"The 1960s beach scene," Nate explained, still sitting where Sara had left him at the bar beside Zari, "was the inspiration of tons of iconic movies, shows, and songs that are still popular to this day. Even though Hawaiian and Polynesian culture is the true origin of surfing and a lot of the things that come with it, California still played a role in promoting the surf culture we know, including the coastline in and around Los Angeles. A lot of the places in that area are still super famous for their beaches in the present, like Malibu, Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, Venice Beach…um, where's Snart?" He leaned over to notice that Leonard was no longer sitting with them. "Mick, where did he go?"
Mick sipped his beer without looking at Nate. "He'll be back."
"He'll be back?" Nate repeated confusedly. "What does that mean?"
Zari turned around in her seat, looking for Leonard. "Oh, I see him. Back wall."
Sure enough, Snart was leaning against the back wall in the most dimly lit part of the bar. Near him was a woman who had just come in from the beach. They appeared to be in a conversation, but she seemed to be doing most of the talking by far. As she turned to leave, she tripped over a chair that had been pulled out too far from its table. Snart smoothly caught her fall, reaching his fingers very subtly into the side pocket of the purse on her arm as he did. Once she was out of the room, he slunk swiftly back to the bar. "She said she saw something strange in the water this morning," he said, keeping his voice low enough for the bartender a few feet away to remain oblivious. "It was at a private beach not far from here. These can get us in." He reached into his pocket and slid a membership card and key toward Zari.
Zari and Nate stared at the stolen items, then at Snart. Zari spoke first, "Dude, what was that?"
"Doing my job," Leonard replied. "Sara said to listen around for any unusual reports. I listened around. Personally, I'd prefer to case the place more, but at least we've got one option to check out."
"Snart," Nate said, his eyes wide, "are you crazy? What are you doing?"
"Like I said, my job. She's on her way to join her friends back near the water. I'd give it a solid twenty minutes before she realizes anything's missing, and then another ten while she searches the sand. So," he turned to look at his newest teammates, "you guys hear anything while I was over there?"
Nate frowned. "Dude, you can't just go off alone like that on your first mission."
Leonard raised an eyebrow. "Nathaniel, this is far from my first mission."
"Well, sure, not technically," Nate admitted, "but out of the four of us, you are the one with the least amount of time on the Waverider."
"I've been on it longer than any of you," Mick pointed out, "and I think Snart can make his own decisions."
"You're biased," Nate said. He looked to Zari for support. "You're on my side, right?"
"I don't know," Zari admitted, "maybe." She turned to look at Leonard. "What did that woman say about the water?"
"Not much," he replied. "Just that there's something very wrong with the currents today in a way she's never seen before."
"Okay." She picked up the membership card and key and tucked them into the pocket of her shorts. "That does sound like the potential effects of a rift." She turned back to Nate. "What's your deal? Suddenly in a killjoy mood?"
"No," Nate immediately denied. "I'm not a killjoy. I'm just saying we need to use teamwork. Especially those of us with less experience."
"I know all about teamwork, Nathaniel," Snart drawled. "I also know what I'm doing."
"He does," Mick grunted.
"Again, Mick, you're biased," Nate reiterated.
"Doesn't mean I'm wrong," Mick replied, taking another sip of his beer.
"All I'm saying is," Nate said, focusing again on Snart, "it's probably best if you hang back and watch us just this once. Then, maybe you can take charge next mission. But for now, just chill."
Leonard narrowed his eyes. "Chill?"
"Well…yeah. Think of it as a trial run. Everyone struggles a little with their first few missions. I sure did. This is your chance to take your time and ease yourself back into the insanity of the Legends slowly, you know?" He paused, then added with a reassuring smile, "That doesn't mean it was a bad lead, though. We can totally check out that private beach. Just take it easy for now. That's all."
Leonard said nothing at first. He glanced over his shoulder, then warned, "Trouble at five o'clock."
Nate and Zari looked and saw a group of tough-looking young men entering the bar, none of whom looked particularly happy. "What are they, some kind of surfer gang?" Zari asked.
As if in answer to her question, one of the men addressed another man sitting across the room. "I thought we told you this was our beach," he sneered.
The other man stood up, glaring back at him as he stepped closer. "Can't own the ocean," he retorted. "We go where the waves take us."
"Then let them take you back to Ventura," the first man replied. "This isn't your territory. It's ours."
Zari rolled her eyes and groaned, "Ugh, you've got to be kidding me."
The two men, now both standing near the center of the room, looked at her, shocked. "What did you say?" the first asked.
She pointed at him, then the other man. "Do you have any idea how cheesy you guys sound? Just grab yourselves a camera and you'll have a dumb B-movie ready to go."
"Hey," the second man said, "this is just between us. We don't need chicks getting involved."
Zari stood up and took a step toward them. "Chicks?" she asked, not remotely intimidated by them. "Wow. Is that what you call all women, or just the ones who aren't impressed by you?"
A chorus of varied reactions echoed through the bar. Nate stood up and joined her. "Sick burn, Z," he said. "Now, why don't you guys just move along? I don't think any of us need any trouble right now."
"This is our turf, dude," the first surfer said. "The only ones causing trouble are the ones who don't belong here. And if you stand in our way, that includes you too."
"What?" Nate said with an amused chuckle. "Aren't you surfers supposed to be all about good vibes and stuff?"
"We are," the second surfer replied. "They're not." He pointed angrily at his rival. "You're getting your bad vibes all over this place, man."
Zari shook her head. "And it just got cheesier."
Nate stepped in between the two men, holding out his hands in a gesture to stop them. "Let's all just breathe, guys. There's plenty of ocean for…ow!"
Someone from one of the rival gangs had thrown a can of something at the leader on Nate's opposite side. It hit Nate instead. Instinctively, his body turned to steel as a defense mechanism. For a moment, everyone in the bar stared at him, shocked. Then, all of a sudden, chaos broke loose. The two rival gangs fought each other. Uninvolved onlookers either ran out or picked sides and joined in. Members of both gangs targeted Nate, who found himself in the middle of it all. Zari flung his attackers away with a gust of wind, but soon found herself separated from him by the crowd, unable to repeat her act of assistance. Nate pushed his steel head out of the scuffle to look at Leonard and Mick, who were among the very few people not fighting.
"Guys!" he called out to them. "Help me out!"
Leonard crossed his arms. "What was it you wanted me to do again?" he asked sarcastically. "Hang back and watch? 'Chill'?"
"Okay, okay!" Nate conceded, pulling two men away from each other as he dodged a hit. "I take it back! Go ahead and do whatever you do!"
Mick leaned toward Leonard. "Are you going in?" he asked.
"Wouldn't miss it," he said with a smirk. "I'll go right."
"I'll go left," Mick said.
The two rogues stood up, left their seats, and dove into the fight.
"What are we looking for, exactly?" Charlie asked, following Sara through the beach crowds. "I mean, I know it's a rift, but what does it look like?"
"That's part of the mystery," said Nora, walking beside her.
"I just hope we find it soon," Sara said. "We don't have time to waste."
Charlie caught up to Sara and stood in her way. "About that," she said, "why are you all business today? Is there a time limit on closing these things or something? It's hardly fair to leave your team in the dark, mate."
"It's not that," Sara replied. "We just have a lot of them to get through." She peered over Charlie's shoulder. "Looks like there's a crowd by that volleyball net. Might be worth checking out."
She began walking again, with Nora and Charlie beside her. As they made their way to the volleyball net, Charlie guessed, "It's about that Snart bloke, isn't it?"
"What do you mean?" Sara asked, still looking straight forward at her destination.
"You think we made a mess of time when we ripped him out," she elaborated, "and you want to fix it before your ex figures out what we did."
"Bingo," Nora said, glancing at Sara. "Hit the nail on the head, Charlie."
"Maybe," Sara replied, only willing to partially admit it, "but that shouldn't matter right now. Right now, our goal is to fix 1966."
"I just think you're overreacting," Charlie continued. "Ava could hardly be upset at you for saving your friend's life. She's a stickler, sure, but not a heartless monster."
"Charlie," Sara said, holding up a hand in front of her, "let me worry about Director Sharpe. You just need to focus on getting information about our rift."
"All right, Captain, I hear you," she said, backing off.
The trio reached the crowd at the net. In its center was a young man in swim trunks. He was drawing a large shape in the sand with his finger. He finished and pointed at it. "It looked just like this," he explained to those surrounding him.
Sara, Nora, and Charlie looked down at the shape. Sara recognized it immediately. It was a footprint, and not just any footprint. It belonged to a very large reptile that definitely did not belong in 1966. "What looked just like this?" Sara asked, pushing her way to the front of the crowd.
"Something I saw by the rocks up the coast," the young man replied. "There were a ton of prints shaped just like it. It's like it's straight out of a monster movie or something."
"You're making it up, dude," someone in the crowd interjected. "Nothing leaves prints that big."
"It's real!" the young man exclaimed. "I swear! I'd have taken a picture if I'd had my camera."
Nora joined Sara at the front of the scene. "Where did you say you saw it?" she asked. "By the rocks?"
The young man pointed up the coastline. "Yeah, that way."
"But you didn't see what made the prints?" Sara asked.
He shook his head. "Nah, just what it left behind. But there's definitely something gnarly over there."
Sara backed out of the crowd, pulling Charlie and Nora aside with her. "Looks like we've found our anachronism," she said, quietly enough that only the two other Legends could hear her. "We've got a T-Rex."
"I love the 60s!" Mick bellowed as he knocked a bar patron to the floor. He nudged Leonard, who had just reached him after fighting off one of Nate's attackers. "Takes you back, doesn't it?"
Leonard swung his fist at a man attempting to throw a beer bottle at Mick. "Yeah. Still a couple of things missing, though."
Mick nodded as he threw someone roughly aside. "We're missing an assassin and a soundtrack. I can do something about one of those things." He ducked and shoved his way toward the jukebox and hit the necessary buttons to start playing another Beach Boys tune.
Nate paused his fighting for a second, listening to the song's vocal intro. "'I Get Around'? That's a fun one!"
Zari backed up against him in a defensive position. "What is with you and old surf rock? This isn't even from your generation."
"It's catchy and musically innovative for the time!" he insisted. "Whoa, Z, look out!"
With the music blasting, the fight continued. Leonard threw a man across a table, then immediately spun around to block another from hitting him. He suddenly heard Sara's voice in his comms. "Snart," she said, "what's your status?"
He ran to the bar, leaped over it, and ducked behind it, sitting on the floor where he couldn't be seen by the rest of the fight's participants. The bartender had long since run back into the kitchen. "Sara," he drawled calmly, "to what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Just checking in on…wait, what's going on?"
"What do you mean?" he asked, glancing over his shoulder as a bottle loudly crashed against the wall nearest to him.
"It sounds crazy over there," Sara's voice said. "You didn't get into a bar fight, did you?"
"You really think I'd do that without you?"
Sara fell silent for a moment, listening to the chaotic background sounds of crashes, thuds, yells, and upbeat music. "Leonard," she finally said, "did I or did I not say to keep a low profile?"
"Hey, your metal friend is the one who got us into this. And a couple of rival surf gangs."
"Oh…my…I was literally gone for five minutes."
"I think it was slightly more than that, just to be fair." He peeked over the top of the bar, noted that the fighting was still just as intense, and ducked back under it. "What do you need?"
"I need my team not to get in trouble the second I turn my back."
"A bit too late for that. But why did you call? What do you need us to do?"
"We found an anachronism," she answered. "Dinosaur tracks in the rocky part of the beach." She paused, then continued, "I was going to ask you to bring the bar crew over to meet us there for backup, but honestly, right now I just need you to get yourselves out of there in one piece. Can you do that?"
"Sara," he replied, "I've gotten myself out of much worse situations in one piece. I've got this." He thought for a second, then added, "Did you just say dinosaur tracks?"
"Yep. A T-Rex. Just…get out of there, okay? Meet us if you can. Signing off." She hung up.
Leonard raised his eyes just above the bar, scanning the scene. "On my way, Sara," he muttered. He jumped back over the bar to locate Nate, Zari, and Mick and, hopefully, pull them out of the fight in time to help their captain.
"That looks like a T-Rex all right," Nora said, observing the large footprint in the sand before them. There were rocky cliffs and tide pools scattered throughout this part of the shore, but still enough sand to mark several matching tracks. "Claws and everything."
Charlie lowered her sunglasses down her nose and squatted down to look closer. "Sure is, mate." She looked up at Sara. "And how exactly do we catch a T-Rex, Captain? You ever run into one before?"
"Yeah," Sara replied, "but that was when we had Amaya. You can't replicate the powers of her totem, can you?"
"Nope," Charlie said, standing up, "just appearances."
"Then that option's out," Sara said. She walked around the giant footprint, thinking. "There's got to be a way to…Ray's shrink ray!" she exclaimed, stopping her pacing. "If we can find the T-Rex, Ray can shrink it down to a manageable size."
"Brilliant," Charlie grinned. She noted the serious look on Sara's face. "Come on, mate, you've got to admit shrinking dinosaurs is pretty epic stuff."
"It'll be a lot more epic once we get our Jurassic guest back when and where it belongs," Sara replied, "and close the rift, which we still haven't found."
"Hey, just relax, okay?" Nora suggested. "We've handled worse. We've got this. I'll call Ray." She spoke into her comms, "Babe, have you got a second? We could really use a shrink ray…Yes, I know that's not its actual name…Okay, great! Thanks!" She turned to her teammates again. "He's on his way, and he's done testing the rift-closing thing, or whatever it's called."
"Perfect," Charlie said. "We can just follow the tracks, shrink the T-Rex, then locate the rift and shut it down. Not that the captain's in a fun mood," she threw a sideways glance at Sara, "but I noticed a pier with some carnival rides on the map. It's just a bit south of here. Maybe once we solve this puzzle, we can give it a go."
Sara bent down, studying the footprint. "Charlie, I'm not even going to think about that until we have this T-Rex in custody."
"Fair enough," the shapeshifter said with a shrug.
"I'm sharing my location with Ray," Nora said, pressing a button on her comms. "We should follow the tracks. He can catch up."
"Agreed," said Sara, standing back up.
Although the scattered rocks and ebbing tide pools provided many interruptions to the trail of dinosaur tracks, there was still enough of a pattern in the sand for the three Legends to follow. After a while, the tracks veered off to the side, away from the water. They led to a cliff with a middle section that had been eroded by the waves into the shape of a cave. The prints stopped there and never came back out.
The trio looked at each other uncomfortably. "Draw straws?" Charlie suggested.
Nora tiptoed two steps closer to the mouth of the cave. "I…I'll go," she declared nervously.
"Nora, no," Sara argued. "That thing could eat you alive."
"Not if I put it to sleep with my magic first," Nora replied. "I'm our best bet right now. I can put a spell on it that lasts until Ray shows up."
Sara placed her hand on Nora's shoulder. "I'm going with you. I'm not sending one of my Legends in there alone."
"Oh bollocks," Charlie said, stepping forward to join them. "I can't very well leave you two alone with a T-Rex, now, can I?" She looked up at the dark space in the cliff's opening. "When we get out alive," she said, "one of you'd better buy me a drink."
The three of them crept inside as silently as they could. Although the sunlight was visible through the entrance, there were enough overlapping shadows to give the cave an eerie, dark feeling. At first, none of them could see any sign of a dinosaur. Then, they heard an ominous snarl. They carefully took one more step forward together and saw the outline of an extremely large reptile. It moved its head back and forth, almost as if searching for something in the deep reaches of the cave. Luckily, it didn't see them. Nora made eye contact with each of her companions before raising her hands and beginning to whisper a spell.
Sara's comms buzzed. "You there, love?" Constantine's voice asked. She didn't respond, too focused on not attracting the T-Rex's attention. He tried again, "Sara? Captain Lance? You didn't get eaten by some ogre, did you?"
"Not now, John," she whispered through clenched teeth, eyes still focused on the oblivious dinosaur.
"Not now? I thought you'd be a little happier to hear that we've found the anachronism that the rift let in."
Sara balked. "You…found the anachronism?" she whispered.
"Yeah. It was up in the hills. Big old dinosaur egg. Mona says it looks like it belongs to a T-Rex. Fancy that! Bet its mother's looking all over for it. Good thing she didn't follow it out or that girl would be really angry."
Sara stared up at the ginormous creature above her. "Its…mother?" she whispered. "Um, John?"
"What, love?"
"You might have spoken too soon."
"Shh!" Nora hissed. "I have to focus. I've never done this on a dinosaur before." She closed her eyes and began reciting her spell softly again.
"Don't tell me this egg's mum made it through," John's voice said worriedly.
"Shh," Sara whispered, even more quietly than before. "Later."
A seagull picked that exact moment to fly into the cave and nearly bump into one of the jagged edges of its shadowy wall, letting out a loud, surprised squawk. The T-Rex turned around, looking for the source of the sound. While the seagull was lucky enough to be perched in a dark, practically invisible corner, the three Legends standing just a few feet from the dinosaur were not.
"Oh crap," Sara said. "Run!"
A/N: And the 1966/T-Rex mission continues! I know Nate's not usually a controlling person and I hope he doesn't come across too much like one. I think he's just still getting used to working with Snart and figuring out how to get along with him, so there's a little bit of hesitance to let him take charge of the situation this early on. More on that and the last part of the mission in the next chapter...
