"Oh well. It was worth-."
"Connection made to monitored phone line."
And it looks like Truggs has been
notified that you're ringing his phones off the hooks. Another chance to
gloat, after all...
I raise my eyebrows and Old Kara frowns, unable to believe that it was that simple. New Kara on the other hand closes her eyes completely.
"Answer."
"Hey Paul."
The
impressive thing is that she can likely hear him from there, but then...
Near-clairaudient super-hearing. Heck, some versions of Kryptonians are basically
psychics anyway, so not a great stretch for their supersenses to be applied psionic scrying...
"Good morning, Nylor."
"How you been?"
It's amusing how civil these two are. I mean, Truggs has no reason to be salty, after all, and OL is, well,
English.
"Gosh, it's been a while, hasn't it?"
"Lonely. You don't call, you don't write… Not like I gave you a forwarding address."
Geez, you make it sound like you were
dating.
If only you weren't on opposite sides of the
law...
"I died again. The Reach managed to get hold of some qwa-matter."
"Ah, I've heard of that stuff. Pretty powerful. But here you are."
At least he's smart enough not to go messing around with concentrated
non-existence. Let's hope he can keep his bosses from making
that mistake, though.
"Here I am. The war's going in line with expectations; the Reach are being pushed inwards and they're losing Scarabs at a satisfactory rate."
"Always makes me smile."
Ah, OL. the bearer of good news.
I'm sure Truggs is ready to break out the party-poppers
any second...
Dana frowns. "Are you..? Two..? Dating?"
I roll my eyes and shake my head. "Hey, do you remember Dana Dearden?"
Surprised Kara-1 didn't blush at that. Or react at all. I mean,
Fifties morality... Guess she's just too focused on Trugg's voice to hear anything
closer... Glad to see it wasn't just
me who thought that about those two, though.
"Heh, 'This is live?' girl?" Dana rolls her eyes. "Yeah, I remember her. Something happen?"
"Back when we had that problem with Eliminations, Inc. Do you remember some of your memories being… Disjointed?"
Call-backs for the win. ...Not that I can remember more than the bare bones of that bit, besides Persuader showing up?
"Enough hits t' the head an' yah get used to it. … I remember. Something happen yah wanna tell me about?"
"Apparently, we were both briefly guests of the Legion of Superheroes in a patch of time that got erased afterwards. I don't remember it, and I assume that you don't either."
Given that Trugg's brain is only
human, enhancements or not... I rather suspect he'd have trouble
recognising if he's forgotten something.
Heh,
there's a change of tune. That shut him
right the eff up.
"That's what alarms you about it? We had-."
"I knew they were going t' come for me. Thought I was ready for them."
Evidently your preparations weren't
sufficient. No doubt he'll
already be scrambling to think up new options...
"If it helps, Dana told me that you got away from them, so maybe it worked. But this sounds believable to you?"
"In one of your interviews, you said that orange power rings give people what they want. You also said you had a perfect memory. I could see you calling me up if someone made you forget something. Maybe."
It's impressive that Truggs just
believes him. It's too fantastical to be a bluff, so
surely...
"The Legion isn't happy with me, either."
"Are you telling me you actually are a time traveller?"
...Not
quite as far as
you came, Nylor, my boy. But
technically, yes.
"No. And-. Wait, did I ever explain to you that I changed the structure of time so that alternate pasts and futures can exist?"
"N-. W-? Y-. … How?"
Easy there, OL! You don't just
drop that on someone like
that. I think you derailed his train of thought.
"Vanishing Point, Krona the ex-Guardian, giant temporal tuning forks. So while your future is still the same, this future can be something different."
"That-. I need a moment here. Ah, so you're telling me that changing the past doesn't matter, because the present would stay the same, and all you're doing is creating an alternate timeline."
Good thing he's got fairly
reliable physical enhancements, or he might well have had a minor heart attack there. Certainly a momentary
panic attack...
"I think… Minor things get incorporated, so you could go back and hide something, then return to your original present and find it. But for big things, yes. It's an energy calculation."
"Okay, that doesn't-. I don't think it changes what I'm doing. I mean, if we're going to improve humanity's future, it's a good thing we're not erasing a future that already exists to do it, right?"
Temporal mechanics probably give
Maltusians a minor annoyance. Imagine how bad it is for everyone
else?
"That was my thinking, but apparently Quirrell Dox has got a bit of a thing about us, and-."
"I'm sorry, who?"
Goddammit, OL, you
actually said it? Good thing everyone
already thinks you're a gifted idiot...
"Quirrell Dox? Brainiac Five? Formerly leader of the Legion of Superheroes?"
"His name is 'Querl'. Querl Dox."
Hey, he was
close. Only one (or
two) syllables off...
I frown and look at Dana, who takes a moment to notice and then nods.
"Oh. I must have misremembered."
New Kara opens her eyes slightly, squinting at me.
"Are
all Orange Lanterns like
this, or is he just,
uh...
Special?"
"Making me think I should take back what I said about perfect memory. Or is it only-."
"Perfect for anything that happened while I was wearing my rings, because-."
"Because you can't reconstruct a memory that isn't all there, yah?"
Love it when you
barely have to Bluff them. Just feed their expectations and
bam, they fool themselves...
"So if you see any Legion members around the place, let me now and I'll send them on their way. Also… But of a silly thing, but you wouldn't have anything to do with all of the Supergirls, would you?"
"Ah? Supergirls?"
Hmm... Out of curiosity, Nylor. Were there any Supergirls in
your timeline's Legion? Or Superboys?
"Yes, we've been getting a lot of them and we don't really know why?"
"Parallel universe Supergirls?"
Oh, he's quick. Or
knows something. Then again, there's only
one Supergirl in public right now: Loriel. Angelika has been using Overgirl, and Kara-16 hasn't really gone out in costume. So any use of plurals,
well...
"One is, but the rest-"
New Kara's eyes open wide.
"Found him."
Good girl! Go get him, then!
"-are other women who happen to use the name."
There's a rush of displaced air as New Kara disappears, and Angelika activates a Justice League issue computer so that she can track her.
Presumably you gave her a League
communicator so you could track her?
Or is the computer just hacking satellite feeds to try and spot her in flight?
"What's that got t' do with me?"
"I'm just trying to eliminate you from my enquiries. I mean, if it's not you then I've got to try and get in touch with Ambush-."
Please,
don't. I doubt he'll be
happy about having his reading time interrupted, especially for a continuity snarl like
this.
"Ghk!"
"Ambush Bug. See you shortly."
No doubt
that was for Kara-1's benefit, since I doubt Truggs is paying
much attention to him right now... What with having a small but very
strong hand on his shoulder...
Angelika shows me her screen. "It cannot detect her exact location, but her last known location is here."
"I'll set up a zeta tube when I arrive."
Magical concealment, of course. Too bad he didn't think to make it
sound-proof...
I step out
and reappear… Hm, yes, it's obvious where Kara went. Have to make sure that the road is still structurally sound later. I'm picking up runic patterns and.. novel materials that are disrupting more mundane scans. I accelerate, following Kara's path until I emerge in a… Mad science warehouse, seeing Nylor dangling from Kara's hand.
"Can I pick him up like this?"
Please,
do. Heck, hold him by the
ankle if you'd like. Once he's suitably restrained, then perhaps you might like to help patch up the
road you smashed through? People have kind of a
thing about casual collateral damage...
