Yue

 21st October

21:47 GMT -6

Rusty-red hair shot through with grey, generally grizzled face… Ah heck, this is Rip Hunter, isn't it?

Is it? Oh great, how do I actually-?

"What time machine's that then?"

Beryl has an excellent poker face, but I don't think it's cutting any mustard here. A policeman behind probably-Rip Hunter nods at him and raises his eyebrows at me, wanting to know if I want him chased off. I give my head a small shake.

"My time machine, that appeared in the Sonoran Desert two days ago and appears to have precipitated an attack by the Justice League that wasn't supposed to happen."

"I see. Perhaps we should talk in private, Mister..?"

"Rip Hunter."

Beryl raises her eyebrows at me, but I just nod. "'Rip Hunter'. Do you think I should tell people that my first name is 'Esk'?"

"Esk-?" I make a show of wincing. "Oh, that's terrib- " I open my empathic vision all the way, steeling myself as I do so. "-father."

I think Mister Hunter spots what I'm trying. Certainly he ends up glowing an undifferentiated green on the surface. I'm assuming that's some sort of telepathic resistance technique. Not much point going to those sorts of length to hide your identity if the first telepath you run across can take it directly from your mind. But then, I'm not a telepath. And I get just a tiny peek of someone I was sort of hoping to have met by now.

I nod. "Identification confirmed, Mister Hunter. We should continue this in private." I attach a filament to him and Beryl and transition us to the top of a nearby building. His eyes dart around his new environment as much as they can without entirely losing sight of me. "I apologise, but the other fellow had a time machine and useful advice. I rather assumed he was you."

"You shouldn't know who I am. And you certainly shouldn't know who my-." He shakes his head. "What did this other time traveller look like?"

I generate a construct of him.

"Huh. What did he say his name was?"

"Just.. Hunter."

"And he couldn't even come up with something original." Mister Hunter shakes his head. "His name is Jason Goldstein, we.. used to work together. But right now he needs to be stopped."

"While I.. sympathise with you on the theft, I.. don't really see how this is a high urgency issue. Him giving us the opportunity to finally round up Eliminations, Inc. is extremely helpful."

He looks sour. "And despite knowing who I am, you're not just going to take my word for it when I say this is a very bad idea."

"Not without a little more information."

"Information's the problem! The more people know, the more people try to change things!"

"Mister Goldstein is hardly the only person trying to do that. As soon as I found out that the Earth was due to be conquered by the Reach I prioritised stopping them. If that's what you're trying to stop..."

He rubs his forehead with his right hand. "And do you know what the consequences of that will be?"

"If I win, Earth civilisation doesn't collapse, billions don't die-."

"Billions don't die here."

"I'm an Orange Lantern, these are the ones I'm invested in."

Beryl smiles sarcastically. "Awwwww."

"And our technological progress doesn't get set back hundreds of years."

"Earth's technological progress won't get set back hundreds of years. The rest of human civilisation never happens."

"The rest..? You mean, like where Abra Kadabra grew up?"

"That and a hundred places like it where the Reach tried to turn metahumans into living weapons. A hundred worlds where stabilised and reproducible metahuman abilities are the norm. The effective death of Earth civilisation resulted in a medium term strengthening of humanity as a whole."

"And Per Degaton?"

"He unified Earth. He did a lot of bad things doing it, but the net result was to make Earth stronger. If the League stops that happening, Earth stays controlled by the Thanagarians."

Beryl shrugs. "Unless something else happens."

"Yeah, I'm still not seeing this as a problem. Was.. Mister Goldstein telling the truth when he said that the Light are the ones who bring the Reach to Earth?"

"No, no, no…" He shakes his head again, clearly frustrated with us. "The Reach will come to Earth."

"Not if they're all dead, they won't."

Beryl blinks. "All-? Ahhh…"

"I've been a time traveller for long enough to notice things. I understand the appeal, I really.. do. Make things 'better', where's the harm? When I first started out I thought the same way. Things don't.. work out like that. Tachyons go backwards in time. That means that data about the future state of the universe does as well. The past doesn't just influence the future, the future affects the past. The best way I can describe it is that the future knows what shape it's supposed to be. And anything that tries to change that more than a certain amount… It generates… Blowback. Either things get flat out worse, or they end up going the way they were going to go with a slight delay added to them."

"Are you..? Anthropomorphising time?"

"No, I'm not saying that time's malevolent, I'm saying there are hard mechanical problems involved in trying to change things that shouldn't be changed. Problems that your wishful thinking -and his- don't take account of."

"Squire?"

"I'm pretty sure he believes it, but I'd want a look at his original data. It doesn't sound completely implausible, but it is a bit far fetched."

Mister Hunter huffs in frustration. "Can you at least arrest Goldstein?"

"Can you prove that you own the time sphere?"

"I can prove that he murdered one of our co-workers."

"Why didn't you lead with that, then? Murder is something I-" Usually. "-don't have a problem arresting people for. But…" I glance at Beryl. "How do we arrest a time traveller?"