Chapter 3: Time Travel
Robin approached the device, a high-tech seeming treadmill. In addition to the usual speed and inclination adjustment buttons, there was a large, slick display screen in the center, between two handlebars. He reached out to feel the smooth screen, but his fingers were met with a thin layer of dust.
"I thought you said you've used this a lot of times before," Robin said, sunglasses somehow managing to glint with an air of annoyance even in the darkness of the museum.
"Um, yeah, but it's been a little while. It still works of course. I mean this is some advanced stuff!" Wally gave a hard pat to the Cosmic Treadmill, cringing slightly when it let out a loud creaking noise. A conspicuous scoff came from Superboy's direction, and Wally turned to glare at the teen of steel. "Hey, what's the worst that could happen? It either works, or it doesn't!"
"Wally, you just broke the biggest rule of superheroing!" Robin mock gasped.
"What?" Had he done something to break the sidekick code? Wally looked to Robin in confusion.
"You never, I repeat never, ever say, 'what's the worst that could happen?' I can assure you that just because you said that, the worse thing that can happen definitely will happen." Shaking his head solemnly at Wally's idiocy, Robin knew they were doomed.
"Ohmigosh! I can't believe I said that! We're doomed! What should we do now? It's too late to turn back! Oh no! We're all going to die!" Wally's every word dripped with anguish. Tightly gripping his hair, he began pacing at superspeed.
"What are you guys talking about?" Superboy asked gruffly. He was in no mood for playing games.
"Murphy's law. 'Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.' It applies doubly to superheroes. Everyone knows it! I'm so stupid…" Wally's head drooped in defeat.
"So then let's not go," Superboy said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"You obviously don't understand. Wally already said it, so whatever we do now will result in the worst possible outcome. There's nothing we can do about it." Truthfully, Robin was wondering what time travel felt like. It would probably be an awesome sensation.
Deciding that he would ask for a better explanation at another time, Superboy nodded. With that, the three teenaged boys had come to an agreement. Wally pressed a button on the side of the Cosmic Treadmill, and it roared to life. Lights swirled around in the air as a 3D display was activated.
"Whoa, Wally! You can't do that! It's mything!" Robin tried to wrestle control of the system, but Wally was too fast for him, pushing him away with a whirlwind.
"I'm Kid Flash. This is my treadmill, so I get to handle it."
"I though it was Flash's treadmill," commented Superboy. Robin and Wally glared at him, silently telling him to shut up. "Whatever. Wally still knows the most about it out of all of us, so he should be using it. It probably won't even work for someone without superspeed."
"I am the computer genius, though. I bet I could figure out how to make it work."
"I know how it works!" Wally interjected. "You just set the time here." He pressed some areas on the 3D display. "And you input the number of people here. And then I just enter this all in, and it's done!" He slid the data back onto the 2D screen, Robin watching on in interest. He so wanted one of those for his birthday. Suddenly, the super fast boy grabbed the two other teens' arms, and they were jerked away from their secure spots on the museum floor.
Colors swirled around the three boys, and they could almost see past events passing through their peripheral vision, but not quite. It was like the events were just out of their grasp, at a place where they could be perceived but not quite registered.
Robin struggled to breathe as his insides twisted and knotted in the vacuum of space-time, but he finally regained his ability to speak after a few moments. "Do we have to get out manually, or will the treadmill drop us off?" He was currently hanging off of one side of the treadmill, he and Wally gripping each other's wrists; Superboy was on the other side.
Wally looked down at Robin, momentarily taking his eyes off the treadmill's display screen and thinking back to his previous trips through the time stream. Even though Barry was always at the helm, Wally always made a point to pay attention to what was going on, well…usually. "Um." Concentrating extremely hard, he pictured himself at one of their past trips. Abra Kadabra used his tech to kidnap the mayor of Central City and bring him back to the 64th century, so Kid Flash and his partner, Flash, had to travel to the future and save him. "I think we may have to get off manually. This is an earlier model of the Cosmic Treadmill, so it doesn't have some of the features, but it should alert us when we're about to be at the right time."
"What does the alert sound like? Conner and I can listen for it too, that way we'll definitely not miss it."
"That's a good thought, but it's actually just an icon that pops up on the screen, so there's nothing to listen for."
For a moment, Robin stared at Wally, sunglass covered eyes filled with incredulity. Wally stared back, waiting for Robin to respond. "Wally," Robin said, slowly and deliberately, biting his tongue to keep the anger out of his voice, "Shouldn't you be paying attention to the treadmill?"
"What do you mean? I don't have to look at the treadmill to know where to put my feet." Then, understanding hit him, like a boulder crashing down onto the cold, hard ground. He turned towards the display screen, the incessant blinking of a red icon burning into his eyes. "Damn it! Red means we've passed it!" He took a deep breath, feeling the anxiety of his teammates travel up through his arms. "We'll probably be only a few days back."
Wally leaped off of the treadmill, pulling the two other boys with him. There was no force of gravity in the time stream, so they floated towards the side of the tunnel until there was nowhere else to go, and then fell through to the other side.
Feeling moist, dewy grass beneath his body, Robin shot straight up to his feet. He looked around, but he was currently in the middle of an unfamiliar field. It was dark, but street lights lit up buildings on either side of the field. The buildings had a familiarity that tugged at the strings of his memory. Unfortunately, the signs advertised unknown shops, and Dick had a very good memory. Finally, disorientation evaporating, he remembered to look down, spotting his two traveling companions out cold on the ground. Or at least Wally was. Conner's cold blue eyes stared straight up at the boy wonder.
"Um, hi, Conner!" Robin greeted, awkwardly waving his arm.
"I've been lying here for at least an hour. Wally is really exhausted, and I'm not familiar with Central City, so I was waiting for you to wake up." He stood up, lifting Wally with ease and draping him over his shoulder. "If you tell me how to get there, I can fly to Blue Valley right now."
"I'm not sure. There's something off about the shops… Maybe we should figure out what's going on first."
Conner frowned; he just wanted to complete the mission and get back to M'gann as quickly as possible. "The streets are probably deserted because it is late at night. There's nothing to worry about."
"That's not it. It's just that we should have ended up at the Flash Museum, just a week earlier, but we're in the middle of a random field. And those buildings look like the ones nearby the museum." He had his suspicions, but he did not want to voice them outright unless Superboy drew similar ones.
"So who put this field where the Flash museum should be?"
Robin sighed; it was going to be a long night…