Issue 5: "Blue and Gold"

ONE YEAR AGO

There was a silver cloud with a black lining, there was rain, there was thunder and lightening, there were locusts. The Cleveland Indians were on a winning streak and it was known that the end was near.

Minions of the dark god Darkseid filled the skies over earth. In every direction havoc ruled the streets. Death was in the air so thick you could choke on it. Apokolips was in orbit and spilling Parademons like a beehive that had been poked.

Powers, Inc. had some how gotten separated in the initial melee. Blue Beetle, Booster Gold and Looker fought their way through the hilly streets of San Francisco.
“There’s too many. Where are the others?” Ted said looking around the chaos filled streets, as the three heroes battled a pack of Parademons.

Booster fried two of them with his wristbands and moved close to his team mates.
“It’s too late,” he shouted. “They all know what they need to do.”

“You seem to know an awful lot about this Booster.” Looker said firing psionic blasts at a parademon.

“I, ah…” Booster was taken off the spot by a blast that landed near their feet.

“We need to get out of here and regroup.” Looker announced.

“Over there,” Ted said pointing at a convenience store with all the windows blown out. “We can hide in there for a minute.”

The trio ran across the street and ducked into the store.

“What the hell is this?” Looker said to Ted. Booster was off checking out the store while Looker and Ted had ducked behind the counter.

“I don’t know. That is definitely a planet in our orbit; an alien invasion, apparently. It’s like the end of the world out there.” Ted responded wrapping gauze around a wound on his arm.

“It’s not the end.” Booster stated as matter-of-factly. He had just joined the pair behind the counter, a Coke and Mars bar in his hand.

“What in the hell are you doing?” Looker asked him.

“I’m having a snack. Relax I brought you guys one.” He said trying to hand them both candy bars.

“You never answered me. Why do you know so much about this? What is going on here?” Looker pressed him.

“Okay…okay. I can see the future.” Booster answered lying.

Looker reached up and slapped him.

“Oww, what was that?”

“What’s the matter, didn’t see it coming?”

“Fine, I’m from the future. We studied this invasion in my world history class as a kid.”

Ted and Looker stared at him as though it was all coming together. Everything they knew about Booster suddenly made sense.

“You knew this was gonna happen and you said nothing?” Ted asked nearly screaming.
“Of course he didn’t, there’s no profit in it.” Looker said, giving Booster a scorching look.

“Hey! That’s not cool. I didn’t say I paid attention in the damn class. I had no idea. I forgot all about it until today. But…”

“… But what, Booster?” Looker asked, still angry with him.

“I have an idea.” He said.

“Well, come on with it.” Ted said looking out the front of the store at some parademons flying toward it.

“I need to get to a time machine.” Booster replied taking another bite from his candy bar.

“Are you insane? You can’t change the past.” Looker replied.

“Wait…” Said Ted, “I know of a guy, but we’ll have to get to the prison in central city.”

As Ted spoke the words, a blast hit the front of the store and their break was over. They headed out to find a swarm of parademons coming strait for them. Looker walked faster than the other two and stood tall in front of the on-coming battalion of parademons. They flew quickly, planning to swoop in and take the trio out in one attack.

“Get down you two.” Looker said with a steely determination that surprised her teammates. She looked toward the parademons waiting for them to come closer. They descended at an unnatural velocity. When they got within twenty feet of her Looker let out a blast of psychic energy that leveled the entire group! They fell to the ground only steps away from her feet. The helmet of one of the parademons rolled to a stop between Looker’s feet.

She pulled of her gloves and picked it up. Touching the helmet she closed her eyes. Images flooded her brain. A planet full of fire and brimstone. A dark god standing before his minions as they chanted his name. DARKSEID, DARKSEID, DARKSEID. An old woman torturing people, who seemed to enjoy it. An entire army of hideous creatures standing at attention. Planets falling one after the other.

The images progress rapidly, fragments of scenes too horrible to mention. All at once she dropped the helmet as she was pulled back to her own reality.

“Looker? Looker?” It was Beetle and Booster trying to get her attention.

“Let’s go.” She said to the stunned Booster and Beetle.

“Are we going to that prison?” Booster asked throwing down his candy bar wrapper and wiping his mouth.

“Do you really think you can change this?” Looker asked him.

“No, but I can get all kinds of info on the aliens. His name is Dark…dark, something.”

“Are you trying to say Dart Vader?” Ted asked giving Booster a funny look.

“Umm…no, I can’t remember his name. It’s not important.”

“It’s Darkseid,” Said Looker.

At that moment another loud boom drowned out all the other noise around them. They looked to their west and saw it.

“Oh. My. God.” Looker said.

Off in the distance they could see Powers Towers. A large metal object fell from the sky crashing strait through the roof of the Tower.

Powers Towers was no more.

“Aw, come on!” Booster exclaimed kicking at the ground. “All my stuff was in there. Do you know how many DVDs I had up there?!”

“Let’s go.” Looker said concentrating on her teleporting powers.

The city faded from around them and seconds later they were in Central City, right next to the prison.

The scene in Central City was no different than the rest of the planet; a red and black sky, a new planet in earth’s orbit causing natural disasters all over.

“This way,” Ted said and started for the prison.

ONE YEAR AGO

Inside the prison, the natives were a little more than restless. A full scale riot had started when they saw the news during their television time.

“The end is near!!” One inmate screamed as the common area filled with violence.
A large inmate picked up the television and it came unplugged from the wall. As the power on it went out, the face of Batman faded to black on the screen. He threw it and it hit another prisoner in the face. Guards launched tear gas canisters into the common rooms and the gas slowly filled the air, mostly to no avail. The prisoners were worked into such a frenzy that had it not been for Looker being the first woman they had seen in years they barely would have noticed the heroes sneaking through the crowd. The prisoners fell silent for a brief second then started beating on the psychic bubble Looker had put around the trio.

A chorus of “Hey, baby!” rang through out the walls of the prison.

“Yuck,” Said Looker looking at one of the prisoners doing his own version of show and tell.

“Okay, yeah. I didn’t need that.” Beetle said looking away as quickly as possible.
The guards were all running for their lives at this point and the heroes finally made their way to the cell they were looking for.

David Clinton had locked himself in his cell when the riot began. Booster blasted the hinges off the doors with his wrist blasters. The iron cell door hit the ground and Looker picked it up via telekinesis, placing it back on the cell once they were inside.

David Clinton, the man also known as Chronos, stood up and stared at Blue Beetle.
“Look who it is.” He said flashing an evil grin.

“Shut up.” Ted said. “We need a time machine and we’re in a hurry.”

“You think you’re going to change all this, do you?” Clinton said still smiling. “Your super buddies in the Linear Men won’t like that too much.”

“Just tell us where your machine is.” Looker said, slowly choking him with a psychic grip.

“Okay.” He said, as his face turned red and he started to cough. “But you have to take me.”

“Fine.” Looker said much to the chagrin of Beetle.

Looker closed her eyes again and teleported them outside to a nearby city street.

David Clinton spoke first, “I think Ted should remember where it is.”

“Dude, he knows your secret identity? Burn!” Booster said.

“Shut up, Booster.” Ted replied.

“Seriously, why would you tell your arch nemesis your secret?” Booster asked, puzzled.

“I didn’t TELL him you idiot. Anyways, I said to shut up.” Ted responded.

The four walked the six blocks to the old church, where Ted had battled Chronos all those months ago.

“Here, in the basement.” Clinton said looking at the building.

The four headed up the steps and into the building. In the basement David Clinton pulled a lever on a wall and it opened up, revealing several versions of the Chronos suit. He picked up four belts off the table inside the wall and handed them out to the heroes. He put one of his own on.

“No. No way. He’s not coming to the future with us.” Ted protested.

“What do we do, leave him here?” Looker asked.

“Yeah, we leave him here.” Ted answered giving David his mean face.

Booster had been unusually quite the whole time. Finally he spoke up. “Um… I think you all should stay. I need to do this by myself.” He said with more conviction than his teammates had ever heard from him.

Ted looked at him, puzzled for a moment, and then said, “Yeah, okay.”

Looker spoke next, “What!? You’re going to let him go alone?”

“We have to. What if he gets lost in time or something? We have to stay behind and protect the city. We’ve no idea if any of the others are even alive.”

“I can’t believe we are leaving Booster Gold to his own devices in the future… fine.”

“I’ll be back.” Booster said emphasizing his words to show he was serious. He pressed the button on the chrono belt and disappeared.

“Godspeed, Michael.” said Beetle.

Ted looked around for a second as though something was amiss. “Damn!!” He exclaimed.

He looked at the wall that Clinton had revealed and a Chronos suit was missing, along with Chronos.

“It doesn’t matter right now” Looker said, “we have to get back home maybe we can find the others.”

“Right,” Said Ted.

Looker teleported the two back to San Francisco. The city was even worse than when they had left it. Parademons stalked he streets by the hundreds, maybe the thousands.

“It’s like the end of the world out here.” Looker said.
Beetle was busily looking at the internal monitor inside his goggles. “It’s the same everywhere. Tokyo, Bangladesh, Gotham, Metropolis…”

As the two took in the damage and weighed their options another pack of parademons came charging at them. Looker threw up a wall of psychic energy but could only hold them off for a few seconds. Beetle re-aimed his Beetle Gun and started firing it off. The parademons momentarily dazed and stunned by the voltages slowed enough to allow the pair to go on the offense.

Blue Beetle threw a vicious right hook, connecting to the face of a parademon and knocking him out. Looker steadily fired off psionic blasts, leveling several foes.
As the pair fought on Blue Beetle noticed a gas station next to them.

“This isn’t working.” Looker said between blasts.

“Over here, I have an idea,” Said Blue Beetle.
The two charged through the parademon and to the gas pumps.

“Direct it.” Beetle said as he lifted a gas nozzle.

He squeezed the handle and the gas sprayed out. Looker formed a wall of psychic energy funneling the gas toward the coming enemy. Blue Beetle once again aimed his BB gun and fired into the stream of gasoline, igniting it into flames. The parademons were ablaze in seconds.

“Run!” Ted shouted and he and Looker both ran away from the blazing gas pumps.

Several seconds later an explosion rocked the hilly street, taking down many of their opponents. The two heroes rounded a corner and looked out over a large hill and down into a sprawling landscape of sub divisions. The cookie cutter homes half ablaze and abandoned cars filled the streets and cul-de-sacs. A line of too many parademons to count marched through the residential blocks. The two ducked behind a nearby retaining wall and sat quietly for several seconds. Overwhelmed by the situation neither of them could speak. Ted pulled off his mask and looked over to Looker. She removed hers and stared back at him. Not a word was spoken, but they both knew what was coming. Looker grabbed Ted by the back of the head and kissed him deeper than he had ever been kissed before. He grabbed her back, and the two shared a long kiss, before getting up and running head long into the battle.

TODAY

“What’s this?” Looker asked Ted holding up a small device.

“Batman sent it over. I’ve been helping him with tech, so he’s helped a little with this Booster thing. That is Apokoliptian tech; he said it may help me find Booster. I have been trying to find a way to track him through the technology in his suit. His suit being from the future though makes it kind of hard to figure out what I’m tracking. But Steel sent over something that just might help. If it doesn’t work to track Booster it will work to track Chronos.”

“You’re really sure Chronos has something to do with Michael never returning?” Looker asked.

“I think.” Ted said not so sure of himself. “I mean he disappeared that same day, they both had time travel capability. I just wish I knew how to find the Linear Men.”

Blue Beetle plugged in the Apokoliptian device and it started pinging and beeping. The internal monitor on his goggles showed a GPS map of the Arctic Circle. The closer it zoomed in the better he could see it, Booster Gold and Skeets. Ted smiled.

“Maybe it’s not Chronos’ fault.” He said.

“What is it? What do you see?” Looker asked.

“Do you have anything to wear in the snow?”

TODAY

Booster used his wrist bands to melt the ice away from Skeets.
“I can’t believe you are here little buddy.” Booster said with a big Grin. “You can tell me how to get back to San Fran. Of course I don’t know why I’m going back there.

“Everybody’s gonna hate me now. Towers destroyed, along with my kick ass DVD collection and all my other awesome stuff.”

“POWERS, INC. IS REASSEMBLING. YOUR TOWER WILL BE REBUILT><><YOU ARE ON THE NEW TEAM.” Skeets said then continued, “HISTORICAL RECORDS SHOW THAT MOST TEAM MEMBERS WILL RETURN. POWERS, INC. WILL BE AS SUCC--”

Booster cut him off, “Whoa, whoa wait a minute. Most members? I …you know what? Don’t tell me anymore, right now. How do we get out of here?”

“TWO OF YOUR FORMER TEAMMATES ARE SEARCHING FOR YOU AS WE SPEAK. THEY WILL<><><><FIND YOU IN EXACTLY ONE HOUR.”

“Great. So, we can just chill here and wait then.”