Teen Titans #39: "The White Rose" Pt. 3

[starlord]

Issue #39: “The White Rose” Pt. 3
Written by: Jay McIntyre
Cover by: Jamie Rimmer
Edited by: Brian Burchette

Once confined to fantasy and science fiction, time travel is now simply an engineering problem.
-Michio Kaku

Man ... can go up against gravitation in a balloon, and why should he not hope that ultimately he may be able to stop or accelerate his drift along the Time-Dimension, or even turn about and travel the other way.
-H.G. Wells

-1-

Daniel Chase was watching TV at home; his parents were both at work and he had “called in sick” from school. It wasn't the usual reason though. It wasn't that he “didn't want to go to school”; he was better than most kids at what they were teaching; to him it was easy, like toys for toddlers - especially the math. That was a breeze.

But the other kids, especially the big stupid ones, Tom and Josh, hated him for that. They kept beating him up. He already had bruised ribs from this, and his parents wouldn't believe him. He wanted a day off from that, thank you.

His computer was currently in the shop, so all he could do was watch TV. His parents wouldn't let him try to fix his own computer. He chafed at that, but arguing with them too much wouldn't just make them angry, it would make them suspicious. Daniel had already learned; keep your head down.

He was bored, sitting through the daytime game shows (what was this fad with showing pictures of a spaghetti-eating cat, anyway?) when to his astonishment, a gold and amber globe materialized in the living room.

Daniel's shock only grew when a hole opened in the side of the globe and a helmeted, mustached man stepped out and stared at him with a piercing gaze.

“Who....who are you, and what are you doing here?” Daniel asked, flabbergasted. “How did you even get here?” he added. Daniel was bright for his age, and he had an idea that teleporting was impossible, at least so far.

“I am usually referred to as the Lord of Time,” the man proclaimed. He fixed his gaze on Daniel's own eyes. “And you....will....obey...me,” he added firmly.

Daniel's jaw slipped open. He had a reasonably strong will, but had no forewarning of aggressive hypnosis, something else he thought was impossible.

“Indeed,” the Lord of Time went on, smiling thinly, “You will be of great use to me, Daniel.”

-2-

Kid Flash was sitting up in bed now, breathing slowly and painfully. He was awake, and aware, but every movement made his ribs feel like red hot pokers were being stuck into them, for all Raven's efforts.

“I should get back,” he said through gritted teeth.

“You can't even stand,” Nightwing said.

“And besides which,” Raven said, “Jay Garrick made certain to put you into my care. Specifically, Wallace. He wanted me to heal you back up to full strength. Even if you could somehow get back to Keystone or Central, there's nothing you could do there.”

“But everything that's happened--”

“Yes,” Nightwing cut him off. “That's why you're hors de combat.”

“Easy for you to say, mister triple identity,” Wally said sourly.

Nightwing smiled, but there was no humor in it. “I'm not in so much agony I can barely move. Look man, I understand. Really, I do. Being where I am right now, as you point out, means I understand better than most. But there's nothing you can do until you heal up.”

“Trust us, Wallace,” Raven said, sitting on the side of the bed and taking both of his hands in her own. Trust me. I will not fail you.”

Wallace looked into her eyes and his resistance melted. “Okay Rachel. For you.”

-3-

“Excellent work, Daniel,” the Lord of Time praised his young 'assistant.' The boy had been working on the temporal distortion machines for some time now, improving on the Lord of Time's own works in ways he had not anticipated. Better than he could have hoped. He had been looking for a bright person to help him with his machines, but this had exceeded his expectations.

Finally, the Justice League would fall before him.

-4-

Wonder Girl was floating in the air about two miles up from New York, depowered Green Lantern ring in her left hand, flag of the Green Lantern Corps draped over her right.

Kyle is dead.

Donna Troy had thought that after Kronos, perhaps things would settle down for a while. There was still the matter of Gaia....but even so...she had hoped....

Kyle is dead.

The youngest, brightest star of the Green Lanterns, the torchbearer for their future...and a young man she had slowly but surely grown closer to.

Kyle is dead.

She was not brazen like Tara or driven by passion like Kory; she had not known Kyle that long and was not so ready to become physically intimate with any man. But she had cared for him, and believed in him, had eventually wanted to invite him to join the Titans as, at the very least, an associate member......

Kyle is dead.

But then he had gone on a very important mission to Oa, which had been the home of the Green Lantern Corps once before, and now, due in no small part to his actions, was again....but....but....

Kyle is dead.

Donna screamed. Once. She hung her head and let the tears flow, holding herself and shaking.

She would never forget.

She flew back to the Tower somewhat unsteadily. She remembered something Superman had said once.

“All my powers,” Superman had said, “And I couldn't even save him.”

Donna had no idea who Superman had been talking about. But she certainly understood the sentiment - now more than ever.

Dick was standing outside the Tower waiting when she got back.

He said no words; no words were needed. He just hugged her.

She blew a sigh over his shoulder. “He could have been one of us,” she said.

“I met him,” Nightwing answered. “I worked with him. He was unsteady, but eager. He helped me when I really needed it.”

“He should have been one of us,” Donna said, bitterly.

“I know,” was all Nightwing could say.

She let go of him and stomped into the Tower to put away Kyle's things.

“Sorry, Kyle,” Nightwing said to the air, then followed her inside.

-5-

Rose knew that Kid Flash was still on the injured list. And while she didn't know the Green Lanterns at all, she saw Wonder Girl come in with the relevant artifacts, in the mood she was in, and got the general context.

Nightwing followed Wonder Girl in, looking sadly after her. Then his gaze shifted to Rose.

He stared at her until she shrugged unhappily back at him.

“I'm surprised you haven't talked to Tara yet,” he said.

Rose made a sour face and shrugged again.

“Talkative,” he said.

“Seems to me you should be talking to Wonder Girl or Flasher,” she responded.

“There's always something,” Nightwing agreed.

Before Rose could answer, Cyborg's voice crackled over the Tower intercom. “Disturbance in Reyon Shores. Some sort of shimmering distortion. There's been sightings of a locomotive off the rails...and a....dinosaur?”

Nightwing grimaced. “As ever, business doesn't stop for casualties. Duty calls.”

-6-

The group assembled (including Raven for the first time since Kid Flash's injury) outside of a silver, shimmering bubble that covered the entire Reydon Shores area. A twisted, shimmering reflection of them stared back.

“Oooh, I don't like this,” Rose said, taking a step back.

“We don't have to like it,” Terra said.

“No, I mean, it's messing with my precog. Even a few seconds into the future is blurry.”

Nightwing blinked. “Someone's messing with time travel?”

Cyborg grit his teeth. “She's right, I'm scanning now....yep, it's a mess. Artron radiation, Chronon radiation, Blinovitch radiation. Deliberate interference with the timestream.”

“Paging STAR labs, anyone?” Nightwing said.

“Forget that. Paging Doctor Who!” Beast Boy said.

Terra and Cyborg laughed, but their good humor faded quickly. This was serious.

“Maybe we should call the Just--” Nightwing began, but he was interrupted by the roar of what must have been the dinosaur that had been reported earlier.

“Great, a big lizard, means we don't have to hold back,” Terra said, grinning. She clenched her fists and they began to glow.

“No,” Cyborg shook his head. “We could destroy all of history if we kill it. Butterfly effect.”

“If it stays here history will be destroyed anyway,” Wonder Girl pointed out.

“So we knock it out and figure out a way to send it back,” Nightwing said.

-7-

The terrible lizard in question was a Tyrannosaurus Rex. It was not the great and fearsome predator science had once made it out to be; they had since applied a little revisionism and declared it an opportunistic scavenger. But even that description supposed one was pitting it against other dinosaurs and creatures of it's own era. Humans—even humans armed with modern weaponry—did not intimidate it.

It had eaten three people and was chasing down a fourth when Wonder Girl connected with it's head at speed. Gaging how to hit this thing was tricky; certainly it was tougher than your average human, but how much punishment could it take? They wanted to subdue it, not kill it. The reasons might have more to due with causality than morality, but the essential problem was the same.

Dagon found himself nearly useless. He didn't know how much damage he could safely do it with his claws, and feeding on it wasn't really a viable option either. Of all of them, he was perhaps the most nervous about the risks involved to the timeline in dealing with the thing. So he settled for leaping in with his enhanced speed and strength and shoulder-ramming it in its legs, trying to bring it down.

Terra tried pummeling it with small rocks, hoping to stun it, but in this case the creature's relatively small brain worked to its advantage; the reptilian skull absorbed most of the impact, and it shook off what grogginess it did suffer and snapped at her. She ducked back.

Wonder Girl and Cyborg bashed at it with their strength, and Nightwing threw concussion grenades at it, but really they seemed to annoy it more than anything else.

Starfire found herself frustrated; her starbolts weren't affecting the beast overmuch.

Raven didn't want to be there; Wally still needed her help and healing. But she threw up her soul self and tried to pacify the thing, put it to sleep. It roared and snapped at the dark shape.

Rose wanted nothing to do with it. The fact that this time travel business was interfering with her precognition scared her. And the amulet would be no protection if the dinosaur decided she'd be a tasty snack. She backed off. It was her father's teachings that prompted her to do so, but Nightwing nodded in approval anyway.

Beast Boy, on the other hand, was almost having fun. He morphed into a giant green dragon and had a face-off with the thing, roaring and shouting back at it.

“Hey 'wing!” he roared in obvious delight. “Reminds you of the stuffed one in the cave?”

“Number one,” Nightwing said as he tried to help Dagon knock the thing down, “Those aren't good memories for me right now. Number two, say it a little louder; maybe all of Long Island will hear you.”

Beast Boy was less than pleased with this response, but took out his frustrations on the T Rex, by headbutting it. “There's a creationism versus evolution debate for ya, live on Pay Per View!”

“Beastie Boy,” Terra said.

“Yeah?”

“Please, please, please shut up.”

“Phooey.”

“But keep it busy,” Cyborg added. “I got an idea.”

Beast Boy's green dragon collided with the behemoth and knocked it back. The two titanic forms struggled, and everyone else scrambled to get out of the way, as Cyborg reprogrammed his white noise cannon.

When he fired it again they felt, more than saw, waves of distortion rippling through the air. The terrible lizard howled, and fell.

“Well, that's one problem down,” Rose said, pinching her nose as her precog continued to be fuzzy and vague. “What next?”

-8-

They found the derailed train moments later. Only, it had no business being there. The anachronistic engine and the old fashioned clothing of the engineer and passengers told them that. Nightwing and Cyborg identified it as being from about 1908 or so. “Stay on the train,” Nightwing advised the injured, shell-shocked passengers. Wide eyed with wonder and horror, they nodded.

“If any of them die, or have suffered serious injury, we might all vanish,” Wonder Girl
said.

“Maybe our history already changed, and we just don't know it,” Beast Boy said. “Like that time crisis thing, remember?”

Everybody groaned. “I'm trying to forget that, thanks,” Dagon said.

“In any case,” Nightwing said, tiredness and frustration showing through, “We need to minimize and contain the damage, yes?”

Everybody nodded.

“That leaves the next problem,” said Cyborg. “Going in there,” he pointed at the silver bubble. “Clearly, the distortion emanates from it.”

“But if, like, we go inside, might we get thrown back into history, or something?” Terra frowned.

“Or the future,” Dagon muttered in a low voice.

“I don't know. Maybe the source of the distortion is in the past or the future,” Cyborg said, still scanning the thing. “I do know that this is no natural phenomenon. It's artificially created. Someone's doing this on purpose.”

“It's too bad it's messing with Rose's precog,” Nightwing sighed. “It would be the perfect way to determine if it's safe. Perhaps magic is the answer,” he said, looking at Raven.

She nodded thoughtfully, trying not to show how hurt she was that they would risk her soul-self in such a way. Her shadowy power reached out and pushed against the bubble....then slipped through.

“There is some resistance, but no pain,” Raven said, pulling her soul-self back unharmed. “It is safe in itself....though I have no way of knowing what opposition we may face.”

“Well, that's part of the job description,” Nightwing said. “Cyborg, keep scanning as we go through. Your readings and analysis may be the key to all this.”

One by one, they stepped through, with only a modicum of resistance. Rose went last, eyes anxious.

-9-

Once through, Terra threw up. It was the first time she had done that in a while; she had hoped her new power situation was settling down. No such luck. Beast Boy steadied her, and shot her another look; she was still going to have to see Dr. Caulder. She wiped her mouth and rolled her eyes; she still had no enthusiasm for the idea.

When Rose got through, she had a momentary pounding headache; and then her precog cut out entirely. She whimpered in fear.

The others were looking around. A couple residential blocks were within. But...

“It seems that there is more within than was apparent without.” Cyborg said, frowning at his readings. “It also seems....that we aren't in the past or the future....we're kind of in a temporal neutral zone...taken outside of time. Though there's definitely some future tech being used to create this whole mess.”

“This is reminding me more and more of that time crisis,” Nightwing said, scowling.

The main distortions are coming from....that building,” Cyborg pointed. “On the third floor.”

As they got closer, they could see flickering golden and silver lights from within.

“Whoever it is probably has defenses if we go through the front door,” Cyborg said, frowning.

Sure enough, they could see a trio of sleek, gleaming robots standing inside the glass-door lobby.

“That ain't no past history detachment,” Rose said.

“It's either very advanced present day or....” Nightwing trailed off.

“Future,” said Cyborg grimly.

They had thought they were a safe distance away, but evidently the three robots had more advanced sensors then that. They came smashing through the glass and blurring at them at unnatural speeds.

Once again, they wished for Wally, who could have outpaced even these science fiction marvels. So it was Cyborg and Wonder Girl who stepped to the fore, and Dagon just behind them, who could match the mechanicals speed.

The Robots, for their part, had tactical programming par excellance, so they rightfully went for those two selfsame strongest members of the group, two on Wonder Girl, one on Cyborg.

They were fast, and they battered away at Donna and Victor. Donna was merely annoyed by them. Victor was rattled and banged; their metals were superior to his armor and they were faster. But they couldn't take him down with their initial strikes.

He grabbed the robot's left arm while Dagon grabbed it's right. They pulled....but the arms weren't coming free. Raven added her soul self to the equation and that was that. It's arms came off and it's power failed.

Wonder Girl absorbed the enemy attacks more easily, and they noted this; one extended a white hot plasma blade from it's right wrist, the other exuded an glowing violet energy whip from it's left hand. Wonder Girl simply ducked both strikes, and the weapons sizzled together. She then grabbed the weapon wielding arms and pushed them so hard they broke at the elbows. The energy weapons faded away to nothing, and she used the dismembered limbs to bash the robots heads in.

“She's not a woman,” Beast Boy quoted in the ensuing silence. “She's a Terminator.” Terra laughed; everybody else just gave Gar one of those looks.

“As I was going to say before they so rudely interrupted us,” Cyborg said, dusting himself off, “The enemy, whoever it is, probably expects us to come through the front door. So with that attack, they're even more likely to think that.”

Nightwing nodded, then smiled his first genuine smile in a very long time. “Then we'll do this my way. Come on guys, we've got some climbing to do.”

-10-

Daniel Chase was wired into several different computers and temporal distortion machines, wires connected to his temples and hands. He sat slack jawed and drooling. His eyes were glazed and unfocused. Behind him, the Lord of Time stalked back and forth, chuckling; addressing Daniel but truthfully talking to himself.

“You should be grateful, Daniel. You were deprived of your own computer, not even allowed to repair it; I have given you access to computing machines far beyond the dreams of your era. And you have become one of the most important figures in history; with your help I shall have a power base from which I can summon entities from any era. With them, I shall finally defeat the Justice League and conquer this planet, rewriting history in my own favor once and for all.”

Abruptly there was a smash of glass, and several heavy thuds. Frowning, the Lord of Time darted into the next room.

For a moment he stared, nonplussed. “...You're not the Justice League,” he finally said.

“Sorry, they're busy today,” Beast Boy quipped. “I'm afraid the understudies will have to do.”

“Ah....wait....” the Lord of Time narrowed his eyes and nodded in understanding. “You're those precocious Titan children. I confess to being slightly disappointed, but you shall serve my purpose well enough. Several of you owe your very heroic careers, if not your lives, to the League; in some cases you are almost their children.” His gaze settled on Rose, and he smirked. “Or the children of the second rate rabble that oppose them.”

Rose bristled. “This coming from a guy who looks like he stepped out of a Science Fiction straight to DVD production?” she shot back.

He smiled thinly. “I am the Lord of Time; some of you may have heard of me.” He focused on Nightwing. “Especially you, Grayson. The historical records are most interesting. Going by the context of your team makeup, I presume you are...what's the archaic saying? Burning the candle at both ends, so to speak?”

“You might say that,” Nightwing agreed. “I recognize you from Batman's files. I don't have all your knowledge, of course, but from what I've read, I'm betting you're still smarting from when the League beat you in the old west. You're tripping over your own timeline; you're neck-and-neck with your first meeting with the League right now. Messing with your own timeline doesn't bother you?”

“How can you tell all that?” Rose asked.

“Oh, he's observant, is your leader,” the Lord of Time conceded willingly enough. “Yes, I still bear the scars of that meeting in the 1800s. As for my own timeline, this century's notions of the laws of time travel are laughable. The Time Crisis should have taught you that. To say nothing of recent encounters the Flash and the Justice Society have had, or even your own previous experiences of alternate timelines. In any event, you are a sufficient appetizer. Your destruction will bring the League running; their knowledge of your deaths will sweeten my revenge!”

“Is this guy for real?” Beast Boy wondered aloud.

“Yes, he's for real....a real, genuine platinum-plated idiot,” Terra answered.

The Lord of Time sneered. “Juvenile opinions in both senses of the word,” he said. “Time for you brats to meet your end.”

The Titans charged him en masse. The Lord of Time made a casual gesture, and a force field snapped into being and knocked them back, stunned.

Dagon and Cyborg were the first ones on their feet again. Cyborg was working his white noise cannon, trying to adjust the frequency to something that would break the shield.

“Your efforts are futile, Mister Stone,” the Lord of Time chided him. “My technology is centuries ahead of yours. Didn't your father teach you anything?”

Cyborg did not rise to the bait, but kept adjusting the frequency.

“One thing that doesn't change from age to age,” said Dagon. “Blood is blood.” He began to bull his way through the shield, leading with his right shoulder.

The Lord of Time blinked, impressed. “Your determination does you credit,” he said, then pulled a weapon and shot Dagon with a bolt of brilliant golden energy. The vampire screamed and fell. “You are an interesting specimen,” the time traveler said to the vampire's writhing form. “Perhaps I shall perform some experiments on you, and set you loose in some other era. Perchance you will become the source of the legends about your kind; a fine irony if there ever was one.”

Raven and Rose were now back on their feet. Raven's soul self sizzled against the shield, but she did not have the luck Dagon had.

“First things first, however,” the time traveler said, and snapped his fingers. There was a flash of teleportation, and suddenly Rose found herself on his side of the barrier. She grinned and swung her staff at him, hard.

He blocked it with his gauntleted forearm easily. “The first to die shall be the least of you,” he said, taking Rose by the throat and lifting her into the air. She choked and sputtered, legs windmilling. “The brat of your mercenary foe....Deathstroke, wasn't it?” he smiled cruelly. “The family ties that bind weigh heavy on you, don't they little one? Well, worry not; they shall trouble you no more.”

Rose spat in his face.

The Lord of time scowled in fury. “I had planned a more elaborate death for you, little one, but perhaps something more visceral shall suffice.” He began to tighten his grip.....


To Be Continued!


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