantic relationships than I am.

None of the people in the US named 'Rose Wilson' were a match for what I remember from the comics, but fortunately it turns out that blue eyed white haired girls named 'Rose' aren't all that common. Just one match, Rose Worth, living in New York and daughter of suspected brothel madam Lillian Worth. Which I assume is her name in much the same way that Jade's mother is really named 'Paula'. It's strange: as Ravager, Rose was in the Titans at the same time as Tim Drake. Master Drake is presently ten, Rose is eleven, yet the young woman I'm detaining and who was roughly the same age as both of them in the comics is seventeen.

"Just in here, please."

"What is this about?"

"That's.. not for me to say."

Shame she doesn't go to the same school as Zatanna, really. That would make keeping tabs on her easier.

The door to the room in Riverdale Country School which I'm temporarily occupying swings open, revealing Principal Randolph, Ms Worth and the young Miss Worth. The Principal steps aside, Ms Worth regarding me cautiously for a moment before leading her daughter inside.

I stand and offer her my right hand. "Ms Worth. Delighted to meet you."

"Mister Grayven." She takes my hand and does a reasonable job of shaking it, even with the ludicrous size difference. "Why are we here?"

"Ah, yes." I gesture to the settee opposite me. "Please, take a seat."

She hesitates for a moment, and I definitely notice Miss Worth watching her mother carefully for a clue as to how she's supposed to behave rather than sitting down on her own initiative. The woman looks me over for a moment, then steps back so that she and Rose can take the seat offered. Rose is holding her hand, but it doesn't look like she's doing it for reassurance. No. It's a control thing.

I sit down opposite. "Are you familiar with the Department of Metahuman Affairs?"

"I have heard of it. I understand that you are a federal agent."

I nod. "Yes. And more than that, I also had an encounter with a man named Slade Wilson earlier this year which saw him ending up inside a Singapore prison with five fractured ribs. Among other injuries."

She doesn't smile. Her expression remains completely under control. Of course, if she doesn't want me to talk about Rose's father in front of her this would be the time to make an excuse… No? Alright then.

"One of the things which the DMA is interested in is preventing people from becoming supervillains in the first place. Mister Wilson was given an augmentative treatment while in the employ of the US military, and at least one of his natural children has gone on to manifest metahuman abilities. While we wouldn't do anything as intrusive as.. put potential metahumans on.. some sort of national register, or anything as.. contrary to individual freedom as that… We do keep records relating to people we're concerned might come to be involved with known supervillains."

"I have not seen Slade Wilson for a very long time."

"Yes. However, it isn't you that I'm concerned for. As I implied, some augmentative processes affect the children of the recipient. And then there's the risk of Mister Wilson paying you a visit on his own initiative."

She nods slowly. "What do you want?"

"I want to give you a way to contact me or my chief of staff in an emergency. And a non-emergency number as well in case you want to leave a message. I have a.. daughter Rose's age myself, and.. I've been unable to help her when she was attacked by supervillains before. I wouldn't want anyone else to go through that if I could do something about it. And.. in the event that you.. happen to encounter someone who could benefit from mentoring from someone.. inside the community, I am.. again, happy to make myself available."

Rose has been watching me very carefully. I give her a smile. She narrows her eyes slightly, then turns her head towards her mother. "Mom-."

Ms Worth doesn't look at her. "Sh."

A minor glower, then Rose shifts her attention to me. "Slade Wilson is my father, isn't he?"

"Yes."

A quiet quasi-growl leaks from Ms Worth's lips.

"I have a summary of his personal history here-" A data stick appears from subspace, along with three emergency locator beacons. "-if you want to read it. And you should feel free to contact me if you have any questions."

Rose gives me a very small smile. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. That's really all I wanted to say to you." I rise to my feet, prompting them to do the same. "Please, have a pleasant day." Sinestro, hush tube.

The opening appears in front of me and I stride through into the basement of David Cain's current hidey-hole. It closes down once I'm through.

Oh, how very touching. Are you attempting to achieve karmic balance, Corpsman?

I look over to where David Cain is still chained to the wall.

"You know, you really are a horrible excuse for a Human being."

"You know I'll never talk. If you want to torture me, get on with it."

"'Want' is a.. complicated business. I want to see you suffer, but I don't want to be the sort of person who inflicts pain purely out of spite."

He makes an amused exhalation. "Are you going to tell me what I'm supposed to have done to you? I'm assuming it was someone I killed, but I can't think of anyone who you would have cared about."

"Oh, no. No, completely the wrong direction. I'm talking about Cassandra. Physical training… Sure. I grew up on Apokolips, I'm not precious about that sort of thing. Shooting her, then doing it again if she flinched… That's bad, and I'd probably kill you for it. But denying her access to language… That's a whole new level of vile."

He looks… Not scared, but a little concerned. "How the hell did you know about that?"

"I'm from a parallel universe where you're a comic book character. I read it. You got killed by Deadshot."

"Who?"

I widen my eyes. "Exactly."

He dismisses it with a shake of his head. "I don't even know where she is. She did one assassination and freaked out. I had to revise my whole methodology, and I couldn't convince Sandra to conceive another child."

"I wouldn't worry. Ms Wu-San was banging Vandal Savage when I killed her. And I know where Cassandra is perfectly well; she's in my home. Being taught how-" -kind of- "-normal people live." I raise my left hand. "I could assimilate you, turn you into a construct. But I don't like doing that to people whose knowledge isn't utterly irreplaceable. I could alter your mind to make you useful to me. But I don't think I could tolerate your ongoing presence without throwing up."

"So. David Cain of Earth. Die, and make the universe a better place for your passing."

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st October
21:03 GMT -6

"This is gunna be sweet!"

Wallace is grinning as we wait patiently in an unmarked van for the attack order.

Kaldur nods, though his smile is more subtle. "It is good to have you with us once more. Is your presence likely to be ongoing?"

"That's.. up to Batman. I got him the magic users he asked for, but he appeared to take… My methods a little personally."

"No." Wallace blinks. "I mean, yeah, having Oh El back is great and all, but I meant fighting time traveling Nazi assassins who fought the Justice Society."

Beryl yawns into her coffee, then takes a glug. "Not Nazis. Fascists. These ones blame aliens for everything instead of Jews, gypsies and sane people."

"Fine. Time traveling fascists who fought the Justice Society."

"How.. worried do we need to be about the time travel?" M'gann looks around the van's interior. "I mean, unless they can get to Mars in the future I'm pretty safe, but can they just time travel into your bedrooms when you were little?"

Wallace smiles smugly at me. "I dunno. That's why some of us have secret identities."

"Wallly."

"No, he's got a point. Hunter certainly isn't Mister Hunter's real name. But I wasn't ever a baby on this Earth, so I'm probably safe." My eyes turn a little awkwardly towards Kaldur.

"I am not worried for myself. It would be difficult for an outsider to locate a particular home in Atlantis, to say nothing of the difficulty a surface worlder would have in operating under water."

We all look at Beryl.

"Are we even sure paradoxes are possible? If they only try to kill me because I tried to stop them, why did they kill me if I never existed to try and stop them?"

"Supervillains." / "Supervillains." / "Because-. Yeah."

"Mister Hunter said that travelling in time makes you resistant to causality. If these people are time travellers rather than local hirelings, they won't necessarily be able to chronoshift out of the-."

Wallace shakes his head. "Chronowhat?"

"Ah. Use short bursts of time travel. Giving people better guns makes sense. Giving them time travel creates risks, particularly if you're using local electricity grids to power them."

Kaldur nods. "And not merely risks of detection. People they recruit from this time period are unlikely to share their particular ideology. They might well decide to simply take their equipment and then leave."

"I dunno." Wallace frowns. "If they've been here since the fifties then they've probably converted some people. I mean, we've fought actual Nazis twice now and the Nazis lost the Second World War. These guys win the future."

Beryl nods. "Am I the only one finding it strange that a time travelling hero wants to change the future?"

Kaldur raises his right eyebrow. "What surprises you about that?"

"I always thought that a hero would be the one trying to keep things as they are."

"Earth gets huge chunks of its population killed by the Reach, then gets unified under a fascist. If I had a time machine, I'd try to prevent that."

"Except we don't know that happens, do we?" She takes another sip of coffee. "Our only information sources are Nylor Truggs and Abra Kadabra."

"Who both said the same thing. And Kadabra had heard of Per Degaton."

Kaldur shrugs. "Whether their foreknowledge is entirely trustworthy or not, we have a syndicate of assassins to apprehend. Squire, any word from Batman?"

She brings up her arm computer for a moment. "Nope. Nothing yet."

Mister Hunter was a little disturbed to learn that some of his future information was no longer accurate. He didn't know that the League of Shadows was no longer active, and several of the sites he suggested we investigate didn't show any sign of illegal usage. But there were enough signs of recent usage that the team is being deployed along with the League to some of the more important sites.

"I haven't really been watching television. How's the whole 'angel' thing been playing?"

Beryl shrugs. "A lot of people using a lot of words to say nothing. Your interview wasn't exactly informative." Her eyes narrow slightly. "Which.. was intentional. When's the follow-up?"

"Sunday. And they'll be putting me on with people who'll be asking slightly more searching questions."

"You, ah..?" Wallace looks at me curiously. "You actually going to tell them what sort of fruit it was? Because breaking into Eden-"

"I didn't actually break-"

"-and taking a fruit-"

"-into Eden."

"-is a li-ttle more serious than taking some random fruit."

"That partly depends on whether Ms Blaze has shown any sign of understanding theurgy. If she does, I'll ask her to come on with me and I imagine that will set people's minds…" Wallace and Beryl glance at each other. "At ease. What?"

"A-ah…" Wallace grimaces. "Look… You don't think people who've been Christians or.. Jews or whatever their whole lives aren't gunna.. have a hard time with the fact that you've had more angel face time than they have?"

"Wallace, you don't need an invitation to visit KordTech. If you want some face time just-."

"No, not-. I mean, yeah, I probably will. But you've had more contact with an agent of God than anyone."

"Actually… Zauriel pretty much said that they usually stay invisible."

Kaldur seems less than impressed. "It would have been helpful if they had been a little more visible when demons overran Fawcett City."

"Kaldur, I stole a single pomegranate. While I could try taking the Silver City to task for their serial absenteeism, it seems to me that would generate.. more heat than light. Hopefully when Zauriel comes back we can-."

"Batman to team."

Beryl raises her arm again, inadvertently throwing her coffee across the van floor and then mouthing obscenities to herself. The rest of us come to a sort of seated attention, locking eyes on the screen.

"Doctor Mist confirms that Eliminations, Inc technology is only weakly resistant to magic. However, their technology interferes with all other forms of detection. We will not be able to get a good read on either the layout or the garrison until the attack begins. Call out weapons and defensive technologies as you see them."

We all nod, though on this sort of broadcast he can't see us.

"Proceed with the attack. Batman out."

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st October
21:08 GMT -6

Wallace has the doors open in a trice and I'm a split second behind him, armour appearing from subspace around my body. M'gann shimmers into invisibility as she takes to the sky while Beryl and Kaldur hold back slightly. M'gann and I could try phasing through the wall but there are technologies which can interfere with that and I don't particularly feel like doing a repeat of the Louvre.

Instead, I generate a giant crumbler gauntlet construct and slam it into the exterior wall!

Teleport jam, external communications jam… Brick, metal and plastics lose molecular cohesion instantly, the illusion covering the interior failing a moment later and revealing…

A lot of surprised people on forklift trucks.

Wallace blurs through the opening, keys vanishing from ignitions in his wake as I use my ring to scan the interior. Looks like a computer warehouse. High-end stuff, but nothing illegal. Of course, this might be a legitimate operation. The building stealth isn't illegal by itself, and neither is time travel in the US.

"Hey, what the hell is this?!"

Her badge says 'supervisor', and she's first to snap out of the shock. I ignore her, heading for the ceiling with another crumbler gauntlet construct. Because the thing about stealth technology is -crumble- that just because you can't see it, that doesn't mean that it isn't there. Out through the roof, into the night sky… Which stays night sky. Construct rotary blades, spin them through the area just in case there's an invisible carbuncle on some other part of the roof…

**Roof clear.**

**Ground floor clear.**

**They don't know anything. As far as they know, they ship in raw materials and ship out computer products.**

I feel Kaldur nod. **And those in the know are most likely management, working the day shift. Take as detailed a map of the interior from their minds as you can.**

**Done.**

I drop back through the hole in the roof as the supervisor works out that the man in the grey/blue armour is in charge. "Hey, I'm talking to y-!"

Kaldur waves his water-bearers and water envelops her before turning into ice. Kaldur approaches her as the rest of us receive M'gann's map in our minds.

"Please remain calm. We work for the Justice League and are searching for a group of assassins."

"And by 'calm'-" Beryl walks forwards with a large bundle of handcuffs. "-we mean get over here so we can cuff you."

A few turn and dash for the exits. M'gann becomes visible in front of one exit, her white-glowing eyes and telekinetically levitated pallets being more than enough to convince them that it's a bad idea. The ones heading for the fire exit reach it, only to find that it's been gummed shut.

"Borrowed that from my girlfriend." Wallace appears behind them, cuffs in hand. "Probably a fire hazard, so don't smoke anything for the next hour or two."

Hm. Based on the map M'gann took, this place appears to just be a manufacturing site. Not that we can rely on that…

**Aqualad, do we check out the production area first, or shall I start smashing the floor?**

Beryl and Wallace start applying cuffs as Kaldur thinks it over. **We will examine production first. You have point.**

I drop down, forming a new crumbler gauntlet construct as I do so. At this point there's no way we're going to disguise our general location, but experience has shown me that bypassing doorways wrongfoots a lot of people and bypasses a lot of traps. I strike the wall with the gauntlet and it disintegrates, revealing a dimly lit electronics laboratory. The lights blink on automatically as I enter and I get a good look at the equipment. Oh, that's interesting.

**Looks like they're using nano-forges.**

**Really? Are those what I think they are?** Wallace feels as interested as I am. **Practical molecular construction machines?**

**Yes.**

**Are those from the future?**

I hear the uncertainty in Kaldur's mental voice. He's far better with technology than most Atlanteans, but it still isn't a topic he's anything like as conversant on as the.. rest of us.

I'm thinking of us as a team again. That's.. rather nice.

**Difficult to say. It's a generation prior to what Doctor Roquette is working on, but I'm not aware of any Earth company that has them. Especially not this size and speed.**

**Do they present a danger?**

**Not to our mission, no. And.. on the off chance that they are fairly developed technology that the people here were keeping secret for some reason… They'd be very expensive to replace.**

**Then do not interrupt their operation. What are they making?**

**Bleeding edge quantum CPUs. Again, not definite proof of time travel, though... Suspicious. Miss Martian, did the employees suspect anything about this?**

**A few of them thought that there was something odd about the machines, but none of them really thought much about it.**

I spin orange strands around the room, but nothing is other than as it appears. **Room is secure. Moving on.**

Another wall, another destructive high five, another hole. Same.. basic layout, same systems… Same lack of booby traps. **Next room clear as well. Appears to be producing…** Ah. **Difficult to say for certain. Not circuitry. This stuff could be used in some models of phased particle weapon, but equally it could be used in a number of other high-end physics research devices.**

**They got contracts to supply things like that?**

I can feel Wallace's curiosity. And I just know that he and Richard would love to play with these things for a while.

**Not that I've been able to find. Also, they need better network security.**

**Time to remove the floor?**

**Not quite yet. Squire, are there any abnormalities in the floor plan?**

**No-. Wait. Maybe. They had an underground car park dug out… But it looks like they used too many lorries to move the earth they dug out away.**

**You think that they dug out more than they declared?**

**Not for certain, but if we're digging out the basement anyway…**

I crumble the floor beneath my feet and drop through the-.

**That's not on the plans. I just dropped through a radiation suppression system of a similar type to the one in Washington. Floor's thicker too.** I crumble again, this time breaking through to a new corridor. Dropping down the hole I take a look around. **This isn't on the plans and doesn't look twenty-first century.**

Actually, the solid metal with blinking diodes looks sci-fi retro, what someone in the fifties might have imagined the nineties would look like.

**I'd appreciate some support before I proceed further-.**

"Intruder detected. Initiating countermeasures."

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st October
21:13 GMT -6

Standard defence against phased particle weapons is wide area plasma fields. Standard counter to plasma fields is cold guns.

Cold gun constructs appear around me, searching for targets.

**Something triggered, prepar-**

**Aagh!**

**-for attack.**

White-red light flickers all around me, turning into dots moving! Phased particle beams fly, blasting holes in the ceiling, walls and floor as well as eating away at my construct armour! Cold guns fire back on automatic as I duck and dive. I'm never going to dodge them all in close confines like this, but I shouldn't have to worry much about them breaking my constructs unless they all start hitting the same point or something.

My return fire is… I can't tell. Ring, what the heck is this red stuff?

Readings consistent with models for temporal displacement technology. Return fire partially- I hear a muffled explosion. -successful.

Observe patterns of incoming fire. Are they-

Two shots hit my construct faceplate at the same time, making visible cracks on the surface. Phased particle beams are designed to penetrate before detonating, but that only works well against conventional matter; my constructs are turning it aside reasonably well. Which is good, because my power armour isn't really designed to do much more than ablate in the face of attacks like this. Could create a plasma field, but I'm not sure how that would react with the temporal displacement and I really don't want to create a plasma bomb underneath my team mates.

-using temporal manipulation to predict my shots or just firing and vanishing?

Reaction speed too rapid for definitive judgement. If the former, they are prioritising hitting you over their own survivability.

They're also not moving. The ring is showing me the pattern of their activity, and their displacement is regular to within two seconds. Rather than displace, wait to recharge and then reappear the moment they left, they're gone for the time it would.. probably actually take a weapon like that to recharge. Not true time travel, but it would still be blooming useful to get my hands on one.

And the ring's right, there are definitely fewer incoming shots. **Orange Lantern to team, under attack by drone weapons.** The red light has faded as the drones are destroyed. I… I guess it's a side effect of the displacement effect. I'll send the file to Dox when we're finished, see what he makes of it. **Drones are using phased particle beams as their primary weapons and what appears to be temporal displacement technology. Attack was triggered as soon as I entered the underground part of the facility.**

…

The last drone weapon falls silent and I take a moment to replenish my construct armour. Okay, let's take a look at-.

Small devices shaped like mushrooms sprout from the wall more armour!

There's a crackle of ionisation in the air as the plasma initiators activate, then the air turns to white light! Constant pressure on my shield, bearable, but I'm not going anywhere like this. Bit of an extreme burglar alarm; it would be lethal to anyone not shielded or super tough.

**Additional defences include a plasma initiator system.** The plasma initiators burn out, letting the gas in the room return to its natural composition and pressure. And.. that destroyed the drone remains, darn it.

…

**Please respond.**

**We're… Mostly okay, Oh El. Ow.**

**Do you need me back up-?**

**No.** Kaldur sounds a good deal more okay than Wallace did. **Keep looking. I will join you in a moment.**

I nod, replenish my construct armour again. **What happened?**

**Some sort of automated weaponry. Fortunately, I was its initial target and my armour turned its energy aside.**

**Good to hear.** I'd considered using arcane metamaterials in my armour, but I felt that phasing and invisibility were more useful. And I'd have to wear it throughout the mission as I wouldn't just be able to subspace it whenever I felt like it.

The metal making up the walls of the corridor is more than a little melted, and the damage to the stuff they're using to deceive my ring scans is enough that I'm getting slightly more helpful feedback now. This facility still doesn't appear to be particularly big, but there are a couple of rooms to take a look at. Hm. If they'd just had the production upstairs here we might not have thought that there was anything untoward going on here. Was the automated defence system a response to me, or to the other attacks that are going on?

Ring, show me everyone else's progress.

Compliance.

League attacks on what Mister Hunter assured us are their main centres are going well. Some resistance, about half of which is 'high end' rather than conventional guards. Huh. And a couple of whiffs as members of the world's premier superhero team turn up somewhere that genuinely doesn't have anything suspicious happening at it. Plastic Man and Green Arrow probably can't be redeployed fast enough to join in anything else… The rest of my team are doing fine, though Kon and Canis are reporting injuries. Probably had to tank the automated defences.

Kaldur drops down the hole and nods to me. "Are you injured?"

"No, raring to go." I lumber towards the end of the corridor at a jog, crumbler gauntlet construct out in front of me. "Are the forges-" The doorway disintegrates, revealing… Ah, rats. "-in one piece?"

What look like banks of computer equipment are either destroyed or.. missing, perhaps displaced in time to somewhen Eliminations, Inc can recover them.

"Much like this, I am afraid."

Scan… No, no more plasma weapons. Just… Destroyed equipment.

"Darn. Ring, anything worthwhile left?"

"Affirmative."

The ring highlights.. some sort of tachyon fountain. Which being tachyons, means that it's still working in the future. A marker? A beacon of some kind? I walk towards it. Should probably see if I can turn it off. I imagine that Doctor Palmer would-.

Red bubbles precipitate into existence to our right! I immediately aim my cold guns and Kaldur… Ah, calls up a.. sphere of water with ice sigils floating inside it. Beams of phased particles considerably more powerful than those fired by the drones fire back, knocking him backwards into the wall and straight up blasting chunks out of my construct armour. Dodge dodge! Ring, am I hitting-?

The fire cuts out, revealing four humanoids in full black and red body armour. They're carrying what I immediately recognise as phased particle beams, though the weapons look somewhat the worse for wear. Frost covers the exterior of their armour in several places but it looks like it's got the sort of insulation that can actually prevent cold guns scoring instant kills. They freeze for a fraction of a second, then the red bubbles reappear and they vanish.

"Kaldur?"

"I am well. And it seems that Doctor Mist was correct about them having no defence against magic." He pulls himself upright and walks to my side. "It is mildly reassuring that at least one of our foes does not work with the others."

I take a moment to look around. Guess we're done here, then.

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st October
21:47 GMT -6

I lean back against the wall, idly tapping my left foot against the pavement. The local police have pretty much finished their initial processing of the warehouse workers, but we already know from M'gann that they didn't know anything about their employer's real business. Other police are going through the building, bagging and tagging anything remotely interesting as well as securing the site. It would be a bit of a nuisance if someone stole some of the equipment, but… Hardly a major problem. None of it is more than a generation or two ahead of what Earth has now, and if someone was willing to splurge and had the right connections then they could probably get equipment like it from other places.

All in all, I'm a little underwhelmed.

We stopped a time travel-. No, we didn't. We undermined his resource base somewhat, but these places could have been in operation since the fifties. That's sixty years of turning out materials. If Per Degaton can't take over a post-apocalyptic Earth with that then there's probably no hope for him. And contrariwise, I'm struggling to see what a few extra years of production would really have done for him. The only thing I can really think of is that they might have been ramping up…

Okay, think it through. I'm a bitter would-be dictator with a time machine and a xenophobia psychosis. Travelling back in time for the resources worked for the Sheeda, so it's perfectly viable for me. But there's no point in taking raw materials. The Reach or the Thanagarians might have used local resources for local construction but there's no point just stealing raw materials when it's far easier to break up asteroids. Which means that while there might be local resource shortages in the future, there shouldn't be a resource shortage per se. Technology? I suppose… They might be backward, depending on how much effort the Thanagarians put into developing the place and exactly what the Reach didn't bother taking with them-.

No, hang on. Would the Reach have destroyed it out of spite or contempt? Not.. sure. Usually in their fights with the Darkstars they haven't bothered, but that's probably because they're confident that they'll be able to take it all back eventually. In a way it's an intimidation tactic; yes, we'll let you primitives squat here for a year or two, being properly impressed by our superiority… Point being, I don't really have a model for how they behave if they're having to retreat properly. And if Larfleeze was eating them…

Hm. No, I don't think they would. Or rather, if they were going to destroy their holdings then the destruction would be so total that there wouldn't be a native population left. If there was anyone left and the Thanagarians bothered occupying then it follows that there was something to occupy. So Per Degaton grows up in a world that was wrecked by one group of aliens -and unlike with the Nazis blaming the 'November Criminals' and the Jews it isn't a minority thing, it's historical fact- and now controlled by another. Truggs came back to prevent the defeat in the first place, but he's… A bit more of a realist. And -in his way- a utilitarian. Degaton… He'd want to fight. He'd want to show his people that they could win.

So he'd build weapons in the past, back when Earth still had the technology and infrastructure. But how would he get hold of them? Build a time.. gate of some kind here and send them through? Just.. bury them and wait? Bit of a risk, but if he knew how to hide it from Reach technology and knew where the Reach weren't going to bother looking it could work-.

"What's so great about that bit of wall, then?"

I blink as Beryl raises her eyebrows interrogatively at me. "Sorry, miles away. Something happen?"

"Final casualty reports. Nothing too serious, though the Hawkwoman would have been looking for a no-arm combat style if Accomplished Perfect Physician wasn't there. What are you thinking about?"

"Economic uses of time travel?"

She nods. "That Hunter bloke might share. Not sure how I feel about popping out of existence if you went back to stop Klarion, mind."

"No, no-. Well… I wasn't.. planning… Actively planning that. I mean, aren't we making people Mister Hunter's met pop out of existence by doing this now?"

"Not people I've met. And anyway, this was done with time travel anyway. Maybe we're making another group of people pop back?" She glances up for a moment. "If we assume that the possible permutations of history which can be created by time travel are near-infinite-"

I frown. "You can't have near-"

"-then really it's a bit selfish to think that any one group is more 'real' than any other."

"-infinite."

"Unless you're one of them. But particularity is a problem with a lot of logical ideas."

"I-. No, that wasn't what I was thinking about. What I meant was: how was Per Degaton planning to use any of this stuff?"

"Hide it and wait?" She thinks for a moment. "Those four guys with the teleporters might have been doing shuttle-runs."

"I don't suppose they were caught?"

She shakes her head. "People matching their description did a lot of counter attacks, but they stopped when Kaldur shut off their guns. Which means that it was probably the same group each time."

"And we don't… Heh, we don't remember anyone popping out of existence?"

She nods. "Makes it a bit hard to know, doesn't it?"

Alas, poor Triumph. "But… Why are there a few dozen factories? And why were they all in countries that had people who would actually look for them? If they'd gone to… I don't know, Ogaden-."

"Transportation infrastructure."

"For time travellers? Or how about China? I'm pretty sure the Standing Committee would keep things covered up for a cut of the output."

"Fascist dictators aren't sharers. Of course…"

"What?"

"The only time traveller who we know has got a way back.. is Mister Hunter."

I smile. "That's some Batman level thinking. But his sphere isn't big enough for more than a few boxes and we're not going to put all of the best stuff in one place. Compared to a time machine…"

"Do we actually know any of this for certain?"

Hmmm. "I don't think that Abra would lie to me about Per Degaton existing. Small bursts of chroniton radiation combined with their movement pattern suggests that those people had at least limited time travel capacity… But we don't have a hard evidential tie between them and Per Degaton, just Mister Hunter's assurance."

"Alright. So, a fascist dictator wants to send people back in time to build things for his take over. Who does he send?"

"Logically… He'd go himself and set things up, then return to the future and leave a loyal lieutenant running it?"

"What if he couldn't. What if it was one way? Or… Difficult, or hard to hide or something?"

"Someone.. loyal and unimaginative. They'd be going back into what was a.. far nicer world than they were used to. He wouldn't want them getting distracted or deciding they were better off without him. And… He wouldn't be able to send them much help. They'd probably have to recruit it locally. And the locals wouldn't share their ideology."

"See, based on what we actually know about 'Eliminations, Inc.', that fits much closer to how they acted. They killed for money and never said anything about any sort of ideology. So maybe… They were building up funds for this? And they disappeared because they already had the money to build their first factories… They didn't need to kill people any more. And the hired killers were only in it for the money, so they could just be paid off…"

"Might be worth seeing if we can find them. We should be able to get authorisation for telepathic-."

"Because I know what's going on!"

Beryl and I look over to the police cordon where a middle aged and quite aggravated man is arguing with a police officer. We look at each other for a moment and then jog in his direction.

"Is there a problem, sir?"

His attention switches away from the police officer as soon as he hears it. "Yeah. I want my time machine back."