RIP HUNTER’S LABFor most people, kneeling over a deactivated robot friend and staring at their exact twin despite the fact they don’t HAVE a twin would seem… strange to say the least.
For Booster Gold it was just another day in the revolving spectrum of being a time cop.
“Now hold on you…” Booster exclaimed. “Just wait one minute!”
“I’d like to, pal,” the other Booster replied, “… but I just don’t have the… heh… time.”
“Great. At least you have my sense of humor,” Booster said, relaxing a little. “When are you from?”
“You know I can’t tell you that… um… Mike…” the other Booster said, starting to circle around. “In fact, I didn’t even mean to… well… let’s just say this wasn’t planned. I didn’t even realize that was you… errr… me at first.”
“Ok, I can understand that,” Booster replied, wondering why the other… well, HIM was looking so wary. “But do you have any idea what happened here?”
“Not quite,” the other Booster answered. He stopped and looked rather grim. “But I AM going to find out. Despite what someone may think. I’m sorry pal.”
“Sorry?” Booster wondered. “Sorry about what?”
A second later Booster felt something hit him hard from behind. Then everything went black.
Booster came to and shook his head. He was fighting to regain his senses and was able to make out his own voice talking to someone.
“… wasn’t here. Listen, you, just because Rip chose you first doesn’t mean… Frak! He’s waking up... I mean… I’M waking up!”
“We have another place/time to try,” a deep and spooky sounding voice replied. “Let us go before you see too much.”
“Locking in on Vanishing Point,” another voice said, sounding like it was fading out.
Booster forced his eyes open just in time to see three dark figures disappear. He rubbed his eyes and blinked. He could see fine now, but there was no one to see.
“What the hell?” he wondered out loud.
Booster looked around at the wrecked lab and reached for the still-deactivated Skeets.
He flipped open a small door on Skeet’s underbelly and pushed a small button. The little golden robot immediately came online.
“Activation Mode. Reboot. Skeet-Bot Security num… Michael?” Skeets lifted into the air and turned in a 360 degree circle taking in the room. “What happened here?”
Booster got up and dusted himself off. “I was kinda hoping you would tell me that Skeets.”
“I cannot remember. My memory files have been accessed by an outside source,” Skeets replied. “I was here discussing… something… with Rip and next thing you are sitting on the floor and I am coming online.”
“Great,” Booster said. “Someone blows Rip’s lab to hell, he’s gone, you have your memory messed with AGAIN, and I get to see myself and wonder what is happening.”
“See yourself?” Skeets asked. Booster explained the brief confrontation with himself that had occurred while Skeets was turned off.
“This is not good,” Skeets told him. “Why would you have come here from the future?”
“How do you know it was a future me?” Booster asked.
Skeets turned and faced Booster. “Have you ever run into yourself in Rip’s lab before?”
“Um… no,” Booster replied.
“That’s right… because it hasn’t happened yet to your present self… so it wasn’t a past version of you; it was something you yourself haven’t done yet,” Skeets said.
Understanding came upon Booster. “Oh! Yeah!” he said. “That actually makes sense... for once. Damn I hate time travel… So… we have a missing Rip Hunter and an unknown assailant. Any thoughts how we should go about finding Rip?”
“Best thing for us to do is search the lab for any clues,” Skeets replied. “I will try the security cameras, you look around.”
“Where’s Batman when you need him?” Booster wondered aloud as he lifted a chunk of metal and tossed it aside. Underneath were the remains of Rip’s desk, where his computer sat. Or what was left of it.
Booster picked up the smashed hard drive and turned it over and over. It looked burnt out. He was about to toss it aside when he had an idea.
“Skeets!” he called out, turning. “Why don’t we just go back to when Rip was taken?”
“We cannot, Michael,” Skeets replied, flying back over. “The constant flux of time that Rip has the lab moving through makes traveling to the lab out of the timestream almost impossible. We have no way of calibrating the “keys” that Rip gave us to move through the lab in different time periods… especially since there is no way to know exactly what period the lab was in at the time.”
“Yeah, well his little security idea didn’t keep someone from figuring it out,” Booster remarked.
“Yes, it’s very curious how someone could have done it,” Skeets agreed. “The odds are quite against it.”
“No one must have told him the odds,” Booster said, showing Skeets the hard drive. “Can you access this thing?”
“Well, the security cameras have been turned off,” Skeets informed Booster. “It’s like someone knew they would have to avoid being seen and knew where to disable them. Let me see the hard drive.”
Booster put the drive onto the desk and stepped back. Skeets flew just over it and connected himself.
“The drive has been wiped,” Skeets explained. “However I’m picking up a few files that survived. I’ll reconfigure the fragments into coherent data.”
“What kind of files?” Booster asked.
“See for yourself,” Skeets replied. A beam of light emitted from Skeets’s eye plate and projected an image onto the wall. It looked like the desktop screen of a PC.
“Nice. You’re Microsoft Power Point compatible and everything, Skeets. I should try playing fantasy football on you instead of that computer Ted made for me.” Booster grinned. He scanned the list of folders that had been recovered. One in particular interested him. “Let’s see the one labeled ‘Agents’, okay?”
The image on the wall expanded. Inside the folder were five files:
AGENT B
AGENT G
AGENT S
AGENT W
AGENT X“What is this?” Booster wondered aloud.
“The date is incomplete and still partly corrupted, but I can show some of it.” Skeets opened the first file. Booster somehow wasn’t surprised to see its contents. A picture of himself appeared, followed by some notes.
AGENT B – BOOSTER GOLD
Recruited: Oct0ber 21, 2o06.
I’ve decid#d, alm*st de$pite myself, to recruit Gold. He’s a bit of a lout *nd very much full of hims&lf, but th*re’s a potent!al there that I c@nnot ignore.“Thanks, Rip,” Booster muttered under his breath sarcastically. He continued reading.
As I’ve deta!led in my n*tes, I’m sticking to b&ings that have already been in the timestre@m enough so that they can handle the ch@nges. While Gold doesn’t have a large amount of experIence, his trips through the timestream bef0re its present state will help greatLy in preserving his chemistry make-up. Being as well preserved as his DNA is, I think he’ll w0rk very nicely. “Well preserved? What the hell is he talking about?” Booster asked Skeets.
“I feel like I should know Michael...” Skeets replied. “I fear that information was taken when whoever deactivated me attempted his memory wipe. However, we both know that the timestream has been going through some changes. It seems that one of the reasons Rip recruited you was because you had been through it a few times and that exposure made you more likely to be immune from possible effects from further contact to the altered timestream.”
G0ld thinks he kn0ws what to exp3ct. Be!ng from the 25th Century, he think$ he knows enough @bout ‘hi$tory’ to help him thr0ugh things. I’m @lmost tempted to tell him how wrong h# is, and how littl# he really knows. It is very !mportant however, that G0ld does not d!$(0^#& #!$ t!#$ #0 #&# 52. M^ #1m3 sp#r#’$ ev0lu#!0n h@$ 01010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101 “Does not what?!” Booster shouted.
“There is no further date left in the file.” Skeets explained. He opened the next one.
AGENT G – WALKER GABRIEL
Recruited: December 12th, 20o6
I have re$ervations @bout Gabriel, but h!s incessant exp0sure to the timestream $hould pRove invalu@ble. I cons!der#d using ChroNos, but #is person@l!ty and ideol0gy fl@ws make h!m t00 much an unstabl& risk. While I have been ^sing Boo$ter G0ld for the more str@!ghtf0rward m!ssions, Gabri#l’s tal&nts will be b&st served for the more $&nsitive task$. He’s much l&$$ flashy %nyhow. St!cking to the sh@dows is what he does b&st. Wh@# I n&&d to b& car#ful 0f is G@br#el’s c0nn&cti0n t0 (#r)^0$ @#d h!$ l!3!01010101010101010101010101 “Oh, for Frak’s Sake!” Booster exclaimed. “That’s all there is? What a great place for it to end!”
“Interesting,” Skeets remarked. “So you aren’t the only one working for Rip after all.” He opened the next file.
AGENT S – SUPERNOVA
Recruited: October 30, 2109
I’m h&sit@nt to even keep @ file on this. Even @s well pr0tected @s my lab is, I know that eventually this information is in danger of being exposed. I’m st!ll 0n the brink with this decision, but I d)n’t believe I have much of a choice. I c@nnot discount how imp0rtaNt h# is g0!ng to be. I have to use him but I c@nnot r!$k his expo$ure to prying ‘eyes’. Supernova m0$tly will be held in cheCk for the most important pH@se of this operation but his suit will h&lp him utilize his other ‘inner talents’, despite the risk of aCtivating them of course, for a few warm up tasks. I shoulD include Sk&&ts in on this, but the risk is huge. H0w&ver, I may need h!s inPut, no matter how much I fear that Supern0v@ c0^ld b& #!$(0V&#% #^ *#0#&# #^# 0u# 0f #%& #!%& $#r&@% 0% t#t $#&&#$ (0u!% @1$0 b& (0rr^*&d b^ #h& &*#@n# V!%#$. B010101010101010101010101010101 “And once again… it ends on a cliffhanger. This is really bizarre Skeets. Why do you think he hadn’t told you about this yet?” Booster breathed. Skeets remained silent and opened the next file.
AGENT W – WAVERIDER
Recruited: Vanishing Point
After my discovery of Th& Line@r Men, I realized th@t I’m n0T the 0nly )ne look!ng to polic& the tim&$tream. Having heard a gr&t m@ny stor!e$ about W@verider it becam& quit& obv!ous th@t he sh0uld bec0m& my fir$# recruit, @lthough I c@nn0t help bu# w0nder why he !s still a fr&& agent and h@$n’t been snatch&% up by the L!n&%r M&n. Unl!k& the 0th&r$ on my l!St, W@v&r!der will no^ n&&d a time b@nD. With just a h0m!n% be@(0n he’ll b& @bl& to g&t b@ck and forth. M^ b!gg&$t concErN lies wi#h W@veridER’$ D#@ and the po$$!%l& f@(# th@t h& i$ 010101010101010101010101010101 Booster held his head in his hands. “This is crazy,” he sighed.
Skeets attempted to open the next file labeled “Agent X”. The file was short.
“Ok. That’s just plain creepy… even more so than Oberon’s underwear drawer,” Booster hissed.
“This file had some sort of failsafe on it,” Skeet explained. “Someone tried to access it before us.”
“Who?” Booster asked.
“If we knew that, we’d most likely know who has Rip Hunter,” Skeets replied. “It looks like the file has been hit with some sort of virus. I think our next move is clear, Michael. We need to find the other Time Agents that work for Rip.”
“And how are we going to do that? In fact, we’ve spend a decent amount of time here… Why haven’t we ever seen them before?” Booster wondered.
“I…I don’t know… Again I have the feeling I should have the answer to that.” Skeets answered.
Booster stared at the little robot hovering in front of him. Once again Skeets was sounding WAY too human. After a moment he walked over to the platform area where anyone entering into the lab from the timestream should appear. Next to the platform were a number of computers and screens. Booster knew that Rip used these to document every bit of data from their missions, He had never thought to look at them before. Most of them seemed to be burned out. One, however, looked untouched.
“Skeets, what is this?” Booster asked.
Skeets flew over to the row of computers. “These are the data banks, but they are mostly entering stations. The actual archives are in storage. However, this undamaged one is actually… not…” Skeets stopped talking and connected himself to the computer. Booster could hear the whir and clicks of gears shifting.
Skeets disconnected himself and turned to face Booster.
“This computer serves only one function. It’s configured to send a time-pulse that is unique to one particular strand of DNA,” he explained.
“It’s what to send what to what?” Booster hissed. “What the HELL are you talking about?’
“It emits a DNA coded pulse that penetrates the timestream on a flux wave that responds only to a matching DNA strand of a particular nature,” sighed Skeets. Once again Booster was a little amazed to hear how human Skeets sounded.
“Don’t get exasperated with me, you flying X-Box,” Booster chided the little robot. “How about layman’s terms for those of us who do not have computer brains and 25,000 years of history in their memory banks… for all the good it does us anyway.”
“It’s a homing beacon of sorts,” Skeets explained, “but it’s actually tied into one person’s DNA. It will only work for that one person since everyone’s DNA is unique. For example, even if you knew it was there and had the frequency mode it was being transmitted on, you would be unable to detect it since it would only respond to the DNA strand it was derived from.
“Homing Beacon!” Booster exclaimed. “Didn’t the file on Waverider say something about a beacon?”
“Yes it did, Michael,” Skeets agreed. “Waverider does not need a time band according to that file. This must be the way he finds the lab in the time flux.”
Skeets few back to the computer and connected himself again. Booster leaned in close.
“What are you going to do?” he asked.
“Maybe I can reverse the flow and use it to trace the pulse back to Waverider,” Skeets explained.
“And maybe Waverider will feel that attempt and come to see who is trying it.” A deep voice sounded from behind them.
“HOLY FRACK!” Booster screamed. He whirled around and pointed the blaster on his right wrist at the figure who had suddenly appeared behind them.
“Stop,” Waverider said calmly. He held up a hand and Booster was momentarily frozen. “I’m not a danger to you Booster Gold, nor your robot counterpart. That is as long as you can explain what happened here.”
Booster was able to move again. He dropped his arm and moved it to his chest.
“Jeez! Give a guy a heart attack why don’t you!” he yelled at the golden figure that Booster recognized from the agent file.
“We were hoping you would have some answers, Waverider,” Skeets interjected. He then explained the day’s events to him.
“I have many answers, but not any that would explain this,” Waverider replied. “I have noticed that Rip Hunter was distracted by something the last few times we met. We conducted our business as usual.”
“Didn’t think to ask him what was buggin’ him, huh?” Booster said. “You guys aren’t BFFs? Guess you were in the dark about me as much as I am about you, huh?
“No, I did not ask him. If he required my assistance on something he would ask,” Waverider replied gravely. “As for you, I knew all about you. I know about most of the Time Agents.”
“You did?” Booster yelled. “What the frack? Why did he tell you about me but didn’t tell me about you?”
“Perhaps because he thought the information wasn’t important for you to have,” Waverider shot back.
“Excuse me, gentlemen?” Skeets interrupted. “Could we please stay focused here? It’s important that we find Rip.”
“Agreed,” Waverider said.
“Whatever,” Booster grumbled.
”Have you met any of Rip’s other time agents?” Skeets inquired.
“No. Hunter felt that contact could be a possible detriment to his ‘too-much-knowledge’ policy,” Waverider explained.
”Well, his little policy is going to have to take a backseat,” Booster said. “Whatever is going on here is too important.”
“How do you…” Waverider began.
”I have to agree with Michael,” Skeets interjected. “Our best chance on finding Rip’s assailant could lie with us gathering all possible information. That starts with all of us.”
Waverider seemed to consider this. “I don’t know if that is the best thing for us to do. Obviously Hunter wanted to keep us apart for a reason.”
Booster wandered away, speaking behind him as he walked. “Well maybe he did, and maybe he was waiting for the right situation for us to have to get together.”
Booster stopped at a table near Rip’s desk and started to rummage through a small pile of items.
Waverider looked at Skeets with a puzzled look. “What is he doing?”
“I don’t know,” Skeets replied. “Michael?”
“I’m just playing a hunch on something.” Booster called over, “Waverider, take a look at this.”
Waverider gave Skeets another puzzled glance and walked over to Booster’s side. “What are you looking at…. WHAT!?!?”
As he neared the table, Booster whirled around and aimed one of the devices at the tall golden figure. It was Chronos’s time status rod that Skeets had lifted from the villain’s belt back in 1879. He clicked the button. Waverider had reacted just a split second too late. He froze to the spot.
”MICHAEL!” Skeets’s voice was loud. Even as a robot, he managed to sound a lot like Booster’s old football coach when he yelled. “What are you doing!?”
“Relax, Skeets, I haven’t blown a neuron in my head or anything…” Booster explained, “…but the walking talking Oscar here has some ‘splainin to do.”
“What are you talking about?” Skeets asked.
“I told you that there was someone with ‘me’ who knocked me on the back of the head when I discovered the lab trashed and you deactivated, remember?” Booster told him. “Well I heard two other voices when I was coming to... and one of them was this joker right here. He said something about having ‘another place/time to try.’ And he’s probably the guy who hit me from behind. ”
“Are you sure?” Skeets inquired.
”Positive,” Booster replied. “Deep, gravelly voice sounding like Darkseid’s little brother. It was him. Okay, pal, what’s the deal with you?”
“Um Michael…” Skeets said.
“Not now Skeets, we have to get some answers here,” Booster replied, sounding annoyed. “Let’s go, jerk. You know more than you’re letting on. Spill it!”
“Michael, if you would…” Skeets tried to say.
“Can it, Skeets!” Booster hissed at the flying robot. “Like it or not, we’re doing this *my* way. Last chance, buster… you gonna talk or do I have to get nasty?”
“BOOSTER!!” Skeets’s voice boomed loudly as his speakers were turned to full volume.
”WHAT!?” Booster yelled back at him.
“YOU FROZE HIM WITH A TIME STATUS RAY!” The little flying robot once again sounded much more human than mechanical, and he sounded angry. “HE CAN’T MOVE AT ALL YOU TWIT. THAT INCLUDES TALKING!”
“I…I…I…” Booster stammered. “I… ah… shoot.”
“Allow me, please.” Skeets had lowered his volume back down to the regular level. “Waverider, please understand that Booster was attacked by what we think were future versions of himself and possibly you. This situation is extreme and mysterious and we need to get to the bottom of it.”
“Twit?” Booster breathed.
”Quiet, Michael,” Skeets said. “I’m going to release you from the status hold. Please do not leave and help us get to the bottom of this. For Rip’s sake and perhaps much more.”
“Twit?” Booster said out loud… mostly to himself. Skeets ignored him.
“The status ray, please,” Skeets said.
Booster sighed and pointed the ray at Waverider and pressed the button again. “Twit?’ he said to Skeets as he did.
“Stop,” Skeets said.
Waverider looked at them warily.
“Part of me is hesitant to trust you two,” he began, “but for some bizarre reason Hunter trusts you both very much.”
“Really?” Booster said. “I .. I mean, of course he does.”
“I cannot explain why you and I would have traveled here and knocked you out,” Waverider told them, “but if we did, and there was another with us, it’s most likely safe to say it was one of the other Time Agents. Perhaps we should contact them after all.”
He lifted his left arm. On his wrist was a device that looked like the “watch” that Rip had built into Booster’s costume. He pressed a few buttons on it.
”Hunter left me with the ability to contact any of you in case of an emergency,” Waverider explained. “I was instructed to only do so under the most dire of situations.”
“Well this is pretty dire considering someone managed to break into his ‘impossible to find’ timelab and kidnap him,” Booster replied dryly.
“Kidnap who?” a voice behind them asked. “And what are you lot doing here?”
The trio turned to find a young man dressed in green and black. Booster and Skeets recognized him from the Time Agent file. It was Walker Gabriel.
“Gabriel,” Waverider greeted him.
”Waverider. Gold. Little flying toaster.” Gabriel nodded at them.
Booster looked at Skeets, his face twisted. “FRACK! Did he tell EVERYONE about us?”
”Actually, no,” Gabriel explained walking towards them. “Rip never mentioned any of you. We’ve all met… um… at other times. The last time I saw you in fact, Gold, you and your buddy Blue Beetle were st-… um… well… forget I said anything.”
“Great. I hate time travel,” Booster hissed.
”I’m sure,” Gabriel remarked with a grin. “So I’m guessing you lot have been recruited by Rip to play Timecop too right? It’s not just a bad Jean-Claude Van Damme movie after all?”
“We are indeed all agents of Mr. Hunter,” Skeets explained. “He’s been abducted. The lab’s security has been breached.”
Gabriel’s eyes flashed what looked like surprise for a moment. He looked around. “What do we know?”
“Very little.” Skeets explained the events of that day.
“Hey,” Booster interjected as Skeet’s finished his explanation, “where are Supernova and Agent X?”
“Who?” asked Gabriel.
“And who?” asked a surprised looking Waverider. “I’ve never heard of an ‘Agent X’.”
Booster looked at him and grinned. “So you don’t know everything after all, huh?”
“Supernova and Agent X were both on Rip’s list of agents he had working for him,” Skeets told them. “Agent X’s identity was unable to be revealed however.” He told them about the corrupted file and the list of “52”s and little eyes.
“Creepy,” Gabriel remarked.
“That’s what I said,” Booster agreed.
”So. What’s the plan then?” Gabriel asked. “We have to start somewhere.”
“We do.” Waverider replied. “Perhaps we should start with tracking down Supernova and this ‘Agent X’…”
“That might be a good idea,” Skeets agreed. “In the meantime I will stay here and try to go through the rest of these computer and see if I can find any other information.”
Booster nodded. “So I guess it’s the three of us,” he said. “Synchronize your watches, gentlemen.”
“What?” Waverider looked puzzled.
“Waverider doesn’t get humor, Booster,” Gabriel said.
”When are we going?” Booster asked.
Waverider looked at Skeets. “Vanishing Point at .0001 would be the logical place to start,” he said. Skeets voiced an agreement.
”As good a place as any,” Booster remarked, punching in the information to the time device on his wrist. “Let’s hit the road.”
“Roads? Oh, Booster…” Gabriel said with a hint of glee as the three of them faded out, “you should know by now… where we’re going, we don’t NEED roads.”
