Chapter Two

Shayera had had a good day so far. She wasn't on duty until later, but she'd been around the Tower to help out with that mess in England this morning. Nothing started her day quite like smacking a couple of mystically-summoned dragons over the head.

Aquaman had just come off shift when she arrived back in Metropolis, so they'd spent a nice time chatting over lunch. He'd challenged her to a round of chess in the Rec room, a hint of smile under his beard as he did. They'd been on their way from the canteen to the recreation area.

And now ...

"Who are you?" she demanded, mace in front of her.

The two kids backed away from her slowly, arms up.

"Put that down," Aquaman said to her irritably. "They're children."

"Prove they're not midgets or shapechangers and I'll believe you."

But she didn't think they were a threat, not really. They'd just startled her, and she hated being surprised like that. She touched her ear. "Intruder alert, corridor five, level one. Threat level," she sighed, "minimal. Aquaman and I have it under control, but be advised."

"Acknowledged," said Mister Terrific in her ear. "What's the nature of the intrusion?"

"Couple of kids got into the Tower. We're finding out how."

"Understood. Keep me posted."

Aquaman bent down. "How did you get in here?" he asked them again, but more calmly this time. "Are you lost?"
"Are you Aquaman?" asked the little boy. Blond hair, large blue eyes, he looked frightened but not necessarily of them.

"That's right. What's your name?"

The kid looked even more scared, and glanced over at his friend. Her eyes were as wide and scared as his.

"We can't tell you that," said the boy. "And if you're Aquaman, we are way lost."

"We have to talk to Batman," said the girl.

"What?" The boy's complete attention was on the girl now.

"Basic rule of You Know What. When in doubt, talk to Batman."

"He's not our ... He's not who you think he is!" said the little boy.

The girl crossed his arms. "I know who he is."

Shayera sighed and clipped her mace back on her belt. If they weren't real children, they were doing a great job of pretending.

She frowned again. "Wait, you mean you know his secret identity?"

The girl nodded.

Shayera looked at Aquaman, but his face remained closed. He didn't know Bruce's name, as far as Shayera was aware.

Shayera bent down beside the kids uncomfortably. She hadn't been a child in a long, long time, and Thanagarian children spent most of their small, pre-warrior years in rookeries away from the adults. She wasn't quite sure what to do with these short people.

"Whisper it in my ear, then." The girl backed away.

"Uh uh. No giving away secret identities."

"I already know Batman's secret identity." Bruce had been none too pleased to find that out, but since he and everyone else had already been ready to kill her at that point anyway, the subject had never really been addressed later.

"How do I know you're not lying?" asked the girl.

The boy let out a disgusted noise. "R --- Animal Girl, stop being dumb, okay?" Animal Girl? "You know who she is," he whispered. He gave Shayera a little smile.

The girl whispered back, loudly, "What if she's evil?"

"I'm not evil."

"She's not evil!" said the boy. "Just tell her."

"Fine." She leaned over to Shayera's ear, and whispered, "Your Batman is named Bruce Wayne." Then she stood back, an uncertain expression on her face.

Shayera nodded. "That's him. I don't know how you know." She looked at the boy again, more closely this time, but she'd seen plenty of photographs of both Bruce's young wards. He wasn't Robin.

"Can we talk to him?" asked the boy.

Aquaman stood up and touched his ear. "Aquaman to Batman." As he spoke to Batman, Shayera continued to look at the children.

"Animal Girl, hm?"

"I like it," said Animal Girl.

"And what's your name?"

"His name's Duckboy," the girl provided helpfully.

"It is not! It's ... " He stopped.

"Rule two. No real names," said the girl.

"Batman is occupied," Arthur said. "He will be here in a few hours."

"We'll have to detain these two until he arrives."

"Can you stay with us?" Not-Duckboy asked quickly. "Both of you? Please?" Another little smile.

"I'm not really the babysitting type," Shayera said, looking to Aquaman for rescue. He had a kid and was far more likely to know what to do with them. Of course, now that she thought about it, he spent a lot of his free time hanging out at Kent and Inza's place rather than at home with Mera and his son.

"Please?" asked the boy again.

"I should be getting back to Atlantis," Arthur said. The boy looked heartbroken. "But I suppose I could wait a short time."

"Where are we going to put them? They shouldn't have the run of the Tower."

"Conference room."

"All right. You two, this way." She walked in front, heading for the small conference room on this level. To her surprise, the boy took her hand. Shayera almost pulled away, and then didn't. The kid seemed to like her. Most kids still shied away from her, or their parents grabbed them protectively. This pair was frightened, but they weren't scared of her. It was different. Not necessarily better, but different.

"Hey," said Not-Duckboy. "Do you have a chessboard?"

"You are such a dork," said Animal Girl from behind them.

"You're the one who wants to see Batman."

"I'll get the board from the Rec room," said Aquaman as they reached the conference room, and he left Shayera alone with the two children.

Well, it had started out a good day.


The world shimmered around them.

"What was that?" asked Merina. The street beneath them had cracked and crumbled, but the bubble held.

"Undetermined," said Lantern. His extended green arm grabbed Shriek's machine, crushing it easily.

Shriek ran.

The blasts outside ended, and the shaking buildings trembled and stilled. Lantern set them down on a piece of street that was undamaged. As Merina helped Batman to his feet, she saw Barda limp out from behind the corner where she'd stood, neatly whacking Shriek in the back of the head with her staff.

"Was he the last of them?" she asked.

"I think so," said Batman, rubbing his head.

Lantern scanned the area with his ring. Merina thought she could feel the emerald beam as it passed indifferently through her, but she'd closed her eyes before when he'd scanned, and she knew that to be her imagination.

Lantern said, "I am not picking up anything to indicate the nature of the occurrence."

"What occurrence?" asked Barda, dragging Shriek over to the pile of unconscious criminals Flash was already binding.

"That shimmer," Merina said. "Everything went strange."

"I didn't see anything," said Barda.

Merina glanced at Lantern and Flash, both of whom nodded. They'd seen it. Terry was still too groggy and probably hadn't noticed.

"It was probably something to do with their weapons," said Flash.

Lantern didn't look convinced. "I want full scans on everyone when we return to the Tower. Just to be sure."

"Whatever," said Batman. He finally shook his head clear. "Hey, if you're all here, who's watching the kids?"


The boom tube opened in the landing bay of the Metro Tower. Rex stepped out, then tried to stifle his disappointment that no one was there to greet him.

He dropped his things in his quarters and went to Ops. No one was there either, which was very strange. The monitors were set to Gotham, and he could see the remnants of what looked like a bad fight but while civilians walked in and out of the picture, he didn't see anyone he knew. He hit the communicator.

"Warhawk to Aquawoman."

Only a moment passed before she answered: "You're a sound for sore ears." He felt the smile spread over his face.

"Where is everyone?"

"We're finishing up in Gotham and heading back. Can you check on Arthur and Robin? They're supposed to stay in his room, so check the Rec room and canteen first."

"I will. Missed you."

"I missed you too."
Batman cut in: "We'll be back shortly. End transmission."

Rex glared at the console.


Merina glared at Batman. "What was that all about?"

"You said the names of civilians on an open channel."

"It's our frequency. It'll be fine." She didn't like admitting he was right, that she'd allowed her relief to overwhelm her common sense. Rex was home and safe.


Rex went back to his quarters first. Arthur's room was next door, and per prediction, empty. He'd have to yell at Arthur later, but for now he allowed himself a grin. When he'd been a kid, he'd made an art of sneaking out of his room to explore both Watchtowers.

He suited up, enjoying the familiar comfort as the mask went over his features. Mom hadn't introduced him to many Thanagarian cultural traditions, but the mask felt right in ways he couldn't explain.

The kids weren't in the Rec room or in the canteen. In Ops, he activated the locator, scanning for the small communicator they'd given Arthur two years ago.

The computer went quiet far longer than made him happy, and the voice on the speaker made him even less happy: "JLU ID 'AJS' not located."

"Activate satellite and widen search."

"JLU ID 'AJS' not located."

Maybe his communicator had been damaged. That had happened once when salt water had seeped in through a bad seal. Rex turned on the monitors to the tank, to every level. Nothing. No Arthur, no little Bat.

The monitor to the trophy room showed something weird. A bad feeling in his gut sent him running for it.

The door to the trophy room was open. In one corner of the room, a weird light shimmered. He approached it cautiously.

Inside the light, he could just make out a corridor, the design from the old Metro Tower. As he peered in, maintaining a careful distance, he saw a teenager walk by at the far end. The kid was wearing Gear's outfit.

"Oh no ... "


Superman had arrived first, which wasn't a surprise, and brought Cassandra with him, which was. Micron called to say he'd be there shortly after he dealt with a small crisis in Paris. Gear was vacationing with the grandkids on Mars colony but offered to listen in via comm. Superman called J'onn and Queen Diana. Merina had called Arrowette and Enigma. Full League call. It had been an age, more.

"We've had a time incident," Lantern explained to each questioning face.

Rex made a fist but with an effort didn't punch the control panel. "He's not answering," he said, when Merina looked at him curiously.

"I'm sure he's fine."

"He is. He's just not speaking to me."

She held in her sigh. "Try again in a little while." John couldn't do anything right now but worry with them. The fear bubbled inside her again and she pushed it back. Fear would do her no good, would make her panic.

If she panicked, Arthur could die.

Superman said to Lantern, "You said you were inside the bubble?"

"Correct."

"The same thing happened to us years ago, when Vandal Savage tried to rewrite World War Two. John had us in a bubble, everyone but Batman. We were the only ones who noticed the changes to the timeline."

"This appears to be a similar phenomenon," said Lantern. He'd brought the Chronos belt into Ops with his ring and had been examining it. "I'll know more when Static arrives. He has been studying temporal mechanics for several years, and I believe he has examined this device."

Superman asked Rex, "Did your dad ever tell you anything about it?"

Rex shook his head. "I don't even know how he knew about it. He just said to go to Clinton's house and take it. Wouldn't say anything else."
"Drat," said Superman; he never was good at swearing properly. "Try contacting him again. He's racked up more time-travel trips than anyone else on the team."

"I'm done," said Flash.

"Report," said Lantern.

"Well, if I remember history class, nothing much has changed. Same people won the same wars. No major shifts of anything."

"That's a relief," said Cassandra brightly. "The kids didn't affect anything major."

Merina caught Batman's glance. Or they died. The panic started to rise again. Rex touched her shoulder and she knew he was thinking the same thing.

Barda made a noise. "I can't find a reference to anything in the back League files. I can't imagine two kids just appeared and no one noticed."

"You don't remember anything?" Batman asked her.

"No," she said, and Superman shook his head. Queen Diana had said she'd thought something sounded familiar, but she couldn't say why.

"If my analysis of the settings is correct," said Lantern, "we may narrow down the time frame. It seems to be set for late 2005 or early 2006."

Barda went back to work on the records as the rest of the stragglers trickled in and had to be caught up on events.

"This is stupid," Rex said to her quietly. "We have the belt, we have the settings. Let's just go and get them."

"We will. As soon as we're positive, we'll go."

"Not 'we,'" said Lantern, still looking at the belt. "None of the legacy members should go or else you risk wiping out your own existence. But yes, we will go. I will take a small team and extract the children. Wonder Woman, Flash, you're with me."

Cassandra said, "I can't," just as the door slid open again and Static said, "They're really not."

"Why not?" asked Flash, looking a little disappointed. Bart had only joined officially a few years ago and had yet to be assigned anything "really meaty" as he put it.

"Because you didn't. I'm assigning this team, GL," Static said.
"You came out of retirement just to pick team members?" Barda said, a teasing smile on his face.

"You could say that. I've been waiting for this particular team since I was sixteen."

Hope bloomed inside Merina. "You were there? What happened to the kids?"

Static looked at her. "I was there, yeah. And a lot hinges on my not telling you much. You're gonna have to trust me."

"Why don't I remember anything?" Superman asked. "Or Diana or Barda? We were outside the bubble. Our memories should reflect the new timeline."

"You weren't there," said Static. "I was, John was, Batman was. A few others, but those two classified everything and buried the records."

"That would explain this," said Barda from her console. "All the League records on that day were deleted, priority codes 001 and 005 confirming."

Static nodded. "They wouldn't risk contaminating the timeline further. I've been working on these," he said, tossing a small device to Rex. "Personal time travel device. Enough juice to carry two people each there and back, with preset arrival and departure settings to make sure no one screws up and accidentally meets up with the Legion again."

A shadow passed over Superman's eyes. Had Merina not been looking his way at the moment, she'd have missed it entirely.

"You've been busy in your retirement," said Rex, still intent on the tiny time machine.

"I get bored, and Gear wanted a challenge. We reverse-engineered the belt a few years ago."

Lantern watched Static carefully. "Because of this mission?"

Static nodded. "The team is going to be you, Batman, Aquawoman, Warhawk, and Micron."

"Warhawk, Micron and I can't go," said Merina. "Kai's right. We're legacies. If we meet up with our parents, we might not be born."

Batman made a noise in his throat but didn't say anything.

"You have to go," Static said. "Because you did." He offered her a small, kindly smile. Static always had been fond of her, of all of them, she remembered. "You'll need to change. No costumes, no names."

"Standard time travel protocol," said Batman.
"Exactly. Use your first initials. Don't use your comms unless you have to; the League frequencies will pick you up. J'onn was away from the team then, so you won't have to worry about psychics."

"Is there anything else we should know?" asked Lantern.

Static shook his head. "Just ... Be careful?" He turned his head to take them all in with the words. Merina thought he glanced at her a little longer than the rest but then she decided she was imagining things.

All right. This would be a simple extraction. Yes. Go in, get the kids, come home.

The door opened again and Micron entered the room. "All right. What's the situation?"

"I'll catch you up," said Static. "But first, you're going to need some new clothes."


As soon as the door of their quarters slid shut, Rex let out a breath. "You know this has 'bad idea' written on it in gigantic runes, right?"

Merina was already facing away from him going through the civilian clothes they kept here. "We'll go. We'll come back. The kids will be fine." She sounded like she was trying to convince herself, and he wondered if she even noticed he was in the room with her.

He pulled off his mask and set it on the bed. "Hey," he said, coming up behind her and placing his arms around her waist. "It's gonna be okay. Arthur's a smart kid. He knows what to do when he's lost. We'll all be home before dinner."

"Yeah," she said, but she wouldn't look at him and she shimmied out of his arms to go back to finding them both appropriate clothes. She threw him a black shirt. "See if that still fits."

Rex started removing his armor. "'Rina, are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She held a dark sweater against her chest before tossing it on the bed. "Shouldn't go with a skirt," she mumbled to herself. "Not sure what the style was that year."

"Only we haven't seen each other in a few days and you've barely said hello."

She continued her rummaging. "We can fool around after we get the kids back."

He chose to pretend that hadn't hurt as much as it did. "I wasn't talking about fooling around." He picked up the shirt, realizing he hadn't worn this old black turtleneck in years.

"You didn't call."
"Huh?" He had the shirt halfway over his head.

"While you were on Galtos. You didn't call."

"We spent most of the time headed to Thanagar and back." The turtleneck fit reasonably well, though it was tighter than he remembered.

"I know. I was just worried. And now I'm worried about Arthur and Robin and it's ... I was worried about you, and you didn't call. I wondered if the Thanagarians blasted you two out of the sky or something and I'd never know." She handed him some dark jeans, but pulled away when he tried to touch her.

"Sorry." The defensiveness bubbled up. "I was kind of busy."

"I know." She held a pair of jeans against herself and sat down on the bed. She closed her eyes. "How's your father doing?"

Rex shrugged. "About how you'd expect." Over the last hour, he'd shoved his own ache into a small corner, to deal with when he had more time. Now was about the living.

She nodded. "He should come stay with us for a while."

"That's what I told him. You can guess what he said."

Merina absently played with her hair, pausing to touch her ears. "All right." She pulled off her uniform while Rex watched appreciatively. Okay, so after they got the kids and came back and made sure everyone was fine, he and Merina were going to spend some time together alone, preferably naked.

Although, considering the way her sweater hugged her chest after she put it on, maybe she could be wearing just that.

She noticed his observation, and responded with a lift of one pretty eyebrow. Later, she promised with a look. "Get your glasses," she said aloud.

"Get yours."


Virgil looked over the team, stuck between present and past. He'd forgotten some details, which made sense considering how long ago it'd been. Funny, that within a two year span of his youth he'd been presented with evidence of how long he was going to live. First, meeting himself older and stronger and wiser, and then meeting the no longer young children of his friends.
He hadn't waited around. That was one thing he prided himself on: having seen the future, he'd lived his life as much as he could regardless. He remembered John, twitchy and uncertain, remembered Batman, stoic and alone.

Not me. Not like that. He realized the others were watching him, waiting, and he berated himself for gathering wool again. Gettin' old, Hawkins. And he was. Pops had just made it to eighty, Sharon to eighty-six, and here he was at a respectable ninety-three.

Everything went off the rails after this. He told himself he wasn't afraid of what happened next.

"You people look like rejects from a 'Matrix' casting call," he said finally. Everyone in black, everyone with dark glasses, yes. He remembered this.

Virgil handed out the little time machines. "They're set to return two hours from now. You can't change them, so don't try."

"Why aren't we returning immediately?" asked Kai-Ro. He wore a dark grey mock turtle under a black jacket.

"No chance of overlap this way," said Virgil, this one lie smooth from years of practice.

"Click once to go back, click twice to come forward. You'll arrive in an alley a few blocks from the Metro Tower. I'd set you down inside the Tower but after the kids arrive, everything will be on high alert. They'll be looking for unauthorized beam-ins. This way no one will see you come. Ideally, no one should see you go."

Batman said, "You don't sound so sure on that."

Eighteen. Terry had been eighteen when Virgil had met him the first time, and Virgil had been just a kid who thought he was cool because he had a few powers. Time rushed inside Virgil's head like wind.

"Just go. Get the kids. Come back. And be careful."

The five of them examined their wrists, where the devices looked like simple watches. One by one, they winked out of sight.

Everything had to start somewhere.

Virgil looked around the room. Everyone was there who was supposed to be there, but then, would any one of them know if someone was missing, was added, was changed? Too many patches to the fabric of reality, and the whole thing just might fall apart.

Virgil said, "Kal, I need you to do me a favor."
"Sure."

"Get on the comm, ring up Atlantis. Tell them we need a doctor." Before anyone could ask him questions he wasn't sure he could answer, he went to the door. "I have to go warm something up."


Bruce felt the Metro Tower materialize around him. He'd requested the direct beam to save time, although a part of him quietly kept track, reminding himself that each use of the transporter cost twenty thousand dollars. He did not allow a smirk to cross his features, remembering the first few wild days on the second Watchtower, when Flash was playing with the controls and beamed himself back and forth to the planet fifteen times before Bruce had threatened to break his arms.

The Atom was on duty in Ops. "They're in the conference room," he said. "Any idea who they are?"

"I'll see," he said, noncommittally.

Two children, no ID, no explanations, found in the corridors. Shayera said they knew his name. He'd been lax, too lax, with his secret. Too many people in the League knew. Too many outside. Waller knew, which meant he had a file at what had been Cadmus, which meant almost anyone could know.

And these children.

He opened the conference room. Shayera sat at the table, a chessboard between herself and a young boy Bruce didn't know. A girl, also unknown, sat at the table kicking her feet, her face lighting up when she saw him.

They were both perhaps eight or nine years old --- the old pain touched his soul --- the girl dark-haired and dark-eyed, the boy blond and blue.

"Who are you?" he asked. "And how do you know my name?"

The door closed behind him.

Shayera stood. "If you've got these two, I've got things to do."

"Do you have to go?" asked the boy.

"It's been fun, kid. Really."

The child took her hand, but didn't hang onto her. "Thanks for playing."

"You're pretty good," she said, a smile at her lips. Later, she would tell Bruce that the child had beaten her twice out of five games, and he would ask her not to discuss it further, and within a month, he would hold Ace as she died and he would forget the game, the child, the future, everything.

"I had a good teacher," said the boy. "Good-bye." He watched her leave and Bruce noted the pain on the child's face when Shayera could no longer see it.

"Tell me what you can," said Bruce. "What year are you from?"

The girl grinned. "Told you he was the one to talk to."

"2083," said the boy.

"You're a long way from home."

"We had an accident," said the boy. "We need to get back."

"I don't have a time machine."

"Green Lantern rings can travel through time," the boy said.

"Why didn't you ask for Green Lantern?"

The girl recited, "'Time travel rule number one. Find Batman.'"

The boy said, "The less we talk to other people, the better."

Bruce watched him as he said, "You talked to Aquaman and Shayera." A smile twitched on the boy's mouth with both names. Interesting.

"We just want to go home," said the girl. "Can you help us?"

Bruce sighed. "Wait here. I'll see what I can do."

"Where are you going?" asked the girl.

"I shouldn't be in the room with you. The more contact we have, the more it endangers the timeline."

"You should stay," she said. "It'll be okay."

Bruce knew better than that. "I'll return if I can."

The girl nodded. "It was ... nice to meet you." Dark hair and dark eyes and her face which spoke of ancestry both Caucasian and Asian. He didn't dare speculate whose child she was going to be.

"Be good," he told her and the boy, because he thought he should, and he locked the door behind him.
There were two techs standing close by. "Watch this door. No one goes in or out without my clearance."

"Yes, sir," said the taller tech. Bruce went down the corridor to where he wouldn't be observed, then touched his ear.

"Batman to Green Lantern. Where are you right now?"


As Static had indicated, they materialized in an alley.

"Everyone is here, everyone is well?" Kai-Ro looked at his team. "We will keep our original plan. A small extraction team will go to the Tower. Micron ... "

"No names," said Batman.

Kai-Ro nodded. "Stick with initials, then. W, with me. M, T, R, remain nearby. Don't talk to anyone. We will rendezvous outside. If anything changes, we will contact you."

"Our communicators won't work," Warhawk said.

"They will if we piggyback on the JL frequencies of this time," said Micron. "Adjust your earpieces."

Aquawoman asked, "Anyone remember the channels?" After a few tries, they found one that worked. Micron shrunk down to the size of a penny. Kai-Ro lifted him to his pocket.

They walked as casually as they could towards the Metro Tower. Micron was a comforting presence in his jacket pocket; he trusted all his teammates with his life, but the others were far too close to this mission and he still did not comprehend why Static had insisted they come.

"This place is so different," said Batman. Not for the first time, Kai-Ro was struck with how much of a change the man exhibited between masked and not. In his costume, he carried the weight of a long legacy. Out of it, he was just another human.

"I like it," said Merina. Kai expected her to take Warhawk's arm, and was surprised when she didn't.

A block from the Tower, they separated. Kai-Ro and Micron continued towards their destination, the others hung back to watch them go from a distance.

It was rarely a good idea to leave Warhawk and Batman alone together on a mission, as they fought like cats in a bag, but Aquawoman was there and was unafraid of stepping in when necessary. They'd be fine for a few minutes.

At the locked door, Kai-Ro looked up into the camera. "Hello. I apologize for the intrusion, but I believe my niece and nephew have wandered into your facility."
A few tense moments passed, and then a voice came over the speaker: "Please step inside."


Robin wasn't very good at chess. She kept picking up her remaining knight and making galloping noises around the board, and Arthur finally gave up. "I don't know why your dad keeps bringing you over to play. You don't play anything good."

"I do so," she said.

"You can't play chess. You have a stupid Super name. You can't even swim right."

"Those are all games you want to play. We never play games that I'm good at. Chess and swimming are dumb anyway."

"They are not!"

"They are so. Besides, you're not the only one who can do cool acrobat things, and I don't even need a fish tank."

Robin climbed up the back of her chair and balanced on her hands. Then, wavering a little, she turned it into a one-handed handstand. She pushed off and jumped, just missing her landing and skidding onto her butt.

"Robin!" Arthur shouted, and went to her, but she waved him away, rubbing her bottom.

"Owie."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Lemme try again."

"I believe you, okay? It's bad enough we're here. It'd be worse if you broke your neck." Robin grinned, and Arthur added, "Your dad would kill me."

She laughed. "Yeah."

"Okay. So what do you want to play?"


For a day that had started out with dragons in England and a mud monster in Japan, Virgil was having a great time. This summer internship thing with the League was everything he'd dreamed.
Okay sure, he and Richie shared a little room in the Metro Tower, and they weren't allowed to go on any missions without adult League members even though the two of them had been doing the superhero thing for years now, and the older Leaguers insisted they take a bunch of classes on unarmed combat, philosophy, stealth and other things that Virgil just didn't care about at all.

But he got to work with the Justice League, and he got paid a little bit that was going directly into his college savings. Pops had insisted on that, even though Batman had already taken Virgil and Richie aside and told them that as long as their grades stayed good, college would be covered.

Perks. He was a superhero, and he was working with the League and there were perks, and one of these was lunch.

"You gonna stare at that all day?" Green Lantern asked him.

"Sorry," said Virgil, and he took a big bite of his chili dog. GL was right, these were the best dogs in Metropolis. "This is good. Thanks."

"No problem," said GL, finishing off his hotdog and chewing on a fry. "Sometimes I like to get away from the canteen food. Flash found this place two days after we started construction on the Metro Tower."

"Figures." Richie was going to be sorry he missed this, though Richie was adjusting to the whole "hanging with the heroes" thing pretty well and probably wouldn't be impressed anyway.

Virgil wanted to remember all of this. This summer, this day, everything, he wanted to stow it away in his heart and take out these good times and wonder at them. This wasn't the life he'd expected to live, and he wanted to savor it.

Maybe GL knew that, because he offered Virgil a rare smile as he sipped his own soda. "You did good this morning against that mud thing."

"Thanks." And he was never ever going to get tired of praise from his hero, not as long as he lived.

GL dropped his smile and touched his ear. "Lantern here. I'm a few blocks from the Tower." He paused. "No, we weren't briefed when we got back. Static. We'll be right there." He moved his hand from his comm. "Sorry, kid, We have to get back."

"Okay." His day wasn't anywhere near getting ruined. He wolfed the last couple of fries and followed GL outside. "Is there another emergency?"

"Batman wouldn't say. Come on."

Weird. Virgil let himself wander behind GL as they walked. He'd only been to Metropolis a few times and he loved the feel of the city, the graceful touch of the skyscrapers against the clouds. He loved Dakota first and forever, but this was a pretty city.
As they reached the Tower, something played at the edge of his hearing, a voice familiar but unplaceable.

GL stopped up short, his head twisting around. Virgil saw a bunch of tourists near the Tower, in clumps and groups. One clump looked like misplaced extras from one of the "Matrix" movies. Also, they weren't taking pictures of the Tower, but arguing with each other, and that was the group GL was now walking towards as though drawn by a magnet.

One turned his head and Virgil's brain prodded him, reminding him of a discharge, an accident, Bruce Wayne gone impossibly old, himself an adult, and ...

"Batman?" he said, at the same moment Green Lantern said, "Rex?"


To be continued