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

fall might be true, might not. No time to worry about it, though.

The sphere Superman had mentioned. That was her focus now.

“That sphere seems to . . .” He paused, thinking. “I don’t know how to describe it. It gives me the same feeling I get when I look at you, Flash. When I perceive the Speed Force energies coursing through your body.”

“That’s where Thawne is, then,” Oliver said confidently.

“The only other object of interest,” said Superman, clearly struggling to gaze far overhead, “is on the underside of Egg.” He pointed. “It’s a smallish boxlike structure, big enough for a person.”

“Cisco,” Flash said. “It’s got to be. If Thawne is on the one asteroid, Cisco must be locked up on the other.”

“Now what?” Ray asked.

Oliver glanced over at Sara. He’d always thought of himself as the strategist, but in the years since she’d become captain of the Legends, she’d grown as a tactician and commander. He had his own thoughts about how to proceed, but he didn’t want to step on her toes. She had transformed herself into a capable leader and deserved her shot without him running roughshod over her.

“What have you got, Oliver?” she asked, assuaging his fears.

“We don’t know what we don’t know,” he began. “According to the Legion of Super-Heroes, the Time Trapper’s been up to something for a while. We have to imagine that he’s ready for a lot of eventualities, that he’s planned for everything. At the same time, we know he reached back through time and released Anti-Matter Man, then guided Anti-Matter Man from the antiverse to Earth 27, then Earth 1, then Earth 38. He’s not just a planner—he’s got major power, too.”

“But some of that power comes from Thawne,” Barry pointed out.

“Exactly,” Oliver agreed. “That’s where I was headed. His power isn’t infinite. He needs to supplement it. So if we can disrupt it . . .”

“You mean like yank the batteries out?” Mick said.

Oliver shrugged. “Sure, think of it that way. He has Thawne for a reason. He has Cisco for a reason. I say we split up into two teams. Go to Globe and take down Thawne. Liberate Cisco from Egg. Cut off at least some of the Trapper’s power so that he’s a little more vulnerable.”

“Has anyone thought maybe we just go beat the stuffing outta this guy?” Mick asked. As he said it, a large, glowing green boxing glove appeared from his ring. “Like, just hit him until he goes down and then kick him until he stops moving. That’s how we did it back in the old neighborhood, and lemme tell you something—it worked on the big guys as well as the little guys.”

“Something tells me a frontal assault isn’t going to do the trick,” Oliver said.

“We’re talking about an entity that can erect a barrier in the flow of time itself,” Superman said.

“Which is theoretically impossible,” Ray added with disturbing good cheer. “We’re gonna have to invent a whole new branch of physics to make sense of this. Um, assuming we survive, that is.”

“We need two strike teams, then,” Sara said. “Thawne is a danger to us. We don’t know if he’s helping the Time Trapper voluntarily or not, but we have to assume he won’t be happy to see us.”

“So we send the heavy hitters after Thawne.” Oliver skimmed the group. “Superman. Mick, since you’ve got that ring. And Barry. Sound good?”

Superman nodded in agreement. Mick shrugged. Barry . . .

Barry seemed distracted, gazing off into the empty middle distance. “Barry?” Oliver waved a hand before Barry’s face. “Flash? You want to join us?”

The Fastest Man Alive jerked as though tased. “What? Yeah, sorry. I just . . . I felt something. It distracted me.”

“Felt something?”

Barry shook his head. “It’s nothing. Let’s do this.”

Holding the Flash in his arms, Superman glided through the vacuum that stretched between the outcropping where they’d arrived and Globe, where Eobard Thawne ran. Barry didn’t really like being shuttled over there in the Man of Steel’s grasp, like a babe in arms, but he didn’t have much of a choice. Mick could fly under his own power, apparently, and had even offered to whip up a glowing green platform for Barry to stand on, but Barry still didn’t entirely trust the ring.

He trusted Mick. Mostly. Just not the ring.

Mick wobbled, pitched, and yawed as he got the hang of channeling his willpower through the ring in order to fly. Barry watched him with mild envy and daydreamed briefly about the time he’d had with Brainiac 5’s borrowed Legion flight ring. Yes, it had been during a terrifying time of near apocalypse for Earth 38, but on the other hand . . . he’d been flying. It had been amazing. Superspeed was an incredible superpower, but flight was the dream power, the one every person living coveted.

And Heat Wave didn’t look like he was enjoying it at all. Whereas Superman gracefully alighted on Globe—hardly disturbing the gritty surface—Mick collided with the ground, clouds of dust billowing up. His knees buckled to absorb the impact, but his center of gravity was too high and he stumbled forward, fell down, and skidded about ten feet on his chest before coming to a stop.

“Graceful,” Barry commented.

“Not another word, Twinkle Toes,” Mick grumbled as he stood. Between the transsuit and the energy field projected by the ring, he was not only unhurt but also nearly spotless.

“Landings are tricky.” Superman patted Mick on the back and flicked away a speck of dirt from Heat Wave’s shoulder. “You’ll get used to it. First time I flew, I crash-landed behind the barn and darn near took out the wheat thresher. I think I was more worried about Pa’s reaction to the crater in the back forty than I was excited that I could fly.”

Mick stared in disbelief. “What kind of Day-Glo Norman Rockwell painting did you come from?”

“Guys, I hate to put a damper on all this wonderful male bonding, but . . .” Barry gestured to the sphere, only a couple of dozen yards away from them.

This close,