Chance: We have a plethora of information on you. Mary Leigh, born May 31, 1920. Became Lady Fairplay in mid-1941 after being exposed to so –called energetic rays. Super-strength, superspeed, toughness, and limited flight capability. You’re an open book, Ms. Leigh. Now tell us what we want to know.

Lady Foulplay: I will do nothing to help you.

Chance: Why were you working with the Thule Society? What happened in Brazil to cause the time slip?

Lady Foulplay: Have I not made it clear? I am done talking to you.

Chance: Answer the questions.

(silence)

Chance: You will answer, Ms. Leigh. You are now classified a super-powered terrorist by the United States government. This means the statutes of the Geneva Convention no longer apply to you and that we can and will be able to confine you for a period of no less than twenty years in order to guarantee the safety of the American people. All of which means, you are in for a lot of pain in the future.

Lady Foulplay: Good, I have something to look forward to.

(Door slams shut. Agent Chance has left the room. Lady Foulplay snickers.)

*****

ACTION Base 7, location undisclosed
June 23, 2008, 10:47 a.m.

The conference room was designed to hold three dozen, but its seats only held six men and three women. Blackout, Captain Fearless, Fire Eater, Flag Man, Ghost Woman, Golden Girl, Golden Lad, Lightning Girl, and Rusty sat hodge-podge in the first two rows of seats. Johanna Chance found herself once again the center of attention as she stood at the podium in the front of the room. She felt a sense of relief though as the heroes of yesteryear looked up at her. Soon her three months of playing den mother would be at an end.

“Again, I want to thank all of you for your patience and understanding during your stay here with us. I know the adjustment to 2008 could not have been easy, and the stress we’ve put you through certainly did not help. But you have all lived up to the standards you set during the Second World War, and I for one applaud you for it.

“Dart and Ace’s escape gave us the first solid grounds to pursue Dart as a metahuman threat. An ACTION task force is already working to track them down. As some of you may know, this is my last day as your overseer. I will be moving to head the Dart task force as of tomorrow morning.

“Know that meeting you all was an honor and privilege for me. I will never forget these days I’ve spent with you all. But not it’s time for all of you to move on with your lives in the twenty-first century. I wish you all luck in your futures, but I think all of you create your own future. I trust all of you will succeed in the modern era as you did in your original time.”

Chance gestured to the empty chairs in the room. “As you can all see, the Black Owl has already left us. Douglas Danville is on his way to meet his wife as we speak. All of you who choose to will soon follow him in to the outside world. Others of you will remain here for further acclimation and training so that you can increase your proficiencies with the technology that drives the world. But as I look out at all of you, I hope at least some of you continue to give yourself in service to this world.

“America needs heroes now more than ever. Our metahumans… well, one look at the devastation in Federation, Seaside City, and especially Detroit over the last decade shows that we need heroes in this country. All of you are heroes to the people of this country. More than that, you’re living legends. Legends given back to this country, I like to think at least, to help guide us in to this new century.”

She had said her peace. She looked over the nine seated metahumans, nine heroes. She knew this could very well be the last time she would see all of them in one place. “Thank you all.”

The room filled with the sound of clapping. She could not quite comprehend that they were clapping for her. Her audience stood as they continued their ovation.

Staff members started to wheel trays of food and beverages in to the room. Various ACTION agents, medical personnel, and military men trickled in to the room over the next few minutes as the meeting slowly turned in to a full on celebration.

After giving everyone present time to grab some food and start eating, she made her way through the crowd. She stopped to say farewell to each of the mystery men in turn. Trickles of conversation came her way as she moved through the room.

Fire Eater and Lightning Girl stood near the drink table. “You sure you want to stay here, Isobel?”

Lightning Girl nodded at Fire Eater’s question. “Definitely. But not forever; once I’m done with job training, I plan on making my way back in to the work force. It took a while to convince myself, but I need to go back in to journalism. Or at least what they call journalism these days. It’s time for me to stop being just the girl sidekick. So Lightning Girl’s going away, maybe forever. Now I’m Isobel Black, modern woman.”

“What about Blackout?”

“I’ll be here for him,” Isobel said. “At least for the time being. I hope the doctors can find away to cure him.”

“You and me both.”

Chance interrupted momentarily to give her farewells, before moving on. She found Flag Man and Rusty in the corner with General Wallace. She heard the name Atoman dropped several times in a few brief seconds. She decided it was best for her to move on. Whatever they discussed, she certainly knew she neither was supposed to or wanted to know the nature of the conversation.

Golden Lad and Golden Girl intercepted her on her way towards Captain Fearless. “Excuse me, Ms. Chance,” Golden Lad said.

“Yes, what is it?”

“We were talking, Gigi and me, and we decided we want in on the hunt for Dart and Ace.”

“What he did is despicable,” Golden Girl said. “We want to see him destroyed.” Golden Lad gave her the evil eye. “Captured, I mean,” she said. “Captured.”

“Well, I’m not sure. It’s against standard ACTION procedure both to employ minors and to involve non-ACTION metahumans in our actions. On top of that, Dart is a trained killer. It may not be safe.”

“Yes,” Golden Lad said. “We know all of this. But we need to stop him.” The boy’s eyes narrowed and his voice turned to ice. “I want to see him pay.”

Chance knew that tone in the boy’s voice. She could feel its meaning in her bones. Whether she liked it or not, Golden Lad planned to pursue Dart. Better to have them on her side than out unsupervised. “All right,” she said. “I’ll see what I can do. No promises, but we will find a way for the two of you to help. Sound good?”

They both nodded.

Chance shook Golden Girl’s hand and gave Golden Lad a pat on the back before she continued on her way.

*****

Tru Restaurant, Chicago, Illinois
June 24, 2008, 7:43 p.m.

Douglas Danville didn’t have a clue what he would say when he saw her. Terri knew he was here waiting for her, but after sixty years what did you say?

Tru was definitely upscale, the kind of high-falutin’ joint he avoided back in his day. But Terri picked it out; he would eat at an outhouse to see her again.

He glanced at his watch. He still marveled at its numeric read-out, digital they called it. 7:45. She was supposed to be here forty-five minutes ago. He looked around the restaurant for any sign of an eighty-year old woman. No one fit the bill. A waiter came by to once again offer him a drink, and again he declined.

He glanced around the room. He couldn’t quite get over the feeling that all of Chicago was watching him. He knew it was foolish; no one here knew him from Adam. The Black Owl may be news fodder, but Douglas Danville was just another face on the streets.

Amazing how much things could change in sixty years. Back in the thirties and forties, he was the millionaire playboy on all the society pages. His wedding made the front page of the Sunday Sun-Times. Sixty years gone, he thought. Sixty years with my beautiful wife lost.

“Hello, Douglas.”

He turned at the voice. An aged woman stood in an evening gown of silver silk. Her hair was silver, her eyes a little darkened with age. But he could recognize that perfect face. Even after all these years, and all the age lines and wrinkles, he could still see the young Theodora Elizabeth Fitzgerald. The woman he met, fell in love with, and married. And left.

A young man in a tightly tailed suit followed a few steps behind her as she approached the table.

“Terri, I—” Words flooded in to his head, but he couldn’t make them leave his mouth. Nor could he staunch the flow of tears as they fell unbidden from his eyes.

“Oh, Terri. I’m—I’m so sorry.”

She stepped to his side and gently placed her hand on his shoulder. “Shh. It’s going to be all right now, Doug. We’re together again.”

Douglas pulled away after several seconds in her arms. He nodded and wiped the tears from his eyes. “Thank you for that,” he said. “But I should never have left you. This is all my fault.”

The younger man helped Terri around the table and in to her seat. “Thank you, Ramon. Be a darling and get a drink at the bar while my husband and I talk.” Ramon left as Terri turned back to Douglas.

“I swear I couldn’t get by without him to help me. These old bones aren’t what they once were.” She gave him a weak smile. “Douglas, you have to remember that none of this is your fault. You did what we both thought was right. I told you to go that night. I had to live with the thought that I sent you to your death back in forty-eight. “

“I know, but I left—”

She held up a hand to stop him. “Douglas Alexander Danville, enough of that talk. We both knew the dangers of your nocturnal activities when I married you. And we both thought this fight in Brazil was the right thing to do. Have I asked myself for sixty years if we made the right choice? Of course, certainly. But I also know that those people planned genocide to make Auschwitz and Hiroshima footnotes in history. I know that in the time and lace we were in, nothing would have stopped you. Or me, for that matter.”

“You remembered it all along? Everyone was supposed to have forgotten us. I thought the amnesia—“

“Nothing could or will ever make me forget you, Douglas. Something...” She shook her head. “I knew whatever happened to you and the others was unnatural when I found myself unable to say Black Owl no matter how hard I tried. Other memories tried to fade, but I realized what was going on and fought it. I used to get migraines every morning for most of the fifties, but I never forgot you. I could never say a word about your double identity even with my memory attack, but after a few years I didn’t figure it would matter anymore. By the sixties I couldn’t even convince most people I met that there were more than a handful of heroes during World War II. “

She reached out her hands and intertwined her fingers with Douglas’s own. “I waited for you all these years, Douglas. Even when Daniel had you declared dead. I knew you would come back to me someday. I knew it to the very core of my being.”

“Daniel?”

“Daniel is our son, Douglas. He runs DCI now. He’s a few years from sixty-five, but he’s considering retiring earlier than that. Lord knows we have the money.”

“Oh God, Terri. I didn’t even think—” Douglas took a deep breath and fought to control the emotions that raged inside him. “I missed everything.”

She reached across the table and caressed his cheek. “But you came back to me, darling. Just like I remember you. And I’m willing, if you are okay with this cranky old lady.”

“Of course I am. Everything—” He paused. His throat was suddenly bone dry. He knew how to disable a man in a single blow, the inner workings of an airplane engine, the design of a rocket ship, and how to disarm any kind of explosive, but simple proclamations of emotion still were not easy for him even after all this time.

“You really are the same as ever, my love. I see it in your eyes and I hear it in your voice.” She chuckled. “Now if you want to give the gawkers a finish to the show, why don’t you kiss me, husband mine?”

Douglas leaned across the table to meet Terri in a passionate embrace. Anyone watching, the restaurant goers, the whole dang world outside no longer mattered. He was together with the woman of his dreams again, and he planned to never ever let her go.

*****

ACTION Base 7, location undisclosed
June 26, 2008, 9:57 a.m.

They were on the move at last. After weeks of watching and waiting, he finally saw the gates open and faces he recognized emerge. They congregated just inside the chain link fence at the front of the facility, just a few feet from the boats to the mainland. One by one, people he worked with and around exited the facility. Ghost Woman, Golden Lad, Golden Girl, Fire Eater, Captain Fearless. They all walked on to the watercraft. He waited for more of his compatriots to leave the building, but none were forthcoming.

Only five? Where was Lightning Girl? Blackout? Flag Man and Rusty? This put crinkles in to his plans.

Doctor Frost let the ice skiff upon which he stood slowly melt back in to the water. He sank lower in to the sea. Now was not the time to reveal his presence. Too many questions to which he did not yet have answers. But soon.

Soon he and his time traveling colleagues would change the world, whether they liked it or not.

*****

The Chateau, Boston, Massachusetts
June 26, 3:49 p.m.

“They’ve left the facility, my mistress.” The young woman speaking wore only a bustier, knee-high boots, and a thong, all made of shiny black leather. She bowed before another woman reclining in a divan, as she delivered the message. Her eyes staid ever downward, and she feared accidentally meeting the other woman’s eyes.

Dominique looked down at the skinny redhead on her knees. The girl shivered as Dominique’s gaze ran across her.

Dominique leaned forward, extended one long nailed finger, and tapped the girl on the chin. Slowly, the girl’s eyes traveled up Dominique’s naked form. Few of her servitors were ever allowed to see her body, but something about this girl’s demeanor coupled with Dominique’s own delight at the news made her willing to grant that privilege.

The girl’s eyes lingered for a moment across Dominique’s coal black skin. After a moment too long spent looking at her chest, Dominique reached back behind the girl’s head and grabbed her by the hair. She yanked back and forced the girl to look in to her face. To her credit, the girl did not cry out or even wince.

“Do not abuse the privilege I have granted.” Her voice still carried the hint of the French she spoke in her native Haiti. “Are our agents in place to track all nine of them?”

“Yes, mistress.” The girl chewed her lip. A nervous habit she would need to be rid of if she was to continue as a servant.

Dominique backhanded her across the cheek. Punishment was the quickest way to change. “I will not see you quiver unless it is under my touch, girl. Say what you have to say.”

“Only five of the metahumans exited the facility.” She listed them by name. “The others are still in government care, but my clearance doesn’t allow me to find out where. The others have yet to communicate any of their knowledge back to me.”

Dominique slowly caressed the girl’s swollen cheek. “That wasn’t so hard, non?” She pulled the girl’s head to the left then the right, examining her features. “What is your name, girl?”

“Rhiannon, mistress.”

“Rhiannon. A beautiful name.” She pushed Rhiannon’s face down and away from her. The girl looked down at the floor, once more in her proper submissive pose. “You will report to my chambers tonight, Rhiannon. If you survive my touch, you will be greatly rewarded for your work. Do you understand?”

“Yes, mistress,” she said to the floor.

“Excellent. Remove yourself from my presence now.” Dominique leaned back in the divan as the girl scurried on hand and knee from the room. The absence of half the arrivals would desperately slow the Shadow Cabinet’s plans for the future. But these five as well as the already surveiled would be enough for a good start.

Her masters would need results soon though, and she refused to fail them. This initiative would carry through and continue her rise to power over them. Even if it cost these foolish arrivals from a time long gone everything they knew and loved.

*****