Re: *Timelines Collide* -BFF's only-

Back in a lab in a Compound,  Reed was fiddling with buttons on a panel. Karen was wearing her bumblebee costume in front of her van, with the back open to show the Quantum Tunnel. Dick and Kaldur we're standing next to Reed, checking out everything as he messed with the buttons.


Reed said," Okay, here we go. Time travel test number one. Karen, fire up the uhhh... the van thing."


Bumblebee opened the portal, looking at it and just thinking of the last time she had gone in.

"Breakers are set, emergency generators are on standby," Kaldur told Reed.

"Good. 'Cause if we blow the grid, I don't wanna lose Tiny here in the 1950's," Reed said, earning panic looks from the others

Bumblebee said, "Uh, excuse me? "


Dick chuckled, calling," He's kidding" he then gave Reed a look and asked in hushed tone to Reed, "You can't say things like that!"

"Right, un....Just... It was a bad joke" Reed said with a confident look.

Dick asked, " You were kidding, right?"

" I have no idea. We're talking about time travel here. Either it's all a joke, or none of it is," Reed said before loudly giving bumblebee a thumbs up and said, " We're good! Get your helmet on, Karen. I'm gonna send you back a week, let you walk around for an hour, then bring you back in 10 seconds. Makes sense?"

"Yeah, perfectly not confusing, " Bumblebee said with a small thumbs up of her own.

"Good luck, Karen. You got this, " Kaldur told her.

"Hmph. Damn right I do, " bumblebee said as she put her hands on her hips.

Reed then pressed a buttob, sending bumblebee into the quantum tunnel.

"On the count of three. 3... 2... 1!" Reed said before pressing another button, and someone in her Bumblebee suit comes back.  And it was a teenager?

"Uh, guys? This...this doesn't feel right," The teenage Karen said, inspecting her body.

"Reed, what is this? " Kaldur asked.

Dr Richards muttered to himself, "

"Is that....?" Dick had met Karen as a teenager and recognized her, but he was confused as to why she converted back to her teenage self.

Reed continue to press a couple of buttons, trying to fix the mistake,"Hold on."

"Karen, is that you? " Dick asked, so confused. He never did get science. That was more Wally's thing.

"Yes it's me!" Karen said, wondering what the hell was going on before she got sucked in back into the quantum tunnel, and it appeared to be an old woman in her Bumblebee suit.

The old Karen grabbed at her back, exclaiming, "Ow! My back!"
"What is this?" Kaldur asked Reed, going up to him.

"Can I get a little space here," Read slightly snapped at the atlantean.

"Yeah yeah. Can you bring him back?" Kaldur asked.

"I'm working on it!" Reed told him as he tapped on some more buttons, trying to bring the regular Karen back.

After a moment, another person appears in front of them. This time, It was a baby in Karen's bumblebee suit.

"That's a baby," Kaldur stated, giving the scientist a look that said, " really ?"

"That's Karen, " Reed said, gesturing to the baby.

"As a baby! "

"She'll grow!"

"Bring her back! " Kaldur demanded.

Reed motioned to Dick, "When I say kill the power, kill the power, " he told him.

"You've got the kidding me," dick muttered as he rapidly walked over to the power switch.

" And... Kill it!"

Dick pulled down a lever, and everything shut down. Karen, the normal Karen got spewed back out again.

Reed held up his his hands in a dramatic way, "Time travel!"

Kaldur shook his head, simply walking away needing a minute.

" What? I..I see this as an absolute win!" Reed said, knowing what happened by it was still time travel.

Kaldur had walked outside of the compound, letting out a breath and wondering if their plan was going to work or not. So far, it wasn't looking promising. Deep down, he wondered if it was even possible. But then he heard the sound of a loud car and saw one coming down the street.

Steph.

Steph was driving a bit too fast and pulled up her luxurious car before stopping. She backed a little and rolled down the window. She only needed to take one look at Kaldur to know something had gone wrong. "Why the long face? Let me guess: He turned into a baby." She said.

Kaldur was a bit embarrassed about how right she'd been but he didn't lie. "Among other things, yeah," he said before he asked. "What are you doing here?"

Steph ignored his question. "That's the EPR Paradox-" she started explaining as she stepped out of the car. "Instead of pushing Karen through time, you might've wound up pushing time through Karen. It's tricky. Dangerous. Somebody should've cautioned you against it," she told him, knowing she did, but she just loved to prove her point.

"You did," Kaldur gave her that.

"Oh, did I?" Steph acted like she didn't before she smiled. "Thank God I'm here. Regardless, I fixed it," she said, holding up her hand with a device that reminded you of a watch. "A fully functioning Time-Space GPS," she said, lowering her hand and making a silly peace sign. "I just want peace. Turns out, resentment is corrosive, and I hate it..." She said, leaning against the car.

"Me too," Kaldur nodded.

"We got a shot at getting these stones, but I gotta tell you my priorities: Bring back what we lost? I hope, yes," Steph said before she looked at Kaldur, totally serious. "Keep what I got? I have to, at all costs." She stood up and walked over, adding just to joke a little. "And... maybe not die trying, would be nice."

Kaldur smiled before he held his hand out to Steoh. "Sounds like a deal," he said, glad that Steph accepted his hand before he followed her as she walked to the back of her car, opening the trunk lid. She held out his old water bearers that she had fixed after they got damaged in the last fight against Ultron.

"Steph... I don't know," Kaldur said, since he had stepped down as Aqualad after the snap.

"Why? There's no one else that can use them," Steph stated, since he needed a weapon and only Atlanteans who studied magic could wield them. "Plus, honestly I have to get them out of the garage before Morgan starts playing with them."

"Thank you," Kaldur said, really appreciating the offer even though she tried to play it off as if it was nothing when she really didn't have to fix them.

Steph only nodded a little since he really didn't need to mention it. "Will you keep that a little quiet? Didn't bring gifts for the whole team," she said, closing the trunk before she looked at him. "...We are getting the whole team, yeah?"

Kaldur nodded. "We're working on that right now."

(Ugh, I did halfway as a post but then I had to go to the bathroom and when I came back, I hit something on my phone and it exited out and I wasn't able to go back and restore it )

Later, the Benatar landed in the yard of the Team's Compound. Karen was sitting having a Taco and some Nachos at a bench, and everything falls out of the taco as the Benatar lands. Cyborg and Dex-Starr walk out of the ship, and past Karen 

Dex-Starr called over, "Hey, humie! Where's Stretch?"

Karen grout out, not appreciating the nickname, "Kitchen, I think." Then Karen saw cyborg and she whistled, grinning to herself. "Hey, heavy metal. "

Cyborg chuckled and said into his com that was built into his ear, " careful on the entry, Blue, there is a flirt in the landing zone. "

Moments later, just as Karen was getting back to her senses, Jaime landed right in front of her without warning. 

This time Karen got so surprised and, she dropped the whole taco. "Jesus!"

"What's up?" Jaime teased, walking inside.

Then Reed walked out of the Compound. Seeing that  Karen how to drop her taco, Reed gave her both of his lunches before heading towards the ship.

 Karen accepted it, but not before giving a puzzling look at this act of kindness.

The two of them take the ship all the way to Norway before pitching a ride on the back of a pickup truck.

They stopped at a small town on a port. Reed and Dex-Starr get out of the car, and look around at the remaining  normal humans at a port.]

"Kind of a step down from a golden palace and magic hammers and whatnot,"Dex-Starr said to Reed, remembering what kind of planet the Hawks were from.

"Hey, have a little compassion, pal. First they've lost Thanagat , then half the people. They're probably just happy to have a home." Then he spotted Nudge, one of Storms only living " relatives ".

 "As happy as I am to see you guys, you  shouldn't have come!" The beautiful brown winged girl said.

"Good to see you, chatterbox,"Reed teased her.

Nudge inspected him. " Dr Richards, you look... Different. "

Rerd then motioned to his feline companion. "This is Dex-Starr."

"How you doin'?"

Nudge-eyed Dex-Starr, resisting the urge to pet the cat before Angel, the youngest of Storm's siblings, walked up to them, " She won't see you. "

"That bad, huh?"

"We only see her once a month, when she comes for... " Nudge looked over to a pile of kegs of stout and other beer on the side"..... supplies".

Reed sucked in a breath. "It's that bad. "

Without looking at them, Nudge said, " Yeah. "

A second later, they walked over to the door, opening it and exchanged a look before walking in.


Dex-Starr grimaced at the smell. "What the... Woo! Something died in here."

Reed looked around. "Hello? Storm? "

From another room, Storm called, " Are you here for the cable?"

She walked into view, shocking both of them because.... WOW.

(I REFUSE to have her be overweight XD I mean, by what Thor was anyway)

Storm's hair had grown really long, and look like it hadn't been brushed in a month or two. Or maybe a year. She wore Crocs with dirty, baggy sweatpants, and a shirt that had all kinds of stains on it and was way too big for her. " Cinemax has been out for 2 weeks and the sports has been fuzzy...." She grabbed another beer.

"Storm? " Reed couldn't believe his eyes. That wasn't the same girl he had met years ago. Didn't look like her anyway.

She finally noticed Reed and Dex-Starr  standing there before cracking into joy. " BOYS! Oh my God! Its so to see you! Dex, Come here, you little rascal!"
 
Growling, Dex-Starr said, "No, I'm good. I'm good. That's not necessary."

"Reed, you remember my brothers, Iggy and Gazzy?" Storm said, motioning to them.

They weresitting on a couch, PlayStation controller in hand, playing Fortnite and eating chips.
Iggy said, " Hey guys!"

Reed waved to them. "Hey ,uh, Nice to meet you two."

"Beer's on the bucket. Feel free to log on to the Wi-Fi. No password, obviously," Iggy said.


"Storm, he's back. The kid on the TV that called me a dickhead again," Gazzy told his older sister.

Storm rolled her eyes. "NoobMaster."

Gazzy nodded. "Yeah, NoobMaster69 called me a dickhead."

Storm walked over and grabbed his headphones, before speaking into the mic, "NoobMaster. Hey, it's Storm again. You know, the God of Thunder? Listen, buddy. If you don't log off this game immediately, I'm gonna fly over to your house, come down to that basement you're hiding in, rip off your arms and SHOVE THEM UP YOUR BUTT! Oh, that's right, go cry to your father, you little weasel!"

Gazzy was cackling as he got his headphones back. " Thanks, Storm. "

"Let me know if he bothers you again, okay?" She told him. Then she turned back to her guests. " you guys want a drink? What are you drinking? We have beer, tequila, all sorts of things." Then she used storm breaker to open a beer and took a drink of it.

Reed walked to her and places a hand on her shoulder. "Honey you all right?"

" I'm fine! Why, don't I look all right?" 

Concerned,Dex-Start said, "You look like melted ice cream."

Storm only laughed. "So, what's up?"
 
"We need your help. There might be a chance we could fix everything."

"What, like the cable? " She burped. " Cause that's been driving me bananas for weeks."

 Reed said carefully, "Like Thanos."

Storms smile slowly disappears. She puts a shaky hand on Reed's shoulder and points at him. "Don't say that name."

Iggy stood up and took off his headphones. "Um, yeah. We don't actually say that name in here."

Reed said quietly, "Please take your hand off me. " He brushed her hand off his shoulder. " Now, I know that... guy might scare you."

"Why would I be? Why would, why would I be scared of that guy? I'm the one who killed that guy, remember? Anyone else here killed that guy? Nope. Didn't think so. Ig, why don't you, tell everybody who chopped Thanos' big head off." 

"Umm... Stormbreaker?"

Storm just gave him a look. " Now who's swinging storm ranger? "

"I get it. You're in a rough spot, okay? I've been there myself. Now, when Stephanie was in a hard spot, you want to know who helped her?" Reed said.

"Pft, don't know. Is it... Wally?"

"It was you. You helped her."
Storm walked over and looks out the window and points, still holding her beer" Why don't you ask the, Thanagarians down there, how much my help was worth."  Then she drops onto the sofa. "The ones that are left, anyway..."

Reed said, "I think we can bring them back."

Storm shook her head. "Stop. stop, okay?" She opened up a pack of m&M's. " I know you think I'm down here wallowing in my own self-pity, waiting to be rescued and and saved. But I'm fine, okay? We're fine, aren't we?"


Gazzy said, "Nah, all good here, mate."


"So, whatever it is that you're offering, we're not into it, don't care, couldn't care less. Goodbye."


Reid said, " We need you, hun."

Storm only shook her head, not being able to go back to all of that. To losing everyone. She was just glad that most of her family was unaffected by fucking Thanos. She was content on where she was.

Dex-Starr crossed his arms. "There'sbeer on the ship."

Storm paused, thinking about it before asking, " What kind? " "

In Hanoi, Vietnam, Nightwing had flown to find a former team member who somewhat haf gone off rails after the snap.

At a nightclub in the city of Hanoi there laid loads of dead bodies of Yakuza members. Yakuza were somewhat a similar group to the Shadows, only murderers and out to win for their own gain. Artemis, or as she went by now, Tigress, was there to put an end to that. One of the members yelled in Vietnamese. ", It's her! She's after Akihiko!" They blasted fire, trying to protect themselves, perhaps more than their leader, but got stroked in their throats by crossbow arrows. Another member came at the masked vigilante with his katana raised, but he was no match for Tigress blade. Just as easy as that one she sliced another one open, throwing him through s glass window before pursuing her goal: Their leader.

She followed him out the window, trapping him in an alley where he had no where to run. The leader turned around, dragging his katana blade out, asking in Vietnamese. "Why are you doing this? We never did anything to you!"

Tigress, who were covering her face with a mask these days pulled her own blade out. "You survived... Half of the planet didn't. They got Trigon... you get me!" The archer spoke in Vietnamese before they engaged combat.
Tigress managed to injure Akihiko, but that wasn't all she was going to do. "You're done hurting people!"

Akihiko gestured to the dead bodies lying around them. "WE hurt people? You're crazy!" He stated before attacking the masked woman. Tigress blocked his attack, and quickly gained the upper hand after punching him in the face. She pointed her sword at him. Unfortunately for Akihiko he refused to give so easily, and as he went for another attack Artemis decided to have no mercy on him and the fight ended with her slicing his at his throat, making him drop to his knees and hold it. "Wait! Help me! I'll give you anything! What do you want?"

Tigress raised her sword, speaking English this time. "What I want... You can't give me." She said, before ending his suffering. She wiped her sword off before knowing well who was standing behind her. She took her mask off and dropped it to the ground. "You shouldn't be here." She said

"Neither should you," Dick told her, wearing casual clothes.

Artemis turned around to face him, stating. "I've got a job to do."

"Is that what you're calling this?" Dick asked her, nodding his head to gesture to all of the dead people. "Killing all these people isn't gonna bring your family back," he stated.

Artemis bit her lip, tears forming in her eyes. She knew he was right...

"We found something. A chance, maybe-"

"Don't..." She just said, tears startin to go down her eyes.

"Don't what?" Dick asked her.

"...don't give me hope," Artemis said.

Dick frowned. "I'm sorry I couldn't give it to you sooner," he said.


Back at the Compound, a certain drinking bird was walking oown the hall towards the test area. Stephanie walked by on Storms left side. "Drifting left on the side there, Lebrowski," she said, earning her a new nickname by her style of clothing and messy hair. "Dextro, how's it going?" Steph called over to the pet animal. What? It was weird.

"It's Dext-Starr. Take it easy. You're only a genius on Earth, pal," the cat like creature said.

In a side room Karen, Reed, Kaldur and Raquel were talking. Karen was wearing a red and white suit, similar to her own suit.

"Time travel suit? Not bad," Raquel said, digging the new look.

Reed was touching some red liquid in s glass tube, connected to the suit, being intrigued as usual when Karen backed off. "Hey, hey, hey! Easy, easy!" She said, knowing those things were very sensitive from her work with Dr. Palmer.

"I'm being very careful," Reed insited.

"No, you're being very... Reed:y" she stated. Even if she didn't personally know Reed that well everyone in the world knew that Reed Richards was a scientist known to be involved in everything.

"I'm being careful!" Reed stated.

So maybe Karen was being s little stressed out since this was the only thing they had of these stuff. "These are Atom Particles, alright? And ever since Ray Palmer got snapped out of existence, this is it. This is what we have! We're not making any more!"

Raquel held her hands up. "Karen, calm down."

"Sorry. We've got enough for one round trip each. That's it. No do-overs. Plus two test runs," Karen said before she accidentally shrinked down and regained normal size. "One test run... All right. I'm not ready for this," she said, feeling the pressure.

"I'm game," Artemis sida, leaning against the doorframe. She had cut her long hair short, to just under her shoulders. "I'll do it."

A while later Artemis was wearing the time travel suit as Reed checked so everything looked good. "Artemis, now you're gonna feel a little discombobulated from the chronoshift. Don't worry about it," Reed assured her.

"Wai-Wait a second, let me ask you something," Raquel interrupted. "If we can do this, you know, go back in time? Why don't we just find baby Trigon, you know, and..." She gestured with her hands how to strangle the baby.

Reed's face made it clear he didn't like that idea. "First of all, that's horrible..." He stated. "It's Trigon!" Raquel pointed out. "...And secondly, time doesn't work that way. Changing the past doesn't change the future." Reed explained.

"Look, we go back, we get the stones before Trigon gets them... Trigon doesn't have the stones. Problem solved!" Karen suggested.

"Bingo," Artemis said since that sounded easy enough. "That's not how it works," Cyborg told her, monitoring the screen.

"Well, that's what I heard..." Artemis muttered. Of course it had to be complicated.

"What? By who? Who told you that?" Reed asked.

Raquel started counting her fingers, listing; "Star Trek, Terminator, TimeCop, Time After Time-"

"Quantum Leap-" Karen added.

"A Wrinkle in Time, Somewhere in Time-"

"Hot Tub Time Machine-" Karen thought of another one.

"Hot Tub Time Machine," Raquel added to her list. "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Basically, any movie that deals with time travel!" She stated.

"Die Hard? No, it's not one..." Karen realised, thinking out loud.

"This is known!" Raquel pointed out.

"I don't know why everyone believes that, but that isn't true. Think about it: If you travel to the past, that past becomes your future. And your former present becomes the past. Which can't now be changed by your new future..." Reed explained.

"Exactly," Cyborg agreed with Reed.

"So... Back To The Future's a bunch of bullshit?" Karen asked, clearly disappointed.

Reid said, turning to Artemis," Alright, Artemis. We're going in 3... 2... 1!"

A helmet similar to bumblebees but white and more visible face pops on Artemis' head, and she goes quantum. Artemis flies through the quantum realm and into an opening. She grows back to normal size, but she's at a different place, and seemingly, time.

Artemis looked around her family's and Star City home. The helmet popped off of her head, and he looked around, somewhat bewildered. She then saw Lian's play bow on the ground before she picked it up. She heard a noise from inside the house, someone who Artemis hasn't seen for five years.

Jade's voice was heard,? Will? Where are my headphones?"

"Jade? "Artemis murmured before the device on her hand started beeping, signalling the end of this visit. "Jade! "

 She dove for the door, but only managed to open it before she shrinks back to go back to the future.o

The next thing that happened was footsteps came towards where Artemis had just disappeared, and see Jade coming down the stairs. She's in and looked around, a little suspicious. "Artemis? Artemis? " She let out and annoyed sigh before muttering something in Vietnamese before going back as her daughter started to cry.


Going back, Artemis rematerialized on the glass platform, breathing heavily and sitting on the platform.

Dick was suddenly there, consoling her. " Hey, hey. Look at me. You okay?"

Artemis held up the play bow and arrow before tossing it to Stephanie. "Yeah, it worked. It really worked. "

Later, the team sat in a room with some hologram displays, showcasing each of the six Infinity Stones, sitting around a table. Stephanie, Kaldur and Red   were pacing at the front, clearly leading the planning of the mission.


 "Okay, so the "how" works. Now we gotta figure out the when and the where. Almost all of us has had an encounter with at least one of the six Infinity Stones," Kaldur'ahm said, arms crossed.

"Well I'd substitute the word encounter for damn well near been killed by one of the six Infinity Stones," Stephanie said, walking with a coffee cup.

"I haven't, I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about," Karen stated, still confused about this infinity stones talk.

"Regardless, we only have enough Atom Particles for one round trip each, and these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history," Reed said.

"Our history.," Steph added. "So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in."

"Which means we have to pick our targets," Artemis understood.

"Correct," Steph said.

"Let's start with the Aether. Storm, what do you know?" Kaldur turned to their feathered friend who was wearing sunglasses, even if it was inside.

When there was no response for a moment Dick asked. "Is she asleep?" She had definitely changed in the last years.

"No, I'm pretty sure she's dead," Jaime muttered.

(haha I love that moment XD )

Storm woke up with a snore and saw that all eyes were on her. Okay, here we go.

"Where to start? Umm... The Aether, first, is not a stone, someone called it a stone before. It's more of a... an angry sludge thing, so... someones gonna need to amend that. Here's an interesting story though, many years ago... Carter's grandfather had to hide the stones from the Dark Elves... " she wiggled her fingers to imitate a spooky ghost.  
"Ooooh, scary beings. So Kendra ..." Storm saw an image of her pop up on the screen " Oh, there she is. That's Kendra,.. she, she was like a mom to me and then she She... she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time... and then the Aether stuck itself inside her... And, she became very, very sick. So I had to take her to Thanagar, which is where she's from. And we had to try and fix her. We we're close, her and I, and I wanted to introduce her to someone who was like a mom, but she was stay made as me. Her name was Max, she was kind of like the mom of the group, the flock that we called it but..." Storm turned away, on the verge of drunken tears but then she saw that everyone was trying to get her to just return to her seat, " I'm not done yet, the only thing permanent in life is impermanence."

(Yeah haha. And I could have done s long post and put Storms line in there, buuut I am choosing to be lazy haha)

Steph had listened to a lot of boring and not worthwhile speeches before but this had to be one of the worst ones. She could tell that everyone in the room was either dying or just confused to her explanations so she walked over, trying to cut her off, before seeing she was finally done. "Awesome. Eggs? Breakfast?" She asked, maybe that would get her attention.

(lol me too with the Tony part with the eggs and what not lol )

"I'd like a Bloody Mary, thank you," Storm said. What? It didn't hit really have alcohol in it... Not much anyway....

Now they were sitting around a table, eating a meal, and Dex-Starr was pacing on the table in front of everyone

"Wayne said he stole the Power Stone from Morag," The mutant cat said. 

Karen asked, " that a person?"

"Morag's a planet. Wayne was a person," Dex-Starr corrected her.

" A planet? Like, We have to go to outer space? " Karen asked, kind of shocked but not too much.

"Oh, look. It's like a little puppy, all happy and everything. Oh, do you wanna go to space? You wanna go to space, puppy? I'll get you to space," Dex-Starr mocked her, making Karen growl and about to tear the whiskers off his face.


Then everyone facing Cyborg in the planning room, and Dick writing notes for their plan.

"Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir," he reported, his arms crossed.

"And what exactly is Vormir?" Dick asked, looking up from where he was taking notes.

"A dominion of death, at the very center of Celestial existence. It's where... Thanos murdered my friend," Cyborg growled.

Dick looked up, and an awkward silence falls upon the room. He writes what Cyborg has just said, and Karen makes to break the awkward moment. "Not it. "

Later, Stephanie and Dick were lying on a table surrounded by papers, and Reed lying down on the floor. The Time Stone pops up on the display

"That Time Stone guy," Dick started to say.

"Doctor Strange," Reed corrected him.

"Yeah, is he even a doctor?" Dick wondered since he always wondered why he called himself Doctor Fate.

"He's not the "Ear-nose-throat meets rabbit from a hat" kind anyway," Steph muttered since she really didn't like him. No one did really. Poor Zatara who was trapped in that helmet.

"Nice place in the village, though," Reed said, knowing the location.

"Yeah. Sullivan Street," Steph couldn't really care less.

"Hmm... Bleecker," Reed corrected her since at least he paid attention to details like that.

"Wait, he lived in New York?" Dick asked, both surprised because that's not where the Tower of Fate was located and how could Steph not know that if she lived in New York too?

"No. He lived in Toronto," Stephanie quickly covered her back before Dick could get on her ass about it. "Were you even paying attention?"

Dick deadpanned since it was obvious he was the only one paying attention to put everything together. "Guys, if you pick the right year, there are three stones in New York," he stated.

Reed than sat up, realising he was right. "Shut the front door," he said.


They all gathered in one of the rooms, having the holographic screen infront of them with the details of locations of the stones.

"All right. We have a plan. Six Stones, three teams. One shot," Kaldur told everyone. Yeah. No pressure.

After everyone who was going in the mission suited up in their time travel suits they walked to the Quantum Time Machine.

Kaldur stopped to of course give an encouraging speech before they headed of to their mission. "Five years ago, we lost. All of us," he said, looking at his friends. The ones that were still standing anyway. "We lost friends... We lost family... We lost a part of ourselves," he spoke. "Today, we have a chance to take it all back. You know your teams, you know your missions. Get the stones, get them back. One round trip each. No mistakes. No do-overs," Kaldur made the rules clear.

"Most of us are going somewhere we know. But it doesn't mean we should know what to expect. Be careful. Look out for each other. This is the fight of our lives. And we're gonna win." Stephanie gave Kaldur a look after his surprisingly not practised speech. At least he was confident. Kaldur gave Steph a nod. He made her a promise. "Whatever it takes," he assured her before he told everyone. "Good luck."

Even Dex-Starr was surprised at that motivational speech. Did he not prepare that? "He's pretty good at that..." He muttered, actually impressed.

"Right?" Karen agreed. She had always been impressed by that.

"All right. You heard the man. Stroke those keys, Uncle Reed," Steph told her aunt's husband, who wouldn't be joining them in the trip. He would stay there to make sure everything went as planned.

"Tractors engaged," Reed said, standing by the screen to monitor everything.

"You promise to bring that back in one piece, right?" Dex-Starr told Artemis, not sure he trusted her driving.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I'll do my best," Artemis said, giving a small smile that looked pretty fake.

"As promises go, that was pretty lame..." Dex-Starr muttered.

Dick then stepped back into position, as did everyone else. He looked around his friends and smiled. "See you in a minute," he said, pretty confident they had a shot at this.

With that all team shrunk down and all went to different places throughout their history. Stephanie, Kaldur, Jaime and Karen all went back to 2012 during the attack on New York.

"All right, we all have our assignments. Two Stones uptown, one Stone, down. Stay low. Keep an eye on the clock," Kaldur told the others before their attention got drawed to a 2012 Superboy who was, having minor anger issues to say the least as he kept smashing everything in his way.

"And try to avoid smashing things along the way," Kaldur added since they didn't want to draw unnecessary attention.

"I think it's gratuitous, let's attack Jaime Reyes! Scarab said, activating the canon and blasting a car and Karen, Steph and Kaldur just looked at Blue Beetle. "Uh, that wasn't me," he said since his relationship with Scarab was still rookie after 5 years. He just saw them give him a look before he sighed. "Whatever..."


Blue Beetle was the one to go down town, more specifically to Doctor Fate's so called "other home". Blue Beetle landed in the rooftop before going to enter the building when and old man's voice stopped him. "I'd be careful going that way. I just had the floors waxed," Kent Nelson said.

"I'm looking for Doctor Fate," Blue Beetle said.

Kent Nelson was a tad surprised before he said. "You're about... One year too early. Zatanna Zatara is currently performing a magic show about twenty blocks that way. What do you want from him?" He asked. He knew this because the helmet of fate could forsee the future.

"That, actually," Jaime said, pointing to the helmet that he spotted behind Kent Nelson.

"Ah! I'm afraid not," Kent said, picking the helmet up.

"Sorry, but I wasn't asking," Blue Beetle said, not wanting to hurt the old man, but he needed that helmet.

"You don't want to do this," Kent said.

"Ah, you're right, I don't. But I need that stone, and I don't have time to beat it-" Blue Beetle said before Kent Nelson put the helmet on and a yellow cross symbol pushed Jaime back, deactivating his scarab and making it drop from his back, which cause Jaime to look horrified. What kinda old man was this?

"Let's start over, shall we?" Dr Fate spoke, with the sound of Nabu's and Kent's voice.