The Legends of Forever by Barry Lyga (books to read for beginners .txt) 📕

It was beginning.

“Buh . . . Flash isn’t back from the future yet,” Supergirl said, just barely catching herself before blowing Barry’s secret identity. On the screen before her, she saw not only Joe West, Dinah, Diggle, and Rene, but also a handcuffed Bert Larvan and a woman who looked like Dinah’s cosplaying cyberpunk twin sister. Kara had questions, but Joe’s frantic expression obviated them. Code names were the order of the day, and speed was of the essence, especially with Owlman in the wind again.

They had caught her up quickly on what was going on, from the group of heroes headed to the far future to the fracas in Star City. Supergirl ached to fly over to help out, but thus far her powers had only begun to creep back in. Her hearing seemed a little sharper, and she thought when she walked that there was a little extra bounce that might be flight coming back. But she was too darn mortal to do much right now.

“The swarm’s hitting now,” Joe told her. “The A.R.G.U.S. satellite estimates over two hundred thousand bees, and there are still people in the streets. Plus, Ambush Bug is teleporting all over the city and causing havoc. We gotta have Flash here—he’s fast enough to grab all the bees and stop this. It’s the only way.”

“Joe, I don’t know what to tell you. Flash and Superman and the others ran off to the End of All Time and haven’t come back. We don’t even know if they’ll come back at all, to be honest.”

“I’ve got an entire city about to look like something from a fifties horror movie!” There was real panic in Joe’s voice. “We’re holding the line, but we need help and we need it now, Kara, or you’re looking at a major American city going the way of the dodo!”

She could never be certain what, in that moment, sparked the idea for her. But a notion suddenly smacked into Supergirl’s awareness with such force that she actually rocked back a bit in her chair, as though physically struck.

“Joe, hold on.” She put his feed on pause and hit the button that connected her to Curtis. Mr. Terrific was still out by the treadmill.

“Curtis! I have a crazy idea!”

“You’ve come to the right place!” Curtis said cheerfully.

35

Sara swallowed hard. Barry’s pronouncement—That’s our enemy. That’s the Time Trapper—echoed deep within her. She took in a deep breath, aware how precious air was and that a tear in the synthetic, invisible transsuit would mean her death.

Oliver sidled up to her. “A long way for two party kids from Starling City, eh?”

His nonchalance buoyed her spirits. Good old Oliver. So deadly serious and so committed, but also so ready to puncture the moment right when it desperately needed puncturing.

“I think I imagined something like this one night when I was drunk on that terrible absinthe you brought back from England,” she said casually. “But at least I just woke up with a miserable hangover.”

“No waking up from this.” It was Mick, standing at her side. His face and bald dome were awash in sweat. He’d brought the ring to heel, but it was taking a toll on him.

A part of her thought, Is this even worth it? They were billions—billions!—of years in the future. So far from home that the very word home had lost all meaning in the distant past. Anti-Matter Man had been defeated on Earth 38. Couldn’t they just. . . go back to the present? Snuggle up with their loved ones? By the time this current moment came to pass, they’d all be long, long dead.

But she knew that wasn’t an option. The Time Trapper existed at the End of All Time, but his threat stretched back through history and across the Multiverse. They had to beard this particular lion in his den and end his threat. For good.

“I’m starting to feel a little outclassed,” Sara admitted. She hefted the golden length of rope she’d been given. “Even with this ace up my sleeve.”

Oliver chuckled knowingly and gestured to the Time Trapper, looming in the distance. “You know what? We’ve faced some seriously Big Bads in our time, and we’re still standing.”

Sara nodded. It was true. And beyond being a superhero and a trained assassin, she was also the captain of a timeship. It was time to take charge.

“Let’s stop staring and get planning,” she barked. Everyone startled and turned to her. “We’re not gonna kick that guy’s butt by glaring at him. We need a strategy.”

“And recon,” Oliver put in. He pointed out into the void. “I see three separate targets, the only sites visible with any sort of construction.”

The spindly rock where the Time Trapper stood they called Needle because of its taper. The other two they called Globe and Egg—one was round, the other oval.

“We need more than names,” Sara said. “We need intel.”

“Easy enough,” Superman said, and glanced in the direction of the Time Trapper. “Wait . . . Wait, something . . .”

“Everything all right?” the Flash asked.

“Something . . .” Superman twisted his head this way and that. “Something’s wrong. My super-vision isn’t working the way it should.”

Barry nodded. “Here, at the end of the universe, physics itself is breaking down. Distance has no meaning. Light doesn’t work the way it used to. Your sensory powers—”

“—are useless,” Oliver finished.

“Not quite,” Superman said. “My vision is still working, just not the way I’m used to. I can still see . . .”

He squinted, peering ahead.

“OK. On Needle, the Time Trapper himself is adjusting some machinery in front of him. But on Globe, I see a massive metallic sphere.”

Sara located the rock Superman had mentioned. The sphere he described looked tiny, which told her that it was quite a distance away.

And wait. . . If that one is closer to us, but we can still see the Time Trapper on the outcropping farther away . . .

Oh man. He must be huge.

She didn’t want to think about it. Shoved it out of her mind. The bigger they are, the harder they