Post by lawrenceliberty on Jun 9, 2017 18:10:51 GMT
Booster Gold and Superwoman: The Many Deaths of Superman!
Booster Gold and Superwoman try to solve the mystery of who is killing alternate timeline versions of Superman!
1
Superman dodged a barrage of blistering energy beams with his usual skill; however, the Man of Steel was tiring and that was unheard of for someone with his kind of stamina.
He frowned as one of the red beams sliced across his shoulder and left a ugly gash.
“I felt that! That’s not surprising considering his level of power but it is a bit disconcerting!” he thought.
Before he could do more than advance slightly through space he was caught in a massive red burst that ripped him apart!
At that moment, Kristin Wells Kent moaned in her sleep and abruptly sat up in her bed as her nightmare ended and she caught her breath.
The perky redhead sighed as she recognized the familiar décor of her bedroom within the suburban home she and her absent husband Clark shared.
“Whew! That was some dream! I’ll be glad when Clark gets back from that mission with the other Justice Leaguers. Being alone must be bad for my rest or at least being lonely is bad for my rest!” she thought.
She could have felt very alone since she was in fact a visitor from another time. Her studies of the twentieth century era had drawn her back in time to investigate certain unsolved mysteries involving Superman and his allies. She had done far more than resolve the riddles. She had met and fallen in love with the legendary hero and in time the two had married. During the same period, she had not only adopted the costumed role of Superwoman but the artificial powers advanced technology had given her had been boosted by a physical transformation into a genuine Kryptonian!
She frowned as the particularly vivid nightmare returned to her thoughts with a strange persistence. Something was wrong. She was used to working long hours and being on her own. She thrived on that kind of routine and had done so ever since her days as a graduate student in the future era from which she originated.
Later that night she groaned and wiped beads of perspiration from her brow as she relived the nightmare again.
She stood up and grabbed her robe from off of a nearby chair. After slipping into it and pushing her bare feet into a pair pink fuzzy slippers, she hurried to a concealed room within the basement.
The ex-historian ignored the red and blue tights, hood, and cape the comprised the costume she wore when she was in her Superwoman guise. The time traveler was not interested in fashion this night. She reached into a nearby cabinet behind the garment and removed an opal amulet.
The polished gemstone glistened in the night and as she touched its smooth surface Kristin shuddered! Once more she saw her husband Clark “Superman” Kent die in a burst of red energy.
“That was not a nightmare. That was a precognitive vision!” she said with a gasp.
Time travel in and of itself was a catalyst for more than one unusual physical or mental change and Kristin knew that the opal amulet’s time field projection power gave her limited precognition.
Being in contact with the gem itself renewed her certainty that her nightmare was not a mere phantasm of the sleeping mind but was a glimpse into a very possible future!
She shed the robe and the nightgown beneath it and kicked off the slippers. She donned her Superwoman costume and slipped the opal amulet into its proper place on the colorful outfit. As the redhead drew her blue hood up and over her head, she prayed silently that she could change the outcome of the nightmare and keep Clark safe and sound!
“He hates for anyone to try to protect him. He is the most selfless man I’ve ever known but I won’t let him die if I can do anything to keep him safe!”
She stopped and looked in on the sleeping Jasma and smiled briefly.
She and Clark were raising his late cousin’s daughter and the little girl was precious to her in a way that she had never imagined could be possible before they became a family.
“I know Gerda will take care of her but I still hate to leave her!” she thought.
As the morning sun rose over the suburban street, a red and blue blur flew out of the Kent home at super speed and made its way toward the city of Metropolis.
“I know I can’t get in touch with Clark while the team is away in this manner but I’ll feel better doing something. Patrolling his city will at least help me feel useful while I try to make sense of that vision!” she thought.
Later that day in WGBS studios the sultry Lana Lang sat across from a handsome blond man in a blue and hold costume.
“Since you arrived here you not only brought down the criminal organization known as the 1000 but you defeated their agents Shockwave, Minddancer, and Blackguard. In doing so you exposed the respected Senator Ballard as the Director of the entire group. All of this came after you rescued Princess Portia from Kingslayer in front of a global audience! How do you follow so much success?” asked the lovely redhead.
Booster Gold (Michael Carter) smiled broadly and said, “Easy, Lana! I do something even more sensational! And speaking of sensational, I think your viewers will find Goldies-the delicious little golden sponge cake with the Boosterrific taste- equally wonderful! Look for them in stores everywhere!”
Lana said, “Certainly. We’ll have more with Booster Gold after the break!”
As the station switched to a commercial in which Booster Gold promoted the Booster Gold action figure, Lana said, “Did you just slip a commercial plug into an interview?”
Booster took her hand and patted it gently.
“Yeah, but you don’t need to thank me. After all that hard news stuff that came earlier in the show, I know your viewers could use something light and fun. That is why you wear such short skirts, right? All dull news kills the ratings!” he said.
He winked at Lana and she sputtered in a frustration before resuming a placid smile and continuing the interview.
“Mr. Gold, is it true you and British heroine Godiva are romantically involved?” she asked.
Booster shook his head and said, “We’re just good friends!”
“What about French heroine Fleur-De-Lis? You were spotted with her.”
“Again, just promoting international relations!” said Booster.
After the interviewed ended, Booster rushed off set to meet his new publicist former journalist Megan O’Dell.
“So, how did I do? I think Lana may have the heat for me!” he said to the lovely brunette.
“Just fine but I think you meant to say Lana has the hots for you!” she said as they walked toward the elevator.
As it opened and they walked inside, Booster noticed some of the other people who were already inside. He frowned as his special goggles enabled him to detect something unique about one perky redhead.
“She’s glowing with chronal energy. That means she is or has been a time traveler like me!” he thought.
“Excuse me, Megan, but duty calls!” he said as he followed the redhead off the elevator as it stopped on a lower floor!
Megan sighed and thought, “I thought after I quit journalism and stopped doing all the Blue Devil stories that my life would become normal. I guess that’s not going to be the case with a guy like Booster Gold as a client!”
Booster was much more than a time traveler or even the so-called corporate crusader the media called him. He had been a disgraced college athlete in the 25th century who made use of his subsequent job at the Space Museum to gain two vital things: data about 20th century super heroes and stock market values and more importantly the equipment he planned to use to make himself a super hero in the twentieth century. He journeyed to the 1980’s and used the gear and his own considerable athletic prowess to earn the admiration of millions and secure lucrative endorsement deals.
This was merely his public persona. He had also accepted an offer from a man who had become equally famous as a scholar and hero devoted to the mysteries of time itself: Rip Hunter.
Upon first meeting Hunter, Booster had been offered a role as a kind of time cop.
As Hunter had explained, “I used to explore time with a select team of allies but recently my life changed in two ways! I got married and I faced a corrupt counterpart called the Master of Time who sought to use some advanced technology that allowed the user to do more than time travel in a straight line to past or future. This device enabled the user to veer off sideways in time and in doing so enter alternate or divergent timelines! In such lines a traveler may literally interact with versions of himself as I did!”
Rip had revealed that he now sought to become more of a scholar and less of a man of action. He needed an agent to do the more active work for him and he felt Booster would be perfect for the task for two reasons!
“My sunny disposition and winning smile?” quipped Booster.
“You know about time travel and your image as a super hero for hire is a perfect cover for the fact that I want you to fix things that go wrong in time. Because most people and history itself will see you as a standard hero with a bit of a shallow manner no one will strike at you to curtail the time patrolling I want you to do!” Rip had explained.
Now, Booster Gold posed as (and relished being) a super hero superstar while secretly using his courage and wit to stop others from changing time itself.
Rip had altered much of Booster’s gear so that it acquired functions to help him with his time travel role. The goggles or visor that always allowed him to see on various levels of light and scale now also enabled him to detect another time traveler.
He started to follow the redhead when she whirled around and said, “What? I’m not interested in an autograph or in being your latest conquest!”
Booster shrugged and said, “Don’t sell yourself short! We have time to get to know each other. I know since I can tell you know a bit about time travel!”
She hesitated for a moment. She was ready to brush off the brash hero but something in his demeanor or something unspoken beneath his banter made her feel like she could not only trust him but she could relate to him in some manner.
“Maybe this is the opal again but I feel like I am supposed to work with him! The longer I’m with him the more I feel it!” thought Kristin Wells Kent.
She had resumed her civilian identity after patrolling the city and struggling to figure out how to help her husband,
Now she looked up at Booster Gold and nodded firmly. She was going to trust him.
“We do need to talk. You are right about me. I come from the future and I need your help!” she said.
2
Superwoman could not really explain why she felt that she could trust the rather glib Booster Gold but upon closer contact with him, she could readily admit that there was more to him than the rather shallow type his public persona depicted.
She also wondered again if something about the precognitive glimpses into the future the opal amulet stimulated somehow confirmed that she was meant to become friends with the Man of Gold!
He certainly was personable and surprisingly astute. He was brighter than many of her more advanced students in the history of twentieth century earth course she had taught in her normal time. He really knew a lot about the heroes of this era with the normal gaps that the passage of time between the current era and his own created.
“Yeah, I took every class I could fit in at Metropolis University about super heroes and what the professors called “super hero society” I studied hard because even then I saw that kind of data as my key to making a better future or maybe I should say a brighter past for myself!” he said as he led her into a spacious office in the heart of the city.
“Your company is impressive. You’ve really put together quite an organization in a short time!” she said as she walked past a row of busy clerks and computer terminals.
She now wore the red and blue costume of her Superwoman identity, having switched into it at super speed after they left the WGBS studio building. It was clear that if she was going to trust Gold at all she would need to be as open as possible with her own secrets. After all she knew that Booster was destined to be famous as a hero and for all his failings or quirks nothing corrupt had been recorded about him in history as she knew it.
Booster smiled but said nothing until he had closed the door of his private office behind them and been greeted by a hovering little robotic machine.
“Skeets, meet Superwoman. S.W., this is my loyal aide Skeets. He is the man to help you with your problems!” said Booster.
Skeets replied in a metallic chirp.
“Thank you, sir. I shall endeavor to try. This is a real pleasure!” he said.
Superwoman smiled and said, “Thanks. It is nice to meet you too. As I told Booster, I have been having visions or nightmares that show the death of Superman. I’m afraid these phantasms are glimpses of a real future! I want to stop it from happening!”
Booster added, “We’re going to help her. Our pal Rip Hunter wired up Skeets and my own costume so that we can travel through time itself with a good degree of accuracy and we don’t need a machine!”
Skeets said, “My circuits have already detected an anomaly surrounding Superman’s personal timeline. You know how time may diverge like the forks of a river and each separate branch has its own subtle differences in terms of how history plays out. A plane crash may kill a man in one timeline while the same individual may never take that deadly trip in another divergent one. Someone is hunting and killing Superman in various alternate timelines that diverge from this main one. I fear you’ve somehow connected to them and thus what you’ve actually witnessed were real events in alternate timelines!”
Booster said, “And this killer will be coming for Superman here eventually!”
Superwoman said, “Can you take me to…?”
Before she could finish her sentence, Booster had scooped her up in his arms and the trio had materialized in a cornfield near a rural community.
“I figured you’d want to find this time jumping goon so I took the liberty of making the leap to where we could get the goods on him!” said Booster as he released the startled heroine.
She said, “You are fast. This is Smallville. Superman grew up here!”
Booster said, “Yeah, I know. He made this big cake for the citizens before he left and the Museum where I worked had a hunk or two under glass!”
Skeets said, “Booster, my circuits suggest the killer or at least someone from another era is rapidly approaching our location!”
At that moment a red and blue blur slammed into the ground in front of them and stood up as the super swift motion ended and the blur resolved into a humanoid figure in a slightly altered Superman costume! His skin was cracked and deathly chalky pale.
“Bizarro? I’ve heard of this clown!” said Booster.
Beams of ice shot from the scowling creature’s eyes and almost sliced through Booster’s chest but he twisted aside in time to dodge them.
“I will kill you two and then find the young Kal-El and end his life!” he said.
Superwoman started forward but she was caught by a backhanded blow that sent her reeling to the mud.
Bizarro grinned maniacally and said, “I believe killing you will be a lot of fun!”
Booster said, “Not for us!”
He aimed his gloves and blasted at the imperfect duplicate of Superman but the “Booster shots” failed to do more than slow him down.
Skeets said, “Booster, this version of Bizarro seems more malevolent and more intelligent than the norm! He also is more than capable of killing you both!”
Booster said, “Some cheerleader you are!”
He punched Bizarro with all of his own considerable might and a few chalky fragments broke off the monster’s chin but he brought both fists down and almost shattered Booster’s hastily created force field!
Superwoman tackled Bizarro and brought him down to the ground. She started to pummel him with a flurry of super swift blows. She was certainly as strong as he was and she was determined to save her husband from the creature’s rampage through timelines!
She screamed in pain as Bizarro froze her face with a burst of ice vision.
She clawed the dense ice away from her mouth and eyes as he punched her again and again.
Booster dived between them and expanded his force field so it shoved the grinning monster off of the struggling heroine.
Skeets said, “Booster, I detect an odd detail Look at him with enhanced scanning capabilities!”
Booster helped Superwoman to her feet and adjusted his own visor until the microscopic range enabled him to see faint traces of blue powder across the monster’s brow.
“Does he have some kind of funky Kryptonian dandruff?” he asked.
Superwoman shook her head and said, “It’s Blue Kryptonite. Normally, it is fatal to Bizarros but in such a minute format I think it is serving a different purpose. It is allowing someone else to control him! That’s why he doesn’t talk or act like a normal Bizarro if there is such a thing!”
She knew that on occasion various super criminals had used grains of Green Kryptonite in their weapons or their magic spells or potions to make their concoctions or creations capable of hurting the normally invulnerable Superman!
She ducked under the creature’s outstretched arms and used her amulet to briefly achieve discorporealization. She reached through Bizarro’s brow and swiftly solidified and then removed a small pebble of Blue Kryptonite from just under his chalky skin.
He roared with pain and then blinked in surprise.
“Me feel so bad. Me want to smile!” he said.
Booster said, “And this is an improvement? He talks like some of the goons from my football days!”
Superwoman touched the altered creature and spoke softly and soothingly.
“Someone put that blue rock in your brain and somehow used it to make you vulnerable to mind control. Who did it? Can you take us to him?”
Bizarro grinned and said, “Me know!”
He reached beneath his flowing red cape and removed what appeared to be an oversized metal coil like the kind used to wind up various toys.
“Uh oh! I bet I know who put his mind control device in the form of a toy! This guy is well-known in Superman studies! The Toyman!” said Booster.
At that moment a weirdly costumed figure capered into view from within the cornfield. He wore a black and gold costume with a cowl and mask that resembled a jester’s motley garb.
“At your service. Now let the wild rumpus begin!” he shrieked.
“That’s not the Toyman from my holo studies! He was a creepy old man!” said Booster as a razor sharp yo yo sliced near his head.
Superwoman said, “This Toyman is not the original. In fact I think he died a while back but this version comes from an alternate timeline!”
Toyman giggled and said, “Well put, you luscious Action Figure! I was sent through time to kill Superman before he ever grew up! I brought this oaf and used my inventions and a little Blue K. powder to make him a remote control killer!”
BIzarro said, “Superman am my bestest enemy. Me hate him to life!”
He slapped Toyman at super speed and the grinning villain collapsed.
“Whoa! I didn’t even see him move!” sputtered Booster.
Superwoman said, “He is not dead but I think he’ll be out for a long time!”
Bizarro looked confused and started to speak when both Bizarro and Toyman vanished!
“They’ve been returned to their proper times! I can confirm that!” Skeets said.
Booster said, “Look, I don’t think the Toyman came up with this scheme on his own. Besides, Bizarro didn’t have heat vision or death rays like you saw hit Superman in your vision. I think there must be more than one time tossed killer at work here!”
Superwoman said, “I agree. We’ve thwarted an attempt on Superman’s life in his past. I think we may find similar threats in his present and future!”
Skeets said, “I have locked on to another agent who has been displaced in time and space. I shall take us to him now!”
They vanished as Booster caught one last glimpse of Smallville.
“This would be a nice place to film a TV series!” he thought.
3
The time-tossed trio materialized on top of the roof of the Daily Planet building.
“We are in the year 1975 on Feburary 1,” said Skeets. “I do not detect Superman although he certainly had begun his career in the city by then!”
They turned at the sound of a metallic clang only to find that they now faced some weirdly costumed figures.
Booster said, “Who are those farout freaks? That was the right slang for the era, right, Skeets?”
Skeets said, “I detect chronal energy but also the energy of an alternate Earth! These beings have come from far away!”
The oldest man wore a solid black outfit that consisted of a turtleneck and slacks; however, his clothing was of far less interest than a metallic device that covered his torso.
He was bald but he wore a full reddish beard.
Next to him stood a beautiful woman in a brief red and white mini-dress and thigh -high high- heeled boots. She looked very familiar to Superwoman from somewhere.
A gleaming metal man stood protectively in front of a prone figure who reclined on the rooftop below a flickering wrath who glowed and hovered in thin air.
“You creeps better stay back! I don’t care if you’re Ultraman’s girlfriend, best pal, and robot dog. You ain’t going hurt anyone while the Doom Brigade is around!” said the metal man. His greenish hued metal face was molded into a permanent inhuman smile and his metallic tone was emotionless but his diction and his body language conveyed menace.
“Automaton! Wait on the Baron!” cautioned the lovely woman. She spoke with a French accent and she seemed to have maternal feelings for her monstrous allies.
The metal being said, “Don’t get your panties in a bunch, Laurie! We can all drive and shave and date girls and everything like big boys! ‘Course, the Baron don’t shave that often!”
The glowing wraith detached itself from the prone man and shot forward at a blinding speed.
Superwoman was fast enough to follow its flight path and she flew into the air to block it.
The energy being struck her and she gasped with pain. There was something about its particular radiation that hurt her!
She gasped as the gleaming figure wrapped itself around her body and began to squeeze ever tighter. The white energy changed to a brilliant green!
“That thing is like the syntho-spine controlled by Amalek but that body on the ground sure isn’t the so-called Kryptonite Killer!” she thought as she twisted and struggled to resist the pressure that crushed her hips. She realized that physical pain was all she felt. In spite of its green color the energy being was not radiating Green Kryptonite!
She shuddered and then phased through the creature only to collapse on her knees below it.
Booster Gold blasted the energy being known to his friends as Positive Man with his booster shots and nodded with satisfaction as the weird being left Superwoman and rocketed back to enter the figure on the ground. Booster realized the prone man was swathed in white bandages like a post-modern Mummy.
“The Doom Patrol! They are some kind of wacked out alternate timeline version of the dead heroes!” he mused.
The metallic Automaton clanged as he charged Booster Gold but the Man of Gold gestured and his polarity gloves sent the robot crashing into the bearded man.
“I’m glad Rip added limited magnetism to my gear!” he thought.
The woman gasped as she saw the man called Baron fall as Automaton grazed him.
She suddenly elongated her shapely body and brought one gigantic hand down at Booster.
“You brute! If you’ve hurt the greatest man who ever lived, you’ll regret it!” she cried.
Booster gasped as the changing woman loomed up over them all and he blocked her blows with his force field.
“Man! She’s Rita Farr or she looks like her but this big babe is French!” he said.
Superwoman said, “They are alternate timeline versions of the Doom Patrol but why do they want to kill Superman?”
Automaton jumped at her and opened a panel in his green chest to reveal a glistening stone!
“You may be a looker but I gotta shut you down, Doll!” he said. “My anti-K won’t hurt but a minute!” he said.
Superwoman stood impassively as the glowing rock that served as his heart shone over her body. She felt nothing. It was clearly not Green Kryptonite!
Booster covered it with his projected force field and said, “I can rip it out but it’s not even giving you a tan! They have us all wrong!”
The Baron rose to his feet as Positive Man helped him.
“Stop! All of you! We’re not on our Earth anymore! My scanning devices detect an abnormal level of chronal energy. When the Crime Syndicate caught us in that explosion, we were propelled through both time and space!” he said.
Automaton said, “Huh? You mean I gotta go through that whole daylight savings thing again? That’s a royal pain in my rusty metal…!”
“Hold it, Corben. Let the Brains of this Kooky Quartet speak! We’ll get him to use one syllable word just for you!” quipped the Positive Man.
The Baron said, “Young lady, we owe you our apologies. We are not from this earth or this time! My sensors have revealed this to me at last. Not long ago on our earth in the year 1977 we were almost killed by a brutal organization called the Crime Syndicate. We owe our very existence in these forms such as we are to their actions. One of their members lives in a city like this one and wears red and blue. He is vulnerable to some of our weapons like Automations anti-Kryptonite heart. Clearly, you are not and you are equally not allied with our foes!”
Superwoman said, “We know all about being lost in time. We would gladly help you get back to your own era if we could hear more about where you came from and when!”
Before the Doom Brigade could move, they vanished in time!
“Does this mean the mastermind who plucked them from their proper time and space realizes they won’t kill Superman for him even by accident?” asked Booster.
Superwoman shook her head.
“Automaton was some kind of good Metallo. He may have been enough like the villain Metallo from our world and time that this mastermind figured he and his friends would serve his plan but not as killers!”
Booster said, “But if they had killed Superman while thinking he was this mysterious Ultraman dude…?”
Skeets beeped and said, “I detect a stronger chronal signature. They were never meant to truly threaten Superman in this era. They were designed to be a distraction for us!”
Booster said, “Then the would be Superman killer knows we’re on his trail!”
Booster clasped Superwoman’s hand and the three flickered out of view and into a weird dimension of rapidly shifting colors and altering shapes and scenes!
Booster snapped his fingers as his visor allowed him to make sense of the wildly changing environment and enabled him to detect a speeding body in motion!
“We’re in the time stream! This is where the Big Bad wants to target Superman or at least target the Superman of 1975.”
Booster said, “Superman is in here! That’s why you didn’t find him in 1975 itself! The Superman of February 1, 1975 was travelling through time! The villain wants to ambush a young Superman in the time stream itself!”
4
Booster frowned as he realized Superman was not really flying with any sense of purpose. He seemed to be hurtling through time without being able to stop or direct his path.
Superwoman said, “I see him now! I don’t think he was lured here at all! It’s more like he broke the time barrier by accident! We have to help him!”
Skeets interjected, “I fear our actions would alter time itself. Clearly, the Superman of 1975 did accidentally break the time barrier but obviously survived the journey and returned to his proper era. What we must do is prevent the villain we are seeking from killing him during his already preordained trip through time on this date!”
Booster nodded and pointed to where a time machine materialized nearby. The machine was much like the one Rip Hunter had used and its transparent dome revealed three costumed figures standing within!
Before a dazed Superman could rocket passed them, they started to move into his path!
Superwoman cried out, ‘They’re going to intercept him as we feared! We arrived just in time in spite of the diversion!”
“Not if I can help it!” said Booster.
Booster clutched Superwoman’s arm and jumped forward through the time stream to crash inside the Time Bubble! He had used the circuits in his costume to warp them into the craft without breaking its exterior.
He ignored the startled expressions on the faces of the three occupants and shifted the machine’s steering controls so the bubble dropped out of Superman’s path and allowed the Man of Steel to safely vanish into another era!
The three occupants were a man in red and green, a man in blue and purple, and a woman in dark navy.
“You’ll regret this!” shouted the first man as he generated a blazing bolt of lightning that bounced off Booster’s force field.
“Naw! But if I was you, I’d regret that color scheme!” quipped Booster as he spun around and punched the screaming man across the deck of the bubble.
“Drawing the force field in tight and using it to protect my fists is a great idea!” he thought.
Superwoman said, “I know them! They are members of the Legion of Super Villains from the future! “
The man in purple and blue gestured at her and her hood turned into lead!
She could not see but she was able to shatter the metal in seconds! She blasted him with super cold breath and he gasped in dismay!
“Cosmic King can transmute matter! Lightning Lord is a human dynamo, and Saturn Queen has super hypnosis!” she said.
Skeets darted forward at the red haired villainess and distracted her as the now unmasked Superwoman and Booster regrouped.
“We can take them!” he said confidently.
As Cosmic King changed his icy prison into air, he gestured at Skeets and the small robot’s exterior began to smoke!
“Acid!” cried Superwoman as she raced forward at super speed and knocked the villain out with one punch!
Skeets beeped and dropped down but regained his balance and said, “I am unhurt but my exterior has been damaged. You stopped him in the nick of time!”
“Thanks!” yelled Booster as he grappled with Lightning Lord.
“I’ll burn you alive!” shouted the furious villain!
“That’s entirely too melodramatic, don’t you think?” said Booster.
He ducked under the angry man’s arms and connected with a stunning “booster shot” of his own.
Saturn Queen stepped in and said, “Surrender! Your will is my now!”
Booster shuddered as he felt his arms stiffen and he lowered his guard. He couldn’t resist her compelling voice!
He closed his eyes as she came closer and placed her own hand on his chest. He had already dropped his force field in order to blast Lightning Lord.
Superwoman moved forward but Booster warned her back.
“Got to do this myself!” he said as he suddenly lurched forward and swept Saturn Queen into a passionate kiss!
He dropped her to the ground and smiled broadly. She was momentarily too flustered to exert any mental control over him!
“Well, that did the trick! It put her commands right out of my mind! Of course, it gave me other ideas too!” he said.
Skeets dropped down from above on to Saturn Queen’s head and knocked her out.
“I owed her that!” he declared.
He added, “We have preserved this historical event. My scans now indicate that Superman of 1975 reached Krypton of the past by mistake after investigating an alien sighting by a Professor Galsworthy. He eventually returned to his proper time but the experience on his home world was highly moving for him! Our foe wanted to have the Legion kill him while he was disoriented from his accidental braking of the time barrier in his haste to resolve Galsworthy’s sighting.”
As the three members of the Legion of Super Villains vanished along with their time bubble, Booster and his allies shifted through time once more.
“I think this is it! That’s the starship from my nightmares!” said Superwoman as they appeared once more on earth where a huge spacecraft entered the atmosphere.
Skeets said, “We appear to be in Tokyo in the year 2003! The ship belongs to …!”
Superwoman stared at it and said, “I know who owns it now that I see it up close. He is an old enemy of mine as well. He is called King Kosmos!”
5
“I don’t understand something though. Why aren’t we wraiths since we surely exist in this era. I thought if one travelled to a time in which they already lived, they became phantoms unable to interact with those in that era!” she said.
Booster said, “Yeah, Rip told me that but from what I understand that is not the case if you enter what may only be a possible future of many. This may not literally be our future! Plus, Rip integrated an advanced time device in my costume and in Skeets that enabled us to ignore that rule. I don’t actually understand the science involved. It seems Rip gained the device from one of his friends who came from very far in the future. Rip may have invented it himself when he was an old man!”
Superwoman didn’t answer but as she eyed the looming ship above them, she thought, “Or we could all be dead in this era and that’s why we’re still solid and not phantoms!”
She said, “We have to stop him before he can hurt Superman! Each time Skeets has tracked the threat down through time, we’ve arrived prior to the moment in which the attackers would actually make contact with Superman. If we’ve done that once more, we have time to shut down Kosmos before Superman even arrives!”
They were abruptly teleported aboard the huge ship where they faced a big man in gold and green armor. He was massive and he had a cruel expression on his coarse featured face. He looked like what he was: a ruthless tyrant who loved hurting others and exerting his own authority.
“I have crushed many an era beneath my boots but none shall satisfy me as well as seeing this time fall and to know it does so because I have killed Superman and his mate!” he said.
Superwoman said, “And yet as I told you when first we met, let history bear witness that no American ever had to bow to a tyrant! That includes time travelers like you, you cheap thug!”
King Kosmos laughed harshly and he stood up to tower over the defiant woman.
“Your history only reveals so much. I have seen how the story ends and you won’t be so arrogant when you become my slave!” he said.
He gestured and a blue-hued energy erupted from his gloves and surged across the ship toward Booster and Superwoman.
Booster jumped forward and expanded his force field outward directly at the energy.
It was deflected backward and struck King Kosmos himself. He roared in pain and fell backward. A moment passed and the Time Tyrant remained motionless!
Superwoman said, ‘He used that energy before. It stunned Superman himself. I guess he fell victim to his own weapon!”
Booster nodded and said, “He wasn’t so tough after all! My publicist could have handled him!”
Superwoman said, “At least Superman hasn’t arrived yet so my vision may never come true!”
At that moment, King Kosmos jumped up with surprising speed and struck a button on a nearby machine.
Both heroes and Skeets were contained within a white energy field that swelled in size and held them within its confining space.
“You primitive dolts! I am immune to my own weapons. Your skin will melt from your bones should you touch the field in which I’ve placed you. No human may pass through my stellar fire unharmed!” he said.
Booster tried to activate his force field but it crackled and died when it touched the edge of the white energy field.
“Your field can’t match my own! You will remain here to watch as I slay Superman. For days now I have been in my cloaked ship above your world. I have been striking Superman with red solar energy at random intervals and I have made it so he can’t detect these brief bursts. He has been saturated with enough red sun energy so that when he faces me, which he will soon enough, he will be weakened to the point where I can rip him apart!” he said.
Superwoman realized neither her powers nor her technology could pass through the field but she was desperate to save her husband!
At that moment the entire ship trembled as a newcomer smashed through the side and confronted the angry villain.
She was a tall, beautiful blonde with lovely features and a complexion that looked vaguely Asian-American; however, in truth her origins were far more exotic. She wore a blue long sleeved top that stopped just above her stomach. A red S emblem adorned the top and the blue fabric matched the mini-skirt she wore. She also wore a red cape and red high heeled boots.
“Supergirl?” asked a confused Booster.
“Jasma?” thought an equally shocked Superwoman.
“Don’t worry! I’ll teach this space age Stalin a lesson soon enough!” declared 2003’s Girl of Steel!
Moments earlier, Jasma Kent had been enjoying herself with her friends in Tokyo’s Take$#!*a Don (Street) in Harajuku Station. She spoke flawless Japanese and because of her striking looks, she was often mistaken for an Asian-American. She also loved coming to the fashion and shopping center where she could discuss and show off the latest designs she had created back in her Metropolis home. Jasma was a talented designer and she relished spending a few hours each week with similar minded young adults who shared her passion for cosplay and fashion. While her long hair was normally blonde, she wore it as a dark black color when she was not in her Supergirl costume. A special comb that had belonged to her late mother Kara enabled her to switch shades with a few quick strokes.
As she explained how she had fabricated the “sweet Lolita” rococo style dress she was wearing, she caught sight of a strange craft in the upper atmosphere. She was no stranger to alien spacecrafts and she was equally comfort with personal danger. She had been trained by her adoptive parents among others and she was already a very capable heroine.
“I have to go. See you next week!” she said as she rushed away from her friends and made a super swift change into her Supergirl costume after ducking behind a nearby boutique.
“I hated to cut my weekly visit short but I have to look into that ship and make sure it means no harm to anyone down here. I somehow doubt the pilot is here to snatch up Gothic Lolita dresses at bargain prices!” she joked.
She soared into the sky and scanned the ship with both her super hearing and super vision. She gasped as she recognized her adoptive mother and the famous Corporate Crusader Booster Gold.
“I’m not surprised to see Mom and her besty together but I didn’t know they were in Japan and I didn’t know she had gone back to her old costume! After all, I made her some really trendy new versions and I thought she was happy with them!” she thought.
She broke into the ship and faced the heroes and their brutish captor.
King Kosmos bellowed in rage.
“Not another member of the El dynasty! I’ll end your life now!” he said.
She dodged his energy bolts and danced aside before he could connect with his swinging fist.
She connected with an upper cut that knocked him back and then and spun around to deliver a stinging heel kick!
“So, this little brat knows advanced combat techniques! I never knew Superman to truly utilize such combat skills!” he said.
Supergirl kicked a console into his path and blasted him with super cold breath.
“Sorry, but I’m Daddy’s girl and he likes the way I fight! He just doesn’t need all my techniques because no one could ever beat him and no one ever will!” she said.
Supergirl punched Kosmos again and again but she was not doing more than containing him. He was inhumanly powerful.
He fired a green ray at her but it bounced off her chest harmlessly.
“Oh, and I’m not hurt by Kryptonite not even that synthetic kind you’re shooting around!” said Supergirl
She hit him again and his eyes rolled back into his head.
He fell hard but he hit a button on his armor and Supergirl vanished from view.
“That takes care of Superman’s spawn!” he declared.
Superwoman shuddered as she scanned the area. Had he merely send her adoptive daughter back to Earth or done something much worse to her?
She had no time to determine the truth since she saw a sight that made her heart leap into her throat. The older Superman of this time was heading straight for the ship as it rose into space just like in her vision!
Booster hesitated for a moment as he saw the now deactivated Skeets at his feet.
It seemed as if no technology or human flesh could survive contact with the white energy field.
He whispered, “I’m sorry, old buddy but I know you’d want us to win this one! I got to fall back on the skills I used before I ever put on this fancy costume or lost my football career!”
He picked up the little robot and hurled him straight through the white field at the control console that Kosmos had used to trap them. Skeets hit the right switch and the field vanished.
“Still got the old throwing arm!” mused Booster as he helped Superwoman up and they charged at King Kosmos.
Superwoman took command and she shouted, “Booster, use your mass dispersion field now!”
He nodded and aimed his gloves at the villain.
“I don’t really use this power much!” he admitted.
Superwoman said a silent prayer as she aimed her own opal amulet and concentrated a combination of teleportation and decorprealiztion energies on King Kosmos.
The Time Tyrant screamed in shock as his atoms were scattered through time and space by the contrasting forces aimed at him by the duo.
Superwoman sighed with relief as she and Booster and Skeets also vanished to appear in their own era.
“Just like his pawns when we beat Kosmos, his equipment returned to its original time and he had boasted about being from the end of time just before he came here to kill as many Supermen as he could!” she said.
As Skeets beeped and his lights brightened, Booster said, “I’ll polish those scratches and burns off your surface myself!”
Superwoman added, “We’ve saved Superman and I’m going to believe that means my Superman- the one from 1988- will never meet the fate shown in my visions. How can I thank you?”
Booster started to joke but then nodded seriously and said, “I was glad to help. It has been nice talking to someone from the future. I mean from years from this era. “
Superwoman took his hand and said, “We’re friends now. We’re going to talk a lot more in the days to come!”
She noticed his thoughtful expression and said, “I know what you are worried about but you don’t have to be. We did not kill King Kosmos. We merely scattered his molecules across time. He has the ability to repair himself. He truly is a master of all time travel technologies. I knew that before I told you to attack him as we did!”
Booster smiled and said, “I’m glad. I’m no killer. I’ve got a killer smile but that’s as close as I come!”
The new friends laughed with pleasure. It was the start of a friendship that would make history!
The End.
Booster Gold and Superwoman try to solve the mystery of who is killing alternate timeline versions of Superman!
1
Superman dodged a barrage of blistering energy beams with his usual skill; however, the Man of Steel was tiring and that was unheard of for someone with his kind of stamina.
He frowned as one of the red beams sliced across his shoulder and left a ugly gash.
“I felt that! That’s not surprising considering his level of power but it is a bit disconcerting!” he thought.
Before he could do more than advance slightly through space he was caught in a massive red burst that ripped him apart!
At that moment, Kristin Wells Kent moaned in her sleep and abruptly sat up in her bed as her nightmare ended and she caught her breath.
The perky redhead sighed as she recognized the familiar décor of her bedroom within the suburban home she and her absent husband Clark shared.
“Whew! That was some dream! I’ll be glad when Clark gets back from that mission with the other Justice Leaguers. Being alone must be bad for my rest or at least being lonely is bad for my rest!” she thought.
She could have felt very alone since she was in fact a visitor from another time. Her studies of the twentieth century era had drawn her back in time to investigate certain unsolved mysteries involving Superman and his allies. She had done far more than resolve the riddles. She had met and fallen in love with the legendary hero and in time the two had married. During the same period, she had not only adopted the costumed role of Superwoman but the artificial powers advanced technology had given her had been boosted by a physical transformation into a genuine Kryptonian!
She frowned as the particularly vivid nightmare returned to her thoughts with a strange persistence. Something was wrong. She was used to working long hours and being on her own. She thrived on that kind of routine and had done so ever since her days as a graduate student in the future era from which she originated.
Later that night she groaned and wiped beads of perspiration from her brow as she relived the nightmare again.
She stood up and grabbed her robe from off of a nearby chair. After slipping into it and pushing her bare feet into a pair pink fuzzy slippers, she hurried to a concealed room within the basement.
The ex-historian ignored the red and blue tights, hood, and cape the comprised the costume she wore when she was in her Superwoman guise. The time traveler was not interested in fashion this night. She reached into a nearby cabinet behind the garment and removed an opal amulet.
The polished gemstone glistened in the night and as she touched its smooth surface Kristin shuddered! Once more she saw her husband Clark “Superman” Kent die in a burst of red energy.
“That was not a nightmare. That was a precognitive vision!” she said with a gasp.
Time travel in and of itself was a catalyst for more than one unusual physical or mental change and Kristin knew that the opal amulet’s time field projection power gave her limited precognition.
Being in contact with the gem itself renewed her certainty that her nightmare was not a mere phantasm of the sleeping mind but was a glimpse into a very possible future!
She shed the robe and the nightgown beneath it and kicked off the slippers. She donned her Superwoman costume and slipped the opal amulet into its proper place on the colorful outfit. As the redhead drew her blue hood up and over her head, she prayed silently that she could change the outcome of the nightmare and keep Clark safe and sound!
“He hates for anyone to try to protect him. He is the most selfless man I’ve ever known but I won’t let him die if I can do anything to keep him safe!”
She stopped and looked in on the sleeping Jasma and smiled briefly.
She and Clark were raising his late cousin’s daughter and the little girl was precious to her in a way that she had never imagined could be possible before they became a family.
“I know Gerda will take care of her but I still hate to leave her!” she thought.
As the morning sun rose over the suburban street, a red and blue blur flew out of the Kent home at super speed and made its way toward the city of Metropolis.
“I know I can’t get in touch with Clark while the team is away in this manner but I’ll feel better doing something. Patrolling his city will at least help me feel useful while I try to make sense of that vision!” she thought.
Later that day in WGBS studios the sultry Lana Lang sat across from a handsome blond man in a blue and hold costume.
“Since you arrived here you not only brought down the criminal organization known as the 1000 but you defeated their agents Shockwave, Minddancer, and Blackguard. In doing so you exposed the respected Senator Ballard as the Director of the entire group. All of this came after you rescued Princess Portia from Kingslayer in front of a global audience! How do you follow so much success?” asked the lovely redhead.
Booster Gold (Michael Carter) smiled broadly and said, “Easy, Lana! I do something even more sensational! And speaking of sensational, I think your viewers will find Goldies-the delicious little golden sponge cake with the Boosterrific taste- equally wonderful! Look for them in stores everywhere!”
Lana said, “Certainly. We’ll have more with Booster Gold after the break!”
As the station switched to a commercial in which Booster Gold promoted the Booster Gold action figure, Lana said, “Did you just slip a commercial plug into an interview?”
Booster took her hand and patted it gently.
“Yeah, but you don’t need to thank me. After all that hard news stuff that came earlier in the show, I know your viewers could use something light and fun. That is why you wear such short skirts, right? All dull news kills the ratings!” he said.
He winked at Lana and she sputtered in a frustration before resuming a placid smile and continuing the interview.
“Mr. Gold, is it true you and British heroine Godiva are romantically involved?” she asked.
Booster shook his head and said, “We’re just good friends!”
“What about French heroine Fleur-De-Lis? You were spotted with her.”
“Again, just promoting international relations!” said Booster.
After the interviewed ended, Booster rushed off set to meet his new publicist former journalist Megan O’Dell.
“So, how did I do? I think Lana may have the heat for me!” he said to the lovely brunette.
“Just fine but I think you meant to say Lana has the hots for you!” she said as they walked toward the elevator.
As it opened and they walked inside, Booster noticed some of the other people who were already inside. He frowned as his special goggles enabled him to detect something unique about one perky redhead.
“She’s glowing with chronal energy. That means she is or has been a time traveler like me!” he thought.
“Excuse me, Megan, but duty calls!” he said as he followed the redhead off the elevator as it stopped on a lower floor!
Megan sighed and thought, “I thought after I quit journalism and stopped doing all the Blue Devil stories that my life would become normal. I guess that’s not going to be the case with a guy like Booster Gold as a client!”
Booster was much more than a time traveler or even the so-called corporate crusader the media called him. He had been a disgraced college athlete in the 25th century who made use of his subsequent job at the Space Museum to gain two vital things: data about 20th century super heroes and stock market values and more importantly the equipment he planned to use to make himself a super hero in the twentieth century. He journeyed to the 1980’s and used the gear and his own considerable athletic prowess to earn the admiration of millions and secure lucrative endorsement deals.
This was merely his public persona. He had also accepted an offer from a man who had become equally famous as a scholar and hero devoted to the mysteries of time itself: Rip Hunter.
Upon first meeting Hunter, Booster had been offered a role as a kind of time cop.
As Hunter had explained, “I used to explore time with a select team of allies but recently my life changed in two ways! I got married and I faced a corrupt counterpart called the Master of Time who sought to use some advanced technology that allowed the user to do more than time travel in a straight line to past or future. This device enabled the user to veer off sideways in time and in doing so enter alternate or divergent timelines! In such lines a traveler may literally interact with versions of himself as I did!”
Rip had revealed that he now sought to become more of a scholar and less of a man of action. He needed an agent to do the more active work for him and he felt Booster would be perfect for the task for two reasons!
“My sunny disposition and winning smile?” quipped Booster.
“You know about time travel and your image as a super hero for hire is a perfect cover for the fact that I want you to fix things that go wrong in time. Because most people and history itself will see you as a standard hero with a bit of a shallow manner no one will strike at you to curtail the time patrolling I want you to do!” Rip had explained.
Now, Booster Gold posed as (and relished being) a super hero superstar while secretly using his courage and wit to stop others from changing time itself.
Rip had altered much of Booster’s gear so that it acquired functions to help him with his time travel role. The goggles or visor that always allowed him to see on various levels of light and scale now also enabled him to detect another time traveler.
He started to follow the redhead when she whirled around and said, “What? I’m not interested in an autograph or in being your latest conquest!”
Booster shrugged and said, “Don’t sell yourself short! We have time to get to know each other. I know since I can tell you know a bit about time travel!”
She hesitated for a moment. She was ready to brush off the brash hero but something in his demeanor or something unspoken beneath his banter made her feel like she could not only trust him but she could relate to him in some manner.
“Maybe this is the opal again but I feel like I am supposed to work with him! The longer I’m with him the more I feel it!” thought Kristin Wells Kent.
She had resumed her civilian identity after patrolling the city and struggling to figure out how to help her husband,
Now she looked up at Booster Gold and nodded firmly. She was going to trust him.
“We do need to talk. You are right about me. I come from the future and I need your help!” she said.
2
Superwoman could not really explain why she felt that she could trust the rather glib Booster Gold but upon closer contact with him, she could readily admit that there was more to him than the rather shallow type his public persona depicted.
She also wondered again if something about the precognitive glimpses into the future the opal amulet stimulated somehow confirmed that she was meant to become friends with the Man of Gold!
He certainly was personable and surprisingly astute. He was brighter than many of her more advanced students in the history of twentieth century earth course she had taught in her normal time. He really knew a lot about the heroes of this era with the normal gaps that the passage of time between the current era and his own created.
“Yeah, I took every class I could fit in at Metropolis University about super heroes and what the professors called “super hero society” I studied hard because even then I saw that kind of data as my key to making a better future or maybe I should say a brighter past for myself!” he said as he led her into a spacious office in the heart of the city.
“Your company is impressive. You’ve really put together quite an organization in a short time!” she said as she walked past a row of busy clerks and computer terminals.
She now wore the red and blue costume of her Superwoman identity, having switched into it at super speed after they left the WGBS studio building. It was clear that if she was going to trust Gold at all she would need to be as open as possible with her own secrets. After all she knew that Booster was destined to be famous as a hero and for all his failings or quirks nothing corrupt had been recorded about him in history as she knew it.
Booster smiled but said nothing until he had closed the door of his private office behind them and been greeted by a hovering little robotic machine.
“Skeets, meet Superwoman. S.W., this is my loyal aide Skeets. He is the man to help you with your problems!” said Booster.
Skeets replied in a metallic chirp.
“Thank you, sir. I shall endeavor to try. This is a real pleasure!” he said.
Superwoman smiled and said, “Thanks. It is nice to meet you too. As I told Booster, I have been having visions or nightmares that show the death of Superman. I’m afraid these phantasms are glimpses of a real future! I want to stop it from happening!”
Booster added, “We’re going to help her. Our pal Rip Hunter wired up Skeets and my own costume so that we can travel through time itself with a good degree of accuracy and we don’t need a machine!”
Skeets said, “My circuits have already detected an anomaly surrounding Superman’s personal timeline. You know how time may diverge like the forks of a river and each separate branch has its own subtle differences in terms of how history plays out. A plane crash may kill a man in one timeline while the same individual may never take that deadly trip in another divergent one. Someone is hunting and killing Superman in various alternate timelines that diverge from this main one. I fear you’ve somehow connected to them and thus what you’ve actually witnessed were real events in alternate timelines!”
Booster said, “And this killer will be coming for Superman here eventually!”
Superwoman said, “Can you take me to…?”
Before she could finish her sentence, Booster had scooped her up in his arms and the trio had materialized in a cornfield near a rural community.
“I figured you’d want to find this time jumping goon so I took the liberty of making the leap to where we could get the goods on him!” said Booster as he released the startled heroine.
She said, “You are fast. This is Smallville. Superman grew up here!”
Booster said, “Yeah, I know. He made this big cake for the citizens before he left and the Museum where I worked had a hunk or two under glass!”
Skeets said, “Booster, my circuits suggest the killer or at least someone from another era is rapidly approaching our location!”
At that moment a red and blue blur slammed into the ground in front of them and stood up as the super swift motion ended and the blur resolved into a humanoid figure in a slightly altered Superman costume! His skin was cracked and deathly chalky pale.
“Bizarro? I’ve heard of this clown!” said Booster.
Beams of ice shot from the scowling creature’s eyes and almost sliced through Booster’s chest but he twisted aside in time to dodge them.
“I will kill you two and then find the young Kal-El and end his life!” he said.
Superwoman started forward but she was caught by a backhanded blow that sent her reeling to the mud.
Bizarro grinned maniacally and said, “I believe killing you will be a lot of fun!”
Booster said, “Not for us!”
He aimed his gloves and blasted at the imperfect duplicate of Superman but the “Booster shots” failed to do more than slow him down.
Skeets said, “Booster, this version of Bizarro seems more malevolent and more intelligent than the norm! He also is more than capable of killing you both!”
Booster said, “Some cheerleader you are!”
He punched Bizarro with all of his own considerable might and a few chalky fragments broke off the monster’s chin but he brought both fists down and almost shattered Booster’s hastily created force field!
Superwoman tackled Bizarro and brought him down to the ground. She started to pummel him with a flurry of super swift blows. She was certainly as strong as he was and she was determined to save her husband from the creature’s rampage through timelines!
She screamed in pain as Bizarro froze her face with a burst of ice vision.
She clawed the dense ice away from her mouth and eyes as he punched her again and again.
Booster dived between them and expanded his force field so it shoved the grinning monster off of the struggling heroine.
Skeets said, “Booster, I detect an odd detail Look at him with enhanced scanning capabilities!”
Booster helped Superwoman to her feet and adjusted his own visor until the microscopic range enabled him to see faint traces of blue powder across the monster’s brow.
“Does he have some kind of funky Kryptonian dandruff?” he asked.
Superwoman shook her head and said, “It’s Blue Kryptonite. Normally, it is fatal to Bizarros but in such a minute format I think it is serving a different purpose. It is allowing someone else to control him! That’s why he doesn’t talk or act like a normal Bizarro if there is such a thing!”
She knew that on occasion various super criminals had used grains of Green Kryptonite in their weapons or their magic spells or potions to make their concoctions or creations capable of hurting the normally invulnerable Superman!
She ducked under the creature’s outstretched arms and used her amulet to briefly achieve discorporealization. She reached through Bizarro’s brow and swiftly solidified and then removed a small pebble of Blue Kryptonite from just under his chalky skin.
He roared with pain and then blinked in surprise.
“Me feel so bad. Me want to smile!” he said.
Booster said, “And this is an improvement? He talks like some of the goons from my football days!”
Superwoman touched the altered creature and spoke softly and soothingly.
“Someone put that blue rock in your brain and somehow used it to make you vulnerable to mind control. Who did it? Can you take us to him?”
Bizarro grinned and said, “Me know!”
He reached beneath his flowing red cape and removed what appeared to be an oversized metal coil like the kind used to wind up various toys.
“Uh oh! I bet I know who put his mind control device in the form of a toy! This guy is well-known in Superman studies! The Toyman!” said Booster.
At that moment a weirdly costumed figure capered into view from within the cornfield. He wore a black and gold costume with a cowl and mask that resembled a jester’s motley garb.
“At your service. Now let the wild rumpus begin!” he shrieked.
“That’s not the Toyman from my holo studies! He was a creepy old man!” said Booster as a razor sharp yo yo sliced near his head.
Superwoman said, “This Toyman is not the original. In fact I think he died a while back but this version comes from an alternate timeline!”
Toyman giggled and said, “Well put, you luscious Action Figure! I was sent through time to kill Superman before he ever grew up! I brought this oaf and used my inventions and a little Blue K. powder to make him a remote control killer!”
BIzarro said, “Superman am my bestest enemy. Me hate him to life!”
He slapped Toyman at super speed and the grinning villain collapsed.
“Whoa! I didn’t even see him move!” sputtered Booster.
Superwoman said, “He is not dead but I think he’ll be out for a long time!”
Bizarro looked confused and started to speak when both Bizarro and Toyman vanished!
“They’ve been returned to their proper times! I can confirm that!” Skeets said.
Booster said, “Look, I don’t think the Toyman came up with this scheme on his own. Besides, Bizarro didn’t have heat vision or death rays like you saw hit Superman in your vision. I think there must be more than one time tossed killer at work here!”
Superwoman said, “I agree. We’ve thwarted an attempt on Superman’s life in his past. I think we may find similar threats in his present and future!”
Skeets said, “I have locked on to another agent who has been displaced in time and space. I shall take us to him now!”
They vanished as Booster caught one last glimpse of Smallville.
“This would be a nice place to film a TV series!” he thought.
3
The time-tossed trio materialized on top of the roof of the Daily Planet building.
“We are in the year 1975 on Feburary 1,” said Skeets. “I do not detect Superman although he certainly had begun his career in the city by then!”
They turned at the sound of a metallic clang only to find that they now faced some weirdly costumed figures.
Booster said, “Who are those farout freaks? That was the right slang for the era, right, Skeets?”
Skeets said, “I detect chronal energy but also the energy of an alternate Earth! These beings have come from far away!”
The oldest man wore a solid black outfit that consisted of a turtleneck and slacks; however, his clothing was of far less interest than a metallic device that covered his torso.
He was bald but he wore a full reddish beard.
Next to him stood a beautiful woman in a brief red and white mini-dress and thigh -high high- heeled boots. She looked very familiar to Superwoman from somewhere.
A gleaming metal man stood protectively in front of a prone figure who reclined on the rooftop below a flickering wrath who glowed and hovered in thin air.
“You creeps better stay back! I don’t care if you’re Ultraman’s girlfriend, best pal, and robot dog. You ain’t going hurt anyone while the Doom Brigade is around!” said the metal man. His greenish hued metal face was molded into a permanent inhuman smile and his metallic tone was emotionless but his diction and his body language conveyed menace.
“Automaton! Wait on the Baron!” cautioned the lovely woman. She spoke with a French accent and she seemed to have maternal feelings for her monstrous allies.
The metal being said, “Don’t get your panties in a bunch, Laurie! We can all drive and shave and date girls and everything like big boys! ‘Course, the Baron don’t shave that often!”
The glowing wraith detached itself from the prone man and shot forward at a blinding speed.
Superwoman was fast enough to follow its flight path and she flew into the air to block it.
The energy being struck her and she gasped with pain. There was something about its particular radiation that hurt her!
She gasped as the gleaming figure wrapped itself around her body and began to squeeze ever tighter. The white energy changed to a brilliant green!
“That thing is like the syntho-spine controlled by Amalek but that body on the ground sure isn’t the so-called Kryptonite Killer!” she thought as she twisted and struggled to resist the pressure that crushed her hips. She realized that physical pain was all she felt. In spite of its green color the energy being was not radiating Green Kryptonite!
She shuddered and then phased through the creature only to collapse on her knees below it.
Booster Gold blasted the energy being known to his friends as Positive Man with his booster shots and nodded with satisfaction as the weird being left Superwoman and rocketed back to enter the figure on the ground. Booster realized the prone man was swathed in white bandages like a post-modern Mummy.
“The Doom Patrol! They are some kind of wacked out alternate timeline version of the dead heroes!” he mused.
The metallic Automaton clanged as he charged Booster Gold but the Man of Gold gestured and his polarity gloves sent the robot crashing into the bearded man.
“I’m glad Rip added limited magnetism to my gear!” he thought.
The woman gasped as she saw the man called Baron fall as Automaton grazed him.
She suddenly elongated her shapely body and brought one gigantic hand down at Booster.
“You brute! If you’ve hurt the greatest man who ever lived, you’ll regret it!” she cried.
Booster gasped as the changing woman loomed up over them all and he blocked her blows with his force field.
“Man! She’s Rita Farr or she looks like her but this big babe is French!” he said.
Superwoman said, “They are alternate timeline versions of the Doom Patrol but why do they want to kill Superman?”
Automaton jumped at her and opened a panel in his green chest to reveal a glistening stone!
“You may be a looker but I gotta shut you down, Doll!” he said. “My anti-K won’t hurt but a minute!” he said.
Superwoman stood impassively as the glowing rock that served as his heart shone over her body. She felt nothing. It was clearly not Green Kryptonite!
Booster covered it with his projected force field and said, “I can rip it out but it’s not even giving you a tan! They have us all wrong!”
The Baron rose to his feet as Positive Man helped him.
“Stop! All of you! We’re not on our Earth anymore! My scanning devices detect an abnormal level of chronal energy. When the Crime Syndicate caught us in that explosion, we were propelled through both time and space!” he said.
Automaton said, “Huh? You mean I gotta go through that whole daylight savings thing again? That’s a royal pain in my rusty metal…!”
“Hold it, Corben. Let the Brains of this Kooky Quartet speak! We’ll get him to use one syllable word just for you!” quipped the Positive Man.
The Baron said, “Young lady, we owe you our apologies. We are not from this earth or this time! My sensors have revealed this to me at last. Not long ago on our earth in the year 1977 we were almost killed by a brutal organization called the Crime Syndicate. We owe our very existence in these forms such as we are to their actions. One of their members lives in a city like this one and wears red and blue. He is vulnerable to some of our weapons like Automations anti-Kryptonite heart. Clearly, you are not and you are equally not allied with our foes!”
Superwoman said, “We know all about being lost in time. We would gladly help you get back to your own era if we could hear more about where you came from and when!”
Before the Doom Brigade could move, they vanished in time!
“Does this mean the mastermind who plucked them from their proper time and space realizes they won’t kill Superman for him even by accident?” asked Booster.
Superwoman shook her head.
“Automaton was some kind of good Metallo. He may have been enough like the villain Metallo from our world and time that this mastermind figured he and his friends would serve his plan but not as killers!”
Booster said, “But if they had killed Superman while thinking he was this mysterious Ultraman dude…?”
Skeets beeped and said, “I detect a stronger chronal signature. They were never meant to truly threaten Superman in this era. They were designed to be a distraction for us!”
Booster said, “Then the would be Superman killer knows we’re on his trail!”
Booster clasped Superwoman’s hand and the three flickered out of view and into a weird dimension of rapidly shifting colors and altering shapes and scenes!
Booster snapped his fingers as his visor allowed him to make sense of the wildly changing environment and enabled him to detect a speeding body in motion!
“We’re in the time stream! This is where the Big Bad wants to target Superman or at least target the Superman of 1975.”
Booster said, “Superman is in here! That’s why you didn’t find him in 1975 itself! The Superman of February 1, 1975 was travelling through time! The villain wants to ambush a young Superman in the time stream itself!”
4
Booster frowned as he realized Superman was not really flying with any sense of purpose. He seemed to be hurtling through time without being able to stop or direct his path.
Superwoman said, “I see him now! I don’t think he was lured here at all! It’s more like he broke the time barrier by accident! We have to help him!”
Skeets interjected, “I fear our actions would alter time itself. Clearly, the Superman of 1975 did accidentally break the time barrier but obviously survived the journey and returned to his proper era. What we must do is prevent the villain we are seeking from killing him during his already preordained trip through time on this date!”
Booster nodded and pointed to where a time machine materialized nearby. The machine was much like the one Rip Hunter had used and its transparent dome revealed three costumed figures standing within!
Before a dazed Superman could rocket passed them, they started to move into his path!
Superwoman cried out, ‘They’re going to intercept him as we feared! We arrived just in time in spite of the diversion!”
“Not if I can help it!” said Booster.
Booster clutched Superwoman’s arm and jumped forward through the time stream to crash inside the Time Bubble! He had used the circuits in his costume to warp them into the craft without breaking its exterior.
He ignored the startled expressions on the faces of the three occupants and shifted the machine’s steering controls so the bubble dropped out of Superman’s path and allowed the Man of Steel to safely vanish into another era!
The three occupants were a man in red and green, a man in blue and purple, and a woman in dark navy.
“You’ll regret this!” shouted the first man as he generated a blazing bolt of lightning that bounced off Booster’s force field.
“Naw! But if I was you, I’d regret that color scheme!” quipped Booster as he spun around and punched the screaming man across the deck of the bubble.
“Drawing the force field in tight and using it to protect my fists is a great idea!” he thought.
Superwoman said, “I know them! They are members of the Legion of Super Villains from the future! “
The man in purple and blue gestured at her and her hood turned into lead!
She could not see but she was able to shatter the metal in seconds! She blasted him with super cold breath and he gasped in dismay!
“Cosmic King can transmute matter! Lightning Lord is a human dynamo, and Saturn Queen has super hypnosis!” she said.
Skeets darted forward at the red haired villainess and distracted her as the now unmasked Superwoman and Booster regrouped.
“We can take them!” he said confidently.
As Cosmic King changed his icy prison into air, he gestured at Skeets and the small robot’s exterior began to smoke!
“Acid!” cried Superwoman as she raced forward at super speed and knocked the villain out with one punch!
Skeets beeped and dropped down but regained his balance and said, “I am unhurt but my exterior has been damaged. You stopped him in the nick of time!”
“Thanks!” yelled Booster as he grappled with Lightning Lord.
“I’ll burn you alive!” shouted the furious villain!
“That’s entirely too melodramatic, don’t you think?” said Booster.
He ducked under the angry man’s arms and connected with a stunning “booster shot” of his own.
Saturn Queen stepped in and said, “Surrender! Your will is my now!”
Booster shuddered as he felt his arms stiffen and he lowered his guard. He couldn’t resist her compelling voice!
He closed his eyes as she came closer and placed her own hand on his chest. He had already dropped his force field in order to blast Lightning Lord.
Superwoman moved forward but Booster warned her back.
“Got to do this myself!” he said as he suddenly lurched forward and swept Saturn Queen into a passionate kiss!
He dropped her to the ground and smiled broadly. She was momentarily too flustered to exert any mental control over him!
“Well, that did the trick! It put her commands right out of my mind! Of course, it gave me other ideas too!” he said.
Skeets dropped down from above on to Saturn Queen’s head and knocked her out.
“I owed her that!” he declared.
He added, “We have preserved this historical event. My scans now indicate that Superman of 1975 reached Krypton of the past by mistake after investigating an alien sighting by a Professor Galsworthy. He eventually returned to his proper time but the experience on his home world was highly moving for him! Our foe wanted to have the Legion kill him while he was disoriented from his accidental braking of the time barrier in his haste to resolve Galsworthy’s sighting.”
As the three members of the Legion of Super Villains vanished along with their time bubble, Booster and his allies shifted through time once more.
“I think this is it! That’s the starship from my nightmares!” said Superwoman as they appeared once more on earth where a huge spacecraft entered the atmosphere.
Skeets said, “We appear to be in Tokyo in the year 2003! The ship belongs to …!”
Superwoman stared at it and said, “I know who owns it now that I see it up close. He is an old enemy of mine as well. He is called King Kosmos!”
5
“I don’t understand something though. Why aren’t we wraiths since we surely exist in this era. I thought if one travelled to a time in which they already lived, they became phantoms unable to interact with those in that era!” she said.
Booster said, “Yeah, Rip told me that but from what I understand that is not the case if you enter what may only be a possible future of many. This may not literally be our future! Plus, Rip integrated an advanced time device in my costume and in Skeets that enabled us to ignore that rule. I don’t actually understand the science involved. It seems Rip gained the device from one of his friends who came from very far in the future. Rip may have invented it himself when he was an old man!”
Superwoman didn’t answer but as she eyed the looming ship above them, she thought, “Or we could all be dead in this era and that’s why we’re still solid and not phantoms!”
She said, “We have to stop him before he can hurt Superman! Each time Skeets has tracked the threat down through time, we’ve arrived prior to the moment in which the attackers would actually make contact with Superman. If we’ve done that once more, we have time to shut down Kosmos before Superman even arrives!”
They were abruptly teleported aboard the huge ship where they faced a big man in gold and green armor. He was massive and he had a cruel expression on his coarse featured face. He looked like what he was: a ruthless tyrant who loved hurting others and exerting his own authority.
“I have crushed many an era beneath my boots but none shall satisfy me as well as seeing this time fall and to know it does so because I have killed Superman and his mate!” he said.
Superwoman said, “And yet as I told you when first we met, let history bear witness that no American ever had to bow to a tyrant! That includes time travelers like you, you cheap thug!”
King Kosmos laughed harshly and he stood up to tower over the defiant woman.
“Your history only reveals so much. I have seen how the story ends and you won’t be so arrogant when you become my slave!” he said.
He gestured and a blue-hued energy erupted from his gloves and surged across the ship toward Booster and Superwoman.
Booster jumped forward and expanded his force field outward directly at the energy.
It was deflected backward and struck King Kosmos himself. He roared in pain and fell backward. A moment passed and the Time Tyrant remained motionless!
Superwoman said, ‘He used that energy before. It stunned Superman himself. I guess he fell victim to his own weapon!”
Booster nodded and said, “He wasn’t so tough after all! My publicist could have handled him!”
Superwoman said, “At least Superman hasn’t arrived yet so my vision may never come true!”
At that moment, King Kosmos jumped up with surprising speed and struck a button on a nearby machine.
Both heroes and Skeets were contained within a white energy field that swelled in size and held them within its confining space.
“You primitive dolts! I am immune to my own weapons. Your skin will melt from your bones should you touch the field in which I’ve placed you. No human may pass through my stellar fire unharmed!” he said.
Booster tried to activate his force field but it crackled and died when it touched the edge of the white energy field.
“Your field can’t match my own! You will remain here to watch as I slay Superman. For days now I have been in my cloaked ship above your world. I have been striking Superman with red solar energy at random intervals and I have made it so he can’t detect these brief bursts. He has been saturated with enough red sun energy so that when he faces me, which he will soon enough, he will be weakened to the point where I can rip him apart!” he said.
Superwoman realized neither her powers nor her technology could pass through the field but she was desperate to save her husband!
At that moment the entire ship trembled as a newcomer smashed through the side and confronted the angry villain.
She was a tall, beautiful blonde with lovely features and a complexion that looked vaguely Asian-American; however, in truth her origins were far more exotic. She wore a blue long sleeved top that stopped just above her stomach. A red S emblem adorned the top and the blue fabric matched the mini-skirt she wore. She also wore a red cape and red high heeled boots.
“Supergirl?” asked a confused Booster.
“Jasma?” thought an equally shocked Superwoman.
“Don’t worry! I’ll teach this space age Stalin a lesson soon enough!” declared 2003’s Girl of Steel!
Moments earlier, Jasma Kent had been enjoying herself with her friends in Tokyo’s Take$#!*a Don (Street) in Harajuku Station. She spoke flawless Japanese and because of her striking looks, she was often mistaken for an Asian-American. She also loved coming to the fashion and shopping center where she could discuss and show off the latest designs she had created back in her Metropolis home. Jasma was a talented designer and she relished spending a few hours each week with similar minded young adults who shared her passion for cosplay and fashion. While her long hair was normally blonde, she wore it as a dark black color when she was not in her Supergirl costume. A special comb that had belonged to her late mother Kara enabled her to switch shades with a few quick strokes.
As she explained how she had fabricated the “sweet Lolita” rococo style dress she was wearing, she caught sight of a strange craft in the upper atmosphere. She was no stranger to alien spacecrafts and she was equally comfort with personal danger. She had been trained by her adoptive parents among others and she was already a very capable heroine.
“I have to go. See you next week!” she said as she rushed away from her friends and made a super swift change into her Supergirl costume after ducking behind a nearby boutique.
“I hated to cut my weekly visit short but I have to look into that ship and make sure it means no harm to anyone down here. I somehow doubt the pilot is here to snatch up Gothic Lolita dresses at bargain prices!” she joked.
She soared into the sky and scanned the ship with both her super hearing and super vision. She gasped as she recognized her adoptive mother and the famous Corporate Crusader Booster Gold.
“I’m not surprised to see Mom and her besty together but I didn’t know they were in Japan and I didn’t know she had gone back to her old costume! After all, I made her some really trendy new versions and I thought she was happy with them!” she thought.
She broke into the ship and faced the heroes and their brutish captor.
King Kosmos bellowed in rage.
“Not another member of the El dynasty! I’ll end your life now!” he said.
She dodged his energy bolts and danced aside before he could connect with his swinging fist.
She connected with an upper cut that knocked him back and then and spun around to deliver a stinging heel kick!
“So, this little brat knows advanced combat techniques! I never knew Superman to truly utilize such combat skills!” he said.
Supergirl kicked a console into his path and blasted him with super cold breath.
“Sorry, but I’m Daddy’s girl and he likes the way I fight! He just doesn’t need all my techniques because no one could ever beat him and no one ever will!” she said.
Supergirl punched Kosmos again and again but she was not doing more than containing him. He was inhumanly powerful.
He fired a green ray at her but it bounced off her chest harmlessly.
“Oh, and I’m not hurt by Kryptonite not even that synthetic kind you’re shooting around!” said Supergirl
She hit him again and his eyes rolled back into his head.
He fell hard but he hit a button on his armor and Supergirl vanished from view.
“That takes care of Superman’s spawn!” he declared.
Superwoman shuddered as she scanned the area. Had he merely send her adoptive daughter back to Earth or done something much worse to her?
She had no time to determine the truth since she saw a sight that made her heart leap into her throat. The older Superman of this time was heading straight for the ship as it rose into space just like in her vision!
Booster hesitated for a moment as he saw the now deactivated Skeets at his feet.
It seemed as if no technology or human flesh could survive contact with the white energy field.
He whispered, “I’m sorry, old buddy but I know you’d want us to win this one! I got to fall back on the skills I used before I ever put on this fancy costume or lost my football career!”
He picked up the little robot and hurled him straight through the white field at the control console that Kosmos had used to trap them. Skeets hit the right switch and the field vanished.
“Still got the old throwing arm!” mused Booster as he helped Superwoman up and they charged at King Kosmos.
Superwoman took command and she shouted, “Booster, use your mass dispersion field now!”
He nodded and aimed his gloves at the villain.
“I don’t really use this power much!” he admitted.
Superwoman said a silent prayer as she aimed her own opal amulet and concentrated a combination of teleportation and decorprealiztion energies on King Kosmos.
The Time Tyrant screamed in shock as his atoms were scattered through time and space by the contrasting forces aimed at him by the duo.
Superwoman sighed with relief as she and Booster and Skeets also vanished to appear in their own era.
“Just like his pawns when we beat Kosmos, his equipment returned to its original time and he had boasted about being from the end of time just before he came here to kill as many Supermen as he could!” she said.
As Skeets beeped and his lights brightened, Booster said, “I’ll polish those scratches and burns off your surface myself!”
Superwoman added, “We’ve saved Superman and I’m going to believe that means my Superman- the one from 1988- will never meet the fate shown in my visions. How can I thank you?”
Booster started to joke but then nodded seriously and said, “I was glad to help. It has been nice talking to someone from the future. I mean from years from this era. “
Superwoman took his hand and said, “We’re friends now. We’re going to talk a lot more in the days to come!”
She noticed his thoughtful expression and said, “I know what you are worried about but you don’t have to be. We did not kill King Kosmos. We merely scattered his molecules across time. He has the ability to repair himself. He truly is a master of all time travel technologies. I knew that before I told you to attack him as we did!”
Booster smiled and said, “I’m glad. I’m no killer. I’ve got a killer smile but that’s as close as I come!”
The new friends laughed with pleasure. It was the start of a friendship that would make history!
The End.