| ... They Pull Me Back In. To The Future. | |||||
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| What: While preparing the Fortress of Solitude's new defenses, Superman and Wonder Woman get some uninvited guests. | |||||
Place: Fortress of Solitude, Arctic Circle
Time: Sometime After Dinner
The normally-silent halls of the Fortress of Solitude are filled with the sounds of metal being hammered and twisted, while flashes of light occasionally fill much of the structure every time a blast of heat is projected onto the metal. It's enough to drown out the ambient music that is being played in the Hangar Bay.
Lying on his back, but hovering several feet above the Hangar Bay floor, Superman is reaching up to hold together two extremely complex-looking (and heavy) pieces of equipment. His heat vision is used carefully, melting the rivets together so that they'll both stay in place inside the high-tech aircraft suspended over him. As someone who never needs to use an aircraft, it's perhaps a bit odd that he'd be working hard to repair the internal workings of a jet on his day off.
"There. That ought to do her." He exhales slowly, using his freeze breath to chill the welds until they're solid enough to hold the components in place. "Now I've just got to seal her up, and she should work just fine again. I want to thank you again for letting me reverse engineer the old cloaking systems from your Invisible Jet. It's getting harder to keep the kids off of my lawn these days, hopefully they'll stop showing up if they can't actually 'find' my lawn anymore..."
Diana's been watching off and on the entire time Clark's been working on his project, a source of amusement here and there when perhaps things do not go exactly as how he wants it to. But, with the go-toitiveness he's famous for, he finally gets it done, leaving them with only to test out the cloaking device. "No need to thank me," she says with a warmth to her voice reseved only for him, her love for him as well as her pride heard. "I am always glad to be able to help."
Looking around, then, Diana reaches up to tap a finger to her lips, the Amazon thinking. "Is having them show up really that bad, Clark?" She's had her own charges and wards over the years, although none recently, and she always welcomed them to the Embassy she called home. Clark's own reaction to others coming over baffles her.
"I think I might be cranky in my old age. But when you've had as many parallel universe kids drop out of the sky as I have... you start to get a bit suspicious. Especially when they start stealing old Kryptonian relics from you to build... whatever that guy was trying to build." Superman grunts as he welds the jet's outer hull back together. His eyes glow, and so does the metal, becoming malleable in his hands.
"I got all my stuff back. But you never know who to trust these days. I think it's best if..."
Before he can finish, both his sentence and his work are interrupted by a flash of light from within the Hangar Bay. Superman is quick to react, flying out from under the jet with his trademarked quickness. He goes from 'resting' to 'ready to fight' so suddenly that it'd be alarming to anyone who hadn't known him for seventy years.
"Dammit. This is probably another one. Get ready, Diana, this is an uninvited guest."
The raven-haired heroine smiles as he explains and soon he finds himself hugged by her, her chin angled up so she can offer him a kiss. "I still adore you, even if you are getting cranky." That was probably said in all seriousness by Clark but Diana can not help but to make light of his statement, something about his words getting those blue eyes of hers to brighten more. "Can't you just put in a vault, Clark? That way the children can't...."
The flash startles her and Diana's hand soon rests upon her hip, her fingers curled around the lasso. By the gods, what she wouldn't give to have a lasso like Wonder Girl's. "What is it?" A guest... something doesn't feel right. This couldn't possibly be another new arrival, could it?"
The flash of light fades, and when it disappears there are three figures standing inside the Fortress, not ten feet from where Superman and Wonder Woman are getting into a defensive posture. Fortunately, Wonder Woman didn't attack at the first sign of trouble, because the three 'uninvited guests' don't appear to be even remotely threatening, though they're holding their fists in front of them in a way that shows off their matching rings. One has fists that are charged with Lightning, another glows with a Cosmic light, and the final one... well... she has a picture of Saturn on her chest.
The boy with the Cosmic powers speaks up first. "Kal-El, you must come with us immediately. We have to take you back to the future!"
Although Superman looks surprised for a second, his expression quickly changes to one of familiarity. "Legion business? You know I don't like to leave my own time. I just got here. Wonder Woman just got here. We're about to take her Invisible Jet for a spin."
The girl with the picture of Saturn on her chest speaks up next "Well... bring her along. This concerns Diana of Themyscira too."
But Superman isn't so easily convinced. "Whoa. Whoa. What happens to us in the future? Do we go evil again and enslave the planet or something?"
Finally, it's the Lad with the Lighting running down his arms' turn. "No, no, no, no, no, Kal-El. Both you and Diana turn out fine. It's your kids, Kal-El. Something gotta be done about your kids!"
"Our... kids?"
Diana glances from them to Clark and then the trio of Legionnaires, the younger heroes looked at warily. "I suppose if we must go," she eventually says quietly, her chin lifting now that her shock has had a chance to go. "Although, I will say that if this is a trick or a trap..." The look she gives the kids should say it all. They will not like the end results.
Hand held out to Clark, then, she offers him a loving smile, her hesitation held at bay. "Come on, Kal-El. It sounds like our... children need to be dealt with."