Smallville: Hal was sitting in his jail cell annoyed at the prospect of having been wrongfully accused when one of the guards came and unlocked his cell.

"Jordan, you're free to go," said the officer. "Sorry about the mix-up but your orders finally came through to our office."

"No problem officer," said Hal hiding his anger at the whole situation. "We all have to do our duty."

"Yeah well, you have a phone call on Line 1," said the officer showing him to a phone before leaving. Hal picked up the phone receiver and steeled himself before pressing line 1.

"Hello?" he asked.

"Jordan what the hell happened?" shouted Hardcastle over the phone. Hal slumped down onto the chair behind him and laid his face on the desk.

"I don't know sir," said Hal calmly sitting up.

"I sent you to that city with the express intent of observation and interaction! How do you get arrested in less than twenty-four hours?" demanded Hardcastle.

"I can only assume you've read my deposition sir, it speaks for itself," responded Hal trying to avoid saying something that'd get him in more trouble.

"Yes," said Hardcastle turning insightful. "A person calling himself Tempus, armed with a 'ray gun' and spouting utter nonsense decided to blow up a gas station in a small town exactly around the time you decided to show up."

"Yes sir," said Hal dejected. "But I'm not making this up."

"Nor would we claim otherwise Jordan," Hardcastle said. "Nevertheless, his timing is fairly suspect."

"You think it's more than just a coincidence?" Hal asked his interest piqued.

"Considering he seemed to recognize you it would possibly indicate that he's after Luthor's plane," Hardcastle admitted. "By scaring you off he could be able to go to Luthor directly and give him a better offer, or better yet steal it."

"So are you going to send backup?" asked Hal hopeful.

"No," came the response. "If we do he'll know we're onto him and besides, he is only just one man. I trust you can handle that Jordan. How you get it done I don't care, just see to it that that plane makes its way into our possession. That is your top priority."

"Yes sir," said Hal defeated. "I'll do my best."

"Oh it'd better be more than you best, Jordan because your entire future now resides with that plane," said General Lane's voice cutting in. "If it goes down so do you."

The phone line went dead and Hal slowly put the receiver back on its base. He sighed and considered his options before leaving the jail.

Hospital: Clark was sitting in the hospital waiting room after having been discharged with no injuries whatsoever.

"I'm surprised you survived that," Chloe admitted.

"I don't know if I could've survived a second shot though," Clark admitted. "It's a good thing Hal showed up when he did."

"I don't know about our friend Hal," said Chloe.

"What do you mean?" asked Clark shifting to look at her confused.

"I know that a good reporter never bases conclusions without evidence, but after Hal left us I saw him get into a car with Lex Luthor," said Chloe.

"I see," said Clark nodding.

"It might mean nothing, but with this Tempus guy running around accusing you of being a 'superman' and Hal being some kind of lantern, Lex may be trying to force you to work with Hal in a way to provoke you to use your powers in front of him. Just keep a heads up, I'll try and get to the bottom of this as quickly as I can," said Chloe. "Until then just be careful."

"I will," Clark nodded. "Anyway I hope you're wrong about him, my dad seems to like him and that's rare with strangers."

"Hey Clark," said Hal approaching them. "How are you feeling?"

"I'll see you around," said Chloe to Clark. "Hal."

Chloe quickly acknowledged his presence and left leaving Hal confused.

"What's wrong with her?" Hal asked confused.

"She just has a lot of work to do over break between college and interning at the Daily Planet," Clark answered.

"I'll bet," said Hal nodding. "Anyway I'm glad to see you're not dead, I figured you were a goner after that beam hit you."

"I guess he had it set on stun," Clark said dryly. Hal laughed.

"So what's up?" Clark asked.

"I need your help," Hal admitted.

"With what?" asked Clark.

"With Tempus, who else?" asked Hal.

"Yeah that was kind of strange," Clark admitted, playing it cool as Hal sat next to him.

"Do you have any idea why he called you Superman?" Hal asked.

"No," said Clark, which was technically true. "Do you know why he called you Green Lantern?"

"None," said Hal helpless. "I'm just as confused as you are."

"Then I don't know what help I can be," Clark stated.

"I don't need your help in finding out who he is, I need your help in finding out where he is so we can stop him before he does anymore damage," said Hal.

"Maybe Chloe is right," thought Clark. But still, he couldn't sense any duplicitous behavior from Hal, which caused him to harbor some reservations about her theory.

"Just to reconfirm, you have no idea why he's after you, do you?" asked Hal. Clark shook his head.

"Great, well I guess we'll have to go find him then," said Hal getting up.

"Why do you need my help?" asked Clark innocently getting up as well. "Back at the farm you told me to stay put."

"Yeah I did but that was before I realize the person causing this trouble was after you. While I would still like to know how you got to town so quickly, I'm more concerned with what this Tempus guy is going to do in order to get at you," said Hal as the two emerged from the hospital and into the midday sky.

"You think he's going to try something like blowing up another building or going after someone I know?" asked Clark. "Like my parents, Chloe, or Lana?"

"I don't know," Hal said unsure. "He doesn't seem very mobile to me, so as long as your parents are out at their farm they should be okay. As for Lana and your other friend, Tempus seems to be solely focused on you so unless you prove elusive I don't think he'll go after them. Regardless, we need to find him first."

"A street by street sweep of Smallville?" asked Clark. Hal nodded.

"How fast do you think it would take you to conduct a search like that?" Hal asked.

"I'm not sure," Clark said. "Smallville isn't that big but if we want to be thorough it could take longer."

"Alright," said Hal producing a pair of radios and he handed one to Clark. "You head south, I'll head north. If one of us sees anything, radio the other for backup."

"I still don't see why we're dealing with this," said Clark testing Hal. "After all, the authorities will find this guy and detain him."

"You saw that gun he had, he won't go down easily," Hal pointed out. "And I've kind of grown to like the charm of this little town and I'd hate to see it destroyed by some madman on a quest for revenge."

Clark's super hearing picked up a noticeable difference in Hal's heartbeat at that statement indicating he wasn't telling the whole truth, but Clark had to admit he had his convictions about bringing Tempus down seemed sincere enough. It was all so confusing, Chloe was supposed to be the investigator here, not him.

"Okay, let's move out" said Clark with just a hint of his disbelief at Hal's statement. Hal shuddered briefly before heading north as Clark went in the opposite direction.

"What could this Tempus guy want?" Hal wondered confused. "And how did Clark get to Smallville so fast and manage to survive that blast? Maybe Tempus was right about that 'superman' stuff. I wish John Stewart was here, he'd solve this stuff better than I can. Maybe I should call him."

As he continued walking down the street in silence, he caught his eye on The Talon as he was passing by. He stopped to look into the café and was amazed by the fact that people were in there being served despite the madness of a few hours prior.

"I guess having a meteor shower rain down on you kind of takes the fear of a gas station exploding and renders it null," he thought. As he was about to continue walking, a green flash erupted causing him to cover his eyes from the brightness of it all. As the glare subsided, Hal looked into The Talon to see a green lantern sitting in front of the window on the other side. Hal was about to continue walking when the lantern flashed again causing him to pause.

"Oh hell, am I going to regret this," he thought shuddering. Hal went inside and grabbed the lantern by its handle before continuing down the street. Behind him, Clark watched bemused before following the USAF pilot down the street.

"Hey Hal," said Clark. Hal jumped and nearly swung the lantern at him.

"What are you doing here? Did you finish your sweep?" he asked.

"Yeah," said Clark, omitting the use of his super speed. "Between walking and asking people if they knew someone with Tempus's description I managed to cover the southern part of the town quickly."

"Hooray," said Hal nonplussed and a little angry at himself for not having done the same thing. "So he's clearly north of us then."
"Assuming you haven't scared him off with your lantern," Clark laughed. Hal groaned.

"Can it," he said. "It's for the part."

"Didn't know you were an actor," Clark commented wryly.

"We all have to play parts we're not accustomed to Clark. Sometimes we have to pretend to be roles that we're not. Sometimes we must act opposite of our real selves in order to get the job done," said Hal. Clark nodded insightful.

"Are you doing that right now?" he asked. Hal nodded.

"And I'm not happy about it either," he commented. "Being two separate people can drive a man insane."

"So why haven't you gone nuts?" Clark asked.

"Probably because my two separate personas both believe that what the other one is doing is the right thing," said Hal after a few moments had passed. "I'm still staying true to my real self by playing both of them and that's all that matters. If I'm not, then yes I will go nuts."

"I'll keep that in mind," said Clark seriously. Hal snorted at that statement.

"Like you're ever going to be caught in a situation where you'd have an alternate persona," he balked.

"I might!" Clark protested. Hal shook his head.

"No you're not. Your future is all planned out for you, you're going to go to college, come back and marry your high school sweetheart, and then live out your life on the farm eking out a meager living and constantly wondering to yourself if you could've been something more," said Hal solemnly. Clark looked at him stunned.

"You really think that's true?" he asked. Hal nodded, sadly.

"Yes I do. I'm generally a good judge of character Clark, and I think that you could become something that's more than just the sum of your parts," Hal said as they continued walking down the street.

"Is this some kind of recruiting ploy?" Clark asked, trying to avoid the inner turmoil he was feeling about Hal's remarks.

"I don't do recruiting Clark," Hal responded quietly. "That's someone else's job, I just don't want to see you throw your life away. The sky's the limit; don't feel afraid to soar past it."

Clark fell completely silent at that statement and Hal hung the lantern on his wrist as he flung his hands into his pockets before turning his attention inwards and the two continued on in silence.

Elsewhere: Chloe was pursuing her own leads to locate Tempus and believed she had finally located him in northern Smallville. As she rounded a corner she spotted the madman a couple blocks away talking to himself to the curious looks of the other people on the sidewalk. Chloe quickly took out a camera and snapped a picture of him, which caught the eye of Tempus.

"Hey!" he shouted. Chloe turned tail and ran only to bump into Tempus who was right behind her.

"What?" she shouted stunned. Tempus looked at her annoyed.

"What do you want reporter?" he asked crossing his arms. Chloe was about to tear off in the other direction when Tempus slammed his right hand onto her shoulder and both vanished in a bright light. As soon as they were gone, Hal and Clark appeared from around a corner, solemn as ever, and continued on past where Chloe and Tempus had been before continuing on down the street.

Roof of The Talon: "I'll ask again. What do you want?" asked Tempus. He was sitting down on the roof lazily brandishing his laser gun. Chloe meanwhile was running around the roof verifying where she was.

"How did you do this?" she asked both terrified and ultimately intrigued. Tempus took out a small control device.

"Teleporter. Standard issue where I come from, everyone has one," he said calmly before putting it away.

"And where exactly are you from?" asked Chloe trying to stall for time.

"Well it's not so much a where as a when. I'm from the future," said Tempus.

"Okay," said Chloe not sure what to think as she paced nervously around the roof debating whether or not to scream her lungs off.

"What are you so afraid of?" asked Tempus bewildered.

"What do you think?" Chloe snapped before clamping her hands over her mouth. Upsetting your captor was never a good thing, especially if they were borderline psychotic.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Tempus assured. "I only want to kill Superman and The Green Lantern. I have no desire to harm anyone else."

"Oh yeah?" said Chloe disbelieving him. "What about that gas station?"

"No one was harmed or injured I made sure to that. I only wanted Superman's attention and I got it. True the interference of the Green Lantern was unexpected but not one that I'm not equipped to deal with," said Tempus.

"Why do you keep calling Clark 'Superman' and Hal Jordan 'The Green Lantern', they're not," said Chloe at least trying to get something out of this ordeal.

"Because it's not who they are now, but who they'll become," said Tempus. "Between the Green Lantern, Superman and the rest of that infernal Justice League, they'll find a way to end crime and poverty as we know it. They'll make a world of peace and justice where no one has to ever be afraid ever again."

"Sounds peachy," said Chloe a little impressed.

"It's a nightmare," Tempus growled. "A world like that is just fundamentally wrong. Everyone is nice and friendly and it's disgusting. I needed a way to change all that so I broke into Starr Labs and stole a time machine to catapult myself into the past to eliminate Superman when it was still possible. And here I am."

"Quite a story," Chloe agreed. "Too bad you can't prove it."

"But I can," said Tempus. "I could catapult us into the future if I so chose to, but I won't."

"Won't…or can't?" said Chloe. A brief flash of anger passed Tempus's eyes but he shrugged it off.

"If I go into the future I will be captured and will have lost my only chance at completing my mission," said Tempus. "Anyway I have no desire to prove myself in front of you. I just wanted to let someone know what Superman did before I destroyed him once and for all. Goodbye Lois."

"It's Chloe," Chloe stipulated. Tempus narrowed his eyes.

"Who did I say?" he asked.

"Lois, my cousin," said Chloe.

"Oh oops, my mistake," said Tempus deep in thought before snapping out of it and coming to a decision. "Well maybe I can kill you then."

Chloe's eyes widened as Tempus advanced on her. "You said you wouldn't kill me!"
"Well you're a special case now, goodbye Sullivan," said Tempus adjusting something on his gun. Chloe screamed.

Edge of Town: "Well this was a bust," said Hal disappointed. He and Clark stared off into the cornfields beyond the town before turning and looking back the way they came.

"Maybe Chloe had better luck," Clark offered.

"Maybe," said Hal shrugging. "And speaking of which where's Lois?"

"Chloe mentioned she had to go have some choice words with her father," Clark recalled. Hal laughed evilly.

"Excellent," the pilot responded rubbing his hands together. Suddenly Clark's super hearing kicked on and he heard Chloe scream. Clark's eyes widened before turning to look at Hal who was looking deep into the core of the lantern he had brought with him as if probing its depths for some answer. Realizing he'd be better off explaining his disappearance later, Clark shot off down the street at superspeed leaving the entranced pilot behind.

Roof: Chloe screamed again as the beam shot out of Tempus's gun coming straight at her.