Hawaii: Whoever Knows, It Sure Isn't Grodd

Capn Bill, trident in grip, will look over the scenery. Where is everyone standing (or floating, or flying, or whathaveyou)

Is there any place a good old flood, tempest, or a squall could irk or wet the Gorilla, without hurting my friends?

Jimmy Olsen is holding up the Lava Dome, so any wave would hit him too. With luck, a tempestuous storm could knock Grodd off the hull and into the lava.

Which would kill him, of course ...

Unless he caught himself with telekinesis, although that would probably break up his current effort of crushing Lady Hawk.

Super-Sub use uses his Super Ventriloquism to wiper to the Cap'n, "This is Jimmy! If you want me to set this down somewhere just say where and i will most likely hear you with my Sub-Super hearing.

Super-Sub works better as a name. Most of his powers, however, are Sub-Super, so I will call them as such.

The cold and sinister voice speaks again, but this time to the Gorilla's left, "Give up Grodd! You are already within my power. There is no escape for you!"

If Vina knows she is blacking out over a lava pit and can't overcome it, she will use the last of her consciensousness to get over the ocean instead of a fiery doom.

If she can push past the blackout, she'll try to break into the capsule with Great Strength and remove the body bag with Great Speed.

Indeed, focusing on the eternal allows Vina to rush forward, tear open the capsule and grab the body bag. It has a body in it.

"RRRRAAAH!" says Grodd, sincerely if inarticulately. He swipes the air, trying to punch the Shadow.

Then his massive gorilla brows lower menacingly.

"You are effective, Shadow. But Grodd's mind is stronger!"

And he makes a massive effort to telepathically distract, dispirit and destroy the mind of a person who isn't there.

It's actually rather comical.

The Stone Age: Where We're Going, We Don't NEED Stones

Chin-Su assumes a fighting stance. "Free them", he says to Sam. "I got your back.

"Well," Quinn says, kicking up the stick Van-Darr dropped without lowering is guard, "a spear's a spear".

He takes a step back and brandishes the pointy stick, trying to draw Van-Darr's attention. "Alright Barney Trubble, let's see what you got."

He's going to fight defensively, doing his best not to let that tonfa touch his body or his shield. If he absolutely must take a blow on the Spartan arm or leg protectors, he'll do that.

Sam thougt for a moment "Hey guys I have an idea!" he says at last "I think I have a way to save them without us changing history."

He then shouts, "Esuod erif dna ekarb seniv."

Flwissh! The vines binding the Legionnaries break. This would have dropped them into the fire, but it goes out, too.

Van-Darr chops, kicks, spins around while kicking low and feints with an elbow smash; none of it gets through Quinn's shield and rapidly shifting stance, although if the elbow smash had been meant as a serious follow-through, Quinn would have a bruise between his eyes right now.

Then Van-Darr flicks the tonfa off to one side, causing its hide covering to slip loose and form a sort of rawhide whip.

This he swings in counter-rotating arcs, trying to whip the leather thong over, or under, or around, Quinn's shield!

He gets really close. But Quinn's full-defense efforts hold him off, though it's wearing him out fast.

Tellus, the big fish-frog, falls on his massive shoulders and lies there, inert. The White Witch tries to adjust his oxygen-water helmet to restore his airflow, but throws up her long-fingered hands in exasperation.

"Machinery is not my focus!" she exclaims. "To master the mystic arts requires a lifetime of concentrated study ... who knows how to fix the machine?"

Karate Kid stands up in a complicated way, the vines falling free (and unknotted) from his limbs.

After a glance at Tellus, he says, "I don't do machinery either," and places a foot forward in a karate stance.

Van-Darr, hearing his footfall, ducks low and rolls, so that Quinn and Karate Kid are at his 10 and 2 o'clock, respectively.

Karate Kid catches Quinn's eye.

"Want to change it up?" he says. "He's expecting you to defend, and me to attack."

"Tellus is turning blue!" the White Witch cries. "I think that's bad for his species!"

The Stone Age: Duel with the Neanderthal Boss!

"As much as it pains me to say", Chin-Su mutters in an aside to his comrades, "We really can't participate in this fight. Who knows what effect on the progression of the human race we might have by tipping the scales of even ONE tribal battle? We need to save the others, and get out of dodge."

"Yeah," Quinn mutters back, "but how do we know our interference isn't already part of what actually happened? In that case if we *don't* interfere, THEN we'll be changing history."

Louder, he says, "hey future people, solve a dilemma for us here. If we lay this Van-Darr guy out and save you, are we changing history or preserving history?" While speaking, he raises his shield in case Van-Darr strikes. He's going to back up, in a kind of a big circle pattern, hoping to get Van-Darr between himself and his (not bound) friends.

Sure, he's Van-Darr is probably just a cave man with two sticks. But you never can be sure these days.

"Well then, lets beat these guys up." Sam says cracking his fist. "Esuod Erif."

HISSSS! The fire goes out.

This does not divert Van-Darr's focus for even a moment, however. He advances toward Quinn, swinging a stick overhead. When Quinn blocks, Van-Darr stabs with the other stick. Quinn twists aside, so the stick just pokes him in the ribs. But Van-Darr's very quick, and seems to have well-developed fighting skills.

And, as it happens, he has snatched the tonfa from Quinn's belt, dropping his swinging stick to do so. A double feint? Wow!

"Your stick is clad in skin," says Van-Darr. "It must be better than a usual stick. Let me see what I can do with it ... to you."

"No!" says the White Witch. "Our decision to come to the past was the result of the same free will you historical people possess. All that happens is part of the past of the far future, so it has already happened. It is not POSSIBLE to change the past through time travel!"

"If untied," says Karate Kid, "I can make short work of these folk, who fight with hands, feet and sticks. Those, I can use very well."

Nevada: Super, Yes ... but Super BAD!

Just to make sure Kasumi is clear about the situation, can you clarify how many people are in the plane?

If Kasume both ran towards the Green Lantern personally with her winged sandals and tried to lasso the plane, is there a chance (based on rough judgment of distance from where she stands. Realize it might not be accurate) of doing both?

If not, has she thrown her tiara at the spiky guy yet? If not, any chance of throwing it at Green Lantern just hard enough to throw him higher in the air? (In hopes of doing both?)

There's one pilot in the plane.

It certainly is possible to catch Green Lantern and lasso the plane, both. The distances are within her ability.

It means ignoring the spiky-haired guy for a moment, though.

Kasumi attempts to lasso the plane...while running at Green Lantern in an attempt to catch him or at least grab him and slow him down as he goes by.

Indeed, Kasumi lassos the plane, catching Green Lantern on the way down. She lowers the plane to earth at the end of her lasso, then can land with Green Lantern, or remain airborne.

Crashing thunders jostle her serenity, however, as Army tanks and artillery continue to try to take down the flailing Zipperneck. His heat vision lances out, shattering a column of trucks and causing the ammo dump to explode.

That's not good!

Kasumi wants to help Green Lantern, but there may be folks in need. She will lay him down beside the plane...in the hopes that the pilot will see to him, and takes off to see if she can save anyone from the explosion (ie use her lasso to pull any living folks away from the burning and collapsing.

On second thought...she will only spend time saving bystanders if they are in a situation where they will be killed if she does not.

Otherwise, she had better go after that baddy, or he will do more damage.

While lassoning someone to safety (if there is anyone), she looks over the situation. What is the opposition up to?

Zipperneck has driven back the soldiers, and is now swivelling his head wildly around, looking for more threats. Since he can fly, his whole body is being thrown around like a rag doll every time he turns his head.

"Come on! I'll take you both together!" he raves. "One, two, all a you! It don't matter! I got the power!"

The livid scar on his neck is an eerie brilliant yellow-green, and green bruises are visible through his torn shirt.

He catches sight of Kasumi. She sees his eyes turn black and lock on.

Hawaii: Meditative Chant of Doom!

Vina presumes Grodd is in telepathic contact with her to be causing this effect.
So she very "loudly" pushes "an OM chant that removes all negative blocks..." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sYK7lm3UKg

Indeed, she is calmed and centered by this chant.

Unfortunately, Grodd's telekinesis is not a telepathic illusion but an actual physical force, albeit generated psychically.

Therefore, she is compressed strongly enough that she feels the strain, even on her resistant body, and begins blacking out as the sound of her heartbeat roars ever louder in her ears ...

Sub-Super uses his Super Ventriloquism to cast his voice to the side on the gorilla and, doing his best Shadow impersonation say, "Ha ha ha ha ha! Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of apes? The Shadow knows! Surrender Grodd, there is no escape!"

Grodd twists around, holding on with one of his thumb-toes, and punches in the direction he imagines the Shadow to be.

"The Shadow, you say?" he snorts. "You may think you know what evil lurks in the heart of Grodd, but you have NO IDEA what DARKNESS I can unleash!"

And he sends a telepathic sending to an imaginary person, with an effect none can describe ... or even perceive.

(Would Super-Sub work better? To me, it sounds like "Super-Substitute", whereas "Sub-Super" sounds like "less than super.)

Capn Bill will call upon his lifetime of being captain, hence taking orders from no man, and his royal dignity as substitute sea king to resist the mental command.

"Arrrgh!" rages Grodd. "WHY WON'T YOU CRINGE?"

And he angrily breaks off from Cap'n Bill's mind, unable to overcome him. Indeed, Grodd is feeling a nagging compulsion to turn out of his bunk and look alive, there, swab that he be.

Then Cap'n Bill commands the fish in the ocean, any who may be in range, to come bring him his magical trident that commands the tempest.

A whale leaps out of the sea, bearing on its broad back a manta ray, which wriggles loose and glides back down to the sea, carrying Cap'n Bill's trident unerringly to his hand.

Cap'n Bill hefts the trident, and with every subtle inclination of his grip, the seas roil in conformity to his will ...

Hawaii: Behind the Lava Curtain Lurks ... GRODD!

Sub-Superman will attempt to use his Super Ventriloquism to through a whispered message to his to allies, "I have a lead. In a fly saucer beneath the lava is the famous evil ape, Gorilla Grodd. Master of Mysterious Powers." He will then use his X-ray Vision to look either Superboy himself, or a spot that Jimmy can't see through.

Cap'n Bill and Vina hear Jimmy's disembodied voice saying Gorilla Grodd is beneath the lava, and he's very mysterious.

Jimmy squints his x-ray vision and makes out a lead-lined bag hanging in a wall locker. It's roughly Superboy-sized, but Jimmy can't see inside it, as his x-ray vision cannot penetrate lead.

Grodd switches on a bank of amplifiers, lowers a seething hot silver dome over his head, and commands, "BEGONE" at a shockingly loud telepathic volume! Jimmy, Cap'n Bill, and Vina, all alike, are struck by a sudden urge to be gone! Which, in Grodd's mental shorthand, means go somewhere else.

Vina uses her (super?)will to resist the negative waves. That and the positivity flowers and becoming a winged lotus above the glassine lava -may-allow her to act. Or speak.

Ever since the camo S appeared on her shirt, Vina has been feeling like, yes, she might have some of those powers. Mighty quick speed. Strong. Tough.

With that combination, she will try...to pull the capsule out of the lava.
Vina dives into the lava head-first, feeling its intense heat like the blazing summer sun, but she doesn't burn. Still, it would be very unpleasant to remain here for any length of time!

Vina is able to grab hold of one leg of the lava-capsule and haul it aloft. Once she breaks the surface of the lava, her Hawk wings can unfold and wing it skyward!

At first, the capsule dips to one side, being too heavy for Vina to hold level. When Jimmy grabs the other side, it levels out, but Grodd probably got rocked from side to side in the interim.

Grodd, sporting spiky spots in his hair which is the furry equivalent of bruising, opens a hatch and climbs out onto the curved surface of his lava dome.

"Why won't you take a HINT?" he roars. "BEGONE!"

And he makes a fist, which is just hanging there in the air. Vina, however, feels a massive strength bind her and squeeze her chest, crumpling her wings against her back. Grodd, in addition to being telepathic, has telekinesis, which he is using to attack Vina from a range at which she cannot reply!

The lava dome dips without Vina holding onto it, but Grodd can also hold it steady with his amazing powers of mind over matter.

Jimmy will use the his Sub-Super Strength to pull out the capsule as well.

The Stone Age:Against the Savages

"Hey Sam," Quinn says, "what exactly can you do with your magic? It would be nice to get a picture of exactly what we can and can't do as a team. And for that matter, I've acquired some gear here," he indicates the rope, tonfa, and other items, "and I honestly don't know what any of it does, other than the obvious. If you have any ideas what these things do, that might help."

Sam shrugs "Well, I can make or break something, control animate or inanimate objects, and, if i can say it, teleport between dimensions. my powers are only limited by how ease it is to say something. for example, it is easier to say rock break, then teleport me to the stone ages." he then looks at Anthro. after a moment of thinking he casts, "Eerf Orhtna." in hopes of freeing Anthro from his other spell.

And just like that, klim-bim, Anthro can move!

He takes off running sunwise.

Assuming the heroes follow him (please advise if you don't) Anthro fetches up in a forest clearing, with trees arching overhead. The White Witch, Karate Kid, and Tellus are suspended upside-down from vine ropes, while cavemen maneuver a wooden cage beneath them. Smoldering in the cage is a campfire.

"The smoke will dry the meat, allowing us to savor it for weeks to come!" says the young black-bearded caveman leader proudly. "None of it will go to waste!"

"But two of them are human," says another caveman. "Not meat."

"Human?" scoffs the leader. "With so little hair, and one as white as snow? Preposterous! Like the monkey, they are shaped like men without being men. Notice how they cannot speak, merely make bar-bar noises like dogs."

"I am sorry, my friends," the White Witch says, "but I prepared no spells useful for putting out fires, or untying knots!"

"It's okay, White Witch," says Karate Kid. "For some reason, our telepathic ear plugs aren't translating our words to these jokers. Ah, but here is the Justice League! Our ear plugs are based on their signal devices; perhaps they can talk to our captors."

Tellus, meanwhile, has his big green frog-eyes open, but appears to be unconscious. There are no bubbles in his water-filled helmet, as there were before.

Quinn knows they probably shouldn't mess with the past too much, so he's going to wait and see what Anthro does. That said, he'll be ready to lasso the three futurists and yank them to safety.

Chin-Su will, indeed, follow Anthro, staying just concealed outside of the clearing. "Anthro!" he hisses in a fierce whisper. "Friends NOT food! These your people?" he indicates the cavemen surrounding the futurists.

"No, Anthro friends not they," replies the dawn-man. "Savages, hurt Anthro friends."

He hefts a rock, taken from the undergrowth.

"Van-Darr!" Anthro exclaims. "The Dawn People land this -- you eat of our folk's fruit! Be away!"

Van-Darr, the black-bearded leader, sneers.

"Anthro," he says, "how easy you are to knowbefore. You come with three friends, and here had three more, whom I have taken. Came you once and together, you had six against my five, but coming in two times, you twice faced five with but three. Once again, I am the hunter, you but the game."

"Yes, Van-Darr, your warknowing outstrongs my people's warknowing. It has ever been so, in the time of my father and his father also. But you bring five men with spears and sticks, while I bring three with magic."

"Unkenning greatsounder!" Van-Darr crows. "Any man may wordsound magic, but only a magicman can seeshow magic! How does your magic do its magic, Anthro? Will you strike me down from where you stand, with no spear between us?"

"Yes," says Anthro, and throws the rock.

Van-Darr cries out and falls down. His men, seeing their leader struck down from beyond the reach of a tall man's arm, indeed, beyond the reach of the longest spear, run away in panic.

Van-Darr springs up, bruised but not broken.

"Magic indeed," he acknowledges. "But it is very hard work to kill Van-Darr."

He snatches up two sharpened sticks (none of the spears have stone points) and advances to one side of the Leaguers, so that he can come at the leftmost person (Quinn, as it happens) without the others coming to his aid.

The Stone Age: A New Ally

Quinn blinks.

"Ooookay. So *how* many people are we trying to return to the 30th century?"

"Four." answered Sam. "And from what Anthro here said, in English no less, it sounds like Ultra Boy is not with the others. Anyway..." Sam thinks back to try and think of a way to break his own spell. "YOu will help us, right Anthro?"

"Anthro find color people friends," he acknowledges. "Let Anthro move now?"

"Depends. Can I have my hand back?"

"Hand tap Anthro," he says, but he lets Chin-Su's hand go.

This causes Chin-Su's hand to snap back up into his shoulder like a pulled windowshade.

"Great. We're all friends now. I'm Chin-Su, by the way. Nice to meet you. Which way?"

"Sunwise," he says, pointing at the setting sun. He tries to walk that way, but his legs won't move.

"Anthro move now?"

Hawaii: The Face of Doom

"Golly," says Jimmy, "someone sure went through a lot of effort to keep us away from the lava flows." How solid is the lava at this point? If Jimmy wanted to get through it, would he have to break it, or is it still more of a liquid?

It's solid except in the center, where it's a thick muddy consistency. The surface is hot enough to boil water, so it would be difficult to stand on for any length of time without thick sea-boots, such as Cap'n Bill has, or limited superpowers, such as Jimmy and Vina have.

Capn Bill blushes a wee bit when flowers are hung about his neck, so maybe he likes them.

When the giant face roars at him, he wags his finger at it. "Belay that talk! Stand down! Tell who you are or what you be about, or I will have a tunny or a gar or a pike here so fast, you'll think a Tartar had shot 'em from a bow!"

He looks around. Is he in the water? On the green ship? Did the green ship break in half?

(Did the great furred and fanged visage appear to have the normal appurtenances, or perhaps he is a projection?)

If the ship is coming apart and the ropes are still intact, she will prepare to use the second to bind the first with better than average strength and speed.

The ship is indeed coming apart, but moving swiftly, Lady Hawk holds it together.

"Belay? Tunny? GAR? I am your DOOOOM!" bellows the great black face, which looks more and more simian and less human. Fire blooms around the face, lighting its eyes and whooshing forth to come close to scorching Cap'n Bill with its firey heat!

Sub-Superman, after setting aside the necklace and wreath, will take a deep breath and try to fly through the muddy part of the lava. He will try to make his way to the bottom of the lava flow to find what it is burying.

Fortunately, Jimmy can see through the lava with x-ray vision! Off to one side of the upwelling lava flow is a flattened sphere, like a bulky flying saucer, rimmed with airlocks.

And inside THAT, unable to hide from x-ray vision, is a massive gorilla with a golden belt hung with skulls, peering into a periscope arrangement which extends from a pulsating purple sphere. It is, in fact, Gorilla Grodd, known for both his vast strength and his telepathic illusion powers!

Nevada: A Choice of Dooms!

Kasumi thinks: that is truly a unique elephant.

(Is that a tank like a tank of water? Or a tank like a treaded vehicle. I ask, because the actions to "get it" might be different depending on what "it" is. ;-)

It's a treaded armored vehicle. Blame its designers, who called it a "tank" as in tank of water to keep the enemy from being interested in their project ...

lol I didn't know that about tank.)

Kasumi is not at all sure of her abilities, but, straightening her spine, she tries to lasso the tank.

She shouts to Roy, "I am afraid, honored sir, that I do not know of what I am capable. Advice would be welcome on how to carry out such an important task."

"Attitude is everything!" Roy counsels. "Seriously. With superpowers, I'm finding that knowing you can do it is most of the job right there. Have at it!"

Kasumi successfully lassos the tank, which is QUITE heavy, forcing her to ease it down to the ground.

Roy saves the plane with a big green vise grip, which he second-guesses and changes into a big green pillow.

From her rapidly lowering perch, Kasumi perceives a spiky-haired Westerner in a torn Joker t-shirt, with a livid neck scar, hefting up another tank over his head, with the intention of clobbering a third tank with it.

ReplyDelete"Oh-oh, I know that guy," Roy says. "It's Zipperneck -- he's some kind of Joker gangster who got a slice of Superman's powers. I think I can whip up a kryptonite --"

KARASSH! Zipperneck hurls the tank skyward into Green Lantern's bubble. The tank shatters against eerie green silence, but the fuel within bursts into flame --

-- YELLOW flame!

Engulfed by the fire, the Green Lantern is overcome, and once he passes out, the constructions of his ring fade into nonexistence!

This means, of course, that he falls, dropping out of the flame cloud, which is of course rising, as fire does. But the desert floor will not receive him kindly!

Then, too, the damaged fighter plane which Green Lantern was in the process of rescuing is no longer held aloft on a green pillow, and also begins to fall!

The airplane was below Green Lantern, and will therefore hit the ground first. (see G. Galileo, 1647) Kasumi, already having rescued the tank, thinks it very likely she can save either the plane or the Green Lantern ---

-- but maybe not both!

Hawaii: Thar She Blows!

Jimmy, the Substitute Superman, or Sub-Superman for short, says, "I think it would be best for me to investigate Superboy's disappearance. I am an investigative reporter after all. Besides, if something was strong enough to kidnap Superboy, you should probably have someone almost as strong as Superman at your side."

Cap'n Bill has the trick of sliding his pipe from the left corner of his mouth to his right away, just by pursing his lips, to show when he is confounded and awed. "Well, blow me down..." He mutters.

But with a stomp of his boots and a thunk of his hickory leg, he gets boards the ghostly, empty schooner made of green light as if she were sure and solid. He limps loudly over to the helm and takes the wheel in hand.

To no one in particular, he shout, "Look sharp! Prepare to cast off!"

Then he looks at the compass to take the heading, looks at the clouds and birds overhead to get the feel the wind and welkin, and peers over the rail at the entirely non-watery pavement under the keel.

He puffs his pipe like a smokestack for a moment, squinting with one eye.

"Aye...ah... up anchor and hoist the mizzen and run downwind out of harbor or ... er ... take her up."

Jimmy feels the salt spray from the distant sea, even as the green light keel slides along the pavement. And he's finding the mystery of Superboy's disappearance bafflingly difficult to think about ... but mysteries involving Superman are what Jimmy DOES, so he's able to notice the incongruity.

"This is very strange," opines Vina. "-Something- in my mind tells me I don't know how to do this. But. I do. It's the skill I got with the Hawks' gear--but...I've always wanted to be a detective. I guess the first order of business is finding the sources of the 'negative waves,' as my dad would say. I mean, it's Hawaii--practically paradise."

She looks around for something obvious. Does some aerial recognizance to see if there's a place where people look more "bummed out" or less so.

With her hawklike vision and keen detective sense, Vina perceives a slight bias toward despair in paradise on the north side of the island, in the direction of the uninhabitable sheer black lava flow cliffs which lead to the surging sea. But they're uninhabitable ... there's no one there. Not even parks, because the lava and volcanic gasses are dangerous. There is a scenic overlook with a couple of cars, but no permanent inhabitation.

And now a REALLY strong pulse of the hopelessness of it all, and while we're on the subject, the pointlessness of it all, washes over Vina. Seriously, Superboy is a superhero. They travel into space, to subatomic worlds, to parallel worlds and so forth all the time. Why should anyone be surprised that he's missing for a few days?

Maybe the positive affirmation exercises Mom and Dad (or Merlyn and Moonlight as they usually prefer to be called--though she doesn't) will be helpful here. Vina goes to some sparkling waterfall radiating rainbows and strikes a meditative pose. All the while the mechanical wings hold her aloft just beyond the spray.

Well! The sparkling rainbows do the job. They allow Vina to clear her mind, and therefore to isolate the one part of her mind which ISN'T clear, being instead a black cloud of coarse hair and yellow fangs, which urges her to forget her mission and run away.

She stops ommming long enough to get on the radio: "Cap'n Bill and Jimmy, the despair is strongest on the north side of the island--near the lava flow. And...whatever it is...its...ka... has fangs and rough hair."
Gathering golden and pink star-shaped plumeria flowers, which are extremely fragrant and symbolize positivity, she crafts necklaces and hair wreaths out of them, adorns herself, and then puts them on Cap'n Bill (carefully avoiding his pipe) and young Mr. Olson.

Plumeria looks like this:

And there, at the place Vina indicated, is the smoldering cone of red-ridged lava, slumping smokily out to sea in a haze of dirty burn-smelling steam.

A huge black-bristled fanged face, eyes aflame, looms directly into Jimmy's face! And Vina's! And Cap'n Bill's!

"Turn back! DOOM awaits if you go further!" the firey visage gibbers.

And the green-energy schooner creaks and shudders, ropes coming undone and planks buckling under the strain. Is this the end? Is all lost?

Well?

Is it?

The Stone Age: Anthro, Captive of the Future People!

"OK guys," Quinn says between his teeth, avoiding any sudden movements, "what's the game plan? That local looks kinda skittish."

Chin-Su, without moving the rest of his body, will stretch a hand down along the ground, the LONG way around to Anthro in a wide arc until his hand is behind the young man, and tap him on the shoulder.

Sam looks around slowly. He relaxes if he doesn't see any wild animals.

Anthro leaps a good two feet off the ground, spinning in mid-air with his fingernails held out like claws.

Seeing no enemy, he pounces on Chin-Su's extended hand. And then runs off with it into the jungle.

Quinn is ready. He'll dash off after Anthro. "BRB, guys". He loosens the silvery rope from his belt and takes off after Prehistoric Mowgli.

Chin-Su will stroll casually in the direction of his ever-extending arm.

Sam shakes his head. "Evac Nam Pots." he shouts at Anthro.

The cave man stops!

He shakes Chin-Su's hand (not like a handshake, more like a wet dog shaking itself) and jumps in place, but doesn't progress further. Because he stopped.

"Anthro run away!" he exclaims, but his words aren't backwards, so he doesn't. "Long hand man girl!"

Chin-Su puts his other hand up defensively, and approaches slowly. "Anthro stay," he says cautiously. "Anthro help long hand man girl find friends."

"Friends?" Anthro replies. "Yellow fish ape with white woman and bald arm men?"

Chin-Su frowns a moment in thought, then turns towards Sam. "Does that sound right?"

Quinn relaxes his stance (but keeps the rope handy, just in case). "Yeah, actually Sam, could you give us a rundown of what we're doing here again? between androids and presidents and serpents and wolves and elves and sea captains and ninjas and whatnot, I kinda lost the thread." He shakes his head. "Honestly I don't know how the regular Justice League keeps track of it all. Who'd have thought the hardest part of being a superhero was the logistics and team management?"

Chin-Su cocks his head and looks up thoughtfully. "Well, actually..."

It couldn't be simpler: Sam tied up the Shaggy Man with Fenris the Wolf's chain, which naturally set Fenris loose to destroy the world. But the Legion of Super-Heroes came back through time to see how we defeated Fenris, since they have a Fenris problem up in the 30th century as well. We defeated Fenris with the Midgard Serpent, summoned by a sea captain, and then the Legion headed back home. But their Time Sphere malfunctioned, sending them to the Stone Age. Here were are to save them! Now honestly, how hard was that to follow?

<silence>

<crickets>

Don't everyone speak at once ...

Nevada: The Garden of Holes

Roy uses his ring to form a flying elephant to convey Kasumi and Jimmy to Nevada. The elephant's extended pompadour haircut deflects the wind from their faces.

Kasumi notices that the elephant is clad in spangled sequins and high-heeled biker boots, with a cavalryman's half-cape with an extended flared collar. About its waist is a massive champion's belt. And it has huge sunglasses on.

As they pass over the cloudless desert expanse beneath themselves, the Leaguers spy a tank, spinning slowly around its central axis, climb into the heavens on a ballistic arc. It intersects a speeding fighter plane, clipping off its wing and sending the plane into a smoking dive for Terra Firma!

"I got the plane!" says Roy, leaping off the back of Elephis, which he leaves in existence for the others. "Can one of you get the tank?"

Stone Age: Before the Rock

Before the invention of the stone axe, before, indeed, tool-using of any kind, lived a genius named Anthro, who, frustrated by the fruit hanging just above his reach, dragged a stone over to the tree and stood on it, harvesting a tasty handful of apples.

And then three figures, one in black, one in blue, and one in red, faded into existence against the solid green of the jungle!

Anthro, frozen in place, watched them with wide, staring eyes. His tanned skin and rawhide loincloth didn't blend very well with the greenery at all, but he knew many animals were stupid about colors, and saw only movement.  Also, everything was in varying depths of shadow, as the riotous growth over their heads blocked out all but jagged slivers of direct sunlight.

Sam Skeptic notices immediately boot prints in the soft jungle loam. Boots with a perfectly flat tread, like slippers, or the futuristic boots of the Legion of Super-Heroes!

Quinn notes that Anthro is tall and skinny, with powerful strap-like muscles under a glossy coat of not washing. The kid, for he appears to be quite young, is standing with athletic balance and could probably bolt suddenly, or dash in and plant a powerful punch or kick before most men could react.

Chin-Su notes that it's not especially hot right now, but the sunlight is so intense that outside the jungle, it would be pretty unpleasant.

Hawaii: Ahar! There She Be ...

The green schooner sails on the wind, and without contacting the ground far below, makes excellent time! Soon it is gliding smoothly into Waikiki Bay, bearing Lady Hawk and Cap'n Bill.

Upon arriving, they feel overwhelmed by their task. Neither is a policeman, after all, with no special training in detective work, and no proven record of enduring long days and nights of unremitting effort with no clear prize in sight. Best to just give up, and forget whatever it was they came for.

The fact that Vina IS indeed a detective with massive police training, or that sailing is almost entirely composed of nothing BUT days and nights of toil with no guarantee of success ... doesn't matter. It's almost as if they are hearing a script recited internally, but in their own voices.

Time to Split

"Superboy's disappearance sounds like a mystery needing detective work--and that's a Hawk specialty," says Vina. "So, I'm for that."
"Oh, and some people have been calling me Lady Hawk. But Michelle Pfeiffer, I'm clearly not."

Roy says,

"That's right, Cap'n Bill! We have a mystery in Hawaii and a dangerous menace in New Mexico -- one's an island surrounded by the world's largest sea, and the other's a landlocked desert! You should definitely go to Hawaii and look for Superboy."

"Heh. Michelle Pfeiffer."

Chin-Su scratches the back of his head. "I ain't much for the thinkin' stuff. And catching tanks sounds like it calls for speed and strength, and it'd be a bit of a stretch to call my powers anything like that - pardon the phrase." He frowns critically. "On the other hand, I spent my college years playing 'Timesplitters' on the Gamecube. I feel pretty qualified to timetravel."

"Allright!" he says, suddenly jumping up. "It's time to SPLIT!"

"I don't like the desert and I can't really swim with this," Quinn says, giving the shield a little shake, "so I'm with Chin -- time travel sounds like my jam."

Roy: "So that's Cap'n Bill and Lady Hawk for Hawaii, Chin-Su and Quinn for the Stone Age, and I guess that leaves me, Jimmy, Kasumi and Sam for Nevada! That is, if we have some way to get Chin-Su and Quinn back from the Stone Age. I guess there's no time pressure there .. heh. But is that good for everyone?"

Chin-Su looks like something just occurred to him. "Something just occurred to me," he says helpfully. "Do we even have a way to GET to the Stone Age in the first place?"

Roy: "I was thinking Sam, sorry! The Anti-Magician could do it, and if not, there's always my ring. And bringing you back when you're done would use the same pathway: Sa ... Anti-Magician could just say, "Bring heroes back when their work is done!" in his far-out magic lingo. Right, Anti-Mage?"

Sam a.k.a the Anti-Magician sighs. "Give me a moment. I need to figure out how to pronounce 'take us back to the stone age.' Be warned, this might go horribly wrong." then, after a moment of muttering and another to see if any of his old companions want to come with him, he says "ekat su kcab ot eht Enots Ega."

And silently, like the fading of a memory, Peltast, Chin-Su, and the Anti-Magician are simply ... passed into WHAT WAS.

Cap'n Bill salutes Roy. "To the Sandwich Islands, then! With a fair schooner and a following wind, going down by the Great Horn Spoon, we should be there in merely seven months. Unless one of ye can charm us there by your charmings? Anyone have a magical umbrella, or a pair of silver slippers, by any chance?"

Roy replies, "No, but I think I can do you one better ..."

And his ring creates a four-masted ship-rigged schooner out of green light!

"All aboard for the Sandwich Islands!"

To Us, This is Tuesday

"Great!" enthuses Roy. "C'mon, let's get to the Watchtower and we'll enter you all in the Mission Monitor Board's roster!"

He casts a green globe with his ring, which has several beeping circles on it.

"Or maybe we can do that ... after!" he declares.

"Looks like someone's reported Superboy missing from Honolulu," Roy relays. "And ... tanks. Tanks are falling out of the sky near Taos, New Mexico."

"So between those, and the situation in the Stone Age, and, uh, I think that's everything ... it looks like it's time for the League to SPLIT UP! Like they always do!"

"Who wants what?"

Roll Call with pictures

"Sam, can your powers take us back to the Stone Age? Or, maybe this Phantom Stranger can help?"

Sam sighed "If I'm lucky. I'm not very good at teleportation. it's not easy to say 'teleport to the stone ages!' backwards."

"Sega enots eht ot tropelet" says, Vina, with no effect, of course.
"Or, you could go with:
'Seoreh esoht wollof!'"

By the by, this is basically what Vina looks like. Just add elf ears.

Cap'n Bill is a bald, bewhiskered, blue-eyed old sailorman with a pegleg or hickory, dressed in a long blue seaman's pea jacket and brimless cap. He has a pipe clenched between his teeth that is puffing like the smokestack of a steam engine.

He tells one and all solemnly that no one has ever seen a mermaid and lived to tell the tale. He also interrupts himself to agree with himself.

"Tell ye I can, can I, all about the Flying Dutchman, and Davy Jones' Locker, and Captain Kidd, and how to harpoon a whale or dodge an iceberg, or lasso a seal. Aye, 'tis true, I been everywhere in the world, almost, on many a voyage long days past. Been wrecked on desert islands and were once set upon by cannibals, and more than that!

"And now the Sea Fairies have cast their charm, and I have the Sea King's awful powers.

"If 'tis a set-to, or a to-do, hard squall, or ship run aground, a sturdy swab and true ye'll find me."

He thrusts out a calloused hand to shake.

Vina shakes his hand. She has a few callouses herself.
"Looking forward to hearing some sea tales, sir."

"I am Kasumi," Kasumi Toru bows. "The humble sister of the great Olympic star Nabiki Toru. I accidentally picked up the tiara and bracers of Wonder Woman that clearly were meant for my sister.

"Now I must bear the brunt of this error and fight evil!"

Vina says:

"Sorry, but I haven't heard of your sister. We don't have a TV. But I doubt if it's a mistake. You -did- pick them up. And, you're doing something with it." She smiles. Broadly. In a cheerful All-American way.

Standing there is a young man dressed in a Superman-inspired costume. He has short red hair, freckles, and around his neck is hung a camera. He says, "Hi! I'm Jimmy Olsen, Super Man's substitute, I'm a reporter for the Dally Bugle!"


He looks a bit like this

Jimmy will offer a hand shake to the three he just met.

"I am confused about something," Says he, "Why are we reveling our secret identities to people we just met in a public area so that any passing criminal could learn the information and use to threaten our loved ones?"

"I would never do that!" protests a passing criminal.

Chin-Su raises an eyebrow above his head. "You're actually the only one to give your full name, Jimmy Olsen." He glances around. "Well, you and Roy, but that... That's just Roy."

"Well, I don't wear a mask .." says Roy. He points the ring at his face and makes a domino mask of transparent green light. It's like he has green glass over his eyes ... it doesn't hide his identity very well.

Which Roy does not know until he makes a mirror, also.

"Oh," he says. "Yeah, I'm going to have to do without a secret ID. But hey! Superman doesn't have one, and he's okay!"

Kasumi looks like this:

Sam is a tall, dark haired man in a tux with a top hat and cane. he also has glasses. "I guess we should come up with use names then. I'll be... The Anti-Magician. That sounds about right."

I would say Chin-Su looks a bit like this: