Chapter Eleven: Do the Time Warp
'My reality check just bounced'-Unknown
"Please don't let that be what I think that was. Please don't let that be what I think that was." This thought repeated over and over through Harpy's mind. A strange pulse had hit the Javelin as Green Lantern was towing it to the Watchtower. The Watchtower, and Batman who had been inside it at the time, had vanished without a trace. The remaining members of the League had been given no choice but to land the damaged Javelin on earth. As Harpy exited the Javelin her hopes were dashed. They had landed in Metropolis. A very altered Metropolis.
"Oh the paperwork I'll have to fill out for this." Harpy mentally moaned.
"Either the city Fathers did some high speed urban renewal, or…" Flash began.
"Or what?" G.L questioned.
"Or there was a shift in the timeline." Harpy finished.
"A what?" Flash asked, confused.
"A change in some past event that effected the present." Harpy elaborated.
"You there. Show me your papers!" a man in a gray uniform demanded, cutting of any further conversation between the League members.
"What?" G.L asked, perplexed.
"You heard me. Let's see your identity papers. Now." The man commanded.
"Sorry. My identity's a secret. Chicks dig the whole man of mystery thing." Flash replied.
"You think this a joke? You're under arrest." the man stated.
"On what charge?" Hawkgirl demanded.
"Out of the way." the man snarled, shoving Hawkgirl. Hawkgirl responded by throwing him into a bench.
"Unit two-nine-five we need backup." the man's partner exclaimed into his radio headset. He fired three flares into the air.
The man Hawkgirl had thrown got up, and both officers, for it was evident that they were some kind of police force, began firing at them. G.L put up a shield. Three hovercrafts appeared and begin firing as well.
"Scatter!" Lantern exclaimed. The shield dissipated and the league split up. Superman hit one of the vehicles, smoke began billowing from it as it sank out of the sky. Hawkgirl hit another one with her mace and it was knocked out of the air. Flash disarmed the two officers just as dozens of hovercrafts appeared.
"Over here!" a familiar voice called from a nearby alleyway.
"Bats!" Flash exclaimed.
"Hurry!" Batman ordered. The newly arrived hovercrafts began firing. The League went into the alley and followed Batman down a manhole. They landed inside of a subway car. Officers descended a nearby stairwell and began firing. Batman threw a switch and the subway sped forward, away from the officers. It kept going even as it approached a boarded off tunnel. At the last second the board retracted, opening up the tunnel.
The train came to a stop. The League stepped out into a large open area the looked like the Bat-Cave, minus the actual cave. Harpy got a good look at Batman. He was wearing heavy military type armor. No cape. No Bat-symbol. His cowl had been replaced with a helmet.
"This is too weird. Even for him." Flash commented.
"Hey wait up! I've got some questions" Flash called, dashing over to were Batman was.
Dozens of people, dressed in armor like Batman's and armed with guns, appeared and pointed their weapons at the League. Several more closed in and surrounded them.
"No I'll ask the questions. Who are you?" Batman demanded.
"Bats, you're starting to scare me." Flash said.
"I scare a lot of people. The resistance might be able to use you. But you have to prove we can trust you." Batman responded.
"Are you kidding? You've known us for years." Green Lantern stated, outraged.
Batman took picked up a gun a pointed it at G.L. "You must have me confused with someone else." he said.
"I don't think he's kidding." Flash commented.
Superman was suddenly in front of Batman. He grabbed the gun from him. "Listen. If we wanted to hurt you we would have." he stated.
After a few tense moments Batman waved his followers off.
Superman handed the now crushed gun back to Batman.
"Let's talk." Batman stated.
The League was gathered by the Bat-computer.
"The Storm troopers came to our house. I was eight years old." Batman said.
"And they murdered your parents." Superman finished. "Why?"
"For speaking out against the regime." Batman answered.
"Incredible." Superman stated in shock.
"Not really. It happens everyday. That's why I started the resistance. We're all orphans and outsiders, fighting the good fight." Batman explained.
"How long has this regime been in power?" Lantern asked.
"Since World War Two." Batman answered.
"But we won that war didn't we?" Flash asked in confusion.
"No." Batman answered, he brought up a picture of an army on the computer. "They did."
"You're telling us that we lost World War Two. That's insane!" G.L exclaimed. "The allies invaded Europe on D-Day and"
"It was a disaster. D-Day was the beginning of the end for the allies." Batman interrupted.
"Earlier Harpy spoke of a shift in the timeline." J'onn stated.
"That pulse we saw earlier was the timeline adjusting to the change." Harpy explained.
"But why weren't we affected?" Wonder Woman asked.
"Perhaps the aura from Green Lantern's ring protected us." J'onn hypothesized.
"Want to share?" Batman asked.
"Have you detected any large electrical or magnetic disturbances recently?" Superman questioned.
"We experienced some interference on our com-links. Why?" Batman responded.
At night outside of a large building, the Justice League, the new timeline's Batman, and a few members of the resistance were staked out outside of a large building.
"According to my sources, the pulse emanated from here: Vandal Savage's Research Center." Batman stated.
"Who's Vandal Savage?" G.L asked.
"You're joking." Batman said. No one said anything.
"He's everything I've been fighting against. The undisputed dictator of this repressive regime." Batman explained.
"Let's see what's inside." J'onn said before he become intangible and headed into the building. Everyone else had to fight their way in through the door. Which actually wasn't that hard because the guards all ran for it after Superman tossed a piece of equipment at them
Once the guards and the scientists had been dispatched, the League gathered in front of a wormhole.
"What is that?" Superman asked.
"Heavy matter. Like a black hole. They used it as a tunnel into the past." J'onn explained.
"And altered history to change the outcome of the war." Hawkgirl stated.
"Can we change it back?" Flash questioned.
"It would be risky. We only have forty-eight hours before it collapses." J'onn answered.
"We've got to try." Green Lantern declared.
"Wait. Are you saying that my world, my whole life is like this because someone went back in time and changed the past?" Batman asked.
"Yeah." Harpy answered.
"Then doing this could save my parents." the Dark Knight stated.
"I can't promise that." Superman said.
"Will you come with us?" Hawkgirl asked.
"No. If this doesn't work someone's got to stay here and fight." Batman replied.
"You know if we do succeed in putting things right, than it will be like you, this version of you never existed." Harpy told Batman.
"Nothing would make me happier." he responded.
"Now go." he ordered.
The League leapt into the wormhole.
They landed in a bombed out building. The sound of gunfire could be heard outside.
"Where are we?" Flash asked. He sped over to a window to take a look outside. The rest of the League soon joined him. Outside a battle was raging between the Germans and the allies.
"It's just like those old documentaries." Flash commented.
"Not quite." Hawkgirl responded as a War Wheel appeared on the battlefield.
"What the Hell is that doing here!" Harpy exclaimed. She was quite surprised to see what looked like modified Sontaran technology on World War Two Area Earth of all places. And it wasn't even the right version of Earth. She had no time to think about this as the war wheel began attacking the allies.
It took some time, but eventually the League was able to destroy the war wheel.
"I pulled this from the control panel." J'onn stated.
"Transistors! But they weren't invented until after the war!" G.L exclaimed.
"The scientists did say that the wormhole was unstable, whoever came from our time could have landed here months ago, perhaps even years." J'onn said.
"So where do we start?" Hawkgirl asked. More war wheels came rolling in out of the nearby woods.
"There looks good." Harpy said. The war wheels began firing on the allied troops.
"Those troops are getting decimated!" Superman exclaimed.
"You help them. I'll fly to Berlin." Harpy heard J'onn say just as she took flight.
Harpy was doing pretty well against the war wheels. At first she had trouble fighting them because her fireballs were deflected by the thick armor of the war wheels. Then she figured out that by sending fireballs up the barrels of the cannons right as they were about to fire caused them to explode. With the main weapons disabled the war wheels became easier to take down. But the numbers… they just kept coming!
Harpy switched mindsets. Instead of trying to destroy every single war wheel, she provided cover for her friends as the evacuated the Allied Forces. Harpy was taken by surprise when machinegun fire tore through her right wing. She hit the ground hard and blacked out.
So you're probably wondering what I'm going on about with the Sontaran technology but when I looked up "war wheel" on google and a picture of a Sontaran battle cruiser from Doctor Who popped up, after that something just clicked.
