Legion of Substitute Heroes

Future Shock

by Martin Maenza

On the far edge of the solar system, a small planet, about four thousand miles in diameter, slowly rotated about the sun nearly three thousand six hundred and sixty six million miles away. It would take the planet nearly two hundred and forty eight years to complete a single orbital cycle. Without any natural satellites to call its own, the cold and icy planet seemed like a lonely and desolate place.

All that was about to change in the very near future.

A spacecraft landed on the planet’s surface, and the crew inside began to unload more equipment and supplies. Two workers in particular floated out a portable hover-drill and started towards their pre-assigned work zone.

“Reminds me a lot of home,” Krebbs, one of the men with red hair and a beard said. The communicator in his helmet allowed him to converse with his partner who wore a similar suit.

“Definitely,” Werld replied, a blonde haired man. “I suppose that’s why they recruited us from Wondil IX for this project anyway.”

“True,” Krebbs agreed. “Work is work, though. Even if its just digging.”

The two made their way into a large cavern that was already being excavated. They nodded to the other team who was on their way out with their drill, which no doubt needed recharging. The crews had been working around the clock in three shifts in order to hurry along the project. Their employer was very insistant on the deadline being maintained.

When they reached the end of the long, down sloping tunnel, the two men positioned the drill in the open area, facing it towards one of the walls. “Are we all set to go?” Werld asked after checking some schematics on a small pad that projected a three dimensional image.

“All set,” Krebbs replied. The two men flipped down the special shields over their helmets, and then one of them turned on the equipment.

The machine began to vibrate and hum, building up in power. When it reached a certain point, the long protruding cannon on front began to glow brilliantly. A moment later, a focused beam of energy began to carve into the rocky, frozen wall before them. One of the men watched the cannon’s progress while the other used a small handheld device to scan the wall for any anomalies.

After a bit, Krebbs said, “So, what do you think of this whole idea anyway?”

“You mean about them building a resort here?” Werld replied.

“Yeah.”

Werld cocked his head. “I don’t know. I’m not sure who’s crazier: the Terrans who might want to vacation here or that billionaire McCauley who wants to build a resort here to begin with.”

Krebbs laughed. “Don’t they have a saying on Earth – if you build it, they will come?”

“I guess,” Werld replied. “You know how the Terrans ar….” He paused for a second as a blip appeared on the handheld scanner. “Krebbs, hold up a second!” His voice was now more agitated.

“Why?” his partner asked.

“Just do it! Pull back the drill!”

Krebbs wasn’t about to question his friend’s judgment call any further. They had been in this business together for a good decade and had gotten to trust one another’s instincts. He entered the sequence to cause the drill to stand down in power and then moved it back. “You picked up something, didn’t you?”

“Yeah!” Werld replied. “Let’s use the hand tools to see what it is.”

The two removed smaller drill-like devices from their belts and began to chip away at the wall. Unlike the larger device, the smaller ones could not totally atomize the rocky material. These junks chipped away and fell off to the ground beside them. It was slow work, but after about twenty minutes they reached a certain point in the wall.

As a last piece fell away and revealed an icy block underneath, both men stepped back and gasped at what they saw.

“Well, I’ll be….” Krebbs said in shock.

“We better call someone in on this!” Werld said.
***

 

In the orbiting hospital station known as Multivac, high above the blue-green planet known as Earth, two figures entered a break room while in mid-discussion. “I’m really, really sorry, Gigi,” the brown haired man in the modified blue uniform said. Unlike the rest of those on the security team, his uniform allowed his arms and legs to be exposed. The four appendages were covered, as were the cheeks of his face, with thin brown spiky protrusions.

“I’m sure you are, Pete,” the Science Police officer sighed. In her hand, Gigi Cusimano held a holo pad which was sparking near the end where two spikes had imbedded into one of the ports.

“Maybe I can fix it,” offered Porcupine Pete. He reached for the device.

“No!” Gigi said firmly. Then she relaxed. “No, its OK. We’ll send it down to maintenance first. They’re more skilled at this.” Besides, she figured this way there still might be a chance that her report, the one she had been working on for days, could still be salvaged from the system. That would teach her to uplink her portable more often.

Watching from a table in the corner were two others, both colorfully dressed. One was a rather plump figure dressed all in green while his companion was thinner with black hair shaped in a wedge and was dressed in a black and white outfit with a rainbow band across the chest. While Gigi got some coffee from the dispenser near the wall, Pete noticed the two and smiled. “Hey, guys!” he waved his arm and called to them.

“Hi, Pete,” the two said almost in unison, carefully watching just in case there were any stray quills accidentally thrown. The two had known the other for a number of years, but they still exercised a cautious eye around him.

Pete came over to the table where the two were eating. “Hey, Ral,” he asked of one of them. “You’re looking good. Have you lost any weight?”

Chlorophyll Kid frowned as he looked down at the half-eaten salad before him. “I wish,” he sighed as he dropped his fork. “I so hate dieting. If I have to eat one more of these for lunch, I’ll lose it. The lunch, that is.”

“Spare us the colorful imagery,” Color Kid joked. “You’ve already got a green thumb. We don’t need you green in the gills too.”

“Ha ha, very funny,” Chlorophyll Kid said.

“Well, I’ve got some news that might cheer you up,” Pete said. “Guess who I saw coming from the docking pads earlier?”

“Who?” The two Kids asked in unison. Then, they glared at one another. “Stop doing that!” they both said at the same time.

“Same old guys,” a female’s voice called from the doorway. “How I miss that!”

Both turned and looked to where those words had come from, knowing the voice very well. “Night Girl!” the both said in surprise at the same time. They glared at one another again.

Indeed, a beauty dressed entirely in black with long raven colored hair had stepped into the room. A midnight blue cape flowed about behind the young woman as she entered. Behind her came a dark haired young man dressed in a costume of pink with white circles about the torso. “Hey, guys,” Cosmic Boy added.

The others were already up from their seats and giving the young woman hugs of welcome.

“Lydda, you look absolutely fabulous,” Color Kid complimented her.

“Thanks,” she smiled.

Cosmic Boy put his arm about her. “Working together at the Legion Academy with me certainly agrees with her,” he said, giving her shoulder a slight squeeze. She started to blush a bit.

“Oh, yeah,” Chlorophyll Kid said with a slight sarcastic tone. “Definitely the working part. That’s got to be it.”

“What brings you two here?” Pete asked curiously.

“We needed to deliver some virus samples we recently came across,” Cosmic Boy explained. “Thought that delivering them in person was the best thing to do, to insure they stayed contained.”

“Besides,” Night Girl said, “it was a perfect excuse to visit you guys. I miss you all.”

“We miss you too,” said Pete.

“Speaking of missing, Pete,” Gigi said as she tapped him on the shoulder. “We need to take care of this.” She waved the damaged holo pad.

“Oh, right,” Pete frowned. “Gotta get back to work.” He turned to Night Girl. “Don’t go leaving without saying good-bye.”

“I won’t,” the young woman promised.

Pete and Gigi moved past the group and headed out the door. Cosmic Boy gave the Science Police officer a respectful nod when she passed. She sort of gave him a sad smirk and moved on. He turned back to the others. “So, how are things with you guys?” he asked. “I heard you had some excitement recently.”

“We recruited a few new members now that we’ve been stationed here,” Chlorophyll Kid explained. “A couple you might remember: Storm Boy, Calamity King, and Polecat.”

Cosmic Boy wrinkled his nose but held his tongue. He remembered when those three had gotten rejected from joining the Legion of Super-Heroes, thus he was rather surprised to hear they had gained admission to the Substitute-Heroes. Then again, the Subs were all initially rejected candidates who eventually managed to prove their worth in times of need. Perhaps, with time, this trio could do the same. “Interesting,” he said.

“Oh, and don’t forget Bizarro!” Color Kid added.

“Bizarro?” Cosmic Boy asked.

“A Bizarro-Superboy actually,” Chlorophyll Kid said. “While he’s a bit misguided, he’s certainly powerful. With Lydda gone, we were a bit low in the strength department.”

“But Bizarro?” Cosmic Boy wondered. “I seem to recall he had his own bizarre version of the Legion back on his world. I wonder what brought him away from there. I really thought we’d managed to convince them all to stay there once and for all.”

“No clue,” Chlorophyll Kid replied. “Though he is back there visiting right now, lucky for us.”

“And the other three are off on a training exercise with Infectious Lass and Double-Header,” Color Kid added.

“Sounds good,” Night Girl said. “You’ll have to say hello…” Her words were cut off as three more figures burst into the room.

One was a young man, tall and thin with brown hair, dressed in orange and brown. The second had a narrow face with flames for hair and was dressed in yellow and orange. The third young man was dressed in blue and white with a round pink face and a pair of rather large ears.

“Guys, guys,” Fire Lad said rather excitedly. “You’ve got to hear this!”

“Hey, Lydda,” Stone Boy said, distracted. “How are you?”

“What is it?” Cosmic Boy asked, taking charge.

“Just this,” Antennae Boy replied. “My special ears just picked up this distress broadcast… from Pluto!” The group gathered around the weird looking alien, perking their ears towards his to take in the message.
***

 

A short time later, Cosmic Boy landed a Legion craft on the surface of Pluto and prepared to disembark. After much discussion and a bit of begging, he reluctantly agreed to allow the members of the Substitute-Heroes to accompany him and Lydda on the investigation. Her own special persuasion on the matter had been very difficult for Cosmic Boy to resist.

They exitted the craft and eventually made their way down the cavern to join three men. The foreman of the project smiled as he recognized the approaching hero. “Cosmic Boy, good to see you!” he said. “I really wasn’t sure if this matter required…” He looked at the others and shrugged his shoulders. “…so many Legionnaires, but we’re glad you’re here.”

“These aren’t…” the Braalian started to say but caught himself. “What appears to be the problem, sir?”

“Two of my workers here,” the foreman said, gesturing to Krebbs and Werld, “they ran across something unusual during the excavation process. They reported it to me, and I sent out a distress call.” He gestured to the icy wall near the back. “I figured we had better stop everything until someone took a look at this.”

“I see,” Cosmic Boy said. He started for the back, and the others heroes started to follow. The three men stepped aside to let them pass. The group made their way through the rubble of rock and such on the ground before them, only to stop crowded around about five feet from the icy surface. Seven pairs of eyes stared.

“Wow!” Color Kid said in surprise.

“Polar Boy would have found this interesting,” Chlorophyll Kid remarked.

“I can’t believe it!” Night Girl exclaimed.

“Poor devils!” Antennae Boy said.

“I don’t know,” Stone Boy countered.

“If you want, I can…” Fire Lad offered.

“Guys!” Cosmic Boy said. “Quiet a second and let me think.” He stroked his chin beneath his transsuit and considered the sight before them.

It appeared, trapped in solid block of ice, were two rather large figures. Both were humanoid in appearance, both muscularly built.

One, by appearance, looked as he could be of some Asian descent, very possibly from Earth origin. He was dressed in some hanging sort of shorts and the rest of his body was exposed. The only thing that didn’t look quite right was the purplish hue to his skin. If he were from Earth, Rokk would have expected a more yellowish tint to his skin.

The other man had a metallic gleam to his skin. Could he even have been human? He wore a dark colored costume about his torso with boots.

From the looks on their unmoving faces, the two men appeared to have been caught in some anguish at the time they had been frozen. The large Asian man’s eyes were closed, his head thrown back. The other man seemed to be holding him up in his arms, perhaps trying to lift him or something. The look on the later’s face was one of extreme anger or sorrow.

“Rokk,” Night Girl leaned in, “do you think they’re dead?”

“I don’t know,” Cosmic Boy said. “Hard to tell where they’re from or how long they’ve been in there.”

“I could thaw them out,” Fire Lad said. The youth possessed flame projection breath.

“I know you could, Staq,” Cosmic Boy said. “I just don’t know if we should do that here. If, if, they’re somehow still alive, they might be in need of some serious medical attention. While we could get them back to Multivac quick enough, I half wonder if we should hold off thawing them out until we get back there to begin with.”

“I agree,” said Chlorophyll Kid.

“Is there room in the ship to get them back while still in ice?” Antennae Boy asked.

“I think we can,” Cosmic Boy said. “Let’s work out a plan.” And the group set to task figuring out how to transport a huge block of ice back to the medical facility.
***

 

A few hours later, back on Multivac, the group of heroes all stood on the deck overlooking the surgical arena. Color Kid had his face pressed up against the glass window, watching a quartet of doctors work about the ice with devices and such. Fire Lad was down there too. When he saw his colleagues, Fire Lad waved up to them.

“Hmmph,” Color Kid pouted. “How come Staq gets to be down there?”

“His powers are the best to help,” Chlorophyll Kid replied.

“Still can’t see why we all can’t be there,” Color Kid grumbled.

“Its best we stay out of the doctors’ way,” Night Girl said as she gave her old friend a calming shoulder rub.

Cosmic Boy checked the time on the wall. “Not sure how long we can stay and watch, Lydda,” he started to say.

“Just a little while longer, Rokk, please,” she begged.

“All right,” Cosmic Boy nodded. He then turned his attention to what was going on below.
***

 

“I’m definitely getting some readings,” Dr. Fngall, a feathery humanoid with a beak, said.

“Are you sssaying one of them isss alive?” Dr. Asssgh, with green skin and scales, asked.

“Of course he is,” Dr. Grd’ll, a four armed physician with purple skin, snapped. “Are you implying Fngall is some kind of quack?”

“Gentleman, please,” Dr. Hastings, an older Earth man, said. “If we’re getting readings, one of them might still be alive. We need to get them out of there.” He turned to the reptilian doctor. “Asssgh, prepare to drop the stasis field.”

“Yesss,” the reptilian doctor nodded. He knew that was, in part, keeping the ice intact about the two frozen men, despite the rather warm nature of the room. He would be sad to see the block go though as that was keeping things a bit cooler in here. He much preferred the lower temperatures.

“Fire Lad,” Dr. Hastings said, turning to the hero, “we’re ready for you.”

“Yes, sir,” the substitute hero snapped to attention. He took his place before the block of ice and began to exhale. The flames from his mouth danced across the frozen surface, licking at it with great hunger. In a few moments, a pool of water began to form near the base of the block of ice, inching its way out.

The four doctors stood behind the hero, taking readings and notes, all the while watching the situation carefully.
***

 

The difference in temperature was strikingly noticeable.

How long? he thought. How long had it been?

It was like waking from a sleep, a very long sleep. The light about him was bright, too bright! Nothing was in focus. All a blur. He wanted to blink or to raise his arms up to rub his eyes, but he felt stiff. Like he couldn’t move.

What’s going on?

After a moment, the brightness lessened, or more likely his eyes readjusted to things. The blurry images around him started to come into focus. He could make out things about him. Shiny, things. It looked like…

A lab!

There were sounds too. The sound of crackling flame and of gibbering voices. When his head, still aching and unsure, could not move, he went for something smaller. His eyes. He repositioned his eyes in their sockets and saw a number of odd colored and odd looking figures.

They were talking in a strange tongue, gesturing to one another and gawking at him.

Aliens!

Anger welled up inside of him, causing his heart to beat faster and his aching muscles to tense.

Rotten stinking aliens!

He wanted to kill them. Kill them all! And he remembered why too. Memories flashed in his brain – of a laboratory in space. There were reptilian aliens, poking and prodding him. Studying him, and others, all who were snatched up for some sick and twisted studies.

And then, the man called Prometheus remembered what happened next. Others had come to free the captives. But that was when he saw his friend, now transformed through some sick experiments into a hideous hulking beast, go running off deeper into the complex. He tried to catch up to his friend, to get him to safety. And that’s when everything exploded around them!

Behemoth, the man thought sadly. He wanted to bow his head in sorrow, and surprisingly his muscles responded.

As his head dropped, the aliens about him gibbered and squawked.

And Prometheus saw, in his hands still frozen in ice below his chest, was Behemoth. His friend, deformed and unmoving!

Prometheus let out a great big howl in anger!

His muscles tensed again, and the remaining ice shattered!
***

 

“…maybe is just some kind of hibernation,” Stone Boy was saying to the others, his back to the glass windows. “You know that’s how my people survive long periods of…”

“Dag, shut up and look!” Antennae Boy shouted.

The whole group looked down as the metallic figure in the ice howled, and the remains of the icy block shattered.

“We have to get down there,” Cosmic Boy commanded as he made for the stairs. The others quickly followed.

When the group burst into the surgical lab, the metallic figure was on a rampage. The equipment had been knocked over or ripped from the wall. Fire Lad and Dr. Hastings were knocked to the ground as Dr. Grd’ll was thrown on top of them.

“You!” Cosmic Boy shouted. “Stop right now!”

Prometheus looked up but could not understand a word the youth said. This was in part because the hero, like the others, spoke Interlac, and in part because his anger and fury consumed him. He swung his great fists aside, knocking doctors Fngall and Asssgh into opposing walls.

Antennae Boy bent over to some of the fallen men. He put his hands first against Fire Lad’s neck. “Staq is OK,” he pronounced. “Just the wind knocked out of him, I think.” He put his hand to the Earth doctor’s neck. “But I’m not… not getting a pulse here.”

“Tend to him!” Cosmic Boy growled. “I’ll deal with this guy myself!”

The Braalian hero thrust out his black gloved hands and concentrated. Like all the residents of his home world, Rokk Krinn possessed the ability to manipulate magnetic waves of energy. While he started out like many on his world – looking to become famous as a magno-ball player, Rokk soon realized there was more that he could do. He had come to Earth fourteen years ago and found that he could make a bigger difference with his powers. What ended up happening was that he became one of the founding members of the galaxies most famous team of heroes: the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Facing a rampaging menace such as this was par for the course for a hero such as himself. “This ends now!” Cosmic Boy said as he sent a wave of magnetic energy about the angered figure. His hope was to buffer the metallic skin of the being and hold him fast, like a fly caught in amber.

“What can we do?” Color Kid whispered to his team leader as they watched Cosmic Boy at work.

Chlorophyll Kid was himself feeling quite useless. The lab itself was devoid of any plant life, making his accelerated growth powers nearly useless in this situation. He was fumbling through his pockets trying to see if he had any useful seeds about his uniform. “Take Stone Boy and make sure the area around here is clear,” the green costumed youth said. “We can’t risk any other civilians getting hurt.”

Color Kid nodded. He tapped Stone Boy on the shoulder and motioned for him to follow. The two took off.

Night Girl, meanwhile, watched silently as her boyfriend concentrated on besting the threat. Without any darkness to support her, the young woman’s power level remained that of a normal woman. Only when it was night did she possess super-strength. There was little else she could do but stand by for support. “That’s it, Rokk,” she said. “You’ve got him. You’ve got him.”

Cosmic Boy continued to remain focused on his task at hand. Have to keep this in a tight, controlled wave, he thought to himself. I could easily cause this whole place to come apart if I don’t. Luckily, it appeared that he was doing just that, for the rampaging man seemed to be nearly immobilized. With each step, he was struggling to reach his attacker.

Prometheus gritted his teeth as the waves of energy rocked him. It…can’t end…like this! he vowed silently. I won’t…let it! As his agitation increased, so did the temperature on the surface of his body. With in seconds, his metallic shell was starting to glow red hot.

Cosmic Boy was too focused to notice, but Night Girl caught it. “Rokk, look out!” she shouted in warning.

“What?”

But it was too late! A surging blast of heat exploded from Prometheus, catching the heroes off-guard. The sweltering burst of air rocked them backwards.

“Ugh!” Cosmic Boy groaned. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Rokk, he’s running!” Night Girl shouted.

And, indeed, now free from the magnetic field, Prometheus was bolting out the door of the surgical arena. “After him!” Cosmic Boy shouted.

Prometheus was equally surprised. I…I never was able to do that before, he thought to himself as he ran. To project my heat…it must be due to those aliens’ experiments! Already, his body surface was cooling back to normal. I have to get out of here! As he ran down the corridors, various medical staff and such threw themselves against the walls. Prometheus ignored their gawking looks and gibberish screams.

“Hold it right there or I’ll shoot!” Gigi Cusimano ordered. She stood with a wide stance, a blaster pistol in her two hands. Prometheus did not pause, so she opened fire. The blaster shots ricocheted off his hide. “Blast!”

“Maybe I can do better!” Porcupine Pete offered. He threw his right arm up and let fly a barrage of quills from the back of his arm. Like the blaster fire, they too bounced off the fleeing man. “I guess not.”

Cosmic Boy and the others hurried past. Gigi grabbed Pete. “Come on!”

A door to the docking bay slid open and two figures stepped through the door. One was a young woman with purple flowing hair. From it jut two antennae of a white color which matched that of most of her skin tone. The rest of her complexion consisted on splotches of blue, green and purple. The other was a young man dressed in white pants and a red shirt with the Roman numeral for two stitched on the chest. He looked like a normal human except for the two bald heads that protruded from his rather large neck.

“…so the man says to the bartender ‘tell you what, let’s make that a double’!” the rightmost head of the hero Double-Header said, completing his joke. He then started to laugh.

Infectious Lass couldn’t help but let out a little giggle.

The rightmost head leaned into his left and whispered. “Come on, laugh!”

“No!” the left head said firmly. “I think it’s appalling that you’re hitting on Drura. She’s dating Pete. He’s a friend.”

The right head shook. “All’s fair in love and wa….” His words were cut off when a huge metallic man burst about the corner and charged directly for them.

“Mother of Gemini!” the left head shouted.

“Dru, look out!” the right head started to warn.

The metal man slammed into Double-Header, knocking him aside. Infectious Lass gasped. The man paused, eyed her curiously, and then grabbed her and pulled her close. It appeared by his actions that he meant to use her for a shield.

“Owww!” Double-Header’s right shouted from the ground as he rubbed his skull that had hit the wall. “We’ve got to save her!”

“How are we going to stop him?” the left head countered.

Just then, Cosmic Boy and the others rounded the corner. “You! Stop! And let the girl go!” he shouted. Having been on the receiving end of the man’s heat blast earlier, he was concerned for Infectious Lass’ safety. His brain scrambled to come up with a plan to stop the man from escaping without hurting anyone else.

“Drura!” Night Girl shouted. “Don’t panic!”

Prometheus shouted something intelligible at the heroes. Cosmic Boy picked up bits and pieces, having been a student of old Earth history. The tongue sounded a bit like 20th Century English now that he thought about it.

“Rokk, we have to do something!” Night Girl insisted.

“I know,” he said. “I’m thinking.”

Chlorophyll Kid caught up to the others and saw his teammate in jeopardy. Suddenly, an idea hit him. “Drura, the Naltorian flu! Now!” he shouted to her.

The alien woman nodded, turned her head and look at her captor. “This is for the best,” she said to him. Suddenly, her body began to emit the infection that her team leader suggested. The tight, close contact she had with man, she hoped, would be sufficient. “I hope you breathe.”

Prometheus inhaled, then blinked a few times. Suddenly, his eyes began to flutter rapidly, and his grip on the young woman loosened. Infectious Lass was able to pull free and move away just before he fell to the floor with a loud thud.

“Timmmmbbbbeeeeer!” Chlorophyll Kid joked.

“Drura, are you all right?” Porcupine Pete asked as he clutched his girlfriend carefully.

“I am,” she said, a bit shaken. She turned to Chlorophyll Kid. “Good thinking, Ral.”

“Yes,” Cosmic Boy had to admit. “Very good thinking.”

“Not really,” the plump hero admitted. “I contracted that a few months ago. Slept for days. I figured something like that was harmless enough to him in the long run, but effective enough to take the fight out of him.”

“You saved the day!” Night Girl cheered. The other subs crowded around their teammate and congratulated him.

Cosmic Boy approached the fallen Prometheus and made sure he was out. Then, he realized what had to be done next.
Epilogue

 

The blonde woman in the pink and white uniform stepped out of the room to join the others. Cosmic Boy turned to her and said, “So, Imra, what did you find out?”

“I was able to read his mind easy enough,” Saturn Girl said to her teammate and the assembled subs. “His being in a sleep state helped that out a lot. Good job, Drura.” The young woman smiled and Chlorophyll Kid stood a bit taller.

“He was speaking a variant of old English,” Cosmic Boy said. “Is he from the past?”

“Yes,” Saturn Girl replied. “20th Century to be exact.”

“Superboy’s time?” Night Girl asked.

“More like the later part. The 1980′s. Turns out his aggression toward life forms of a nontraditional Earth nature stem from a traumatic experience of experimentation. That was pretty prominent in his thoughts and memories. It was rather painful for him.” Saturn Girl bowed her head a bit. “Plus, he lost a good friend to that.”

“The other guy he was frozen with,” Stone Boy said.

“Yes,” Saturn Girl said. “I understand he was called Behemoth, the one who died. This one is called Prometheus. He was part of a group called the Hybrid.”

“So, he’s a criminal?” Double-Header’s right side asked.

“Or maybe a confused hero,” Double-Header’s left side countered.

“Not sure yet,” Saturn Girl said.

“So, what do we do with him?” Chlorophyll Kid asked. “Send him back home in a time sphere?”

“I don’t think so,” Saturn Girl said, shaking her head. “From what you all told me and what the doctors said, it appears that Prometheus was alive the entire time from his imprisonment in ice to now. In a sort of coma-like, suspended animation if you will. We couldn’t send him back even if we wanted to as he can’t really exist in the same time period simultaneously without potential for paradoxes to occur.”

“Plus, there is the matter of the number of accounts of assault and damage to property that occurred here today,” Cosmic Boy said. “Lucky for him that Dr. Hastings was not killed, or there would be a murder charge to go with it.”

The others nodded in agreement.

“I think that, for the time being, it is best that he’s kept restrained in a facility that can handle someone of his power level,” Saturn Girl suggested. “He’ll have a lot to digest as he gets familiar with the time period he’s now found himself in – learning Interlac and the like. Plus, he’ll need to some counseling as he deals with the loss of all those he ever knew, and he learns to respect other life forms beyond his own. If he then shows remorse for his actions, maybe he can avoid imprisonment for his actions.”

“A whole lot of future shock to have to deal with, eh?” Color Kid said.

“Most definitely.”