The Watchtower

[reducing_ray]

Sometimes, when he's in the midst of working, he understands why Ray Palmer developed the ability to change size. It wasn't to fight crime, it was to get down to a decent size to work on nanocircuits. Which is what he's doing.

It turned out to be quicker to salvage parts and rebuild the chronometric tracker than it was to repair it, so that's what

Comments

[fleet_feet]

"How's she lookin', pal?" comes the reasonably upbeat voice of the Flash.

"Are we about ready to get Ray out of whatever hell he's trapped in?"

[reducing_ray]

"Oh yeah," says Ryan, rocketing up to full size. "Whoever designed these cosmic treadmills was an absolute genius. A little modification, and we're able to take a team exactly where/when we want them."

He produces what looks like a Dick Tracy video watch.

"And with this, the away team can be tracked if they get seperated. Which is good, because we're actually travelling between time and space for this."

He smiles.

"They don't teach this sort of math at university."

[fleet_feet]

That gets an eyebrow lift.

"Then how do you know you did it right?"

[reducing_ray]

He pushes a button and a crackling field of energy appears, out of which appears a small, metallic orb about the size of a golf ball. The ball falls straight into Ryan's hand.

"Because I tracked this over a short distance not that distance as a concept is applicable here, but anyway -- and managed to not create a singularity that would collapse time and space in on itself."

He bounces the orb in his hand like a baseball.

"Pretty cool, huh?"

[fleet_feet]

"None here, Cap'n," comes Flash's response as he slips on a wristband and gets into position on the treadmill.

"Just give me a countdown, and we'll be on our way."

[jla_extras]

Ronnie takes a wristband and moves to a platform. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be.."

[grey_walker]

The Phantom Stranger looks at the wristbands - and his expression is difficult to read. Bemusement, perhaps.

"I will not require your apparatus."

[reducing_ray]

"Ah ... yeah ... should have figured that. All right, everybody take positions, and Flash, start your running on 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... journey into intraspace is go."

[reducing_ray]

Faust's grumbling aside, the transition between dimensions is relatively quick ... reality disolves as the Flash runs, the Watchtower's futuristic technology replaced by a multicolored void, extending in all directions. No up, no down, just cascading light as far as the eye can see.

"All right now," says Ryan, checking the signal on his wrist chronometer. "Theoretically, we can touch every point in this dimension at the same time. So it's jsut a matter of making an adjustment and ..."

The colors swirl around them to dizzying effect, as though the world around them were spinning. But when it stops, there's a shape in front of them.

Ray Palmer, in his Atom costume, trapped inside a crackling matrix of energy.

[reducing_ray]

"Ray!"

[grey_walker]

The Phantom Stranger's gaze is fixed not upon Ray, but the space around them - searching for something - or someone - else.

[fleet_feet]

Flash focuses on his job powering the treadmill, as any distraction could have some seriously bad consequences.

Can't even let Ray's appearance rattle him. Trust the others to handle it...

[itsastretch]

Back on the other side, Ralph has been listening in, trying to follow what's going on, amidst worry for everyone involved... including Jean.

Suddenly his head snaps up. "Jay... that's not right. She wasn't the one who caused the temporal part of the disturbance. She's part of this... but not the whole thing... Chronos seems too confused... we're missing somethi... no, someone. They're in bigger danger than they think."

[jla_villains]

"You're right, Mr. Dibny," says a familiar voice cutting across the line. "They're in very, very much danger."

Chronos appears among the melee, and focuses on The Flash -- training his sundial ray at the cosmic treadmill.

"The Witch Queen will be destroyed before she rises ... Ray Palmer will never live to lead the Justice Battalion."

In a swift succession he trains his ray on Firestorm and Joto.

"The future begins here."

[mrs_dibny]

"Oh, great," she says weakly, trying to sound flippant and failing. "Bating massive paradox. Must be Wednesday." Meanwhile, she's looking for something - anything - the eggheads or the magicians left behind to deal with this.