Friends
Written by Amazonia V
Chapter 17:
Fanci was reluctant to open her eyes. She felt warm and cosy, cocooned in a sheer hug of well-being. Pink and yellow rays of light swirled in delicate patterns all around her in the darkness of the womb-pod. Her breath came in white clouds that mixed briefly with the glow of lights before it dissipated quickly. Alternately, the lights on the rim of the pod flickered, giving the scene an orange glow. Fanci felt the heat from the orange lights on her skin, warming her body. Her bones ached and her skin was sore, but she was alive.
Fanci opened her eyes. She lay in the darkness for a while, trying to remember where she was and what she was doing here. Slowly the events came back to her. The shooting, the pain, the memory of Hal Jordan of the 21st century time sector...
The womb-pod registered her return to consciousness and released another compound into the air, while sending out radio signals and changing the colour of its external shell to green.
Inside the machine, Fanci's heart pumped more strongly, the blood surged within her and a burst of adrenalin fed her muscles and her brain. She breathed deeply, her skin tingled, her muscles ached, and her mind felt contentment.
She felt absolutely marvelous.
Black Star's ComBot received the signal, alerting him. He turned to the group with him and smiled broadly, pointing to the womb-pod, which was now glowing with a soft green colour. "Fanci's recovered consciousness," he announced.
"She has?" asked Green Lantern, hope soaring within his chest. Maybe now that meddlesome woman would tell this super-cop legionary that Green Lantern was free from blame. As soon as he was free, he was going to get Fanci alone in a corner, where no one could see them and shake her hard for not being honest with him. Maybe in the future, women...
"How do we talk to her?" Superman's voice broke into his thoughts.
"Well, Fanci and I generally use the ComBots to communicate, but you'll have to use your voice," said Black Star brightly.
Wonder Woman suppressed a smile. It was rare to hear someone state the obvious to Superman.
Then Black Star's cheeks turned pink. "Sorry," he said, "I didn't mean to sound condescending. I spoke without thinking. As soon as the womb-pod has finished doing its work, it will click open and you'll be able to talk to her."
As if to prove his words, the machine gave a gentle whirring sound, and there was soft click as the two halves of the pod separated.
As they watched, a hand slid between the halves and pushed the top part up.
The face looking back at them registered shock, wonder and amazement.
"Superman, Wonder Woman, what are..." began Fanci and stopped, confusion marking her face. Then she turned a little to look at Green Lantern and began again, "Hal, I..."
The words died in her throat as Hals' lips descended to devour her mouth in a demanding kiss. With slow deliberation his mouth met hers. His kiss was savage, fierce, impatient. His insistent lips pushed hers apart as his tongue probed forcefully inside the welcoming warmth, claiming and extracting from her responses she tried to withhold but was powerless to prevent. The kiss went on and on.
Just when she feared she would faint from lack of breath, he drew away, his piercing gaze probing intently, as he said, "Fanci, don't you ever scare me like that again." His voice rose slightly, "Do you hear me?" Hal practically yelled at her.
Embarrassed and coping with new emotions, Fanci tried to avoid looking at the other heroes in the hover craft. Wonder Woman merely raised one beautiful brow before she walked forward to embrace Fanci, whispering in her ear, "Don't worry about Hal, his bark is worse than his bite." As she came out of the embrace, she said, "Well, Fanci, it's time to tell us everything. We meet your Council in a little while."
It was a pensive group that disembarked from the hovercraft.
As they walked towards the Senate, Fanci continued to talk. She didn't know why the JLA had not responded to the Legion's message about her undercover assignment. She paused a moment to walk through a doorway, emerging in a figure hugging body suit that was standard issue for federal agents.
She verified that Hal Jordan had indeed been responsible for a closed loop. Inadvertently, while recharging his power ring, his thoughts had strayed briefly to the future and to reports of the Timor that the Oans had sent to the GL corps. The combined power of the battery and his power ring and Green Lantern's thoughts combining with the intensity of his will had opened the force field briefly, allowing the Timor to enter the 21st century. Since the Green Lantern named Hal Jordan had behaved so strangely with her, she had felt unable to trust him with her role and identity. She didn't know if he had turned rogue.
Fanci had felt the elemental residue of time travel when she had met Indira Dhody, who she suspected was none other than a Timor group leader. She mentioned the bracelet that the Indira Dhody had been wearing and her own recognition of the metal it was made from. A metal only recently discovered 3025, in fact, Fanci had a similar one in her own closet here in Cosmopolis. The group listened intently as she listed each point.
Entering the anteroom of the Octagon, Black Star paused. The panel displaying the history of the 21st century was rapidly moving, pictures forming, a blur of events, some moments of clarity, then blurring again.
With growing consternation, the group watched the panel in silence. The effects of the Timor's crimes against time had already begun
In the JLA headquarters in the 21st century, J'onn watched in amazement as the Batman, Plastic Man, Green Arrow and Flash disappeared from around the Council room. As he continued to watch, he realized that the JLA headquarters itself was slowly dissolving, leaving huge empty spaces as features vanished.
Black Canary, the sole other JLA'er remaining, began to gasp for breath as the compressed chambers were opened to space. Afraid that she might die, J'onn quickly lifted her into his arms, then flew to the teleport tube that was yet unaffected, activating it for Earth.
As they landed in Metropolis, J'onn took in the changed look of the city in one quick glance. As a reviving Black Canary gratefully took huge gasps of air, J'onn realized that they had landed in the midst of a war.
Sending out his thought waves, the Martian attempted to discover exactly what was happening and seek help from the other metas and heroes.
As he reached into the brain-waves of the JLA'ers who had vanished, he quickly discovered startling facts:
Bruce Wayne was simply Bruce Wayne, billionaire playboy, playing golf unconcernedly. J'onn's attempts to probe for Batman's mind and thought processes met with nothing. It was as if there was no Batman, had never been.
Flash was a happily married man who didn't display any knowledge of the ability to move faster than light.
And as for Green Arrow, he was no longer the Emerald Archer. As J'onn probed his mind, he realized that this new Oliver Queen was simply focused on one thing - pleasure for Oliver Queen.
Plastic Man was had somehow retained his ability to stretch and mould himself. But it was a very different Plastic Man. He was a freak attraction in an amusement park where he kept 75% of all takings.
Martians never felt emotion, not as humans did, but J'onn could swear that he was confused and astounded. Returning his gaze to Black Canary, who was watching him, he told her of the changes.
"But why hasn't anything happened to us?" asked Black Canary
"I don't know," admitted J'onn, "and its not likely that we'll know soon. We need to, perhaps, put this behind us and find out what this war is about."
The Kryptonian fleet was a colourful spectacle. Each battle-cruiser differed slightly from all the others, to distinguish each commander, each was embellished differently.
Every ship was an individual, named and painted to reflect the personality of the commander who led it. Although they each differed in detail, colour, size and style, they were all built to a similar design. A double hull, joined by a wide wing with a serrated front edge. Above and to the front of the wing was a third hull, built in the shape of a sweeping dorsal fin. It was wider at the base where it joined the wing and reached out on either side to each of the other two hulls. At the top it narrowed until it swept back to a final point. The whole of this third hull was ribbed and the fin had a saw-tooth front edge. Each edge could fire omega beams that that could lay waste huge cities.
As Commander Kara looked out over the fleet, she thought briefly of how pretty and colourful the ships looked against the darkness of space.
And ahead of them, the third planet of this primitive star system, Earth was growing visibly larger.
(Author's note: Some scenes in this chapter are a tribute to the fanfic penned by ben10987654321a titled 'Invasion Earth'.)