DC Comics Presents: Killing Roy Harper
Chapter 10: Jimmy Olsen and the Time-Trapper
By: Christopher W. Blaine
e-mail: darth_yoshi@yahoo.com
DISCLAIMER: Jimmy Olsen™, Time-Trapper™ and all other related characters and situations found in this story are ©2002 by DC Comics Inc. and are used herein without permission for fan-related, non-profit entertainment purposes only. This original work of fiction is ©2002 by Christopher W. Blaine and may not be reproduced in part or as a whole without the express permission of the author.
"Do you have confirmation yet?" the Dark Flash asked, his head bent over a series of printouts. Nightwing only grunted a response and the speedster nodded his head to Kid Flash. "Go see what he's doing. He gets too absorbed in his work and we never can get a straight answer."
Roy Harper, the young man behind the yellow cowl of Kid Flash, nodded and moved to stand next to the Kryptonian super-hero in the space of a heartbeat. "Mr. Zee?"
"It's doctor, if you please, and would you explain to Mr. West that I'm involved in very intricate calculations." Nightwing gave Kid Flash a reassuring smile and then turned his attention back to the charts, graphs and abacus he was using. Kid Flash wanted to say something else, but he was starting to feel like a tennis ball being bounced back and forth between the two men. It had been nearly a week since Aquagirl had rescued the Dark Flash from the clutches of the Time-Guardian and his Legion of Doom.
It had been nearly a week since they had lost both Cinnamon and Detective Chimp as well. Their loss was keenly felt by the young hero, as he was the only survivor of a reality that his doppelganger, the Time-Guardian, had destroyed. By freeing the Dark Flash, Aquagirl should have set in motion the events of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, which would have not only ended her life, but the lives of many of the members of their team. "We haven't decided on a team name yet and already we have members dying," he said silently to himself. Nightwing's enhanced super-hearing picked up every word, but he said nothing.
Across from him sat Helena Wayne, the once and former Huntress of Earth-2, who seemed to have heard the statement as well. She shook her head and returned to her work. Not present was Tula, Aquagirl when she was working; she was still resting in one of the upstairs bedrooms of the mansion that Deadman had confiscated for them. Batwoman was busy in the kitchen, burning their next meal if one could tell anything from the amount of smoke being generated, and Elastic Lad had simply walked out a day before.
Kid Flash decided that it was best for him to just leave the "big-brains" alone as they wrestled with the problem as to why it seemed that they had failed in their mission. He was more concerned about the Time-Guardian, who as Speedy, was the leader of the Justice Society of America in this psuedo-reality that they were currently living in. New reports had indicated mass defections from the Society, almost as if Speedy were losing his control over the heroes and villains of the world. Everyone in the mansion knew that the Time-Guardian had been using his almost limitless powers to personally command many of the greater heroes to do his bidding. The most shocking example had been how he had used Batman and Robin to murder both Barry Allen and the Joker.
It was complicated when one looked at the very small parts of the whole, but when Kid Flash took a deep breath and moved outside the box, everything became so very simple.
The Time-Guardian had been, originally, the Earth-2 Speedy. When the Crisis on Infinite Earths occurred, he escaped being erased from continuity through an accident involving magic. Driven insane by the knowledge that he had been allowed to die while the Earth-1 Speedy had been transferred into the new post-Crisis reality, that hero began to amass knowledge on a scale unheard of. The unique characteristics of his condition made him immortal and he had claimed to live until the end of time itself.
Having developed even more abilities as he aged, he changed his name to the Time-Guardian and began destroying the multiple realities of Hypertime that contained any reference to Roy Harper. Because Hypertime is based upon events that occur in the Prime Reality, the Time-Guardian felt that any alternates of the current Roy Harper were impure. It was this crusade that resulted in the death of Kid Flash's world.
The Time-Guardian's greatest triumph, however, was sending the Earth-1 Composite-Superman to destroy Roy Harper, thereby altering the time line. So great was the temporal disturbance that the Time-Guardian was able to employ technology originally created by the Earth-1 Brainiac 5 to hold back the Crisis wave and therefore rewrite history.
In this new world, the Time-Guardian lived out his sick fantasies of being the greatest hero in the world and where he was married to Donna Troy, the heroine called Wonder Girl. The Time-Trapper, however, was made aware early on of the Time-Guardian's plans and took steps to try and reverse the effects. The Trapper reached into the very mists of time and plucked several heroes from the continuity that should not exist and set them on a suicide mission of stopping the madman. Because each and everyone was a hero, they could not refuse.
Kid Flash stopped in front of the door to Tula's room and hesitated. He wanted to try and console her, for the loss of her two newest friends weighed heavily on her heart, but he knew something about grief and about being alone. He had ran for several months through Hypertime until he was found by Deadman and brought here. It didn't help matters any that Tula was closest to him in age and the only woman on the entire planet that could even begin to relate to his problems.
"Come in, Roy," she called. Surprised, he opened the door to find her sitting in the middle of the floor, legs curled up to her chest. He wondered if her telepathic abilities were still growing. She had explained that all Atlanteans had the ability to communicate with sea life, but her time with Detective Chimp had forced her to stretch those powers even further. "I saw your shadow under the door. You and Deadman are the only ones who visit me."
"So you guessed it was me?" he said, sitting down next to her and pulling back his cowl. She regarded his face for a moment, realizing that he was the very image of the Roy Harper she had known in her reality, a brash and troubled young man who still seemed to be able to melt the ladies' hearts with a wink and a smile. His was also the face of their greatest foe, the man responsible for the deaths of two of their friends, if not a thousand of their alternates.
"I hoped it was you," she said. He took no other meaning from it than as a sign of trust and he reached out a hand for hers. She took it and sighed. "We're quite a pair, aren't we?"
He shrugged. "It could be worse. At least we know that we've given the Time-Guardian a swift kick in the rear. The news is filled with reports of super-hero clashes all over the country. Many of the more powerful ones like Superman seem to be lost and uncertain, while the ones that are loyal to Harper are trying their best to contain the situation. My guess is that they figure it's a temporary problem, otherwise the Legion of Doom would be doing something more."
She smiled and squeezed his hand. "I expected to be dead by now, or at least forgotten."
"I wouldn't forget you," he relied, the honesty of his reply almost painful to hear. She regarded him once more, making a mental decision that meant she was accepting her situation and that the past was that, the past. She had to look to the future and hope that there was some way she could continue to go on.
She reached over and kissed him lightly on the lips. She tasted like a cool sea breeze and he detected the slight scent of salt. A craving to be on the beach, drinking margaritas flowed into his mind. "I know. That's what I'm hoping for. I once read a story, I can't remember exactly what it was, but the author, a wonderful and talented one named Dannell Lites, wrote that the Navajo say that a person cannot truly die if someone remembers them."
"Hopefully, that means we'll live forever," he said. "Deadman said that there are some realities out there where all of us are nothing more than characters in comic books, that even now someone in Hypertime is writing all of this down for some sort amateur fiction to be posted on the internet."
"The internet? What's that?" she asked.
"A post-Crisis computer network," he said non-chalantly. "I suppose that writer is deciding our final fate."
"Kind of takes the gods out of the picture," she remarked. "I mean, whatever gods you worship…I mean even if you only have one god…"
"That's the beauty of Hypertime; God has a hand in it…he's guiding the hand of that writer! I know that Hypertime has been restored, I can feel it, but it is almost like this place is something out of time…"
She laughed and looked to the ceiling. "You hear that, mister fiction writer? Give us a happy ending!" Then she added quickly. "Maybe with a little sex!"
She looked to Kid Flash, expecting him to blush but instead saw a quizzical look on his face, as if he were adding up the sum total of his life and awaiting the answer to magically appear before him. "Son of a…"
He was gone in an instant, a veritable flash of lighting, as he raced down to the basement where the other heroes were working. "I've got it!" he cried.
Nightwing, Huntress and the Dark Flash all looked at him. "Two words: pocket universe."
Jimmy Olsen sat back and brushed some crumbs from his green-checkered suit coat and looked over at a young girl who was doing her best to avoid eye contact with him. He leered at her, imagining all sorts of things he would like to do with her during a heavy make-out session. The Time-Trapper, invisible to everyone accept Olsen, shook his head. He had already looked into the future and saw that Olsen would go over and ask the girl out, trying to impress her with his tales of being Elastic Lad and Turtle Boy. When that didn't work, he would show off his Superman signal watch.
All the good it would do him, considering Superman was a quivering mass of Kryptonian jelly up at the North Pole. The Man of Steel's mind had simply been burned away; at least the Man of Steel in this little universe.
A masterful stroke, one that would not have been possible had it not been for the vision of the young, freckle-faced man in front of him. Jimmy started to get up, but the Trapper put a hand on his wrist. "It will go nowhere," he said from inside his purple hood.
"Watch the threads, man," Jimmy said, an angry look on his face. The Time-Trapper wondered why he bothered to keep his word to this insignificant footnote of the universe, but decided it was because it amused him. Watching Olsen betray his comrades had brought the Time-Trapper so much pleasure, pleasure that had been lacking in recent days.
It was Olsen that had revealed his team's plans to the Trapper, in exchange for the pocket universe that now existed. Without it, Olsen would have died when the Crisis Wave came rushing through. As it was, the universe had been set right and was running quite smoothly outside the sphere of temporal energy that the Time-Trapper had put around this reality. It was nothing really, especially since the Time-Guardian had done all of the initial work; the entire Trapper had to do was put up the proper barriers when the Time-Guardian was at his weakest. That had been the exact moment Aquagirl had released the Dark Flash.
Though he was cutoff from his powers, it was only temporary. Eventually, the Time-Trapper would have to allow the Time-Guardian to retain his abilities or risk throwing the temporal passageways into turmoil. Certainly, the Time-Guardian would be angry that the Trapper had usurped his world, but there was very little he could do about it. Anyway, once the Guardian found out that Roy Harper was still dead in the Prime Reality, the Trapper was sure he would be left with his own little part of the universe to rule.
The Trapper had simply put the puzzle called the Prime Reality back together again, leaving out one little piece: Roy Harper. He didn't care which one got it, either the Time-Guardian or the real Roy Harper who was currently cooling his heels in limbo.
"So, what do we do now?" The Trapper asked in a bored tone.
Jimmy tried to peer into the hood, to get some measure of the being that resided in it, but found only emptiness staring back at him. He wanted to tell his personal "uncool ghoul" to buzz off, but he understood that the Time-Trapper saw him as sort of a friend. Maybe the Trapper had been human once and was trying to remember what it was all about.
"You up for some adventure, James B. Olsen style?" Jimmy asked.
A voice in the back of the Time-Trapper's conciseness told him to kill Olsen now and be done with it, but some part of him also felt sympathy for him. A ridiculous character on the stage of the multiverse, the Earth-1 Jimmy Olsen had labored most of his young life to try and fit in around his larger-than-life friends. He was overshadowed by their reputations and deeds and he had tried effortlessly to become as heroic as them. Riduculous identities followed by even more ludicrous adventures had followed.
How, as Elastic Lad, he had ever earned honorary membership in the Legion of Super-Heroes, was beyond the Time-Trapper's ability to comprehend. "Pray tell, what is it that you would like to do?"
Jimmy popped a toothpick in his mouth and wiggled his eyebrows at a pretty young cheerleader from the local high school. "What if I dug up the evidence needed to expose the Legion of Doom as Speedy's personal cadre of lap dogs?"
The Time-Trapper said nothing. Jimmy waved a hand in front of his non-face. The cheerleader must have assumed he was waving at her and gave him a rude look. "Don't you see how cool that would be, man? I would scoop both Lois and Lana!"
The Time-Trapper closed his eyes and counted to ten. He wanted to remind Jimmy that right now, that was pretty unimportant. The Trapper could give Jimmy virtually anything he wanted, making him the Man of Steel himself if he wanted. But no, he thought to himself, the guy wants to write a story and one-up his colleagues.
"I just can't imagine why you were completely made over after the Crisis," was the dry response.
Jimmy reached down to wipe a smudge off of his white shoes and then stood up. "You and me both; but it doesn't matter now, does it? Old Jimmy is back in town," he said as he pulled up his pants and sucked in his gut.
The Time-Guardian waited for a few moments and then Alexi Luthor turned to him from the large instrument that had occupied his attention for the past two hours. "You were right, Mr. Harper; there is a temporal boundary layer just below the hyperstring structure of the universe."
"A pocket universe," the Time-Guardian said, rubbing his hairless chin. "Only one being in the universe would have had the gall to pull off such a stunt."
"The Time-Trapper?" Vandal Savage asked as he tore into a large piece of beef jerky. "I thought your powers prevented any action by the other time masters."
"They do or did," was the response. The Time-Guardian walked around the lab, clad in his bathrobe as he had been for the past few days as the former Earth-2 Luthor investigated the sudden disappearance of his powers. Everyone agreed that without them, they were in danger of being overrun by any number of characters.
As soon as the Crisis Wave had gone through and readjusted the universe, the Time-Trapper had set up the pocket universe they were now in. Because of the subtleties of temporal physics, every being that was in the pocket universe now existed as an alternate of their prime reality counterparts.
All except the few individuals that were either temporally-powered or plucked from the timestream when they shouldn't have been. In the room now were three such examples. Luthor was someone who should have died during the Crisis, Vandal Savage was now an alternate duplicate and the Time-Guardian was a god as far as he was concerned.
"May I offer a proposition?" Vandal asked, his lips smacking on the salted beef.
The Time-Guardian shrugged. "I'm open to any suggestions right now."
"If I understand this Time-Trapper fellow, he appears to enjoy keeping realities as sort of trophies," Vandal said as he wiped his massive hands on a paper towel. "He's taken control of this reality from you but that doesn't mean the reality is to blame."
"Yes, yes, you're interested in saving your own skins. Go on!"
Vandal put on his used car salesman smile. "Dear Alexi believes he's found a way to restore your powers. If we do that for you, then you leave. Take Donna with you, but leave our reality to us."
I was in too big of a hurry! The Time-Guardian sighed. His powers would eventually return and he was in no danger of being killed. Even in his present state, he was still immortal, composed entirely of temporal particles. The longer he waited for his powers to return, the longer it would mean he would have to remain in a universe he didn't control.
In his mind, he had already made the appropriate calculations, realizing that the Time-Trapper had reset the universe around him. It was a brilliant move and despite all of the setbacks it presented to him, he could not help but admire the audacity of the Time-Trapper. Perhaps he had spent too much time dealing with Extant?
"Okay…do it and I'll leave your universe in the hands of the Time-Trapper, for better or worse."
Jimmy Olsen pulled the cap down over his eyes and put the collar of his leather jacket up a little higher. Still invisible except to the young reporter, the Time-Trapper moved along beside him, listening as the methods of "proper" investigative reporting were detailed to him.
"You see, you have to sources, and Jimmy Olsen has the best in Metropolis," he bragged.
"I thought Clark Kent had the best sources; he does get all of the interviews with Superman," the Trapper chided. He considered telling Jimmy that Clark and Superman were the same person, but he doubted it would do any good. The Trapper was pretty much finished in forming his opinion of Olsen.
"Yeah, well Clark doesn't like to get his blue suit dirty," Jimmy responded as they turned a corner. Three toughs stood there, one was actually swinging a chain. The trapper felt it was a rather contrived situation, but no different than so many of the events that seemed to personify Jimmy's pre-Crisis life.
"Hey, fancy-pants," one of the thugs said in a typical urban accent. "You lost or somethin'?"
"Easy fellas, I'm just out for a walk. I'm looking for Big Tom," Jimmy said from below his cap. "I've got some green for some information."
"If you give us the cash, maybe we won't bust ya up," another of the goons said, his face accented by a large, previously broken nose.
Jimmy smiled. "I'm not somebody you want to mess with, guys. Just tell me where Big Tom is and nobody gets hurt."
The third young man, a tall lanky fellow, moved forward and attempted to grab Jimmy by the shoulders. The reporter kicked out and dropped the felon to his knees and then put him put him out of action with a quick right cross. "You guys are lucky I don't use any of my special formulas because then you would be in real trouble."
The thug with the chain roared and swung. Jimmy ducked underneath and then came back up to deliver a left hook to the man's jaw. "I've been trained by the best, buddy. I've sparred with Batman and Robin." He spun quickly around the man's rear and delivered a karate chop to the back of the neck. "Learned that from Superman himself."
The tough fell to the ground, his face hitting the asphalt and sending teeth skittering away. The last one pulled out a small pistol. Jimmy suddenly stopped cold and put his hands up. "Whoa, tiger, you got me!"
"You're a loser, Olsen; your word is no good around here anymore, and neither is your money," the man said, waving the gun around, daring Jimmy to move. Jimmy did, jumping at once and lunging for the man's legs. The criminal brought the gun down and Jimmy was out cold.
The Time-Trapper then watched as the gangster shook his two friends awake and then the three dragged Jimmy's body into a small garage at the end of the docks. Once inside, they hurriedly tied Jimmy up to a stanchion and began pouring gasoline throughout. They exchanged a few words with each other and then the one who had knocked Jimmy out slapped the reporter awake.
"Big Tom get sent up the river because of your story on the drug traffic down here, sport," the man sneered.
"You're making a big mistake, pal," Jimmy responded.
The three criminals laughed and started to leave, making comments about seeing Olsen in a fiery place one day. Just before the one with the gun exited, he tossed a lit match down into the gasoline. Flames and black smoke leapt into the air and Jimmy's lungs burned as he inhaled the heated air,
The Time-Trapper stepped through the flames and watched as Jimmy moved his hands slightly. With an extended finger, he pressed a button on his watch. Beyond the range of his hearing, Jimmy's watch sent out a hypersonic signal. The signal was meant to summon Superman to Jimmy's aid.
Nearly screaming in frustration and rage, the Time-Trapper waved his arms and the flames stopped. Jimmy smiled. "Alright! Just what the man ordered!"
The Time-Trapper came up next to Jimmy and came down on his haunches. The faceless hood hovered for a second and then he exploded in fury. "You are a complete moron! I just told you before that Superman and all of your other super-hero pals are busy doing other things…like dying!"
He stood back up and watched as Jimmy started to tremble. "I have to thank you, though, for finally shedding light on a mystery that has perplexed me for thousands of years. I never could figure out why certain individuals were erased after the Crisis, but now I know." He stepped back and placed his arms in the folds of his sleeves. "You see, Olsen, there are two types of people: leaders and followers. You were a follower, always trying to be one of the guys but never quite getting there. Your life was like filler for a pulp magazine. 'The Incredible Adventures of Jimmy Olsen, Superman's Best Friend' is what it would have said! You just couldn't accept your place as second-banana, could you? You had to keep trying to be a super-hero."
Walking around Jimmy, he took a good look at him and saw the flaws in his character much more brightly now, each one taking one a hue of crimson or emerald. Perhaps it was a trick of the light, but the Trapper could have sworn that suddenly he was looking at Jimmy on only four colors. "Some people are Alphas, Jimmy, and some people are not. You are not. There is no place in any universe for someone who can't accept their station. You were replaced and with good reason."
"Hey! We're friends! You can't leave me here!" Jimmy cried out.
"Oh, but I can. In fact, I must because I now see that the natural order must be maintained and loathe that I am to admit it, my path has become clear. The Crisis ridded the multiverse of the garbage, of the ridiculous and the unwanted." The Trapper waved a hand and once again the flames began their dance of death. "Farewell James Olsen, best friend of Superman, cub reporter who never grew up. Your time has long since past, the interest in you has waned, and your usefulness has long expired."
As his flesh began to burn, Jimmy Olsen cried out a final roar of defiance to the inevitable cloak of finality that draped over him.
"A pocket universe could only be created by one individual," Nightwing said. The Dark Flash nodded his agreement and turned back to his computer screen. "I'm going to recall our membership," he said.
A balding, pudgy man in Bermuda shorts and no shirt came strolling in. Gravy and tomato sauce stained his chest. "Olsen is dead," Deadman commented from inside his host body. "His spirit just blew by me, smelling like an overcooked hot dog."
"If he isn't supposed to exist, where does his spirit go?" Tula asked as she walked in. Her hair was still wet from the shower she had taken and she was toweling it dry.
Deadman smiled. "Everything that is created has a place, even when it isn't needed anymore. Don't worry about it, okay? You need to focus on the mission at hand."
"Indeed," the Time-Trapper said as he stepped out from a dimensional door. Nobody moved to stop him. "It looks like my appearance was not quite unexpected."
"You created another pocket universe," Kid Flash said. "You were warned about doing that!"
The Trapper's voice became like a cold blast of winter fury. "Do not presume to tell me what I can or cannot do, speedster. While I have maintained some minor interest in the affairs of mortals, do not forget I am still above all of you. I am the Time-Trapper! I have seen entropy and I have seen creation."
"Bite me, Trappy," Deadman said, unimpressed. "You're here because you either need something or want something. Probably both."
The Time-Trapper shrugged. The omnipotent presence act normally worked, but he was too tired to argue. He just wanted to lie down for a couple of centuries. "When was the last time I took a nap?" he asked aloud. Nobody answered him and he moved over to where Batwoman had laid out a tray of hamburgers. The Trapper took one and it disappeared into the blackness of his hood. "Damn! These are good!"
Batwoman smiled and everyone else shook his or her head. Her cooking was the worst in any universe as far as they were concerned. "You are right; I do need something. I need to put the real Roy Harper back where he belongs. I now see that allowing him to be replaced was wrong, it disrupted the natural flow from which I draw strength and power."
"So, you'll help us?" the Dark Flash asked, skeptical.
The Trapper grabbed another hamburger. "Sure. For now. After all of this is done, I go back to my ways and all of you, for the most part…"
Tula finished his sentence. "Disappear. Like we never existed."