Shikari hit the ground with a thud that was clearly audible to anyone within a thirty-foot earshot. Luckily her skin had hardened to its armored state, a near invulnerable, shell-like defense mechanism inherent to all Kwai; it saved her from the fall. Dazed, she stood and caught her bearings. Seconds ago, she was hovering in the time stream with her fellow Legionnaires, being pulled, thrust, and yanked in all directions, holding desperately to Timber Wolf's hand. She looked upward and saw no trace of an opening to the time stream portal; evidently, it closed up behind her as she fell back to the ground in Metropolis. A throng began to gather around the stunned Legionnaire. These days, any action involving even one member of the Legion meant something to either witness or run away from, far away.
"Shikari!" squawked the voice from within the Kwai Legionnaire's communicator beacon, and it startled her for a moment. "Chuck Taine?" she queried, relieved to hear a familiar voice.
"Kari, what's the situation? Yours is the only communicator I'm able to raise," replied Chuck, "It's as if the rest of the Legion has vanished!"
As she aimed her arms upward, spread her massive, fluttering wings, and gently lifted into the air above Metropolis, Shikari answered the voice on the communicator. "The Legion is lost in the time stream, Chuck Taine. We must find them!" Before her, a triangular portal appeared, whizzing with electrical energy, and as she slipped through the portal, it brightened momentarily and then disappeared with a soft hum.
On the other side of the portal, a harried Shikari half hovered and half strutted through a crowded corridor lined with Science Police officers and other members of her Kwai tribe. The folks along her path all stepped aside to let the Legionnaire pass; no one wanted to block her way to the mission monitor room where Chuck Taine was eagerly awaiting her arrival. As she entered the sprawling bi-level auditorium where all of the main Legion ops were conducted on Legion World, a beefy, dark-haired young man in a red engineer's cap greeted her. He stood and sighed and walked toward the Kwai Legionnaire.
"Chuck Taine," exclaimed Shikari, "how are we going to locate our friends? If they're lost in the time stream, they can be anywhere… or, more specifically, anywhen!"
"Easy, Kari," consoled Chuck. "Let's get our bearings. And while we're doing that, I think it's time to call in the second string."