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Disclaimer: I do not own the Justice League or its various incarnations nor do I own the related DC Comics' properties. All such right sare exclusively owned by Time Warner, DC Comics, and the DCAU is wholly owned by WB Animation
Justin Arthur and his wife, Theresa "Tessa" Richardson-Arthur, lived in a second story apartment in Brooklyn, New York. Tessa actually worked in Connecticut at STAR Labs Metropolis. She was a leading researcher in nanotechnology. Her friend, and LexCorp competitor, Claire Connelly, innovated while Tessa just seemed to know how, what she termed "basic nanotech", should work.
In actuality, Tessa was married to Sir Justin, the Shining Knight of King Arthur's Camelot. The Shining Knight had been hurled through the centuries into World War II by Merlin. In that time, he aided the Seven Soldiers of Victory alongside the Freedom Fighters while Hitler and the Dragon King rallied the Axis powers against the Justice Society of America. Sir Justin actually joined the JSA before they were sucked into a seemingly never-ending battle against Surtur in Limbo a full decade after the war ended.
But the JSA had been liberated and Justin had been freed. Finding himself in the modern era, he joined forces with the original Justice League Unlimited. In a second incarnation of the JLU, the Shining Knight had met and fallen in love with Tessa. And they made their home in her apartment.
Tessa herself was home while Sir Justin was out gallivanting with his "new" teammates. Elements of the old JSA had reformed and joined the JLU. With the fragmentation of the Justice League, the JSA reformulated itself as the JSA All Stars and the Shining Knight had been proud to join their ranks.
Tessa herself was preparing to travel to Paris. Claire Connelly was also married. Her husband was named Michael Jon Carter but the world knew him as the super hero called Booster Gold. Booster had travelled to the 21st Century from the 25th to join the JLU. When that entity split apart, he was recruited as a field commander for the newly christened Justice League International.
The JLI was headquartered in Paris so Claire had packed up her research and transferred to LexCorp Paris. Recently, Booster's twin sister, Michelle, had come through time to join him in the JLI. Calling herself Goldstar, Michelle also utilized a technologically advanced suit to use as a crime fighting peacekeeper. And Claire and Michelle instantly hit it off.
Claire didn't have many friends outside of a select circle. She'd been born Christopher Connelly and had began hormone replacement therapy at a young age. Booster had paid for her sexual reassignment surgery and Claire, already indistinguishable from a genetic female, had taken virtually her last step in her gender transition.
Claire didn't mention much about her formative years or being a teen and young twenty something. She'd always known who she was and had determined at a young age to be recognized for who she really was. With the sudden fame and seeming acceptance of transgender celebrities like Laverne Cox and Caitlyn Jenner, Claire thought that public attitudes would have shifted to a kinder stance towards people like her. But she still found more acceptance towards diversity in Paris than she ever had even in New York City.
Tessa was waiting for her place in the teleporter queue to come up. The International Security Agency and the United Nations that chartered them had inherited the Watchtower space station, the Metro Tower in Metropolis, and the global teleporter network the JLU had built. Unlike the JLU, the ISA allowed civilian traffic as long as it related to an agency member.
With the UN chartering multiple agencies that it had absorbed from the United States as well as founded on its own initiative, SHADE, the Department for Extranormal Operations, Spyral, the ISA, and the JLI all fell under that banner. Because Claire was the spouse of an important member of the JLI itself, Tessa had been granted an afternoon window to arrive in the Parisian evening.
Tessa knew the All Stars were denied access to the network as well as the reconstituted JLU itself. No one knew if Superman and the founding Justice League members still with the JLU ever had regrets over handing over all that they had. Tessa knew STAR Labs had constructed a rival network for ARGUS and their Justice League of America.
Tessa fidgeted while she waited. Lately she hated idleness. When she was alone or lost in thought it was like she would see ghostly images of someone else's life. Yet the people and the places in them were intimately familiar to her despite they're being out of a science fiction movie.
It was almost as if she teetered on the edge of discovering a hidden past she'd lived through and lost somehow. It always happened at inopportune moments and made her feel like she was living in a primitive age she couldn't wait to escape from. And it had all begun when Goldilocks kidnapped Sir Justin to warn him about Tessa having such a past.
During the incident, Tessa had acquired an incredible insight into Goldilocks' mind. It was so insightful it led them to her sister's apartment in Paris. There Godiva intervened with the Justice League and persuaded them to defend Goldilocks from the Brotherhood of Evil and also convinced the Brain to let her sister go.
Neither Sir Justin nor Tessa had heard another word from Goldilocks until the JSA All Stars intervened in a Justice League Dark operation in Romania. The JLD had intervened in a vampire war that ultimately resulted in the destruction of all the vampires except for Cain, the sire of them all.
It turned that Goldilocks had joined with the JLD and fought beside them against the vampires, Felix Faust, Soul Thief, the Injustice Society, and Deathstroke's Titans. Sir Justin hadn't spoken a word of it, but it was like Tessa could read his thoughts. The psychotic little bitch had somehow swayed him that her dire warnings concerning Tessa might actually be true. So he was hovering all around her every day.
To make matters more aggravating, Tessa knew Goldilocks was nearby watching even when her husband wasn't smothering her. But she couldn't pinpoint the young aristocrat's location or else she would have confronted Goldilocks. She wanted the satisfaction of telling Goldilocks that the British nobility would be abolished before the century was out. And Tessa also knew Goldilocks would recognize the truth of what Tessa told her. Just as Tessa knew it was an obscure fact she'd learned in school as a child reading about Earth's history.
But how could a "fact" regarding a future event be history?
Tessa desperately hoped she could forget about all of this insanity and imponderability while she was with Claire and Goldstar. And then, like a chiming death knell, the door bell rang. Even before Tessa reached the door, she knew two men waited outside. And they were just as nervous as she was despite their ongoing efforts to disguise that simple fact.
Tessa had the realization she knew them both. And they knew her. Yet when she actually opened the door she was faced with two strangers.
"Can I help you?" she asked, wondering if she'd hidden the quaver in her voice well enough.
The man with white hair, despite his being in his early thirties, frowned, "Don't you recognize us?"
Now Tessa wore a puzzled frown, "Should I?"
"Maybe not," the dark haired one with the mustache and goatee advised his companion, "Are you Theresa Richardson?"
"Of course," Tessa wasn't certain why she was answering, "Only everyone calls me 'Tessa' and I've also added my married name of 'Arthur' to my surname."
Every fiber of her being screamed out that she should recognize this pair as they digested that information. The white haired man seemed the bolder of the two, "And your husband is the famous Shining Knight and you work at STAR Labs?"
"Yes, to both and if you already have all the answers why are you asking the questions?" Tessa frowned, "Who are you two anyway?"
"You tell us," the dark haired one countered.
"Look, I have an appointment to get to in a few minutes and you're drawing unwanted attention," Tessa advised them.
They glanced down the hallway but didn't see anyone. But the two men took her at her word. Just as it seemed they had done countless times before.
"Until later then," the white haired one spoke for them both again, "Enjoy your afternoon."
Tessa could practically sense the men's exit out of the front lobby and then she could feel the burning weight of Goldilocks' stare upon their backs. She wished them all well. Especially the men. They could all join in a ménage a trios together and she knew both men were renowned for how hard they used their sexual partners, male and female alike. The combined "mercies" of the two would likely kill the impudent Goldilocks.
But why did she sense Goldilocks had already walked that path? And how could Tessa even begin to know any of this?
Goldilocks was perched upon a neighboring rooftop. Her remote cameras had detected Lightning Lord and Cosmic King's arrival at the Arthur's apartment building and Goldilocks had ventured out to try and see directly what kind of exchange would happen. But she was ashamed at the cold clench her stomach had engaged in upon seeing Mekt Ranzz and Laevar Bolto again.
Once upon a time, she'd been their favorite sexual plaything to be passed about and shared at the same time. Just as her uncle had done to her when she was a preadolescent. Only this time she'd volunteered in a negotiated surrender that saved her sister, Dorcas' life. The experience had almost killed Goldilocks during several trysts but she'd had the last say in the matter and earned the undying wrath of Saturn Queen in the process. Now she had been given a chance to prevent all of that horror from ever happening to her, Godiva, or the entire world.
Then Goldilocks saw the blue teleporter flash inside of the Arthur home. Goldilocks stifled a vile curse and headed for the street. She'd decided to break into Sir Justin and Tessa's home in an effort to discover where Tessa had flashed off to. Having Tessa reunited with Lightning Lord and Cosmic King could have set off the very chain of events Goldilocks had been sent to alter. So she had to know where Tessa was and what was going on with her. And find out why the Shining Knight had abandoned his post guarding his wife.
Mekt Ranzz and Laevar Bolto stopped nearby and used a transceiver disguised as a smart phone to contact Brainiac and the Legion of Doom. Both men actually used ear piece modules to carry on the actual conversing. Mekt opened the dialogue.
"Lightning Lord to Brainiac," Mekt began, "We have made first contact."
"And how did it go?" the Legion's AI inquired.
"Not as well as planned," Lightning Lord admitted, "The conditioning runs even deeper than we'd feared. She plainly recognized Cosmic King and I as elements of her past but she seemed disjointed as to what that past actually was. As such Eve Aries still remains buried under the Tessa Richardson template imposed upon her. She's gone away for a time but we'll remain in the area and reinitiate contact upon her return. We may have to opt for a more confrontational approach should the spouse be present at that time."
"Acknowledged," Brainiac replied, "Can the Legion assist you in any fashion?"
"Eve, even as Tessa, warned us of a threat in the area," Cosmic King reported, "However, we would prefer not to divert our attention into ferreting out this third party and dealing with him, her, or them."
"I shall alert both Master Luthor and Grodd. I am certain they shall discreetly dispatch forces into that area to scour out whatever nemesis is lurking nearby," Brainiac promised.
"Thank you," Lightning Lord sounded more relaxed now, "And remember Brainiac, our agreement with you stands as well as our agreements with Luthor and Grodd."
"I have never doubted it," Brainiac assured them both.
"I love Paris at night, no matter what century it is," Goldstar enthused as the women strolled along the banks of the Seine.
"I'm beginning to," Claire agreed, "Trans women aren't nearly as stigmatized here. The cosmopolitan laissez faire of living your own life permeates the culture."
"But you have Booster and he's always loved you no matter what state your transition was in," Tessa cheered her up.
"Yeah," Claire was slightly wistful now, "I only topped Booster a couple of times but sometimes I almost miss being able to."
"Claire, even in my time women had strap ons," Goldstar chided her.
"It's not about the means it's about the option," Claire clarified.
"You're hopeless," Goldstar sighed.
Claire noticed that Tessa was rather restrained this evening, "Something bothering you?"
"I'm not sure," Tessa confessed, "Have you ever had an identity crisis?"
"Hello?" Claire was slightly sarcastic, "Transgender female here."
"This isn't about gender or even sexuality," Tessa tried to explain; "This is about my core being. Am I really who I think I am or was I a someone else before becoming Tessa?"
"Like a past life?" Goldstar asked.
"Maybe," Tessa allowed, "Look, I have memories and visions of times and places I know I've been to and yet I haven't."
"How can you know you actually haven't?" Claire wondered.
"Because they're all in the future," Tessa blurted, "Look, it's almost like in the future I was someone else I'm supposed to be because I was already them. Get it?"
She saw the blank looks staring back at her and she grumbled, "I guess not."
"Look, you could be discussing repressed memories and time travel isn't unheard of. Otherwise Michael and I wouldn't be here much less your own husband," Goldstar pointed out, "Let's just say you really are from the future. You could easily have been someone else then and been turned into someone to be here and now."
"But I have a family and four brothers," Tessa argued, "Did they move everyone here?"
"But things are much more elastic in my time," Goldstar pointed out, "We've been colonizing the solar system now for two generations and people across the system are manifesting pretty uniform meta-human abilities based on planet of birth."
"On Titan, there's a race of telepaths developing," Tessa shared, "In my time, every man, woman, and child from Titan is a telepath."
"How could you know that?" Goldstar asked, "Unless you really are from the future."
Claire remembered Booster's concerns over Tessa seeming to know what Goldilocks had been thinking. And she began to wonder if Tessa really did have a hidden previous life.
"Of course I did," Tessa blurted.
"Did what?" Goldstar asked.
"Claire was wondering if I'd had a life before meeting her and of course I did," Tessa was a little baffled by their confusion.
"I didn't say anything, Tessa," Claire told her, "I only thought that question."
"Of course you said it," Tessa insisted, "I heard you."
Goldstar exchanged a wary look with Claire. Tessa heaved a weary sigh, "I agree. I should be going."
She stepped away and requested a teleport back home to Brooklyn. Claire turned to Goldstar, "Can people from Titan really read minds?"
"Most of the second generation colonists can," Goldstar explained, "And they can easily do what Tessa is displaying. But remember, she said 'my time' indicating she's from even further into the future than I am."
"We need to talk to Booster," Claire decided.
"I agree," Goldstar stated, "He's at the Dome."
The Shining Knight had ridden Winged Victory as the Pegasus-like horse flew him from upstate New York to Manhattan and Central Park. The NYPD boarded Winged Victory amongst their own stables and the enchanted steed was well cared for there.
Sir Justin used the locker rooms provided to strip out of his chainmail and helm as well as removed his haberd and sword belt. These he placed in a previously stored duffel and dressed in modern clothing so he could exit Central Park and catch a cab to return home in.
As he mounted the stairs to the second story, Sir Justin recalled Tessa's plans to be out all afternoon. Yet he found the front door unlocked. As the door swung open he also recalled that his wife always kept the door locked even when she was in residence.
He sat his bag down and withdrew his scabbard before drawing his broadsword from it. He rushed into the center of the apartment only to find tendrils of golden hair wrapping around his ankles and tugging his feet out from beneath him. Then he was lifted and suspended in the air.
A very irritated Goldilocks turned him so she could confront him, "Just what the hell are you doing?"
"I dwell there, thief!" Sir Justin angrily retorted, "Why hast thou invaded mine home?"
"Because you failed to guard Tessa and she met up with the two men I warned you about. They left alone but Tessa teleported out of here afterwards and I have no idea of how that meeting affected her," Goldilocks was beyond exasperation, "This is what happened before and it seems to be an inescapable conclusion."
"How cans't thou speak thusly?" Sir Justin inquired, "And woulds't thou puttest me down?"
"Sorry," Goldilocks said meekly as she lowered Justin down and unencumbered his ankles.
"Thou speakest of the future as though thou hast seen it. Yet the third eye is not amongst thy gifts. How came thee to this knowledge?" Sir Justin asked.
"I know I was a little nebulous in Romania but I'm from your future, "Goldilocks heaved a heavy sigh, "My present self is hiding out in plain sight in London. The now me will sit out these events until it's far too late to do anything but save Dorcas' life. And a thousand years of history will be altered. Since I was one of the sole surviving meta-humans on Earth and had an axe to grind with Lightning Lord and Cosmic King, Dr. Fate sent me back here to alter the events just enough to prevent that future outcome from repeating itself. And with today's cock up I can't see that happening anymore."
Sir Justin began to see how frayed Goldilocks' nerves really were. And she was unstable to begin with. Mounting this task upon her shoulders seemed to be an act of unspeakable cruelty.
"Milady, I do apologize," Sir Justin said tenderly.
"You believe me?" Goldilocks couldn't quite grasp that yet, "You finally believe me?"
"Aye, I admit I hast misjudged thee in the past," Sir Justin acknowledged, "Thy earliest actions dids't not sit well with me. But thou hast truly changed. I knowest not why thou hast undertaken this great and perilous quest but thou hast and I pledge my blade to thy aid and defense."
"Okay?" Goldilocks was having her own hearing issues now.
"If fair Tessa is in peril now, we shoulds't take her to my allies amongst the All Stars," Sir Justin suggested.
"No," Goldilocks groaned, "You still don't get it. Tessa isn't in danger. She is the danger."
"How can thou sayest that?" Sir Justin was baffled, "She is but a mortal woman."
"She is anything but," Goldilocks insisted, "She is one of the single greatest threats any century as ever seen."
A blue teleport flash brought Tessa home. And she found her husband standing in their living room having a chat with Goldilocks, "What the hell? What is she doing here and why haven't you done anything about it yet?"
"I cans't explain," Sir Justin promised.
"I'd like to hear that and more. Why are you thinking thoughts about her you've only had for me before now?" Tessa snapped at him.
"Oh God, it's begun," Goldilocks lamented.
Sir Justin watched her freeze in terror as Lightning Lord and Cosmic King came through the open door, "Are we interrupting. Never mind us. Carry on."
"What art thou here for strangers?" Sir Justin asked.
"Your wife," Cosmic King sneered.
"Nay varlet. Thou shalt taste my steel first!" Sir Justin pledged.
"Really?" Lightning Lord was incredulous, "This is who you chose to marry?"
Tessa shrugged, "Do what you want with him."
Lightning Lord Stretched out his hand and electricity flowed from his fingertips into the Shining Knights highly conductive sword. Being grounded, the electricity threatened to boil Sir Justin's internal organs. But Goldilocks came to and smashed Lightning Lord's head into the wall with her hair.
She wheeled on Cosmic King, "I killed you bastards once before and I'll do it again if need be."
He transmuted the chemical composition of the nitrogen around her head into chlorine. It seared her lungs and she collapsed and began spitting up blood. Lightning Lord had recovered and was prepared to strike down Goldilocks.
"Never mind her, she's dead already and just hasn't realized it yet," Cosmic King promised, "Let's go. All three of us."
Tessa impassively stared ta Sir Justin before turning to join the duo, "I'm coming with you."
They led her outside where a limousine awaited them. Tessa remained silent as the limo drove back to Manhattan and delivered them to a Park Avenue address. There they proceeded to the penthouse whereupon arrival, Lighting Lord and Cosmic King sat down in the finely furnished living room. Tessa occupied the couch.
"Let's cut the bullshit," Lightning Lord urged, "Just read my mind."
"I don't know how," Tessa protested.
"Just relax and let go of the barriers you've erected around yourself. You don't need them with us," Cosmic King informed her.
Tessa realized she actually did want to read their minds in sequence. As she relaxed she slipped into their memories. She saw herself, but not quite herself, in that far flung future. The three of them chafed to watch the rise of a Legion of Super Heroes as they became champions of the United Planets in the 31st Century.
So Tessa, no, Eve Aries found and recruited Mekt Ranzz and Laevar Bolto and the trio became Saturn Queen, Lightning Lord, and Cosmic King. And they founded a competing Legion of Super Villains and ran it as a ruling trifecta.
Tessa actually was Eve Aries and she was known and feared throughout the galaxy as Saturn Queen. Saturn Queen had eventually been caught and the combined might of every telepath on Titan had forged the identity of Theresa Richardson upon Eve and then they'd used her own powers of super hypnosis to do the same to Lightning Lord and Cosmic King. And then the LSH transported them a thousand years in the past and left them there.
Eve's actual family lived on Titan. Imra Ardeen, Saturn Girl, had inserted the notion that Eve was both daughter and sister into the minds of the Richardson family. And at that realization, Tessa died an ignoble death and Eve was made whole once again.
"Mekt! Laever! It's really me! I'm freed from that mental prison!" Saturn Queen happily declared.
"And we're happy that you are," Lightning Lord confessed.
"Now we can complete our deal with the Legion for helping us find you," Cosmic King told her.
"There's a Legion of Super Villains in this century?" Saturn Queen couldn't believe it.
"You still have your memories from being Tessa," Lightning Lord reminded her, "Recall the Legion of Doom."
"That's right!" Saturn Queen's mind instantly reintegrated all of those memories under her original personality.
"We based our Legion of Super Villains after the legends of the Legion of Doom even as the Legion of Super Heroes did the same after the Justice League," Cosmic King recalled.
"What was Luthor's price for his help?" Saturn Queen wondered.
"We give him the present and in doing so we secure our future," Lightning Lord explained.
"You have a plan then?" Saturn Queen asked.
"We have the beginning of one," Cosmic King told her, "But everything depends upon you."
She wore a cruel and hungry smile, "Tell me everything."
Roxy picked up a 911 call summoning paramedics to Sir Justin and Tessa's apartment. The ambulance arrived and they in turn requested a police presence. NYPD detectives and Crime Scene Investigators were working the apartment to determine the nature and cause of the attack.
Dr. Pieter Cross, known to the word as Dr. Mid-Nite, requested a patient transfer and Sir Justin was moved to the K-Star Ranch and its private medical staff. Since the ranch served as the All Stars' headquarters and Roxy's home, Dr. Mid-Nite already lived on the premises along with most of the All Stars.
Most of the team was prepping to sojourn into the Subtle Realms to mount a rescue mission searching for the lost Mary Marvel. A handful of team members were staying behind to deal with local crises. Wildcat and Dr. Mid-Nite were the senior team members remaining behind. King Chimera, Cyclone, Jakeem Thunder, Vibe, Lightning, and Hawk and Dove were the rest of the team.
Sir Justin came awake with a start, "Unhand her, base villains!"
"Easy, you're among friends," Dr. Mid-Nite assured him. He had doffed his mask for a special pair of dark glasses.
"Where is Tessa?" Sir Justin asked desperately, "And where is fair Goldilocks?"
"Goldilocks?" the once again youthful Ted Grant repeated, "Are ya sayin' that loon kidnapped Tessa?"
"Nay, nay friend Wildcat," Sir Justin reassured him, "The maid Goldilocks fought at my side to defend Tessa from her true abductors. Goldilocks dids't come to warn me about Tessa's peril. I had doubted her word but it is plain that she ever held me in high regard."
Wildcat and Dr. Mid-Nite exchanged a skeptical glance. Wildcat asked the next question, "Tell us, what exactly did Goldilocks…warn…you about?"
"She did say that two scoundrels would abduct mine Tessa and if they succeeded in doing so, a pox and a thousand year blight would befall all humanity," Sir Justin summarized.
"Sounds like the kid is loonier than usual," Wildcat dismissed the notion.
"Nay!" Sir Justin nearly lunged out of his bed, "Hear me, one of the men that came for Tessa, lightning erupted from his hands and lanced into my blade. He is the foul miscreant that struck the blow that felled me. I knowest not what his companion is capable of nor do I know what fate befell Goldilocks after I was struck down."
"I'm tellin' ya, she skipped off with the two gents that took yer lady," Wildcat insisted.
"Roxy intercepted the female caller's conversation with the 911 dispatcher. The voice is pretty ragged and totally unidentifiable according to our voice print records," Dr. Mid-Nite told them both, "But no one was found with you, Sir Justin. So it's conceivable the caller was a wounded Goldilocks but it is equally feasible she was working with the kidnappers all along."
"If thou coulds't seen and heard her in Romania and then again this fair afternoon, you woulds't not doubt my word," Sir Justin insisted.
"Doc, could I have a word with ya outside?" Wildcat asked.
Dr. Mid-Nite summoned the medical staff to begin fully testing whatever damage had been inflicted upon the Shining Knight. He and Wildcat exited the med wing, "You're worried about his apparent fixation with Goldilocks."
"It sounds like the kid is practically gaga over her," Wildcat worried.
"It wouldn't be the first time a man has reciprocated a women's fixation," Dr. Mid-Nite admitted, "But his loyalty to, and concern for, Tessa appears to be unwavering. I'm more concerned with how he considers Tessa's capture to be a cosmic importance. That element seems more akin to a Goldilocks' styled and fueled delusion rather than just his sudden reverence for a former foe."
"He has told us Goldilocks is workin' wit the Justice League Dark now," Wildcat admitted, "So while I personally don't trust those mystic bozos at least it seems the dame is tryin' ta reform. But still, how can we not assume she arranged fer Tessa's capture in the first fraggin' place?"
"We can't. At least not in certain terms," Dr. Mid-Nite conceded, "Not without questioning Goldilocks herself."
"Then we'd best be getting' her here straightaway and I think I know just how ta do it," Wildcat grinned.
And then he tracked down Jakeem Thunder and had the teen dispatch the Thunderbolt to fetch Goldilocks. Only no one knew yet that the Thunderbolt wasn't going to have an easy time of it.
The founders of the 31st Century Legion of Super Villains were garbed in semi-traditional uniforms and present at the Hall of Doom. The massive headquarters was located in the Florida Everglades but it holographic camouflage kept it hidden from most eyes. Brainiac served as its AI and central computer network. The entire complex was designed by Luthor with Grodd supplying a Gorilla City cloaking device.
Most of the Legionnaires were off pursuing private ventures but they could be recalled at a moment's notice such as when Luthor had dispatched a team to deal with the hidden observer monitoring Saturn Queen's apartment while she was still under the delusion she was Tessa Richardson.
The Female Furies had returned to Apokolips. Supreme was once again dying of lead poisoning and Lashina had returned to her Master to beg for her lover's life. The Rogues were back in Central City planning heists across Central and Keystone Cities. And plotting their response to the inevitable intervention by the Flash and possibly Jay Garrick, the original Flash.
The Brotherhood of Evil was concentrating their efforts on ridding themselves of a traditional foe. The enmity earned by the Teen Titans had been inherited from the fallen Doom Patrol. Only these Teen Titans were an entirely new team the Brotherhood had never faced before. And Red Hood was a leader the type of which Robin, before becoming Nightwing, and Protector had never been before.
The Crime Syndicate was the only subdivision of the Legion still present. Yet Saturn Queen sensed their loyalty truly lay with a man they called "the Other". Yet in their mind's eye he was revealed too be a rather dapper and natty senior citizen. Yet the Other had access to a power that would eventually shift the balance of Earth Prime. Saturn Queen pondered giving them new loyalties.
"Ah, to think your third person was under our noses all along," Luthor mused, "So, I take it you found some success at least."
"Cosmic King and I were correct in assuming we could break Saturn Queen's conditioning even as ours had been broken," Lightning Lord informed him boasted as Grodd watched on, "Now our plan can begin."
"I've seen what the two of you can do yet all I've heard are unsubstantiated claims regarding what she can do," Luthor retorted, "It may all be hokum and superstition for all I know."
"So, you require a test of my abilities?" Saturn Queen asked.
"I do," Luthor concurred.
"Very well," Saturn Queen tipped her head slightly. Clock King entered the room at that point.
"What is it, Clock King?" Luthor impatiently demanded.
Clock King came to stand beside Saturn Queen and pulled a gun out of his suit jacket. He took aim at Luthor but suddenly paused, "For my Queen!"
"Enough!" Luthor shouted, "I understand now."
"Do you?" Saturn Queen sounded amused.
Clock King approached Luthor and handed him the pistol. Luthor inexplicably held the gun to his own head and began to depress the trigger, "Oh, you are good."
Saturn Queen's hold on Luthor simply evaporated, "That was just a taste of my telepathy. My powers of hypnosis are even stronger."
"Why did I try to kill Luthor?" Clock asked as though coming out of a dream.
"You were aware of your actions?" Luthor asked.
"Yes, but everything just seemed so…reasonable," Clock King admitted.
"Don't let trifles bother you," Saturn Queen said dismissively.
"All right," Clock King brightened.
"You may go now. Return to your duties," Saturn Queen instructed.
Clock King exited whistling a merry tune. Luthor was amazed, "Are there any limitations to your powers?"
"I can own any mind whose will isn't greater than mine," Saturn Queen boasted, "And I've only encountered one and she is from my home moon of Titan."
"There are a few resident Green Lanterns who would offer a challenge to that claim," Luthor warned her.
"The Lantern Corps are all but extinct in our time," Cosmic King informed him.
"Once I've mesmerized someone, they will do anything to please me regardless of moral compunction or personal reservations," Saturn Queen told Luthor, "Which is why our chosen instruments are perfect for our plans."
"So, you still want to fulfill our little bargain rather than just seize control of the Legion of Doom," Luthor realized.
"The easiest way to secure our future is to change the past," Lightning Lord explained again, "We have a Legion waiting for us. Besides, you'll need your own while you serve in this era as Darkseid's Satrap over Earth. We know what the future holds for Darkseid in his millennial long quest to conquer the multiverse. In exchange for securing Earth at this point in history, we will assume the satrapy in a thousand years from now and assist Darkseid in overcoming his seemingly insurmountable foes. And then he will have a multiverse to rule and we'll have the Prime Universe to play with."
"Darkseid has heard your proposal and agrees to your terms," Luthor relayed to them, "But he also doesn't reward failure."
"Then I guess we'll be forced to succeed," Cosmic King said sardonically.
"And we can do business with you and Lord Darkseid," Lightning Lord agreed, "So we'll need you to assemble a strike team to distract the Justice League."
"Which one?" an amused Luthor wondered.
"Let's start with the Justice League Unlimited, shall we?" Saturn Queen suggested, "We can move on from there."
"Excellent," Luthor chuckled malevolently.
"Goldilocks? Can you hear me?" a vaguely distant but obviously concerned voice swam through Goldilocks' consciousness.
"Easy, Charli. She can hear you. She just needs to rest. Having a new set of lungs grown inside of you can tax anyone. She needs peace and quiet for now," an older, unknown woman's voice spoke up.
"No, she doesn't," a harsher voice insisted, "She needs to explain her failure."
That voice was all too familiar and anger drove Goldilocks up from the mists of slumber. But there was another driving concern as well, "Where is Sir Justin?"
"Goldilocks!" the teenaged Misfit practically smothered the British woman who was just barely out of her teens as well.
"Charli," Inza Nelson pulled Misfit off of Goldilocks.
"I'm all right," Goldilocks reassured Misfit, "Really Charli, I just need a minute to breathe."
And then she realized her throat and lungs weren't in agony any longer. She touched her chest and throat, "How…?"
"The amulet of the ankh we gave you monitored your life force," Inza explained, "When you were dying, it transmitted a summons to us in Fate's Tower. Dr. Fate transported my husband Kent and I with him to the Arthur apartment after you successfully summoned paramedics to help the Shining Knight. Fate whisked you away to here, in the House of Mystery, and healed your throat and grew you a new pair of lungs. Fate left but Kent and I, with young Charli here, have monitored you ever since."
"And you are?" Goldilocks was desperately trying not to be overly confused.
"Inza," she answered with a smile.
"You two can go now," Madame Xanadu said in that same harsh tone.
"No, I think we'd better stay," Inza was inflexible on that point.
"How is Sir Justin?" Goldilocks was slightly desperate to know, "Lightning Lord electrocuted him."
"He is fine and fully recovering," Madame Xanadu said from a table in the room, where she sat with her infernal tarot cards, "The JSA All Stars retrieved him and transferred him to the K-Star Ranch. Now, let's discuss your failure."
"Sir Justin left in the morning to be with the All Stars. Finding Tessa alone, I moved to the opposite rooftop to find Lightning Lord and Cosmic King were already with her," Goldilocks recounted the details, "They left and she teleported to an unknown destination. I entered the apartment at that time to discover where she'd gone. Sir Justin returned while I was snooping and while we discussed the scenario, Tessa returned. Only…she wasn't quite the Tessa anyone knew anymore."
Goldilocks squared her shoulders at that point, "Lightning Lord and Cosmic King returned and attacked Sir Justin. I retaliated and Cosmic King used his transmutation powers to strike me down. They left with Tessa and I knew I only had seconds to get help to Sir Justin before I'd probably die."
"The figment you knew as Tessa has evaporated like the specter she was. Eve Aries has had her mind returned to her and she is Saturn Queen once more," Madame Xanadu reported, "The cards foretell doom upon us all. A Legion of Doom."
"Bollocks!" Goldilocks snarled, "These wankers aren't invincible and they sure as hell aren't infallible. I know what happens next. We need to gather forces to stop them."
"And what do you suggest then?" Madame Xanadu asked without a trace of irony or sarcasm.
"They'll go after the Justice League Unlimited first," Goldilocks remembered, "They're probably already doing their damage right now. Their secondary objective is the Justice League International. With the JLU and JLI under Saturn Queen's control, they'll steamroll over the Teen Titans, the Great Ten, and the Freedom Fighters. That will leave them against the Justice League of America, the JSA All Stars, the UN agencies, ARGUS, and us. The JLA, All Stars, and our JLD held out the longest against the Legion where I came from but in the end we were all crushed. And I sold myself into sexual slavery to Lightning Lord and Cosmic King to save my sister from them."
Madame Xanadu winced at the memory of the depravations Goldilocks had described being subjected too by those two monsters. For Goldilocks it had been a return to the horrors subjected to her by her uncle. But Goldilocks had eventually killed both men and become the most sought after fugitive on Earth.
"Eventually the Legions worked together to crush all resistance," Goldilocks warned Xanadu, "And I do mean 'Legions' plural. Our first task is to assemble a fighting force but our next step will have to be to prevent Lightning Lord, Saturn Queen, and Cosmic King from assembling their own Legion of Super Villains."
"And there is one massive variable in all of these plans," Goldilocks issued another warning, "Whichever side Deathstroke and his Titans choose could shape history for the next thousand years."
"Rest a while longer," Madame Xanadu rose from her table and gathered her cards, "I will summon our Justice League Dark and prepare them for what must be done. But I have a special task in mind for you so you must gird yourself and be ready for it."
"I'll be back in a short while," Inza excused herself.
"I'll make sure she stays out of trouble," Misfit promised.
"We know you will, Charli," Madame Xanadu gave her a warm smile before exiting followed by Inza.
Misfit wore a big grin as she turned to face Goldilocks again, "So, the Shining Knight again, huh? Spill."
"There's nothing to discuss," Goldilocks protested.
"Yeah, that's what you said in Romania and I was there. There was tons to talk about," Misfit argued.
"He's married!" Goldilocks lamented.
"His wife just evaporated," Misfit reminded her, "According to Madame Xanadu, she doesn't exist and never really did in the first place. I saw how he was looking at you in Romania. You're in, baby."
"It's not that simple, Charli. People need to grieve and move on," Goldilocks countered.
"So console him and help him grieve and then move on with him," Misfit shrugged.
"I tried scheming and planning and forcing things," Goldilocks sighed, "I joined the JLD to prove myself worth to Sir Justin. And if I do, then I won't have to resort to desperate measures. He'll choose me of his own accord."
"Wow!" Misfit breathed, "Damn, that's smarter then what I would've tried."
"It's smarter only because it's the only way it really works," Goldilocks shared, "There will be no more lies between Sir Justin and I. The truth shall either save me or condemn me but either way it will be real."
"Damn skippy!" Misfit enthused, "Sir Justin is gonna be yours. Let me tell ya."
"One can only hope," Goldilocks sighed.
Back at the K-Star Ranch, Wildcat and Dr. Mid-Nite's teammates said their goodbyes to the reserve force remaining on Earth. As they prepared to shift through dimensional folds into the Subtle Realms, Captain Marvel fretted over the fate of his sister Mary. Mary had been gone, alone in a hostile dimension, for a week now. But it had taken that long for Anna Fortune to prepare this spell.
Stargirl and Captain Marvel Jr. kept a lid on Billy Batson's worst fears. Atom Smasher supported Anna in any way he could while she placed the elements necessary for the spell around a triangular shape that surrounded the All Stars selected for the mission. The point of the exercise was to create an anchor point that would serve two functions. The first being to tether the All Stars to the Prime Universe so they could easily return. And the second was to provide a channel for Sentinel's Green Flame powered ring to continue to receive its source of nearly limitless power.
While Sentinel and Jay Garrick spoke briefly with Wildcat, the rest of the team was restless. Jesse Quick and her husband, Hourman, both wondered how their super hero parents would have responded to a crisis like this one. Metamorpho chatted up Aztek and wiled away the minutes. Commander Steel and Judomaster softly whispered to one another, whether of combat strategies or endearments, no one could guess.
Sand and Mr. Terrific stood by until Anna summoned them. Infusing three of Mr. Terrific's T-Sphere's, Anna shifted the modularity from being matter-energy transmitters to being an Interdimensional portal and beacon. Mr. Terrific had six other T-Spheres with him. Three more would be similarly transformed once they shifted across to the Subtle Realms and the other three would serve as teleportation relays across the world they would encounter.
"Everyone, gather around!" Mr. Terrific announced. As the All Stars Chairperson, he was in nominal command. Wildcat stepped out of the zone and Mr. Terrific triggered the adjusted T-Spheres. Vanishing in a flash of light, Wildcat was left all alone.
"Good luck, buddies," he fervently wished.
Examining the desolate hellscape they'd teleported to, Sand was the first to comment, "Wonderful. As always, this place is a horrific nightmare. Just wait until the locals find us. Then the real fun will begin."
No one doubted him.