Black Canary put out a call to all heroes to meet at the Justice League Watchtower so that she could provide more information on some of the recent temporal anomalies that had started with the appearance of a time portal in the Watchtower a few weeks earlier, which had resulted in dinosaurs attacking the heroes gathered there at the time. As the heroes arrived, they noticed that Black Canary was wearing an old blue and white costume she’d not worn in years. When Livewire commented on it, Canary looked confused, saying she’d worn that costume since Max Lord had formed the Justice League Global two years earlier, following the destruction of Atlantis–and that it was more in keeping than leather and fishnets with her current status as the wife of Oliver Queen.
These statements–along with Canary’s greeting of “Happy St. Vitus’s Day” though it was February 14–began to worry the assembled heroes. Troia especially wondered if something might be wrong with Canary. But Canary dismissed such comments as either jests on the part of her fellow heroes or the possibility that they were experiencing some kind of anomaly themselves. But when Firestorm arrived, she addressed him as “Professor Stein,” causing confusion on the part of the Nuclear Hero. Things got even weirder when Canary called up on the vid screen a report from . . . Delphi! Although it was clearly the woman the heroes knew as Oracle, this Delphi proceeded to report on a number of anomalies that had been reported, none of which any of the heroes had heard of before.
Among them:
A man claiming to be Aquaman caused a stir at the UN today, when it’s common knowledge that Aquaman had died in the Dominator Earth-Seed destruction of Atlantis two years ago that claimed not only the entire continent and its ruler, God-Emperor Starro, but the aquatic hero as well. UN Chairman-for-Life Lex Luthor had the imposter arrested for desecrating the memory of a fallen hero. Oddly, a pod of dolphins seemed to try to leap from the East River to attack the UN power-armored troops attempting to take the faux Aquaman into custody.
Reports are coming in that the blackened wasteland where the destroyed city of Smallviile once stood has somehow been converted back to farmland and a town that seems to be right out of the 1930s. Authorities are still investigating what might have happened there. Their efforts have been hindered by an uknown metahuman in a blue and red costume who seems capable of leaping entire buildings in a single bound and blindsiding investigators.
Old Gotham City, which had been devastated in the Earthquake and left to lie fallow when New Gotham was built, also seems to somehow have been restored to its former glory, with art deco towers and airships roaming the skies. The Batman and Redwing are currently sending reports back on what they’re finding, including a slew of criminals who’d died in the Arkham Asylum collapse seemingly resurrected and running amok in the streets. Among them are the Joker, Mr. Freeze, Nightwing and Deathwing, and Alfred the Butcher.
The Great Wall of Nippon collapsed today, seeming to simply disintegrate along the entire Shino province of Imperial Japan, leaving the province open to the hordes of Vandal Savage that had been camped in siege outside it. UN Chairman-for-Life Lex Luthor has called for a truce between the Imperial Japanese government and Savage’s rabble, though the Japanese have sent in several divisions of Imperial Stormtroopers as well as the Rocket Rising Suns and heros Katana and Kamikaze Joe. Oliver Queen, current Ra’s al-Ghul of the League of Assassins has pledged support to the Japanese forces.
Delphi reported also on the Red Skies phenomena that had appeared around the world that day, lasting for 15 minutes in various locations worldwide. She closed by stating she’d sent various members of her Birds of Pray to the locations of the anomalies and that they’d be coordinating their efforts with the heroes through Black Canary, in her usual role as liason between Justice League Global and the Birds of Pray. During the report, Flash arrived and was especially vocal about some of the differences he was hearing, particularly the code name of Delphi and the fact that Lex Luthor was now Chairman-for-Life of the United Nations!
Black Canary tried to calm the heroes, assuring them that everything was as it always had been, and that perhaps they were experiencing some anomalies that were affecting their memory. She explained how Luthor had been appointed UN Chairman for Life due to his heroic acts following the destruction of Atlantis by the Dominator Earth-Seed, and how he’d used his Telluric Energy devices to hold back the destructive tsunami and the earth ruptures caused by the loss of Atlantis. And how he’d then done the same to repel the Mole-Men’s attack on the surface world. Just then, Poison Ivy ariived at the Watchtower and was welcomed, to Flash’s concern, by Black Canary as a backup member of the League, filling in for Swamp Thing while he was away in the Green.
The heroes by now weren’t having any of it, insisting that either she wasn’t their Black Canary or that they’d somehow been transferred to an alternate earth. Flash was especially vocal about Swamp Thing never having been in the League. Canary paitently explained–still fearing they were having anomalous memory losses–that in wake of the Atlantis disaster, the JLA and Titans had disbanded and Max Lord had formed the Justice League Global on direction from UN CfL Luthor. And she reiterated that Swamp Thing was indeed a member of the JLG. To prove it, she had the computer read out the list of current members:
1. Oliver Queen, aka Green Arrow, Leader of the JLG, also current Ra’s al-Ghul, Leader of the League of Assassins, presently away with the LoA opposing Vandal Savage and his hordes in Asia.
2. Guy Gardner, aka Red Lantern, Second in Command of the JLG, Learder of the Red Lantern Corps, currently on a mission with the other Red Lanterns in the Vega system for the Guardians of the Unknown.
3. Lobo
4. Silver Banshee
5. Mistress Martian
6. Cave Carson
7. Artemis
8. Max Mercury
9. The Question
10. Swamp Thing, presently deep within the Green; represented till return by Poison Ivy.
11. Steamhawk
12. Black Canary, Third in Command, JLG, and liason with the Birds of Pray.
Several of the heroes expressed amazement at this lineup, as well as Canary’s statement that the JLA and Titans had disbanded, and been replaced by this JLG and Birds of “Pray” . . . When the computer asked if it needed to list the Birds of Pray as well, Ivy asked for it, prompting the computer to do that as well:
1. Delphi (Leader, formerly Batgirl before resigning the title to Selina Kyle)
2. Sister None
3. Mistress Karma
4. The Princess of Peace
5. Lady Shiva
6. Dove
7. Isis
8. Black Canary (Second in command and liason with the JLG)
Suspecting that they’d been transported to an alternate Earth, Flash attempted to vibrate his way home . . . only to find that the vibration attempt didn’t work, indicating that this was indeed their Earth . . . but changed somehow.
Just then, the Watchtower alarm system went off, detecting tachyon particles and an imminent temporal incusion. When Black Canary told them to be alert in case what had happened last time happens again, Flash concluded that, if they’d experienced these before, someone had definitely tampered with time somehow. Except , . . the Watchtower was supposed to be shielded against such events . . . He was cut off when a swirling energy votex appeared and a blurred figure seemed to leap from it before finally coalescing into . . . the Time Commander! At that, Flash was sure that this was the cause of their problems and that Zoom hadn’t gotten rid of the Time Commander as easily as he had claimed.
The heroes were about to take action when the Time Commander suddenly began to express relief that he’d arrived there finally and found the heroes at last. This took the heroes aback and left them in confusion, especially when the Time Commander begain talking about how it wasn’t too late, because the timeline was still mostly intact here. He explained to the heroes that that he had come to help restore the timeline, though he may not have much time as HE was after him. He affirmed to Flash on his question that this HE was responsible for the time anomalies. But then the Time Commander also admitted to being responsible as well . . . but only because HE was his younger self. To help explain he asked if the heroes had heard of Hypertime.
Flash and some of the others were familiar with the concept–as Canary put it, it’s similar to the multiverse, but with multiple timestreams . . . The Time Commander confirmed that this was true. When they’d last met he had stolen a piece of the Worlogog–which gives access to all of time and space. He’d let Zoom think he’d been trapped in time so that Zoom would keep the heroes busy while the Time Commander mastered the Worlogog so he could make himself the Master of Time and Space. Unfortunately, his tampering with the Worlogog caused Hypertime to begin to unravel, resulting in the anomalies that the heroes had been experiencing. Eventually, the device imploded, destroying all of time and space.
All that survived was the Vanishing Point at the End of Time, where the Time Commander had been holed up, trying to master the Worlogog. Everything else was an infinite void. He’d gone mad, of course, but eventually he came to his senses and realized that he had to stop his earlier self from detroying everything. The Time Commander finally managed to use a few remaining pieces of the Worlogog to cobble together another version of his hourglass to try to return to a time before the damage had become so great it was irreversible. He’d tried several times to come through–including the previous vortex at the Watchtower–but his younger self had detected him and sent through some dinosaurs, controlled by a robo-raptor from another timeline. He’d managed to elude them before. But he can’t hide from his other self forever.
The heroes dtermined that they had to stop the other Time Commander, and this one declared that he could help them, as he knows all his own defenses. But they had to get to the Vanishing Point before his other self fully activated the Worlogog. The Time Commander seemed quite relieved that the heroes had agreed to help him–but then suddenly paled and declared that HE had found him. Just then, a velociraptor lept from the portal and grabbed the Time Commander’s leg in its mouth, dragging him back to the vortex. The heroes immediately reacted to attempt to rescue the Time Commander, but before they could reach him, a T. Rex charged from the portal, stopping between them and the others.
Flash did manage to speed in and begin to pound the raptor, trying to force it to free the Time Commander. But he didn’t see the movements of the Rex, which knocked him away with a sweep of its tail. Livewire converted to electricity and entered the Watchtower wiring in the floor, while Kurdaitcha charged the Rex with his sword. Canary hopped up on the conference table and pulled a metallic ball from her boot, throwing it at the dinosaur and warning everyone else to hold their ears. Firestorm used his transmutational powers to turn the deck beneath the Rex into sticky tar . . . fortunately, not the part Livewire was in at the moment.
Troia attempted to reach the raptor to follow up Flash’s attack, but before she could get there past the Rex and all that was happening, the beast vanished into the vortex, with the Time Commander in tow. Canary’s sonic grenade caused the Rex to drop to the deck, bleeding from its tiny ears, and into the tar that Firestorm had created. Livewire meanwhile created a cage of electricity around the fallen Rex to contain it–but it suddenly simply vanished. Troia managed to grab hold of the Time Commander’s arm before he was fully pulled into the vortex and hold him there long enough for him to tell them to come find him at the Vanishing Point before he left so he can still help them. And to find Rip Hunter, who can take them there!
And then Troia had to let him go or rip his arm off in her hand, so powerful was the pull of the vortex . . . which also vanished with the Time Commander, leaving nothing behind. As they gather together afterward, the heroes began comparing notes, with Canary realizing that the others were from a different timestream where there was no JLG or Birds of Pray. She explained the sonic grenade as necessary because she’d lost her Canary Cry mostly and could only call on it in limited situations. But she felt they needed to work together to find the Vanishing Point and save the Time Commander . . . but to do that they had to find Rip Hunter, whose last known location was Nanda Parbat, according to the computer.
Recognizing the name of the location, Flash asked if that wasn’t where Deadman was from. Canary confirmed that–Emperor Deadman and his Demon Army. They’d run the League of Assassins out of Nanda Parbat, but at least had kept Vandal Savage’s hordes from capturing it. Hearing that, Flash asked her if this timestream had a Superman and Batman. Canary confirmed that, as in the earlier report from Delphi, Batman and his partner Redwing worked in New Gotham, where they’d stayed since the League disbanded. But Canary didn’t know who Superman was, asking if Flash meant Ubermensch. Which prompted Flash to fear that Hitler had won WWII–until Canary asked him who Hitler was.
The heroes decided, Canary declared she’d contact Delphi and arrange for transportation for them to Nanda Parbat to find and rescue Rip Hunter from Emperor Deadman and his Demon Army so that Hunter could take them to the Vanishing Point to rescue the Time Commander so that they could stop . . . the Time Commander . . . and repair Hypertime.
(To be continued . . .)
Heroes Present: Troia, Wonder Girl, Livewire, Flash (Wally West), Firestorm, Kurdaitcha, Black Canary, Poison Ivy (!), Delphi (via vid screen).
Villains present: The Time Commander A (temporally), Velociraptor, T. Rex.
Also Present: The Time Commander B (as ally)
dailyplanetblogblog.wordpress.com 