Previously, in case you're just joining us... Mercury, Neuron, and Stick have been detained inside the Sea of Tranquillity Asylum for the Criminally Insane by Moon-Bat of the year 2099, who is in turn incapacitated.

Completely immobilized by Moon-Bat's gas attack, Ted, Bart, and John can only stand there, watching two characters straight out of the old west, Black Tom Savage and the Shaggynaut, come forward. Tom aims his enchanted walking stick at them and energizes it. "You three are about to help me and my friend here get back to 1899. So we can take over!"

**********

John Carter, the Golden Torch (or in this case, Stick), attempts to throw up a flame shield. The gas immobilizing him prevents the hand-motions he intended to make, but does not inhibit his heat generation. Thinking quickly, he radiates intense heat from his feet, warming the metal deck several hundred degrees.

The Shaggynaut, an unnatural creature made of pure muscle, howls in pain as his bare feet heat up, igniting the hair covering him. The smoke reaches the ceiling, which sets off more alarms and triggers the sprinkler system. HALON gas floods the floor, smothering the fire before it spreads by displacing the oxygen.

It also initiates the Asylum's re-breather system, pumping 'Axair' (accelerated air) into the space. The Axair reacts with everyone's respiratory ability, causing them to process inhaled oxygen five times the normal speed. This reduces the risk of smoke or halon inhalation damage, and temporarily increases overall metabolism.

Mercury is the first to recover. "Youtch!" he yells, jumping into the air. Ignoring his feet for the moment, he nabs Moon-Bat from Black Tom and returns to Neuron and Stick, who are just starting to regain movement. Placing the unconscious woman behind the groggy duo, he races full speed into Shaggynaut, hitting with the force of a jet at mach-3.

And breaks his nose upon impact.

Savage swings his walking stick up and points it at John. A bolt of concussive force fires at him, knocking him backward into Ted. Both fall and receive third degree burns from the still-hot floor. Stick responds by throwing a fireball at the cane, charring it.

"Doesn't matter," Tom Savage says, tossing down the stick. "The power's mine, I just need a focus to release it." Grabbing Mercury, he energizes the lad's head. Pietro Allen can feel electrons moving in agitation across his skull. "Hold still, boyo. This is gonna hurt like hell."

Mercury vibrates his head at a furious rate, breaking Black Tom's grip. Still suffering from Tom's power, he cannot attack, but is able to move out of his reach.

Ted Reilly stands up and draws his firearm. "Your Ewook may be invulnerable, but you aren't!" John helps Moon-Bat to her feet, who produces two sets of power-cuffs to detain the villains. "Now how about you answer a few questions, like how you got here."

Black Tom stands defeated. "A relative of mine, Shaw Savage, gave me a time machine so I could pursue Jono Hex into the future. When I got here, I was met by Shaw's older self, who revealed that he needed me to replenish his body-banks. Didn't much like the notion of being spare parts, so I had Shaggy rough him up and we hi-tailed it outta there. Couldn't figure out how to set muh time machine to go back, so I came here to find someone that could do it right."

"And you just happened to get here the same time we teleported inside, Mercury materialized from 1999, the Phantom-Negative Zone Protectors malfunctioned, Professor Kang jaunted back in time, and everyone else escaped." Neuron stands firm in his belief that this couldn't just be coincidence. "I'm not buying it."

"So?" With that word as his signal, the Shaggynaut easily breaks free of his manacles and charges. Ted leaps up, spreading his legs wide. The unstoppable beast runs right under him, and into the cell meant for War Monarch. The PNZ Protector detects the entry, and places a shield over the doorway, trapping the brute within the pocket dimension.

"Sorry, pal," Savage mumbles, regretting his partner's fate. He uses the distraction to flee down the corridor. His power is inhibited by the clamps on his hands, but he has other ways of releasing energy. By concentrating, he's been charging his steel belt-buckle. Now that he has reached the magnevator shaft, he pulls the breakaway belt off from behind and whips it into the air. Grabbing the buckle in his mouth, he stands his ground, waiting for the costumed fools to catch up with him.

"No, I don't think that would be wise." Mercury snatches the energized buckle from Savage's teeth and shoves it down his pants. The blast slams Black Tom into a bulkhead, knocking him unconscious. Mercury outruns the explosion as he returns to the other heroes.

"Someone's been manipulating time," Neuron continues theorizing. "The question is, how?"

A man in a green mask materializes in front of them. "The question is, why?"

"Chronos-Tut!" Stick exclaims.

"Professor Kang!" Mercury shouts.

"Kangul!" Moon-Bat declares.

"Forbush-Bug!" Neuron incorrectly guesses.

"I am Kang the Time Conqueror! All others are but temporal dopplegangers. Except maybe the bug one. I am here on a mission of great importance to you all. You must come with me!"

"Hold it!" Stick flames up, ready for a fight. "You, or one of your time-tripped selves, killed Mr. Elastic. You have a lot to answer for."

"Ah yes, I remember. I was attempting to access information that would let me break the barrier. Your friend got in my way and I shot him. I suggest you learn from his mistake!"

Moon-Bat throws a Moonarang that circles Kang and wraps him tightly with a monofilly line.

"You killed the Flash and Scarlet Witch, too!" Mercury cries out. "Wanna find out what I learned?"

"You heroes are so quick to solve problems with your fists. Time has become frayed. The future is undone. And unless you aid me right now, all that is will cease to exist at the close of 2099."

Moon-Bat disarms the time-traveler. "Just what are you talking about!"

General Immortus, my future self, has placed a time barrier around the year 2099. When the clock strikes midnight on December 31^st, everything will be simply vanish!

"And I thought Y2K was going to be a problem," ponders Neuron.

"My efforts to create a force powerful enough to bust the barrier and allow time to flow through required me to gather other time travelers." The Time Conqueror recalls his recent bid to utilize the Judgment League Avengers as a spearhead against the barrier, a plan stymied by the Timeman synthezoid. "Each time I strike at the buffer, I am repelled, creating temporal clones of me as I fall backwards through time."

"But now I have the means to combat Immortus!" He has positioned himself in 1999 in an attempt to purge the Age of Apokolips from Hyper-Cross-Time. He met defeat at the hands of Niles Cable's X-Patrol, stranding him there."

"So why do you need us? Sounds like you have all the answers." Stick doubts everything Kang tells them.

"I cannot attack him directly! Should he die, I will be killing myself! He knows this, and has used it against me countless times. But we capture him, bring him here to the end of time, he will be forced to shut down the barricade or forfeit his own existence."

"Still doesn't explain why you need us."

"Mercury needs this even more than I! His birth has already been undone, once the temporal shockwaves reach 1999 his life there will vanish as well! You NoWhere-Men represent a wild card. General Immortus has no knowledge of you, even through his memories as me!"

"So if you're telling the truth, why release the other prisoners? You must have known it wouldn't help!" Moon-Bat isn't concerned with the fact that the Time Conqueror failed to mention her. She only wants to see that he and his ilk answer for their crimes.

A grin spreads across the skin-tight mask, fading along with the rest of Kang. He reappears standing several feet from his former position, no longer tied up. "I know a great deal more than I have revealed! But I haven't the time to advance my other goals, any more than you have time to debate the truth!"

An ear-piercing noise vibrates the passageway they stand in and suction is felt as a Zoom Tube opens into the hall. Mercury peers into the hole, recognizing the figure emerging.

"Snaps! I wondered when you guys would realize I was gone!"

Snapper Jones shuts down the Time Square, closing the portal. "A lot's been going on, Merc. The rest of the team's caught in a war back in 1999. I was hoping to find the source of the anomalies we experienced here. Figured a Time Square from a different timeline might bring me to a different future."

"Then you already know what is happening!" says Kang. "All paths to the future dead-end here and now. I know a phenomenon in 1999 is responsible, but I cannot approach the Silver Twist without great risk to myself."

"You're just full of concern for your own safety, aren't you?" John Carter's eyes glow with fire, ready to attack once again. "You didn't sound too worried about sending us against Immortus!"

"General Immortus is on the Earth! The Silver Twist is a celestial object whose location I cannot determine due to its extra-dimensional nature. It exists as a fold in the fabric of space-time, constantly tearing and mending itself. Anything caught within it is lost somewhere in Hyper-Cross-Time. I believe Immortus has gained control of it somehow, and so he should be my target!"

"There's a lot going down right now," agrees Jones, "But I haven't seen any evidence of General Immortus or this Silver Twist you're talking about. What say you come back with us and show me."

Mercury balks at the notion. "I'm not riding another time square. Those things don't like me! Last time I got sent to the wrong timeline!"

"You're right. Wish there was a way to anchor it in one reality, to ensure we travel a linear path.

Ted Reilly bites his lip, then asks, "Is that floating wheelchair of yours from 1999?"

"I had it with me when we first left the timestream. Why?"

Kang realizes Neuron's plan. "The lad presumes he can rig your chair into the square, providing a fixed hyper-cross-time reference point for it to home in on. But even my superior skills could not accomplish this without additional machinery!"

Stick looks at Neuron. "Looks like we're going to have to scavenge the NoWhere-Van. Hope this works."

Moon-Bat agrees to use the asylum's teleportation system to send them down to Earth. The coordinates they provide do not coincide with any t-port station she knows of; in the reality they currently exist in there is no Donavon Scott Museum of Action and Adventure in St. Louisville. Surprisingly, though, the NoWhere-Van is there, unaffected by changes to the timeline. Kang, Snapper Jones, and the three heroes busy themselves with fastening the right components to Snapper's hoverchair, utilizing some of the time buoy devices Neuron had installed earlier. Eventually the cobble together something resembling a grotesque motorized tricycle that seats five.

Putting aside all their reservations, they open a Zoom Tube and enter.

To be continued!

**********

Black Tom Savage [Matt Savage / Black Tom Cassidy]

Shaggynaut [Shaggy Man / Juggernaut]

Timeman [Hourman ONE MILLION / Father Time] -- Created by Tombraider

Monofilly line -- Short for Mono-atomic Filament. A string of matter condensed to a thickness of one atom. The line is super-dense, and is capable if cutting anything by slicing through molecular bonds.

All characters owned by Amalgam Comics, and are property of Marvel & DC Comics, except as noted above. This fan fiction is created for non-profit, entertainment purposes, and is an original intellectual property of Crazy Ivan (although I do use the term 'intellectual' pretty loosely). 1999 - 2099: The Hundred Years War property of Crazy Ivan.

There Came A Time When The Old Gods... Changed!

-- THORION AND THE NEW ASGODS #1