Post by redsycorax on Oct 11, 2019 1:40:19 GMT
Earth-92: On this world, divergence from the datum became perceptible in the thirties. The Republicans won the Spanish Civil War instead of Franco, leading to the later German Civil War (1930-33), in which Chancellor Papin won, suppressing both the Nazis and Communists. Adolf Hitler died in front of a firing squad as did his counterpart Ernest Thalman and most of the Nazi and Communist hierarchy. In 1936, a coup overthrew Benito Mussolini. Throughout the forties, Eastern Europe was convulsed by a series of repetitious coups, but the situation never degenerated into the ground for a Second Great War. The USSR stayed restricted to the borders of Ukraine and Byelorussia, and never expanded into the Baltic States or founded a Warsaw Pact. Frustrated there, it turned its attention to the Eastern Hemisphere, fomenting unrest in Japan's Manchukuo puppet state. However, it was Communist China who reaped the dividend, establishing satellite regimes in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia. The USSR tried to exploit unrest in Afghanistan, but as in OTL, it was later forced out, and left with a heroin problem and angry Islamic secessionist movements in its southeastern Muslim republics. In 1991, Soviet communism finally collapsed. Vladimir Putin was shot and killed in St Petersburg/Leningrad before the collapse of the USSR in 1991. Resultantly, the Republic of Russia never recovered from shedding its superpower status, and further fragmentation followed. The Russias are now a loose patchwork of squabbling city states and republics mired in periodic armed conflicts. UN Peacekeeper Forces have had to locate and disengage nuclear weapons within the shattered windowpane that was once a global superpower. The current US President is Joe Biden and his deputy is Hillary Clinton, the former Secretary of State under Barack Obama. The United Kingdom is governed by a Labour/Liberal Democrat coalition under the leadership of Gordon Brown, who has been British Prime Minister for ten years. Brown has presided over some unusual developments, such as the choice to switch to a single transferable vote electoral system and a second referendum that provided the independence of his native Scotland. Amongst other quirks of this alternate world's history, Yugoslavia is still a unified nation, as is Korea after North Korea fell apart due to the fall of communism in 1991. India annexed Pakistan in 1971, while Israel also lost the Yom Kippur War in 1971 but the Stern Gang carries on a guerilla war against the resultant Palestinian state.
As with many other alternate universes, there was a Golden Society of Superheroes in the forties, which consisted of Antaeus, an immortal Greek demigod; Mother Hubbard, a powerful sorceress and white witch; socialite and mystery-woman Lady Satan; noctural crimefighter Nightmare and his companion Daydream; War Nurse, a Nazi-fighting medical practitioner; and the webslinging Spiderqueen. As time went on and the United States underwent a repressive era under President Edgar J.Hoover in the fifties, several were killed as 'vigilantes', while the homosexuality of Nightmare and Daydream was seized upon by Surgeon-General Frederick Wertheim. In 1960, though, Hoover was assassinated and John Fitzgerald Kennedy presided over a new, more democratic America, succeeded by his brother Robert. After twenty years of the Kennedy dynasty, lacklustre Gerald Ford narrowly won the 1980 election and served only a single term. In the seventies, a new generation of superheroes had arisen- the Laws Legionnaires.
The Laws Legionnaires consist of Exoman, from the distant planet Onegasson, exiled to Earth from his homeworld for political crimes; Nightjar, a caped avenger of nocturnal mien; Antaeus, the strongest person alive; Peace Queen, the champion of the Amazons of Neoscythia; Bluetorch, terrestrial representative of an interstellar, multispecies police force, and Ms. X, the first representative of the ultimate stage of human evolution, homo futurus.
+++
"By the binary sun of Onegasson!" Exoman exclaimed as he accelerated toward the missile targeting Air Force Three and the Speaker of the United States, Van Bush. With his metastrength, he deflected the trajectory of the projectile and used his penetravision to fuse its detonation sequence, scooping out the radioactive core and flinging it onto the surface of the Moon. He sterilised his hand with flamevision and used the LL's telepathic plug
[Exoman to base. Situation averted. No further incoming projectiles, radioactive or explosive materials, or bacteriological contagion sighted anywhere on Air Force Three."
[Excellent work as ever, SyrAl. Will you be tailing AF3 to insure that it gets back safely to Arnoldstown, or do you want one of us to take over?]
[Absolutely. Remember, I alerted you to the risks in the first place.] As Nightjar signed off, a further pulse caught her attention:
"Bluetorch?"
"Bryony, I have a major problem in the vicinity of Alpha Centauri A. Rann is invading the seperatist colony on Anthorann again, in violation of the Galactic Federation's Threestar Peace Accord. I may be a while. Probably two or three days while I intervene and retrieve Sardath's armaments and troops and return them to their homeworld."
"That's fine, Alexander. Do you want me to contact Ardorei and tell her you'll be busy for the next while?"
"I'd be very grateful, Bry. How are things back home?"
"The usual hectic buzz, Al. SyrAl just intercepted a Slavic Solidarity Army missile attack on AF3, Peace Queen's in Arnoldstown presiding over the Comprehensive Nuclear Disarmament Treaty conference at the World Assembly, and X told me she's investigating something uptime, possibly a transtemporal hostile."
"Do we have any clues about that potential assailant's identity-"
"Just a second, Al...Xyra!" Ms X had staggered off the Skyshield's teleport pad, her clothes in tatters, bleeding heavily from a gash in her head. She collapsed into Nightjar's arms.
There was a cerulean flare of energy as Alexander Lothur entered the airlock, his earlier mission forgotten, as Nightjar carried Ms X to the mediprobe alcove. She was scarcely breathing:
"What could have done this, given her advanced evolutionary status? Or are we talking about something comparable to her own capabilities?"
"I...will be all right. It's... not good, either of you. We have a problem in the thirty first century."
"You mean the Legion of Anomalous Metasapients, don't you?"
"Exactly, Bryony. After all this time, they've been able to send one of their temporal vehicles downtime."
LEGION OF ANOMALOUS METASAPIENTS: Mekt Ranzz (Lightning Lord) assembled an organisation of nefarious metahuman and metasapient villains around him, headquartered on the peripheral world Ventura, determined to ransack the past and future to relieve the plight of their wartorn, desolate future. Amongst his allies - Massdriver (Thom Kallor, Xanthu), Red Sorceress (Mysa Nal), Precommando (Naral Nal), Eclipse (Tasmia Malor), Ultragirl (Estrela Nah), Araknia (Sussa Pak) and Laurel Gand (Daxam). The LAM is responsible for numerous interplanetary depradations, most notoriously the sacking of New Shanghai and New Beijing on Mars (3001), the assassination of United Planets President Tayla Wellington (3005), and instigating the Braal-Imsk War (3008-3010). They have fought the benign Brainiac Protectors of Colu but their primary antagonists are Exoman and the other members of the Laws Legionnaires on ancient twenty-first century Earth.
Encyclopedia Galactica.
As the quantum flux of the time vortex faded from view, Mekt Ranzz looked over at his associates: "Nar? Are there are precog tips that you could provide us about who we might encounter?"
Precommando nodded: "Trouble. Exoman, Bluetorch and Nightjar know about what happened to their colleague, Ms. X. Nicely done by the way, Laurel."
"She was a primary threat. Besides, that $!^@# and I have encountered each other before. She wasn't able to use her usual futurus tricks of the trade against an experienced opponent." Eclipse had already concealed the timebubble in a pocket of darkness, impenetrable to even Exoman's cosmic ray vision. Each of them prepared. Massdriver created a hypergravity field, Red Sorceress unpacked her magical artefacts and prepared defensive spells, Ultragirl rapidly switched between her invulnerability and ultrastrength capabilities and Araknia's hair pulsated like a medusa, while lightning crackled from Lightning Lord's hands, pulsating between them as it built in intensity.
Precommando looked up: "LL triad at twelve o'clock!"
"Eclipse..." The shadowcaster nodded and enclosed her colleague in impenetrable darkness. Then the three of them ran into the hypergravity field established by Massdriver. Under the effects, Exoman lost his flight and superstrength abilities as he plummeted to the ground. However, Bluetorch shone his powerband on the gravitional matrix and undid its effects, while Nightjar had activated her personal force screen, having noticed the signs of hypergravitational field activity. The reflux hit massdriver, knocking him out as a scowling Lightning Lord opened electromagnetic fire on Bluetorch, who matched his energies, resulting in a stalemate. Ultragirl switched to ultraspeed as she closed on Nightjar, preparing to snap her neck, but she lacked invulnerability while using that ability, and Exoman was too fast for her and lacked her power limits. Nightjar leapt over the immobilised Rimborian and Laurel Gand rose above the landscape, determined to put up more of a fight than her teammate. She closed and grappled with Exoman, but below, Nightjar's insulated ensemble shrugged off the attack from Araknia, while engaging Precommando. The trouble was, while Precommando was a formidable opponent and able to calculate his adversary's every move in advance, Nightjar's utility belt had a stochastic quantum randomiser built into it. To his surprise and shock, he found he could not anticipate her combat moves and was soon supine on the ground alongside his fallen adversaries. She looked up at the conflict going on between Powertorch and Lightning Lord and Laurel and Exoman, and then had an inspiration. She fired a lead dispenser gun up toward Exoman, who used it against his Daxamite opponent. Given she was dosed with kryptonite-suffused immunity drugs to offset the effects of lead, she wasn't condemned to death from it, but it was green lead, which temporarily removed her abilities as she fell to the ground. Freed from combat, Nightjar engaged her enhanced senses and located Eclipse hiding nearby, ready to strike. With the factor of surprise, she entered Eclipse's pocket of concealing ebon apace, landing a knockout blow on the other woman's jaw before she could respond in shock. Lightning Lord broke off his attack on Powertorch and ran for the safety of the timebubble, keeping up covering fire as he activated the response and collection unit within the bubble. Thus liberated, he and his colleagues shot back through the vortex toward their thirty first century sanctuary.
Back in the Laws Legionnaire satellite, Peace Queen helped Ms X to her feet, as the femina futurus moved shakily to the call alcove:
"Xyra to Syral, Bryony and Alex. We're needed downtime, over."
"What do you mean, Xyra?"
"Something has interfered with the course of history. It's started a Second Great War instead of the Cold Peace and there's no telling how it could end."
"And our old allies in the Golden Society?"
"I got a telepathic message from Lady S. They can't handle this on their own, even with Ma's magickal capabilities."
"Where's the crunch point, Xyra?"
"The Spanish Civil War. Hard as it is to believe, Franco didn't lose in this alternate timeline- he won, cancelling out the emboldenment of antifascists in Germany and Italy and insuring Mussolini's fall from power. Hitler was Reichschancellor instead of Papin, although the communists were crushed anyway. But Hitler started a prolonged Second Great War."
"Why haven't the events reached us yet?"
"Ma's holding it back with her eldritch abilities, but it's taking a heavy toll on her."
As they entered the airlock, Bluetorch sighed: "Look, I'll have to head off to AC A now to prevent that Rannian incursion against Anthorann. Can you folks take care of this?"
Nightjar nodded: "What's the specific nexus point?"
Nightjar recognised the surroundings as they materialised:
"Barcelona. Something's wrong. though, it should be much more industrialised than this, and helping the Republican war effort so they can go on to win the Battle of Teruel."
"I can see gold reserves. They should have been liquidifed and converted into funds to purchase more resources. Blazes, the Republicans won't be able to take Teruel, that'll break their back and lead to Franco's nationalist ascendancy. And there are no worker-run Hispano-Suiza factories in Guadalajara either. Anything else stand out to the rest of you?"
"Those tactical manuals those army officers are reading at the cafes. They're outdated World War I scripts. Someone has been busy." Ms X concentrated:
"I was afraid of this. I have been trying to reach back and rectify the temporal schism point but I cannot do so. I fear that there may be another homo futurus in this vicinity and they are masking themselves from my sensory array."
"But how? You always told us there were only seven of you in existence."
"Uhhh...."
"Mother Hubbard!" Ms.X caught the aged greymage as she fell:
"Allies from the future, welcome be
I am not hardy nor spry as you can see.
Have you come to avert dark destiny?"
"We have indeed, Ma. Don't talk. Where are the rest of the Golden Society?"
The witch motioned with her gnarled hand before falling into a coma. The border of Italy was in that direction.
"Bren!" Ms.X said, shocked to see her former colleague atop an anachronistic autofactory, churning out wares to sabotage the Republican war effort:
"It's no good, Xyra. I knew you were coming here. It's too late to delay the inevitable now. Soon history will be transformed forever and your existence will be abolished."
"Are you insane? I've seen the various alternate timelines that could result from your interference. Several of them end in nuclear war or the formation of a twisted totalitarian global empire. Humanity becomes extinct and homo futurus never evolves."
"Our aborted existence is a small price to play for the victory of historic destiny and the hand of fate."
"Bren, we are highly advanced humans. We are not gods. You are behaving like a prodigal Olympian."
"I never cared as much for the mayflies as you do, Xyra. You cannot win this. Accept your oblivion and embrace it."
"You'll slaughter billions! They will never have existed!" Peace Queen said in horror.
"No, I will liberate them from the bucolic, lotus eating existence that you and your colleagues have imposed on humanity, whatever happens, Xyra."
"I'd hardly call 2019 a utopia. Look at the plight of the Israeli Liberation Front and the various factions in the Russias- political persecution, epidemic disease, civil wars, child soldiers, medical shortages, famine. Yes, it could be worse. but it could also be vastly improved." Xyra responded.
"You've taken away choice from them and existential threat."
"And you presume to impose something worse on them? Who are you to do that?"
"With the greymage fallen, causality will soon reach your timeframe and you will blink from existence. I need do nothing but wait..." Bren trailed off, in sudden realisation.
Xyra smiled: "What? It should have happened by now?"
Bren snarled: "What is the meaning of this? Barcelona and Republican Spain's industrial and military strategies have reverted to the datum. How? How were you able to manage this without my sensing it..." Then the renegade Futurus looked at his hand in horror and dawning recognition:
"Yes, exactly. Causal recursion. The aborted historical shift's energies had to go somewhere, so they're converging on their source. You."
"I won't beg. How... ?"
"Madam Satan and I arranged something together when I was last in 1937. You see, Bren, I detected your presence on this Earth and I remembered that you warped out in the 1930s and became one of the Futurian Society. Well. That won't happen now. We appealed to Somnia of the Timeless. You never became a Futurian, so that cancels out your malignant plans for this time and this world"
By now, Bren had almost become a gossamer illusion, before fading from existence altogether.
Xyra turned to her companions:
"I believe that the others have laid on a feast for all of us back in Barcelona. It is time for us to embrace our old Golden Society allies and socialise together, before we return to our own time." Enigmatic as ever, the Laws Legionnaire turned on her heel and strode toward the bustling Spanish town, where the Golden Society members sat at an adjacent cafe. Coffee was poured, pungent food was downed and celebration rang into the night. They were all so intent on it that they didn't notice Xyra momentarily glance at the averted timelines and the slaughtered souls in their millions or billions that she saw there. With a shudder, she turned her gaze away and returned to the world of love, life and light.
THE END
As with many other alternate universes, there was a Golden Society of Superheroes in the forties, which consisted of Antaeus, an immortal Greek demigod; Mother Hubbard, a powerful sorceress and white witch; socialite and mystery-woman Lady Satan; noctural crimefighter Nightmare and his companion Daydream; War Nurse, a Nazi-fighting medical practitioner; and the webslinging Spiderqueen. As time went on and the United States underwent a repressive era under President Edgar J.Hoover in the fifties, several were killed as 'vigilantes', while the homosexuality of Nightmare and Daydream was seized upon by Surgeon-General Frederick Wertheim. In 1960, though, Hoover was assassinated and John Fitzgerald Kennedy presided over a new, more democratic America, succeeded by his brother Robert. After twenty years of the Kennedy dynasty, lacklustre Gerald Ford narrowly won the 1980 election and served only a single term. In the seventies, a new generation of superheroes had arisen- the Laws Legionnaires.
The Laws Legionnaires consist of Exoman, from the distant planet Onegasson, exiled to Earth from his homeworld for political crimes; Nightjar, a caped avenger of nocturnal mien; Antaeus, the strongest person alive; Peace Queen, the champion of the Amazons of Neoscythia; Bluetorch, terrestrial representative of an interstellar, multispecies police force, and Ms. X, the first representative of the ultimate stage of human evolution, homo futurus.
+++
"By the binary sun of Onegasson!" Exoman exclaimed as he accelerated toward the missile targeting Air Force Three and the Speaker of the United States, Van Bush. With his metastrength, he deflected the trajectory of the projectile and used his penetravision to fuse its detonation sequence, scooping out the radioactive core and flinging it onto the surface of the Moon. He sterilised his hand with flamevision and used the LL's telepathic plug
[Exoman to base. Situation averted. No further incoming projectiles, radioactive or explosive materials, or bacteriological contagion sighted anywhere on Air Force Three."
[Excellent work as ever, SyrAl. Will you be tailing AF3 to insure that it gets back safely to Arnoldstown, or do you want one of us to take over?]
[Absolutely. Remember, I alerted you to the risks in the first place.] As Nightjar signed off, a further pulse caught her attention:
"Bluetorch?"
"Bryony, I have a major problem in the vicinity of Alpha Centauri A. Rann is invading the seperatist colony on Anthorann again, in violation of the Galactic Federation's Threestar Peace Accord. I may be a while. Probably two or three days while I intervene and retrieve Sardath's armaments and troops and return them to their homeworld."
"That's fine, Alexander. Do you want me to contact Ardorei and tell her you'll be busy for the next while?"
"I'd be very grateful, Bry. How are things back home?"
"The usual hectic buzz, Al. SyrAl just intercepted a Slavic Solidarity Army missile attack on AF3, Peace Queen's in Arnoldstown presiding over the Comprehensive Nuclear Disarmament Treaty conference at the World Assembly, and X told me she's investigating something uptime, possibly a transtemporal hostile."
"Do we have any clues about that potential assailant's identity-"
"Just a second, Al...Xyra!" Ms X had staggered off the Skyshield's teleport pad, her clothes in tatters, bleeding heavily from a gash in her head. She collapsed into Nightjar's arms.
There was a cerulean flare of energy as Alexander Lothur entered the airlock, his earlier mission forgotten, as Nightjar carried Ms X to the mediprobe alcove. She was scarcely breathing:
"What could have done this, given her advanced evolutionary status? Or are we talking about something comparable to her own capabilities?"
"I...will be all right. It's... not good, either of you. We have a problem in the thirty first century."
"You mean the Legion of Anomalous Metasapients, don't you?"
"Exactly, Bryony. After all this time, they've been able to send one of their temporal vehicles downtime."
LEGION OF ANOMALOUS METASAPIENTS: Mekt Ranzz (Lightning Lord) assembled an organisation of nefarious metahuman and metasapient villains around him, headquartered on the peripheral world Ventura, determined to ransack the past and future to relieve the plight of their wartorn, desolate future. Amongst his allies - Massdriver (Thom Kallor, Xanthu), Red Sorceress (Mysa Nal), Precommando (Naral Nal), Eclipse (Tasmia Malor), Ultragirl (Estrela Nah), Araknia (Sussa Pak) and Laurel Gand (Daxam). The LAM is responsible for numerous interplanetary depradations, most notoriously the sacking of New Shanghai and New Beijing on Mars (3001), the assassination of United Planets President Tayla Wellington (3005), and instigating the Braal-Imsk War (3008-3010). They have fought the benign Brainiac Protectors of Colu but their primary antagonists are Exoman and the other members of the Laws Legionnaires on ancient twenty-first century Earth.
Encyclopedia Galactica.
As the quantum flux of the time vortex faded from view, Mekt Ranzz looked over at his associates: "Nar? Are there are precog tips that you could provide us about who we might encounter?"
Precommando nodded: "Trouble. Exoman, Bluetorch and Nightjar know about what happened to their colleague, Ms. X. Nicely done by the way, Laurel."
"She was a primary threat. Besides, that $!^@# and I have encountered each other before. She wasn't able to use her usual futurus tricks of the trade against an experienced opponent." Eclipse had already concealed the timebubble in a pocket of darkness, impenetrable to even Exoman's cosmic ray vision. Each of them prepared. Massdriver created a hypergravity field, Red Sorceress unpacked her magical artefacts and prepared defensive spells, Ultragirl rapidly switched between her invulnerability and ultrastrength capabilities and Araknia's hair pulsated like a medusa, while lightning crackled from Lightning Lord's hands, pulsating between them as it built in intensity.
Precommando looked up: "LL triad at twelve o'clock!"
"Eclipse..." The shadowcaster nodded and enclosed her colleague in impenetrable darkness. Then the three of them ran into the hypergravity field established by Massdriver. Under the effects, Exoman lost his flight and superstrength abilities as he plummeted to the ground. However, Bluetorch shone his powerband on the gravitional matrix and undid its effects, while Nightjar had activated her personal force screen, having noticed the signs of hypergravitational field activity. The reflux hit massdriver, knocking him out as a scowling Lightning Lord opened electromagnetic fire on Bluetorch, who matched his energies, resulting in a stalemate. Ultragirl switched to ultraspeed as she closed on Nightjar, preparing to snap her neck, but she lacked invulnerability while using that ability, and Exoman was too fast for her and lacked her power limits. Nightjar leapt over the immobilised Rimborian and Laurel Gand rose above the landscape, determined to put up more of a fight than her teammate. She closed and grappled with Exoman, but below, Nightjar's insulated ensemble shrugged off the attack from Araknia, while engaging Precommando. The trouble was, while Precommando was a formidable opponent and able to calculate his adversary's every move in advance, Nightjar's utility belt had a stochastic quantum randomiser built into it. To his surprise and shock, he found he could not anticipate her combat moves and was soon supine on the ground alongside his fallen adversaries. She looked up at the conflict going on between Powertorch and Lightning Lord and Laurel and Exoman, and then had an inspiration. She fired a lead dispenser gun up toward Exoman, who used it against his Daxamite opponent. Given she was dosed with kryptonite-suffused immunity drugs to offset the effects of lead, she wasn't condemned to death from it, but it was green lead, which temporarily removed her abilities as she fell to the ground. Freed from combat, Nightjar engaged her enhanced senses and located Eclipse hiding nearby, ready to strike. With the factor of surprise, she entered Eclipse's pocket of concealing ebon apace, landing a knockout blow on the other woman's jaw before she could respond in shock. Lightning Lord broke off his attack on Powertorch and ran for the safety of the timebubble, keeping up covering fire as he activated the response and collection unit within the bubble. Thus liberated, he and his colleagues shot back through the vortex toward their thirty first century sanctuary.
Back in the Laws Legionnaire satellite, Peace Queen helped Ms X to her feet, as the femina futurus moved shakily to the call alcove:
"Xyra to Syral, Bryony and Alex. We're needed downtime, over."
"What do you mean, Xyra?"
"Something has interfered with the course of history. It's started a Second Great War instead of the Cold Peace and there's no telling how it could end."
"And our old allies in the Golden Society?"
"I got a telepathic message from Lady S. They can't handle this on their own, even with Ma's magickal capabilities."
"Where's the crunch point, Xyra?"
"The Spanish Civil War. Hard as it is to believe, Franco didn't lose in this alternate timeline- he won, cancelling out the emboldenment of antifascists in Germany and Italy and insuring Mussolini's fall from power. Hitler was Reichschancellor instead of Papin, although the communists were crushed anyway. But Hitler started a prolonged Second Great War."
"Why haven't the events reached us yet?"
"Ma's holding it back with her eldritch abilities, but it's taking a heavy toll on her."
As they entered the airlock, Bluetorch sighed: "Look, I'll have to head off to AC A now to prevent that Rannian incursion against Anthorann. Can you folks take care of this?"
Nightjar nodded: "What's the specific nexus point?"
Nightjar recognised the surroundings as they materialised:
"Barcelona. Something's wrong. though, it should be much more industrialised than this, and helping the Republican war effort so they can go on to win the Battle of Teruel."
"I can see gold reserves. They should have been liquidifed and converted into funds to purchase more resources. Blazes, the Republicans won't be able to take Teruel, that'll break their back and lead to Franco's nationalist ascendancy. And there are no worker-run Hispano-Suiza factories in Guadalajara either. Anything else stand out to the rest of you?"
"Those tactical manuals those army officers are reading at the cafes. They're outdated World War I scripts. Someone has been busy." Ms X concentrated:
"I was afraid of this. I have been trying to reach back and rectify the temporal schism point but I cannot do so. I fear that there may be another homo futurus in this vicinity and they are masking themselves from my sensory array."
"But how? You always told us there were only seven of you in existence."
"Uhhh...."
"Mother Hubbard!" Ms.X caught the aged greymage as she fell:
"Allies from the future, welcome be
I am not hardy nor spry as you can see.
Have you come to avert dark destiny?"
"We have indeed, Ma. Don't talk. Where are the rest of the Golden Society?"
The witch motioned with her gnarled hand before falling into a coma. The border of Italy was in that direction.
"Bren!" Ms.X said, shocked to see her former colleague atop an anachronistic autofactory, churning out wares to sabotage the Republican war effort:
"It's no good, Xyra. I knew you were coming here. It's too late to delay the inevitable now. Soon history will be transformed forever and your existence will be abolished."
"Are you insane? I've seen the various alternate timelines that could result from your interference. Several of them end in nuclear war or the formation of a twisted totalitarian global empire. Humanity becomes extinct and homo futurus never evolves."
"Our aborted existence is a small price to play for the victory of historic destiny and the hand of fate."
"Bren, we are highly advanced humans. We are not gods. You are behaving like a prodigal Olympian."
"I never cared as much for the mayflies as you do, Xyra. You cannot win this. Accept your oblivion and embrace it."
"You'll slaughter billions! They will never have existed!" Peace Queen said in horror.
"No, I will liberate them from the bucolic, lotus eating existence that you and your colleagues have imposed on humanity, whatever happens, Xyra."
"I'd hardly call 2019 a utopia. Look at the plight of the Israeli Liberation Front and the various factions in the Russias- political persecution, epidemic disease, civil wars, child soldiers, medical shortages, famine. Yes, it could be worse. but it could also be vastly improved." Xyra responded.
"You've taken away choice from them and existential threat."
"And you presume to impose something worse on them? Who are you to do that?"
"With the greymage fallen, causality will soon reach your timeframe and you will blink from existence. I need do nothing but wait..." Bren trailed off, in sudden realisation.
Xyra smiled: "What? It should have happened by now?"
Bren snarled: "What is the meaning of this? Barcelona and Republican Spain's industrial and military strategies have reverted to the datum. How? How were you able to manage this without my sensing it..." Then the renegade Futurus looked at his hand in horror and dawning recognition:
"Yes, exactly. Causal recursion. The aborted historical shift's energies had to go somewhere, so they're converging on their source. You."
"I won't beg. How... ?"
"Madam Satan and I arranged something together when I was last in 1937. You see, Bren, I detected your presence on this Earth and I remembered that you warped out in the 1930s and became one of the Futurian Society. Well. That won't happen now. We appealed to Somnia of the Timeless. You never became a Futurian, so that cancels out your malignant plans for this time and this world"
By now, Bren had almost become a gossamer illusion, before fading from existence altogether.
Xyra turned to her companions:
"I believe that the others have laid on a feast for all of us back in Barcelona. It is time for us to embrace our old Golden Society allies and socialise together, before we return to our own time." Enigmatic as ever, the Laws Legionnaire turned on her heel and strode toward the bustling Spanish town, where the Golden Society members sat at an adjacent cafe. Coffee was poured, pungent food was downed and celebration rang into the night. They were all so intent on it that they didn't notice Xyra momentarily glance at the averted timelines and the slaughtered souls in their millions or billions that she saw there. With a shudder, she turned her gaze away and returned to the world of love, life and light.
THE END