Chapter #8 – Wish you were here
As Terry McGinniss finished ruminating on the deaths of arguably two of the most powerful members in the history of the League, the clock above the main view screen chirped, showing another two hours until the ball would drop at Times Square, ringing in the New Year. He leaned back in the chair and let out a huge sigh, relieved that soon, the year that had seen the deaths of both Bruce Wayne, the original Batman, and Clark Kent, Superman, would be over.
The view screen flashed around the borders once, indicating an incoming message. He clicked the mouse to determine its origin (despite the continuous security upgrades, it was amazing how many kids managed to hack into their system every year), then a sense of relief washed over him as Dick Grayson's familiar face popped up on screen.
"What's going on?" Dick asked. He was greying in his temples a bit but otherwise for a man in his late sixties he still had an air of vitality about him that reflected his easygoing personality. Were it not for the awkwardness of his hoverchair negotiating around large crowds of people, Terry thought it likely that Dick would have been down celebrating the New Year with the rest of the revelers.
"Nothing." Terry answered from behind the cowl. "Perfect evening."
"Who's on back-up tonight?" Dick asked casually.
"Barda."
"She in the building?"
"I believe that is part of the responsibility of being back-up." Batman replied tersely. "Why do you ask?"
"Take it from an old man. Just because you two haven't been talking during the past few months doesn't mean she wouldn't mind ringing in the New Year the old fashioned way with her boyfriend."
"I'm not sure what you mean." Terry replied, trying to ignore the direction of the conversation.
"You know exactly what I mean." Dick laughed. "A little champagne, a little countdown, a little kiss to ring in the New Year. Time honored traditions are important."
"I think she has other plans." Terry muttered, absently looking away from the viewscreen.
"How do you know? Did you put a bug on her?"
"NO! It's just that… I'm not sure I really want to see her tonight. I've been thinking about making some changes as it is, and I don't think it would be fair to her to play games with her."
Dick's face tightened from his normal carefree expression. Suddenly he was more interested, more intense as he studied the view screen. "What kind of changes?"
"Big changes." Terry muttered sotto voce, looking away as he said it.
Dick took a closer look at his view screen, trying to read the emotions hidden behind the mask, then gave up. "I'm coming over." Dick replied, then the screen blinked out before Terry could reply.
The transporter pad glowed brightly, signifying an inbound arrival. Moments later, Dick Grayson materialized in his hoverchair. He scanned the room to see if there was anybody else in proximity, then quickly flew over to the Monitor Womb 100 feet down the hallway. He parked his chair next to Batman, who initially ignored him. Finally, the cowled figure sighed and looked over at his friend.
"You didn't have to come all the way over." Batman grumbled, then pulled off the cowl.
"Yeah, like it's really difficult to press the send button on the transporter from the Cave to here." Dick replied sarcastically, then he leaned in, brow furrowed with worry as he studied Terry's expression. "Gads, its worse than I thought."
"You have no idea." Terry replied, then reconsidered when he realized with whom he was talking. "We'll, if anyone can relate, its obviously you." He paused a moment, deliberating about what he wanted to say, then decided to spill his guts.
"I'm thinking Batman needs to take a vacation."
Dick nodded in agreement, then sat back in his chair. "Good idea. How long you thinking? A few weeks in Bora Bora at the beach house wouldn't be a bad idea. Maybe you should ask Barda if she wants to go. I'd pay big money to see shots of her in a bikini…"
Terry cut him off abruptly. "I'm thinking longer than a few weeks, Dick."
"How long you talking about?"
"Maybe…forever." Terry admitted.
"Are you serious?" Dick asked in astonishment. "Why?"
"This past year pretty much sucked, don't you think?" Terry noted.
"It's been tough on all of us, but enough to quit…?"
"I just don't think I have the kind of drive to be the Chairman of WayneTech, Chairman of the League, and protect Gotham at the same time." Terry muttered. "I'm exhausted. I feel my attention wandering wherever I am. If I'm at WayneTech, I'm thinking about the League. If I'm here, I'm worried about Gotham. It never ends. Worse, I'm starting to act like the Old Man. My secretary at WayneTech quit yesterday after I yelled at her. Me. Terry McGiniss, life of the party a few years ago, WAS YELLING AT A SECREATARY!"
Dick nodded in understanding then tried to break the tension. "Well, after all, good help is hard to find. Did she deserve it?"
"That's not the point and you know it." Terry replied, disgusted with himself as he relived the incident. "How did Bruce manage to balance all of this stuff out?"
"He didn't." Dick interrupted. "First of all, he was never the Chairman of the League. You taking over as Chairman here was a major mistake. After all, you'd only been a member for a couple of years and now you're the Chairman?"
"Who else was going to step up?" Terry asked rhetorically. "Lantern? Micron? They're still learning to shave."
"First of all, they're not that young but even if they are, they're still experienced. Second, Warhawk was the obvious choice." Dick responded. "He practically grew up in the Tower. Given his lineage, he should be Chairman."
"Clark's death hit him pretty hard." Terry observed. "He never really knew his parents and then he watches Clark die right in front of his eyes."
"We've all been there." Dick noted quickly. "It's not as if he has the patent on losing a parent. You, me, Bruce, Warhawk. We've all went through it. It's tough but if properly channeled, you can use it to your advantage."
"Let's just say for argument's sake that I do hand over my League Chairman duties to Warhawk." Terry said, closing his eyes and leaning back in the chair to visualize the changes. "I'd still be running the largest conglomerate in North America, living in the Manor, sleeping in the Cave and patrolling Gotham at night. I can't even remember what a normal resemblance of a life would look like. I haven't been on a date in over a year and my Mom and Brother look at me like I'm a monkey in the zoo when they visit the Manor."
"This can't be a surprise to you." Dick replied. "You knew when you became Batman that it would require sacrifice."
"When I was Terry McGinnis, personal valet to Bruce Wayne by day and Batman by night, it was BARELY manageable but it was a sacrifice I could live with." Terry replied, suddenly animated by the memory of putting on the cowl as a teenager for the first time. "But in retrospect, Bruce did most of the detective work by remote control. I really didn't have to think much, to be honest. I didn't realize it at the time but with the combination of the suit and Bruce working back at the Cave, I was pretty much on autopilot for the first ten years I wore the damn thing. Now I've got WayneTech meetings that I have to run, technology to nurture at the R&D labs so Batman stays one step ahead of his enemies. I spent my 'free' time in the Cave, on patrol or here!"
"Have you told anyone else what you're thinking?" Dick asked softly.
"I haven't told Barda directly but a few months ago we were having…well… pillow talk and talking about what it would be like to have a normal life. She was the one who planted the seed in my mind at the time, to be honest. She talked about this neighborhood in Connecticut she flew over once which seemed like the perfect place to raise kids. We ended up having a fight a few weeks later about me not spending enough time with her and that was the last time we've spoken, except about official League matters."
"You two sound like Bruce and Diana." Dick observed with a hint of a smile. "She tried to convince him to go on a few dates. Every time she forced him into it, there would always be some alarm or some crisis that he would use as an excuse to bail."
"That's exactly it." Terry replied, nodding in agreement. "I can see the pattern starting to form already…history repeating itself. Batman takes on too much responsibility, drives away all of the people that he loves, and the next thing you know, everyone thinks he's a major league A-Hole. There's got to be something better, some alternative to this crappy life I've been leading."
Dick was about to reply when an alarm started flashing on the main viewer in front of them. Terry quickly pulled the cowl back over his face then his hands flashed over the keyboard to isolate the cause of the alarm.
His face tightened visibly behind the mask but Dick couldn't tell what was the matter from his vantage behind the chair.
"What is it?" he asked in concern.
"Temporal displacement alarm." Batman replied, then he entered a series of commands to slave the location of the alarm to the video surveillance system the League used to zoom in on any part of the Metropolis streetscape. "Check that. Two temporal displacements. One on the Battery, the other by the Park. Look like we're dealing with some time travelers again…probably Hourman or Metron screwing around. When will those guys ever learn…" his jaw slackened in shock as he looked at the view screen, enlarging the image subconsciously while his mind tried to convince him that he wasn't seeing things.
"You're seeing this as well, right." Batman asked a slack-jawed Dick Grayson.
"Uh-huh." Dick nodded affirmatively, then reached over to adjust some clarity and brightness features on the overhead image.
Batman, Wonder Woman and the Green Lantern known as John Stewart, all in their prime by the look of them, were standing in the Battery Park section of Metropolis. Judging from the looks on their faces, they didn't appear discombobulated to be standing in the city in the year 2054. They all looked fine until Batman wobbled on his feet a moment later. Diana steadied him but his ashen appearance was evident even from the grainy lens of the camera.
Slack jawed, Dick and Batman turned towards each other at the same time.
"Better page Barda." Dick deadpanned.
"Better page the whole League." Batman replied, then set off running down the hallway. "Keep in touch on the Comm Link. I'm going to see what's going on."
TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
Diana and John looked over their comrade as he suffered through the after effects resulting from their second journey through time. Batman appeared to be even more disoriented than they'd seen in Coloma 200 years in the past and within a second of materalizing, collapsed to the ground. Diana caught him before he hit the pavement, then gently propped his head on her lap as she sat down on the sidewalk. His pallor was obvious, as if his body was working through a massive bout of influenza combined with too many shots of tequila. It was disconcerting for both of them as Bruce' mortality was exposed yet again in front of his teammates. Relying on their previous experience, Lantern formed a green plasma bed then surveyed the empty street around them, checking for any signs of Chronos. Diana gently picked Batman
up then eased him onto the bed, hoping that the extra blood gained from raising his feet above his head would help. The treatment did little to counter the effects from the time travel and Diana could feel a thready, weak pulse on his wrist.
"Maybe he isn't cut out for this time travel stuff." A masculine voice observed behind them.
Diana and Lantern whipped around towards the sound. A man at least 6 feet in height was standing on the sidewalk observing them with a curious tilt of his head. Given his costume, he evidently wasn't just a passing civilian. While there were obvious differences in the suit and a notable absence of a cape, the long black pointy ears and red chest emblem of the Bat were unmistakable.
Diana's eyes narrowed as she considered the man before her. "A little flamboyant, don't you think?"
Terry's eyes blinked in confusion, then he realized she was talking about his suit. "Don't blame me, Bruce designed it."
Lantern and Diana both did a double take as they digested his statement. Lantern stepped towards the new Batman, who showed no signs of trepidation at their appearance. "Obviously you have the benefit of knowing who we are. Care to return the favor?"
"I'm Batman." Terry replied with a grin, obviously enjoying himself despite the shock of seeing three of the original Justice League members in his continuum.
Lantern considered the statement as he looked the man over one more time. He thought he detected some amusement in the man's voice, so he decided to play the game. "Son, I've known Batman for almost five years. We've worked together. Repelled invasions together. Hell, I've even sung campfire songs with him. You're no Batman."
The dark figure chuckled behind the mask. "Mr. Stewart, I always heard next to Bruce, you were the biggest hard-ass in the League. Thanks for keeping the image alive." Noting there was no obvious improvement in Bruce's condition, he decided to get more serious. "What's wrong with the Old Man?"
"Some sort of flu he picks up in the time stream." Lantern observed. Diana made a show of taking Bruce's temperature with the back of her hand, then she turned to the two men next to her, tension evident in her voice. "He feels warmer this time. Last time it took him a minute to get on his feet but there's something different…worse."
Terry stepped forward to take Bruce's temperature with the monitors in his suit. He slowed his approach when Diana's doubtful expression turned menacing, then treading lightly around the Amazon Princess, Terry elected to moved around to the opposite side of the emerald bed still suspended above the sidewalk. He touched his index finger to Bruce's brow, then immediately got a reading of 104 degrees Fahrenheit on his optical monitor.
"We'd better get him back to the infirmary." Terry suggested. "You two okay to fly him there?"
"Fly him there?" Lantern asked doubtfully. "Shouldn't we teleport? After all, the Watchtower's still in orbit right?"
"There's been a lot of changes since your time." The new Batman replied. "Can you two just follow me me?"
"We're fine to go anywhere," Lantern replied, puzzled as he looked around for a Batwing or other sign of transportation, "What about you?"
Batman grinned at them then spreading his arms to unfurl the two red winglets mounted on his suit, he took off with a rocket assisted whoosh. "Upgrades." He noted, then climbed northwest towards the JLU headquarters.
TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
The four of them arrived at the headquarters a few minutes later, touching down on the south facing patio which flight-capable members used to gain entry into the Tower. Diana was carrying a still unconscious Batman in her arms when they touched down.
"This way." Terry motioned. Two pneumatically powered doors whooshed open as he approached, triggered by a sensor in his suit.
A man in a wheelchair and a woman matching Diana's Amazon stature were waiting for them in the hallway. Their expressions were anxious but neither one of them said a word. Terry led John and Diana past them down the hallway, nodding "Dick, Barda, meet Lantern and Diana" as they strode past, but the new Batman didn't slow down long enough for them to exchange greetings. Terry opened a second series of interior doors much smaller than the first and ushered them into the infirmary.
"Over here." He noted with a trace of amusement. "Either bed is fine."
John and Diana were speechless at the extent of the technology in the infirmary. Even by their own advance standards of technology on Watchtower II, the technology in this building put theirs to shame.
Diana gently laid Bruce down onto the right hand bed, then Terry powered up the monitors. A screen mounted on the wall came on, displaying pulse, temperature, blood pressure and other readings they weren't familiar with.
"This should get him stabilized." Terry noted, pressing a second series of switches. A cooling bath of ionized plasma shot down from the ceiling, instantly washing over the Dark Knight from head to toe. "At least it will get his fever down to a more manageable level."
"Do you recognize his condition?" John asked.
"Sure." Terry replied from behind the mask. "Chronic Temporal Fever. 95 of humans are susceptible to it. The rest suffer from a kind of psychosis. It took most of the fun out of time travel so now most of the time machines are in museums."
"That explains Booster Gold." Diana deadpanned, "But why aren't we affected?"
Terry examined her closely for the first time, stunned by her similarities with Barda. "I can't speak for you but Lantern's energy ring probably cloaks him from the effects." He turned his attention back to the comatose man on the table. "Now that we've got Mr. Dark and Gloomy here taken care of, you mind telling me what you three are doing here?"
Lantern and Diana exchanged glances but neither one of them spoke, debating how much they could disclose to this still unknown ally. Over Terry's shoulder, the man in the wheelchair and the tall woman started whispering to each other, but they couldn't be heard.
Lantern focused on the two of them then projected his voice across the room. "You two have a secret you want to share?"
Dick and Barda stopped talking when they realized he was addressing them. "We were just speculating as to why you're here. Care to illuminate us?" Dick asked with a trace of suspicion evident in his voice.
"We've been chasing a time-traveler who calls himself Chronos from one century to the next." Diana replied. "First he was in our time…"
"What time exactly might that be?" Terry asked, a curious expression evident even under the cowl.
"It was March, 2005 when we started tracking his energy signature well enough to follow him wherever he traveled in the time stream." Lantern noted.
"Muons?" Terry asked.
"How did you know?" Diana asked in consternation.
"He trained me." Terry replied, pointing to unconscious figure on the bed. "When and where did you go after that?"
"Coloma, California, 1853." Lantern replied.
"Gold rush?" Dick asked from his chair.
"You've got that right." Lantern answered. "We stopped him from robbing a big shipment of gold…"
"But he got away to now." Dick interrupted. Turning to Terry, he looked confused. "You ever heard of Chronos?"
"No." Terry replied thoughtfully. "I thought the League had a database of all known time travelers so we could deal with these kind of situations."
"So did I." Barda noted, speaking up for the first time. Diana turned to inspect her a little more closely. She'd been distracted carrying Bruce onto the bed but now had time to appraise the woman. Barda probably had two inches on her and a few more pounds of muscle, but other than that they might as well have been twins. Both possessed long raven hair, blue eyes, buxom figures and matching defiant attitudes. Diana liked what she saw but didn't have time to inspect her more thoroughly.
"So there's nothing in your database that indicates Chronos ever fought the League or even went on a crime-spree?" Diana asked dubiously. "Can we check your records?"
"Be my guest." Terry replied, leading them out of the room. Barda turned to leave the room and Lantern followed close behind. Dick sensed Diana's hesitation to leave her teammate, so he gave his best attempt to reassure her. "He'll be fine. The monitors will keep track of him while we search the records for this Chronos character. Some quiet would probably do him good anyway. I'm not sure how deep his coma is anyway."
She nodded, appreciating the reassurance. "Thanks…I'm a little worried about him."
"About Bruce?" Dick laughed. "He's the toughest guy I ever met in my life. Besides, temporal fever isn't usually fatal."
"I'm not so much worried about the fever as I am him." Diana confided as they left the room. "He wasn't quite himself when we were back in the Old West."
"How so?"
"He was just, well, kind of odd, if that makes any sense. We got into an argument and it looked like he was ready to kill one of the men helping us find Chronos."
"He might be experiencing some other side effects from the time travel." Dick replied immediately. "Bruce never kills."
"That was the thing about it." Diana replied, lamenting her own role in flirting with Carson a few hours before in her time, especially after he turned out to be such a womanizing pig. "Bruce has been a lot more…emotional than usual."
"He's never emotional at all." Terry replied, having eavesdropped on them from the door to the conference room.
"My point exactly." Diana replied, then they walked through the doorway.
TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
Diana took a seat in the conference room next to Lantern while Dick pulled his hover chair up next to Diana. Barda and Terry sat opposite the table. He pulled out a keyboard from under the tabletop. A holographic screen appeared over their heads a moment later. Batman typed in a search of the JLU hard-drive for Chronos and was rewarded a moment later when one file came up.
"A ha!" he exclaimed, "There is a reference."
His expression soured a moment later as the screen indicated he was being locked out.
"What's wrong?" Diana asked.
"The system isn't letting me see the file. Says its been encrypted. Strange."
"Strange why?" Lantern asked.
"Strange because the JLU Chairman's password is supposed to override all encrypted files." Terry replied, still working on the file. His expression changed a moment later, scowling at the screen. "I know who encrypted this file."
"Who?" Barda asked.
"Our friend in the coma. The file's got a warning label on it stating "Temporal Paradox Warning."
"What's that mean?" Barda asked, puzzled at the unfamiliarity of the term.
"When all of those time machines starting popping up 20 years ago, scientists suddenly realized there were possibilities people would try to enrich themselves by helping themselves in the past. The machines were produced with built in mechanisms to restrict time travel into the past, but people starting hacking the systems anyway. Governments had no choice but to establish the Temporal Police. They caught the rule-breakers pretty quickly then took away the rest of the time machines." Terry looked over at the newcomers and pointed at Diana and John. "The alarm they tripped was tied into the old system established by the Temporal Police."
"So Bruce encrypted a file about a time traveler who went into the past." Dick mused. "Following protocols established by the Temporal Police. Not a big surprise."
"It would be nice if we could de-crypt it and establish a game plan for tracking this Chronos guy around. But bitching about it isn't going to help. We need a game plan in the interim until he wakes up" Terry mused, then leaned back in his chair. "I'm going to activate the rest of the League. At least we can patrol some likely targets until then."
John sat up in his chair as if struck by lightning. He unfastened the metallic device still attached to his arm, then handed it over to the new Batman across the table. "Forgot about these. Batman…our Batman… had rigged them to detect Chronos if he used his local field generator to move around in hyperspeed. Can you duplicate it?"
Terry looked at the devices carefully then shook his head in amazement. "Sometimes I forget just what a good engineer Bruce was…I mean is. The computer should be able to scan these and get something back to us pretty soon. Let's get started on that then we'll head out when the rest of the League is assembled. Barda, can you take care of that?"
The woman opened her mouth to object to being sent off on such an errand, then nodded quietly. She walked over to his chair, retrieved the device from Terry's hands then spun on her heels and walked out of the room.
John sensed there was tension between the two of them and felt compelled to change the subject. He turned and examined the older man in the wheelchair across the table.
"Dick… what was the last name again?"
"Grayson. Dick Grayson." The man replied amiably but his eyes were smiling.
"Have we met?" John asked. "You look…familiar."
"I visited Watchtower II when it was being built. I was Bruce's guest." Dick noted. "The mask and 40 years probably accounts for the difference."
"You're Nightwing!" John exclaimed with astonishment. "What happened to your legs?"
"It's a long story." Dick replied. "Other people came out worse than me that day."
"Anyone in particular you want to name?" John asked facetiously, but at the same time his face revealed his curiosity.
Dick thought about the question for a moment before formulating his reply. "I'm not sure it's a good idea to interfere with history. It could just make things worse."
"How about we get up to date on current events instead?" John asked. "Where's the senior members of the League? Last time I checked, J'onn, Diana and Superman weren't supposed to age much…if at all. Where are they?"
Dick stared at Diana for a long moment, then traded glances with Batman at the head of the table. "As of January of this year, all of the original League members are gone." Dick replied, carefully measuring his words.
Diana and John digested the information for a few moments and traded glances which showed their surprise. "All of us?" Diana asked.
"All of you." Dick replied. "The last forty years has been pretty hard on the League. Pretty hard on all of us, for that matter.
John was about to follow through on another question when a low chirp emitted from the mainframe in front of Terry. He toggled a button on the top of his keyboard and instantly a three-dimensional screen materialized front of him. The chirp increased in frequency a moment later, signaling its urgency.
"What is it?" Diana asked, unfamiliar with the technology.
"Looks like Bruce is feeling better."
TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT