This is a story in the LNH2 imprint. This means it's a POSSIBLE
future - perhaps not the most likely, perhaps not the one the
authors plan for the characters. You're warned.
****************************************************************
2015. The future.
"It's nice to see a villain sold out to the good side, whatever
that means these days. Funny, but nice", the woman will say.
"Yes, but well, you realize it wasn't actually like selling
out. It was more like age", will be the guest's reply.
"That's how I imagine it", the woman's husband will comment.
"You know... as I was defeated again and again, I started to
devote more and more time to research. And that started to make
me valuable... you of all people will remember that, by that
time, innovation and research were the magic words."
"Yes", is what the husband will say, with a smile, remembering
times long gone for him, but still yet to come.
"And as I researched, I started to form a theory. It was
already in my mind when AOLW made their offer. Of course it was
a very good offer... lots of money, and I wouldn't need to go
to jail. But by that time I didn't care much for money; all I
thought about was shaping time in a form I like. If it wasn't
for the theory, I would have refused."
The woman will laugh and change her position on mention of the
offer, as if a lot more interested now. "You made quite a
noise. Everyone seemed to think it was a bizarre idea, buying
out a villain with all associated equipment and baggage."
"Yes, but after all, I was the only person in the world making
serious non-theoretical research into the subject."
"And what theory is that?" The woman will smile, genuinely
interested. She is a curious person, after all.
"Well, in short, it isn't really possible to shape time to my
liking. The reasons are quite complex, but it's more or less
like, reality develops defenses. I used this analogy to explain
it to the AOLW execs, with pretty graphs about anticorps..."
The husband will cut in. "Doesn't that sound like just plain
defeatism?"
"At first, I dismissed it as such. But then came age, and with
it, the true defeatism... and I could see the difference. So I
got back to the theory, and managed to at least convince myself
and the AOLW execs. You see, by my time there was the LNH. But
even if I somehow managed to get rid of them, someone else
would stop me."
"Like The Reality once did", the woman will aptly observe.
"Exactly. So, as my research value started to decrease, and I
trained a team of young scientists to take it over, I was
re-engineered to entertainment - and found out that's what I
actually like to do."
"And you are a success, of course", the woman will smile.
"Of course. Who doesn't like to see King Arthur, Rome or
dinossaurs on holovideo, live? And broadcasting images from the
distant past is so EASY."
"Well", the husband will interrupt, with the usual way of
getting back to business which, along with other qualities,
will keep his family's business alive till then. "You wanted to
talk to us in this cafe. What does the great showman want with
a couple of ex-heroes, businesspeople, teachers, and of course
avatars of cosmic powers in whatever free time we have left?"
The guest will sip his tea. He will be too old for coffee, and
after messing with time for so long he won't want to delve into
life-extending drugs.
"Forget the businesspeople. I need the avatars and teachers.
Perhaps even the ex-heroes, Inovation and Research."
"The Information Age is past, these kinds of names just won't
cut it anymore, you know" - will be the woman's comment, trying
to avoid thinking about the real problem.
"Yes, I don't care if I'll call you Inovation, Sarah, Teacher,
or even Madam. Or if your husband is Research, Kalyani,
Professor or Sir. What I do NOT want are Mr. and Mrs.
Loman-Sahay."
"We get your point", will say Kalyani, as he starts to get
impatient. "But for what?"
The ex-villain will sip again, before answering.
"Well, someone is tampering with time again. I don't want it to
happen; either I like the world as it is, or it's professional
jealousy. Also, I figured, if I didn't warn you you would
probably blame me when you find out."
He will take a breath.
"As much as that would seem unlikely 15 or 20 years ago, this
time the Time Crapper is on your side."
----------------------------------------------------------------
Who Cares Studio presents:
ACRA FLIGHT
#1
What The Crapper
Part of the LNH2 inprint. Any similarities between the
characters and events described in this story with real life
characters and events - or with characters and events in your
stories for that matter - unless otherwise stated are purely
coincidential.
Most characters (see end of message) and this story are
copyright (C) 2000 by Fernando ``Lalo'' Martins. Other
characters are (C) by their creators as credited below.
The text of the story may be copied in any form or medium, for
any purposes, provided that the text is copied verbatim. To use
parts of it, or to create derivative works, please contact the
author at mailto:lalo@hackandroll.org
----------------------------------------------------------------
"Boys and girls, this is - or was - the Time Crapper", will say
The Teacher, with a smile, to her students in the meeting room.
"Hi, I love your show" - will be Demon Girl's comment.
"Aren't you dead?", SoWhat will ask, with her usual uninpressed
attitude, absolutely not what one would expect from the
six-year-old red-haired girl.
"Thank you", will he say looking at the older girl; and then to
the redhair, "not in this timeline. From the creation of the
LNH up to now, there have been eleven different Time Crappers
acting in this particular Looniverse..."
"Which one was in the CPDC?", will be the question from the
pale boy, wearing nothing but black - Blackbird, according to
the label under his photograph on the wall.
"That was, I wasn't counting, but 4 or 5 of us, actually."
"Of course", the boy on plain, very well-fitting clothes will
start, as all attentions turn to him. "The Crapper - or
Crappers - dealed routinely with time travel and alteration,
paradoxes and alternate versions. Why couldn't some of these
alternates travel between worlds?"
Blur, the incorporeal conscious abstraction who was actually
part of the team, will sound annoyed. "Thank you, Analysis,
that will be enough."
"But", will say SoWhat, "shouldn't we think of the one who
originated from our timeline as the 'real' one?"
"If you wish. But she was killed by the Ultimate Ninja of the
universe Demon Girl's family come from, before she even had a
chance to fight 'our' LNH. So, moot point."
This reference will make the andogynous person with green hair,
who will look like twenty-something, too old for the team, join
the conversation, suspicious as always.
"So you've been studying the Acra Flight?"
"Hmm, no, Green. Professor and Teacher brifed me on you all,
who are your parents and powers, and why are you in the team..."
"And you still want us?", Blackbird will ask. "Why?"
"Aw cammon. The Legion of NeXT.Heroes is useless. The
Generation Zed can't fight villains, company policy. All the
others are either running business or retired in disgust. Who
else can I run to?" (He doesn't know about Ultimate Ninja's
version of the LNH - Footnote Woman)
"That's basically why the Acra Flight exists", Professor will
observe. "To fight the threats nobody else would fight, or even
admit the existence of."
"Or because, after the Takeover, it was decided that the whole
Macraphobe, Applecraphobe, Acrapple or whatever was a bad idea
PR-wise", Blackbird will care to remind.
SoWhat will yawn. "But what IS the threat actually?"
"Someone has been tampering with time. I don't know how, but
stories from 2015 are being posted to RACC in 2000. This is
obviously a mischevious plan to tear down the fabric of time
itself."
Analysis will then cut in again. "It is obviously the work of
some other Time Crapper, then. A new one."
"Why?"
"It's obvious. There have been 11 Time Crappers who worked in
this universe up to now. And no time-related phenomenom is
linked to this number; as most of you surely know, time has a
very strong link to the number 12."
"So", will ask the Teacher, perplexed, "there is a new Time
Crapper?" Everyone will trust Analysis judgements. It's her
power to make them, after all.
"Yes. And more powerful than all the previous ones, probably."
================================================================
Next issue: But who are these kids after all?
----------------------------------------------------------------
The Teacher (a.k.a. Inovation or Sarah Loman) and The Professor
(a.k.a. Research or Kalyani Sahay) are creations of Jennifer
Whitson and copyright 1999, 2000 by her - but the versions
depicted here are light-years away from hers.
This version of the Time Crapper is mine, 100% - so is the
explanation for the existence of more than one, an explanation
people have been waiting for since Teen Factor #72 or something
;-) Also, Blur is my creation, the only original character here.
All other characters are my creations, based on existing LNH
characters. The identity of these characters will be revealed
in the next issue, but they are copyright 1998, 1999, 2000 by
either Jennifer Whitson, Ben Rawluk or Paul Hardy.
[]s,
|alo
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