It's pretty cold out, but the cold never seems to bother people who run
around in spandex. This speedster's got the excuse of having a costume
made from raw speed force, however, which is an amazing insulator. It's
the Flash - he's taking a timeout, it seems, leaning against a low wall
just before the start of the grass, looking up at the stars. They're
something that doesn't change too much - not in fifteen years, at any
rate. Certainly in a thousand, but not in fifteen. New York - he'd
forgotten how horribly beaten it'd been. How wrecked the entire nation -
the world, in fact - had gotten. And what a giant hand he'd had in it.
Letting out a small sigh, the Scarlet Speedster lets his gaze fall on a
couple of buildings that'd been reduced to rubble, across the street. "And
it's only in my time that the scars are beginning to heal," he says softly
to himself.

Jesse Belle moves along. She had to get out of there. This is an
exhausting proposition. And she still hasn't gotten a chance to call her
father. Its a miserable experience. Even with Sandy being so nice.. she's
alone here and she doesn't know anyone really. She folds her hands behind
her back and blinks a bit. City is weird from hers, she thought.. that...
things hadn't changed. That she was just in the wrong place but now she
has to wonder maybe she's also on the wrong earth as well.

In the cold night, a soft and warm emerald light casts a glow about The
Flash and the ground around him. From above, a baritone voice answers the
rhetorical question offered up to the universe in general "But things
could still be better." A middle-aged man with greying hair and clad in a
green and black bodysuit, slowly descends from the heavens to the ground a
few feet away from where The Flash, oddly enough, is stationary. Green
energy surround him in a halo that bubbles and twists about her body. "Hi
Wally. We need to talk..."

Before he looks up, the Flash automatically answers, "Very funny, Kyle.
Why don't you go back to your mountai--" Then he stops midsentence and
looks up, eyes wide. "Hal?" Pushing himself off the wall, the man in the
most well-known red union suit in the world holds his hands out in front
of him, shaking his head. "Hal, I'm not Wally..." And indeed, the voice
isn't Wally's at all. In fact, it sounds uncannily like Barry's. He
doesn't even notice Jesse walking down the street yet - after all, he
hasn't seen Hal for - for how long?

Jesse Belle pauses as she notices a green glow filtering into the park.
She freezes. Its not Uncle Alan. The blond whispers in shock, "Oh
mi'gosh..." Its the cool Green Lantern. Wow.. but why does he look so old.
She just saw a picture of him in the paper last week. His hair didn't have
any gray. Must be a different planet or something. The girl just makes an
impulsive decision and scrambles up a tree. Yeah yeah curiousity.. cats..
etc.

Shock is the first thing that is etched. He was expecting to talk to Wally
West tonight about the future of the world. Instead what he hears is the
voice of a dead friend. Death to a man like Hal Jordan is something that's
taunted and cheated on a regular basis. "Barry? But how-" Then he stops.
Barry Allen is dead. No, this is not him. Shock vanishes, and the features
of Parallax twist into the cold visage of an angry god. White pupiless
eyes behind a forest green mask, narrow to slits. "Zoom..."

The Flash's eyes get wide again in reaction. "No! Holy Valor, no, I'm not
Zoom!" he cries, quickly stepping forward and pulling back his mask.
Indeed - the face that's revealed is about as far from Zoom as possible
while still bearing a resemblance to Barry. Golden eyes, wiry, wavy brown
hair...this fellow actually looks a lot more like Impulse than anyone
else. The only problem is, Impulse is a teenager - this guy looks to be
about thirty. His words confirm it, though. "I'm so sorry - Wally thought
I was Barry, too. I'm Bart, Hal - Bart Allen!"

Jesse Belle whoas as she hangs onto the tree. So that's what the Flash
looks like. Huh. She shifts in her cover to settle on a branch and
carefully folds her legs to the side. Well this was one hell of a detour.
Wait'll she tells her dad about that. Cool. She just inches over a bit to
get a better glance.

Parallax rises back off the ground and the aura of energy around him
flares to life. Tendrils and whisps contort and crackle with the power of
emerald possibilities. It takes a moment, but the fallen hero stops. The
threat of grevious bodily harm seems to lose it's will and fades back down
to a warm glow of green St.Elmo's fire. "Bart?" His eyes gaze and dance
across the face in front of him. His feet reconnect with the gound. "Dear
God, son. What happened?"

"None of us are quite sure - the current consensus is that there was some
sort of temporal accident, bringing some heroes from the future and some
from the past. None of our nineties counterparts are anywhere here," Bart
explains a trifle bewilderedly. Something seems to occur to him and he
hurries to add, "I'm not - that is, I haven't been - I was yanked out of
roughly fifteen years ahead of now. The hypermetabolism hasn't kicked back
in or anything." He pauses, then points up at the moon. "And that was the
fault of some sort of past version of Superboy...not the Superboy you
know, though."

The blond inches forward again. However its a tad to far and she starts to
slip off. "Whoa!" However with some quick reflexes the girl grabs at the
branch securing her place. Now the thing about Jesse is this. She can't
control when her bursts of superstrength come. Her mother responds to a
bell. She.. she just responds to stress. The girl's slender hands crunch
through the formerly solid wood. With that she and the debris of the
branch simply falls. "Aaaaa!"

Parallax listens and and begins to furrow his brow. Upon look up into the
sky, and reading the etched message on the moon, he frowns and his face
hardens somewhat. "No. He's not a past version. He's from a thousand years
in the future." His mouth opens to continue on that train of thought, but
the sound of female cry sets reflex into motion. His head snaps around to
find the source. Will is exercised, and a giant green hand blinks into
existance to snatch the girl and hold her in place above the ground.

"Jesse!" exclaims the Scarlet Speedster, totally surprised. "What in
Heaven's name were you doing in that tree?" He starts to walk over,
assuming Hal is coming with him, and keeps talking. "And no, trust me -
I'm originally from a thousand years in the future, and I've been back
often enough. If there's one thing I know, it's the Legion - and the
people he was talking about, I've never even heard of. He also looked a
lot like...like..." Bart lowers his voice and looks back at Hal, "Like
Clark. But much younger." Then he's there - and eyes Jesse. "Also, what
the heck are you doing walking around New York at night?"

Falling. Falling. Caught? Oh whoa. Definitly caught. Big green hand
caught. Wow... Green Lantern. Jesse hears Flash yelling at her. "Jeez. I
wasn't doing anything. I was just like watching.." The girl tilts her head
to stare at the Flash, how the hell does he know her. She sort of saw him
the other day, but he seems to really know her. She scowls as she hears
the next part, "I was just doing stuff! And who do you think you are.. my
Father?!"

Parallax knows that's not true. The Legion is dead. He should know, since
he was the one who killed them. But nothing could prepare him for what
came out of the allegedly Bart's mouth next. Upon hearing that name
uttered, Hal looks like he's been slapped in the face. He stops walking
and half whispers "You know." This is all coming a bit fast for a man
who's not officially out of retirement yet. He shakes his head and
continues to make his way over to the Flash formerly known as Impulse and
the new interloper. As he passes Flash he mutters quietly "Never say that
name outloud in public." He stops and looks between Bart and Jesse as they
exchange words. He pokes a thumb in Jesse's direction "You know her?"

With a quick glance at Hal, Bart - it's obvious from Bart's expression
that he's again surprised, but there's comprehension in his eyes.
"Apologies. It's not an issue where I come from," he says quietly, then
raises his voice to a normal speaking volume again. "This is Johnny
Chambers' daughter, Jesse. Who *ought* to be at Titans' Tower right now."
Oh, dear, that sounded disapproving - but not angry. A little worried,
maybe. "And no, I'm not your father - I know him, though, and I know he
wouldn't want you out wandering where you could get hurt."

She blinks at the Green Lantern in confusion. Killed? No she couldn't have
heard that at all. However Jesse returns her gaze to the Flash, "I'm sick
of being cooped up! I just needed to get out." The blond girl scowls as he
continues to talk about her father. She just turns her gaze away from the
both of them sulking and pouting. Man.. the Flash came down on her. He's
so uncool.

Parallax knits his brow back together and looks Jesse over. "You've got to
be kidding. Let me guess, she's one of the other.. 'displaced'?" Time is
the worst place, so to speak, to get lost in. As Hal Jordan could atest
to, having been lost in time and space a great deal. He looks at Bart and
then back at Jesse. At least being lost in space kept you busy. "Do you
have any idea the magnitude of the danger that having her running about
presents? She needs to be kept hidden and away from the rest of the world.
She can't know... what..." Something has just dawned on Hal Jordan.
Something he shouldn't be thinking. No, he shouldn't even consider the
notion that just entered his mind, and yet there it sits.... begging to be
acted upon.

The Flash sighs, crossing his arms. "Listen, Jesse - as much as I hate to
be militant about this sort of thing, this New York is fairly badly beat
up. The people in it are frightened and might get violent. And I know
whose kid you are - I'm sure you can take care of yourself, but you also
have to remember that you're a teenaged girl, and it's pretty late at
night. Who knows what you might run into?" He'd rather not phrase it in
such a way as to make her rebel even further, which hearing something like
'she has to be hidden away' might certainly do. Then he pauses - and
decides not to mention what the time-displaced Wally knows. Wince. But he
looks at Hal - that trailing off business is never good. "Uh...Hal?
What...what are you...um..."

Jesse Belle folds her arms across her chest. What is it with all these
heros. They all have the biggest sticks up there.. the JSA is so much
cooler. She gazes up at the sky and scowls. Locked up kept out of trouble.
Blah blah blah. "Whatever." Her eyes flick towards Hal and the Flash
again. She's getting a bad.. bad feeling about whatever thought cut off
what the Green Lantern was saying.

Think about it. One way or another, a way will be found to return these
time-lost souls to their respective time periods. What would you do if you
could send a message back to the past? Coast City. The Corps. So there Hal
Jordan stands in thought until he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.
"No. The past should stay the past." Besides, it's to the future that
Parallax looks. Green Lantern couldn't do what he's trying to do, and
there's too much at stake. He lifts his head with a new sense of
determination. The ghosts and demons of the past gone... for the time
being. "No matter how bad it is."

The Flash frowns, annoyed, tossing Jesse a -look-. His gaze returning to
Hal, he sighs. "You're telling me. Don't you think...I mean, time travel
isn't exactly alien to speedsters. Don't you think I would have tried to
undo...undo this?" Bart extends an arm, gesturing widely, encompassing the
ruin that is currently Manhattan. "Our priority is getting everyone back
to where they belong. Did you know there's even...there's someone taken
from the forties? And Alan Scott's daughter, and the original
Titans...that sort of widespread timeline contamination can't be any good
at all." He glances at Jesse and bites his lip. "Please, let me take you
back to the Tower, will you? It's not like there's nothing to do there."

Jesse Belle takes a huge huffy breath. She glares at the men in the chest
wishing for heat vision or something. This is soooooo unfair. "I'm sick of
the tower. I wanna go home." She hrmphs. She wants to go home. She wants
to be in her Philadelphia and she wants to see her dad. The future
speedster does the only thing she can do right now. She tosses her hair.

The green hand sets Jesse on the ground and disappates into nothingness.
"I know... Jesse, right? I know this isn't easy, but you've got to
understand what's going on here. You're stuck in your future. Anything you
learn here and then act on when you _do_ return back home will change our
world here and now." He realizes that he's probably talking down to her
and changes tactics a bit "If you were us, what would you do?"

The Flash smirks, "And don't say 'buy a sportsguide from this year and bet
on all the games until I'm rich'. It didn't work in Back to the Future,
and it won't work for you." Dropping his hands to his sides, then vaguely
irately raising a hand to brush back his unruly hair, Bart looks once more
to Hal. "By the way, if you -do- run into that Superboy, pummel him a
little for me and find out why he hasn't fixed the moon yet."

Thinking about it the blond finally responds, "I guess your right Sir."
She scowls at the ground. Damn he had to use logic on her. Jesse glances
towards the Flash, "That's the easy way and cheating."

The Flash laughs, "I know. Look, I'll hook you up with the best the
Titans' entertainment system has to offer. You won't get bored - and we'll
get you home as soon as possible, all right?" He holds a hand out to
Jesse, eyebrows up, grinning. "It won't be so bad - come on." Looking back
at Hal once more, Bart inclines his head and offers, "If you want to keep
tabs on the situation, most of us are at Titans' Tower. Superman and I
sti-- Kon-El and I still need to find the rest of our team, though, so
I'll be in and out a lot."

Parallax considers the offer and then shakes his head "No. I think I'm
going to pass on this one. Carol doesn't know that I'm out and about. I
should get home." He begins to turn and walk away, but then stops "Do me a
favor? Don't tell the others that you ran into me. It's not something that
they need to worry about. Ok?"

Jesse Belle mutters under her breath. "Great.. more tv.." She takes the
hand clad in red, much bigger than hers. Huh. She gazes up at the sky for
a moment before glancing again between the two.

"I don't think you need to be telling me that, Hal," replies Bart, faint
smile on his face. "If you had anything to worry about concerning me
telling people you were out and about, it'd be far too late by this point.
I've been here for a couple of days already." He pauses, "I *am* from
/your/ future." Letting that and all its implications sink in, Bart gives
Jesse an apologetic smile and a sympathetic hand-squeeze, then picks her
up and jets off toward the Tower.

Parallax stops... and smiles. 'Good', he thinks to himself, 'it's not as
bad as I thought. All of this should keep everyone occupied for the time
being while the others and I plan'. For the first time he wonders what
happened to Wally in Bart's time. He shakes his head. Time enough for
what-if's later. Space and Time twist and suddenly, the ambient green glow
is gone and with it, the middle-age man it surrounded.