The Legionnaires watched, dumbfounded, as an invisible, concentrated force slammed into Injestor's chest, sending him reeling backward against an oak tree nearly 50 yards away. His body hit the grass in a quiet swoop. With their field leader down for the count, they each began to react more out of panicked anger than organized mobilization. The young Superboy, now calling himself Reflecto, was the first to forge forward. His initial instinct was to protect Ma and Pa, then to stand with the Legionnaires.
Immediately, Mentalla telepathically reached into her teammates' minds to inform them of the aggressors' powers and strengths. Taking the defensive leadership posture, she directed Quartz off by the Kent's house, and Reflecto watched as Quartz's skin began to crystallize in mid-stride while he ran toward Jonathan and Martha. Without a thought, Quartz had erected a crystalline wall stretching about fifteen feet into the air, effectively blocking the Kents, and their home, from any danger.
"The pyrokinetic is Inferno, a rebel, honorary member of the Legion who chose to stay behind in the past the last time the Legion was lost in the time stream," said Mentalla in her teammates' minds. She continued, "Never a trustworthy candidate to begin with, be extremely wary of her! The small blonde girl is called Terra: she controls the earth below us. The human boy calls himself Tyroc and has disruptive vocal powers, which as Injestor can attest, can be quite destructive. And the Qwardian fellow is the most docile, but not to be underestimated. His name is Kaliber, and there's something familiar about him that I can't perceive mentally… but there's something deep in his psyche that we must be cautious of." As she telepathically stated these things to the group, they had formed their own offensive power play.
Brawler was already in motion, jumping like a rabid pitbull at the Qwardian goliath only to be met with a nonchalant backhand. The barn actually shook as Brawler's muscular body hit the side of it, knocking loose several shingles. Orbit screeched, and as she did a series of circular plasma rings shot from her throat, increasing in size and girth as they flew at the Qwardian and fell upon him like a ring toss. He struggled to break free, but the rings were nigh indestructible. His blank eyes were fixated on Reflecto's face, as if he were studying it. But Reflecto's attention was on the fellow called Tyroc.
"We aren't here to hurt the Kents," yelled Inferno, "But if you get in our way, we'll have no problem taking you each down one by one!"
Mentalla was focused on Terra, who was making arm gestures and mentally pulling chunks of ground up and out, hovering them at her side. Mentalla entered and commandeered her motor functions; Terra screamed, "Get out of my head!" as her movements were manipulated like a stringless puppet; she tossed the hovering boulders unwillingly out past the silo.
Tyroc cupped his mouth and let out a maddening shriek. The Legionnaires covered their ears; Amp Girl, who hadn't fully recovered from the time jaunt earlier that day, fell to her knees, shouting as tears streamed her face. As Mentalla's hold over the geomorph abruptly ended and Orbit's plasma rings disintegrated off Kaliber, Reflecto couldn't stand to watch anymore. Although the high pitched shriek was torturing him, he bent and leapt upward with all his might, the momentum carrying him straight back into the fray. He took another brunt of the adversary's vocal onslaught, absorbed as much as he could, and replicated it right back on him. Tyroc was knocked backward and fell to the ground, cupping his own ears. Retro, sensing the fact that, despite the amount of people on his team he was quickly becoming outnumbered, ran over to where Brawler lay and put his hands on the Moxian's chest, drawing time back a few seconds, bringing Brawler right back to the stance he'd held before his attack on the big guy.
"Metro! Dude, how the grife did you…" asked a startled Brawler.
"No time, man, just help Reflecto!" yelled Retro as he began to repeat his temporeversal efforts on his other fallen teammates. Brawler again targeted Kaliber; as Brawler jumped and flipped in mid air, Kaliber began increasing his size and mass, growing like a giant. By the time Brawler's heels connected with the Qwardian's heavily armored chest, the Moxian Legionnaire was deflected like a gnat. Amp Girl had powered up, her body's adrenaline multiplied threefold, and she attacked Kaliber from behind, rapidly pummeling just behind his right knee. As the giant buckled, Amp Girl leapt upward, gripping his massive shoulders, and pulled with her enhanced strength. Brawler took point and thrust all his weight at Kaliber's chest, assisting Amp Girl's assault. He yanked at the Qwardian's metallic chest plating and it began popping into hundreds of small metal balls, thudding to the ground. Once Kaliber lay on his back, Brawler pinned him down, slugging him until he went unconscious, surrendering to normal size.
Across the yard, Inferno hurled balls of fire at Reflecto who was doing his best to block and dodge. His reflecting powers didn't seem to work with fire, but he wasn't about to stand for this girl's wanton destruction of his parent's farm. He inhaled deeply, which before the transformation of his powers would have snuffed the oxygen from the flames, and blew out as hard as he could, extinguishing the fires and knocking Inferno off her feet. Flames flickering off her hair and eyebrows embodied her anger; she dusted herself off, gained her ground, and began to fiercely repeat the exchange with the fair-haired Kryptonian.
Meanwhile, Terra had gotten the jump on Mentalla before the Titanian Legionnaire could enter her mind again. A few strategically pulsed stones had sent Mentalla running to hide behind Reflecto, but one hit her temple and she fell to the ground. Terra reached down to check for a pulse; despite what may or may not have been her history, she didn't want to kill anyone. She just wanted to know the truth. And the entity pulling her team's strings was the only one who held the promise of an answer.
"Get away from her!" yelled Retro as he ran toward his fallen teammate. From across the yard, Tyroc aimed another intonation; his mouth formed an oval and the sound opened a rift in the fabric of space in Retro's path; he inadvertently slipped right through, rendering him disoriented about a mile away from the Kent farm. At the same moment, Quartz also disappeared from the Kents' side. Jonathan Kent had gone into the house to grab his rifle and was just about ready to end this whole thing by firing a shot into the air. Before he could, though, he watched as the tables began to turn. Mentalla had repositioned her efforts onto Tyroc, deeming him the best target, and as she mentally took over his body, Tyroc aimed a shriek at Inferno and Terra, knocking them both off their feet. Orbit yelled, "Yes," and as she did she launched more plasma rings, which locked themselves around the attackers. A small one fit snugly over Tyroc's mouth. Reflecto removed his cape, swooped around the yard, and soon the four assailants were tied up back-to-back.
"So who wants to start?" asked Reflecto with a respectful nod off to his Pa, still holding the rifle.
"Your presence here has thrown the time stream off balance," said Inferno. Although she had cooled down, her clenched fists still radiated with intense heat. "We were instructed to bring you back to where you come from, so we just elected to do it the rough way."
"Not I," asserted the pink-skinned giant. "Kaliber does not want to harm the Superboy, no matter what he does to his hair or decides to call himself. I only want to assist the Superboy in getting back to where he belongs so the time stream stops unraveling."
After instructing Orbit to fly off and find Retro and Quartz, Injestor resumed his place at front of his team, standing between Mentalla and Reflecto. "Inferno," he said, "I think we have a similar mission, despite your 21st century tactics."
"Can I break his face?" mumbled Tyroc from under the plasma ring covering his mouth. "Please?"
"Quiet, Troy," replied Inferno firmly.
"Great," replied Injestor. "So what now? What exactly are your plans with Reflecto?"
Inferno tried moving her hand from the bonds of Reflecto's cape, reaching into her utility belt, emblazoned upon the buckle of which was still the Legion logo. She retrieved a standard-issue Legion flight ring. "Here," she said as she motioned to Reflecto. "This belongs to you. There is another who's been a victim of the unraveling time stream. Our sources indicate that she and Reflecto are two very essential players in the imbalance wreaking havoc on time. If we—"
"Wait just a minute!" demanded Reflecto, cutting Inferno off in mid-sentence. "What sources are you referring to? And how do I even know we can trust you?"
Brawler grumbled and punched his right fist into his left palm. Amp Girl and Mentalla stepped a bit forward.
Terra nodded to Inferno and said, "I found out some things about myself very recently, some things I wasn't too happy to hear," she said. "Turns out, I don't exactly belong here in the 21st century… or at least not this year. I haven't even been born yet. As you know, Inferno is also someone displaced in time. Both of these guys are too. And our connection to each other is that we're each a pawn of a being called the Time Trapper."
"Great Krypton!" exclaimed Reflecto.
Injestor shrugged his shoulders and asked, "What's a Time Trapper?"
Reflecto turned to his friend and replied, "He is a mysterious being of unimaginable power, sitting in his pavilion at the end of time pulling everybody's strings! The Legion has tried to foil him time and again, but to no avail. He has sabotaged everything from Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl's wedding to—"
Tyroc turned to Kaliber, muffled, "Jeez, who writes this guy's stuff?" and chuckled softly as Reflecto went on about the terrors of the Time Trapper. The others, however, listened intently, especially Terra. She hadn't forgotten her run-in with a holographic image of the Time Trapper not so long ago. It had left her lost and unsettled, searching for her true place. When Inferno came for her last week with a story about the time rift and how she was a part of it as well, Terra thought at least now she'd be able to find out her true origins. Was she a clone of the Teen-Titan-gone-bad, or was she an individual girl imbued with the same powers? And just where, or when, did she belong?
Mentalla did a calm telepathic sweep of Terra, and then Inferno. They each were speaking the truth, and Mentalla didn't sense any hypnotic presence. She said, "We're here in this era to help set the time stream straight, but our instructions from the folks at the Time Institute were to bring Superboy, or Reflecto, back to the 31st Century with us."
Amp Girl chimed in, "True, but following these guys could be an opportunity for us to find this Time Trapper! Maybe he's the cause of the rift after all, just like Reflecto eluded to!"
"That would be my assumption," agreed Reflecto. "I say we follow Inferno and Terra."
"I am most pleased to stand by your side, Superboy," declared Kaliber.
After a few minutes, Orbit and Retro swooped back to the farm. "We can't find Quartz," said Retro, shooting a dagger-like stare at Tyroc.
Tyroc shrugged his shoulders and mumbled, "Don't look at me!"