Yue

 Yes. Or… We might be seeing residue as a result of history altering, or… Anything, really. Pick your theory." And all I can do is stay here maintaining my scans in the hope of getting something useful. "How much time travel have you encountered?"

"Not a whole lot. Mxyzptlk made me repeat a single day on an endless loop once, but I think he's a special case."

I could riff off that, but attracting the attention of a Looney Tunes inspired 5th dimensional imp is the last thing I want to do.

"And I.. doubt that you could gather any useful intelligence from him."

"No. But I did get a whole lot of reading done. It was just a shame all the work I did got erased when I broke the loop."

I nod, then float slowly north, scanning constructs maintaining constant vigilance for anything of note or of use.

"Why did you pick that man out of the crowd?"

"He's a durlan."

"The same people who are terrorising China? You let him go?"

"Durlans are even less unified than humans are. While it's possible that he's associated with the group over there, I don't have any evidence of it. And since the Chinese are keeping quiet about their durlan problem it's quite possible that he doesn't know about it. I suggested that he might like to leave the planet before the Chinese locate him-."

"Suggest as in..?"

"Point out the problem and suggest that he leave. He said that it wasn't really an option."

"You didn't offer to give him a ride back home?"

"Durla's a radioactive mess experiencing total societal collapse. If he's here, he's presumably here for a reason. I'm not going to force him to go home any more than I'd force you to go back to Krypton."

"Somewhere else, then."

"He had a human appearance and he's not actually in China. He's probably more at risk from the other durlans…" And if they go after him first then we'll have an early warning system. Not a nice thought, but it's true and I did warn him. "I was actually a little worried that he might be a durlan by the name 'Von Daggle', but…" I shake my head. "Wrong emotional mix."

"I think you might have mentioned him before. Who is he?"

"I'm.. not sure what his official status is. The records on John's ring didn't mention him. But I have other sources of information. He's the head of the Guardians' black operations unit. Actual black operations, not the long-finger things the League used my former team for."

"But not a Green Lantern?"

"He might have been. He might still be, actually. But these days he mostly does things the Guardians need done but can't afford to be publically associated with. There was a brief period where I was concerned that they might send him after me."

"But you're not worried any more?"

"No. Not significantly."

He sighs and looks away. "But it's not because you met them and think that they're good people, it's because the Orange Lantern Corps already exists and you don't think it's worth their time any more."

"The Guardians are too important to be able to be 'nice'."

Kal-El shakes his head. "I don't believe that's true for a moment. Do you really think that important people can't afford to be nice?"

"Not if it interferes with their main job. Look, the Guardians are responsible for untold billions of people. You know what they were going to offer me when I bonded with the Ophidian? You know what they did give Larfleeze?" He nods. "They made a rational decision. They've got finite resources with which to do as much as they can. It wasn't nice leaving Vega to Larfleeze… And having seen the worst of that place, I.. fully appreciate that. But I wouldn't criticise them for the decision if that's really what it took to keep Larfleeze there. Because Abra Kadabra can tell you all about what happens when he leaves."

"Except it didn't. He didn't."

"None of us know everything. It reminds me of a… Okay, we don't have actual superheroes on Earth Prime, but we have the concept. And there was a.. television series.. where they put people in costumes and… In a series of challenges, assessed their suitability for the role. In one of the challenges they had to run an obstacle course as fast as possible… But near the start a little girl was crying. The guy running it wanted them to stop and find out what was wrong, because helping her should be more important to a hero than their time."

"Sure, if it's just a race."

"If a superhero's racing somewhere, then something very bad is happening there. If Barrage was shooting up central Metropolis, how many people would die if you took time out from stopping him to do anything?"

He nods. "Triage."

"Yeah."

"You know, I listened to that 'How To Succeed In Evil' story you told Lex about."

"You.. did..?"

"Edwin says that their version of the Flash has no concept of Triage, he just fights street crime because he likes fighting street crime. Even if it's not the best way he could use his powers. And since Edwin's job is showing people how to use their abilities efficiently, it-."

Warning. Temporal event-

Armour appears around my body, followed by construct armour and rail guns. Tachyon detector getting a lot more pings all of a sudden, and oh sugar those are chronitons!

"I can see.. something…"

The universe wobbles, and when it unwobbles there's a.. transparent sphere with a single figure sitting on a leather seat inside it. The sphere itself is glowing pale blue, presumably as a side effect of whatever allows it to travel through time. Arranged around the man inside are what appear to be the controls of his.. time.. sphere.. thing.

Okay, no immediate danger to either myself or Kal-El, chroniton emission has dropped right off… Can't scan the inside of the sphere, but I think we're safe. The man inside… That's a side arm, but it looks like a kinetic weapon. Probably not related to the killers from Washington.

The man inside checks his instruments, then notices us. He stares for a moment, then pulls a lever. That causes a section of the sphere to fade away, and he climbs out of his seat and walks through it onto the desert sands.

"Hi there. Name's Hunter. Looks like you were expecting me."