The day started out like any other. There were no foreboding clouds, no ominous signals, no gut feelings to warn them. Just a normal family of four enjoying a picnic in a park. They got no warning before their lives were ripped to shreds.

The two blue sons were running from their very human looking father as he tried to tickle them, the mother watching on from the blanket when a stranger approached her. "Excuse me?" he said with a smile on his face, "You do realize that this is a public park, right? I mean there are children here."

"Of course, that's why I brought my sons here, it's actually their favorite park."

His smile disappeared, "Then why are you here? Their kind tried to wipe out the Earth and now you want them to play here?"

She stood up and backed away, "My family and I are just trying to enjoy a nice, quiet day in the park so I will ask you kindly, please. Leave. Because as far as I can tell the only one hurting others around here is you."

"Fine," he spat, "enjoy your day with your little freaks because trust me, it won't last very long." With that the man stalked off and the mother turned back to her kids and tried to put the whole encounter behind her.

Despite the strangers best attempts the family enjoyed their day in the park. The boys were sad to be going but, as their mother always said, good memories made makes a good day. So they packed up their stuff, laughing and playing the whole time.

But all good things must come to an end.

Before they could even process what was happening a group of five men surrounded them, each of them carrying a gun that was aimed at the defenceless family. "I tried to warn you freaks! This is our planet and you ain't gonna steal it from us!"

The younger son started crying and his father bent down to pick him up, his mother pulling his older brother close to her. "We don't mean any harm," she soothed, "we just want to go home and get our kids tucked into bed."

The man from earlier scoffed. "You call those blue skinned freaks kids? Well if you're so insistent to be friends with them you can burn with them. C'mon boys!"

With that the parents didn't waste any time, they promptly dropped all of their stuff and each grabbed a son. As the men started shooting they ran off into the woods, splitting up once they were out of sight. They already had a spot to meet up at picked out, because if there's one thing their family always is it's prepared.

The father ran with his five year old son deep into the woods surrounding the park. Part of the reason they liked this park so much was because it was never too crowded due to it bordering the woods.

He ran and ran with the little boy tucked safely in his arms until they reached a large tree. The father looked back to make sure that they weren't being followed, they were but not close enough to see, and walked into the tree. As he walked in the tree flickered and for an instance a small building, more of a shack, could be seen.

The father walked into the shack and put his son down, "stay right here buddy, ok?" Not waiting for a response he hurried around the shack and started flipping switches on the large machine that took up more than half of the room. Outside banging and yelling could be heard from their attackers.

Suddenly there were gunshots and laughter. He could hear one of the men shout "two down and two to go!"

The father turned to his son with tears in his eyes, "I'm so sorry but this is the only way out of here." He put a bracelet on his son, one that would grow with him, that contained a image inducer. Suddenly the boy looked no more alien than his father who picked him up and placed him in the machine, flipping even more switches and pressing a rainbow of buttons. He paused only when he came to the switch labeled "new memory off/on". Finally deciding that it would be easier for the both of them if they didn't remember he flipped it on and pulled the lever next to him. In the next second his son was gone.

Not wasting any time he quickly reset the machine and set it on a timer, stepping in. Soon he disappeared just like his son.

Outside yelling could be heard as the leader of the group reprimanded them for being dumb enough to mistake deer for their targets.

The mother and son ran through the trees, heading towards the only port nearby. It was a mile and a half out but with attackers on their tails and adrenaline pumping through their veins they managed to run the entire way. The men stayed on their tails until they reached the more populated port. The two of them got the first flight off world headed towards their safe spot on Colu.

Once they arrived the mother and son stayed there for a week waiting for the other half of their family, the other half of their hearts.

They never came.

The two of them never lost hope though, they never stopped searching.

Years later, as the brother searched along the way the father ran for the umpteenth time he came across an old rundown shack that looked like it hadn't been touched in years. He hadn't seen it on any of his other searches so he was immediately cautious. As he searched the outside of the building he found an old image inducer, from the looks of it it had broken down rather recently.

Curiosity now peaked he stepped inside. Inside the rundown shack there was a machine that easily took up half of the room, dials and switches taking up half of the machine, the other half being a large chamber. After some poking around he realized what the machine was, a time machine.

Immediately he raced around the machine looking for clues that this may have been where his family disappeared to so long ago. He stopped when he came to a panel that had a date spelled out on it. "November 20, 1989" He knew that that's when he had to go to find his family.

One look at the machine and he knew that he couldn't take that back, but luckily he'd heard rumors of a mission in the legion that was going back in time. All he had to do was get a spot on the mission, which would be easy with his superior intellect.

Plan made he was about to walk out when he spotted two identical containers with glowing liquid inside. Unfortunately he knew exactly what those containers held. They held the memories of Brainy's family.

This mission just got a lot harder.