#booster & skeets is something that can be so personal

[garlic-sauc3]

I love skeets

#booster & skeets is something that can be so personal #because like its just a man and his 25th century robot assistant #but also skeets was the robot that booster would talk to at his museum job #when everybody else hated or gave up on him #his only companion was the robot he was on shift with #who he took to the 80s with him #idk their dynamic is fun. their friendship is fun #a robot is a mans best friend so they say

[queenretcon]

Booster vs Michael in the Pre-Johns era

( @johnnyghoul asked me to post this so here u go)

So the name Michael Jon Carter and whether that should really still be considered Booster Gold’s name is something that comes up a fair amount. I’m currently a little over a decade through my chronological read-through of all of Booster’s appearances, and as someone who has always viewed Booster as his “real” name, I’ve been very interested in how consistently the text agrees with me.

Jurgens and Giffen & Dematteis all seem to agree that Michael is someone who lived in the 25th century, and Booster is someone who lives now. Jurgens in particular treats Michael as caterpillar and Booster as butterfly, to be cliche. There’s a line in BG v1 #6 — “For Michael Carter, the sparkling dream was extinguished.”—and that line has a lot of weight to it imo, especially when you remember that Booster consistently asks people to call him Booster in BG v1, including asking Michelle to switch to that when she comes to the past (BG v1 #16). Also, while later Jurgens writing uses ‘Michael’ more cavalierly, in his original origin, Booster is already the name he goes by most commonly in the future, and it’s what Skeets refers to him as when they’re still working together at the museum. And, most importantly, he literally gets the name ‘Booster Gold’ because, even tho he wanted to use the name ‘Goldstar,’ when asked his name, he immediately answers ‘Booster’ without thinking (BG v1 #9). Like, c’mon.

Before I move on from Jurgens, the primary person consistently shown to call him ‘Michael’ is his mother. Shel prefers ‘Mike,’ which, imo, should be considered separate from ‘Michael’ based on Booster’s relationship to both. Booster seems comfortable with Mike/Mikey in a way he isn’t with Michael. It also seems to have been what he went by as a kid in the future. Even if you were to ignore the name Booster entirely, calling him ‘Michael’ is kind of like calling Ted ‘Theodore.’ You can do it, but I’m not sure why you’d want to.

To Giffdematts, his name is Booster. They clarify it’s his legal name according to the IRS (Justice League America #38), and they treat it as such. Ted doesn’t seem to consider ‘Michael’ his name either. In JLI Annual #2, Ted acknowledges Booster needs a civilian name for convenience, but doesn’t consider Michael to be a viable option.

This issue takes place after Ted is informed of Booster’s back story and the name Michael. (This is also, adorably, the issue where Ted calls Booster the most nicknames and terms of endearment. If he doesn’t have another name, Ted’s gonna fill the void with a bunch of variants on ‘buddy’.) In the same era but not by Giffen and Dematteis, we have Len Wein writing Booster introducing himself as ‘Mike’ when trying to protect Scott’s secret identity (Mister Miracle v2 #8), and Friedman writing Ted referring to Booster as “um, Michael” when trying to protect his own secret identity (JL Quarterly #7). Not as hardline on the subject as the core JLI book, but to me they don’t contradict the central thesis of ‘his real name is Booster’ since it treats Michael as an alias used when Booster needs one. You may feel differently. 🤷‍♀️

The only time we see Giffen and Dematteis using any derivatives of ‘Michael’ (tho, to my memory, they never use the name itself) in the JLI era is Justice League America Annual #5, a mostly bad issue that I think about Literally All the Time. In it, Future Booster (er, that is, Our Booster but a decade older) is forced to return to his own time period & his old job working in the museum. Only in this time period and after being literally legally required to give up the name ‘Booster Gold’ (don’t ask) does he refer to himself as ‘Mikey.’ Generally, Giffen & Dematteis prefer Mikey over any other versions of the name; it’s what his foster daughter Rani calls him in their BG v2 run as well.

And this is all, of course, thrown out once Geoff Johns comes on. I’d like to discuss Johns relationship to Booster’s name(s) in depth, but I’m not there in my reread (stuck in ‘93 right now) and don’t want to rely only on my memory. So I’ll say that Johns, in my eyes, frequently attempts to treat Booster as a Regular Superhero, rather than one who was created to be essentially the Anti-Superman. Because of this, I think Johns frequently washes over some of the things that make Booster unique, and I believe he tries to take the average superhero’s relationship to their name (Superman to most people, Clark or Kal to those closest to him, and so on) and apply it where it just doesn’t go. In the process, I think he erases a really fascinating part of Booster’s identity and sense of self.

#booster gold #talk tag #there are issue citations if thats what gets you going #meta #long post

[taiblogcomics]

Absolutely Thera-Pissed

Hey there, visas and green cards. It's our ninth blogaversary! Wow, we've been going for quite a long time. Long enough to completely change platforms at least once. Considering we just finished our whole backlog, I think we should try something new in honour of the amazing coincidence of these two events synching up. Before we start on another backlog of terrible comics (trust me, I have something in mind), let's do something we've never done before on this blog. We've only ever really covered comics issue by issue. How would you feel, dear readers, if we instead did an entire storyline all at once?

And oh boy, do I have just the storyline in mind. Here's the cover:

Oh yeah. We're doing this. This story has kind of hung over this blog, mostly due to its connections to Red Hood and the Outlaws. It also prominitely features Harley Quinn, who also appeared in Suicide Squad (which ended before this story took place). And personally, I am a fan of Harley, Booster, and the Titans. And oh boy, does this comic shit all over them, in some of the most truly appalling ways possible. This is Heroes in Crisis. All nine issues. Let's jump right in~

I won’t be going over the covers of the individual issues, or even this one so much, but I do like that quote at the top. It is actually some good superhero artwork! It is an extremely awful story, but the artwork is fine~

So the first issue starts like this: Booster Gold's in one of those tiny middle-American diners. The host's loving it, since she says superheroes never show up and eat here. And oh look, here comes another one! Booster replies that that's no hero, as Harley Quinn walks in. Clearly he hasn't been reading her solo series. Harley orders some pie, and she and Booster eat in terse silence. Until suddenly Harley grabs a knife, and the two begin a real knock-down, drag-out fight. And lemme tell ya something, Harley keeps up with a guy who can fly and project forcefields pretty well. Eventually the pair are exhausted, and Booster says he's gotta bring Harley in, after what he saw her do. Harley protests, because she didn't kill all those people. She saw Booster do it.

All this is intercut with two different scenes. One is sort of a confession-cam style thing, a bunch of heroes (including Harley, Blue Jay, Booster, and Hotspot) all admitting they're here for therapy. And the second is Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman talking with each other as they land in a particular site. This place is called Sanctuary. It is currently full of dead heroes. Among the deceased here are Hotspot, Lagoon Boy, Wally West, and Roy Harper. And this is my first major complaint. Do you know what all these characters have in common? Hey, DC: Stop using the Titans as your cannon fodder. Stop treating them as a joke. Every iteration of the team deserves more respect than this.

So Harley and Booster are going to be our POV characters for this story. I like both of these characters a lot, so this is probably going to be pretty painful seeing them written horribly. Harley goes off to the Penguin for protection, and we actually get to see her in her old costume. It is a breath of fresh air, honestly. Booster, meanwhile, mostly just tries to rationalise his actions with Skeets, his robot buddy. Booster suffered kind of a psychotic break back in the Batman storyline "The Gift", which is why he was in Sanctuary to begin with. This story is basically a follow-up to that one, and has the same sort of tone.

Harley confronts the trinity in Gotham, revealing she set the whole thing up with Penguin just so she could get close to them on her terms. She uses the Lasso of Truth to confess she saw Booster Gold do it, then uses the Kryptonite in Batman's belt to skip town. The next time we see her, she's at the docks, giving a eulogy to Poison Ivy, another victim of Sanctuary. Booster Gold, meanwhile, has rationalised that Batman would solve the crime himself rather than turn himself in, and goes to Barry Allen to check in. Of course, the trinity are the only ones who know about the accident yet, so when Booster tells Barry that Wally's dead, he gets super pissed. Just like the readers are!

Issue 3 is a flashback issue, showing Booster's first day at Sanctuary. Sanctuary works like this: everyone gets their own private quarters, and if they want to visit the common areas, they wear a mask and cloak to preserve anonymity. Here's the first really big problem with Sanctuary: while therapy for superheroes is a good (possibly necessary) concept, Sanctuary is only one kind of therapy. It essentially assumes everyone responds the same to the same sort of therapy. The kind here is that Sanctuary gives you a private room that simulates your traumas (with a holodeck) and has you physically confront them. Lagoon Boy, for example, is shown to be facing the laser that killed him over and over again. Wally sets up superhero battles that still have his kids with him. And while this sort of therapy might help some people, it's definitely not universal.

Booster starts his first session, which ends up just being a hologram of himself, talking to him. Before he can get much further, though, alarms go off and everyone is urged to emergency evacuate. Lagoon Boy is killed--in a deliberate callback to his previous death, no less--and we see a few other victims, including Red Devil, Commander Steel, and Gunfire. Wally clutches Roy's body as he dies in his arms, and Harley smacks Wally in the face with her hammer. She greets Booster cheerfully, and he admits he's having a hell of a first day.

After a brief scene of Aqualad (Garth, in this case) drinking in a bar--and who can blame him for wanting to drink after experiencing this story?--Batman and Barry meet, thus showing they're still unsure who did it. Booster is being interrogated under the Lasso of Truth, and he relays the previous issue to us. In his mind, Harley did it. Harley, meanwhile, has tracked down Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) and surprisingly... they hug. Babs promises to help stick by Harley and prove her innocence. After all, Babs has been through trauma, too. The comic reminds us of this with another confession-cam video, showing Babs display the scars she received from “The Killing Joke".

So, about these confession cams... They've been interspersed between scenes, showing everyone from Batman down to guys like Gunfire or the Protector relaying their problems by confession. Again, this sort of therapy isn't for everyone, but it's the only one Sanctuary's got. Superman tells Batman that Lois has been receiving these videos anonymously. Batman responds that there are no videos. Sanctuary does not keep records, to preserve patient confidentiality. Supes replies that there are videos, he's seen them, and now the media has them. The issue ends with a breaking story about "What is the secret superhero Sanctuary?" exposé airing on television...

Speaking of breaking, Blue Beetle (Ted Kord, who I'm as surprised as anybody to find out is alive again post-Rebirth) breaks Booster out of the Hall of Justice where he's being held. The pair watch the breaking news report on television while they try to come up with a plan. Booster's idea is to confess to Barry again, figuring they won't expect the stupidest possible move, making it actually the smartest possible move. Booster has not really recovered from his insanity, I see. He and Beetle do exactly that, surprising Barry at work, which is apparently all the advantage they need. This is because Barry, as a forensic scientist, has access to the data on the autopsies.

While Superman makes a public statement to the press regarding Sanctuary, Batman passes Skeets into Batgirl's care, and she immediately violates that trust by in turn passing Skeets to Harley. It's implied Harley tortures the information regarding Booster's whereabouts out of Skeets, but it's okay because he's just a robot. Babs and Harley turn up at Booster's place as he's analysing the data he obtained from Barry. Here's where it all starts to fall into place: the data on Wally West says his body is five days older than the rest of them.

Issue 6 is kind of a triple piece, but one that can be summed up fairly quickly. It focuses on three specific characters who were all at Sanctuary. The parts regarding Gnaark the caveman (another Titans alumnus) are ultimately pointless, since the issue ends with his death. The parts with Harley focus on Joker's abuse of her and Posion Ivy's care towards her. This also ends badly. Wally's parts focus on the DC Rebirth story where he essentially willed himself back into the universe. And while that story is really good and it was a joy to see Wally again, it ultimately ended with the knowledge that Wally's family did not reappear with him. His kids are gone, his wife is with someone else and does not remember him, and until he forced his way back into everyone's memories, no one else recalled him either. This would traumatise anybody. But it may have really traumatised Wally.

The next issue starts really well, honestly. Booster and Harley are fighting it out--again--while Babs and Beetle just watch. Like, they aren't even stressed, they're both familiar with their respective charges, and this is really no surprise. In any other comic, this would be a great scene. Shame that it's in this one, and it's not nearly enough to save even a lick of it. Eventually Babs works out that Booster's forcefields are only currently working because of some jury-rigged tech that's powered by Blue Beetle's consciousness. So she knocks him out with one hit. Harley prepares a killing blow, but ultimately cannot go through with it, proving she's a good person. She and Booster just collapse on the floor, and bond over the fact that they both kind of suck as superheroes (from their own perspectives, at least).

With Booster, Beetle, Babs, and Harley (Barley?) all on the same side now, the group decide to get to the bottom of everything together. Meanwhile, the rose Harley dropped off the docks is picked up by Wally. See, while the body they found of Wally is five days older than the rest, this means he time-traveled and is still at present alive. Wally channels his Speed Force into the rose, causing it to grow rapidly--and Poison Ivy blooms from it, restored to life. I don't get it either, but if it means Ivy didn't die in this stupid story, I'll take it. Wally then apologises, since Ivy just returned to life and now she has to see death so soon. Those five days are up, and a second Wally appears, ready to literally kill himself.

So here's what really fucking happened.

Wally had been at Sanctuary three weeks already. He's frustrated because the therapy's not helping as fast as he thought it would. He does a jump into the Speed Force and basically exists everywhere at once. Spread across the time stream, he witnesses everybody's confession cams all at once. He sees "the trauma of a thousand heroes in crisis" (hey, we have a title, ladies and gentlemen). And... it's too much. Realising everybody's personal pain breaks him. He unleashes the burst of pent-up energy he'd stored to do the time jaunt thing and kills everyone at Sanctuary.

Lagoon Boy. Protector. Hotspot. Red Devil. Arsenal. Gnaark. Solstice. Tattooed Man. Gunfire. Blue Jay. Commander Steel. Nemesis. I want you to remember these names. These were all pre-existing characters. Half of them were members of the Titans at one point or another. Wally West, the Flash, killed them in a stupid, stupid storyline that not only assassinates his character, but also literally assassinates all these other characters.

Wally uses his super speed to set up the bodies, rig the crime scenes so it looks like Harley or Booster could be responsible for their deaths. He then travels forward in time to the present moment, where he has just confessed all this to Poison Ivy. He kills that version of himself and travels back in time with it to fake his own death. He then uses the VR tech of Sanctuary to trick Booster and Harley into believing they saw the other commit the deeds. Neither of them even knew they'd never left their respective therapy simulations. This leaves Wally with a five day window to figure out something good he can do to make up for killing everyone.

So the final issue wraps it up like this: Booster time-travels the group back to where Barry is about to kill his own paradox clone. Harley and Ivy reunite, which is nice. So here's the plan: this doesn't have to end with any more death. In the end, what Barry did was all an accident. So Booster travels into the future to make a clone of the paradox-Wally. This gives them a five-day-old body they can leave at the massacre, in order to close the timeloop. The present Wally turns himself in and is arrested, while the five-days-ago paradox Wally merges back into the Speed Force, still running to try and find his family.

And the "good" thing Wally did to make up for killing everyone? He was the one that leaked Sanctuary's existence to the media. In his mind, the idea that heroes are seen as constant paragons was too much pressure. By letting the public know that even superheroes need therapy, even superheroes suffer trauma just like everyone else, he he could let people know that heroes are just that: people. People like everyone else. And that it is okay for anyone to seek help if you need it. This seems like a nice sentiment, until you remember the reason Wally killed everyone is because he was impatient about how his therapy was going.  What an awful story.

-----

Like, legitimately, this story is just awful. The basic premise--that heroes could probably do with therapy--is not a bad one. The execution is just really completely mismanaged, though. Start with the beginning. Why are Harley Quinn and Booster Gold chosen as the focus characters? Because they're the ones you could believe would orchestrate a mass murder, right? Except no. You would never believe that. Booster is not that much of a screw-up, and Harley is not that much of a villain. Neither of them have been those things for many years. The readers know that, but it feels like the writer didn't.

And that's the worst part of it all. The superficiality of the story. In the end, why was this story written? To explore the concept of therapy for superheroes? Well, then, it went about it in the worst way possible. Not everyone experiences trauma in the same way. And therefore, not everyone responds to therapy in the same way. The way therapy is depicted in this story is just wrong. Frankly, Sanctuary looks like one of the worst places to get treatment, right alongside Arkham Asylum. Do you think anybody's really going to take away from this story "It's okay to talk about your traumas if you need to"? In or out of universe?

I didn't really talk about the confession cams, but they seemed highly unnecessary. They were always the same, a 3x3 of panels featuring a superhero talking about their traumas. Most of them didn't factor into the story, and at most they felt like a common scene transition. They tried to give them some weight by revealing that the contents of all these possibly got leaked? But then they just kinda dropped that subplot. Which was really kind of serious, because the traumas range from the Protector (a character created for drug PSAs) confessing that he has done drugs to Superman talking about the burden of keeping his identity secret. How much of these did the public actually get? And if it was none, what was even the point of it being a subplot~? Like, leak that Sanctuary existed, sure, but why did Lois Lane get sent all the videos that shouldn't have existed~?

What this story has done to Wally is awful. They have completely tarnished this likeable, amazing hero by having him kill twelve people (thirteen, if you include Poison Ivy), several of them colleagues and friends. All because he's trying to fake his way through therapy when it isn't helping him as fast as he wants. Know what would have been a good story? How about he learns to cope with his trauma? How about he actually gets his family back? It's unrealistic as hell, but it's a fictional story. It's escapism. It's okay to have a happy ending. I ''want'' my stories to end in happy endings, because it's so hard to get them in real life. I want something better than this.

DC Rebirth was a breath of fresh air. Wally's return to the DC universe felt like the clouds were lifitng. The stories following Rebirth felt like a return to form after the darkening of the New 52. It felt like the stories were getting good again, like the comics were getting fun and hopeful again. It couldn't last, though, could it? This story is only three years after the Rebirth initiative. Three years? That's all the hope we get in the universe? I sincerely hope this story ends up an abberation, and not a return to form of the darker, more dour universe we put up with in the New 52. Especially given current events, you can understand why a brighter, optimistic fictional world is appealing. I sincerely hope that when comics resume publication after the pandemic, a more positive outlook continues, and stories like this are left in the garbage where they belong.

This book is fucking awful, and I am done with it. Next week, we'll start reviewing an all-new series for the Taiblog. Let's just say I'm not done ranting about injustices against the Teen Titans~

#comics #reviews #Heroes in Crisis #Taiblog

[aurification]

I can be a handful, but that's why you have two hands.

basics —

FACECLAIM: Peter Gadiot FULL NAME: Michael Jon Carter NICKNAMES: Mikey ALIAS: Booster Gold BIRTHDATE: December 29th, 2442 BIRTHPLACE: Gotham City AGE: 35 HEIGHT: 6’5” HAIR COLOR: Blond EYE COLOR: Blue FAMILY: Jon Carter (father), Ellen Carter (mother, deceased), Michelle Carter (twin sister), Rip Hunter (son), Rani Carter (adopted daughter), Daniel Carter (21st century ancestor), Rose Levin (21st century ancestor), Skeets (robotic sidekick) AFFILIATIONS: Justice League, Time Masters OCCUPATION: Model / Socialite   MBTI: ESFP SEXUALITY: Bisexual MARITAL STATUS: Divorced → Michael was married to an older woman named Gladys who was his sugar mama. Their marriage didn’t last long before he asked for a divorce. IDENTITY STATUS: Public RELIGIOUS BELIEFS: Atheist

powers / abilities —

LEGION FLIGHT RING: provides him with the ability of flight.

POWER SUIT: uses an advanced microcircuitry-powered all-purpose combat suit that allows him a wide range of options to use in combat.

ENHANCED DURABILITY: the suit is extremely durable and very lightweight. It’s able to withstand bullets without losing its integrity but getting shot will still hurt.

SUPERHUMAN STRENGTH: the microcircuitry woven into the mesh affords him a high measure of super-strength, enough to easily shift twenty tons - and a great deal more if he exerts himself.

FORCE FIELD GENERATION: the suit is capable of generating a force-field that was powerful enough to take a direct punch from doomsday and leave him intact.

TIME TRAVEL CIRCUITRY:  time-travel circuitry is built into his suit, enabling him to travel through the time stream, both into the past and the future. the suit has also been been upgraded by rip hunter to enable michael to traverse chronal anomalies without any adverse effects.

GAUNTLETS: able to provide powerful energy blasts via blasters in the suit’s gauntlets. at the highest setting they can plow through two feet of concrete. they also allow him to create an absorbing field which acts similar to a tractor beam, in which he can grab hold of objects and move them about or hurdle them at foes.

VISOR DEVICES: his visor is outfitted with sensory amplification devices for auditory and visual. also has an hud for targeting and indentifying threats.

ENHANCED VISION: the visor can scan along the electromagnetic spectrum, provide infrared, ultraviolet, and x-ray vision.

ENHANCED HEARING: amplified to super human levels allowing him to hear sounds and frequencies no other human can hear.

HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT.

ATHLETICISM.

headcanons —

Four years ago back in his universe, Michael rescued a Daxamite child from the planet Daxam while Darkseid was invading it. Her parents were killed, and unfortunately witnessed the traumatic event. He took her back to Earth since she didn’t have any friends or family left after what Darkseid did done to her planet. The child quickly became attached to Michael, that much was obvious — even carrying around a teddy bear dressed up as him around the house. Michael adopted her shortly after, her new name now Rani Carter. She’s thirteen years old now in the present and has grown comfortable enough to call him dad. Now since she’s a Daxamite, that means she has powers similar to Kryptonians under a yellow sun. This surely keeps everything interesting for Booster.

Michael isn’t from this universe but is actually from an alternate timeline. Everything is the same for the most part except for one thing. His Ted Kord is dead because of what Maxwell Lord had done. It has been seven years since losing his best friend. This spiraled into him getting sole ownership of Kord Industries and taking on Jaime Reyes as a mentoree to respect his best friend’s wishes. How he ended up here will be explained in his biography at the end of this!

Normally Booster would always be clean-shaven but has grown a beard in recent years after falling into a deep depression. His daughter has never seen him without it. He does make sure to trim it when necessary but hasn’t thought about getting rid of the beard since this is just part of his look now.

personality traits —

- RECKLESS. Michael has a tendency to think with his heart sometimes and act on his own personal interests. He doesn’t care about being respected, being the greatest hero you’ve never heard of for a reason so this impacts his decisions in being impulsive or putting himself in a dangerous position.

- ECCENTRIC. Some might think of his sense of humor to be rather strange. He tends to laugh at the wrong times and not say the right thing when it’s important to be serious. He always thinks this makes him unique but it might be annoying instead to others.

+ AMIABLE.  He’s always friendly and upbeat unless given a reason not to be. This has been harder since his his best friend died and Rip told him there was no way to go back and save him. He’s starting to slowly become his old self again with each day though. You wouldn’t know that meeting him since he keeps the lighthearted attitude when talking to a friend or a stranger. He’s an optimist despite the tragedy filling his past.

+ CONFIDENT. He’s charismatic and has confidence in his abilities. This isn’t only just applied to what he does as Booster Gold but also with his modeling career also. The charisma is applied to conversations too, no matter how stupid his ideas might be there’s no hesitation in throwing them out there to someone.

biography for the last seven years —

When the ban started here in this universe, Michael had still been in his own attending a funeral. His best friend was gone and this made him fall into a deep depression. They had two memorial services — one for the businessman everyone knew Ted to be and another for the hero he was. Booster ended up being the last person to arrive at the service and didn’t know what to say when it was his turn to speak in front of the rest of the Justice League. He didn’t believe in anything ever getting better after that but it was with the support of his sister that there was a glimmer of hope. It was hard, really hard. The hardest thing he ever did to not go back and try rewriting history.

His life has been busy since, putting most of his efforts toward either helping the rest of the Justice League or keeping history intact. It does him good having something to do, keeping his mind occupied on how empty the world seemed. It wasn’t until four years ago after adopting Rani that Michael started to experience what it felt to be happy again.

Now bringing it all to the present, a few weeks ago Michael was helping some other heroes fight a creature terrorizing New York. His daughter was a teenager now and recently was gifted one of Michelle’s old Goldstar uniforms for sentimental reasons. Rani wants to be her father’s sidekick but Michael couldn’t lost anyone else. He’s always firm with saying no. She appeared at the scene begging to help but just as they were bickering the creature bursted through a nearby building. Skeets informed them that it was coming right for them. Michael did the only thing any father would do — whatever it takes to protect his family.

He used his time travel technology in his suit to take them away from the destruction coming for them. He meant to only hop a few minutes into the future but something went wrong and they crash landed in a different universe. The not-so-glamorous landing busted the device so there’s no way of getting home but at least Rani and Skeets were okay. This was all he cared about at the end of the day. Maybe it could be possible to build a life here until figuring out a way to fix his suit but seems unlikely right now. Michael realized the Booster Gold of this universe hasn’t been around for a while but has a history of being a model too just like him. He uses this as an easy way to get some work while they’re here.

#starcintro #ᴛʜᴇ ɢʀᴇᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ʜᴇʀᴏ ʏᴏᴜ'ᴠᴇ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ʜᴇᴀʀᴅ ᴏғ. [ MUSE ] #depression tw #death tw

[renaroo]

Some Time (Time and Time Again) (5/8)

Disclaimer: Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, and associated characters are the creative property of DC Comics. Warnings: Canon shaken not stirred, Heavy canon references to Booster Gold (2009-2011) and Blue Beetle (2016-2018) Pairings: Boostle Rating: T Synopsis: Booster Gold and the rest of the Time Masters are still straightening up things in the wake of the most recent universal Rebirth. But Rip Hunter is still missing in the aftermath, leaving Booster in charge with Skeets, Michelle, and Rani. But there’s a distraction for Booster, one he can’t keep himself from ignoring.

Ted Kord, miraculously, is still alive. And that makes everything more complicated than Michael could have ever imagined.

A/N: I love writing character dialogue so I let this one get away from me but, hopefully, you all will be understanding lol

And of course a wonderful thanks to @spiralcass, @secretlystephaniebrown, @babybatbrat, @mcbangle, @shibascarf, and @tardigradetheking for your lovely feedback and support!

Ted Kord

Ted is concerned about Booster’s condition long before he lands chin first into the concrete.

All the teams and all the fights that they had been through together over the years had shown Ted that Booster is as capable of taking a beating as any other hero. But there was intimate brutality to the fight between Ted’s mysterious attacker and Booster Gold that left far more questions than there are currently answers.

Of course, Booster’s fall is a helpful kick into high gear for switching between fight mode to oh shit mode.

Even though Ted is closer, he reaches the unconscious Booster’s side at nearly the same time as Michelle.

As if that isn’t weird enough on its own.

Without hesitation, Ted begins checking vitals and timing Booster’s pulse. The swelling and bruising are already looking nasty beneath the splattering of blood from Booster’s cuts and nose.

“Oh my god, can we move him?” Michelle asks, clear panic in her voice.

“Yeah, carefully,” Ted answers, using a momentarily free hand to point toward the steel locker by his desk. “I stocked a stretcher in the first aid cabinet. If we’re getting him out of here without messing with his neck then that’s going to be our biggest help.”

“I’m on it!” she yells, propelling from the floor and straight to the cabinet. She is back in the blink of an eye. “Tell me what to do.”

“Okay, when I say so, let’s lift him up just enough to slide the stretcher over and —“ he catches himself in the moment and then looks at Michelle curiously, “We have somewhere to take him, right? I’d say a hospital but—“

“No, we’ve got somewhere that Black Beetle shouldn’t be able to follow us,” she immediately replies. “Um. Hopefully. It’s the first time I’ve been in charge of moving places and cloaking us without…” Michelle shakes her head violently and then looks back at Ted with fiery confidence in her eyes. “We’ve got somewhere. If Skeets can help out with the transport.”

“Of course, Michelle!” the robotic voice drones.

Ted glances up and sees Skeets. The robot has an appendage out from his compact body and is using it to rather securely hold the wrist of the little girl from before. The girl has her free handheld tightly over her eyes, two clear streams of ongoing tears crossing her cheek as she breathes unevenly.

There is still so much that Ted can’t even comprehend enough to ask proper questions about, but he focuses and compartmentalizes as best he can be given the circumstances. Later. There has to be a later.

And beer. God, is he going to make Booster hold up his end of the deal so far as the beer is concerned.

Securing Booster’s neck and then securely taking hold of his shoulders, Ted takes a deep breath and looks to Michelle. “Okay, if you can get his legs, lift on three.”

Quickly, Michelle gets hold of her brother at his knees. “Ready!”

“One, two, three,” Ted presses, lifting Booster’s limp body up and using his foot to slide the stretcher closer to position before they lower him again. Booster is a lot heavier than the last time Ted can remember having to carry him — and it’s all hard muscle. Which is definitely something considering that Booster was never one to lack tone, to begin with.

The jarring of Booster’s body elicits a low, throaty groan from him, but it is only momentary. He is still completely out when Ted reaches up and brushes back blonde hair to feel and better see Booster’s forehead and face.

The adrenaline is wearing thin and the horrors and near-misses of everything are starting to catch up with Ted. His chest feels tight and on fire.

“I am going to transport all of us to Time Lab, but it will require some calculation considering the relative size of our party compared to… the limited surface area available at the moment,” Skeets announces.

“Just do it, Skeets!” Michelle begs.

Ted takes another moment to look her over and can’t help the commentary he has been holding back.

“Hey, so, fancy seeing you here,” he says. Michelle looks to Ted’s face, curious where this is leading. “Haven’t seen you since your funeral. You look good.”

“Thanks. Haven’t seen you since yours,” Michelle counters quickly.

Blinking with surprise, Ted turns his head slightly but any verbal response is cut off by the winding up and BOOM of their transportation, followed by the bodily jerk of material displacement and replacement.

They go from Ted’s utterly destroyed personal lab… To something that looks to be in a fairly similar state.

“You have a laboratory?” he asks, taken aback. “What does Booster need with a laboratory? The closest I’ve seen him to 'experimenting' is whatever he put together from the fridge’s leftovers.”

“This laboratory and compound are originally the property and creation of Doctor Rip Hunter,” Skeets’ voice offers as the robot flies past them.

And that is a name which Ted has not heard from in a while. It’s enough to make him take pause just before helping Michelle lift Booster’s stretcher. He’s still trying to put in place the variables he knows together but the time travelers just keep throwing new ones at him.

Figures.

Realizing he has no concept of where he’s going, Ted gives Michelle a look. “Uh, where’s a good place to—“

“Michael’s bedroom is down the hall, but the living room’s closer if you think a couch could work,” Michelle answers.

“Yeah, closer the better,” Ted agrees before allowing Michelle to lead the way.

He continues thinking — medical supplies to list out for them, monitoring his swears for the literal child present, concerns about the safety of this lab both from its broken nature and the transporting assassin after him, so on and so forth. But some things are drawing together.

“So… Michael lives with Rip Hunter… in a laboratory where he can… transport places and fight with guys infringing on my copyright,” Ted puts together as they reach the couch.

“Among other things,” Michelle says almost cryptically.

They slide Booster onto the couch and the failed attempt at conversation gets shelved. There’s pressing matters — all that other stuff on Ted’s mind.

Ted immediately checks on Booster’s neck. He didn’t like the way Booster’s head hit the ground, let alone the other times he crashed headfirst into the Bug. Or any walls. Or the Bug again. And the bruising was already purpling. Maybe there is a stake when being fashion-forward because Ted can’t imagine that the popped up collar would have let Booster’s neck jerk in that fashion.

The thought crosses his mind so naturally that he almost doesn’t question it, just smirks to himself in amusement. But then Ted does think about it.

When did Booster ever have a popped collar? Why is he thinking about that? How bizarre…

“I’m going to need some supplies—“ Ted begins to say.

“I’ll get them,” Michelle answers, getting to her feet.

“Do you need me to tell you what we need?” Ted asks as she leaves the room.

“I’ve got a good handle on what we’re going to need, Ted,” she replies before disappearing out into the rest of the lab.

Ted’s at a loss for words by the time Michelle gets back and they get to work taking care of the immediate stuff. A neck brace, ankle bandaged and up, a few scrapes closed up, a few scrapes stitched up. Cutting off the tethers of Booster’s ruined suit, the works.

It’s no Doomsday fight — which, Ted reminds himself, they weren’t there for, were they? — but this Black Beetle really did a number in a short amount of time.

It almost makes Ted question how badly he would be looking if Booster hadn’t shown up at the right time and place. He’s not sure he would like the answer, especially after Michelle’s commentary about funerals.

“That’s the most immediate stuff,” Ted says, spooling leftover suture. “But, uh, if I still know Booster—“

“You do,” Michelle says almost fondly.

“Right,” Ted answers awkwardly before coughing into his fist and looking back at her. “Well, he’s going to have a lot of complaints if his nose is crooked when he wakes up.”

Michelle throws her head back and laughs. “Oh, yeah. Definitely.”

Ted waves to Booster’s face. “You want the honors?”

“Please,” Michelle continues laughing, shaking her head. “I am but a lowly twin sister. I mess that up and it will never be forgiven. I’ll hear about it forever.”

“What, and I won’t?” Ted asks, already changing out his dirty gloves for a new set.

“He’s going to be so happy to see you when he wakes up that I think you could probably get away with a lot more than a crooked nose,” Michelle says warmly.

Slowly, Ted frowns as he examines his gloves. So many variables. More every minute. But they’re beginning to get distracting.

Almost as distracting as the fact that he hasn’t talked to his best friend in years, and the first day they’re back in each other’s orbit, everything goes to hell in a handbasket and Ted almost has to watch Booster die.

Some things just can’t be ignored any further.

“Listen, I’m playing along with this because, even if I’ve not been in a suit myself for a while, I’m familiar with how this hero game goes,” Ted says lowly. “Prioritize then summarize. I’m not even expecting to walk away today knowing half the stuff I probably need to. But I think… I think I need to know something that’s going on. Because I almost watched my best friend die today, and that only happened because I was almost killed.”

Michelle stares at him for a moment, looking genuinely sympathetic. “I’ll be honest, Ted,” she says, finding a seat on the coffee table just behind him, “I’m not sure what I can say and what I can’t. Booster and I were trying to figure that out already before… Well, before all of this happened and left us ungrounded.”

Ted furrowed his brow. “So, what? Just trying to figure out if It’s worth telling me the sister I went to a funeral for was actually alive? That there was a reason I haven’t heard a peep in years? That he has a kid — and, by the by, Jesus Booster has a kid?”

“Hey! It’s all a lot more complicated than just not telling you things,” Michelle argues.

“You told me you went to my funeral,” Ted points out. “I’d like that implication ironed out. Please and thanks.”

Michelle blinks in surprise, putting a hand to her chest. “Oh. Did I say that? That is… almost exactly the thing that Mikey would have preferred to put on the back burner.”

“Oh, great,” Ted sarcastically spits back. “That’s good to know.”

“No! I mean. Oh, shoot, I’m…” Michelle takes a breath and pinches her nose. “Dammit, Carter temper!” She then looks at Ted apologetically. “What I’m trying to say is, first off, I’m sorry if I’ve been. Um. Short with you. It’s just that… Michael’s literally the last person I have left who’s family. Hell, who’s known I’ve been alive for the past few years. With Rip gone and Rani still so young… All I’ve got is Michael. And he’s being…”

“Booster,” Ted offers.

“Exactly,” she yells, throwing her hands up. “Idiot! He’s got all this shit he’s in charge of and all these people counting on him and he goes up against Black Beetle with his force field projected onto someone else.”

Ted flinches at that. “Me.”

“Well, yeah,” Michelle groans, rubbing her face. “Big dummy. Big idiot. God. I hate how stupid he is sometimes.”

“Yeah,” Ted utters, glancing back at Booster. “Well. He saved me with it this time. And most of the other times it involved pranks I initiated. And I guess he’s the dumbest when it comes to having a big heart about stuff. Maybe. Actually some of the things with making money, we were also pretty dumb about. But in general, it’s the big-hearted stuff.”

He trails off in thought, realizing his grin is one he hasn’t worn in quite a while. His ears heat up, no doubt turning an awful shade of red, and Ted ducks his head slightly as if it would help.

When he feels the weight of Michelle’s gaze, Ted can’t help but look her way. He sees a bit of hesitation in her face and she tucks strands of blonde hair behind her ears carefully.

“This is going to sound like I’m putting off answering any of your questions,” she admits slowly. “I promise I’ll answer what I can, but to get a proper frame of where to start, I need to ask you something that seems probably obvious to you. Something I bet Michael’s never going to get the nerve to ask.”

“Oh, okay,” Ted answers, feeling a catch in the rhythm of his heart yet again. He’s not certain he’s ready for this.

And he certainly isn’t prepared when he hears her ask, “Can you tell me exactly what it was that you and Michael had a falling out about?”

Ted blinks, frankly surprised. For some ungodly reason, he has been stressing about a much more intimate question.

This seems both easier and harder.

“It’s kind of a misnomer to call it a falling out exactly,” Ted admits, a little more reluctant than he expected of himself. “We didn’t fall out, we had just this period of, well, not clicking. Which is weird. Because it’s us.”

Michelle nods in a way that might seem like she understands what us can entail. But Ted feels, coldly down to his core, that even if she’s Booster’s twin sister there’s certainly no way she can understand this feeling he means. There’s not anyone Ted thinks can fully comprehend what he’s talking about with him and Booster.

For a long time, he liked to think that Booster understood.

But years of silence has made Ted begin to think it could very well just be on his side after all.

No one gets it.

“It started out with just little things, not meshing,” Ted continues. “And I was… well, I started getting more irritable. Everyone says so, I didn’t think so at the time. Maybe I did. I was having a hard time and Booster is usually so good at getting what I’m feeling and he just wasn’t. And after a while, I moved cities. Lost my company to corporate espionage. Went into cardiac arrest.” Ted can’t help the flare-up of anger he feels as he adds, “Booster never checked in. I didn’t bother reaching back out.”

In response, Michelle looks positively horrified. “When did this all happen?” she asks quickly.

Ted raises a brow in her direction. “I don’t know. Two years ago? Little more?”

She bites onto one of her fingers and turns her head, holding something back with all her might. Then she gazes back at Ted, apologetically. “I… I think there’s been a misunderstanding in all of this,” she admits. “Because Mikey… God he would never miss being there for you again.”

Squinting, Ted can’t tell how much he’s being played anymore. “Again?” he presses.

“Dammit!” Michelle grabs her hair and pulls. In her frustration, Ted thinks she couldn’t look any more like her twin if she tried. “I hate keeping track of this time travel shenanigans! I hate it! I don’t have a knack for it like Michael.”

“Calm down,” Ted tries to say evenly and politely. “I’m sure there is something else going on. Hell, I know there has to be because… look where we are… look who we are. That’s what I’d like to get to the business of, honestly, because this is making my head spin and I’m worried more and more each second you’re letting me fill in my own blanks.”

Michelle inhales sharply and closes her eyes. After a few moments of furrowed brows and mixed expressions, she nods her head and looks at Ted. “Look, honestly, I want Michael to be the final word on what is shared and what’s not. But you’re almost being assassinated by time travelers, and you met Rani, and you know I’m alive, and Michael — allegedly — spills his guts any time he’s around a fifth and you, so… Here we go.”

Easing back into a more comfortable position, Ted tilts his head and looks at Michelle expectantly. “Here we go,” he agrees.

“Well, we work… kind of like Time Cops,” Michelle announces in wind up.

Which is already enough to make Ted take pause.

“I’m sorry, did you say Time Cops?” Ted asks critically. “What does that even mean?”

“Well, the time stream has important moments that can’t be changed… but sometimes they get fuzzy, or moments leading up to them get weakened, and people who can manipulate the time stream can abuse those moments to alter history as we know it,” Michelle explains. “Rip Hunter, who discovered the time stream and invented time travel as we know and understand it now, has Mikey go-to moments in time where he’s needed and repair them. Sometimes they make sense and sometimes they don’t, but each moment is important and Mikey — sometimes with my help — goes in, makes sure things happen like they’re supposed to, and comes back. Hopefully with being seen, heard, or felt as little as possible. But sometimes it means punching people. I haven’t figured out which kind of intervention he prefers yet, really. It depends on the day.”

Ted blinks a few times, looks to his unconscious friend, then back to Michelle.

“We’re talking about Booster, right?”

For a brief moment, a flash of protective fury crosses Michelle’s face. She tempers it quickly, though and smirks to herself. “Yeah… well, people rise to the expectations you give them sometimes, you know?” She looks fondly toward her brother. “Rip gave him that chance. Gave it to me, too. Saved me from my death and, through a loophole, made it less of a second chance and more of an opportunity to be someone I was always meant to be.”

Searching Michelle’s forlorn expression, Ted takes a breath and nods slowly. “Yeah,” he agrees softly. “Honestly, yeah. You guys always were great — naturals at this whole hero thing. From the start. Even being thrown off the same way I would if you put me back at the Revolutionary War, I guess. But… I knew Booster was capable of being greater than any of us,” Ted clarifies. “It’s just… last time I saw him, he wasn’t exactly taking those steps.” He frowns and looks off, a bit red in the ears again. “Maybe it was because of me. Maybe he couldn’t take them while we were being goofballs.”

“No, that’s not it at all,” Michelle says, approaching Ted and gently placing her hands on his shoulders. “Ted, he only did any of this from the beginning because of you. Because… Because the time stream is shifted and some of the things we’ll tell you for the next while aren’t going to make any sense with what you know is true, but… our time now is different than the one Michael and I still remember. There was a huge event, a huge change that we couldn’t do anything about, and some of it is still not figured out. But one of the biggest changes is that these few years of you two being apart… for us, it wasn’t some falling out or misunderstanding left on the back burner.”

And, suddenly, it all begins to click into place.

He turns and looks at Michelle with widened, horrified eyes.

“You’re saying I’m supposed to be dead now?” he asks her critically. “That that’s the reason I’ve not seen him?”

“No! Yes! I mean, hold on,” Michelle shakes her head. “Yes, that’s where the confusion is, but… no. No, we don’t think you’re supposed to be dead. You were and now you’re not, and maybe this is how things are meant to be but before they weren’t.”

“This is not comforting at all,” Ted heaves, feeling like he can’t get any air all of the sudden. His heart is racing. “Wait, that assassin… is he trying to kill me because I’m supposed to be dead? Was it the heart attack!? Oh, god, I faced down a lot of alien invasions over the years and if it was a heart attack that got me, I swear to god—“ He pauses and breathes. “Actually, no, okay, that’s pretty funny, Big Guy, a few points there.”

Ted thinks he’s being fairly humorous, all things considered, but when he looks to Michelle for at least a complementary laugh, all he gets is a stare that makes the rounds somewhere between sympathetic and embarrassed. Which is not the reaction he was looking for in either case.

“It’s weird knowing you’re supposed to be dead, but, trust me, it’s not as weird as you feel right now,” Michelle attempts to comfort him.

“Alright,” Ted responds, throat feeling a little dry. “I’ll have to take your words for it.” He then frowns and rubs at his chin in thought. “Okay, but that still leaves the question of this Black Beetle character. What’s his deal? Why does he want me dead? Is it because of the time stream shenanigans you mentioned?”

Michelle frowns and runs a hand through her hair. “Black Beetle is a weird one to explain. He’s… Michael’s been dealing with him for quite a while now, but there’s not a whole lot we know about him. He claims he’s from the twenty-seventh century and he claims there’s something particular about the Blue Beetle legacy he hates. But I never made sense of it.” She shrugs. “Honestly, I can’t fill you in on most of that stuff. It was mostly before I was back on the scene. That’s all Mikey and,” her mouth twitches a bit, uncomfortable and sad, “and Rip.”

“Rip Hunter,” Ted clarifies. “If he’s basically your and Booster’s boss, and this is his lab, where’s he hiding at?”

The very mention of Rip has left Michelle paled, but by the end of Ted’s question, she looks positively heartsick.

It’s almost enough to make Ted regret bringing it up.

“We don’t know,” Michelle admits quietly. “Most of our time for the past year has been split between patching up messes in the time stream and looking for him. But, honestly, with all his secrets, we don’t even know where to start looking for him. It’s like the new universe opened up and swallowed him whole. He’s just gone.”

“So, what, he never existed?” Ted asks. The concept of someone being swallowed up by time and space is enough to make any lesser man stare at a spot on the wall for a few hours in existential horror, but Ted has the pressing concerns of catching up with his best friend’s not-dead sister and dealing with time-traveling assassins to helpfully distract him.

“Well, Michael doesn’t think so,” Michelle says, sounding rather unsure of herself. “At least not yet. He says we would have a harder time remembering him by now if that’s the case. But… Rip’s been a part of our lives for a long time now. He’s… he’s family. It’s hard to think of anything keeping him away like this without any signs.” She pauses. Her finger daintily taps on her bottom lip. “Hm. But he… or someone, at least, gave us a clue of some kind. It’s what got Rani on her little adventure to find you, Ted.”

“Okay, I guess that sounds promising for Rip,” Ted says, though it honestly doesn’t sound like anything to his ears if he’s being honest with himself. “But what about this Rani girl?” Ted asks.

Michelle’s entire demeanor softens. “Rani is… Well, at this point, she’s an anomaly. Michael saved her from a planet which was destroyed and, well, she wasn’t supposed to be. There weren’t any survivors, according to records. She’s one of us, now.”

Ted stares at Michelle in partial horror. “What? Is that… how… Wow.” He scratches his head before continuing, “So Booster’s basically a dad now.”

“Well,” Michelle pauses and then nods reluctantly. “Actually, yes. In a way it kind of. Fell onto him. But he lives up to it beautifully.”

There’s a gasp that Ted can’t retain, despite himself. “He pulled a Batman.”

“Yes,” Michelle agrees.

“S’dop dalkin’ aboud me.”

The words catch Ted so off guard, he nearly jumps to his feet from the floor. For her part, Michelle does jump to her feet.

Booster’s eyes are still closed and he looks positively miserable even then, but there’s an unmistakable control of his breath and a blush of red in his face. He shifts, slightly and painfully, as if beginning to adjust himself before realizing it’s a very poor idea.

After he settles again, Booster’s lids lift up just slightly and he lets out a sigh.

“Seriouthly,” he slurs through a heavily blocked nose, “I’m right here.”

“Mikey! You’re okay!” Michelle yells out with relief.

“D’at’s a sd’re’dch,” Booster continues with a low moan. “I d’ink I go’d hi’d by a d’ruck.”

“Close,” Ted joked, settling back into a haunched position close to the couch. “You kind of hit the Bug. A few times.”

Immediately, Booster’s eyes flicker open and he locks in on Ted’s direction like a honing rocket. His expression is difficult to make out, a flurry of different emotions flooding across all at once. “Ted,” he manages to say carefully enough it’s clear even with his nose in the way.

“Hey,” Ted says back, mouth feeling strangely dry. He tries to think of something more serious to say but all he can manage is, “Sorry I couldn’t reset your nose while you were asleep. I was too busy taking selfies with you while I still had the better face.”

“You always had… d’e be’dder face,” Booster manages with a crinkle of a smile on his swollen lips.

Ted smirks and shakes his head just slightly. “Liar.” He feels the uncomfortable warmth rise up to his face and ears yet again and turns his head slightly to avoid Booster’s gaze just for a moment. But not too long. “Guess it’s kind of cheating to claim best looks after you take a few assassination attempt hits for me just beforehand. Very unsportsmanlike.”

“Very,” Booster says breathily. Annoyance flashes through his eyes for a moment. “Wha’d abou’d my nose?”

“That’s my cue to let you take the brunt of this one, Blue Beetle!” Michelle declares, walking up to the side of her brother and leaning over to affectionately pat his cheek. “Have fun, bro.”

Booster takes his eyes off of Ted for the first time since they opened and and regards Michelle carefully. “Rani?”

“Scared. Fine, safe. Scared,” Michelle recites easily. “I’m going to go check on her and Skeets.”

“D’anks,” Booster mutters as Michelle passes.

It leaves them alone in the room together, and Ted realizes he has wasted a lot of potential questions and conversation starters already and isn’t sure where to go next.

Which helps when Booster chimes in with, “Are you hur’d?”

Baffled, Ted looks at him. “Heard? I don’t know can you hear me?”

“No, I mean…” Booster huffs a short laugh. “Asshole.”

“Of course I’m not hurt, you protected me instead of yourself, nitwit,” Ted says. His hand moves without him thinking, like it’s possessed, and takes hold of Booster’s normally soft and perfect hair. It’s not perfect after a beating, but still soft. He teases it a bit, shaking Booster’s head just enough to make a point without testing his no doubt sore neck. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“‘Course I did,” Booster says easily enough. “Didn’d feel like… losing you…”

“I didn’t want to lose you again either,” Ted says pointedly. “Imagine how I feel now.”

Booster’s eyes sharpened, a little more lucid and serious. “You never lose me.”

“What? You got all the timelines down to a science, Time Cop?” Ted asks. When he sees the brief flash of shock, he realizes that Booster wasn’t awake for nearly as much of Ted and Michelle’s conversation as he thought. “Your sister shared. Just a bit. Still super confusing, though.”

“Dammit ‘Chel,” Booster groans. “Now go’dda kill you.”

“Nope,” Ted says, leaning over, “not letting that happen either. Not even for your nemesis with the very lame copyright infringement.”

“So lame,” Booster agrees, breath a little stilted. He begins to move his head closer but flinches back as his neck strains. “Dangerous, d’ough.”

“I get that,” Ted says. His mouth seems to be the only thing capable of movement. He’s not sure why, but his heart is irregular again, but not in the way that makes him concerned. It’s something, well, a lot more juvenile.

His mouth is still dry so he tries to lick his lips before continuing.

“Listen, Booster,” he says slowly, “I’m going to fix your nose.”

“Oh, good,” Booster says lightly.

“But it’s going to hurt like a you know what and… I kind of want to take care of something else before we get on to that part. Something that’s been bothering me for years. Before this weird… whatever cosmic misunderstanding there’s been between us,” Ted explains, doing his best to balance thorough detail and utter vagueness in a way that would make the Question proud.

Booster looks at him warily. “Okay?”

They stare at each other in silence. Booster is expectant and slightly nervous. Ted is certain he would have lost his lunch by now if he hadn’t given the grease bucket stuff to Rani earlier.

As soon as the awkwardness of hesitation is more than the nervousness of action, Ted launches forward and kisses the corner of Booster’s mouth.

He can feel the touch of their lips, the slight five o’clock shadow forming the outline of Booster’s mouth. He tries to mind Booster’s bruises and aches, but the rush of adrenaline presses Ted’s lips hard into the other man’s skin. It could, after all, be the very last time he even has the opportunity to do this.

When he pulls back with the thrust of a man breaking through water to the air again, Ted feels like he could pass out. He looks, horrified at himself, toward Booster and sees a surprised expression, too.

Booster blinks multiple times before, against Ted’s grunts of disagreement, shifting to push up on his elbows and lift his torso off the couch.

None of this, especially the lack of words, is helping Ted wonder if he can throw up the day before’s lunch in today’s stead.

“Wow,” Booster finally says. “I wan’d my nose fixed.”

Ted feels like he can crawl into a hole and die. “Okay.”

“Bu’d,” Booster huffs, looking at Ted deeply, “firs’d, you go’dda no’d miss.”

For a moment, the comment doesn’t register. Either because Ted is emotionally comatose in the aftermath of his big leap of faith, or because the dulled words Booster has to use with his blocked nose are distracting. Either way, it does finally come together and make sense.

“Oh!” Ted answers. “Yeah. Whoops. Total accident, let’s redo that. I’m sure you understand. Going back and fixing time stuff.”

He leans forward and, this time doesn’t miss.

#writing #dc fic #DC: Some Times (Time and Time Again) #Ted Kord #Booster Gold #Michael Jon Carter #Blue Beetle #Boostle #Michelle Carter #Skeets

[fuckedupamericangirl]

Can’t Seem to Make You Mine

Booster Gold x Reader:

The first time Booster remembers meeting you he had crash through your car window while fighting a time parasite.

You were in the driver's seat and couldn’t stop screaming. He apologized while helping you out of your car and carrying you to safety. You passed out in his arms and woke up on a park bench.

The second time Booster remembers crossing paths with you. You were at a Kord Industries Tech Gala working as a photographer. Or at least he thought you were because you had a camera and were taking pictures.

He didn’t know why, but there was something about your face that just stuck with him. He traveled through time and had saved thousands of people, but there was something about you that just resonated within him.

As soon as you noticed him in the crowd he sent you a wink. You raised your camera and Booster posed for you. You took the picture and blew him a kiss goodbye and walked away.

He looked for you everywhere while he forced Ted to look through the employee list for the event while skeets looked online for any references of you. Nothing showed up.

The third time he encountered you he was walking into a Bar with Scott And Ted when he saw you sitting in a booth alone drinking wine and fiddling with a camera.

He immediately pushed Ted and Scott out of the way and ran straight to you. He tripped over a few chairs along the way and that caught your attention.

When he got back up he walked in a slow strout towards you and you couldn’t help but smile at him.

You were starring up at him smiling and everything Booster had prepared in his head just in case he ever saw you again disappeared. He ended up saying-

“You have pretty teeth, did you wear braces?”

Your smile got bigger and your cheeks reddened, “No, just good genetics.” 

“Sorry, that’s a weird thing to say.”

“No, its alright it was a nice way to break the ice.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. It was really endearing.” 

Booster ran his hand through the back of his hair and said, “My name’s Michael by the way.”

“Y/N”

“Can I buy you a drink.”

“I’d love that.”

Booster ends up buying you a beer and sitting across from you. His friends came over and introduced themselves to you. After a while Ted recognized you as a Reporter for the Chicago Tribune.

Ted brought up the Tech Gala.

“I’ve met you before at a Gala for Kord Industries.”

“You seemed a little familiar, what did you say your last name was again?”

“Kord.”

“Like Ted Kord KORD?”

“Yeah.”

“Right! Daniel introduced us. I still can’t believe he managed to get me an invitation.”

Boosters mood changed as soon as you said Daniel. Was he your friend? Boyfriend? Husband? He didn’t see a ring on your finger.

“Who’s Daniel”

You noticed the way Michaels face changed it used to be so cheerful and carefree now it seemed sadder and more serious. You hadn’t known him for long, but the frown on his face seemed so unnatural.

“Daniels an old friend. When I was first getting started on my journalism career, I ran a blog and he managed to get me into one Ted’s Gala. I couldn’t get on the authorized press list.”

“He moved to Metropolis a couple years ago though...I haven’t really talked to him since.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know I guess I’m just not really good at keeping in touch.”

She changed the subject, “Anyway Michael how do you know Ted Kord?”

“We share a hobby”

As soon as he said that Michael’s, Ted’s, and Scott’s phone rang. Official Justice League Bussiness.

“Speaking of Hobbies I have to go. I really enjoyed hanging out with you though and if you don’t mind I’d like to do it again.”

“Yeah I’d love too. Can I see your phone?”

Booster handed it over. You went to contacts and added yourself. Then you took a picture of yourself and set as your contact photo.

“Call me whenever you want to hangout again or just...talk.”

He called you a lot. You didn’t really mind you liked the sound of his voice it made you happy.

You tried various times to meet up in person, but he always seemed to be busy and when he wasn’t you were.

The fourth time Booster encountered you he had to save you from a fire in your apartment building.

He flew you to a rooftop far away from your building.

He didn’t say much to you, but you recognized his voice right.

Your hand were wrapped around his neck and his arms were carrying you bridal style when you said, “Michael?!?”

Shit! Booster thought. He tried to lower his voice when he said, “I don’t know who you’re talking about? I’m Booster Gold.”

“Michael I could recognize your voice a mile a way.”

“I’m not...shit fuck!” He took of his mask, “I don’t know how Supes does it.

“Is this the Hobby you were talking about?”

“Yes.”

“Does that mean Ted and Scott are also Superhero’s”

“Yeah...”

“Don’t worry I won’t tell anyone.

“I have to go now”Booster let you down and you put his goggles back on and help him slide his mask over his head.

You gave him a kiss on the cheek and told him to, “Go save the night.”

#booster gold #booster gold x reader #booster gold drabble #michael jon carter x reader #michael jon carter

[taffystake]

Heroes In Crisis #7 Review

Written by: Tom King

Art by: Clay Mann, Travis Moore, and Jorge Fornes

Colors by: Tomeu Morey

So....remember how I said I was usually positive? Its time to get real negative because.....holy crap, does this comic make me utterly detest the writer. While I have undeniably enjoyed some of Tom King’s other work, Heroes In Crisis has driven me to madness with some of the most painfully slow, agonizingly self-reflective, and utterly meaningless writing I’ve seen. The fact this mystery comic has been more content to dwell on everything BUT the mystery just makes it all the more painful. But...I’ll try and start with the one positive....

The art for this comic is actually very good looking, with a lot of the character designs, backgrounds, and motion being conveyed extremely well. The art does a lot of good work conveying subtle emotional shifts, which helps to get across some of the points that, honestly, the writing is horrible at doing. If it weren’t for the art being as good as it is, this comic could rightfully just die in a ditch. Please let Clay Mann get some better writing for his art after this travesty.

Now then....the plot. After a few pages of watching Wally fuck around in a flowery meadow, we get to watch Harley manically sing as she attempts to bludgeon and stab Booster Gold to death. A very unsuccessful death, as his shield generator is back online. Leaving Batgirl and Blue Beetle to talk about the insanity of all this. After an interlude with Wally West’s interview from his first week at Sanctuary that....just establishes how cheery and bright he was before this comic ever happened, we get another interlude with The Flash rushing to Batman to get help finding Booster and Blue Beetle.

As Blue and Batgirl watch, Blue lets slip Booster’s shield only stays online while Blue is conscious. so Batgirl knocks him out. And then Harley continues beating on Booster Gold. Another interlude of Wally losing his cheery nature to this place later and another interlude of Batman and Flash hunting Booster Gold later, we jump to booster pleading for death, which...Harley fails to oblige. After admitting her manic singsong has apparently been her attempt at superhero banter, we get....another interlude of Wally West, which packs in the most blatant audience jab in this entire comic while also demonstrating his continuing downgrade into mopey bitch from his normal personality.

....Screw it, I’m going off on the audience jab here. Wally West’s revival at the beginning of Rebirth was meant as a sign that hope, legacy, and hero families would once again become the norm within the DC Universe after the New 52 did its best to kill all of those off. And so Wally is apparently feeling the weight of being this symbol of hope. EXCEPT there is no in-universe reason for him to be seen as ANY FORM OF A GODDAMN SYMBOL OF HOPE! NONE! NADAH! Even the one thing that could justify it, becoming a Blue Lantern at one time, doesn’t account for this because he lists all the shit his life has gone through chronologically and the Blue Lantern thing was before the New 52 reboot. So this is just Tom King taking a cheap shot at people WHO LEGITIMATELY WANTED A GODDAMN BEACON OF FUN AND HOPE THAT HE DECIDED TO KILL FOR THIS AWFUL EVENT!

....okay, Im good. For now. So after.......that, we see Wally’s hand generate electricity and bring to life a bud that grows. And grows. And grows. And grows until it becomes human-sized, opening itself to reveal a very Swamp Thing-esque Poison Ivy that he has apparently revived. Back with Booster and the others, they begin discussing Wally’s body being five days older than the others and how they are now five days after the Sanctuary massacre, so obviously Wally is alive and somewhere out there.

Fucking what. Im sorry, but we’re using evidence that a Flash is a few days older than normal to declare he must be alive five days after the slaughter. Two things: One, this entire run hasn’t done a goddamn thing to set up a fucking bit of chronology. If they hadn’t said it was five days after here, Id have thought anywhere from two days to five fucking weeks might have been the timeline here. Two, we are trusting this time DNA thing to be correct. On a Flash. GUYS WHO RUN SO FAST THEY TIME TRAVEL ON THE REGULAR. AND ITS ON THE ONE WHO CAME BACK FROM LITERAL OBLIVION IN THE SPEED FORCE! SO FOR ALL ANYONE KNOWS, EVEN IF THIS EVIDENCE PROVES FLASH LIVED PAST THE SLAUGHTER AND HIS BODY WAS TIME TRAVELED BACK, IT COULD BE A FEW HOURS AFTER TO A MONTH AFTER! 

But no, after we get the four stooges settled on their team name, we see Batman and Flash noticed their efforts to use Skeets to find where the hell Wally is. And it turns out he is alive in the flower meadow, talking to the revived Poison Ivy and saying he is sorry because he hurt her and she’s about to see something else. What thing exactly? Why, Wally West arrive from five days in the past to kill himself.

Yep. Wally West, the cheeriest man in the DC Universe, is the one who slaughtered all of the residents of Sanctuary. A bunch of heroes, a few villains, and most notably his best friend Roy Harper.

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!?!?!?!

THIS! THIS IS THE BIG FUCKING TWIST OF HEROES IN CRISIS! THE KILLER IN THIS MURDER MYSTERY IS ONE OF THE VICTIMS! AND NOT JUST ANY VICTIM, THE ONE VICTIM WHO SPENT HIS WHOLE TIME IN SANCTUARY WALLOWING IN SELF PITY AND STARING AT HIS NAVEL SO MUCH HE CAN COUNT THE HAIRS! THIS ISN’T FUCKING PROBLEMATIC AT ALL!

....Now then. To explain. This entire series was solicited as a murder mystery and as a way to look at the psychological impact of their actions on superheroes. And with this single issue, this limited series has proven it has no FUCKING IDEA WHAT EITHER OF THOSE MEAN! The mystery, if you can call it that, was who exactly managed to kill everyone at Sanctuary. But the comic delays getting anything beyond slow diatribes about the heroes and the fallout from this place being slaughtered until issue 6 out of 9. And the one piece of evidence it gives is fucking meaningless because of who it involves, until this issue when the comic decides to establish exactly how many days its been since the Sanctuary slaughter and also establishes for sure that the evidence actually meant fucking anything. So figuring out who the murderer was could’ve been accomplished by a monkey and a dartboard more accurately than actual detective work.

And on the psychological front, this comic is a fucking travesty. Harley Quinn basically rides the bipolar seesaw in the most painfully cliche ways it can possibly use, having her manically singing songs and stabbing people before spontaneously breaking down into tears and regrets. But its worst affront is with Wally, as revealed in this issue. He went into what is essentially therapy a happy and well-adjusted person and came out of it so dour and ruined that he apparently decided to SLAUGHTER DOZENS OF HEROES AND FRIENDS OF HIS!!!! Which, despite being a comic proclaiming that it deals with mental issues, manages to make going to therapy look like a thing for people too dumb to just suppress their issues and die from the resultant tension. Wally goes in chipper and bright, and came out homicidal despite having NOTHING POINTING TOWARDS THAT AT ANY POINT IN HIS HISTORY!!! This comic understands mental trauma and mental illness like I understand Sumerian. FUCKING ABYSSMALLY!!!!

#heroes in crisis #dc #dc comics #tom king #comics #comic #comic book #comic books #review #comic review #taffys take #KILL THIS COMIC GODDAMN YOU #BURN IT AT THE STAKE

[dreadhaus-literature]

{Valentine’s Collection} #11

“I am so in love with you that I want you to sign a contract that will make it harder for you to dump me.”

Monica paused in the act of untying her boyfriend’s bow-tie, blinking up at a handsome, but goofy smile that was spreading across his face. She shook her head, returning to her task with a breathy laugh that tickled along his nerves like the tips of her fingers.

“What’s funny? I’m completely serious.”

“You’re never completely serious, Michael.” Monica countered, undoing the fasten that she’d had to tie for him--because he didn’t know how. Either that, or he said he didn’t, so she’d do up his ties for him. Monica didn’t know, honestly, and asking wouldn’t get her a straight answer. “They still have marriage in the future, huh?”

“Of course they still have marriage in the future--oh wait, is this that sad panda stuff Dot talks about?” Michael caught Monica’s little hands when she went to drop them, but he couldn’t stop her dead-panned expression even as he moved her hands to his mouth.

“Stop talking to Dot about me.”

“No? She’s got tons of information that I need. Like what’s the big deal about March 31st--”

“S-So what’s the deal with this love contract?” Monica changed the subject adeptly, something easy to do because her boyfriend, famed superhero Michael Carter, aka Booster Gold, was effortless to distract. Michael made a noise as he released her hands, allowing her to return to pulling off his tie.

“Love contract? Wow I really love the way that sounds, it’s so much better than a marriage license.” Michael turned a little to the left. “Skeets? Hey, do you think you could change that file name from ‘You Can’t Dump Me’ to ‘Love Contract’?”

Michael’s personal security AI, Skeets, answered immediately from his hovering position nearby. « Yes, considering that’s a much better name. Unsurprising since Monica came up with it. »

“Thank you, Skeets,” Monica laughed, but Michael just pouted.

“Stop sucking up to my wife.”

Skeets was quick on the comeback--as always. « She isn’t your wife yet. »

“Well she didn’t say no!”

« You didn’t ask her yet. »

“Yet yet yet, nag nag nag!”

Monica finished untying Michael’s tie and she slipped it from around his shirt collar before tossing the fabric onto his nearby dresser. The two were back home from a party at the Justice League, an annual Valentine’s Day celebration that was probably a little silly, but a lot of superheroes suffer in the love department. It’s hard, maintaining a relationship when you’re constantly splitting your attention between a significant other and the entire rest of the world, so a lot of superheroes spend the holiday alone. A way to remedy this was to host a party so that being alone was an option, not a mandatory sentence, and the party boasted more and more participating supers every year. Michael was one of the lucky few to have a partner, but he’d actually met Monica at the Valentine’s Party a few years ago--she was the organizer of the first event, the smashing success that started the yearly tradition and Michael had been so enamored with her handling of such a sentimental holiday he’d asked her out right on the spot...and then repeatedly the entire rest of the night, when she continued to duck his question with claims of needing to work the room. Sure, if it had been, say, The Joker, that attention would have been creepy and probably a little stalk-y but Michael wasn’t The Joker and he was pretty sure The Joker wasn’t even on the guest list, so what he was doing was winning Monica over.

It had worked, especially since Michael had stayed after to help Monica and her Staff clean the reception hall. When the night was over, Michael walked Monica to her car and tried again to ask her out--and this time, she’d said yes. The ensuing dates ended with a laughing, blossoming love between two kindred souls who enjoyed a good laugh and spending time together doing anything, didn’t matter what. Monica didn’t mind that Michael was a little...eccentric, that he wasn’t some brooding Bat or the all-too-perfect Superman. Michael was who he was and he did his best, tried his hardest every day--that was what Monica respected, appreciated, and loved, and with her help and influence Michael’s standing in the superhero world only grew to match his name of Gold. He became a shining example of what a hero should be, a model boyfriend to his loyal and loving girlfriend and every Valentine’s Day celebration that followed showed them as the couple other superheroes wanted to mold their relationships after--though that had a lot to do with them wishing it was them Monica was with. Michael didn’t think too hard about that, because beneath his light-hearted, playful banter was a jealous man all too aware of the prize he’d been lucky enough to win. Monica was one in a million and that was exactly why he didn’t want to leave to chance that they’d be together forever. He wanted it in writing and he wanted a ring on her finger--he wanted a ring on his finger, too. He wanted the big ceremony with all his friends in attendance, he wanted to watch Monica walk down the aisle to him, he was going to write his own vows...he wanted everything the movies promised and more, because he was a man in love. Wholly, unapologetically, shout it from the rooftops in love.

“You will sign it, right, baby?” Michael’s curious, nervous blue eyes searched Monica’s face without even waiting for her answer. “You love me enough to marry me, right?”

“M-Michael,” Monica laughed, a little flustered at how eager he seemed. He was like a little boy sometimes, but that was what endeared her to him. He was earnest and she always knew where she stood with him; he never made her question anything, most especially where he stood in their relationship and what he wanted. “Have you thought this through? I mean, really thought about it.”

“Are you kidding? That’s all I’ve been thinking about since the first moment I saw you,” Michael gestured with both arms out, his suit jacket unable to hide that superhero physique. “I knew you were the marrying type the second I saw you at that first party.”

“I’m pretty sure I was yelling at someone when you first saw me,” Monica muttered, pushing Michael’s suit jacket off--under the guise of helping him out of his party clothes but there were definite perks to the tight button-up shirt underneath.

“Oh, you totally were. Some idiot had knocked over one of the potted plants you’d picked out for the party and you were letting them have it,” Michael’s smile was dreamy as he thought back to the memory. “I’d showed up early to the party because I forgot what time it started--”

« Because you lost the invitation. »

“It was fate,” Michael shot at Skeets, who very likely would have rolled his eyes if he had any to roll. “I showed up early so I could watch Monica work and fall in love.”

“Fall in love with the party planner shouting at her employees.”

“The guy was an idiot who knocked over a plant, I’d have yelled at him too. Especially if you wanted me to,” Michael added with that handsome grin of his. Monica stepped toward their closet to hang his jacket up with a good-natured roll of her eyes, but she was smiling. Michael moved to sit on the end of the bed, watching Monica even as he continued to talk. “You sent him to clean up the mess and I could hear you muttering to yourself about ‘idiot men’ as you checked over your clipboard to make sure everything was still on schedule, and I realize you had your life so together you could afford to plan other people’s lives. Do you know how much I respected that?”

Monica emerged from their shared closet with a half-smirk twisting pretty, painted lips. “Do you want me to take that or do you want Skeets to?”

“Skeets can get out,” Michael stressed, but the AI didn’t seem to be budging from his nearby hovering. “I’m trying to have a moment with my wife.”

« She’s not-- »

“If you say she’s not my wife again I’m going to throw you out the window.” Michael turned back to face Monica, who was taking off her diamond chain bracelets but before she could reach up to take off her matching necklace, Michael was back on his feet, moving behind her. “Here, let me.”

“Thanks, baby.” Monica murmured, catching Michael’s gaze effortlessly in the vanity mirror--after all, he was over a foot taller than she was.

“You’re welcome, angel. And hey, like I was saying before Skeets interrupted--”

« I did not interrupt. »

“I was saying, I really respected the hell out of you. It’s not easy to please a room full of superheroes--trust me, anytime it’s my turn to order coffee and donuts for the League I always manage to screw something up,” Michael slowly released the clasp to Monica’s necklace, allowing her to catch the pendant in the front and lay it to rest beside her bracelets. He moved his large hands to her hips, spinning Monica to face him and immediately, just like she always did, she stole his breath away. His mind switched topics and his smile was full enough to show teeth. “You look so beautiful, Monica.”

Monica tried to duck out of Michael’s seeking gaze, shaking her head, but he was having none of it. One arm slipped around the small of her back, his other hand moving to catch her chin so she couldn’t look away or deny what he was saying.

“I mean it. You’re like, this sort of timeless, classic beauty and there’s no one like you, in the future or now. I can’t believe I get to call you mine. I can’t believe you let me take you out that first night, that you accepted my mild stalking behavior just so I could take you to dinner--but I’m so glad you did.” Michael’s thumb caressed against Monica’s lower lip, his fingers possessive against her chin. “I’m glad you knew I wouldn’t stop bothering you and that surrendering was your best option.”

Monica couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re such a nerd.”

“I’m a nerd in love,” Michael complimented effortlessly. “I would have chased you to the ends of the earth, the ends of time and space, because I knew from the first moment I met you I wanted to marry you. You can ask Skeets, the creation date on that Love Contract--still love that name by the way--is the same day I met you.”

Monica didn’t ask because she couldn’t handle the confirmation--she knew Michael was telling the truth because she’d felt the same connection, the same pull toward him that he always claimed he felt toward her. The two fell in love the way movies play out, the way books are written; effortlessly, all at once, until one day they were living together and it seemed to happen in the blink of an eye. Monica loved Michael and she knew Michael loved her; not just because he told her every single day, but because he showed it, too. Michael text her nearly constantly, whether he was on duty with the League or she was at work, and anytime he could spend with her, that was what he wanted to do. He shared her interests and that wasn’t just because they were similar--anything he wasn’t interested in before her, he took the time to learn about it because she was into it and that was why he wanted to be, too. Michael seemed, to the outside world, absent-minded and a little flighty perhaps, but that wasn’t the Michael Monica knew. He was eager to please, eager to be accepted, and each day she spent with him she could tell she was appreciated. He shone like the Gold he claimed to be under her love and praise, and in return, so did she.

Michael closed the distance between himself and Monica for a quick but claiming kiss because he couldn’t help himself; the way she was blushing so prettily in his arms was going to break his heart. Her lips were soft and pliant against his and his arm tightened like an iron band around her back, keeping her petite frame fitted to his in a way he’d never forget.

“I love you so much,” Michael muttered against her lips, unwilling or unable (really, he couldn’t tell the difference) to relinquish them. “Be my bride, Monica? Say yes to me? Please?”

“Y-Yes,” Monica nodded gently, because how could she tell him no? There wasn’t a part of her that wanted to, and as he closed the scant distance between them with an excited noise, claiming her mouth again, she knew she’d made the right choice.

“Oh, shit, wait, before I forget.” Michael drew back just a little, a look of worry passing over his handsome features. “We uh, we can’t invite Batman to the wedding.”

“W-What?” Monica blinked in surprise, a little breathless from Michael’s kiss and his questions. “Why?”

“It’s...a long story, but the short version is I don’t want to know what the hell he’d get us for a wedding present.”

#{theme} : for monica #{collection} : 14 days of valentine's #{character} : michael carter #{ i'm no good with humor } #{ but i wanted to try and add it in anyway }

[kadtherine]

this unruly mess i’ve made (2/?)

thank you so much for the feedback regarding the first chapter - it really means a lot to me and it makes me really happy each time i read your positive and kind words ! thank you a million times.

also, this chapter is really, really long - don’t know what came over me, but it’s pretty good. i hope. 

METROPOLIS 2023

Rip sat down on a counter, rolling the bottle of beer between his hands as he watched his father tinker with his visor. His sudden appearance had been with a loud exuberant laugh, a tight embrace that had left Rip’s breathless even when freed of the hug and a genuine smile that was rarely seen in Booster Gold. Michael dragged Rip to a more secluded workshop where laid various futuristic tools and his Booster Gold attire. Rip watched with a content silence as his father re-worked the circuits of his visor, frowning in concentration at it.

“So,” Rip stopped in his movements at Michael’s voice, “I thought you’d be travelling space and time on behalf that of the Time Monsters.”

While the small jab made Rip snort, it didn’t stop his grip from tightening around his beer bottle. Clearing his throat, he shot his father half a smile.

“Time Masters,” he corrected, taking a sip of his drink.

“Tomato, tomahto,” Michael said, balancing a wrench in each hand as if pondering over the question. Twirling the tool between his fingers, he raised an eyebrow at him, “Anyway, you didn’t answer the question, kid.”

“Didn’t I?” Rip hummed, hiding a grimace behind his beer. He sighed when Michael stopped his tinkering, crossing his arms and leaning back against his work station, “I didn’t. Well, it turned out they were in league with Savage and had been manipulating us along so… We, sort of, blew them up.".

Rip couldn’t help but wince again when his father stretched out his neck before retracting it, blinking as he seemed to process what he had been told.

”’ Sort of?’ And what do you mean, ‘we’?“

"Well, we destructed the Oculus which led to the Vanishing Point exploding,” Rip said in a nonchalant way, as if he were talking about what he had eaten at lunch, “As for the 'we’, I was referring to my t- former team. I had recruited them to go after Savage and save both Miranda and Jonas. It didn’t turn out quite as I had planned,” he muttered, taking another swing of his beer.

Michael hummed in a noncommittal way, wiping his forehead with his arm before he threw both wrenches in his toolbox and holding his fingers in eyesight.

“And where are they now?” Michael inquired, holding out a hand, “can you pass me that flat screwdriver?”

“Probably in Aruba,” he muttered, snorting at his father’s puzzlement, “At their requests. Knowing them, they are probably wreaking havoc as we speak,” he continued as he handed his father the tool he had been playing with.

“You don’t seem to worried about that,” he remarked on, spinning the screwdriver between his fingers.

Downing the rest of his drink, Rip let himself slip from the counter and gave a small shrug.

“I’ve spent half a year traveling with this lot, I’ve resigned myself to chaos happening ever now and then,” he sighed, leaning back, “Beside, they’re not my responsibility anymore.”

Once again, Michael hummed, keeping silent as he tinkered with how equipment. He kept silence and Rip can’t help the sudden burst of gratitude and love that he felt toward his father. Their relation was a complicated one - seeing as both were time travelers and had lived their share of adventures separately. Rip didn’t know if the things he knew about Michael were from the lessons he had learned on Booster Gold, at the Academy, or if they were tidbits of memories from a long forgotten childhood. Rip had been sure he was a born-and-raised Londoner until a raid in the Academy’s file room, where he had found that his full name had been Michael Richard Carter Jr, born in 27th century to one Michael Jon Carter and an unknown mother. Rip remembered meeting his father, a wedding invitation clenched in his - sweating - hands as he stood outside his house, listening to his and Ted Kord’s laughter filled conversation. He remembered Michael’s weariness, anger, hope and finally elatation as he swept him a hug that could only be qualify as fatherly before dragging him into the house and bragging about a son he hadn’t known was alive until seconds ego. From that moment, Rip had tried to visit Michael at the same time period, which had proved difficult because of the latter’s profession and inability to stay in one place and time for too long.

Watching as his father leaned against the table, frowning down at his visor, Rip couldn’t help but smile. He had learned of Booster Gold ahead of meeting him and had known of his public persona - the egocentric and over-the-top that had became a hero because of good looks and stolen material. While he knew that both figures were one and he same, Rip couldn’t reconcile Booster with the person that had tucked him in bed for the first four years of his life.

With a satisfied sigh, Michael put down his visor and wiped his greasy hands with a rag before tuning to Rip with a smile.

“Well, I’m happy to see you,” he cradled Rip’s face in his hands, rubbing his cheeks with his thumbs, “no matter the circumstances.”

Rip smiled back at his father, groaning when the latter patted his cheeks with a smirk before moving away. With no more beer bottle to occupy his hands with, Rip shoved them in his pockets and cleared his throat.

“What about you? How have things been?”

“Boring,” Michael retorted with a grimace as he shrugged off his blue overalls and grabbed a black jean from a drawer, “It’s been strangely quiet around Metropolis. Quiet enough for the League to not be needed.”

“That is strange,” Rip frowned, his head tilted to the side, “and the others?”

“All gone their own ways,” Michael shrugged, taking a swing of his beer, “Teddy’s back in Star City, the Bat is in Gotham and farm boy is visiting his mother in Smallville. Not sure where Hal and Dinah disappeared to, though,” he muttered with a frown, oblivious to his son’s perplexed expression.

“Dinah? Drake?” Rip asked, hoping that the dread he suddenly felt was about something else.

“Lance,” he corrected, as if it were obvious, “y'know, Black Canary? Has longue blonde hair, wears fishnets, makes your ears bleed with her super sonic cry? That Dinah. Actually, I remember you having crush on her.”

“No, that’s you. You’re just projecting,” Rip’s sarcastic retort to his father’s teasing was automatic, almost robotic.

His head was buzzing, because he was pretty sure that Dinah Laurel Lance had been killed by Darkh in 2016. He knew she had been killed - he could feel his cheek stink at the mere remembrance of Sara’s furious punch. Yet, here she was, in the future as if her death had been a dream or a fake memory placed in their minds as some kind of twisted motivation. He didn’t acknowledge Michael’s confused and concerned frown, restraining a sigh of relief when Skeets reappeared over their heads and taking the focus away from him.

“We’ve got visitors, boss.”

Rip barely had the time to react before Michael had moved back to where his costume, flexing his fingers as he slipped on his gloves.

“Friend or foe?”

“I’m not sure, actually. They seem quite hostile.”

As if on cue, the bells hanging above the front door chimed, followed by two set of footsteps. Rip slipped a hand behind his back, his fingers wrapping themselves around the gun tucked in his waistband. Noticing the small gesture, Michael gave him a nod before he made his way toward the front of the shop, Rip close on his heels.

“We’re closed, folks,” he announced, hands shoved in his pockets.

Rip turned the corner and froze at the sight of the two familiar figures. Eve Baxter was clad in her usual attire, locks of hair sticking on her bloody forehead. Next to her stood a dishelved Jonah Hex, sticking out like a sore thumb surrounded by cars and futuristic trinkets. Neither seemed much impressed - or scared - by the duo. Eve turned her stare to Rip - who didn’t flinch when a shark-like grin pulled at her lips.

“I don’t think you’d mind giving shelter to two travelers, lost in time and space.”

Oh bollocks. They had really done it now.

LOS ANGELES, 2017.

“Well, I concur that this wouldn’t have happen if we hadn’t gone along with Mr Rory’s ridiculous idea.”

“How is this my fault? I’m not the one who crashed the ship. Plus Gideon is the one who plotted the course.

"Mick’s right,” Amaya sighed, falling in the library’s couch, “we would have been caught in a time quake no matter the destination.”

“ Yeah, but what caused it, though?” Nate frowned as he read notebook after notebook, in search of an answer.

Sara closed her eyes for a moment, her fingers raising to her throbbing head. She could already feel a bruise forming. After having catching sight of dinosaurs roaming around the Waverider, they had decided - minus Ray and Jax, who were currently taking a survey around the ship - to retreat to the library to find out how exactly they had find themselves into this mess. She reopened her eyes to see that had Amaya had joined Nate in his research while Stein and Mick were engaged in a loud round of bickering. As if things couldn’t get worse, Gideon was unresponsive.

“Isn’t it obvious? Ask Blondie,” Mick grumbled, nodding toward Sara.

Sara swallowed a groan when three heads turned to her, gazes staring right through her with different levels of confusion.

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Whose brilliant plan has it to go back in time and steal from our former selves?” Mick said, unfazed by her glare.

“Last time I checked, you were all willing participants,” Sara retorted, shooting out of her chair.

But you’re the captain, Lance, a mocking voice inwardly reminded her, all responsibilities and choices made fall back on your shoulders. Her jaw clenched, Sara put both her hands on her hips and breathed through her noise, trying to ground herself.

“Look, right now. We just need to find a way out of this mess without fucking things up even more,” Sara said, her gaze moving from Mick to Martin, “we’re all stuck here together and we won’t make it out of here if we keep arguing or pushing the fault on each other.”

While Mick acknowledged the small speech with a grunt and a swing of his beer, Martin had the decency to look chastised, muttering an apology. Letting out a sigh, Sara leaned back against the desk and ran her fingers through her hair as a tense silence fell back onto the room. Hopefully, Ray and Jax had been more successful in their endeavors. As if they had been able to hear her thoughts, both men arrived in the time library, grim expressions plastered on their faces.

“Want to hear the bad news or the even worse news?” Jax announced in mock enthusiasm, clutching a tablet in his hand

Sara restrained the urge to let her head fall into her hands and scream, choosing to push herself off the desk and stood in front of the two, her face blank and her arms crossed.

“The worse, let’s get it over with.”

“Well, to put it bluntly, we can’t get off the ground,” Ray said, rubbing the back of his neck, “the Waverider is literally into it and we don’t have enough power to take off.”

“Can’t we try to time jump out of here?” Sara asked, frowning at the two.

“Not if you want to get into another time storm and end up in the Middle Age with saber tooth tigers chasing you,” Jax muttered, sighing when met with Sara’s blank stare, “We wouldn’t be able to make it. All systems are offline for the moment, which means we have to switch off to manual and trust me, you don’t want to navigate your way through the temporal zone while blind.”

“And we can’t assess all the exterior damages substained without going outside. For all we know, none of our engines are working,” Ray added, running a hand over his face.

Sara wondered if she looked as physically drained and defeated as their usual optimistic and literal Ray of sunshine. She hoped not. Scratching the back of her head, Sara cocked her head to the side and swallowed the frustrated groan that had risen up her throat.

“Alright, what about the bad news?”

Her frown deepened when Jax and Ray exchanged a look before the younger of the two turned to face her, clearing his throat.

“We found out why Gideon wasn’t responding,”

“I don’t understand,” Amaya said, mirroring her confusion, “ How is that a bad news?”

Jax responded with a sigh and left the room, Ray close on his heels as he gestured for the rest of the team to follow them. Rolling her eyes at their dramatics, Sara threw a look over her shoulder before following them out of the library. She didn’t need to turn around to know that Martin, Mick, Amaya and Nate were behind her, curiosity urging them to follow.

Sara froze in her tracks where she saw Jax and Ray disappear into Rip’s opened quarters. The Captain’s quarters that were supposed to be de facto hers. Quarters that were still filled with maps, books and trinkets that belonged to their former Captain. Sara could count on a hand the times she had went in Rip’s quarters, the latter having the bad habit to fall asleep in his couch or armchair - or simply, on his desk - after long nights of research spent in his study. It wasn’t as if the access to it was forbidden - Sara was pretty sure it was mandatory for the Captain’s quarters to be opened to the rest of the crew. She just didn’t feel right walking in it while he wasn’t here - it almost like walking into the room of a recently deceased person.

Shaking herself out of her morbid thoughts, Sara cleared her throat and walked into the chambers. Only to freeze again at the sight she found in there. Jax and Ray were both standing next to the bed, bracing themselves for their reactions. Reactions to the familiar - real - brunette woman sitting on the bed, naked and shivering - no matter how many blankets Jax seemed to have wrapped her in - her eyes wide opened as she stared back at her.

“Gideon,” Sara breathed out, oblivious to the cries of bewilderment and confusion.

After a long and frustrating - to Sara’s opinion - discussion about how they knew that it was indeed Gideon because they had seen her human form when they had been travelling through Rip’s mind, Sara had found some clothes for her to wear and they had relocated to the med bay, to Martin’s insistence. Sara stood back, arms crossed and a frown plastered on his face, as Martin examined Gideon. Though she hadn’t shown the same shock and amazement than her other crew mates, there was something quite unsettling about seeing Gideon as well as hearing her. The fact that she was actually wearing - and looked unfairly good in - her clothes did nothing to ease her unsettlement.

Ray, standing next to her in a similar position, seemed to be reacting in a quiet and uncharacteristic way. It probably had to do with the fact that he had been the first one, along Jax, to find her. Maybe he was in shock and wasn’t fully aware of the situation. Maybe he had just gotten used to seeing weird, impossible things came true and time aberrations were losing some of its exciting novelty. Sara sighed and focused her attention back on Gideon.

She observed as Martin palped her neck with careful fingers before they moved behind her ears, massaging his temples. He hummed, muttering under his breath before he clicked his pen and scribbled something on his notepad. Sara winced in unisson with Ray when Martin reached for a long needle, flicking the tip of it with two fingers, nodding in satisfaction before he put it pack down down. He cleared his threat and looked up to Gideon with a patient and kind smile that only fathers seemed to be able to give.

“Do you have an arm you’d prefer for me to withdraw blood from?”

“Well, seeing as I didn’t have any until recent events,” Gideon sighed, pushing back both sleeves of her - Sara’s - white sweater and holding her bare arms in front of he, “I’d say I don’t particularly care. Whichever you’d prefer, Professor Stein.”

“Is that really necessary?” Ray said, watching with scrunched up features as Martin tied a rubber band around Gideon’s arm and sanitized the inside of her elbow.

“Well, of course!” Martin said, scandalized by the mere suggestion, “Captain Lance has asked me to be thorough with Gideon’s medical examinations and that is what I’m doing.”

Ray turned his accusing stare to Sara, the latter ignoring it as she watched Gideon barely flinched when the needle pricked her skin. She took note of her subtle clench of jaw and shot Gideon a comforting smile.

“Dr Palmer, if you would?” Martin held the blood filled needle to Ray, instructing Gideon to hold a ball of cotton against her elbow.

“W-what?” Ray stuttered, going pale as he watched the needle.

He winced when Sara elbowed him in the ribs, muttering about the blonde’s bony elbow as he moved forward and grabbed the needle out of Martin’s hands with trembling fingers. Swallowing the bile that had risen up his throat, Ray transferred the blood into a test tube before throwing away the needle with a dramatic shudder. Sara rolled his eyes at her dramatics and walked to Gideon and Martin, the latter applying a bandaid to her elbow before gently squeezing her arm. Gideon shot him a small smile, a whispered thank you leaving her lips as she pulled down her sleeves and wrapped herself in the comforter she had dragged into the medbay.

“You are aware you could have asked me about my vitals, right?” Gideon said, cocking an eyebrow when met with three confused gazes, “To my knowledge, my tension isn’t higher or lower than the one of a regular female human being of my age. My eye sight do not seem to be impaired or in need of an aid, such as glasses. my other senses are as well as good they were, if not slightly heightened. In fact, I seem to be in perfect health, if you were to ignore my lower than normal body temperature and sudden hunger.”

Ray and Sara stared at Gideon, mouth opened in bewilderment while Martin had a wide grin plastered on his face. A chuckle escaped his lips as he snapped off his surgical gloves and threw them in a bin.

“Astonishing,” he said, earning a snort from Ray and an eye roll from Sara, “It is truly amazing.”

“It is,” Sara agreed, smiling when Gideon sat up straighter at the praise, “Ray, take Gideon to the galley. Make sure she eats something and drinks something big before she kneels over.”

Ray responded with a mock salute before helping Gideon off the colt, an arm wrapped around her waist as he walked her out of the med may, his slow steps matching her shaky ones. Sara waited for the doors to close behind them before she walked to Martin, the latter reviewing his notes.

“So what do you think?” Sara sighed, her hands shoved in her pockets, “Is she our Gideon?”

“Well, she matches the physical description Jefferson and yourself gave us and her memories - if we can call them that - match those of our dear Gideon,” Martin said, leaning against the cot with his hands crossed in front of him.

“It doesn’t make sense, though,” she mimicked the Professor’s posture, her eyebrows frowned in concentration and slight frustration, “how can she be physically here?”

“In case it has escaped your notice, Miss Lance, there are dinosaurs currently roaming Los Angeles,” he elbowed her side, a teasing smile on his face.

“Wait- you think Gideon’s a time aberration?” His only response was a tilt of the head to the side. Sara groaned, running her fingers through her hair, “Great. Awesome. Fucking fantastic.”

Martin clicked his tongue and frowned in disapproval, earning a small smile from Sara. With a last sigh, she pushed herself off the bed and made her way out of the med bay, walking backward.

“Team meeting in the kitchens in five. We need to figure our next step before T-Rex’s decided to claw the doors off.”

She turned back around when met with a positive response, rubbing her neck with the heel of her hand. She needed - wanted - a back rub. Actually, she needed more than that but it would have to wait. Sara froze at the door when she arrived at the kitchen. Gideon sat at a single table, still wrapped in her comforter, while eating from a bowl of cereals set in front of her. Ray had set a glass of orange juice and mug of hot chocolate by her food.

While Amaya stood behind her, running her fingers through Gideon’s hair before she decided to braid it humming mindlessly under her breath, Nate and Mick sat opposite her, watching with frowned eyebrows and arms crossed as Gideon went through her cereals with eagerness and curiosity. Ray was sitting on the kitchen counter, his own bowls of Fruit Loops on his lap, lost in his own world. He caught her eye across the room and gave her a small nod, sliding off the counter. The small gesture seemed to alert the others to her presence as they all turned as one. Bracing herself for the assault of questions, Sara pushed back her sleeve and entered the kitchen, only then noticing, with a frown, the absence from of their engineer.

“Hey, where’s Jax?”

“He’s trying to see if he can recalibrate the time drive,” Ray replied, cleaning off the table for Gideon with a small smile, “do you want me to go and get him?”

Before Sara had the chance to open her mouth to reply, she was brought to her knees by a loud and piercing cry. She was vaguely of the bowls in Ray’s crashing to the floor as he brought his hands up to cover his ears. From the corner of her eyes, she could see that Amaya had wrapped herself around Gideon while Nate had stayed upright, immediately steeling up at the sound. The cry, eventually, came to an end, leaving all of them with ringing ears. Her head throbbing, Sara slowly got up to her feet and took a look around the room, watching as the rest of the Legends gather themselves.

Ray rushed - more like wobbled on shaky legs - to Gideon, the latter frowning at the red staining her fingers. Amaya called for Martin, her tone urgent as she noticed the blood leaking from her ear.

“What the bloody hell was that?” Gideon muttered, wincing when Ray gently turned her head so she was facing him.

“ ‘What the bloody hell’s’ right,” Mick grunted as he shoot out of his chair, his grip tightening around his gun

Sara walked in front of him, a firm hand pushing back. Mick growled down at her, to which she responded with an unimpressed cocked eyebrow. Mick gave a last grunt before lowering his gun so the canon was facing the floor and walked back. Having been busy stopping Mick from going out and try to roast dinosaurs, Sara hadn’t notice Martin’s arrival in the galley. The older man had taken Ray’s place in front of Gideon, ignoring as Amaya and Ray hovered, concerned frowns matching.

“Guys,” Nate called, having regained his fleshy appearance.

Swallowing - an umptenth - groan of frustration, Sara went through join at the windows, freezing for a second when she noticed what had caught Nate’s attention. She heard Amaya’s quiet gasp, informing of her presence beside her.

“They’re retreating,” she said, watching the spectacle of T-Rex’s walking away from their preys, without even trying to take a bit of it.

“Astonishing,” Martin whispered, having left Gideon’s side to join their contemplation.

Sara rolled her eyes and crossed her arms against her chest, glaring out the window as the gigantic beasts walked. They all seemed to be walking in synch, as if they had been ordered to left their metallic carcasse. As if they were programmed machines.

“More like convenient,” she retorted, her head tilted to the side and her bottom lip stuck between her teeth.

As if her words were some kind of cue, Sara heard the cargo bay door lower down. A silence fell over the kitchen and her hands tightened into fists in reaction. The rational part of her brain suggested that it was probably Jax playing around the ship’s machinery and making sure everything worked as it should. The dread in her stomach warned her that it was something else. Sara threw a look behind her, finding six pairs of eye staring back at her, hesitant. The annyance plastered on Martin’s face caught her eye, causing the dread to worsen.

“What is it, Professor?”

He let out a shaky breath and shook his head, rubbing his left wrist with a small grimace.

“I’m not quite sure, actually. I just suddenly felt… really angry.”

That was when they heard the heavy pairs of boots running up the ramp and walked and into the ship.

With her bo staff no where in sight, Sara grabbed the first knife she saw and slid into her boot before she turned around to face the rest of the team, her face blank.

“Amaya, Mick : I’ll need you to stay Gideon and the professor,” she held up finger before he could protest, “we need to cover all bases, who knows how many or them are here?”

Sara, then, pointed two fingers to Nate and Ray, indicating them to follow her with a jerk of her head. They walked down the halls in an eery silence, as if inwardly preparing themselves for a fight. Ray was fumbling with the repulsor glove - which Sara hadn’t even noticed earlier - while Nate shook his hands and rolled his neck and shoulders.

“Don’t steel on until threatened,” Sara smirked when seeing his confuse and frustrated frown, “we have the advantage on them, let’s not exposed ourselves to them and lose it.”

“I’ll say that them forcing their ways on board is enough of a threat,” Nate muttered.

Sara rolled her eyes before she caught sight of the intruders and stopped in her tracks, forcing the other two to do the same. Three figures stood in front of them, riffles pointed forward and fingers brushing on triggers. She swallowed a growl when she noticed Jax on his knees, his tools scattered around him as his arm had been forced behind his back by a fourth person. As she moved toward him, she heard the safety being clicked off.

“Stay right where you are,” one of them barked.

A guy. Mid-thirties. Barely a head taller than her, Sara inwardly assessed, cold blue eyes raking over his body - body devoid of any armor or protection. She could take him out in the blink of an eye. She would have if it wasn’t for Jax’s predicament. She decided to stay on the safe side and replied with a smile, taking a step back with her hands up. Ray moved to stand in front of her, his gloved hand hidden his back and his bare Ray one raise in a sign of compliance.

“There’s no need for drastic measures, we’re all innocent and responsible adults here.

"What are you, some kind of hero-wannabe?” another henchman snarled, earning snickers from the other two.

From the corner of her eye, Sara could see Ray swallow his retort and fake a laugh, his gloved hand tightening behind his back. Keeping his composure, he plastered a smile on his face and took a slow, careful step forward.

“I’m just trying to minimize the damage, guys,” Ray kept his tone lighthearted and his attitude aloof before his gaze settled onto Jax, his smile letting place to a frown, “You alright?”

“Peachy, dude. Just enjoying myself on the dirty floor. Wouldn’t mind if that freaking psycho let go of my arm!”

Jax’s captor glowered down at him before he twisted his arm with unnecessary force, causing a cry of pain out of Jax. Screw this, Sara barely had the time to take a step toward him, her fingers reaching into her boot for a knife before she was met with the rifle’s barrel and an ugly scowl.

“I said, stay right where you are,” he hissed.

Sara met his glare with a cold, indifferent stare and lifted her chin up, as if daring him to press the trigger. Too engaged in her battle of stares, she was barely aware of the fifth pair of footsteps - roots that seemed to be wearing high heels - until the new arrival made her presence known.

“Now, now, fellas. There’s no need for that,” she scolded, her tone mocking.

With a frown, Sara tore her gaze away from the henchman to find the source of the - somehow - familiar voice. Her gaze fell onto the tall - hot - all dressed in back brunette assessing the scene with attentive eyes. One of her fingers mindlessly played with one of her curls while her other hand was clenched around a large gun. As she squinted her eyes at it, Sara swore she could see some kind of gold substance in its charger. Brown eyes met blue, and her previously bored expression let place to a wide smirk as she practically skipped to the blonde.

“Ralphie, baby,” she put two fingers on the barrel and lowered it so the canon was facing the floor, “Pretty sure we need them alive if we want to interrogate.

” 'Interrogate. ?“ Nate chimed in, talking a step forward.

"Well, of course!” she tilted her head to the side, a small giggle escaping her lips, “we can’t exactly leave you roaming around the city after you just appeared out of thin air in a stolen time ship.”

Frowning, Sara turned her gaze to Nate and mouthed 'stolen’, the latter shrugging in response, his confusion matching hers. Both looked to Ray, the latter being uncharacteristically quiet as he stared, unblinking, at the other woman. It managed to catch her attention, her focus shifting from Sara to Ray. She cocked an eyebrow and it was apparently all was needed for him to speak.

“You’re Lisa Snart,” he blurted out, his tone filled with awe and suspicion.

Both eyebrows up to her hairline, Lisa let out a surprised laugh and Sara couldn’t help but compare her to her late brother. Where Leonard had been - no pun intended - cold and calculated, Lisa seemed more vibrant and careless. Leonard had been ruthless and Lisa seemed to be easily swayed. Sara willed herself to focus harder and once she saw it, there was no going back. She recognized the mischievousness shining through the pain she had seen in Leonard’s eyes. She noticed discreet, small mannerisms Lisa had surely picked up from her big brother. Sara saw behind the careful picked mask of a bored, dimwit woman and found Lisa Snart.

Lisa slowly made her say to Ray, brushing past Sara - and discreetly pushing her backward as she did so - to plant herself in front of the taller main.

“I see I found myself at a disadvantage here, handsome. You seem to know who I am and unfortunately I can’t say the same about you,” Lisa crossed her arms, her gun carelessly dangling from her fingers.

“Palmer. I mean Ray! I- I mean. I’m Ray Palmer,” Ray stammered out, slightly unsettled by Lisa’s piercing stare. Nate groaned and let his head fall in his hands.

“Hum,” Lisa pursed her lips in thoughts, her eyes narrowed, “Ray Palmer. Why does that sound so familiar?”

“Cause he’s dead,” an unfamiliar voice intervened from behind her, causing the Legends to take action as they turned around.

Nate steeled on while Ray held up his gloved hand, aiming to fire at the young woman who Sara knew hadn’t been there seconds ago. She racked her gaze over their fighting stances before snorting and literally disappearing in thin air, with a pop. Sara closed her eyes, letting out a breath before she turned back around, her migraine coming back with a vengeance. And now, they had to deal with metahumans. If it hadn’t been for her years of training in the League, she’d probably either be screaming or crying out in frustration.

Her eyes reopened at a popping sound, unsurprised when she found the dark-haired woman standing next to Lisa, twirling the knife that had previously been in Sara’s fingers.

“Died when his compagny went ka-boom a couple of years ago,” she continued, as if she had been here since the beginning. And maybe she had.

“Aw, shame,” Lisa pouted before her grip tightened around her gun, her grin almost feral, “Now, who are you really? Former Time Masters? Time pirates?”

“Time pirates-” Nate spluttered, his head snapping up, “We’re actually who we say we are.”

“Which is…what? Felons? Morons?”

“A nice addition to my golden statues’ collections?” Lisa added, her tone disturbingly giddy.

Nate gaped at her before he turned to Ray, slapping his arm with a muttered dude, back me up. Ray paid him no mind, his attention on the newest arrival.

“It’s Shawna, right?” A small smirk tugged at his lips at the brief surprise showing on her, “or Peek-A-Boo, I guess. Y'know, you two are the last people I expect to accuse someone else of felony. Or anyone of your merry bands of rogues. Speaking of, should we expect any more of you?”

Now, Nate was gaping at Ray, staring at him as if he was already picturing the flowers he’d pick for his funerals. As he made to move toward toward the taller man, Sara grabbed his arms, nails digging into his flesh and forcing him to look back at her. She loosened her grip at the sight of his grimace and gave a subtle shake of head. While Ray was always beaming with optimism and positivity and had dreams of great adventures, he wasn’t an idiot. After making sure that Nate wouldn’t intervene, she let go of his arm and turned her attention back onto Ray and Shawna, both oblivious to their silent conversation

“You think you can appeal to me by throwing facts around?” Shawna sneered.

“Of course not, anyone with access to Internet could tell you that,” Ray replied, undeterred, “Which is why I’m trying to appeal to her,” he added, nodding toward Lisa.

Letting out a short laugh, Lisa jutted out her hip and cocked her head to the side.

“And why do I think I’ll be more incline to believe you?”

Ray’s responding smile was genuine, almost fond.

“Because I knew your brother.”

There it is, Sara thought as she watched Lisa’s smirk vanish and her grip tightening around her gun.

“Careful, Pretty Boy. You’re on thin ice, right now.

Nate muttered something about puns obviously being a family thing. Sara shushed him. She liked the puns.

"The guy might have acted tough, but he was a tender heart. He had a sweet tooth, used to drown his pancakes in maple syrup,” Ray gave a small short at the memory, “I told him it was disgusting and he responded by taking my plate and leaving the room. He couldn’t sleep with the door closed, either. I used to find out weird at first, but who was I to meddle in something that’s none of my business?”

Lisa still stood strong, her gun held out in front of her - Sara noticed the hand holding it trembling. She caught sight of Lisa’s brown eyes and noticed that her resolve was starting to crumble, her mask slowly sliding off her face and exposing a grieving sister. Behind her, Sara could see the henchmen growing restless and Shawna growing incertain. Holding his hands up, Ray took the risk of taking a step forward. To everyone’s surprise, Lisa took a step back.

“He had this bear on his bed - he always made it, by the way. A brown teddy pair wearing a blue parka and a pair of goggles. He also had this necklace. None of us made fun of it, cause…,” Ray shrugged, “Well, your brother was kinda terrifying.”

“I gave that to him,” Lisa muttered, her arm slowly lowering, much to Sara’s relief. She cleared her throat and shot Ray a small smile, “it was a joke. Found it next to the Flash in the toy section. The necklace’s mine,” her fingers brushed the pendant hanging from her neck, “we switched them so we always had something of the other to hang on to.”

“Does that mean you believe me, Lisa?” Ray asked, his voice soft as if he didn’t want to disrupt her train of thoughts.

Lisa blew out a breath and, a second later, a cocky smirk found itself back onto her face.

“For now, Ray Palmer.”

“Oh, that is bullshit,” one of the henchmen - Richie - protested, “What, he feeds you some sob story and you fall for it?”

Sara barely has the time to blink before the rogue was standing in front of Richie, the barrel of her gun pointed to the space between his eyes. You could almost hear a pin drop. The other henchmen stared,unsure of what do - of who to point their guns on. Lisa trailed a slow finger the length of Richie’s cheek, their bodies almost flushing together as she got closer.

“If you don’t shut your pretty mouth and question my authority again, I’ll make sure you’ll end up as a statue, standing guard in front of the refuge,” Lisa squeezed his cheeks, her cold ice cold, “Got it?”

“Now, now, Lisa,” a deep voice scolded, “There’s no need to ressort to violence. For now.”

With an eye roll, Lisa smirked at Richie, the latter responding with a whimper, and kissed him loudly on his cheek before she leaned back and skipped to the new arrival’s side. All those people appearing out of no where made Sara’s head spin.

“And who the hell are you?” Nate asked, voicing the Captain’s thoughts aloud.

He responded with a smirk, his eyes from one person to another as he scabbard from head to toe. He couldn’t be older than 20 and yet, he exuded confidence and authority. His short brown hair was swept to the side - as if he ran his fingers through it so many times that it had stuck that way. He was wearing a simple Henley shirt, covered by a dark leather jacket that matched his black pants. That wasn’t the pair of pants that caught Sara’s attention first, but the thigh holster strapped to his leg and the familiar gun in it. Stuffing his hands in his pockets, he took a quick look around, his smile turning into something of a reminiscent, nostalgic smile, before his gaze fell onto Shawna.

“Take a look around the ship, there’s more to the crew than these,” he ordered.

Letting out a resigned sigh, Shawna gave him a nod and disappeared in a *pop. With half a smile, he turned back to the rest of his men and frowned on mock confusion, his head tilted to the side.

“You’d think it’d be for you to carry simple orders such as the one I gave you,” his green eyes darted to Jax’s kneeling form, his jaw clenched, “Let him up.”

As he went to protest the order, he was silenced by a simple raise of an eyebrow, as if dared to do anything other than obey, and reluctantly met Jaxup to his feet. Glaring at his captor, Jax brushed away his offering hand, much to the stranger’s amusement, and, giving the latter a wide berth, made to join the Legends’ side. Sara could only muster the force to shot him a smile and give his good arm a small squeeze. She would kill for a thirty minute nap. Hell, Sara was ready to let one of them shoot her if that meant she could close her eyes.

“Again, who the hell are you, dude?” Jax repeated Nate’s previous question, rubbing his sore arm.

“Seeing you’re the one trespassing, I don’t think you have the authority to ask questions,” he rolled his eyes when meeting the Legends’ matching frowns, “You do know that you are currently residing on a stolen military time ship.”

Her thoughts were jumbled and his accent was so odd that she couldn’t attach a nationality to it. Yet, his words carried a familiarity that left Sara second-guessing herself. Had they already met that guy? Nate put an end to her confusing train of thoughts with a long-suffering sigh.

“For the last time, we’re not trespassing, nor are we time pirates that stole the Waverider. We’ve been living for the past six months, at the very least. And plus, we’ve introduced ourselves. It’s only curtesy you do the same.”

“Wrong, he introduced himself,” he corrected, pointing a long finger at Ray, “and even if you truly are who you say are, Dr Palmer, it’s still doesn’t explain what are you doing on my father’s ship with him being nowhere in sight.”

Sara barely heard the whispered and confused 'father’ coming out from Nate’s mouth because all of her awareness was suddenly focused on the familiar stranger. She didn’t know how long it took for Ray or Jax to figure it out but she knew that they had come to the same conclusion as her. Maybe it was that piercing green gaze that seemed to hold all the secrets of the universe. Maybe that was that amused half smile, growing as he observed Jax. Or maybe it had been that futuristic gun strapped to his leg. It only took Sara’s gaze to fall onto a familiar golden pocket watch to know for certain.

Sara slowly lifted her head, blue wide eyes meeting the confused and weary green stare. When she spoke next, her voice came came out as a whisper, almost like a prayer.

“Jonas.”

Sara didn’t feel herself slipping to the floor. She didn’t hear he worried voices calling for her name. She barely remember losing consciousness. Sara did remember Jonas Hunter staring at her, green shining with wonder. She also remembered the cold floor and thinking that there were worst surfaces to fall asleep on.

you can read the first chapter here or here

you can also find this on ao3

my other works in the dclot fandom 

#legends of tomorrow #incendiaglacies #meyanas #kalinara #ripfic #darkestsight #dclot #rip hunter #sara lance #gideon #jax jackson #martin stein #mick rory #amaya jiwe #nate heywood #team legends #michael carter #lisa snart #+ other surprise characters #rip x sara #rip x giden #ripsara #time canary #if i read this one more time #i'm going to tear my eyes out #dclot fic #mine #previous. oreosmunroe

[pluckyredhead]

Anyway, if you're up for some good old-fashioned Boostle banter and smooching, anything Darkwing Duck, or some found-family fluff with the STAR labs wonder trio (shippy or not) I think that would be delightful.

This turned out less banter-y and more “the beginning of a 30K romcom I’ll never write” but I hope you like it anyway? :D? It’s set in the Rebirth universe, which, if you’re not reading it: Ted is, uh, “mentoring” Jaime (who thinks he’s annoying and wants him to go away) and had a brief superhero career himself, and Booster is...well, he hasn’t been seen in Rebirth yet but I’m assuming he’s still basically the shallow showboater we saw in New 52. Ted throws a little shade at him in passing in a recent issue, it made me smile.

ANYWAY ENJOY (I HOPE):

“Mr. Kord? There’s, uh...somebody here to see you.”

Ted sighed and pressed the speakerphone button. “I thought my schedule was clear for the rest of the afternoon, Connie. I was just about to head down to the lab.” He was already loosening his tie as he spoke. Among other things, being in the lab instead of the office meant not having to wear a monkey suit a second longer than he had to.

More importantly, it meant getting to study whatever the hell was going on with Jaime’s scarab instead of P&L reports, but that wasn’t information he could share with his hardworking staff.

“He doesn’t have an appointment but he’s, um, very insistent.”

Ted frowned. Connie sounded more flustered than alarmed, so the guy couldn’t be too much of a kook - and even if he was, Ted hadn’t forgotten all of his aikido. He was probably just a pushy reporter or job candidate. Ted could handle either of those options quickly enough, and it sounded like he wasn’t getting out the door until he did.

“Fine. Send him in.”

Ted hung up the phone and went back to shutting down his computer, tugging his tie the rest of the way off as he did. He heard the door swing open.

“I’m flattered, but no need to get undressed on my account,” said an amused - and oddly familiar - voice.

Ted glanced over, and then did a cartoonish double take. Standing in the doorway of his office was none other than Booster Gold, the self-promoting laughingstock of the superhero set. There was no mistaking him, even if his face hadn’t been plastered all over every billboard and magazine ad from here to L.A., since he was wearing that ridiculously shiny costume - though the effect was ruined a little by the backpack slung over one shoulder.

“Uh, I, um,” Ted stammered, thrown. “I...can I help you?”

“I certainly hope so,” Gold said, closing the door behind him and taking a seat in the chair opposite Ted’s desk, even though he hadn’t been invited to do either of those things. “I need a favor, Teddy. Can I call you Teddy?”

Ted’s eyes narrowed. “No,” he said.

“Fair enough,” Gold said, unperturbed. “See, I have a little technological problem on my hands, and I think you’re the man to help me with it.”

Ted folded his arms. He was tempted to throw this walking toothpaste ad out on his ear, but heaven help him, he kind of wanted to hear what the guy had to say. “Is that so?”

“Yeah, see, this particular problem has to do with technology from the future. My era. The twenty-fifth century.”

“Right, well, I’m from the twenty-first century, so I’m not sure what qualifies me to work on something you claim won’t be built for four hundred years,” Ted replied.

Gold put on an expression of mock surprise. “What? Where’s the self-confidence, Teddy? Where’s that rulesbreaking young turk of the technocorporate world I read about in Forbes? Aren’t you supposed to be one of the brightest minds of your generation?” He leaned forward. His smile was, Ted was dismayed to realize, even more dazzling in person than on those billboards. Photoshop had told no lies. “After all, you figured out Blue Beetle’s scarab, didn’t you?”

Ted fumbled his attempt to pick up his briefcase. “I...I don’t...I’m not...what?” he asked intelligently.

“Now, here’s what I’ve never understood,” Gold mused. “A kid powered by a magical scarab calling himself the Blue Beetle - that, I get. But you came first, and you didn’t use the scarab. So how’d you get the name?”

Ted gaped for another minute, then slowly closed his jaw and put his shoulders back. Mentally he ran over every power of Booster Gold’s he’d ever heard about on the news. Strength, flight, force field… He’d rather not fight a guy who could fly from his fortieth floor office, but he’d faced worse odds.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“I told you,” Gold said. “I need your help.”

“If you think threatening me is the best way to - ”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, that wasn’t a threat!” Gold said, sitting forward and dropping the lazy facade.

“You come in here and tell me you know not just my secrets, but those of people who trust me, and that’s not supposed to be a threat?” Ted asked. “How did you even know? Have you been following me?”

Gold spread his hands. “I’m from the future, remember? It - some things about you - they’re common knowledge.”

Ted blinked. “My...my superhero career will be common knowledge in the future?” That was a surprisingly thrilling thought.

“Ah, no.” Gold rubbed the back of his neck, looking embarrassed. “That’s sort of a footnote in most of the biographies. But you’re a landmark inventor. I shouldn’t tell you details, but...”

“Wait, for what? Something with Kord Inc.? Something with the scarab?” Ted asked, then caught himself. Gold could well be making all of this up. “Never mind. Look, what exactly is it you need me to do?”

Gold picked up the backpack he’d left on the floor by his chair and opened it up. Ted took a wary step back, but all Gold did was place something metal on Ted’s desk. It was about the size and shape of a football and as gleamingly gold as the man himself, with three little fins on one end and a darkened black screen on the other.

Gold looked up at Ted, and for the first time since he’d walked in, he looked serious.

“His name’s Skeets,” he said. “He’s my friend. And you’re the only one who can fix him.”

#fandom together #i write things #boostle #blue beetle #ted kord #booster gold #maaaaybe i'll write more of this someday? #zsredfolder

[renaroo]

Some Times (Time and Time Again) (4/8)

Disclaimer: Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, and associated characters are the creative property of DC Comics. Warnings: Canon shaken not stirred, Heavy canon references to Booster Gold (2009-2011) and Blue Beetle (2016-2018) Pairings: Boostle Rating: T Synopsis: Booster Gold and the rest of the Time Masters are still straightening up things in the wake of the most recent universal Rebirth. But Rip Hunter is still missing in the aftermath, leaving Booster in charge with Skeets, Michelle, and Rani. But there’s a distraction for Booster, one he can’t keep himself from ignoring.

Ted Kord, miraculously, is still alive. And that makes everything more complicated than Michael could have ever imagined.

A/N: Haha! How’s that for an improved rate for chapter turn arounds! I don’t know if I can manage it weekly, but boy wouldn’t that be nice. All things considering. 

And lovely and well deserved thanks to @mcbangle, @shibascarf, @secretlystephaniebrown, AlreadyThere, and Schwoo99 for your lovely feedback and support! It’s greatly appreciated.

Booster Gold

It was already a hell of a day by the time Booster finds himself racing throughout the busted up laboratory in search for Rani. He is in an all around bad mood, conflicted and somewhat wounded with old pains and traumas licking at his heels thanks to the conversation with Ted.

Then Rani — sweet, terrified, all his fault Rani — is gone. And there’s only an open wormhole leftover in the cabinet to clue him into what’s going on.

Using the Legionnaire flight ring, Booster kicks off the ground and zips back to where Michelle is standing by the lab command center. She’s looking a little shellshocked but Booster absolutely does not have time for that.

“She’s gone!” he yells at his sister instead. “She’s teleported out, but why!?” When that fails to draw Michelle’s attention, Booster comes to a hovering stop by her and stares in disbelief. “Michelle!” he snaps in imitation. “Are you listening!?”

Without turning toward him, Michelle says, “I know where she went.” Her hand draws up and points toward the chalkboard.

Not even fully listening to Michelle, Booster follows her gaze to the board and feels himself go slightly off balance. If he hadn’t been using the flight ring, he might’ve ended up on the floor sideways from the knock to his teeth.

On Rip’s meticulously kept chalkboard is a newly etched message that Booster knows for a fact was not there even earlier that day when he got back.

Ted Kord is KEY.

“What the hell?” Booster articulates first. Then, with a slight pang, he recognizes something even more pressing about the message. “Is that… is that Rip’s writing? No… Who…” he rambles out loud before glancing around the lab.

Half of him wants to accuse Rip Hunter of hiding in the shadows, of playing some kind of joke wrapped up in the 4D Chess he has been doing since he first met Booster. But there is nothing to see. There’s no one but them. Only Michael and Michelle.

Which begs another question.

“Skeets?” Booster calls out to no avail.

“Rani is looking for Rip. She sees a message from Rip. She takes the message and runs with it before thinking things through,” Michelle deduces. She then gives Booster and accusatory stare. “Wonder where she picks that up from?”

“I need to get to Ted’s, get Rani, put out any fires…” Booster lists off, already on his way to the transmat.

“Would you hold your horses?” Michelle demands. “I’ll put on my Goldstar suit and we’ll go together. I don’t like how this feels, Michael—“

“I’ve got this,” Booster doesn’t so much as argue as he is concluding the conversation.

“Jesus Christ what did I just say about running into things without thinking them through?” Michelle yells as she takes off running toward her room.

“No time for thinking!” Booster yells back, already beginning to transport. “The multiverse is colliding together because my daughter and my best friend are meeting each other!”

Michelle apparently has no comeback because rather than screaming it, Booster only hears a frustrated roar that he is far more familiar with than he should be.

In Booster’s mind, the worst case scenario is already upon him. Rani, freaking out and distressed, huddled in a corner while Ted, freaking out and distressed, is calling up whatever passes for social services among the Justice League. Someone will ask questions, take records, and Rani is suddenly on the map for some sort of time traveling ne’er-do-well to get at Booster if they want to. And he’ll lose Rani out of the great wide nothing just like he lost Rip—

Booster does his best to turn the alarms in his brain from an eleven to about a nine and thinks what complications this means for him and Ted.

Things are already complicated, Booster was hoping to go over some script or something with Michelle before hanging out with Ted again. How many things can he share? How much can Ted even be expected to believe? And how in the world is Ted going to forgive him for being a different person without any of the years and years of context that is suddenly missing between them?

How can Booster resist his instinct to constantly screw things up with the two people, at the moment, he cares about the most in terms of not getting screwed over?

It seems like a tall order, and before he touches foot in Ted’s lab again, he’s certain there’s a mix of these two things that will be his worst case scenario.

That is, until the reality smacks him in the face with a whole lot worse.

Black Beetle — his seemingly nameless and faceless enemy throughout the time stream — is standing in Ted’s laboratory. And worse yet, he is doing so with a gun much more serious than Ted’s old BB gun, right at Ted’s head. And Ted, for his part, seems genuinely stunned.

“Ted Kord,” Black Beetle snarls, “you must die!”

“NO!” Booster screams, the sound ripping through his throat from the core of his being.

He’s in the air and barreling toward Black Beetle before it even registers that Ted has leaped into action, grabbing Rani and rolling behind the desk. It’s a close call and Booster can only begin to thank his stars that Ted really is the Ted of his memories, but there’s not time to dwell.

“Get the hell away from them!” Booster roars as he connects his forcefield protected knuckles with the side of Black Beetle’s armored head.

Even with his field up, Booster feels the hit in the bones of his fist. There’s something harder to Black Beetle than the last time they fought. Which, Booster has to admit to himself, is not a good sign for him.

“Booster Gold,” Black Beetle snaps angrily, catching the second fist Booster throws at him. “I am surprised by your resilience.”

“By now you really shouldn’t be,” Booster growls back. He aims for the unarmored mouth on Black Beetle only to be caught a second time.

“After our last Beetle adventures, I had thought you had your fill of failing to save your friend from death,” Black Beetle hisses. Then, without warning, his head comes jutting forward, breaking through the field around Booster’s body with speed and precision to land a perfect headbutt for Booster’s nose. “But apparently your masochism is greater than that of the average fool.”

Dazed, Booster backs away with his hands released and instinctively reaches for his nose. Definitely broken, definitely gushing blood — but he doesn’t have the time for it because Black Beetle is already coming back at him.

Gritting his teeth, Booster directs the field shields to his left side and successfully deflects the incoming right hook. It gives him enough time to spit out a mouthful of blood and course correct. He needs some distance, maybe use a concussive blast to further to swing it.

He doesn’t get the time or the distance, however, as the Black Beetle armor produces a clawing arm-like extension which grabs Booster at the waist and clamps down, hard.

“Booster!” Ted yells.

“Mikey!” Rani screeches.

A quick panic tears its way through Booster and he glances wildly in the direction of the two voices. His fingers are still grappling with the claws of Black Beetle but his attention is fully on Ted and Rani — they are too close to all of this! Booster has to get Black Beetle away from them and do it fast.

“Stay down! Both of you!” Booster yells at them just before Black Beetle slams him headlong into the Bug.

“I have lost my patience for your persistent meddling!” Black Beetle snarls. “I will set all things right today! I will see to it that any anomalies for the time stream are destroyed! And I will enjoy listening to your pathetic screams as you know that you still are powerless to do a thing!”

Booster has literal stars in his vision once the dark clad time traveler drops him on the ground. His neck aches and he can feel the wheeze of air pushing back into his lungs. He knows he has to get back up, though, or else someone is going to do something stupid.

“I’ve had about enough of this!” Ted growls.

“Oh, no,” Booster says, smacking himself in the head to try to clear his vision quicker.

“Sir!” Skeets buzzes in front of him.

“Skeets! Save Ted! Rani! Anyone! Fuck!” Booster orders, pushing to his feet and seeing where Ted was.

Ted has already slid over the top of his desk, goggles on and pulled out some sort of large canon looking device with a fanned out disk at its front. When Black Beetle immediately shoots for the in-the-open Ted, the reply is given in kind by the strange device which showered the entire room with an immense white light.

“Solar gun kinetic converter!” Ted preens, even as the blowback sends him to the ground. He coughs. “Has a kick, but anything you throw at me, this baby will convert into a concussive blast and hit brighter!”

Booster smirks and pushes off from the ground in order to boost his launch speed as he hurled himself at Black Beetle.

The light flash from Ted’s machine has put the Black Beetle off balance enough for Booster to throw himself into and shove the man out toward the door and into the hall, out the tenth floor window.

As soon as Black Beetle crashes through the glass, Booster firmly digs his heels into the ground and skids to a halt just short of heading out himself. He releases a long sigh of relief as he actually does seem to have gotten ahead.

Unfortunately, Black Beetle’s armor seems to remember it has flight capabilities much faster than Booster did.

“Damn it,” Booster hisses, looking over his shoulder and realizing that Ted is rushing his way and Rani has crawled out from under Ted’s desk to get a better look. “Skeets! Get her down!”

The tiny robot is quick to listen, and Booster barking orders at all seems to make Ted take pause, but not before the shadow of Black Beetle hovering outside eclipses them both.

Booster locks eyes with Ted and feels that ever present twinge of guilt and horror that has lived with him for nearly five years at this point.

“Ted! Down!” Booster yells.

But it isn’t like before. There is action that Booster can take.

Thinking on his feet, Booster projects his forcefield onto Ted. It encloses the semi-retired Blue Beetle in an oval dome before moving along with Booster as they flew toward the laboratory.

“Are you going to explain anything that’s happening to me?” Ted demands as they land in relative safety from their attacker.

“Later over beer if we make it,” Booster promises wearily.

For a brief moment, Ted looks in Booster’s direction. He’s only nodding along to Booster’s words and yet, as he does so, Booster sees a trust and security from Ted that warms something deep inside of him. It’s been so long since they were doing this, side by side, both in the exact same moment.

Both trusting each other because… as long as they’re Blue and Gold they’re bound to win. Somehow. Some ridiculous fashion.

It’s all Booster can do to take a breath and feel confident that it’s going to be okay.

Just before he loses Ted’s gaze. Ted’s looking back in the direction of Black Beetle and his body immediately seizes in tension.

“Round Three!” Ted yells in warning.

Booster raises his guard and steels himself, but he already knows his main objective.

Skeets has Rani. Booster has Ted guarded with every ounce of reserve power his suit has.

Whatever comes next is going to hurt.

Black Beetle flies at Booster like a bat out of hell, crashing into him and the Bug once more. The metal surface crushes in around Booster as a result of the impact. Booster feels the air pushed out of his lungs but he refuses to think about it, instead punching as much as he can right for Black Beetle’s big dumb jaw.

Some hits land, but the momentum is working against Booster as he feels a pop in his shoulder against the grinding metal of the bug.

“You have no concept of the danger you’re in!” Black Beetle snarls, grabbing Booster’s shoulders and flying with him to the floor.

They crash into the cement, Booster first yet again, but this time Booster can get a footing. He kicks off the pavement and plants his feet right for Black Beetle’s crotch.

Even armored, the villain juts away on instinct, which gives Booster time use a concussive blast. He can only lift his left arm, but it’s enough to give space between them.

It’s not enough. Black Beetle is ready to go before Booster’s even caught his breath.

Fortunately, there is a boom followed by the cracking and folding of metal all around them.

Booster lifts up his head to get a good view as Michelle uses her magnetic fields to crush what’s left of the Bug and the surrounding loose metal and bring it down on the Beetle’s head.

“Get away from my brother!” she yells.

Taken by surprise, Beetle is brought down, the crushing weight growing the longer Michelle levies her magnetism on him. “Damn you, Carters, no!” he roars, reaching with his loosest hand toward the chest piece of his suit. “This is not over!”

With a similar BOOM and spectacle, the Beetle is gone, and all the metal and electronics in the area around him fall in a heap to the ground.

“Heard… that before,” Booster musters, pushing to his feet. His ankle twists in a wrong way and he collides with the floor. His unresponsive arm does nothing to brace for the fall.

“Michael!” Michelle yells.

“Booster!” Ted yells right along with her.

And just before he passes out, Booster thinks how unexpected and wonderful it feels to hear both of their voices at once.  

#writing #dc fic #DC: Some Times (Time and Time Again) #Booster Gold #Michael Jon Carter #Ted Kord #Rani #Michelle Carter #Goldstar #Black Beetle

[renaroo]

Some Times (Time and Time Again) (3/8)

Disclaimer: Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, and associated characters are the creative property of DC Comics. Warnings: Canon shaken not stirred, Heavy canon references to Booster Gold (2009-2011) and Blue Beetle (2016-2018) Pairings: Boostle Rating: T Synopsis: Booster Gold and the rest of the Time Masters are still straightening up things in the wake of the most recent universal Rebirth. But Rip Hunter is still missing in the aftermath, leaving Booster in charge with Skeets, Michelle, and Rani. But there’s a distraction for Booster, one he can’t keep himself from ignoring.

Ted Kord, miraculously, is still alive. And that makes everything more complicated than Michael could have ever imagined.

A/N: So look. First of all, I apologize to everyone who were looking forward to this fic before I took a very long hiatus this year. It’s a weird journey to go over, but basically I became a public school teacher and got a job in the middle of this year and the time flew by very fast. Ironically. 

Does that mean I want to leave you guys hanging for months like that again? No, but stuff does happen. I’m trying to use my winter break to write as much as possible while still getting stuff ready for my kiddos, but priorities will lie where they lie and I’m sorry if that means leaving you hanging again. I totally get if you want to check out until the final update so that you can read the whole fic. Hopefully I’ll plan out better and write it all before posting to start with. So hindsight is.... 2020 you might say. 

Special thanks to @fred-astairs-dark-impulses, @shibascarf, @mcbangle, @spiralcass, sinkburrito, @secretlystephaniebrown, starchaser22. doingsuper, Ithildyn and ivettxwrites for the support and kind words! That means so much to me, and I cannot apologize enough for being one of THOSE fanfic writers which I most certainly am and leaving you hanging for so long.

Little Girl Lost

Rani doesn’t necessarily intend to go against Michael and Michelle’s attempts to get her to sleep. Sometimes, things simply happen and there is no stopping it.

For Rani, it’s the need to make certain her adopted family — her new and most recent adopted family, that is — are still safe, alive, and not leaving her alone again that she cannot stop. 

With her eyes only closed for a moment or two after hitting her pillow, Rani springs awake, ignores the colorfully decorated bedroom that is exclusively hers, and barrels out without so much as slippers on her feet. 

Huffing and puffing, Rani races down the corridor toward the laboratory and kitchen of Time Lab. She only slows to a stop once reaching the disarray of the laboratory and overhearing the close by sounds of Michael and Michelle talking to one another. 

Her heart races despite the calming assurance that she’s not alone. There should be three adults in their home instead of only two, and that causes a pang in her chest she barely knows what to do with. 

Taking a deep breath, Rani glances around to the broken up laboratory and thinks about how upset poor Boppy would be if he was still around. 

Rani bites her bottom lip until it hurts. She hates thinking of Poppy in the past tense. She hates it. And she can’t stop it. 

She has played this game too many times before already despite being so young.

“Rani. I don’t believe you should be wandering around the laboratory. It is still a danger zone for the time being,” the familiar drone of Skeets comes as the tiny bot flies into her vicinity. 

Looking to the golden sheen of Michael’s trusty assistant, Rani can’t help but feel that something is off. Something more than usual for Time Lab. 

“Skeets, would you know if Boppy came back?” she asks.

“Doctor Hunter would likely make himself known to us if and when the time was right for his return,” the robot answers methodically. 

Rani’s brows knit together. “So… you can’t do it?” 

“That is not what I said,” he answers without answering anything at all.

Biting her lip once again, only now more in thought than in anxiety, Rani thinks about Boppy — Rip — and how he would make himself known. 

With a slight hum in her throat, Rani walks past Skeets and makes her way to the large chalkboard still standing amongst the ruins of the Time Lab. She reaches the board quickly and begins scanning the blank slate for any signs of change — any at all. Her eyes fall, rather quickly, to the bottom right corner where a scribbled message causes her heart to race again. This time not in fear or worry, but in precious joy and excitement. 

“Boppy!” she barely musters over her own gasp as she reaches for the board and touches it cautiously with the tips of her fingers. 

Ted Kord is the key. 

A chill runs down Rani’s spine, a thrill overcomes her pattering heart. 

“Boppy wanted me to know…” she surmises. Her eyes squint in thought. It is her corner of the board, where she has been caught a few times sketching unicorns and butterflies. For Boppy to write there out of all the space on the board, surely means the message is for her and her alone in that moment.

And Ted Kord. That is not any name, that is someone very important and special. He is Michael’s most important friend, the one he talks about in his biggest and wildest stories to Rani, and the person whose name comes up the most often in the history books when she searches for information about her dear Mikey. 

Rani thinks, just maybe, she understands what she needs to do. And for the first time since the big explosion, Rani feels calm and excited. She has a direction to go in and it means all the world to her. 

It probably means the whole universe if it’s important enough for Boppy to leave it on the board for her.

“I should immediately tell Booster about this!” Skeets determines in a flurry, beginning to zip off.

He doesn’t make it far in the direction of the kitchen, however, because once he sees that Rani is going deeper into the lab, he changes course.

“Rani! Please, the laboratory is still very dangerous. We haven’t gotten very far in the cleaning process so… Rani. Rani! Michael would not be happy with this. Please return.”

For the first time, Rani thinks she might understand why Michael ignores so much of what Skeets says. 

“It’s not a message for Mikey,” she informs the robot with a prideful huff. “It’s for me. Boppy wanted me to do something so that’s what I’m doing.”

“Whatever this is, I believe it is a terrible idea,” Skeets announces.

Despite her near constant quivering and skittish nature after the explosion of the Flashpoint, Rani is constantly aware of her adopted family around her. As much help as she isn’t in the cleaning and retrieving process, she knows that there are several things Michelle and Mikey have yet to contain.

Like the wormhole in the cupboard.

Rani’s knowledge of theoretical physics was far less than her knowledge about every episode of Zoo Crew Michael had gotten her on DVD. But she did know that one time, while working on the time sphere with Michael, Boppy had shaken a wrench and talked about using wormholes for transport.

And what did Michael and Michelle use to leave the Time Lab when they needed to? Transport.

It only makes sense. Even to her under ten mind.

“Rani,” Skeets is beginning to wind up into yet another speech just as Rani’s fingers brushed the steel frame of the cupboard.

“It’s okay, Skeets,” Rani assures the robot as she opens the door. “Mikey said it would be okay.”

“That is not quite reassuring,” the robot retorts just as they enter into the whitish glow.

Skeets, unfortunately, is wise beyond his years as it turns out.

Rani feels a pressure build up against her body the moment the light engulfs her. It’s pressing on her, stopping her body from breathing or screaming, compacting her, squeezing her. She immediately feels blood flushing to her face, heating up and making her eyes swim in their sockets as tears begin rolling out.

This isn’t even close to what she had been expecting when it came to transport and wormholes. Mikey and Michelle never mentioned it.

“Rani!” Skeets’ electronic voice carries, even as Rani’s ears pop with the pressure.

It’s hard to see with the blurring whiteness, but soon the golden swatch of Skeets is upon her. A silver arm extends out from a slot on his underside and Skeets begins reaching out.

The pressure feels like it is building up behind Rani’s nose and into her mouth, but she focuses just enough to reach out and be snatched by Skeets’ extended hand.

The moment they connect and make contact, the whirling of the wormhole around them comes to a stop.

All the pressure that had built up against Rani releases with a terrifying POP and she not only can scream, but she can hear herself scream as her butt hits a cold concrete floor and slides to a stop.

She’s shaking uncontrollably and her scream is cut short into an unexpected but high pitched wail.

Even with daylight filtering into the room she is in and bulbs on overhead, the new place Rani is in might as well as be a pit with the sudden change from the wormhole’s eerie glow.

Her body is no longer pushing against itself or into places, it feels like jello against her bones, and if it weren’t for Skeets actively holding onto her wrist she might have already collapsed.

All in all, the transport may have taken five seconds. Perhaps not even that.

Rani huffs and chokes on air as her vision adjusts. She knows she’s in a new place, she knows that her transportation experience is over, but everything else is a painful and terrifying reality.

Skeets lowers his hovering and comes close to her line of sight.

“I apologize, Rani,” Skeets says in his familiar robotic tone. “Transporting is not easy on smaller bodies like yours and mine. And without a direct destination somehow directed to it, it can take longer than expected. I am sure with your claustrophobia and neuroticism about destructive forces this was not an easy or simple journey—“

Not even waiting for the tiny robot to finish, Rani flings her arms around his metallic body and draws him in for a a calming hug. She feels his cool siding against her cheek and catches her breath finally.

Skeets seems to sputter in place for a moment, a whirring noise coming from his internal gadgetry.

Then, affectionately, the same metallic clamp that had held Rani by the arm before pats her back.

There is calm between them, if only for a moment.

It ends when a heavy door pushes against its hinges and hit the metal walls on the other side of the room they’re in. The lights immediately turn on, heavy and loud, as a man’s voice carries.

“No, I’m telling you, it was weird,” the voice says as boots walk across the concrete floor. “How weird? I don’t know, Bea, weird enough for me to call you and ask about it.”

The hairs on Rani’s neck prickle and she looks wide eyed into the direction of the noise as she lets go of Skeets. Her heart picks up even more from its already frantic pace as she sees the daunting shadow of the man walking across the room. It has been a very long time since she has been this close to anyone who wasn’t Mikey, Michelle, or Boppy. And the last one had been a Nazi, which means super duper bad person from her understanding.

Her regrets of leaving are building up rather quickly.

“No, I don’t know how you can get a hold of him, it’s just… I’m worried. And…” The man stops and stares right at her and Skeets.

He’s not a tall man compared to everyone else in the Time Lab. Not short like she is, but not as tall. His hair is a mousy brown, sticking up in several places but especially underneath the yellow goggles on his head and over his ears in a way that reminds Rani of Boppy just a bit. His face is full of expression, big eyes and a roundness to his cheeks that makes Rani want to see him smile.

And every wrinkle on his forehead is gaining length as his eyebrows race quicker to his hairline.

“Hey, uh, I’ve gotta go,” the man says  into the phone pressed to his head. “Yeah, I know it’s sudden. But there’s like…. A child in my lab. And I’m mildly freaking out about how weird my day is. Tell Tora I said hi.”

After a moment, the phone pressed against the side of the man’s head stops glowing and he’s left in place with a paper bag that smells much better than Mikey’s cooking in the other.

“Okay,” the man says, taking a deep breath, “strange child staring at me in my lab not saying a word…”

“Skeets?” Rani whispers, turning her head ever so slightly toward the robot without taking her eyes off the man.

Skeets whirs in that happy way that seems like a recorder starting before circling in the air once and making it to Rani’s other side. “Rani, this is Theodore Kord, formerly known as the Blue Beetle. He is the CEO and prime technologist of Kord Industries, begun by—“

“Whoa whoa whoa!” the man calls out, holding out his hands with as many fingers as he can spare extended. “First of all: Skeets? What the hell? I just saw you. Second of all: ixnay onyay ethay eetlebay, okayay?” He then lowers his hands as he shifts toward looking squarely at Rani once again. “Of all the third: …hey? Are you okay? You uhh… seem to be a child in my super unsafe and barely halfway managed laboratory. Which is probably as new for you as it is for me.”

Rani, finally catching her breath, pushes up from the floor. The wheels are turning in her head as she holds the gaze of this mystery man. “Blue Beetle…” she gaps in wonder.

He lets out a grunt of frustration and glances at Skeets. “Now, see? You’ve doxxed me, Skeets!”

“It is not a difficult task, Mister Kord,” Skeets retorts shortly.

“Well, I went to a Big Belly Burger dressed like this, so I see your point! BWAH HA HA HA!”  

Rani is unsure of herself and concerned until that laughter hits the air.

It’s not like any laugh she’s heard before, like a rumbling explosion from deep inside someone. The kind of laughter that can’t wait to escape someone and infect everyone around them.

One time, while tucking her in, Mikey had told Rani that his best friend Ted had the greatest laugh in the whole world.

And, now, Rani is hearing it.

“Ted Kord is KEY!” she remembers the message out loud.

The former Blue Beetle abruptly ends his rumbling laugh and glances toward Rani curiously. “I’m what? OOF!”

Ted’s question is barely out of his mouth before Rani is crashing into his waist, wrapping herself around him tight and squeezing with all her might. It’s the kind of hug Mikey gives her, and she hopes Ted Kord can tell it. The confusion in his utterances suggests that he probably can’t tell.

“Okay, help me out here, Skeets, I’m mildly freaking out,” Ted says.

“Thank you, Mister Kord,” Rani says with jubilation. “Thank you for having the best laugh in the whole world, and being the bravest man, and for being Mikey’s bestest friend ever!”

“I guess this is where I say… you’re welcome? And then ask you your name or something,” Ted responds.

Looking up, smiling the best she can, Rani answers, “I’m Rani.”

“You’re Rani,” Ted repeats. Suddenly, there’s a glint in his eyes and he sets his bag and his phone down on the floor behind him. “Rani… Rani… Booster’s appointment or whatever earlier. And you’re with Skeets. Who is not being helpful whatsoever, by the by.”

“I apologize, Mister Kord, but I am limited by the… uncertainty of many factors currently,” Skeets admitted. “I do not believe Booster Gold has tested the effects of this meeting yet.”

Ted’s brows squeeze together, causing worry lines to surface on his forehead. “Tested? Booster? I didn’t even think he tested the products he shilled for.” He then puts a steady hand on the top of Rani’s head. “And you, pipsqueak—“

“I’m Rani,” she reminds him firmly.

“I’ve never heard of you before. What’re you doing hanging around with Booster?”

Rani blinks through her confusion. It’s such a strange question. And certainly nothing close to what she has thought of before. She’s with Booster and at Time Lab because… Isn’t that where she belongs now? With no planet and no adopted family and no—

Her breath catches in her throat and she’s shaking slightly. She catches herself doing it, but she can’t stop it.

“Whoa whoa whoa,” Ted says, lowering down to one knee in front of her and getting to her level. His jovial face is all scrunched up in concern now. “Calm down there, kiddo. I didn’t mean to get you worked up.”

“I am afraid she has been through a lot, Mister Kord,” Skeets excuses.

“Apparently,” Ted says, a tinge of something more scrutinizing and suspicious in the corner of his eye.

Taking a deep breath, Rani grabs hold of Ted’s shoulder. When he looks her in the eyes, Rani says gently, “Mikey takes care of me. And… I take care of him.”

Ted looks her over before offering a soft and genuine smile. “Sounds like tough work,” he says solemnly. “But you seem pretty tough.”

Rani considers the ways her teeth chatter and her heart races and her chest tightens so much and so hard. And she thinks that tough is like Boppy or Mikey saving the day or Michelle defending their home. “Really?” she questions.

“Absolutely,” Ted says. “If you’re looking for Booster, Skeets should’ve told you that you’re late by quite a bit.”

Warmth spreads through Rani’s chest and she feels her shoulders roll back more confidently than they’ve been in a while. She is pretty tough when she thinks about it.

“Say, I actually ran through this grease bucket called Big Belly Burger to get the fries with Booster’s stupid pretty face on it,” Ted jokes, throwing a thumb back toward the brown paper bag. “A joke for… whenever he gets back here. I can’t eat that kind of stuff anymore… but something tells me if you’re hanging out with Booster he’s put you on a strict diet of whatever your adorable face asks or something.” He pauses for Rani’s giggles and, with a soft smile, adds, “So do you want something to eat?”

“I didn’t know Mikey was on food…” Rani admits, grabbing for the bag as Ted Kord offers them to her.

“Wow, I feel like that’s the only thing most people do know about him!” Ted laughs at the irony. “For a good minute there, it felt like it was the only thing I knew about him, too.”

Rani downs the fries quicker than even she expected. They’re greasy and gross like a lot of the food from this century that Mikey complains about. But that’s also kind of good about it in a way.

By the time she’s licking her fingers, Ted is on some strange, boxy device, fiddling with the buttons and lights on it.

“What’s that?” she asks.

“My Justice League communicator. The old version,” he admits. “I’m trying to get a hold of Booster and… uh… figure things out.”

Confused herself, Rani tilts her head. “But why don’t you know already, Ted Kord?” she asks him suspiciously. “You’re supposed to be the key!”

“To what?” he asks right back, looking up from the communicator with a brow on high alert. “And what do you mean by this key stuff anyway? Is that something Booster said to you?”

“No, it’s on Boppy’s board,” she answers firmly.

“Caution, Rani,” Skeets chides, floating in on the conversation. “You must remember the rules. Who knows what dangers can be unleashed on all of reality by testing them.”

With a gasp, Rani claps her greasy fingers over her mouth.

“Hey, now, that’s a lot of pressure to put on a kid, Skeets,” Ted argues. “And what are you even going on about?”

Uncertain of what to say back, Rani bites on her bottom lip and looks at Skeets. But the robot does not seem to be all that concerned about answering.

“It will be best if we wait for Booster Gold to answer,” Skeets assures her instead.

“I hope he brings drinks like we promised,” Ted mutters with a roll of his eyes. “After all this excitement today I feel like I earned it.”

Rani’s tiny heart races in her chest for a moment, regret and worry building up as If she had been taking stock for her anxiety to unleash in that moment. Boppy left her his message, she is doing the right thing. Right?

The excitement in her frame doesn’t have time to subside, however, as a large boom and flash occur in the same room as them.

Ted covers his eyes and tries to turn in the direction of the excitement. “Booster?” he calls out.

“For the good of all reality,” a booming, yet hauntingly familiar voice calls from the light as it dulls around them, “and for the survival of the multiverse…”

Once the light is dulled significantly, Rani blinks and can make out the slick black armor of the tall and imposing man across the room from them. And, more importantly, she can make out the shape and direction of the gun he is holding as well.

“Oh, fu—“ Ted says, getting to his feet.

“… Ted Kord, you must die!” Black Beetle snarls before pulling the trigger.

#writing #dc fic #DC: Some Times (Time and Time Again) #Rani #Ted Kord #Blue Beetle #Skeets #Booster Gold #Michael Jon Carter #Black Beetle

[renaroo]

Some Times (Time and Time Again) (1/8)

Disclaimer: Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, and associated characters are the creative property of DC Comics.  Warnings: Canon shaken not stirred, Heavy canon references to Booster Gold (2009-2011) and Blue Beetle (2016-2018) Pairings: Boostle Rating: T Synopsis: Booster Gold and the rest of the Time Masters are still straightening up things in the wake of the most recent universal Rebirth. But Rip Hunter is still missing in the aftermath, leaving Booster in charge with Skeets, Michelle, and Rani. But there’s a distraction for Booster, one he can’t keep himself from ignoring. 

Ted Kord, miraculously, is still alive. And that makes everything more complicated than Michael could have ever imagined. 

A/N: I’ve been toying around with this idea for what feels like forever, at least since the Rebirth books got launched over at DC, and I finally got time to really sit down and work it out. I’m really excited for this fic and hope it’s decent enough for some of you out there!

Blue Beetle

Life without an assistant, as it turns out, is shockingly compressed on time.

Jaime doesn’t need much help on his progress as the Blue Beetle, but so long as he is the Blue Beetle, Ted has no interest in slacking on the kid’s training. Assistant or no assistant.

With his laptop balancing precariously on his knee, and himself balancing precariously on the sloping hood of the Beetle, Ted is attempting to keep track of company stocks, a slack chat with members of his board, an incoming tech report from some computer analyst he hired out of Jaime’s high school last week, and not waste too much of his bagel in the process.

Despite the distractions, however, Ted’s real concentration is still on Jaime’s blaster as it destroys thousands of dollars and hundreds of man hours of equipment in the simulation fight.

It’s what Ted built it for, but still…

“Seriously, Mister Kord, I have to go meet my mom in, like, fifteen minutes,” Jaime shouts out over the sounds of debris dinging against the lab’s metal floors. He’s not even looking in Ted’s direction as he wastes another AI dummy that is gunning for him.

Feeling himself sliding a bit, Ted kicks back against the Beetle some to get back on his perch, his computer bobbing with the jarring, bagel bits flying. He wonders if an assistant would have helped with the bagel parts. And then he plays back the memory of Jaime’s highly pitched complaints.

“Hey, hey! How many times do I have to tell you, it’s not Mister Kord, kid, it’s Ted,” he argues on the important part.

Jaime’s suit unites his hand blasters into a single canon and blasts through more expensive equipment. He then looks over his shoulder and squints his large, buggy yellow eyes at Ted. “Maybe you should stop calling me kid then, Ted! Also, you’re missing the part where I’m warning you about a very angry Missus Reyes.”

Ted answers an email by holding the remains of his bagel between his teeth. Then he tilts his head back and swallows what he can, choking a bit, and accidentally sending a string of keyboard smashes to his company’s board of executives in response to a question about why so much money is being poured into Extraneous Funding. Bits of extraneous funded superhero training material flies toward Ted and the Beetle and if Ted didn’t know any better, he’d think Jaime was aiming in spite.

“Watch it, Jaime! I just buffed out the last dent in the Bug,” Ted warns, using his not-free-but-freer hand to rub the glistening hood to his side.

There’s a keening noise coming from the scarab on Jaime’s back that is only matched in annoyance by the groaning that Jaime’s doing on top of it. “Mister Kord!”

“Ted!”

“Ted! My mom! Ten minutes!”

Stock prices do dip, there’s another email update from this needy El Paso kid-slash-computer-genius, the board is up in arms at the insufficient response, Ted feels his stomach churning either in response to the million nasty things happening or to his bagel. And it all culminates in a tremor through his lower spine.

Despite or because of everything happening, Ted slips more from his spot, his body shifting and sliding right off the nose of the Bug. He, and all of his things, hit the floor in a clatter that manages to get Jaime to turn away from his training simulation entirely.

“Whoa! Ted, are you okay?” he asks just before getting hit by a blaster from behind.

“See! Never let your guard down!” Ted manages to yell before rolling over onto his back and laying in his mess of a lab and mess of a life. “Not even for your great and mighty mentor.”

He continues to lie on the floor, noting mentally that it’s surprisingly comfortable given that everything exploding in the lab eventually ends up there. It’s only when his vision is obscured by Jaime — no longer in his suit — staring down at him that he centers himself at least enough to be responsible for the teenager that he’s totally responsible for.

“Are you okay, Mister Kord?” Jaime asks, brows knitted in a little bit more genuine concern than what he usually offers Ted.

“I thought about it,” Ted answers with a harrowing breath. He releases the breath and melts into the floor a bit more. “And no. But who, at thirty-six, can truthfully say yes to that question.”

Jaime looks at him like he has three heads.

“Talk to me again in twenty years and we’ll laugh about it,” Ted promises him. “Get out of here, I don’t need a scary-angry Missus Reyes and you deserve a break. What’d’ya say?”

“Okay cool,” Jaime says, immediately walking away.

“You cold offer to help me up!” Ted yells after him.

“Do you want up?” Jaime asks from the doorway.

Ted stares at the ceiling and considers it. “Get out of here kid, I need to find a new assistant.”

“See you later, Mister Kord,” Jaime calls, closing the door behind himself and the last laugh.

“Kids,” Ted huffs to himself. “I need an assistant my age. No. Ten years younger. So I can watch the hope and youthful naivety die. That should sustain me. Think like a corporate CEO. Socioipathy. Hating kittens and… breathable oxygen or something.”

There’s a long silence in the lab, just Ted with himself and his thoughts. And when those turn scary he finally manages to get himself up, gather his things, and to start working on the next project.

Finding his new personal assistant.

There has been a stack of portfolios on his desk for a while, now, a few days at least. And he should be going through them for review but he hasn’t.

They all look the same on paper. Even the one written in German.

There isn’t enough time, and he’s only getting shorter on time the longer he goes without a personal assistant who is literally a speedster.

Time’s a funny thing that way.

Ted finds ways to waste more time without fully committing to any project or any responsibility in a way that matters before giving up in defeat and burying his head into the paperwork on his desk. There aren’t as many pings from his computers and he could probably rewire some of the broken lab equipment sooner than later, but he’s not really doing anything by the time his bagel fullness has subsided into the ache of needing a lunch break.

Which, on a normal day, is when Ted can finally get a hold of everything and pick a direction. He doesn’t really get the opportunity, though.

His head is still on the desk when an unfamiliar, radiant light picks up somewhere in the center of the lab, sending out a subtle heat that dies down with the light itself.

It hasn’t been that long since lizard people attacked so it doesn’t automatically raise Ted’s hackles the way it probably should, but it does at least get him to look up from his desk and see that the light was from some sort of transportation used to enter his lab.

And the one who used the transportation was none other than his best-friend-then-gone, and oddly out of touch, for years.

Booster Gold stares at him from the center of the room, his goggles resting up on his hairline rather than on his nose, letting Ted see the way Booster’s eyebrows ruffle together. They then raise in almost shock as he continues staring Ted’s way.

Ted blinks a few times. “Mikey?”

There’s a deep breath from Booster before he even blinks. Then he shakes his head, as if trying to parse reality, before finally looking at Ted again. “Beetle!” he blurts out, like it’s something he hasn’t gotten to shout in years.

Which, who knows, maybe he hasn’t.

“Did you just teleport into my office-slash-laboratory?” Ted tries to figure out.

“Of course I did!” Booster shouts again, laughing forcefully. He almost seems hoarse already.

“That’s… weird. Since when could you teleport?” Ted continues to question. “Also why? And. Uh. Hello. Been a while.”

“It has been. It’s been… way too long,” Booster continues, seeming breathless. “Wow. Okay. Cool.”

He seems so incredibly happy and relieved and just all these other emotions that Booster doesn’t wear comfortably.

And Ted, well, he’s growing impatient the more the confusion lingers.

“Yeah, it’s like the last time I saw you was in a car commercial,” Ted says flatly.

“Ha, yeah,” Booster replies without any weight to it.

“Probably because it was,” Ted leans in.

That, at least, seems to bring down the thousand watt smile to something closer to a nine hundred. “Oh.”

The air becomes stale unbelievably quickly.

“Yeah,” is all Ted can manage to say.

Booster continues to stare at him, some of the disbelief finally fading into mild concern. Which, Ted kind of hates because only Booster could make him feel like the bad guy for pointing out the truth.

Well, maybe other people, like a well paid assistant someday in the near future.

“Did we leave off on bad terms?” Booster asks, obviously fishing.

“I don’t know,” Ted answers honestly. “Did we?”

With that, Booster’s brows furrow again and he tilts his chin down, running his hand through the back of his hair nervously. “Hell, I don’t know. I.. There’s been a lot, y’know. Just. A lot. And… I didn’t know I could… if you…”

There is something to Booster’s words and actions that feels disconnected. He’s holding back a lot, which is weird. Because it’s Booster.

But the sentiment, well, Ted knows it all too well.

“Yeah, I get it. Me, too,” Ted huffs. “I guess… I mean. There’s not a whole lot to hang out about when, well, I’m retired and you’re… not? I guess. I don’t know where you even live anymore.”

“I can’t… really retire from the current gig,” Booster announces, again with that veiled subject. But he’s quick to change topic. “And there’s every reason to hang out with you. In fact, I’m glad you’re retired. Fuck, man, you better be retired and…” He stops himself short, pinches the bridge between his eyes, and then comes back to focus. “I came to ask if you… if you wanna get some drinks?”

“You teleported into my office-slash-laboratory to ask if we could get drinks before noon on a Tuesday?” Ted asks incredulously.

Booster blinks, looks around the mess of a lab, and then looks at Ted again. “Uh. Yeah?”

Ted considers it only for a second before sighing and coming to his feet. “Okay, fine, you’ve convinced me.”

“Wow, that took… no work whatsoever,” Booster says in vacant surprise.

“It’s been a hell of a morning and I want to figure out what’s different with you,” Ted announces. “I mean, again, last time I saw you was a car commercial—“

“Did I look good in it?” Booster asks almost mindlessly, his gaze a thousand yards past Ted at the time.

“No, the whole thing was on your bad side. You know. Where your chin looks bad,” Ted responds sarcastically, looking Booster over. “Seriously, what’s up?”

“Just drinks,” Booster promises, holding up his hands.

Ted squints at him. “Drinks and… mole people? Time eating octopus? A heist for J’onn’s Chocos?”

“Do you really think so little of me?” Booster asks, actually looking at Ted again. He seems… strangely earnest about it all. In a raw, painful kind of way.

Ted leans back, worried. “Uh. Did someone die?”

“No,” Booster laughs. Only, it’s not just a laugh, it’s an uproarious joyful kind of noise from the back of Booster’s throat. “Isn’t that the greatest thing you’ve ever heard? Isn’t that the best news I’ve ever given you? No one’s… Everyone’s… Wow. I sound like I’ve lost my mind.”

Booster walks past Ted and all but collapses into Ted’s desk chair, crumbling like a fallen tower, until his head has fallen between his knees.

Ted is stunned. And worried. Mostly stunned.

“Jesus, Michael,” Ted manages to get out as he approaches his friend. He looks around his desk, grabbing for the menus he knows are somewhere among the rubbish. “We’ll just order and have something delivered here for lunch. How’s that sound?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Booster continues hoarsely. “That sounds… Yeah, that’s an amazing idea, Teddy.”

At the sound of his old nickname, Ted has to pause looking through low sodium options and instead really looks at his friend. He’s pale and has bags under his eyes. There’s a certain unkempt nature to his hair and it’s sticking up behind his ears like it hasn’t been trimmed in a while. He’s clean shaven, but there’s the dusting of five o’clock shadow on his left cheek from an uneven shave.

It’s the worst Michael has looked to his knowledge. At least short of any life-or-death situations.

“What aren’t you telling me?” Ted not so much as asks as he demands.

“A lot,” Booster answers.

That’s not good enough and it explains nothing. And normally Ted wouldn’t think twice about saying as much. But for the moment, in that uniquely personal and miserably resigned way, Ted gives a gentler “Okay” instead.

When the air grows stale again, Ted tries a different approach.

“Is there anything you can tell me?”

Booster smiles just enough that his dimples make themselves known. “You’ll never have any idea how happy I am to see you again, Ted.”

Despite his confusion and concern, Ted can’t help the no-doubt dorky smile that comes to his face. “Right back at you,” he says, and it’s so truthful it hangs heavy in his voice. He offers up, in a mousy way, his fist. “Blue and Gold?”

There’s a brittle honesty to the expression of relief and appreciation in Booster’s face as he takes his own fist and bumps his knuckles against Ted’s. “Blue and Gold,” he says back almost reverently.

For a moment, Ted wonders how this is going to end, if it will be too soon or too long. He’s just strangely concerned and glad all at once that it exists at all.

So, of course, predictably, it ends too soon.

There’s a flash in the center of the laboratory, just like before, only this time both Ted and Michael are looking in its direction before it’s even over.

Booster manages to voice his surprise before Ted even has the chance.

“Skeets?” Booster’s voice strains.

“Michael, you’re needed for…” Skeets’ synthesized voice hesitates, if such a thing is possible for an AI, and the shiny robotic body shifts into Ted’s direction for a moment. “Hello, Blue Beetle.”

“Hey, I have a secret identity,” Ted jokes, waving to his Blue Beetle themed tee and the Bug.

Skeets, ever the comedic one, does not even acknowledge the detectable sarcasm in Ted’s voice before turning back to Booster. “Sir, you have an… appointment. With Rani.”

Ted can’t help his eyebrow raising and he looks toward Booster for clarification. He’s never heard the name Rani before, at least that he can think of. And he definitely hasn’t heard the name in connection to Booster.

But there is immediate recognition in Booster’s eyes. His body tenses up and he seems immediately more put together than he has appeared since teleporting right back into Ted’s life. He doesn’t even seem to realize that Ted is looking directly at him.

“Is she okay? I mean, does it have to be right now or…” Booster trails off, looking to Ted.

“I have been sent after you, Michael,” Skeets deadpans.

“Can’t you reschedule?” Ted asks, a little put off by all of this rather sudden and unexpected developments.

“It’s not that kind of date,” Booster says, getting to his feet and then flinching at his own words. “It’s… not a date at all it’s…” He seems uncomfortable in his own skin for a moment, scratching at his chin. “You…uh… I guess we should catch up. Soon. Like, really soon. You don’t know Rani? Really? Damn. I mean…”

“No,” Ted says flatly, crossing his arms as he sits back on his desk. “I guess we should catch up soon. Like over a lunch or something.”

“Okay, great,” Booster says, walking forward.

“I’d say pop in any time, but that seems to be the assumption—“ Ted begins to snark, but he’s cut off almost immediately by the tight embrace of Booster. It’s so tight it nearly knocks the air out of him.

Booster’s been working out since they last got into shenanigans together, it feels like he’s cutting off Ted’s circulation almost just through the hug. It’s warm, though, and it feels like the sort of emotional explosion that Ted would expect after years. Without the random teleportations and promises of lunch left thus far unfulfilled.

After a moment of the hug, Ted is finally able to gather himself enough to hug back, too, patting Booster’s shoulder as he does so.

“I miss you, too, buddy,” Ted says.

“It won’t be long, I’ll… I can promise that,” Booster says, finally letting go, holding Ted’s shoulders at arms length. “There’s just… some really hard stuff to explain going on right now.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Ted jokes as Booster lets him go. “It’s… uh. Well it’s good to see you again. And will be again. Soon. Ish? Right?”

“Definitely,” Booster promises, getting close to where Skeets is in the center of the lab. “I’m… It’s great to see you again, Ted.”

“Uh, yeah,” Ted responds, waving just as the flash of light from before happens again, disappearing along with his best friend and his best friend’s robot from the future.

He remains where he is, leaned back on his desk, and tilts his head to the side.

“So how do I explain any of this in my log today,” he wonders out loud. After a long moment, he shrugs and runs a hand through his hair. “Blue and Gold Nonsense it is then.”

#dc fic #Booster Gold #Blue Beetle #Boostle #Michael Jon Carter #Ted Kord #DC: Some Times (Time and Time Again) #writing