Hello again

Whoa, it wasn't until I had this chapter isolated that I saw how long it was. It would have been shorter, but I had to add in some description concerning Angela's observations on 2005 Justice League. But that only added a half page, so it was long to begin with.

All right, the plot thickens as Angela confronts the current day heroes and learns to cope with "Guardian's" treatment of her. You'll see what I mean. Meanwhile, it's not like Karkinoma has been snoozing…

Read and enjoy.

Living History

Angela remained still in her seat onboard the Javelin II and watched the atmosphere thin out and transition into the blackness of space. My first time to the Watchtower, and it's not even the Watchtower I know.

The present day J'onn J'onzz had flown the Jav down to pick up Angela and Guardian since Angela had no other means to get to outer space. There had been a moment when J'onn and Guardian maintained a staring contest--no doubt an intense telepathic conversation--and then J'onn remarked that the group should get going. Other than an odd glance at Angela every once in awhile, J'onn made no comment about the two time travelers. Superman had returned to the Daily Planet to work until the meeting time later in the day.

After a moment, Guardian moved from his seat at the console next to J'onn to sit by Angela.

"We'll be docking in another ten minutes. After that, J'onn will show us to some rooms where we can stay while we're in this time."

"I take it he knows everything?" Angela asked.

"It would be difficult to keep it from him," Guardian replied. "He's grasped the situation quickly and will aid us as well as keep our secret."

Angela said nothing to that. Guardian sat looking at her for a moment more and then reached out to take her hand. Until that moment, Angela hadn't noticed the numbing pain in her left wrist. When Guardian touched it, the pain flared so that she hissed in breath.

"Why didn't you tell me you were injured?" he demanded, examining the joint carefully. "It feels dislocated."

"I didn't realize," Angela protested with another hiss of pain. "There should be supplies at the Watchtower. I'll take care of it when we get there."

Guardian looked like he was about to protest further, but he let the matter go. "Very well."

Ten minutes later, Angela found herself walking through a living museum. She had only ever seen the Watchtower through video feeds from her own hacking activities under the watchful eye of Oracle. Now, she was in the same halls that her father, step-mother, and aunts and uncles had been in years before. It caused Angela to shiver when she had first crossed the threshold.

J'onn, who had remained silent toward Angela the entire time, led her and Guardian to the medical center. Once there, Angela realized that it was set up similarly to Alfred's in the Cave. Keeping her left arm locked against her body, Angela moved confidently around the shelves and cots until she had gathered all that she needed.

"You can't bind your wrist yourself," Guardian commented as he took the bandages away from her. "And you certainly can't put it back in place on your own."

"So you say," Angela muttered rebelliously. With a sigh of resignation, Angela hopped up onto a cot and held out her arm. Guardian worked carefully to immobilize the joint and re-align it before Angela could tense up. With an audible pop, the wrist was back in place and Angela allowed herself only a small gasp as she watched Guardian wrap it securely. He was reaching for an arm sling when Angela protested.

"It's not that bad, honestly. If you could stop hovering, I'd like for us to work out what we are going to say—and what we are not going to say—to the Justice League."

Guardian took an imperceptible step backward and nodded reluctantly. He turned to his past self, silent as far as Angela was aware. After five minutes of what Angela knew was telepathic communication, she was starting to feel a little left out.

"This would be easier for me if you let me in on the planning," she remarked somewhat caustically.

"I am sorry, Angela. J'onn was reminding me of how suspicious the League is likely to be at this time," Guardian explained.

"Because of Aunt Shayera, right?"

Apparently, J'onn didn't know as much as Guardian had implied that he knew since he flinched at the familiar title Angela had given the Thanagarian woman. Angela realized her slip and brought her good hand up to pinch the bridge of her nose.

"This is going to be harder than I thought…" Angela muttered. "See? This is why we have to get our stories straight."

"Hawkgirl comes back?" J'onn asked somewhat dazedly.

"No," Angela responded immediately. "Hawkgirl doesn't come back, Shayera does."

"Enough," Guardian admonished.

Angela stopped herself from rolling her eyes and got off the cot to walk over to the window looking out into space. She let her gaze become unfocused, staring off into nothing, and waited for J'onn and Guardian to finish another mental conversation. From the stunned expression on J'onn's face, reflected in the window for Angela to see, the current Martian Manhunter was getting more revelations than he bargained for. Eventually, J'onn left and Guardian came up behind Angela.

"You should get some rest," Guardian suggested. "We have several hours before the rest of them can meet."

"I'm not tired," Angela answered. "Can you get me to a computer? I'd like to see what else I shouldn't know."

"This way."

Angela hacked into the computer system with ease; Oracle would give her tests with old passwords. She read everything she could find, putting the stories she had heard as a child into context with the help of the files. She didn't know where Guardian had gone, only that time must have passed when he and J'onn came to fetch her.

Feeling suddenly subconscious, Angela straightened her skirt and blouse as best she could. Who knew my school uniform would hold up so well with battles? With growing unease, Angela followed both Martians to the conference room where the League members waited. Guardian didn't really need telepathy to read her mood and placed a hand on her shoulder, holding her close. Angela only thought her gratitude to him, schooling her features to impassivity. With visible effort to breathe as calmly as she could, Angela walked through the door.

It wasn't until that moment that it hit Angela that she was not in her home time. She had only seen J'onn and Superman and both of them were near perfect matches for her most recent memories of seeing them. As a shapeshifter, Angela knew that J'onn could look like anything and was accustomed to seeing him in various shapes and forms. Superman, while not immortal, could certainly pull it off to the naked eye. In the park, the Kryptonian had looked almost identical to the Clark Kent she had seen when he was putting his children in her care. It was some of the other heroes who served to remind Angela that she wasn't in her home time.

The Justice League stood in a semi-circle like a panel of judges about to determine her future, which in a way, they were. Superman was the center anchor, the only one wearing a semi-welcoming expression on his face. It was most likely due to the fact that he had seen what Angela and Guardian were up against. He might not have seen a lot or even fully understood what he had seen, but every little bit helped.

Green Lantern was to Superman's left, trying to keep his suspicions off his face but failing. He was certainly the most obvious reminder that these heroes were over a decade younger than Angela's aunts and uncles. John Stewart was clean-shaven—he hadn't grown his beard yet—and he lacked many of the stress lines on his face that Angela was used to seeing. He also lacked the laughing spark in his eyes that she knew wouldn't come into sight until he and Shayera finally stopped dancing around each other; that wouldn't happen until Angela was eleven.

Next to Lantern was the Flash who was fidgeting and looking serious at the same time. It was difficult for Angela to read his features due to the mask, but she knew what she would find should she look underneath his mask. There would be a shock of bright red hair, without the faint streaks of gray that were just barely detectable in his light hair. Hopefully, he would have the laugh lines around his eyes and mouth that were so essential to Wally West's personality. Despite being a contemporary of Dick Grayson, even he had started to show signs of age in Angela's years, though never in muscle or speed.

Opposite Lantern was Diana, in full Amazon warrior mode. Diana was a carbon copy of Angela's step-mother. Even after renouncing the immortal life that came with being a chosen of the gods, Diana still had not aged in all of Angela's memories and still appeared to be a strong and vibrant woman. She was, as always, dark haired and clear eyed with a body that still made young men pause. As the wife of Bruce Wayne, Diana always made a cutting figure on his arm, one hand caught in her father's and a gentle smile on her face. Diana's face now did not attempt to hide her suspicion and distrust; Angela had only seen her step-mother in that mode when she was fighting or facing someone she didn't like. It hit Angela like a physical blow to have that unfriendly attention directed at her.

J'onn joined the circle next to Diana and glanced at the corner, indicating the last member of the League. Angela barely stopped herself from flinching as Batman stepped out of the shadows.

He's not your father, Guardian reminded her.

Not yet, Angela thought back at him.

The Dark Knight was the most difficult of them to read, even for one as practiced as Angela. Like with the Flash, it wasn't easy for Angela to compare the man she saw before her and the man she knew due to his cowl. The suit alone made Angela's heart clench painfully, the blatant visual of all her father represented and died for. With a mental wrench, Angela forcibly did not attempt to reconcile the two images of Batman as she had the others.

"I've informed the League of what you told me," Superman began. "But if there's anything else that we need to know, we'd like to hear it now."

Contrary to the Boy Scout façade, Superman apparently wasn't going to be as trusting as Angela had hoped. She truly had underestimated the blow to the League's faith Shayera had done.

"Who are you running from?" Lantern preferred the more direct approach to questioning. But Angela had already known that.

"His name is Karkinoma, he is a villain from the future," Guardian explained, sensing that Angela did not wish to speak unless absolutely necessary.

"You're from the future," Flash pointed out.

"He's from the future, even for the two of us," Guardian clarified.

"Why should we believe anything you say?" Diana demanded.

Luckily, J'onn stepped in. "I have seen both of their minds. I believe them."

"You've been fooled before," Lantern pointed out. "If they're from the future, they could have some way of blocking your telepathy."

"I have no special powers," Angela offered, with characteristic pride that she needed none. "And could you stop talking about us like we're not here?"

"All right. Here's a question for you," Lantern said. "I get why he's—" he pointed at Guardian "—involved in all of this, but what are you doing here? You're just a kid."

"Wrong place, wrong time," Angela answered shortly, uncomfortable explaining everything.

Tell them the whole story. They need to know what Karkinoma is capable of.

Somehow, both J'onn and Guardian were speaking to her at the same time privately. By the confusion on the others' faces, they could tell that there was a telepathic conversation was happening, but of course couldn't know what was being said.

"Just tell us what happened before you got here," Superman asked her as gently as possible.

Stiffly and clenching her good fist at her side, Angela took a deep breath. "It started when Wayne Manor was attacked."

There was a collective pause as everyone unconsciously looked to Batman except Angela and Guardian. The dark vigilante showed no visible sign of reaction except a slight tightening around his mouth that only Angela knew to look for.

Angela continued. "The Joker broke in with a small army, knowing that Bruce Wayne was Batman, knowing his children were there as well as children of other heroes."

"Whoa, children?" Flash asked.

"So why were you there?" Diana asked.

"Why else? I am a daughter of a hero. I was babysitting the other children that night."

"The Joker," Batman prompted, his only contribution to the conversation so far.

"He knew everything because Karkinoma told him. I got the kids out and stayed behind to help my father, but…we were outnumbered." Angela nearly choked on the last words, taking a moment to compose her self. Guardian was in front of her in an instant, searching her eyes. Angela brushed off his protective attention and faced the League again.

"Why were all of you at Wayne manor?" Superman asked.

"It's the most secure place besides the Fortress and every member of the League was expected at a massive meeting." Angela ignored the look on Superman's face that she knew about the Fortress of Solitude. "My dad stayed behind from the League meeting and was using the video feed in the Cave while everyone else was up here while I watched the kids."

"So I wasn't there?" Batman asked, with a slight note of disbelief in his voice.

Knowing that he could tell if she lied, she responded, "Batman wasn't there."

"So, the Joker was after what? He normally doesn't target other heroes."

"First off, he's branched out in the future," Angela answered, which was true enough. "Second, your children were there which is reason enough."

"Batman has children?" Flash muttered under his breath. Every other hero in the room except Guardian and J'onn also looked stunned by this revelation. Angela knew that they would all fall over if they learned who he married, or that she was one of his children. Any other time and Angela would have laughed.

"The Joker was going to kill me and make my father watch, but Karkinoma arrived and interrupted. He said that the history he learned said that we would escape that night because the Joker waited too long. So, the Joker killed my father in front of me."

The last of Angela's fortitude dissolved enough to cut off her speech, but luckily not enough to cause her to break down. Please, don't make me tell any more, she begged in her thoughts.

Guardian took up the narrative without hesitation. "I was part of the rescue team when we learned of the attack. While the others got the younger children to safety, I followed Angela to the Cave to help her and her father, but I was too late to save him. When Karkinoma made to escape through a time portal, I grabbed Angela and went through first."

"And he followed you here, I'm guessing," Lantern remarked.

"Yes. He found us this morning less than a few hours after we had arrived."

"That's when I found them," Superman added.

"So, what do we do?" Flash asked, impatient to get something done.

"Will he continue to come after you?" Lantern asked Guardian.

"He'll come after all of you," Angela answered instead. The adults looked at her in surprise. "He told me that the reason he even showed up in my time was because super heroes were getting in his way and he decided to fix that problem at the source."

"His primary objective may have been to retrieve us," Guardian added. "But he won't pass up the opportunity to take out the heroes of this time. You are all at least twenty years, if not more, younger and less experienced than the heroes he is accustomed to fighting."

"Could he come here to the Watchtower?" Superman asked.

"He knew about the Cave as well as the hidden passageways in Wayne manor," Guardian answered. "It's likely that along with all of our identities, he knows many more of our secrets."

Angela was going through a mental rundown of anyone who could be in danger. With sudden clarity, she and Guardian gasped at the same time.

Karkinoma could go after me and Mom, Angela thought, knowing that her four year old self was in more danger at that time than any other time before.

"Superman and Flash should secure the safety of their wives," Guardian was saying out loud while telepathically telling his younger self to go protect the young Angela and Selina Kyle and to check on Alfred in Gotham.

Superman, Flash, and J'onn were literally just through the door when red lights started flashing around the Watchtower. Angela and Batman reached the computers at the same time, pulling up multiple view screens of the surrounding space around the tower. Angela was the one who found the right angle which showed the incoming spacecraft. When no one recognized the design of the ship, Angela felt the familiar feeling of déjà vu from nearly twelve hours earlier when she had been in the Cave.

"He's here," she said in the stunned silence.

I'm really fond of cliff-hangers, apparently…