Issue 4: "Panning For Gold, Part Four"

POWERS TOWER, SAN FRANCISCO – PRESENT TIME

Ted Kord froze in place. He held the hard drive Booster had given him and stared at the red, white, yellow and blue figure in front of them.

“Supernova?” he asked. “Booster… this a friend of yours?”

“Never met him before...” Booster answered, his eyes set on Supernova, with one of his blasters ready to rise at the slightest look of aggression, “… but I saw mention of him in Rip Hunter’s agent files. That buys him a chance to talk. You’ve got one minute, pal. Explain.”

“The short version?” Supernova responded. “I’m one of Hunter’s agents, like you… but I know that someone on the inside was working against him. From what I’ve been able to figure out, you are the LEAST likely one. In any case, that hard drive is infected with a virus that will be activated if you power it up. Do that and the… thing… that created the virus in the first place will know where we are and will come, and then everything will end.”

Booster and Beetle looked at each other.

“Why the heck can’t you ever come to me with something simple?” Beetle demanded of Booster.

“We have to get out of here. Every minute that passes and we are left exposed, without some sort of protection, is more and more dangerous,” Supernova told them. “Hunter provided me with a safe location to work out of. We need to go there.”

“Hold on one second,” Booster replied. He grabbed Beetle and pulled him aside.

“What do you think?” he asked.

“Jeez, Booster, I haven’t the slightest idea what the hell you’re mixed up in,” Beetle responded. “I can’t tell any of the players WITH a score card. I’m a little out of my element here. Shouldn’t we grab the rest of Powers, Inc. on this?”

“It’s bad enough I’m getting you involved here, Ted,” Booster explained. “Rip always tells us that knowledge of the timestream and everything else is dangerous. I have to limit the number of people involved.”

“Well… do you trust this guy at all?” Beetle asked.

“I don’t know if I have a choice,” Booster replied. “According to the file on him Rip kept, he’s pretty important. I’m going to say that Rip seemed to trust the guy with something major.”

“Well, I guess then we take the chance,” Beetle agreed.

The two turned and faced Supernova.

“Okay, ‘ Nova,” Booster told him. “Tell us everything you know.”

“It’s not as simple as that, but we have to get out of here,” Supernova said.

Before Booster or Beetle could respond, Supernova reached out and grabbed each of them by the arm. The two of them were aware of a glow and a tingling sensation and, suddenly, they were somewhere else.

“Wha… what the h-... heck was tha-…. BBBLLEEEUUUGGHHH!” Beetle turned and vomited.

Supernova looked surprised. Booster looked at him almost apologetically.

“First-time time traveler,” Booster explained.

“Oh, sorry,” Supernova told a retching Beetle. “I would have warned you. With all of the time traveling you’re going to be doi-… um…”

“What? All of the what?” Beetle managed to ask.

“Well, you’ll see,” Supernova told him. “Best not reveal too much beforehand.”

“Yeah, yeah. Knowledge is dangerous. Like we haven’t heard that a MILLION times,” Booster sighed. “Listen, ‘Nova. Okay, we’re here... so how about some ans-… wait… where IS here anyway?”

“We’re in 1964. Under the Polo Grounds actually,” Supernova explained. “The New York Mets just moved to the newly built Shea Stadium. No one is here anymore. It’s due to be demolished in about… 14 seconds.”

“In about WHAT?” Beetle blurted out, a second before he started retching again.

“Time loop?” Booster asked. Supernova nodded. “It’s okay, Ted. We’re in a time loop that keeps replaying the same few seconds just before the wrecking ball hits here. It’s always a good idea to hide out in a place just moments away from being destroyed.”

“Oh, God. You do this all of the time? Jeez… I feel like I’ve just been shot in the head,” Beetle coughed.

“Not in this reality…” Supernova said under his breath.

“I didn’t hear what you said, and somehow I don’t think I would have wanted to,” Beetle replied, straightening up, one hand gingerly on his stomach.

“Wait a minute. If this hard drive has a virus on it, why didn’t it go off when Skeets activated it before?” Booster asked.

“And where is your little flying friend?” Supernova asked; arms folded.

“Well… he’s… he’s…” Booster stammered. “Crap.”

“Yes, I know Skeets connected to the hard drive before. Whether or not he’s been infected is unknown, but I know he is missing.” Supernova turned on a light and moved to a table with computers on it. “Did you come across any files that broke themselves down into binary code?”

“Actually, one of them did… and had all of these little eyes mixed in,” Booster replied.

“That,” Supernova explained, “was the virus.”

Beetle placed the hard drive onto the table top and looked at the computers that were there.

“You’ve got some heavy hardware here,” he said.

“Feel free to utilize anything you see,” Supernova told him.

“Ted, is there any way for you to get into that hard drive without setting off the virus?” Booster asked.

“Possibly,” Beetle responded. “I’ll see what I can figure out. In the meantime… maybe some explanations are in order.”

“Listen, I’m trusting the two of you right now out of desperation,” Supernova explained. “Somewhere in all of this is someone who is working against everything Rip Hunter has been having us do. I don’t know who it is…”

“We know that… and that we’re the LEAST likely candidates for evil.” Booster sighed. “Just fill us in for shock’s sake.”

“Before Rip Hunter found me I was… well… I was someone different,” Supernova said. “He saved me and… another from a bad situation, but he wasn’t aware that my companion was… changed. He needed agents he could rely on and I owed him. However he needed to keep my presence, and even existence, a secret from the force that took hold of my friend.”

Booster and Beetle looked at each other.

“I’ve had fortune cookies that were more forthcoming than that,” Booster hissed. “You managed to be more cryptic than Rip, which is quite a feat.”

Supernova slammed a fist onto the table.

“Dammit, Booster, don’t you get it? There’s a reason why Rip is so secretive about everything! Knowledge is power, and the knowledge we have could destroy everything we’ve every known! I can’t tell you who I am right now, or tell you what really happened with me because there’s a chance that whoever is pulling the strings behind all of this mess doesn’t KNOW YET. The only way to keep it that way is to limit the information as much as possible!”

Beetle shook his head.

“This is way above anything I’m used to dealing with,” he said. “But if something needs to be done, then let’s hear what it is. Point us in a direction here and at least give us something to work on.”

“The two of you are in a unique position. You are both uncorrupted by Future Shock, yet you both are important to the overall plan that Rip originally had,” Supernova told them.

“Future Shock? Plan?” Booster asked.

“There is someone… or someTHING that is systematically trying to destroy the timestream. All of the anomalies, all of the holes, all of the events… everything stems from one being. Rip knew of this. He saw the beginnings of it and tried to formulate a plan to counteract it and eventually stop it,” Supernova replied. “I don’t know of all of it… All I know is that YOU TWO are part of that plan. Booster you were recruited for a reason. Part of it is your unique ability to resist Future Shock.”

“Again I’ll ask… what the frak is Future Shock?” Booster sighed.

“Well, according to sociologist Alvin Toffler, Future Shock is a personal perception of too much change in too short a period of time,” Beetle offered.

“It’s something like that,” Supernova agreed. “Future Shock is something that all time travelers eventually go through in one form or another. It’s a type of structural change in a time traveler’s makeup. In some forms it’s overbearing stress or disorientation. In others it’s changes in personality or physical appearance. Most of the time it’s slight and almost unnoticeable until the later stages where it becomes more evident. Protection against it is minimal. Certain people or beings are less susceptible to it than others, which is why not everyone can do constant time travel. Have you ever wondered why so many time travelers seem to be a little… crazy? That’s future shock.”

“And I’m less likely to get Future Shock?” Booster asked.

“Less likely?” Supernova told him. “From what Rip has been able to tell, you show absolutely NO potential for Future Shock. You seem to be in the rarest of rare .001% in that you are 100% immune to it. I am also. That’s why you and I are part of Rip’s plan.”

“What about Waverider… or Gabriel… or RIP?” Booster asked.

“All have high tolerance, but there is risk of it. Waverider is an enigma. Even Rip has no idea of his overall makeup,” Supernova explained. “What I cannot say is if any of this is playing a part in what is happening. Rip had a plan and in his absence we have to start to implement it before it’s too late.”

“So… what’s this plan?” Booster asked.

“I have no idea,” Supernova replied. “But I suspect Skeets does.”

“Great,” Booster sighed. “So we’re back to square one and we have no idea what we are doing. Skeets got his memory messed with by whoever grabbed Rip… and besides, we have no idea where he is.”

“Par for the course I’d say,” Beetle chimed in.

“We need to find Rip,” Booster said. “Ted, see if you can get that stupid hard drive to give us something… without setting off any world-ending viruses that is.”

“Oh… no pressure,” Beetle sighed.

“I’m going to head back to Rip’s lab. I have to meet Waverider and Gabriel there. Maybe they found something,” Booster told them.

“Be careful. We don’t know how much we can trust them,” Supernova said. “I’ll keep looking for Rip on my own.”

“I’ll come back here in…” Booster looked at his watch. “Four hours in ‘Finite Time’, okay?”

“Agreed,” Supernova replied.

“I’m off. You gonna be okay?” Booster asked Beetle.

“That time loop isn’t going to fail and send a wrecking ball through my spine, right?” Beetle asked.

“No.”

“Then I’ll be fine. I have an idea on how to access this thing, I just need… heh… time.” Beetle said.

“Nice. Okay.” Booster nodded to his friend as he disappeared.

RIP HUNTER’S LAB

The three materialized at the time lock. They looked around. The lights in the lab were dimmed and there was smoke around, making it hard to see. Across the room was a figure kneeling next to a golden oval robot with fins lying on the ground.

Booster realized it was Skeets. They had found him. Booster and Gabriel traded glances. The figure had not noticed their presence.

“What happened… Who did this?” the kneeling figure asked out loud.

“That’s what I’d like to know…” Booster hissed, moving forward, “… and since you’re the only one here, you’re suspect number one!’

The figure whirled around and Booster got the shock of his life.

The figure was none other than… himself.

“Oh Wowzer!” Booster exclaimed. “It’s gonna be one of THOSE days!”

He noticed that both Waverider and Gabriel had each moved to the sides. His other self had only noticed him. Booster shook his head. He realized what had happened. He and the others had traveled back to when Booster had discovered Rip missing and Skeets deactivated. He knew what would have to come next.

“Now hold on you…” the other Booster exclaimed. “Just wait one minute!”

“I’d like to, pal,” Booster replied, “… but I just don’t have the… heh… time.”

“Great. At least you have my sense of humor,” the earlier Booster said, obviously relaxing a little. “When are you from?”

Booster tried to keep his face passive. This was too surreal. It was only yesterday that he was on the other side of this conversation.

“You know I can’t tell you that… um… Mike…” Booster said. He was trying to keep his past self’s gaze on him, while Gabriel circled around his back. “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.”

“Okay, I can understand that,” the other Booster replied “But do you have any idea what happened here?”

“Not quite,” Booster answered. Gabriel was now behind his past self. “But I AM going to find out. Despite what someone may think. I’m sorry, pal.”

“Sorry?” the other Booster asked. “Sorry about what?”

Just then, Gabriel hit the past Booster on the back of the head. He went down in a heap.

“Sorry,” Gabriel said, looking down… then up at Booster. “So much for avoiding confrontation.”

“We just missed Rip being kidnapped!” Booster yelled at Waverider. “By minutes maybe!”

“How do you kno-… wait. This is what you were talking about when we met. About being the one who hit you,” Waverider realized.

“Yeah… but it turned out to be him instead,” Booster thumbed at Gabriel. “Can we go back another 25 minutes or so?”

“No. The reversed signal keeps returning to this point. If we try again we’ll come back here and see ourselves knocking you out,” Waverider explained. “We only have one other option now.”

“What’s that? Gabriel asked.

“We can attempt to follow the Homing Beacon to the original source when it was activated for the first time. It’s risky however,” Waverider told them. “We should return to Vanishing Point first and attempt the trace from there.”

“I hate that idea,” Booster said. “We’re messing around too much. What if we accidentally meet Rip too early and change something?”

“Interesting. Look, Walker,” Waverider said, clearly amused, “our Mr. Gold seems to finally be getting a sense of the rights and wrongs of time travel.”

“Ah, it’s so wonderful when the kids grow up,” Gabriel sang.

“Stop talking about me like I wasn’t here,” Booster said; teeth clenched. “Listen you… just because Rip chose you first doesn’t mean… “

Booster heard a slight groan from the side.

“Frak!” he exclaimed. “He’s waking up... I mean… I’M waking up!”

“We have another place/time to try,” Waverider said. “Let us go before you see too much.”

Booster plugged in the coordinates into his watch. He didn’t like this. Too much was happening at once.

“Locking in on Vanishing Point,” Gabriel said as they faded out.

BOSTON – OCTOBER 25th, 1986

Booster took off his mask and shoved it into the pocket of the bomber jacket he had put on over his uniform. A pair of jeans covered his uniform pants. He pulled a baseball cap onto his head and came out of the bathroom stall he was in. Walker Gabriel was similarly dressed. Waverider was out of sight.

“Okay, according to Waverider, the capsule that the Time Data computer said that Rip hid in this time is in the bar next door,” Gabriel told him.

Gabriel stopped short and stared at Booster.

“Are you NUTS?” he hissed, looking at Booster’s cap. ”We’re supposed to be inconspicuous! Do you have any idea when we are? Do you know what tonight is?”

Booster grinned and tipped the Mets cap forward.

“I’m an athlete, pal. Damn straight I know what tonight is. Mission or no mission, I’m not about to wear a Red Sox hat on the night the Mets took a step towards the second of their seventeen World Series Championships,” he said. “If only we were in 2008… now THAT was a hell of a year. Start of five straight world series for them.”

Gabriel sighed and exited the bathroom. He and Booster moved forward until they got to the door of a place called The Cask ‘n Flagon. Inside, the bar was packed. Booster realized he was the only one in the entire place wearing a NY hat.

He and Gabriel worked their way to the back. In the rear of the bar was an empty booth. With Booster standing watch, Gabriel knelt under the table and pulled the bench front off. Under the left side bench was a black box. Gabriel used his watch to dispel the time field surrounding it and pulled it forward.

Booster kept his eyes open to make sure no one noticed what they were doing, but he needn’t have worried. Every eye in the bar was riveted to the TV sets. It was the bottom of the 10^th inning. Boston was about to lose their lead on a wild pitch. A Mets fan, Booster grinned thinking about it.

“Tension mounts some more,” the TV announcer squawked. “Two out in the tenth. Five-four Red Sox. Ray Knight at first, Kevin Mitchell at third. Two and Two to Mookie Wilson.”

Booster smiled. The next pitch would be wild, allowing Mitchell to score from third and tie the game. A few pitches after that would be Buckner’s error. The Mets would win a huge come-from-behind victory and crush the spirit of everyone in the bar. On the TV screen, the pitcher went into his windup and let the ball fly towards home.

“…and it’s going to go to the backstop… Here comes Mitchell… NO! Gedman stops it! He dives forward….. OUT! OUT AT THE PLATE! THE RED SOX WIN! THE RED SOX HAVE WON THE WORLD SERIES!”

The bar exploded into screams and cheers. Booster’s mouth fell open. This was wrong. It was very, very wrong.

“Booster, I’ve got it... I…” Gabriel saw the look on Booster’s face and looked puzzled. “What’s wrong?”

“The game…” Booster stammered. “The Red Sox… just… won.”

Gabriel laughed. “Cut it out. Booster. You know that they don’t w-…” He stopped. He looked around and realized Booster was right. “Oh God... it’s getting worse. C’mon, we have to go.”

Gabriel pulled Booster out the side door. The crowd shouted, danced and hugged each other. As Booster and Gabriel disappeared, one of the crowd turned and watched them go and grinned.

“Today, the World Series, Booster.” the figure chuckled. “Tomorrow… the World.”

POLO GROUNDS, NEW YORK – APRIL 29th, 1964

Ted Kord loved working with gadgets and computers. They were more interesting than people and less complex. Each little problem was like a maze, and each problem was nothing but a dead end that forced him to rethink the direction he was going in. He thought he knew how to get past the virus on Rip Hunter’s computer… he just needed a little more time.

He felt, more than heard, Booster materialize behind him.

“Any luck?” Beetle asked, not turning around.

Booster sighed and flopped into the chair next to his best friend. He held out Skeets to him.

“No. Things are getting worse and weirder,” he said. “Skeets won’t talk. It’s like he’s… comatose.”

Booster explained the events since he had left Ted earlier.

Beetle frowned and plucked Skeets from Booster’s grasp. He turned him over and unscrewed a tiny door on the lower rear section. Booster watched Beetle play with the circuits and memory cards and realized that it was like he suddenly wasn’t there. Ted’s concentration was squarely on what he was working on.

A minute later, Beetle looked up.

“This isn’t Skeets,” he said.

Booster’s head snapped up. “What?” he said.

“Well… I mean… it kind of is… but it’s not,” Beetle replied.

“What the hell does that mean?” Booster demanded. “Is it him or not?”

“I’ve worked on Skeets a number of times,” Beetle explained. “This is ‘Skeets’ in the sense that it’s the same model and device that Skeets is... but it’s not actually Skeets himself. It’s like a hollow… inferior copy.”

“But… how the heck did Rip get a 24^th Century Security-Bot?” Booster asked. Beetle looked at him. “Wait… duh… ok… I know HOW… but… but… why?”

“And why did he put it in a time capsule?” Beetle echoed. “I don’t know.”

Whatever Booster was about to say was lost. A loud BOOM ripped through the room. A figure seemed to step through a bright white light.

Booster leapt up and threw the chair he was sitting on at the unknown person.

The figure caught the chair and tossed it aside. He then lifted up into the air, standing on two flat white disks.

Booster rose into the air himself. The figure then tossed something oval at him.

Just as Booster activated his force field, he realized what it was.

“Another fake Skeets?” he shouted at the figure. The oval bounced off the force field as Booster moved forward.

“Hold it, Gold!” the figure shouted. Booster didn’t wait. He shot two laser blasts at him. The figured backflipped in the air so that the blasts passed under him.

Beetle scrambled to pick up the oval sphere after it hit the ground. He looked up. “Thaddeus?” he called out.

Above him, Booster flew right at the figure and grabbed onto the green cape of the hovering figure. The two crashed into the wall and grappled in mid-air.

“Damn it, Gold!” the figure shouted. “Will you listen?”

Below, Beetle examined the sphere. He then looked up.

“Booster!’ he shouted. “Stop! He’s real! This is Skeets!”

Booster stopped, one hand on the figure’s collar, the other cocked and ready to throw a punch.

“What?” he asked. “Really?”

“Really,” the figure said. “Will you let me go?”

Booster let go of his collar and the two of them floated to the ground.

“Who are you?” Booster asked.

“Mister Miracle at your service,” came the reply. “And no, Blue Beetle, I’m not Thaddeus Brown.”

“He might argue the point of the costume and name,” Beetle replied.

“I know. Long story,” Miracle answered. “Now is not the time. My real name is Scott Free.”

Understanding dawned on Beetle’s face. “I’ve heard of you! You’re from New Genesis!”

“Well, yes I am... but I’m not here on New Gods business… at least, not directly,” Miracle said.

“Where did you find Skeets?” asked Booster. “And how did you find us here?”

“Um… well… actually…” Miracle said. “YOU told me to find you here.”

Before Booster could respond, Beetle clicked something on Skeets and he came online.

“… it’s too late!” Skeets voice was music to Booster’s ears. “What? Where… Michael! Theodore!”

“Heh. Theodore.” Booster grinning, shoving forward and grabbing Skeets from Beetle’s grasp. “Skeets, old pal! Where have you been?”

“After you left with Waverider and Walker Gabriel. I attempted to get more information from Rip’s computer hard drive. While I was doing so, I was hit with a takeover attempt. Something on the hard drive was primed to access and take control of devices connected over a period of time. I attempted to disconnect myself, but I could not sever the link.”

“It was the virus Supernova told us about,” Beetle said to Booster. “How did you stop it?”

“My primary programming kicked in,” Skeets explained. “It seems that Rip had built a fail safe into me.”

“When did he do that?” Booster asked. “I don’t remember him adding something like that to you?”

“That’s because it was before I met you, Booster,” Skeets said. “Rip Hunter created me.”

“WHAT?” Booster exclaimed.

“Jeez… that’s what the thing from the time capsule is!” Beetle told him. “It’s not a copy! It‘s a prototype! It’s Skeets 1.0!”

“That’s not possible,” Booster said. “Why wouldn’t you have told me?”

“Because I didn’t know myself until my primary programming took over when the virus attempted to take control of me,” Skeets explained.

“So where did you go after that?” Booster asked.

“The only way to separate myself from the virus was to jump through time,” Skeets explained, “and disengage at the same time. It worked.”

“How do YOU figure into all this?” Booster suddenly looked up at Miracle.

“Well…” Miracle began.

“That explanation will have to wait,” Skeets interrupted. “Where is Supernova?”

“He should be back here any minute,” Beetle told him. “Why?”

“Because we are running out of time. We need to move swiftly,” Skeets explained. “With my primary programming activated, I was able to access all of my embedded memory banks. I know what happened to Rip Hunter.”

Booster did a double take. “You do?!” he shouted. “Wowzer! Who grabbed him?”

“No one,” Skeets said. “He wasn’t kidnapped. He faked it all. The problem is, I cannot remember why.”

Booster and Beetle looked at each other.

“Ted, my friend,” Booster sighed. “Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K.”