A/N:

So...Here we are again folks! You may not have heard, but next week (2nd-6th July) has been decreed #WonderBatMilestones week by a higher power...namely LadyLiteration on the Twitters...

For the details, check out the hashtag, you'll find it there. Also on tumblr, but I'm still not a tumblrer(erer) so I can't guide you there. But I'm sure Google will be your friend. Might even get you a round in! And then lead you on the path to joining in the fun!

But before we hit the big one...Well, can't tell a story without any set up! And so, as my buddy Sforzy has been calling it, its time to raise the curtain.

Day Zero has arrived...

0: A Time Above…

Churring. The tiny creature hopped across the rooftop towards the edge, issuing its churring call across the city. It had gone stray, flown too far from its nest, and now was dazzled by the brightness and activity that stretched out before it. That had stretched to give it a perch far higher than it had ever been before. This was not the night it was used to gathering among.

The small bird's head twizzled in several jerking motions as it looked down at it all, churring away to itself all the while. Its search was for food, nesting material, anything of use to its tiny existence. But what it saw was metals, concretes and all manner of things it didn't understand.

Including the huge golden globe several rooftops away…That caught the birds eyes, its head poking forwards for a better look. At the same time, it splayed its wings sending a ripple through the air, as if preparing to take flight, to draw in and investigate further. The next second, the bird was gone. But it wasn't out of curiosity, not in the end.

It was fear.

The energy was weak at first, meaning it didn't harm the bird as the pulse lanced across the rooftop and through its tiny feet. But it was enough to startle it, to make it take flight. To make its base desire to flee erupt through its being. To soar off into the night. To leave that particular rooftop deserted and alone.

To escape the energy pulses as they began to grow.

They came one at a time, like miniature, fizzing lightning bolts, licking out of a sphere of fresh air. But they grew, one by one. Strands of energy bursting from nowhere. Strands which began to weave together into a circumference of light. Energy that built with a soft crackle of power until the centre of that rooftop was nothing but…

Until that energy then suddenly stopped. Until it was gone, as if it had never been there, only a calmness of the night left in its place.

The night, and the shadow that now stepped out from it. From the centre of where that energy had been. As if that energy and shadow had almost been one and the same…

The shadow that stepped forward along that rooftop, towards its edge. To look out across that city, towards that famous golden Planet adorning its skyline.

The shadow that then began to smile.

He sighed as he leant forwards against the railing, a cool chill to the dusk air. He faced out towards the city, but at the same time he didn't really see any of it, though nor was he trying to. The flying cars, glowing lights, the buzz of life in 25th century Metropolis. It was all so mundane.

There were still people about, but not enough to keep his interest, not when it was just the usual mob of tourists being shown around by the guides. Besides, they had the security droids to do the real work there. He was just some nobody this place paid minimum wage to keep a human feel about the place. No one wanted to feel like they were becoming obsolete.

A fact he knew all too well. Because that's how he'd felt almost every day since he lost his shot at the big time. Since he blew his chance at being a major athlete on the world stage. Ever since he'd gotten out of the big house, and found this dull, menial, forgettable job was the only future he had left.

"Penny for 'em."

The voice rang out from behind him, making him spin. There she was. The precise, female version of him, knowing smile plastered across her face.

"Hey, Shel," he grinned back at the sight of his sister standing there behind him. Sure, his life sucked these days. No fame, no money. Dead-end job that bored him senseless. Dad a long-gone sap who'd blown all their money. Yeah, things definitely sucked. But at least there was Michelle to occasionally brighten the days. "What brings you here?"

"What, I can't swing by to say hi to my brother on my way home from work?" she shrugged. But then she held up a brown paper bag. "Besides. I brought doughnuts."

"Well why didn't you say so!" And now he really smiled. Now he stepped forward right towards her and wrapped her in a hug. A hug that ended up with that paper bag now safely nestled in his hands. By the time he was pulling away, he already had one bite of sugar-coated bakery goodness safely taken, making his next words nothing but a mumbled mess. "Good-to-see-you-sis."

"You slob!" she mockingly proclaimed, slapping him in the chest and making him smile again. "So come on…aren't you gonna show me around?"

"What the Museum?" He was a little startled by the request. After all, this place was nothing new to her. "21st century superheroes are literally yesterday's news, Shel. You've been round this place lots of times."

"Yeah, but if we just stand here and chat while you're meant to be on the clock, your bosses might start to get antsy. After everything that's happened, we all want you to keep your job. To stay on your feet. Because don't forget, the guys who run this place, they're keeping an eye on everything. Now come on. I want to hear all about how you're doing."

Michelle gestured with her head as she said that last part, making him look over her shoulder. It wasn't hard to pick out what she meant. This place was always littered with security droids, but one more than any other was always sticking close by to him. He never liked to thought why, never liked to consider the possibility the bosses in this place stuck the droid with him, never liked to wonder if they decided to keep an eye on him because of his record for jail time. Besides, he'd come to like the little fella. That droid wasn't his warden, not to him. And – he thought – not to the droid. Not really. No, they were more like partners. That droid, Skeets, was maybe even the best friend he had.

Maybe his only friend… Yeah, his life certainly sucked.

But regardless of his view on Skeets, Michelle had a point. Besides, while she was here, he may as well make the most of Michelle's company. That was why he was soon giving her the nod, holding up one arm to lead her in towards the displays. At least that might be another upside to this.

The age of heroes. It was something they'd both loved as kids. A time when superheroes were superstars. People doing remarkable things, risky life and limb for the good of others. And looking seriously cool while doing it. Now those were the days. The good old days, you might call them. To have been one of those guys, one of those supers… Now that was the kind of fame and fortune he deserved. What he yearned for.

If only he could have been there. Been one of them. That would have been really something.

If only he could be the master of time… If only there was a way…

If only this museum had a time sphere and all the gear he needed to make that actually happen.

If only.

The sound of clicking fingers. The sight of it too, once they broke his reverie enough to let him refocus. The here and now. This was where his head to be.

"You were back there again, weren't you?"

"Back where?" he answered a little too quickly, leaving Dr Simmons – Tracy – to give him that knowing look. She could always read him. Right from day one, their little adventure with that black hole mishap, she'd been seeing the real him while even he couldn't. And in her… Well, he'd seen a genius who was also smoking hot. And he'd been seeing a whole lot of that ever since. And a lot of her.

"Don't act like I don't notice!" Tracy laughed as she slapped him playfully in the chest, just as his sister used to do. "You miss them. Don't you? The family. The people. The place you came from. The time you came from. I see it. And the more you've stopped chasing the glory, the more I've seen it too…"

The more she spoke, the less humour was in her voice. There was almost a sadness, even. An empathy. And that made him start feeling it too. Because she also happened to be right.

A few years ago – or over four hundred years from now, depending on how you looked at it – he had broken in to the Museum exhibits, stolen the high-tech power suit and forced himself access to the prize exhibit. The fully functioning time sphere. Every bit of it illegal, even temporal law in the book broken, but he'd done it. He'd left the future – his present – to come back here. To become one of those 21st century heroes he'd so idolised. To chase the glories he'd always thought they'd had.

He hadn't cared that it was a one-way trip either. The device that sent him here, it wasn't something he'd been able to bring with him. In coming to the past, there was no way back to where he'd come from. When he'd come from. Not any sort of easy one, anyway. But back then, he hadn't cared. Ironically enough, he had no future in the future. He had nothing. But he did think he had a future in the past.

And he could have done as well, if only everyone hadn't always thought he was the damn Green Lantern.

But Simmons was right there too. He'd come here expecting to find glory, money, fame. Instead he'd found something more. He'd found a purpose. And he'd found her.

But he'd also found that, no longer desperate for everyone to know his name, to be their icon and their figurehead, no longer desperate for riches, he was also starting to appreciate what he'd had. Nothing more so than his sister. The sister he'd never see again…

"She's got you there, Sir."

The new voice, higher pitched with electronic undertones, suddenly chirped up from behind him, causing him to glance back over his shoulder at it. Glaring, even. After all, his best mate and wing man was meant to have his back, not help give the game away!

But that was Skeets in a nutshell. He could only figure that even in the 25th century the boffins hadn't yet figured out how to make a robot truly with the sensibilities of a human. Yet the floating, golden egg was still about the best friend a guy could ever have. The best cheerleader. Even if sometimes his foot did live in his mouth.

"Sorry…" Skeets apologised at the look he was being given, bowing his optical receptor slightly in intimidation of embarrassment and guilt. But he couldn't stay mad at Skeets for long. Yet he had no chance to say so, not before the soft, femininehand was laid on his cheek. The hand that dragged his head back around, making him look Simmons in the eye all over again.

"It's ok! I understand, you know!" she told him, practically laughing. And her eyes…they were even more lit up than her face. Full of life, humour…love. Oh yes… No longer searching for fame and fortune may have left him homesick, but there was one thing he'd most certainly found here in the past. One thing he wouldn't trade for anything. Her. Simmons. He'd just rather have the rest of his life here too… "What you're going through, the… Well, for want of a better word, the loss. Its…its only human to miss what you left behind. Especially when its family.

"And as larger than life as you are, you are still human, Booster Gold."

That was his name. The one he'd wound up with anyway. Snazzier than Michael Carter, at least! Even if Simmons was the only civilian who ever seemed to remember it… Just another one of her good qualities, then! A thought which, as he continued to gaze down through his golden goggles, adorned in his hero suit, left him unable to resist. He stretched out an arm, and dragged her in close, so quick she let out a little noise in surprise. A happy little noise.

"Don't you mean, superhuman?" Booster corrected her with a cocky smirk as he gazed down at her. The look on her face, her returning smile, said it all. It had become alluring. Inviting. An invitation Booster simply couldn't refuse. Slowly at first, he leant in, their faces getting closer as he held her in his arms.

And then he kissed her. A kiss she fully returned. And a kiss full of passion. A kiss he wanted to go on forever. If not for the distracting noise…

"Yaaaaaaayy!" Skeets cheered, hovering in closer to the sight, his receptor glowing in a way Booster knew meant his holo-recorders were on. "Booster, you're doing it! You're kissing the girl!"

Booster couldn't help but let his eyes flash up at Skeets in another glare, but refused to break away from Simmons. Not while he had this moment to enjoy. He just had to stop Skeets ruining it! And so, knowing his robot shell could take it with ease, he swatted out one hand into the side of Skeets' small metal frame, sending the droid flying. He didn't go far, twirling off and spinning around on the spot like a dreidel, but it was enough to get him out of their hair.

Unfortunately for Booster, Simmons had seen all of it. He managed to go in for one last kiss before she succeeded in breaking away, slapping him in the chest again in the process. When Booster finally couldn't reach her lips anymore, she began to laugh at him all over again. But in a good way! That's what he always told himself…

"Always your little cheerleader!" she said through the laugh, looking back to Skeets as he almost comedically stopped his spinning, left wobbling on the spot like he was suffering a cartoonish dizziness. "I think its kind of sweet…"

"Oh don't get me wrong, I love the guy," Booster was quick to add for her, though he butted in again just as Skeets began to sound like he was going to chirp up again. "Be lost without him. But there's just some times when a guy doesn't need his best friend around, you know?"

"I know, Booster, I know," Simmons continued to chuckle at him in response. Only now she had that other kind of mischievous look in her eye that he liked so much. "But don't go getting any ideas. I wasn't planning on letting things go that far right now. Not with all these people watching. That'd have to wait for later."

For once in his life, Booster was left tongue tied at that. This time, definitely in a good way. His only reaction was for his eyebrows to shoot up well above his visor. Still, that meant Skeets got a word in edgewise this time, and he probably summed it up perfectly anyway.

"I believe the phrase is; 'Oh my….'"

"You said it, Skeets…" Booster finally managed to speak, barely more than a whisper. His visor even seemed to be starting to fog over. Simmons, for her part, though, had suddenly gone serious again.

"I meant it Booster. Michael. I meant it. Listen, this…grieving you're going through. I know its not one I've been through, but if ever you do feel you need to talk, I'll be there to listen. But, if I'm being totally honest… I'm glad you aren't with your family anymore. Because if you were, if you hadn't come back in time, then you couldn't have been with me…"

"And what more reason can a red-blooded guy have to call this time home?" Booster replied with a smirk of his own, leaving Simmons practically blushing. But there was something else stabbing at him, something far less flirty he was now compelled to say. "And I am so glad that you've got my back. Just doesn't mean I'm happy you're leaving."

Simmons cocked her head, looking at him from the top of her eyes, mouth compressed to one side. "Leaving…? Says the flying man with access to a teleporter? Come on Booster, I'm not going that far, and you'll always be able to find me."

True, that. Very true. But still… Here they were, at the train station, Simmons with a ticket clutched in hand that she'd picked up while he'd been busy daydreaming. It certainly felt like she was going away. And that was bad enough. Even if she was most definitely coming back to him. And even if she had good reason for going in the first place.

When they'd first met, Simmons had been working closely with her lab partner on developing a new energy source. Something technical, something black holey. Booster didn't remember the full science details behind it. But it showed she had brains. That she was an expert on such things. So it made perfect sense that the Solar Nucleosynthewhatsits Project to come asking for her help.

Again, Booster didn't know all the scientific background for it, but he'd caught the gist. Scientists still trying to find a better answer to power the world than coal and gas thought they'd finally cracked the big one. Having sent an incredibly advanced space prove into the sun itself, collecting tiny fragments of matter in the process, they thought they'd finally found a way to make man-made Fusion power a reality. The same kind of Fusion reaction that happened at the heart of stars to make them burn so bright they lit up the skies.

It was kind of a big deal, and more than anything it needed top boffins on hand to both make sure it worked and to make sure it didn't result in them setting the world alight in one incredibly hot fire. But if it did work, it would make a huge difference to the world, to lives, to the environment. It was kind of a big deal.

And so Simmons hadn't been able to turn it down. And most things considered, Booster would never have asked her to.

Only it was way off down in the Gulf of Mexico. Both near to where the space probe landed so the raw solar material didn't have far to travel to its specially designed reactor and close to all that precious cooling water required to keep those reactors from overheating. And far away from the lives they had been making for each other in Metropolis.

Yeah, she was right, he could easily get down there to see her. But down there wasn't home. And where his head was at these days, he needed to be at a place he considered home. With the people he loved at his side.

Of course, his put his foot in his mouth even more than Skeets did, and he wouldn't even try to get that message across. Far too touchy feely for him not to get it wrong and say something stupid. So instead he went with the romantic angle. He could definitely do that one.

"Doesn't matter how easy it is to get to you," he moaned, putting on the best puppy dog expression he could, considering his eyes were masked behind the visor of his costume. "You're always too far away when you're not in my arms."

Simmons only looked at him. For several long seconds, all she did was stare, face blank. Only after a while did she finally react, an almost agonising wait. But when she did, it wasn't the reaction Booster had been expecting. She laughed.

"You're so corny!" she just about got out through it, starting to laugh so hard some people were even starting to stare.

"Yeah, well, I like corn!" Booster was quick to protest. "On the cob, popped, Lee Cornes, Korn's Groovy Private Ghost Mystery…"

"Shut up, you!" Simmons clearly couldn't take it anymore. Laughing all the way, she pulled him in close, doing what she could to stop his rambling humour. She kissed him all over again.

This time Skeets didn't get in the way. In fact, when his eyes were open to see, Booster even saw the little droid physically back away to avoid being slapped again. Unfortunately, no one had given the announcer the same message. The big booming voice that came out over the intercom, directing all passengers that the upcoming connecting train via Houston would be departing the station in five minutes time. General backround noise in a train station perhaps, but not this time. Not when it was Simmons time. Not when it was the signal for her to go.

And Booster knew it. Which was why he desperately tried to keep kissing her. To hell with the train. He'd fly her down later. He didn't want this moment to end. Not with this being the real fortune he'd travelled through time for. Simmons, though, had other ideas.

"Stop. Come on, stop," she just about got out between continued kissing, pressing herself away from Booster's chest as he continued to try and lean in. It was clear that it wasn't because she didn't want to keep kissing, she just knew she had to go. "That's my signal. They're expecting me. I need to get down there before they end up blowing the whole reactors. I gotta go…"

Booster opened his mouth, just about to start arguing. But then they heard it. They all heard it. It was impossible not to hear it. It pierced the air, so high and wailing it pierced virtually everything.

The scream. The scream of pain, of terror of panic. The scream of someone who badly needed help.

Booster's reactions took hold before he'd even thought about it. It was coming from outside the station. Somewhere up above. The apartment block across the street… He'd seen it on the way in. It looked abandoned, scaffolding surrounding it for some form of renovations to the structure. But he was sure of it…

"I have a lock on the location of the disturbance," Skeets chimed in to confirm exactly that. "Turbines to speed, Sir?"

But Booster paused. He hesitated. He didn't move straight away. Instead, he could only look to Simmons. He wanted to say more, so much more, but he did know that he had to go. In the end he needed her to make it easy for him.

"Go. That's your cue. To save the day and try and sell some more cereal boxes. And you know where I'll be. We'll speak again soon…Go!"

She practically pushed him away as she said that last bit. Booster stumbled back, still looking at her for as long as he could. But then he realised the reflexes were kicking in again, suddenly realising he was already in the air. He was already starting to fly. And with that, with one last glance at her before they broke apart, he spun, and then he began to fly.

This was the age of heroes after all. And Booster Gold was one of 'em. There was no more time to waste. Especially as, the second Booster burst out of the train station and back into the dazzling Metropolis daylight, another bloodcurdling scream issued forth.

"Where exactly is she up there, Skeets?!" Booster desperately called to his companion, the droid keeping pace with him and hovering just by his shoulder. All around them, other people had gathered, looking up at the same apartment block, just as Booster himself was doing. Whatever was happening up there, someone was in big trouble… He had to find them.

"Northwest corner, penultimate floor. Scanners detect the viewing gallery on the north face to be the most direct point of access. Best friend."

Damn. He had said that earlier hadn't he… Trust Skeets not to miss them! No…There were more important things to worry about right now! And with that, Booster was immediately flying, following Skeets' directions to the letter, up, up and away. And in next to no time, wind whipping around him, he was setting down up on that balcony, just as instructed. Even before his feet touched the ground, he was looking around for any sign of trouble. But he couldn't see any. Not at first.

"I can't see her Skeets! Where–!"

He didn't even manage to finish the sentence. The flash of light made him drone off first. The boom that followed would have droned him out anyway.

For in that moment, the whole floor exploded.

Booster had very little time to react, simply throwing up his arms to cover his head with as much of the power suit as possible. But he still saw enough of the flames. Enough of them as they hit him hard. And he also most definitely felt the force of the blast alongside it as it threw him clean across the sky. Boy, was he thankful for whichever genius built this future suit he'd stolen! Because without it…

"Booster! Are you alr–!" It was Skeets. The golden ball must have dodged the flames, and now here he was flying in Booster's way, making sure he was okay. A touching sentiment, but unfortunately the new, heroic Booster Gold had no time for self-obsession. Because his eyes were already on that building again, its top floors blown apart, left in shrapnel and flame.

And most importantly because, through all of that, he had finally caught sight of the woman who had been screaming. Not moving and partially buried under debris, flames licking all around her, it didn't look good. But so long as there was a chance, Booster knew what he had to do.

"Hold that thought, Skeets!" he yelled before flinging himself back through the skies. Using his laser blasts on the way in to try and disrupt the viscosity of the fires, he went full speed ahead to her side. He didn't even stop to think about the feel of the heat as he dropped down beside her, legs buried beneath a huge slab of fallen ceiling and rooftop. Utilising the strength of the powersuit, he grabbed at the debris and, with all his might he heaved. Still, he could feel every sinew stretching from the effort. But he didn't remember such building material being so damn heavy…

"Booster, wait!" Skeets called out, once again zipping in to Booster's side. This time, though, he sounded more insistent. "My readings here aren't adding up. I'm not reading a pulse…!"

"Don't…give…up…yet, Skeets!" Boost howled through the effort. Finally he managed to toss the debris aside, it landing nearby with a satisfying thunk. The woman, whoever she was, was clear. But Skeets was right in one way. She didn't look to be breathing. But that didn't mean it was hopeless. Which was why Booster was immediately leaning in to start the CPR.

Only for, the second that he made contact with her, the woman's entire body to disappear in a flash of light. As if she had never really been there at all…

"What the–?" Booster muttered, looking up at Skeets really confused. Only then did things start to dawn on him. Only then did he start to feel the heat. Or the lack of it. He was right next to the flames, yet he wasn't burning up… The flames…The upper floors…The woman…The whole damn explosion…

It wasn't real.

It was an illusion.

"Skeets, we've been h–! YEAAAARRGH!"

The pain seared through him as he shouted the words. He'd made to try to fly, to move, to get out of there. This was a trap, it must have been. And he'd just unknowingly sprung it. For it was in that moment, before he could go anywhere, that the laser blast hit him, burning clean through his shoulder.

He was hit by the force of it again. Knocked down to the ground, smashing against the rooftop and skidding to a halt. Now he felt the heat. Now he felt his shoulder burning, as if someone had lit a match right under his flesh. Yet still he had to try. Even before his body had stopped sliding across the hard surface, he gritted his teeth, and made to raise the laser of his own.

Only he never even managed to get his arm in the air. Not before the solid block of hard light slammed against his entire torso, pinning him and his arms flat to the deck, knocking the wind out of him in the process.

The trap was definitely sprung. And as Booster lay there, desperately trying but failing to heave the block of light off of himself, he saw who by. For it was then the man stepped forward, twisting the device on his belt. Before Booster's eyes, the whole scene suddenly changed. The fires disappeared. The top two floors of the building disappeared. All the damage disappeared. The illusion put on top of the real building disappeared. Leaving only Booster and his attacker on the real rooftop. Not someone he'd ever come across, not someone the League considered a major threat, but still someone who was on their radar. Someone who had fought Superman and the rest before and sometimes held his own.

Luminus. The man who controlled light.

"Shoulda stayed where you came from, chump. Now I'm afraid you're bang out of time."

"I'll save you Booster!"

Of course, the two of them weren't alone up there. But while he had played a security role far from now in that future museum, Booster knew that Skeets' weaponry wasn't designed for this kind of combat. Which was why he was already grimacing as he saw the little gold droid, security tool extended, flying in full throttle across the sky to try and save Booster from Luminus' grasp. In fact, it made him even more desperate. It made him put even more effort in to the heave. It made him finally start to lift the light, even starting to scream from the exertion.

But the next moment, he was screaming for an entirely different reason again. The next second, he saw that little old Skeets never even reached Luminus to try and be the hero.

The next second, the blast of energy surged across the sky, hitting both Booster and Skeets full on.

The blast of electrical energy.

Booster couldn't help it. His entire body initially convulsed – at least as much as the block of light let it – as the energy coursed through his nerve endings. It meant he never saw as Skeets too was sent crashing down to the roof. But he heard it. And, desperate to protect his friend, that made him fight through the pain. The energy was still hitting him. The blast was constant. But he had to fight. He had to at least see. Yet when he managed to look back across that roof, he rather wished he hadn't.

The electrical energy was rippling over the whole rooftop, looking like miniature bolts of lightning. And out there, trapped in a cage of that energy, lay Skeets, fallen to the deck. And even worse, the red glow of his optical receptor…It had gone out. Booster had never seen that before, and it got him immediately scared. That energy dancing across the roof had knocked Skeets down good and proper…

But the energy didn't cover all the roof, leaving clear the small path where Luminus stood. But the worst sight of all came when Booster realised Luminus was no longer alone.

She rose almost as if born of the energy. As if her entire being was made of it, and several strands of the electricity congealing together gave her her form. As if it was all a part of her and she a part of it. As if every bolt rippling through that rooftop was under her command. And she moved as if that was nothing out of the ordinary.

But worst of all, she moved to take the deactivated Skeets firmly into her hands.

And only then did Booster realise. He'd figured this was a trap. But it wasn't a trap for him. These guys…They were after Skeets. And now, they had him.

Livewire had him.

"Sorry fella, but this girl don't need a Boost. Livewire's got all the power she needs now!" she taunted, tossing Skeets up and down in her hand as if he was nothing more than a ball in the park. A horrible smirk was on her face as she stood there, clearly enjoying keeping Booster pinned in pain. Beside her, Luminus looked almost every bit as vainglorious.

"P…please! Don't…do this…"

Begging. He'd resorted to begging. Well, not as vain as he used to be, it was a valuable weapon in his arsenal now. Anything to try and save Skeets. Worth a try at least. Or it would have been, if it had worked. Instead, all it got him was a bigger shock than ever.

It tore through him, making him scream out even louder than before, head thrown back by it all. Even when he managed to force his eyes open, all he could see was the light of the energy. But through it all, he just about heard the cackled call of villainy.

"I don't think so, Marty McFly! Now come on Eddie, we got what we came for! We gotta split before they send the real big guns in!"

It stayed that way for what almost certainly felt far longer than it was. Still, it was for long enough. Booster was moving as soon as he could, trying to see again as soon as he could. Because the pain did begin to recede. Slowly. But with it, so did hope.

For as the energy stopped coursing through him, Booster also suddenly realised the weight was gone from his chest. The hard light had gone too. As the final sparks of energy faded from around him, Booster pushed himself up with what strength he had, feeling incredibly drained. Once again, what he saw made him feel a profound sense of horror. But this time, it wasn't because he could see villains.

This time, it was because he couldn't see any. Anywhere.

Stumbling, feeling like he could fall at any second, Booster quickly charged for the nearest edge of the rooftop, collapsing against its railing. From there, he desperately scanned across the city, looking for anything, any sign. Even just a hint of a spark that might be a clue as to where they had gone. But there was nothing. No sign anywhere. No trace, other than the chaos they'd left behind.

"SKEETS!" Booster howled into the now still air with every breath he could draw into his lungs, his tone betraying his fears and regret. But it was to no avail. There was no comforting, familiar reply back.

Luminus. Livewire. They were both gone. And they'd taken Skeets with them.

But for what end…that was anyone's guess. And one Booster didn't dare even begin to think about.

Because whatever it was, it wouldn't be good. For any of them.

And the day had started so nicely too….