Annual #2: Time Enough At Last (Burchette/Walsh/Flinchum)

Writer’s note: This takes place between Justice League #20 and #21

It had snowed the night before, blanketing the entire city of Ivy Town in two inches of light powder. When the sun rose on the morning of the wedding, it reflected off the clean white flakes, giving the entire city an almost supernatural glow. The snow clung to the branches of pine trees and from the Christmas wreaths that hung from many of the downtown businesses and decorative lamp posts.

In a small room at the back of the church, Jean Loring was quietly putting on her lipstick; thankful for the moment of peace she had been given. As much as she loved her family, she had to reluctantly admit that they were beginning to drive her crazy.

A small tap at the door broke the welcome silence. She gave an inward sigh as she beckoned the person in.

Rachel Green and Sue Dibny stuck their heads in, both grinning ear to ear. To Sue, they looked like two Cheshire cats, the thought causing her to break out into laughter.

Her bridesmaids entered the room, with burgundy dresses, worn off the shoulders, that seemed to have a regal appearance that was rare in bridesmaids’ attire.

“You look... beautiful,” Sue whispered to her as they hugged. “That dress is gorgeous.”

Rachel agreed as she, too, hugged her friend. The three of them stood there for a moment before giggling like teenaged school girls.

“You don’t seem nervous at all,” Rachel marveled.

Jean just smiled at her. “I’m about to marry a very special man, in so many different ways. I know that in the course of this union, this is probably going to be one of the calmest events we ever have together.”

“Pretty smart,” Sue said with a gentle smile. “Well, we’re here to collect you. It’s about time. And if we don’t get moving soon, I think your mom and grandmother might end up brawling in the aisle.”

The three of them laughed again at that. Jean took a deep breath as she smoothed her wedding dress. “Do I really look alright?” she asked, nervousness coming into her voice for the first time.

Rachel gave a playful smirk, “Oh honey, Carrie Bradshaw has nothing on you.”

The bride to be giggled again, nervously this time, before she brought back her shoulders and headed towards the door, “Ladies, let’s go capture that man I love.”



Ray Palmer, Katar Hol, and Ralph Dibny stood before the guests, at the front of the church; all three of them fidgeting with their tuxes. The groom was in traditional black with an emerald green vest and bowtie; Katar, his best man, and Ralph were both dressed in white, also with emerald green bowties as well as cummerbunds.

“This outfit is ridiculous,” Katar growled under his breath. “How can anyone move in something so confining?”

Ralph raised an eyebrow. “You think this is confining? Have you ever noticed what you wear for your day job.”

“I wear what every warrior would wear.”

“Gentlemen,” Ray interrupted. “Let’s focus, shall we. I’m about to marry the most beautiful woman in the world.” He couldn’t help but grin at the thought as he gazed out at all his friends and family who sat in the pews, looking at him with warm smiles.

“Yeah, say goodbye to the rest of your life,” Ralph said with a chuckle. “Although I personally would have to dispute the fact that she’s the most beautiful girl in the world; but that’s mostly because Sue would find out I didn’t defend her.”

“Where’s the casket?” Sue’s grandmother called out from the front pew.

Sue’s mother, Dory, grabbed her arm. “Ma! We’re at your granddaughter’s wedding.”

The old woman looked around. “Oh, well that explains why half of the pallbearers are already up at the altar.”

“Ma!”

“You know, that’s going to be Jean in a few decades,” Ralph chuckled under his breath to his friend.

Ray nodded, fighting the urge to laugh. “And she’ll be just as beautiful to me as she is today.”

“More so, I would imagine,” Katar said solemnly.

The minister walked in from a room off the rectory, his head bowed as he made his way to the front of the altar. He nodded to the organist who began to play the traditional wedding march.

All heads turned to the back of the church in anticipation. All but the Leaguer, Dawn Make Strong Move, who continued to stare at the priest. Her eyes widened and she reached forward to grab Diana’s arm. “Something’s wrong! That’s not the priest who’s supposed to be here!”

Wonder Woman slipped her hand down to the golden lasso she had hidden away, and took a closer look at the man. “You’re right. I can’t tell how, but there’s truth to the matter.”

Toward the rear of the church, the disguised Manhunter from Mars felt the light communicative touch on his mind from Diana. J’onn, is that the actual priest? Or a shapeshifter, clone, robot, parallel, or any of a million other possibilities? Without shifting an inch, without wasting a half-second, the Martian turned his considerable telepathic prowess onto the religious figure who stood with a serene smile next to Ray Palmer and his groomsmen. Father Dillin is the genuine article, Wonder Woman. If he’s hiding anything, it is the most immaculate deception I have ever encountered.

“What’s wrong with him, Dawn?” Diana asked furtively as the bridal party marched in stately procession down the aisle, beaming at the moment.

“I don’t know. He’s not...wrong. He’s...he’s Father Dillin, and that’s who he’s supposed to be,” Dawn answered, feeling confused, foolish for her alarm, but she also couldn’t deny what she saw. “But it’s supposed to be someone named Father Sekowsky up there. I can see that plain as day.”

“Father Sekowsky?” Barry Allen turned to look down the pew as he listened to the urgent whispering. “What do you mean, he’s supposed to be another person? Tell me exactly what you’re seeing, Dawn.”

“It’s like there’s...” She gave a short, frustrated exhalation and narrowed her eyes to focus on the people now before the altar as the wedding march began, and Jean Loring started her way down the aisle. “...like Father Dillin is...what’s the word? In photography, two images over each other?”

“Super-imposed?” Barry suggested and then turned his own attention toward the scene unfolding before them when Dawn nodded. Diana could almost hear his brain kick step up to the speed for which the Flash was named. “If it just happened, then maybe...just maybe...”

Barry Allen was gone in an eye blink. As Jean took her next step forward, Barry was back, flushed with adrenaline and looking concerned. “She’s right, Diana. She’s temporally inert. Probably because of her ax and her role.”

“Temporally inert?” Dawn asked, more confused now. “You mean me?”

“Yeah, you. You’re immune to time shifts. If history changes, you’ll remember both versions,” Barry explained in an ever-quicker voice. “There’s been some recent activity in the time-stream, but I haven’t explored too far yet.”

“What do we do?” Dawn asked as she looked first at Diana, then back to Barry as he slid down the pew past his wife to be able to talk more directly to the heroines.

“I’m loath to interrupt the wedding,” Diana mused. A sense of being watched ran over the three people and they looked up from their huddle to see the assembled guests and the wedding party looking at them. Diana coughed and straightened her collar. “But seeing as there is a pause.”

“What’s wrong, Diana?” Ray asked as he gripped Jean’s hand tightly.

“We have to find out, and quickly,” Wonder Woman replied as she stood and looked over the guests. “The first thing we need to do is get the civilians to someplace safe.”

“Then call in the rest of the League?” Ralph added with a wink as he stretched his arms out to guide Rachel, Father Dillin, Jean’s mother and grandmother. “I’ll take these four to the rectory. Wonder Woman, why don’t you take the other guests back to Ray’s apartment?”

“Told you this ridiculous costume served no useful function,” Katar growled as he began to tug the top of his tuxedo off. “At least I brought my wings in the transport.”

Ralph had stretched himself out into a flattened square as he encouraged an anxious Dory and Rachel, a rattled Father Dillin and a put-out grandmother out of the building while hiding the rest of the ‘innocents’, who were transforming into the Justice League.

“See if you can reach the Question back at the Hall, find out whether anything else has been reported yet,” Diana said to J’onn. “If we’re really lucky, then this may have been one of the very first instances, and we’re ahead of the situation.”

“That would be a nice change of pace for once,” Ollie grumbled while he struggled to undo his suit and slide the green tunic into place as fast as he could. He glared at Hal Jordan, J’onn J’onzz and Cynthia Reynolds as they each either glowed green, shifted in form or shimmered in a blur to stand ready as Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter and Gypsy. “Show-offs.”

“Question here, Wonder Woman,” said a voice over the communicators. “I got Manhunter’s mental head’s up, and there’s nothing here to report. But if it’s all small changes like the Dillin thing, then there’d be no way to pick it out. Sounds like you got lucky.”

“Too lucky, and we can’t have that,” Dawn said as she gave a downward sweep of her arm, her weapon appearing at the very zenith of the arc. “I don’t understand the Flash’s fancy words, but I know that it’s our biggest advantage at the moment, and we need to keep it.” She kicked off her shoes and marched to the middle of the room. She then reached into her pouch and found the tip of a small knife and jabbed her finger on it. “O Great Spirit, hear my plea. Accept this, so that I may pass the gift you bestowed on me to this place and this time for our noble cause!” She smeared the droplets of blood across the edge of her hatchet and then swung it into the floor at her feet. It remained buried in place and then she sat, cross-legged, a low chant issuing from her lips, brow furrowed in concentration.

Barry shivered as he looked at the blood-lined hatchet. He didn’t intend to, but he felt what she was doing, and the effect made him shiver. “She’s passing her inertia to the building. For the time being, this place, including whoever’s in it, remains immune to whatever’s happening.”

“Very well then, we need a plan of attack,” Wonder Woman said as she looked at the assembled heroes. “First thing we need to do is determine what the disruptions are: where they come from, what they mean.”

“I can use my cosmic treadmill to get into the time-stream and see what I can learn there,” Flash suggested.

“Can Question find us anything out of the ordinary to look into?” Ralph asked as he stretched his head over to Diana. “Anything at all?”

“No, and it is worse than that,” J’onn answered instead, his eyes closed, fingers pressed to his temples. “There is nothing there. It is gone.”

“Flash, get to your treadmill; Superman, J’onn, get to the Hall and see what’s happened!” Diana ordered as she looked over to Atom. “Atom, please tell me that even today, on your most special day, you remain a dedicated scientist?”

Ray blushed and gave a knowing nod. “My laptop is in the limo. In the trunk, so Jean didn’t see it,” he confessed.

“On it!” Ralph’s arm snaked out of the church, to the front of the car, popped the hood and felt around until the fingers wrapped a couple of times around the handle of a case, then snapped back his hand and the case over to the Atom. “Here you go.”

“I don’t want to be the first guy to bring up a touchy subject,” Ollie started to say, and glared at the snickers from the team.

“Since when?” Hawkman sniped at him.

“As I was saying, we lost touch with the hall, and without it, we don’t have the satellite,” Green Arrow continued as he turned his glare on Katar, “but Ray’s laptop gets us only so far. We need bigger computers.”

Diana sighed and nodded as she switched channels on her communicator. “Wonder Woman to Batman, are you there?”

“What the hell is that?” Ray asked as his laptop flickered to life and he saw his home page news showing protests in front of a structure he’d never seen before.

“I don’t believe it.” Hawkgirl stared at the picture in disbelief. “That’s just not possible.”

“What is it?” Atom repeated.

“Well, going by the location in the Middle East, and the architecture, and the aging that I can make out on a shoddy cell-cam picture...the archaeologist in me has to say it’s the Tower of Babel.”

“Good afternoon, Your Majesty,” came a distinguished, clipped voice over Wonder Woman’s communicator. “I fear the master is currently out in the city, but I will make sure to let him know you are attempting to reach him. Is there a message to pass along?”

“We need his computers, we need his network,” Diana answered in a soft voice, taking a couple of steps away from the rest of the team. “We’ve lost the Hall of Justice.”

“Hall of Justice, ma’am?”

“Damn, this doesn’t look promising,” Ralph said as he stretched a finger around Atom and hunted and pecked at the key board. “Look at this. A map of the Midwest.”

“Not getting it, what’s wrong?” Kendra asked, confused.

“There’s no Smallville,” Hal Jordan answered in a low voice. He turned to Dawn, her eyes closed tight, lips murmuring non-stop. “Once we leave here, we’re vulnerable, aren’t we?”

“We’re getting picked off one by one! While we hide in a church!” Ollie growled.

“Alfred, we need Dick here, and we need him as soon as you can get him!” Diana hissed into the communicator and then closed the signal. “We can only assume that if Superman’s hometown is missing, he’s going to go missing like the Question. And J’onn likely will vanish with him. Green Arrow is right, whoever is behind this is slowly whittling away our toughest members first.”

“I don’t like that Flash hasn’t gotten back yet either,” Katar admitted.

“Don’t worry about Barry,” Green Arrow said. “He’s just late. Like usual.”

“What does the Tower of Babel’s presence mean, Hawkgirl?” Wonder Woman asked.

“Could mean anything. It was supposed to reach Heaven, according to the Biblical story,” Kendra answered, as she took a deep breath and recalled her lessons on the topic. “There was some conjecture that it might have a basis in reality, as a palace of some kind, during the time of Nimrod, in Babylon. Akkadia in that period. What it means? Man, I have no clue, but I get a bad feeling about it. I seem to remember my grandfather mentioning hearing something about the Tower in relation to Vandal Savage, but...I can’t remember what the story was.” She shrugged.

“Vandal Savage? That’s nothing but bad,” Ralph mused as a crimson rush appeared in the church.

“Back!” Flash announced as he and his treadmill shimmered into view. “There’s disruptions popping up all across the time-stream, and they’re all pointing toward an...invasion of today, this time. But...I can’t find a source. Somehow, whoever, whatever is behind all this, it’s damn well hidden.”

“News report coming in,” Ray said as he typed on the keyboard. “Flash is right, there’s an invasion coming up. Men in advanced armor, with energy weapons are appearing where the Hall used to be, where Smallville is supposed to be, at the Tower, and at the Pyramids in Egypt.”

“Pyramids?” Hal looked puzzled.

“Seven Hells!” Hawkman swore. “The Justice Society! Father and his friends!”

Diana worked her communicator and gave a defeated sigh. “Nothing.”

“No JSA, that’s why. No sign of the Hawks or Doctor Fate, nothing on Captain Marvel,” Ray said as he searched through the Internet. “No Society.”

“It couldn’t be from the future,” Flash insisted. “Those are easy trails to pick out, and I’m positive there’s nothing coming in from the future!”

“Well, they ain’t getting Stormtrooper armor and phasers from the Dark Ages, fleet-feet!” Ollie snapped back as the group’s tension increased with each passing moment, and each new piece of information.

“Dark Ages,” Hawkgirl muttered. “Is that even possible?”

“Aren’t they a matter of fact?” Kid Eternity asked as he appeared in the room, shimmering into view. “Sorry to be late, but I was trying to get to the Hall and it’s missing.”

“Not the Dark Ages that most people consider the Medieval period of Europe, but the Greek Dark Ages,” Hawkgirl explained, talking fast now. “Sometime after the fall of Troy, around 1200 BC, Greek culture is swarmed by barbarians and they scatter to the hills for a couple of centuries. Then they come back down and rebuild. The problem is, all the archaeological evidence shows they rebuilt the same cities with the same ground plans, they made the same pottery and basically did the same thing they did 250 years earlier. This big blank spot in history with the same everything on either side. It was sometime in the...late 1800s when a guy named John Starr started a theory that there was no such period, that it’s a misinterpretation of correlating data. It’s picked up a lot of popular support since then. Most scholars doubt its existence now.”

“Great fairy tale, what’s the point?” Green Arrow asked.

“I see what you’re getting at,” Flash replied. “If this is an attack from the future, and he seeded this theory in the past, there might be technology at work that makes those centuries seem to vanish from history.”

“And hide that part of the time-stream? Is that possible?” Green Lantern rubbed the back of his neck and shook his head in disbelief. “That’s insane.”

“Hurts my head to think about it, but it sounds like our only real course right now,” Kit said as he floated over next to Dawn, who remained locked in her concentration.

“Flash, how many can you take on your treadmill?” Wonder Woman asked.

“Without any help, probably four others,” Barry replied.

“Okay then,” Diana said as she looked at Ray’s laptop now, watching the march of the invaders. “Hawkgirl, Green Arrow, Atom and Ralph, you go with Flash, and investigate this...whatever you call it.”

“Temporal displacement?” Atom suggested helpfully.

“Sure. Lantern, Hawkman and...” She paused as she looked at what was left to her. Diana knew in her heart that as soon as her team left the sanctuary established by Dawn, they’d vanish. She had no choice. “Zan and Jayna, we’re going to head out and do what we can to organize defenses against the invaders. I’m sure Batman is already on that as well, but we’ll coordinate with him and any other remaining heroes. Kid Eternity, Gypsy, you two have to defend this church at all costs. Because when the enemy realizes we’re able to counterattack, he’s coming here. We can count on it. Questions?”

“We won’t let you down, Wonder Woman,” Jayna said as she bit her bottom lip, while Zan puffed up his chest to be picked for such an important assignment. “Count on us.”

“I am,” Diana answered with an assuring smile at the twins. “Good luck, Justice League. Let’s go!” She turned on her heel and headed for the doors to the church and stared out into the world beyond. As Green Lantern and Hawkman soared up into the sky, she paused and put her hands on the twins’ shoulders. “I’m counting on you both more than anyone realizes. The time shifts, if they’ve struck down the Society, mean that we’re going to lose our Hawkman. If the pattern continues, Lantern and I can’t be far behind. It will be up to you two to hold the line, to stand for the League, to do what we need done.”

Zan swallowed hard now as Jayna nodded in understanding. Diana gave a reassuring hug to both and then soared skyward as well. “Ready, wonder-brother?” Jayna asked as she stuck her hand out.

“Of course!” Zan replied with a forced grin and pressed his trembling hand to hers as they activated their powers.



“Magnificent! Every bit as magnificent a resistance as I expected,” stated the man garbed in crimson and gold. He floated from station to station within his glittering, vault-like ‘command cathedral’, observing the advance of his troops across the Earth of 2008. “Don’t you agree, good sir?”

Vandal Savage glared from his prison of chronal energy, made manifest as a swirl of colors visible and invisible. He growled and strained at his bonds. “More resistance than you’ll be able to handle!”

“If they had reason to find me, perhaps,” the first man said again as he floated down past the imprisoned Savage. “But they have no reason to suspect me. Thanks to me aiding your Tower of Babel surreptitiously, the only name they have is yours. And as they’ve never battled the Lord of Time before now, there is no other path for them to follow.” He floated past them and activated several controls on the golden bracer he wore.

“If you think that, then you’ve outsmarted yourself, oh Lord.” Savage grinned wickedly and leaned back into his prison.

“Time Commander, report,” the Lord of Time said as he monitored a penetration of the time-stream. “I am reading an artificial construct entering chronal space. You assured me we had Rip Hunter and his various Time Masters pinned down.”

“We do, my Lord,” a voice replied. “I’ll have my men investigate immediately. This is not a problem, I assure you.”

The Lord of Time clicked off his communicator and stared back at Vandal Savage now. “What did you mean ‘outsmarted myself’? Explain that to me!” The villain stormed back up to Savage’s prison and glowered at the immortal mastermind, who now looked much more relaxed.

“You’ve made two critical errors, Time Lord,” Vandal Savage answered in a low hiss. “Choosing to use my triumphs as your chronal beacon, and thinking that the League won’t know about you. Everything you’ve built up is about to crumble beneath you, and when that happens, you’ll discover your third mistake.”

“What mistake is that, Savage?”

“Making an enemy of me.”

“It doesn’t matter,” the time-conquering villain countered as he pivoted on his heel and pushed away from Savage in frustration. “You’re attempting to rattle me, to get under my skin. I’ll not have a primitive like you manipulate me so crudely.”

“Primitive? Me?” Vandal laughed hard now and shook his head. “You’re a fool. You don’t get it, do you? That device you detected? I’d wager it was the Flash’s time-running vehicle, his ‘cosmic treadmill’. If they’ve entered the time-stream, it’s because they’ve fixed on your chronal breachhead, and if they have, it’s because you critically underestimated their intelligence. Off-hand, I’d think...their Hawkgirl and the elastic detective. But so many people underestimate Mr. Dibny, and I believe he prefers it that way.”

“How? How can they know?”

“The woman is an expert at history, from a family that is embedded in history; how could she not figure out your hidden base? And if Mr. Dibny hasn’t figured out the true identity of their foe yet, it is only a...matter of time, oh Lord!” Savage sneered and laughed.

“How? What do you know, Savage?”

“I know you tripped yourself up, and I’m going to enjoy watching it all unfold,” Vandal calmly answered as he sat back, the smug look on his face infuriating his captor.

The Lord of Time activated a new viewer, focused on the church in Ivy Town in the year 2008 A.D. “We’ll see about that. This place is the focal point of their resistance. I’ll take it out personally, and that will be the end of that!” He spun around and swept out of his command center, leaving Savage alone to watch the numerous scenes surrounding him.

Immortality helps to take the sting out of my loss of pride, having to wait for hated enemies to charge to the rescue, Savage mused darkly as he waited. But only a little.



The constant droning whir of the treadmill had Hawkgirl and Green Arrow on edge as the Flash pushed his legs harder and harder. Atom stood on Elongated Man’s shoulder, as the two of them looked around at the rushing vortex of lights and objects that had been, could be and never would become.

“I’m thinking that it can’t be Savage,” Ralph said over the roaring rush of the treadmill. “It doesn’t fit his M.O. He’s immortal, his time traveling, in a word, is one way. Right?”

“What of it?” Ollie hollered back as he held onto the side of the device. He hated this sensation. He was so visual, so dependent on focus and aim, and this swirling sea of time left him up-ended, and he hated that.

“It means it has to be someone else, and I’m thinking there’s only one other good, clear choice,” Ralph called back as he stretched out fingers to tap Flash and Hawkgirl on the shoulders. “Looking at the three of us, I have to think there’s only one clear suspect!”

“That shmuck from the 1800s?” Kendra looked over at Ralph. “What was his name?”

“Called himself the Lord of Time, said something about revenge. I think we’re finding out what he hates us for,” Ralph answered with a grin.

“Well, that bodes well for us,” Atom said. “After all, he can’t want revenge if we lose, right?”

“Hold on, everyone, we’re about to breach!” Flash warned as his keen reactions picked out the most subtle, nearly invisible ripple in the cacophony of plausibilities and improbabilities that made up the time-stream. “I think this is it!”

The cosmic treadmill shook as it re-entered the world, rocking against the sudden forward motion of time. The droning sound slowly subsided as Flash rested on the handles of the device and tried to catch his breath.

Hawkgirl flew up high into the sky and spun slowly around as she scanned the landscape. “This could be the right time, right place,” Kendra called back down. “No way to tell for certain yet.”

“Where do we go from here?” Green Arrow asked as he quickly stepped away from the beastly treadmill, pulling his bow out into his hand and looking around.

Ralph stretched his neck upward until he could look Hawkgirl in the eyes. “Seems to be something just up over that way,” he said as he looked toward a set of low-lying hills.

“That’s what I was thinking,” Kendra answered as she pulled her mace out. “Let’s go check it out!”



“Move it out! Get that perimeter set up!” the major directed the soldiers in his command as he watched the invaders easily repel their initial assault. The personal force screen and massive rate of fire from the advanced energy weapons gave the advantage to the attackers, despite the soldiers’ greater numbers. Now, the major tried to keep his troops to an orderly retreat and entrench to stop the invaders’ advance.

“We’re here to help, Major,” Wonder Woman called as the three heroes swept down from the skies. They stared grimly at the expanse of jetty that once contained their gleaming headquarters. “Keep your soldiers in place, and we’ll see what we can do.” She gave the officer a confident look, keeping a tight rein on the fear she felt for how long she and her team-mates had before the temporal disruptions affected them.

“Good luck, League,” the man said as he continued to order his men to take defensive positions.

Hawkman and Wonder Woman charged in to the flanks as Green Lantern used his ring to generate a massive bulldozer that he sent roaring toward the temporal attackers.

“Their force shields are too tough to penetrate!” Hawkman called in frustration as he battered at the attackers, weaving around the pulses of energy from the weapons.

The emerald bulldozer crashed into their front line and shoved a dozen of them back as Wonder Woman’s lariat lashed out and grabbed up several of them. With a great heave of her shoulders, she sent them hurtling into another group, as Hawkman did his best to twist between them, to get them to fire at each other.

“More of them are appearing!” Green Lantern alerted his team-mates as another two dozen advanced warriors appeared and laid down a massive wave of suppressing fire, forcing the League members to go on the defensive. A huge emerald brick wall appeared, withstanding the initial attack as Wonder Woman retreated to Hal’s side and Hawkman soared high above. “We can’t keep this up for much longer! If we can’t hurt them, we can’t stop them!”

“I can see some sort of arch that they’re coming through!” Hawkman declared, his vantage point enabling him to see the gate allowing the reinforcements to arrive. “I’m not sure we can get to it in time!” His concern was proven when the enemy fired their weapons again and Hawkman felt his own armor absorb the worst of the strikes, but still the Winged Warrior was injured and forced to the ground with Green Lantern and Wonder Woman.

“We hold this spot here, then,” Diana replied, planting her feet and preparing for the next charge. “We don’t move for as long as we can stand.”

It was then a flash of light and the sound of an explosion rattled the rear of the attackers, and the force screens began to sputter. Cries of surprise made the Justice League wonder what was happening until they could see smoke spread out across the rearward ranks. “I think that’s our cue, gentlemen!” Wonder Woman declared, and with a war cry, she sped into the front ranks, splitting the lines down the middle as Green Lantern and Hawkman joined her.

“Thank you for the diversion, Wonder Woman,” Batman said as the fearsome bat-shadow loomed from the artificial darkness of his gas grenades. “Allowed me to take out the gate.”

Hawkman smiled grimly as he lashed out at the troops, his mace crashing against the advanced polymer armor, much more effectively. “The force screens were part of the gate system?”

“Possibly an effect of the time distortion,” Green Lantern explained, trying to condense the information his ring had provided him in response to his own unspoken query. “Feels good to be able to be effective finally. That was getting frustrating.”

“Keep them contained!” Wonder Woman called out as she and the Batman circled one of the flanks, picking off stragglers and trying to keep the invaders together. “Focus, don’t let any out!”

“Sound tactics, Wond--” Hawkman’s voice faded away, and Diana’s face fell. She knew it was coming.

“Thanks for the timely arrival, Batman,” Wonder Woman said to her ally as she saw Green Lantern starting to fade away. “We have a team working on a solution, and the rest of us at the church, coordinating.” She spoke hurriedly as she began to feel light-headed. “Twins are in...” Batman watched her disappear from view, and with a dour look, turned his attention to the remaining invaders.

“As long as even one of us is standing, you get no further,” the Dark Knight announced to the leader of the temporal troops. “So which one of you is next?”



“That’s a lot of them down there, Jayna,” Zan said nervously as he clung to the long neck of the large raptor-like bird that was his sister. The twins were soaring into the Kansas plains, and could see the well-armed, armored temporal soldiers as they established their position, around a tall, gleaming arch of metal.

“There is at that,” Jayna agreed as she kept herself high above, allowing her predatory eyes to take in the exact details. “We can’t hesitate now though, it looks like they’re getting ready to march, and there’s nobody else ready to try and stop them.”

“Well, I guess we do this then,” Zan said. He focused on his contact with his sister, and let his body shift and mold into a new shape. He flowed off of Jayna’s back and turned into a huge wall of water. He struggled to keep himself together, the only chance of this working like he envisioned was if he remained tightly packed. Wind and velocity struggled to disperse him, but he crashed into the warriors with a tremendous force, washing their balance out from under them moments after they’d been battered from above.

Jayna swooped down now, streaking through the assembled troops, and scattered them with wing buffets and sharp talons. “They have force fields, wonder-brother! I can’t hurt them!”

Zan focused his watery form and fired jets of liquid into the faces of nearby soldiers, blinding them but to little effect. “We have to keep them busy here then?” Zan pulled himself into a geyser and connected with his sister, their forms changing once more.

This time, Zan dropped gently to the ground as a thick mist, providing cover for his sister who had shifted into a rock-hided, large-headed beast the size of a grizzly bear, and tore into the ground. Zan formed faces to taunt the soldiers, trying to get them to shoot at each other through the mist as Jayna burrowed beneath, trembling the ground, and then launched herself up into the air and crashed into several other soldiers. Zan watched as she was struck a couple of times, and she tore back into the ground for cover, but Zan also noticed the way the arch shook with her retreat, and the fact that, for precious moments, his mist touched skin and polymer.

“Jayna, are you okay?” She tore back up through the ground and nodded as she plowed into more soldiers, several nasty scorch marks lining her back. Zan took advantage of her presence to shift his form once more, and now, the mist coalesced around the arch, becoming liquid at first. He became more viscous, colder, turning at last into a solid coating of ice.

Jayna had shifted her form into a rhinoceros and charged into the arch as she realized what her brother was up to, shattering it as she gave a roar of triumph. “Now let’s really fight!” she yelled as she took more blasts of energy that drew blood and ripped skin, but her own rampage smashed the soldiers back, cracking armor, breaking bones and destroying weapons.

The heat of the explosion melted Zan back to liquid and he gathered himself back together as quickly as he could to join in the fray, more geysers of water smashing into the faces of the invaders, but with more results than mere momentary blindness.

“Keep at it, wonder-brother!” Jayna cried out, her voice racked with pain as the concentrated fire brought her down with a crash, leaving Zan to continue the battle as the remaining soldiers turned on him.



The five members of the Justice League carefully crept up over the Greek hills, and peered down at the sight nestled into the valley below. A large geodesic sphere hovered several feet from the ground, suspended by glowing golden beams of force. The sphere stood in the center of a small military compound, with large numbers of soldiers in varying states of readiness, all in the advanced armor that the other Leaguers had faced in the present day. At the perimeter of the compound stood a half-dozen metallic arches, three of them currently active and offering a murky glimpse of modern-day Earth.

“Well, I think we can state, for the record, that you called this one, Hawkgirl,” Ralph said in a quiet voice as his head snaked further out in the tall grass for a closer view.

“Question now is, what do we do about it? I don’t see the Lord of Time, but he could be in that big sphere,” Flash said as they watched the soldiers drill and prepare.

“We get into the sphere then,” Hawkgirl answered in a low, determined voice. “You and Atom should get in there, being the brainy types. The rest of us take on the soldiers and keep their attentions off of you two.”

“Sounds like a good ol’ rough-house to me.” Ollie grinned as he gripped his bow. “Let’s do this.”

“Never had anyone call me the brawn of a group before,” Ralph said as he beamed at Kendra. “Thanks for the compliment.”

Atom hopped onto Barry’s shoulder and gripped the winged earpiece on the speedster’s mask. In a blink and spray of loose dirt, Flash was streaking down to the sphere, and Hawkgirl cried out the call to action, soaring up high and dropping down into the heart of the enemy troops.

The Atom shrunk down smaller, reaching sub-atomic size, and prepared to coast on Flash’s speed energy to slide through the wall with him. Thus, Atom was very surprised to find himself suddenly sailing to the other side of the wall alone. He crashed onto the floor and let himself reach several inches in height, shaking off the confusion and pain from his landing to look around.

“What was that?” he muttered aloud as he rubbed the back of his head. “So dense...almost too dense...”

“It’s called inertron, my diminutive adversary,” answered a voice. Atom quickly bounded away from the approaching figure. Garbed in gold and bronze, upper face hidden in a cowl and flowing cloak trailing behind him, the new arrival cut an almost surreal figure. “It is quite the advanced material in the century I’m from.”

“And I guess you’re this Lord of Time?” Atom asked as he sprung up off the floor to land on a nearby console counter.

“Myself? Alas no. Not as such, not yet, no. I am the Time Commander. The Alpha Commander, actually. My fellow Time Commanders are outside of the sphere-ship, handling your compatriots, while I remain within, organizing the Lord of Time’s conquest of the chronal fiefdom known colloquially as 2008.”

And outside, the Flash bounded off of the ship and rolled across the ground, finally rolling to a stop in a heap. “Flash!” Ralph cried out in shock as he watched his friend crash so hard, and stretched an arm out, widening and flattening it to sweep him from the middle of the battle. “What the hell just happened?”

“He bounced off that wall,” Green Arrow stated the obvious as he released a torrent of arrows that exploded and flared at the troops trying to aim at him. “Never saw that happen before. And what about Atom? Do you see him over there?”

“I got nothing!” Kendra cried out as she streaked through a massed body of soldiers, punching and kicking as she went, and regretting she had nothing more than the caestuses bound up on her fists. “I tell you this, weddings or no, from now on my mace comes with me everywhere!”

“The feathered fascist would be so proud of you!” Ollie replied as he leaped for cover, narrowly missing the blasts as they tore up the ground where he had stood.

“This will cease now!” The Time Commander stalked out from one of the arches, and gripped the palm-sized hourglass at his waist. There was less bronze and more gold with this Commander, but he sounded no less pompous as he turned the glass over in his hand. Glittering grains of energy trickled down from one end to the other and the Justice League members felt the world slowing down around them, like flies trapped in amber. “Your interference was unexpected, but far from insurmountable. The least minor setback, before we dispatch reinforcements to the front lines even now overwhelming the military defenses and your over-matched Justice League!”

Hawkgirl glared at him, and struggled to move, but nothing responded. She could only watch helplessly as her fellow heroes were also imprisoned by the mysterious force as the Time Commander quickly brought together a large contingent of soldiers. Just then though, two of the arches shut down, the images of Smallville and the coastal jetty vanishing from sight.

“What? What happened?” He quickly stormed up to one of the deactivated arches and began to rapidly examine the sensors. His attention focused elsewhere, the frozen time binding the League began to thaw.

“You’re John Starr, aren’t you?” Ralph asked in a slowed-down mockery of his voice as he struggled to slip from the prison of frozen time. “You set up the missing time?”

“Be silent!” A new Time Commander stepped out from the sphere-ship, his own hourglass containing the Atom. “Discussions with the enemy provide no purpose!” He turned to his fellow Commander, and reported, “The Alpha Commander has witnessed these events. We are at war, and we must execute our prisoners so the schedule can be resumed without concern.”



The doors of the church exploded into splinters as the Lord of Time stormed the building, his face contorted in fury. “I will brook no more defiance from the Justice League! With your deaths, your temporal stronghold collapses and my plans proceed apace!”

Kid Eternity and Gypsy stepped between the villain and Manitou Dawn, who still sat cross-legged in the center of the church. She was covered in sweat, her face pale and body trembling as she continued her chant with a dry voice and cracked lips. “You only get to Dawn over my dead body!” Kit insisted as he pointed at the Lord of Time dramatically. “Metaphorically speaking, of course.”

Gypsy used his quip to fade from sight and slide up to the wall. She snuck along the edge, creeping slowly, knees weak, as she watched the Lord of Time laugh at her partner. “Very well, foolish little man. Do your best!”

“Eternity!” the Kid called out in confidence, but both he and Gypsy were stunned when nothing happened.

Again the Lord of Time laughed and he stepped toward Kit and Dawn. Once more, Kit called his magic word, and nothing happened. “Ah, right. The ghost who calls legends. Except that, when the past is all murky, who is a legend and who is not?” He chuckled cruelly as he back-handed Kit, energy crackling from his glove, and spun the hero to the side in shock and pain.

Gypsy struck now, putting all her focus onto the side-kick Hawkgirl had been teaching her. She connected in the small of the Lord’s back and caused him a momentary stumble from surprise. He spun around, gauntlets laced with ferocious power, but he couldn’t see his attacker.

“Invisibility will save you only so long, girl!” he declared as he held his hands out and arcs of energy cascaded out in a sweeping curtain.

“Aiiieee!” Gypsy screamed in pain and then crashed to the floor, twitching and gasping. The Lord of Time turned back on Dawn.

“And now to end this temporal resistance.”

“No!” Kit cried. No, no, can’t do this, can’t fail, not Dawn, not Ray, think, think! His brain raced and he bit his lip. Give this one to me, please, please, Mr. Keeper, give this one to me! He cast all his power into the ether, and shouted “ETERNITY!”

The Lord of Time turned back to Kit with a smirk. “I thought I told you that was useless?”

“Don’t worry, Kit, no way on any Earth we’re letting Ray and Jean down,” Blue Jay said as he and a green-and-blue-clad woman appeared on either side of the teen. “Let’s go, Hummingbird, my love!”

“Right behind you, man ‘o mine!” the slender young woman said as they soared out toward the Lord of Time as the pair pummeled him around the face and neatly avoided his blasts.

“Our legends may be a bit mixed up,” Kit said, “but there are other legends on other Earths, and sometimes, you just gotta let something as corny as true love tilt the balance!” He dove at the futuristic marauder, and took advantage of the Lord’s own gauntlets to grab his hands. His ethereal form rippled in pain as he grappled with the villain, the pain from the energy gloves incredible, but he refused to relent.

“That’s it, Kid, keep at it!” Hummingbird said with an excited smile. “Thanks a lot, this means the world to me. One last time in combat, the world in danger, my hubby at my side. You’ll never know what this means.” She flew around his head and planted a quick kiss on his cheek and then zipped straight back at the Lord of Time, driving both tiny fists hard to the bridge of his nose.

“Remember me, you big bully?” Gypsy asked as she tapped him on the shoulder. He twisted around to be met with a thick wooden pole to the face. He saw stars, and the world spun for a moment as Kit noticed the weapon vanish from her hands and she grinned mischievously.

“It’s done!” Dawn suddenly gasped, her head lifting up to see the battle, blood dripping from her nose, the room spinning around her. “It’s over!”



“Okay, I’ve heard enough now,” Flash said as he suddenly sprinted for the first Time Commander’s hourglass and tore it from the control belt. He dashed it on the ground and the Justice League felt their temporal prisons vanish. “No executions on my watch, no way, no how!” As a scarlet blur again, the Flash tore into the legion of time soldiers.

Without wasting a moment, Green Arrow pivoted and released a razor-sharp arrow that severed the hourglass holding Atom in place. “Heya, buddy, come join the fight. You know the wife’ll be pissed if she hears you blew off the wedding just to laze around and let the big heroes do the fighting.”

Atom bounded off the ground as the hourglass shattered, and leaped toward the Emerald Archer, as Hawkgirl tore into the first Commander, and Ralph wrapped the second commander up tight, squeezing the breath from him while the Flash continued to disarm the soldiers. “Okay, Ollie, you want to be the big hero, you want to save the day? You want to be the one to beat the Lord of Time’s big plot?” Atom bounded into Arrow’s quiver and pulled out one of his arrows.

“Yeah, sure. Whattaya got in mind, short-stuff?” Ollie smirked, looked bemused as he took the arrow Atom selected.

“Then shoot an arrow in the air, and where it lands, I care not where,” Atom said as he pointed to the far hills from where they came. “But the when...that matters.”

Ollie shrugged and fired the arrow as far as he could while the fighting continued around him. “I’m trusting you big-time on this one, Ray.”



A Time Commander strode into the command cathedral somewhere far into the future. His bronze and gold costume was trimmed in red, and he looked as if he belonged in this central arena of the Lord of Time. He listened to Vandal Savage laugh at him, but did his best to ignore it. He pulled his cowl off, and slipped out from under his cloak.

“Very well, Savage. I concede you were right,” the Commander said reluctantly as he peeled off the tunic and pulled on the red and gold one of the Lord of Time. “Alas, it was an unworthy scheme, to be undone by a single arrow with radioactive dye.”

“You mean, one that could be found by an archaeologist? Dated, oh so incredibly precisely? Popping a hole in your precious bubble of missing time?” Savage continued to taunt from his prison.

“Be silent, primitive!” the newly-minted Lord of Time demanded as he operated the control panel. “I’ll have my revenge. I’ll see to the destruction of these minor Justice Leaguers. Flash, Hawkgirl, Elongated Man, Atom, Green Arrow. I will. Why wait? I’ll destroy them before they meet me? It will be perfect.” He chuckled as he reached for a final control. “But for now, time to reset the board.. Cut off all of these peripheral tools, and start anew. Farewell, Savage.”

The Lord of Time looked on the monitor as his predecessor struggled against the five attackers now, and he shook his head. “So short-sighted.” He hit the reset protocol and watched his predecessor fade from view, each of his soldiers, each of his former fellow Commanders, all fade away as he slipped the temporal dams out and allowed the time-stream to return to normal. He turned to watch Vandal Savage fade from his prison, to return to the Tower of Babel, to be defeated in his goals for the first time, and later a second time.

“Oh yes. Time to plot anew.” He chuckled.



The guests had been returned to their seats. The damage to the church was gone, having never been, and while there was a certainty that something had disrupted the original schedule, most of the people within the building couldn’t quite remember what it was.

Those of the Justice League remembered however much of the adventure they had remained in existence for. Kid Eternity had bid Blue Jay and Hummingbird farewell before Atom returned, but not before Jean and Sue had insisted on checking on their defenders after the battle had gone quiet. Kit and Dawn each smiled as they thought about the words Hummingbird had whispered into Jean’s ear before the lovers returned to the ether.

The twins were still shaken by the injuries they had suffered, but that had vanished with the defeat. Dawn was half-conscious from the exertion, but refused to leave the people she’d defended, not at the moment of their greatest joy.

And in their pew, Ollie and Kendra shared a smug look that left Katar scratching his head, perhaps a little concerned, and maybe even a touch jealous.

“Don’t worry about it, featherbrain. I didn’t do anything with your lady friend,” Ollie told Katar sharply. “Nothing she wasn’t interested in doing anyway,” he added after Katar shrugged and walked back to the wedding party as it assembled again, at last.

“Are we ready?” Ralph asked the wedding party, holding Sue close to him.

“No,” Ray said, his face showing the inner turmoil he was wrestling with. “Jean... Jean, I can’t do this to you. I don’t know what I was thinking. I love you too much to put you through this kind of stuff. If we get married, you’re always going to be in jeopardy. I can’t do that to you. I just can’t...” His voice trailed off as he choked up.

Jean motioned for the others to leave them alone, which they did, quickly. She stepped closer to Ray, lifting his head gently with her hand.

“Sorry, Ray, you’re not running away now. One of the many reasons I fell in love with you is for your strength. You’re such a positive, determined man; never letting anything take you down. I love that about you. I believe in you, Ray Palmer – I believe in us! There’s nothing we can’t get through, together. Don’t prove me wrong, Ray. If you walk away from us now, for any reason, then you’re telling me that you don’t have that same belief in us. I do not doubt our love, and I never will. Our love is as strong as the greatest love story ever written. It’s trust, Ray. You have to believe and trust in me, like I do you. Now show me you have that same trust.”

Ray opened his mouth several times to say something, but nothing came out. Was this how it felt, he wondered to himself. Was this what it was like to experience pure love? Pure joy? She had him, and she knew it... he knew it. All he could do was nod to her, tears falling freely down his cheeks. Her face lit up, her own tears being shed as they embraced.

Finally Ray found his voice. “Let’s get married.”

“Alright, but thanks to that noble side of you, I just blew half my wedding vows, already.”

Ray kissed her on the cheek as they wiped each others tears away. “I trust that you will come up with something.”



The sanctuary of the church glowed in warmth with an over abundance of not only candles, but bright white lights that decorated the Christmas trees on either side of the altar. The sides of the pews were adorned with red poinsettias with silver and gold ribbon hanging off of them.

Ray Palmer once again made his way to the front of the sanctuary where Katar and Ralph were waiting for him.

“She is beautiful,” Ralph said quietly as the organ began to play O Come All Ye Faithful and the bridesmaids started their march down the center aisle.

“Yes, yes she is.” Ray replied. He turned his head slightly to his Best Man, “You still have the ring, Katar?”

“What’s it worth to you?”

“Wanna die, Katar?”

The second verse began with a flourish as Jean stepped into view. The crowd of people stood up in unison as she made her way to her destiny. All the faces of her friends beamed at her as she traveled towards the man she loved.

When she reached the front of the altar, Ray stepped forward, offering his hand, which she took willingly. “No turning back, Mr. Palmer,” she whispered to him.

“Don’t want to, Ms. Loring, the best days are in front of us.”

They turned as one, facing the priest, and there, before friends, family, and God, they professed their love and commitment together. By the time it was over, there was hardly a dry eye in the church.

“Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Ray Palmer,” the priest announced.

The chapel erupted into applause; Hal Jordan and Oliver Queen’s whistles soaring over the cries of approval. The organist began to play the song, Joy to the World, which would end the ceremony. Ray and Jean, hands clasped together, marched down the aisle to the back of the church and the beginning of their new life together, both knowing that their greatest adventure was in front of them.

The End.


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