Ray woke to the roaring in his ears and the pounding against his skull. He groaned and tried to open his eyes, but the harsh sunlight forced him to keep them closed. No, wait. Not sunlight. Starlight. It was night. Those were stars, not the sun.  All sound was gargled and warped, as though he were listening from underwater, but he recognized the distinct chirping of crickets in the distance somehow. There was something else too. Voices, he thought. Unfamiliar voices. No, that wasn't right. It was just one voice. His hazy state just made it sound like there was more than one. 

"Damn it, Haircut. Why's it always you who ends up throwing your own ass into danger?" The more the person spoke, Ray came to realize that he actually did recognize the voice from somewhere. He just couldn't place it. It was gruff, angry. A little scratchy. Like whoever it belonged to constantly spoke in a low growl that irritated their throat more than anything. Ray tried to remember where he'd heard it from, but the incessant ringing in his ears and the distorted noise made it hard to think.

Ray shifted, trying to sit up and maybe open his eyes again so he could see who was there. He winced, apparently causing the person in front of him to realize he was waking up. The person pushed him back down, and Ray let them. He thought maybe his ribs were broken. (Or at the very least he had one hell of a bruise.) "Don't move until the others find you. They'll bring you to Gideon and fix you."

"Who...?" Ray tried to speak, but he winced again. Everything hurt like hell. His head was pounding like a vicious drum set, his torso ached, and his ankle was throbbing, so he had probably sprained that too. Still, it could have been worse, he thought. 

The other person let out an annoyed grunt. "Haircut, would you just stop being an ass! You weren't suppose to get hit by that! That was that other idiot's fault. So, just shut up. Sit there. And wait."

"Huh?" Haircut. That was familiar too, Ray realized. Ray forced himself to sit up, despite every muscle in his body screaming at him not to. He forced his eyes open, doing is best to ignore the searing light of the stars that seemed as blinding as the sun. Ray squinted at the blob in front of him, willing it to transform into a more solid shape.

Slowly, his vision began clearing, the star light didn't seem so intense, and the blob was beginning to become a person. Ray saw that it was a white man, big in stature, probably someone you didn't want to mess with in prison. Someone you didn't want to mess with period. Also familiar...

Ray squinted, trying to make out some distinguishing features, but before he could the person slipped on a thick helmet, hiding their face from him. The helmet was familiar too. His mind must have been clearing a little too, because he recognized it almost immediately as Chronos's. But that wasn't right. That voice wasn't the bounty hunter's. It was someone else's. Someone a little more familiar. Why couldn't he piece it together? It was driving him crazy!

Ray changed his focus from the voice to the body. That seemed a little easier, since he didn't know a lot of rough people. There was Oliver, of course. But this man was much larger than the Green Arrow, and Oliver was back in 2016. So not him. John Diggle seemed about the same size, but then this man in front of him was white, not black. (And again, Dig was in 2016.) So, he was also out.

The pounding in Ray's head caused him to lose focus, so he decided to think about something else. That nickname. Only one person called him that. Back to the body. He was about the same size as the man in front of him too. He had the same voice. Ray's heart skipped a beat, his vision clearing just enough that he could properly make out the armored form of Chronos crouching in front of him, trees and shrubs in the background. 

Ray forgot all about the pain his body was under, as he scrambled to his feet, only to slip and fall again, his ankle letting out an angry cry as he tried to put weight on it. His eyes widened, staring back at Chronos. The puzzle had finally been put together. "You're...you're..."

Chronos made an irritated noise. "I knew this was a bad idea," he grumbled. "But seeing as how you already know anyway..." Ray watched as Chronos hesitantly lifted his hands to remove his helmet again, revealing the man underneath. And Ray's suspicions were confirmed. The reason he'd seemed so familiar wasn't because he'd been chasing after them this whole time. It was because he'd been with them this whole time. Because he was...he was...

"Mick," Ray breathed. The air in his lungs hitched at the sight, even though he'd partly been expecting it. He shivered, but it didn't have anything to do with the fact that Russia was freezing. It was strange, seeing the burly man dressed up like that. It didn't look right. He didn't look right.

Ray stared at him, mouth agape. "I – I don't understand. How..."

Mick gave him a look Ray had never seen on him before. He couldn't really place what it was. Something calmer than the raging fire that normally burned within him. It was more like a light camp fire, something warm and cozy, not malicious and dangerous. "You don't need to know how. You don't need to know anything. You shouldn't know anything. I was suppose to kill you. All of you. Probably would have."

Ray shook his head. His brain was seriously lagging, and he was still trying to catch up and process this new information. "Wait. I'm sorry. You're Chronos? But you're Mick! And Mick's with Rip and Deserey. Does that mean you're from the future?"

Mick – Chronos, whoever he was now – grunted and sent a glare Ray's way that almost seemed like himself. But it didn't quite look the same as it usually did. "Ray, would you have some self preservation for once in your stupid life? I just said I was gonna kill you and your friends!"

"Oh right." Ray eyed him carefully. He wasn't sure how to deal with this now that he knew exactly who Chronos was. "So, why haven't you?"

Chronos grunted again, sounding a little more like Mick that time. "They called me off. Just for an hour. Some stupid deal that goes south."

Ray nodded slowly. "Right. Okay. A lot's making sense now.  So...back in the severities. In that field. That was you too? And in the fifties on the beach? When you said you couldn't come back to the Waverider because you were already...something. You were going to say because you were already there, weren't you?"

Chronos rolled his eyes. "Yes, Haircut. That was all me. Keep up!"

"Sorry," Ray said. "My head's still kind fuzzy from the explosion. Uh, what was that anyway? You said there was someone else?" 

"Yeah, some douche in golden spandex." 

"Oh." 

Chronos gave him that look again, that one that was so unfamiliar and unlike Mick Rory. "I'm gonna go now, Haircut. That hour I mentioned is almost up, so I gotta go beat Rip and the others up."

He started to get up, but Ray grabbed his arm, clutching as tightly as he could in his still slightly foggy state and as firmly as the thick metal armor would allow. "Wait. You don't want to do that. I know you don't."

Mick – Chronos, whatever – stopped. Ray tried to look him in the eyes, but he wouldn't even glance at him. "We've already had this conversation." His voice had lost the edge he always spoke with. It wasn't a grunt, or a growl, or even a hiss. It was just a normal voice, a bit soft and steady even. "Don't have a choice."

"You don't –" Ray cut himself off with a scoff. "Of course you have a choice! It's easy. Just don't do it."

Chronos glanced down, and Ray realized he was still holding on to his arm. He slowly let go, as Chronos scoffed. "Why do you always have to do that?" 

Ray frowned, wishing he'd meet his eyes. He tilted his head, trying to find the other man's gaze. "Do what?"

"That thing you do when you –" Mick stopped abruptly, as he glanced up to send an annoyed glare Ray's way...only he wasn't glaring. It was just that look again. "When you act like everyone is as good as you are..." he finished quietly.

"I – I – um..." Swallowing was hard. Ray would have blamed it on the explosion, but he knew that had nothing to do with it. This feeling – something like shock waves coursing through his entire body – was something else, something that had been developing recently. It'd been so completely random that he hadn't been sure what it was or if it was even real. But something about those words made it seem very real. As real as it had been with Anna... Suddenly he know why Mick had been avoiding his gaze... Belatedly, Ray wondered how long it had gone on for him. Did he feel the same in Ray's present? Or was it something that developed later? Or maybe Ray was just making things up... 

Ray let out a shaky breath. He scrambled for something coherent to say before Chronos decided to take advantage of his befuddled state and leave. "What about Leonard? Y-you're not just going to kill your best friend." Chronos tensed and looked away again. Ray frowned. "Are you?"

Chronos became very interested in fiddling with the gun on his holster. Ray didn't think he planned on using it though. He didn't respond.

"Mick." Ray shook his arm, trying to get him to look at him again. "You're not going to kill Leonard." He wasn't asking. He knew he wouldn't. He couldn't...right? 

Mick didn't say anything though. He just stared back at Ray, that unnamed expression never leaving his face. He hesitated for another moment. Then, he did something unexpected. Chronos - Mick - grabbed Ray by the shoulders, pulling him into a quick kiss, before abruptly standing. "Bye, Ray." That was it. Ray watched him go, his mind reeling to much to react. 

{~} 

When Carter woke up, he was drowning. He thrashed around for a moment, struggling into a sitting position, only to realize that the ground he sat on wasn't water. It was a forest floor. And the water he had thought he was drowning in wasn't even that. It was dog slobbers. 

Carter blinked, willing his fuzzy vision to clear. When it did, he saw that he was in a small, grassy clearing. The trees were circling the place, but inside the clearing was empty, save for him and the dog, only long blades of grass for miles, like the place was something sacred. Carter groaned at the thought. He hated sacred places. They usually always meant trouble. 

He turned his attention to the dog. A Siberian Husky. Female. Her fur was thick, nearly as white as the snow with tan markings on her forehead and back. She had soft, baby blue eyes, which were staring back at Carter with interest, like she might have been thinking, hey, what's with this unconscious guy? 

Her ears perked up when she saw Carter moving, and her tail began wagging at an alarming speed, like, Oh, look! I brought him back from the dead! Yay!

Carter groaned again, rubbing his head. He must have hit it on something when he'd landed, because it hurt like hell. He held his hand out to push the dog back, as she stepped forward to lick his face again. "Where did you come from?" he wondered out loud.  The dog let out a soft howl, as if she were trying to respond to him, but Carter didn't speak dog. (He had in the past, however, been able to communicate with birds.) He pretended he understood anyway. "Really? All that way? That's fascinating. Well, I'm gonna go find Ray and chew him out for getting us exploded." Carter patted the dog's head and got up. 

But when he started walking, he heard four little paws trotting behind him. Carter glanced back to see the dog was right at his heels, wagging her tail. "Or you could come with me. That's cool, too, I guess," he muttered. She let out a low howl of approval. So, the pair went off in search of the Atom. 

It didn't take long to find him, especially since nearly seconds after Carter had started walking he heard uncontrollable sneezing. (He'd almost forgotten that Ray said he was allergic to furry animals.) He was crouched next to a tree, not far off from where Carter had landed. Carter approached him and helped him to his feet, when he realized he was struggling a bit to get up. Then, he said, "I told you so." 

Ray scoffed. "What do you mean you told me so? We're not dead!" 

"We were exploded! That's close enough!" Ray looked like he was about to argue about it some more, but whenever he opened his mouth to speak he was cut off with a vicious round of sneezes. When he was finally able to stop, he changed the topic completely. "What's with the dog?" 

Carter shrugged. "She was here when I woke up." He looked down at the dog. She was staring back up at him from where she sat on the ground, wagging her tail rapidly. Her tongue was hanging from the side of her mouth. Carter snorted at the dog before turning back to Ray. "We should get back to the ship, though. Snart's probably already there." 

"Oh, yeah," Ray nodded. He sneezed again. "We'll have to look out for someone wearing gold, though. Chronos said --" 

"Wait," Carter stopped him. "You talked to Chronos?" 

Ray shifted his weight from foot to foot. Carter couldn't tell in the dark, but he thought he might have been blushing at the mention of the bounty hunter, too. "Uh, yeah..." Ray said quietly. 

Carter sighed. "Oh my god, Ray..." The dog whined, covering her face with her paws, as if she were thinking the same thing. Ray just sneezed again in response. Carter sighed again, as they started making their way towards the Waverider. (And yes, the dog followed.) Though, they didn't get very far before that 'douche in golden spandex' Chronos had mentioned showed up.

He appeared out of no where, hovering in mid air above Ray and Carter. Dark blonde hair was poking from the top of his blue cowl, flopping to one side of his head. Yellow goggles shielded his piercing blue eyes. But neither the goggles or the cowl did anything to hide that deep, furious frown the man wore on his face. His gold and blue suit stretched against his form, revealing the thick muscles his body possessed. From the center of the guy's chest Carter could see a glowing, silver, metal star that sort of threw the whole thing off. (Then again the whole get up sort of clashed.) "Didn't I just explode you two?" 

Next to him, Ray wordlessly slipped the Atom suit's case from his pocket. Slowly, he took the suit from the case and muttered something to activate it. At his words, the suit instantly sprang to life, wrapping around his body, like something right out of a Transformers movie. (Honestly, Carter wished it could always be that fast to get changed.) Carter swung his mace out from where he'd been keeping it hidden underneath the coat of his suit, his wings sprouting from his back a moment later. 

The gold star guy chuckled to himself, like they had just proven themselves to be a threat to him. He raised his fist. "I knew you weren't from around here." An energy beam, something like what came from Ray's suit only this one was white instead of blue, shot from under the guy's wrist. Carter and Ray scattered before the beam hit them, each taking to the sky. The dog, meanwhile, ran off to hide somewhere until the fight was over.

"Guess he's not from around here either," Ray said.

Carter shrugged. "Guess not." With that, the two Legends flew at the gold star, ready for battle. 

{~} 

Deserey hesitated when the professor had suggested they send Rip in alone, while the others hid in the shrubs and waited for his signal. She really just wanted to charge onto the battle field and smack the crap out of this Druce guy. It seemed a lot easier. But Stein and Rip had insisted he would be fine, so Dez had no choice but to begrudgingly follow their lead. 

She was crouched behind a large bush, fist full of sand, her body rigged with anticipation. Mick was sitting to her right, finger laying on the trigger of the heat gun. His face was hard as a stone, like he was itching to let lose on this ass hole just as bad as Dez was. Jax and the professor were to her left, merged as Firestorm. (Their nuclear fire was turned off so they wouldn't give away their position.) Occasionally, Jax would make a face or roll his eyes, so Dez guessed that Stein was probably babbling non stop in his head. She sighed, as Rip approached Druce just a few feet away. They really didn't have time for Firestorm to be arguing again. 

Druce eyed Rip up and down as he entered the field. Dez could have sworn she spotted a small smirk, like Rip was doing exactly what he wanted him to do. As if he was just so god damn proud of himself and his manipulation tactics. "I cannot tell you how pleased I am to see you, Hunter." Hunter this time. Not Rip, like he had called him in their last meeting. Apparently, they were moving from informal to professionalism, now. That...wasn't good, to say the least. 

Rip nodded, glancing up at the starry sky as best he could through the thick greenery of the trees. Though, perhaps he was just checking again to see if Chronos was hiding up on one of the branches. That thought made Dez's stomach twist, and she found herself glancing upward as well, hoping she wouldn't find any metal clad bounty hunters hanging above her. 
Rip glanced back at Druce, placing his hands in the pocket of his trench coat as he so often did. "I finally came to my senses. You were right, as always." 

Dez knew it was a lie, but she really didn't like that sentence. Something about the 'as always' part really didn't sit right with her. Deserey only grew more agitated, as Rip went on though, his words gnawing at her like pesky mosquitos on a musky summer night. "I've risked the lives of my team and endangered the very fabric of time itself. I only hope you can forgive me."

Druce frowned, flashing Rip that parents gave their children when they caught them misbehaving: that one frown accompanied by that slow head shake to express severe disappointment. Dez had never really used it, (mostly because she had never really been disappointed in her kids before) but she had seen other parents do it quite often. "All will soon be made right again." 

There was a swift movement, and within seconds Chronos was standing directly behind Rip, gun trained on the back of his head. "Hello, old friend." Dez's fist clenched, the sand burning against her skin. She moved to jump in, but Mick grabbed her arm and pulled her back down before she could be spotted. She glared at him. He just shook his head, sending a silent message: not yet. 

But Dez wasn't sure how much longer she could wait. The sight of Chronos had ignited something in her that she hadn't really been expected. She couldn't really place what it was. All she could think about was that night at the beach back in the fifties, that laser he'd shot her with. Then, there was Professor Boardman, who he'd shot and killed with another laser.... And...Something else. Something she wasn't quite ready to revisit. 

Dez shook her head, turning back to the scene in front of her. She needed to focus. Rip was standing stalk still, so as to not tick the bounty hunter off and cause him to shoot him. Druce shrugged, staring back at the captain of the Waverider with that same disappointed look he'd had on since they'd met up again. The way the shadows formed around him, slithering over his face and torso, made the Time Master look even more like a Sith Lord to Dez, and she half expected him to pull out a glowing red light saber or start force choking Rip. "I'm so sorry it had to turn out this way." Dez doubted that very much. "But the Time Council cannot risk keeping you alive." 

Rip let out a small laugh. Dez had to hand it to him. He really made it sound as though he hadn't been expecting this to happen. Then again maybe he hadn't. Maybe he had been so caught up in what he'd been hoping would happen that he forgot to expect the less desirable outcome. "Such a shame. I won't be able to tell Mick and Deserey they were right." (Was it just her or had Chronos flinched when Rip had said Mick's name? No. Couldn't have been. Must have been a trick of the light.) At Druce's confused look, he added, "My colorful friends who were convinced you were planning on killing me."

"Ah," Druce nodded slowly. Dez couldn't help feeling slightly offended. He hadn't even bothered learning any of their names before he'd hopped over to the eighties to murder them all. Druce shrugged, like he couldn't care less about Mick or Dez, which she also found a bit offensive. "Your friend seem to have abandoned you...No matter. Chronos will track them down." 

Rip scoffed, maybe genuinely pissed. He might have stormed off or even decked Druce in the face if there hadn't been a gun pointed at him. "I can't believe you brought this stooge to do your dirty work. I never had you pegged for a coward, Druce." Dez mentally gave him a pat on the back for that one. 

Druce paused for a moment, looking Rip up and down once more, like how dare you challenge me! "In that case I promise to stay here to ensure that your punishment is carried out properly. I wouldn't want you to die alone." 

Rip flashed the Time Master a cheeky little smirk. "Who says I'm alone?" 

"Well, if that's not a cue, then I don't know what is," Jax said. Firestorm's head and hands burst into flames, and the nuclear duo shot into the sky. They hurled flames towards Chronos, as Mick jumped to his feet shooting his own round of fire Druce's way. Dez thrust her hands out, sending two blasts of sand at both of their adversaries. 

The fire combined with the sand blasts were enough to send the Time Cops, as Mick had called them, flying across the field. Chronos and Druce simultaneously landed on their backs, each grunting in pain as they fell. (Dez tried not to feel too happy about that.) Before either of them could get up again, Deserey formed a sandstorm around them, blinding the Time Master duo. 

She thought that would have been the end of it, expect she couldn't see Chronos through the sand. Without her knowing, he had reached into his utility belt, grabbing a small bomb. He tossed it towards the Legends, as Firestorm swooped down with another stream of flames. The two attacks met their marks at the same time. Chronos flew backwards once more, falling out of the sandstorm and tumbling across the forest floor. Meanwhile, Firestorm was thrown out of the sky, slamming into a tree as the pair was forced to unmerge. Mick let out an angry growl, sending his own blast of flames at the bounty hunter. This time Chronos didn't fire back. Instead, he fled the scene. (Odd.) 

"Jax!" Dez yelled. "Stein!" In her surprise, she accidentally let the sandstorm surrounding Druce drop, allowing the Time Master to rise to his feet and dust some of the sand off himself. He turned to Rip, heaving a deep, tired sigh. "Well, I suppose if you want something done right you have to do it yourself." Dez watched in horror as Druce pulled out a gun from his pocket, pointing it directly at Rip. It was similar to the blue revolver Rip had, only Druce's was violet. (So, not a red light saber but close enough.) 

Rip reacted quickly, whipping out his own gun and aiming it back at the Time Master. The two squared off for a moment, both looking hesitant to shoot the other, Rip more so than Druce. Dez grabbed another handful of sand, her nerves racing. Mick aimed his heat gun at Druce's skull, waiting for someone to give him the okay to fire. From the corner of her eye Dez spotted Stein stumbling to his feet, but he was clearly much too woozy to fight any more. 

The professor leaned against the tree for a moment before he was able to stand up right. He glanced around frantically. "Jefferson? Jefferson!" Jax walked out a moment later, tripping over himself. There was a red mark across his abdomen where there must have been some sort of gash he'd gotten from the fall. 

"There you are!" Stein said, rushing to him, his voice stern. "Why didn't you answer when I called? Did it not occur to you that I might be worried?"

"No need to shout," Jax said. "I just got a little turned around..." By the time Jax got to the end of his sentence, his words were slurred. His eyes rolled in the back of his head, and he collapsed a moment later. Mick dropped his gun on the ground, as the kid fell into him, momentarily losing consciousness. 

"Jax!" Deserey's mother instincts kicked in. She dropped the sand back in her bag before rushing over to where Mick was lowering the kid to the ground, Stein hovering off to the side worriedly. Rip forgot about his stand off with his old Time Master buddy, putting his gun away and rushing over to Jax's side as well. For some reason Druce didn't shoot any of them while they were distracted. (She guessed he either wanted them to look at him when he killed them or because he preferred other people to do his dirty work and wasn't really sure how to go about doing it himself.)  But he did take the opportunity to threaten them. "I wouldn't worry to much about him. Soon you'll all be dead anyway." 

Dez rolled her eyes. "Bitch, shut the fuck up." The comment seemed to amuse Druce, which pissed Dez off a bit but at least he had enough sense not say anything else. Mick conveniently pulled a bandage wrap from the pocket of his coat. Dez made a face. "Where did you get that?" she wondered. "And how long have you had it?"

He opened his mouth to respond, but Stein cut him, taking the wrap from the aronsit. "Never mind that, we've got to fix him!" He started unwinding the bandage so frantically that he fumbled the wrap a few times, until Deserey finally took it from him. She was by no means a doctor, but she had some experience with putting band-aids on ouchies. Though when Rip lifted Jax's shirt up so that Deserey could wrap the bandage around the wound, she found that it was a little more vital than a tiny bruise. 

The gash was pretty deep, spewing dark red blood all over the young man's torso. Deserey made a face, hastily wrapping the bandage around Jax's waist, as Rip and Mick held him up and Stein flipped out off to the side. 

"That won't hold long," Rip guessed. "We need to get him to the med bay, now." 

"What about Time Cop?" Mick asked, reminding the two parents of the Time Master watching them from two feet away. 

By some miracle Druce still hadn't killed them yet. Dez glared at him, as the group rose to their feet, Rip and Mick hold Jax upright. "You know you keep talking about killing us." She gasped dramatically, as she made a show of looking around at their group. "But, oh, look! We're still alive." 

Druce wasn't paying her any mind though. Instead, he was focusing on the thing that had, apparently, stopped him from killing them this whole time: a fly buzzing around his face. The Time Master swatted at the thing, but it was relentless. 

Stein blinked at the scene, momentarily forgetting about his worry, as he frowned deeply. "Is that...Dr. Palmer?" 

Deserey wasn't sure what he'd meant until the fly she had thought was attacking Druce started growing. It kept growing until it was revealed to actually be the Atom, standing before the Time Master in his red and blue metal suit. He briefly turned to the others, a big grin on his face as he waved at them. "Hey, guys!" Then, he frowned. "What happened to Jax?" 

"We'll explain later," Rip told him. "Where did you --" 

Ray shifted a moment, pointing at the sky as he told his story. "Oh, well, Carter and I were fighting this other guy, and we seen you from up in the sky. And it looked like this guy was trying to shoot you. So, I came down as teeny tiny Atom to help."

Before anyone could ask 'what other guy' Carter and some guy wearing a star on his chest came crashing down from the sky. The two grabbled on the ground for a moment, before Hawkman managed to shove the other guy away from him. Carter huffed, jumping to his feet. He glared at the other Legends. "Thanks for the help, guys. Really appreciate it." 

"Oh, sorry," Ray said. He moved to help the Egyptian prince, but the star man had already lost interest in them. Instead, he turned to Druce, glaring daggers at him the same way Rip did Savage. 
"I knew you'd be with him," the unnamed man growled under his breath. 

Druce stared back at him in the same manner one might regard an over filled dumpster. Apparently, he had forgotten all about the Legends as well. "You're suppose to be dead." 

The star man shrugged, the scowl never leaving his face. "Suppose to be a lot of things, pal." From the way he had spat the world pal, Deserey guessed the two of them weren't actually friends. Further evidence for that accusation was provided when Star Man raised his fist, shooting an energy blast Druce's way. But before the blast got anywhere near the Druce, he pulled out one of those fancy remotes the Time Masters like carrying around so much, pressing a button and teleporting away in a flash of blue light. 

Star Man emited a low growl that Dez had really only ever heard Mick make before. "Skeets. Tell me we didn't just lose him?" For a moment, Deserey thought he was cursing in some language she hadn't heard of before. But then, a small, golden machine rose from the arm of the man's suit. It was about the size and shape of an egg with three stands on the bottom and a black screen on its surface, a red dot at the center of the screen. The thing floated towards the man cautiously. 

Ray's eyes widened in amazement at the thing. "Whoa! What is that, like, an APT 32-bit?" He glanced over the little machine, looking like he wanted to take it in his hands and hold it for a while. 

"Not the time, Ray," Deserey told him. 

He nodded guiltily. "Oh, yeah. Right. Sorry." 

The robot ignored them, hovering in front of Star Man. "Negative, sir. I cannot get a read on Zaman Druce anywhere in the time line." The thing's voice sort of reminded Deserey of K-9 from Doctor Who and the Sarah Jane Adventures, a bit nasally and high pitched, exactly how someone would expect a robot to sound. 

Star Man let out a string of curses. He whipped around, glaring at each of the Legends in turn. The man shouted at the top of his lungs. "Where is he? Where the fuck is he, god damn it!?!?!" 

Ray let out a nervous laugh, gesturing at himself and the other Legends. "Well, how should we know? We don't even know who that guy is." 

The man paused for a moment. "Wait," he said slowly, his anger dissipating. "You're not with him?" He pointed to the spot where Druce had been standing moments before. When the Legends shook their head, he began muttering to himself. 

"...Look, we'd love to help, but as you can see we're in the middle of something," Rip said, pointing at Jax. "So, we'll just be on our way." 

He nodded to Mick, and the two started to drag the younger man back to the Waverider. But the star guy ran forward, grabbing hold of the Captain's arm. "Wait!" he cried. "I need answers!" 

Deserey sighed and rolled her eyes. She grabbed a handful of sand, pushing between the two of them. "We don't have time for this. Ray, Carter, you two get to carry him." The man frowned in confusion, but before he could ask what she was talking about Deserey blew the sand in his face, using her powers to maneuver it around the glass of his visor. She hadn't done the trick since their first trip to the seventies, so she wasn't sure if it would actually work or not. Fortunately, however, the man toppled over a second later, fast asleep. The robot, Skeets, hovered frantically. "Back up requested!" he started saying. "Back up requested! Calling Blue Beat --" 

"C'mere, you junk pile!" Mick growled, snatching the thing from the air, effectively shutting it up.

Honestly, I'm not sure about this chapter. I felt kind of off when I was writing it, but I guess it's alright. I hope y'all enjoyed it anyways. 

Is the Atom Wave thing too soon? I didn't want it to be forced, but then...I just couldn't stop myself once the idea entered my head. And I mean... you guys probably seen it coming anyways, right? 

Annnd! Y'all liked the Legend Pet idea so much I decided to make it happen! I bet you thought I forgot didn't you? Nope! Just took awhile, but now she's finally here! Yay!! She has sort of an instant connection with Carter, which I will explain later. 

Next. Any guesses on who this new mystery guy is? (If you are savvy with comic book info you might have a pretty good guess.) Do you think he's here to stay or is he just in passing? All will be revealed very soon, but first I wanna hear your thoughts so let me know in the comments! 

(And sorry if my computer terms are off. I literally just did a quick google search because I have no idea how that stuff works.) 

Also! We reached 4K reads now!! I made an aesthetic to celebrate! Thank you all so much!! I love and appreciate every single one of you. You're the best