DC Adventures Log 8: To Stop Tomorrow

In DC Adventures Log 7, reality warped around General Immortus.  Every epoch Team Lex time traveled to fell beneath the bootheels of Immortus’ power armor.  Deciding they must stop his attack on reality at its source, the team traveled to 1,000 B.C..   They surprised that era’s Immortus, who stretched his armies too thin in an attempt to claim The Claw of Horus before that era’s Hawkman could.  Stripped of his power armor, and threatened with unnatural aging, Immortus explained how he was lead to a cache of divine weapons from a voice in his head who referred to itself as Tio.  Tio, it was deduced, was T.O. Morrow, a scientist who invented televisions which he used to see into the future.  In 2012, Dr. Morrow had discovered a way to send radio signals through the gaps of time and was transmitting to General Immortus, feeding him information about a secret cache of alien weaponry that wouldn’t be discovered for another thirty centuries.  Hourman set his timeship to the year 2012 and –Bzooweeoovzip!

Bzooweeoovzip!  Metropolis in 2012 was devoid of life.  Mechanical dogs roamed the streets, while half-torn posters warned the citizens to obey curfew.  The city’s buildings rose six stories in the air, then cut short, as if a giant scythe threshed the tall stalks from their roots.  After breaking into The Metropolis Library and brow beating the robot librarians to allow them access to historical records, Team Lex unraveled the new events of the past century.  General Immortus succeeded in global domination.  There was a period of incredible growth through the early twentieth century.  Immortus, however, terrified of the specter of old age, pressed the world’s scientists to discover the secret to permanent immortality.  With every year wasted on this ungotten goal, Immortus grew more desperate, until he held the world hostage under the threat of nuclear annihilation.  On New Year’s day, each year his lust for eternal life was not achieved, Immortus destroyed a major world city, seemingly at random.  Populations were walled into their cities while a battalion of robots guarded against escape.  The last of the resistance crumbled when Harley Quinn, leader of Royal Flush Syndicate, was captured and imprisoned at Stryker’s Island.

Team Lex also discovered that Morrow owned and resided at Tomorrow Industries, a think tank and robot factory at the outskirts of Metropolis.  Needing to force an audience without alerting Morrow to their machinations, Team Lex jumped back one month’s time to a news-worthy day when a resistance cell of anti-Immortus operatives were ousted in Indonesia.  To stir up more confusion, Harley Quinn broke Harley Quinn out of Stryker’s Island, then the team traveled in time to the beginning of the same day, hoping that, If T.O. Morrow looked forward to this day in particular, the news wouldn’t cover a comparatively insignificant break-in.

At Tomorrow Industries, robot guards stood watch at the factory compound’s entrances, so Abra Kadabra tunneled his team past the building’s defenses.  After exploring experiment chambers, a vacant well-stocked cafeteria, and a 1980s themed, wood-panelled, accounts receivable office, the Team discovered a security elevator which required a gram each of Uranium, Strontium, Thorium, Radium, Lithium and Polonium to operate.  Each of these elements could be found in the six Death Metal Men who supervise six different segments of the building.  Team Lex, however, chose to scavenge the elements from different functions in the robot factory.  With all six elements entered into their appropriate slots, the elevator descended.

The sub-basement was breached, and the elevator doors opened, revealing a long corridor flooded with the luminescence of flickering televisions. At the far end of his laboratory, and slumped at his console gazing at the pile of televisions before him, sat a listless T.O. Morrow.  With time shaped to his will, a full lab at his disposal and the resources of the world to do with as he pleased, Morrow discovered how empty his life is.  His televisions told him that, in order to live the life of luxury he created for himself, he must invent a radio signal to send through all of time, which he’s done, and activate it, which he hesitates to do.  Uncertain about the life he feels forced to lead, Morrow has installed a kill switch.  It’s hard for Morrow to accept that scientific accomplishment is valueless without struggle, but he relents.  Morrow punches the kill button, and –Bzooweeoovzip

-Bzooweeoovzip! Team Lex find themselves on the outskirts of Metropolis, its skyline intact. Their celebration is interrupted by a curious sight: Across Metropolis harbor, a gun fight breaks out on a mega-yacht.  A faction of assorted heroes, lead by Metallo and Livewire, appear to be in control of the situation, with help from Calculator over both team’s intercom. The scene is a mirror reflection of Team Lex’s first mission in Log 1. Team Lex requests an answer from Calculator, but he explodes, screaming that this is a private channel, and breaking off communication. Shortly after, a voice comes over the com, introducing itself by the monicker of Mockingbird, telling Team Lex that they have a mission to perform as The Secret Six (see also, Log 3, Badder Medicine). From Mockingbird, the team pieces together their predicament. In Log 5, Super Friends, Team Lex opted to leave a quarrelsome Black Manta, who travelled through time with them by way of accident, in the 1970s where he could reign as king among villains. Ignoring ridiculous death traps, and giving heroes and villains alike no quarter, Black Manta rose to prominence. With a number of victory notches on his belt, Manta walked into The Hall of Injustice, drew a gun, shot Lex Luthor in the head and declared Metropolis for his own. No one opposed him.

Team Lex, unwilling to let Manta have the glory, agreed to go back to the 70s to return Black Manta to his own time. After re-entering the time stream however, Hourman’s time ship controls exploded. When the dust settled, a smug Per Degaton gloated over the team through the ship’s vidscreen.

“Ha!  I don’t know how Manta knew you would use your ship at this exact time and location, but he did.  Did you forget about the last time we battled, Hourman?  On Manta’s advice, I toyed with your ship’s controls while we fought, but I never expected anything to come from casual sabotage!  You’re always careful to run a full diagnostic check after each of our encounters.  Why not also on the heels of our last battle?  I’m stumped, but I’d be a fool to reject such a delicious gift.  Besides, I don’t have time to waste on speculation, and you’re running out of time for everything.  Good-bye.”

Hourman jumped at the controls in a whir, reassembling his ship while guiding it.  Despite his ministrations, the time ship cracked into pieces and -Bzooweeoovzip!