14th September 2012
18:22 GMT -6
I yank the pizza delivery girl up into the air, the Hawaiians she was carrying falling to the ground.
At least nothing of value was lost.
It's noteworthy that she doesn't react with fear. Rather, she does a quick test of her bonds and then goes limp, waiting to see what happens.
"You know, you're rather lucky.
"
"'cause crazy people kidnap me?"
"Because I found you ahead of the Chinese. Do you know what they do to Durlans?
"
"What? What's a '
Dulan'?"
"Knock it off, Chameleon Boy. You didn't take the hint when I stopped Persuader killing Superman, but now you and yours are actually making my life
difficult. The Chinese are
really good at detecting Durlans, and their information sharing with the League covers the technology they use to do-
"
Giving it up as a bad job, she reverts to his neutral humanoid form. Looks like the clothes weren't part of his body.
"-it. You can use your
actual neutral form if you want; I know what it looks like.
"
"That's not a good look around humanoids." He tests his construct bonds again. "What happened?"
"Dana Dearden.
"
"What's
she doing here?"
"I can only suggest that you ask Brainiac Five. I'm holding onto her coins until the four of you are back in the future where you belong.
"
"That won't stop us coming back again."
"Yes it will; this isn't your past any longer, something I'd have been happy to explain to you if you'd just asked.
"
"'Not our'-? Is that why our communicators stopped working?"
"I don't know what technology you use to communicate with the-.
" I wince.
"It's not 'write a message and bury it', is it?
"
"We tried that when the normal way didn't work, but we haven't had a response."
"And telepathy doesn't work worth a damn on Durlans because your minds can run on
anything. How long have you been on Earth? In
this era?
"
"We got here just ahead of Persuader."
"'Just ahead-?
"
"Time travel." /
"Time travel.
"
I nod as I turn and fly across the town that the visiting members of the Legion of Superheroes have made into their base of operations.
"I'll give you a full explanation when the three of you are together, but the reason for you being here has been rendered null and void.
"
"Because you've already
unmade our future?"
"Because it's not this timeline's future any longer. Seriously, if we gave you a time machine and you returned to your era, you wouldn't see the things you remember.
"
"That's what I
said."
I generate a construct rope and suspend it in the air in front of him. The upper part has 'future' written on it, and the bottom 'present'.
"History. You arrived-
"
I generate an arrow construct to point at the upper part of 'present'.
"-
here. Krona and Time Trapper cut it off
here.
"
I cut it off above 'present' and move the 'future' away from it.
"Your past has been restored already.
"
I have the 'future' rope extend downwards, forming a 'present'.
"And I don't know what our future looks like, but hopefully it involves fewer time travelling inconveniences. Probably won't involve the United Planets, because I'm going to devote a substantial portion of the next century to burning the Reach to the ground, but that's not your problem.
"
I'm not sure whether Chameleon Boy usually does facial expressions, but he definitely isn't bothering now.
"How do you know about this?"
"Dana tried arresting me. With everything else that was going on, Justice League telepaths scanned her. Between her and Abra Kadabra's willing cooperation-.
"
"He
really comes from the seventieth century?"
"Some point in the future, yes. So other than you, Magnet Boy and Saturn Girl, is there anyone else here? Anyone that Dana didn't know about?
"
"It's
Cosmic Boy."
"Does he manipulate magnetic fields or 'cosmic' fields?
"
"
Magnetic, but that's still not his name."
"Then he should have picked a name that's a little less risible.
"
I nod as I see Angelika fly in our direction, a young woman I assume to be Saturn Girl-. Yes, that's the brain of a telepathic human. And a Belle Reve issue power suppression collar because we
know what the brains of telepathic humans look like. Saturn Girl flying just ahead of her using her Legion flight ring.
"Is there anyone else here? Because we've only got one time machine, so if we shove the four of you into it anyone else will be left behind.
"
"No."
"Now, we can't scan
your brain, and Saturn Girl could probably keep us out if we weren't willing to inflict lasting psychological harm -and we're
not- but I doubt that Magnet Boy is that resilient. Do you want to change your answer?
"
"No. Aside from Dana, there's no one."
"Glad to hear it. What were you four even
doing here, anyway?
"
"Trying to work out what went wrong."
"And ignoring the fact that
you're the ones from the bad future?
"
"Lots of bad things happened in the past. For me, the Reach occupation of Earth-."
"Nine hundred years ago, and the Durlan Civil War was probably a bigger deal in your history class.
"
"Yeah."
"Good news! It's not your problem any more. Good luck with
your future, and may you never darken our doors again.
"