Time Was

The control room of a 24th-Century WATCHSTATION. This is a location we will see a lot of in this and future issues so it's worth giving it a full-page introduction.

It is a large (about 20 metres wide, three metres high), round, windowless room. Surfaces are smooth and shiny, either metal or plastic. Computer consoles, monitor screens, and banks of flashing lights line the walls. The room is brightly lit from unobvious sources. A big, round conference table is in the centre of the room with six swivelling chairs spaced regularly around it. At two sides of the room (let's arbitrarily call them "east" and "west") are spiral stairways, simple vertical poles with metal steps protruding from them (no handrails or anything), which link circular floor and ceiling hatches. The hatches can be sealed by iris mechanisms but they are currently (and normally) open. On the "south" side of the room is a bay recessed into the wall (and so enclosed on three sides), large enough for about six people to stand comfortably side-by-side. This bay is the teleport platform.

The whole room is stylishly futuristic (though the styling should be more "Liberator" than "Enterprise").

Even though all these details don't have to be seen in this panel, they should be revealed in various other panels throughout the issue.

Our five main characters are sitting around the central table: NIGHTFLYER, SCORPIO, AVATAR, ELECTRON, and BLACK SWAN (yes, one seat is empty). All are in costume ("uniform", if you prefer), as described last issue.

3. COMPUTER:

T minus five minutes and counting.

4. COMPUTER:

Graviton flywheel at optimum spin.

5. COMPUTER:

Fusion plant output at 98% and stable.

6. COMPUTER:

Severing links with teleport network.

7. COMPUTER:

Time-travel field established.

8. COMPUTER:

T minus four minutes and counting.

NIGHTFLYER, SCORPIO, AVATAR, ELECTRON, and BLACK SWAN sit around a table in a non-descript room with PROFESSOR ZOD and CHIEF KADNEZ.

2. ZOD:

We don't know the exact nature of the threat you will be facing, but we can theorise.

Close-up on ZOD.

3. ZOD:

To damage the timeline, I believe the cause must come from outside this space-time continuum. A standard Watchstation will be refitted with detectors for spatial anomalies, high-energy phenomena, gravimetric distortions, everything the Council of Science can think of.

Close-up on BLACK SWAN.

4. SWAN:

Tachyon particles?

5. ZOD (off-panel):

Of course.

6. SWAN:

Cosmic strings?

7. ZOD (off-panel):

Everything.

Close-up on SCORPIO and KADNEZ.

8. KADNEZ:

Leave the science to the Council. Your next few days will be spent on familiarisation with twentieth-century civilisation. You will get tuition in geography, politics, culture—

9. SCORPIO:

We are expected to interact with twentieth-century citizens?

10. KADNEZ:

You are expected to avoid it if at all possible but you need to be prepared for anything.

Back to ZOD in close-up.

11. ZOD:

But to minimise your own impact on the time stream, we are putting you as close to the origin of the threat as possible. Once there you will have precisely sixty minutes to identify and deal with the problem.

12. VOICE (off-panel):

Sixty—?

13. VOICE (off-panel):

Chew me!

14. VOICE (off-panel):

With respect, Sir, that's...

A view of the full group. BLACK SWAN looks disgusted. SCORPIO's head is bowed. ELECTRON slaps his forehead. AVATAR's inhuman face is unreadable. Only NIGHTFLYER looks happy.

15. NIGHTFLYER:

Last-minute rescues are cool.

KADNEZ and ZOD are walking towards us down a corridor.

4. ZOD:

Your officers seem very competent.

5. KADNEZ:

They're under-powered, under-trained, and none of them had worked together before yesterday.

Similar view, as they walk closer.

6. KADNEZ:

There are too many question marks in their backgrounds and their psych evaluations are—

7. KADNEZ:

No, I don't even want to think about their psych evaluations.

They are outside a closed door.

8. KADNEZ:

It's not the team I wanted to send. My picks were Gemini, Hammer, Lotus, Image, Littlejohn...

9. ZOD:

Then why—?

The door slides open as they walk through.

10. KADNEZ:

I was over-ruled.

11. KADNEZ:

What, you think anyone listens to me? I'm just the guy behind the desk. Picks were made by computer based on an optimum power balance.

12. SFX (door):

shhhh

They are in a large but austere office. KADNEZ is moving behind the desk. ZOD is sitting in the only other chair.

1. ZOD:

What about the attackers yesterday? How did they know where to strike — how did they even know my work existed?

2. KADNEZ:

They were just hired muscle.

A huge section of wall behind KADNEZ is evidently a viewing screen, and we now see four separate (possibly overlapping) images displayed on it. Each image shows a small, bare room containing a small table and a single seated man in orange coveralls. Think of a police "interview" room. Two of the men are recognisable as BLOCKHEAD (because of his size and his anvil-like head) and DISCORD (because of his funky moustache and hair-do). The other two are KILLERVOLT and VIPER, though they were masked last issue so readers will have to deduce that for themselves. They are fairly non-descript with no real distinguishing features.

3. KADNEZ:

And conditioned against psi probes, so we haven't be able to learn anything from them.

Close-up on ZOD, who is looking up at the wall behind KADNEZ.

4. KADNEZ (off-panel):

They'll go to the penal colony on Titan.

5. ZOD:

It is imperative that we learn who was behind the attack. The consequences of somebody knowing about my work...

Back to a view of them both, with the wall screen behind them still showing the prisoners.

6. KADNEZ:

I have my best detective following the data trail to the man behind them.

7. ZOD:

Which detective?

8. KADNEZ:

Fennec.

9. ZOD:

Never heard of him.

10. KADNEZ:

That's how good he is.

NIGHTFLYER is lying stripped to the waist on a padded black bed. He has a very trim and athletic physique -- muscled, but not massively so. A male DOCTOR stands over him (we can tell he's a doctor because he wears a short-sleeved blue shirt). He waves a small instrument over NIGHTFLYER's chest and studies the panel mounted on the wall above the bed. The panel has several vertical scales with red arrows indicating NIGHTFLYER's vital signs.

2. SFX (panel):

bom bom bom bom

3. SFX (medical instrument):

eeeeeeeeee

4. NIGHTFLYER:

What's the prognosis, Doc?

5. DOCTOR:

Stable — for now.

NIGHTFLYER is sitting up with his legs dangling over the edge of the bed. The DOCTOR writes on a hand-held electronic pad.

6. DOCTOR:

I can't predict how your immune system will react to the twentieth-century environment.

Still sitting on the bed, NIGHTFLYER is pulling on his uniform shirt (it goes on over his head, not front fastening).

7. DOCTOR:

You're barely acclimatised to this century. And we have no hard data on the pollutants of the twentieth.

8. NIGHTFLYER:

Relax. I'm very adaptable.

9. DOCTOR:

That's what I'm afraid of.

NIGHTFLYER is off the bed, standing on the floor.

10. NIGHTFLYER:

I'm only going to be there sixty minutes!

11. DOCTOR:

Just be careful, that's all I'm saying.

NIGHTFLYER is leaving the room, waving dismissively back at the DOCTOR.

12. NIGHTFLYER:

I was born careful!

The DOCTOR, alone in the room, is smacking his pad against his forehead.

No dialogue.

AVATAR "sits", cross-legged, hovering in empty air. He faces a wall -- a vast wall, massively high as well as wide -- of stainless-steel drawers, each one about 50cm square. It should be pretty obvious that it's a morgue, even without the caption above the panel. The particular drawer he faces will have an ID panel on it, but it doesn't need to be distinct enough to read.

2. AVATAR:

Did you have a plan when you summoned me, or were you just monumentally stupid?

Close-up on AVATAR's face, highlighting the glowing red eyes.

3. AVATAR:

Humans are a stupid race. Also vain, greedy, cowardly and lazy.

4. AVATAR:

I wonder if that will be the same in the twentieth century?

Full-body view of AVATAR, still in the same posture.

5. COMPUTER (from communicator):

Instruction: Avatar report for medical check.

6. AVATAR:

I don't need a medical check. I'm a demon, you stupid machine.

Same view.

7. COMPUTER (from communicator):

Information: The Council of Science has determined that demons do not exist.

8. AVATAR:

*sigh*

AVATAR is landing on the floor.

9. AVATAR:

As AVATAR walks down the hall, away from our POV, he is in the process of "changing". Irregular strips of a clothed human male float across his body, as if a human disguise is appearing out of thin air and wrapping itself around him.

10. AVATAR:

Ok. Let's prove again that I have no heart, no blood pressure, and no body temperature.

11. AVATAR:

Stupid humans.

Close-up of a comic-book cover. Two figures stand in a snowy field. One is a muscular man in a skin-tight red, white & blue costume. The other towers above him menacingly: an eight-foot tall, blocky, powerful-looking, matt-black humanoid monster. Littered around them in the snow are the unconscious (or dead) bodies of several other gaudily-clad superheroes (they don't need to be shown plainly). The title of the comic, in a red, white & blue logo, is "DEFENSE LEAGUE OF AMERICA" and the cover blurb to go with the picture is "Alone against the power of... BLACKSUN!"

2. SCORPIO (off-panel):

But this is fiction.

Now we see SCORPIO and ELECTRON looking at a glass display case that contains the comic book.

3. ELECTRON:

But it's based on fact! These people really existed!

4. SCORPIO:

Maverick crime fighters, not working for the authorities?

They are walking away from the exhibit.

5. SCORPIO:

That's a terrible idea. What kind of anarchic century was it?

6. ELECTRON:

You'd be surprised. Not much of it is in the official history.

They are passing another display case which has some kind of bulky, hand-held, blaster weapon. The label on the case reads "RAY GIZMO (c.1956, only surviving model)".

7. SCORPIO:

Luckily we won't be in the past long enough to interact with any of them.

8. SCORPIO:

Though it's unlikely they would be a match for our advanced science.

They pass a case with another comic book. We can see part of the cover of this one, too. It shows a teenage girl with long, curly, blonde hair and a teenage boy with a black leather jacket and a cigarette in his mouth. They cower in a doorway while a huge werewolf menaces them. Due to the placement of the panel borders (or possibly the figures of SCORPIO and ELECTRON, or their speech-bubbles, blocking our view), we can't see the title of the comic.

9. SCORPIO:

What about that one?

10. ELECTRON:

No—

They walk away from that exhibit, too.

11. ELECTRON:

—That one really is fiction.

KARL ZOD walks down a corridor, reading off a hand-held data pad.

2. BLACK SWAN (off-panel):

Professor Zod!

ZOD turns to see BLACK SWAN hurrying to catch up with him.

3. BLACK SWAN:

Professor! I think it would be helpful if I had access to your work. So if something goes wrong in 1987, I would be able to fix it.

She has caught him up and they stand facing each other.

4. BLACK SWAN:

I have a degree in astrophysics with a speciality in—

5. ZOD:

Yes, I am aware of that. I read your thesis.

BLACK SWAN looks eager but ZOD is turning away.

6. BLACK SWAN:

And?

7. ZOD:

You would not understand my work.

ZOD is walking away. BLACK SWAN looks after him, her expression furious. Her right hand is clenched into a fist and motes of black energy dance around it.

No dialogue.

BLACK SWAN flies down the corridor, away from ZOD.

No dialogue.

Back to a view of the WATCHSTATION control deck, identical to the panel on PAGE 1.

2. COMPUTER:

T minus three minutes and counting.

3. COMPUTER:

Fusion plant output at 110% and stable.

Identical panel.

5. COMPUTER:

T minus two minutes and counting.

6. COMPUTER:

All telemetry nominal.

Identical panel.

8. COMPUTER:

T minus one minute and counting.

9. COMPUTER:

Time travel field integrity fully established. Mission abort is no longer possible.

A view from space. We see a compact space station shaped like an upside-down truncated cone topped by a dome. (Er... kind of like an ice-cream cone with the bottom broken off.) In the background are the curve of the Earth and the stars. Docked to the side of the station is a small space craft, shaped vaguely like an SR-71 Blackbird airplane but much shorter in the body. Its flat bottom is flush against the sloped side of the station.

1. COMPUTER:

T minus thirty seconds and counting.

2. COMPUTER:

Ten seconds.

3. COMPUTER:

Five.

4. COMPUTER:

Four.

5. COMPUTER:

Three.

6. COMPUTER:

Two.

7. COMPUTER:

One.

The panel background is identical to panel 1 but the space station has vanished.

No dialogue.

This panel is identical to panel 1 -- the station has reappeared.

No dialogue.

Identical panel again.

8. VOICE (from space station):

Are we there yet?

Within the control room, the team remains seated.

1. COMPUTER:

Confirmed.

2. COMPUTER:

Time jump is complete.

They have left their seats and are scanning the consoles mounted around the walls of the room, typing on keyboards, etc.

3. ELECTRON:

Wow.

4. NIGHTFLYER:

Never doubted it for a minute.

5. SCORPIO:

Computer, tie us into their Internet.

6. COMPUTER:

Working.

7. COMPUTER:

Their worldwide network coverage is fragmented and incomplete. I can find no useful data feeds.

8. COMPUTER:

However, I can offer you a choice of seven hundred and fifty-three television stations.

Same scene, with them all doing slightly different tasks at slightly different consoles.

9. SCORPIO:

Er, no thanks.

10. BLACK SWAN:

Electron and Avatar can be on TV duty. I'll check the astronomical data.

Close-up on ELECTRON and AVATAR side-by side at a control console.

11. ELECTRON (softly):

Who died and put her in charge?

12. AVATAR:

Somebody died?

13. ELECTRON:

It was a figure of speech! Sheesh!

Another exterior view of the space station. (The cut away from the interior is to communicate the idea that it's a new scene, i.e. time has passed.)

1. COMPUTER (from space station):

Information: forty minutes until the end of the world.

Interior again. They are still scanning readings but looking generally dejected and hopeless.

2. NIGHTFLYER:

We really didn't need to know that.

3. COMPUTER:

Information: high-power tachyon anomaly detected.

4. COMPUTER:

Visual representation on main screen now.

BLACK SWAN and SCORPIO regard a screen which is partly filled by an image of the Earth. From a spot somewhere in the southern United States (Arizona, if the image is detailed enough to show that) a beam shoots out and disappears into deep space off the edge of the screen.

5. SCORPIO:

They don't have the technology to manipulate a beam like that in the twentieth century, do they?

6. BLACK SWAN:

We barely have the technology to manipulate a beam like that!

7. BLACK SWAN:

Computer, calculate the other endpoint of the beam.

8. COMPUTER:

Working.

9. COMPUTER:

Beam terminus is deep-space source designated Cygnus X-1.

Close-up on BLACK SWAN and SCORPIO.

10. BLACK SWAN:

Oh no.

11. SCORPIO:

What?

12. BLACK SWAN:

Cygnus X-1 is a black hole. Space-time breaks down at a black hole's event horizon.

13. BLACK SWAN:

Space and time.

NIGHTFLYER is leaping towards the alcove at one side of the control deck. AVATAR is hot on his heels.

1. NIGHTFLYER:

Good enough for me. Computer, set the teleport to the tachyon beam's terminus on Earth.

NIGHTFLYER and AVATAR stand in the alcove (which is comfortably big enough for the whole team), looking out into the control deck.

2. COMPUTER:

Teleport system is unavailable.

3. NIGHTFLYER:

What?

4. AVATAR (softly):

Now we feel really silly.

5. COMPUTER:

Teleport calibration is taking longer than anticipated due to the absence of sensory data from a full Watchstation network.

6. COMPUTER:

Thirty-seven minutes until the end of the world.

NIGHTFLYER leaps towards a hatch in the deck. AVATAR is hot on his heels.

7. NIGHTFLYER:

Shuttle!

8. NIGHTFLYER:

Computer, prep the shuttle for immediate undocking.

9. COMPUTER:

Confirmed.

NIGHTFLYER has vanished from the deck. AVATAR is half through the hatch with ELECTRON waiting his turn. SCORPIO has his hand on BLACK SWAN's shoulder, turning her towards him.

10. SCORPIO:

Cygnus is "the swan", isn't it?

11. SCORPIO:

Coincidence?

12. BLACK SWAN:

I—

13. BLACK SWAN:

—hope so.

They are all either in the cramped forward cabin of the space shuttle or climbing into it through a hatch to a rear compartment. There are six seats, arranged in three pairs, but the team members are currently standing.

1. SCORPIO:

Who's got a pilot certification?

They are now all in the cabin, looking at one another.

No dialogue.

Same view, with them all looking at one another.

2. SCORPIO:

They sent us into the past with a shuttle and no pilot?

3. NIGHTFLYER:

I'll give it a go!

NIGHTFLYER is strapping himself into the front-left seat, in front of a bewilderingly-complex instrument panel. SCORPIO is getting into the front-right seat. This panel can also include ELECTRON behind them but doesn't need to include anyone else.

4. ELECTRON:

You'll give it a go?

5. SCORPIO:

Do you have any flight experience?

6. NIGHTFLYER:

Not on anything like this.

NIGHTFLYER's hand hovers over a switch and he chews his lip. SCORPIO on aghast.

7. NIGHTFLYER:

But how hard can it be?

8. SCORPIO:

Computer, pilot us down.

9. COMPUTER:

Confirmed.

10. NIGHTFLYER:

I can do it!

11. SCORPIO:

I'd rather trust the computer.

Exterior view of the shuttle undocking from the station.

No dialogue.

With rocket exhaust blazing, the shuttle streaks away from the station.

No dialogue.

The shuttle moves towards the distant Earth under full thrust.

1. COMPUTER (from shuttle):

Estimated time to landing: twenty-three minutes.

2. VOICE (from shuttle):

That only gives us fifteen minutes to save the Earth!

3. COMPUTER (from shuttle):

Correction: ten minutes fifty seconds to save the Earth.

Shuttle still in flight.

No dialogue.

And again.

4. VOICE (from shuttle):

Computer, can you go a little faster?

The shuttle is now in atmosphere -- the background is blue instead of black and wisps of cloud are streaking past.

1. COMPUTER (from shuttle):

Sensors show a man-made structure at the beam end-point.

Inside the cockpit, showing SCORPIO and NIGHTFLYER from behind (so we can see the sky outside the big window).

2. SCORPIO:

Computer, put us down a kilometre away.

3. NIGHTFLYER:

No, put us down right on top of it.

4. SCORPIO:

Belay that. Put us down a kilometre away.

Now a view of their faces as they look at each other.

5. SCORPIO:

We should do a visual reconnaissance before we charge in.

6. NIGHTFLYER:

Do you do everything by the book?

7. SCORPIO:

Don't you?

Exterior view again as the shuttle flies low over the ground. It looks like a wilderness -- uneven, rocky ground, dry and mostly barren. It is daylight.

8. NIGHTFLYER (from shuttle):

I usually make it up as I go along.

The shuttle lands on a ridge in a great cloud of dust and smoke. Through the cloud we can see NIGHTFLYER already dropping from a hatch in the belly (which is the hatch that docks to the space station).

1. SFX:

FWSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHH

STRIKEFORCE are arranged on the ridge, looking out over open ground to a structure in the distance. The structure seems to be a low building in a fenced compound. There are other smaller buildings within the fence. The main building is topped by what we will call an ANTENNA. This is of an esoteric design: an open tetrahedron formed of tubular metal bars, with one point of the tetrahedron anchored to the roof and an open end of the framework pointing up to the heavens. (The exact detail of the ANTENNA might not be obvious in this panel, but we'll get closer soon.) There is no visible beam coming from the antenna (because tachyons are invisible, naturally).

2. COMPUTER:

Information: ten minutes fifteen seconds to save the Earth.

3. BLACK SWAN:

Let's go.

4. ELECTRON:

Computer, deploy a Remote sensing device to follow us in.

The team sets off towards the building. AVATAR is flying and has SCORPIO under one arm and ELECTRON under the other. Flying close by is the REMOTE computer unit -- this silvery device is a flat, squareish slab about the size of a small notebook computer, with a couple of fins and some glowing sensors on the front. Flying level with AVATAR is BLACK SWAN. NIGHTFLYER runs ahead of them all, leaving a trail of dust as he covers the ground.

No dialogue.

Close-up on AVATAR, SCORPIO and ELECTRON. SCORPIO is talking into his communicator bracelet.

1. SCORPIO:

Nightflyer, there's a ground vehicle coming out to intercept you.

2. ELECTRON:

It's called a Jeep.

3. SCORPIO:

I know that!

4. VOICE FROM COMMUNICATOR:

I see it.

We see NIGHTFLYER running head-on towards a speeding Jeep. Not just any Jeep -- it's a U.S. Army Jeep, and the four occupants are armed soldiers!

No dialogue.

NIGHTFLYER somersaults clean over the speeding Jeep. The soldiers all duck and clutch their helmets.

No dialogue.

The Jeep is skidding to a halt. So is NIGHTFLYER, now behind the Jeep. Both throw up clouds of dust.

No dialogue.

NIGHTFLYER looks back at the Jeep, while the soldiers look back at him. One of the soldiers is raising his rifle to firing position. NIGHTFLYER is speaking into his communicator.

5. NIGHTFLYER:

They're hostile.

NIGHTFLYER knocks the armed soldier clear out of the Jeep with a flying kick. The other soldiers are scrambling to ready their weapons.

1. SFX (kick):

WHAM!

NIGHTFLYER is standing in the Jeep and punching a second soldier. A third soldier is behind him, rifle pointed directly at his back. The fourth soldier is diving clear of the Jeep.

2. SFX (punch):

SMACK!

NIGHTFLYER has turned to face the soldier with the rifle -- but he's no longer a threat. The rifle has been yanked upwards and out of his hands by an invisible force.

3. SOLDIER:

Wha—?

The soldier looks up to see AVATAR, SCORPIO and ELECTRON hovering a few metres above him. ELECTRON holds the rifle in one hand and is wagging his other finger at the soldier in a disapproving manner.

4. ELECTRON:

Tut-tut!

NIGHTFLYER finishes off the surprised guard with a punch. The guard on the ground is blasted in the back by a beam of black energy from a hovering BLACK SWAN.

1. SFX (punch):

THWACK!

The team is now on the ground next to the Jeep. ELECTRON rolls over one of the fallen soldiers to see the front of his uniform. AVATAR shades his eyes and looks in the direction of the (off-panel) building.

2. ELECTRON:

This is military. American military.

3. SCORPIO:

I know. So much for non-interaction.

4. AVATAR:

And there's more of them. All with guns.

They all look off-panel towards the building.

5. BLACK SWAN:

Chew 'em. I'm bullet proof.

6. ELECTRON:

I'm not!

7. SCORPIO:

Computer — time?

Close-up on the hovering REMOTE sensor unit.

8. REMOTE:

Eight minutes forty seconds.

They look at each other.

1. ELECTRON:

Whatever that beam is for, they can't know how dangerous it is.

2. SCORPIO:

But—

3. NIGHTFLYER:

—We don't have time to explain to them.

4. REMOTE:

Eight minutes thirty-two seconds.

Same positions.

5. SCORPIO:

Anyone not coming?

6. ELECTRON:

Minimum force, ok? No casualties.

7. BLACK SWAN:

Agreed.

They look back off-panel towards their target.

8. REMOTE:

Eight minutes twenty-five seconds.

They are in the same positions but this is a wider view to take in the building they are looking at. Though it's in the distance, we can see activity as more soldiers take up defensive positions.

9. NIGHTFLYER:

Let's do it.

Full-page panel of them racing out towards our POV. Same travelling formation as before: AVATAR carrying ELECTRON and SCORPIO, BLACK SWAN flying alone, NIGHTFLYER running, the computer REMOTE keeping pace with them.

No dialogue.