Booster Gold #25 - Goldstar

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Author: ScarecrowSid

Book: Booster Gold

Set: 32

★

    Everything happened at once.

    Glass shattered, weblike cracks emanating through the windows as the Super… Cyclops… thing withdrew its arm. The punch had been sudden, like gas sparking into a raging fire. Out of instinct, Booster stepped between himself and the shards flying in Michelle’s general direction, forgetting that the panes were designed by engineers of this century, not the archaic styles of the 21st. Their solution was an elegant one, and as the edges coated themselves with a seal activated by open-air exposure.

    When they struck him, they still hurt like hell, but there were no cuts to speak of. At that same moment, a second machine appeared beside the first, identical to the first except the cape on its back was in tatters.

    Booster spun on his heel, grabbed Michelle by the wrist and darted toward the door. Be it through fear or shock, she followed without a word as they burst into the hallway as a second thundering crash broke behind them. The second of the robotic sentinels barreled past them, tearing through the walls as if they were paper, shearing the metallic panels beneath with the ease of a child shredding pages out of a despised novel.

    There was a crack as the door ahead of them was torn from its slider and hurled behind the approaching Sentinel. Booster readied to duck, but before he could the panel stopped in midair. There was a metallic clang as it fell to the ground, and Michelle stood up beside Booster, arm outstretched and fingers reaching toward the panel.

    It rose, softly, and began to spin in time with the rhythm of her fingers.

    Booster stared, dumbfounded, between the Sentinel and sister, as the metal pane began to spin faster. In seconds it was revolving at such a speed that the edges were indistinguishable, and the jagged remains of the sliding track formed a perfect circle.

    Michelle pulled her arm back, then punched forward. The panel followed suit, sawing into the Sentinel as the sounds of metal striking metal filled the room and sparks of hot shrapnel soared in every direction. Booster, jaw still slightly ajar, looked over to her sister.

    Flushed, grinning, and wearing a suit not dissimilar to his own, she charged forward, gathering the shrapnel by some unseen mechanism. They swirled about her, like little planets orbiting a star… which, judging from the golden star emblazoned across her chest, was not an unfair description.

    “Michelle…You’re a…What the f*ck is going on?”

    Michelle shrugged at him, still grinning. “Everyone has their secrets, Michael.”

    And then, without a word, she charged the other Sentinel.

★ ★

    Ted Kord was endlessly enthralled by this century. Everything was so foreign, so fantastic. In place of standard cars, there were these floating casket-like things that soared like bullets across the night sky. Those, coupled with floating bikes that resembled nothing so much as the speeders of Star Wars canon, dotted that same sky like thousands of staggered, shining diamonds.

    “What a place,” Ted whispered, almost reverently.

    “Suicide City ain’t special, kid,” muttered someone to his right. The man, squat and ragged, was obviously homeless. It struck Ted as incongruous that homelessness and vagrancy would exist in this far-flung future. For some reason, he had clung to the notion that there was no such thing as poverty in the future. His own innovations and advances were meant to accomplish just that, to let people be people without the burdens of everyday life. “I’ve been here…”

    Ted should have been polite, but he didn’t really feel the need to entertain the man’s story at the moment. He pressed on a quick series of profanities faded away behind him, complaining about how the young had no respect for their elders anymore. Ironic, of course, considering that Ted was the elder here.

    An hour earlier, he and Michael had visited a back alley mechanist to put the finishing touches on a special order. The fulfillment of said order was now slung across Ted’s back in a duffle bag, along with a small trolley that followed him down the road. It too hovered just off the ground, like the cars around him, and Ted was keen to bring it with him. Assuming, of course, that they ever found their way back to the present… or the past… or whatever the hell it was now.

    Ted turned a corner, following a crudely conjured map he and Michael had planted in a pair of eyeglasses. Supposedly it led to the apartment of a “Michelle Carter”, meaning Michael’s sister. Odd that his friend never mentioned having a sister, but there was a quite a bit of bravado to get through before one arrived at the genuine person beneath.

    He was nearly there now, only a block away from the building, faded tan bricks with blue accents along nearly a hundred windows. This was a slum complex, and it showed when one looked across the water to the high-rises of the New Metropolis to the North.

    There was an explosion overhead, followed quickly by the screech of a siren as three lights broke away from the stream overhead and shot toward the building, red and blue lights whirring. Ted glanced at the building, remembering that Michelle was supposedly located somewhere on the middle floors.

    And, of course, as luck would have it… the middle floors were the source of the explosion.

    “Dammit, Michael… can nothing ever be simple?”

★ ★ ★

    Michelle slashed out at the other Sentinel with her right hand, the metal shards hovering just ahead of her in a stream similar to a whip cracked then lashed at the machine. A deep scar appeared on its chest as it staggered back.

    Her other hand was splayed behind her, holding back the bisected carcass of the first Sentinel. It was attempting to crawl toward her, steel fingers tearing at the ground as it dragged its top half toward her. The legs simply lay there, seemingly dead without access to the top.

    Curious.

    Part of him, a morbid part, wondered why the top half was dragging itself instead of trying to fly. The latter would have been the better method of moving about, especially with the thrusters built into its back, arms, and hands. There was, however, a puddle of some viscous, glowing fluid trailing from the bisected remains giving off an acrid smell.

    Perhaps that fluid was some sort of propulsive fuel, something to really get the hunk of junk up in the air. That was kind of cool… almost like the machine had a circulatory system.

    His reverie was interrupted by the metallic hiss of metal striking metal as the second Sentinel’s head fell on the floor with a clang. The body, however, did not stop in its tracks.

    A second, lethal strike, saw to that. Michelle bisected the thing again, this time at the waist, and the pieces flew in opposite directions with soft thuds. Booster grinned, looking as each half bounced off the couch cushions and a second, louder, thud was followed by a scrape.

    “Not bad,” Booster muttered.

    Booster took a moment to look over the suit Michelle was wearing. The design a near copy of his own, right down to the visor he now noticed. There was a slight variation in color, with black and white replacing the blues of his own suit, but the gold was there.

    “I do what I can,” Michelle replied.

    “And you were giving me shit about being a hero, but you’re one yourself.”

    Michelle raised an eyebrow. “What gives you that impression?”

    Booster gestured to the suit, then to the visor, and finally to the remains of the Sentinels. “Pretty damn heroic, kid.”

    Their exchange was interrupted by the swaying of a spotlight overhead, followed by a second and third, all of which focused on Michelle.

    A voice roared overhead. “Goldstar! Hands in the air!”

    Michelle smiled, raising her hands. “I mean if you insist…”

    With a flick of her wrist, one of the lights suddenly veered, striking the middle one and sending both away in flaming wreckage. Michelle’s smile widened as she pulled the third one down, slamming it against the side of the building before hurling it away.

    “What the hell, ‘Chelle!?” Booster exclaimed, somehow drawing out the old saying. Some things stuck with you, especially childhood proclivities. Hell, he still veered left when riding a bike. But that was a long story…

    “What?”

    “Are you insane, those were cops!” Booster shouted.

    “Technically, those were unmanned aerial law enforcement drones reporting back to their main cluster in the greater Suicide City area,” Michelle replied, shrugging. “Pretty sure you just blew my cover, Mikey.”

    “Wait.. explain…”

    Michelle sighed, her eyes rolling slightly behind the visor. “Come on, man. It’s obvious, isn’t it?”

    Behind them, there was a crunching noise and Michelle spun to face the man approaching. Ted, arms raised, threw on what he must have perceived as a disarming smile and glanced between Booster and his sister.

    “I brought the stuff,” Ted said, gesturing to a duffle bag with his thumb. “Time to suit up.”

    Ted lowered his arms, then brought out a package from his duffle bag and unwrapped it. Booster glanced at the arm, all gold and blue with rivets in the right places.

    “Bitchin’...” Booster muttered.

    “You have got to be kidding me,” Michelle muttered, burying her face in a palm.

★ ★ ★ ★

    A quick sojourn to an adjacent building occurred, in absolute silence.

    Booster watched his sister, who in turn watched the skies. A sharp pain in his shoulder drew his attention back. Skeets hovered there, directing an army of nanites that ate away at his flesh like maggots.

    “That hurt, Skeets,” Booster said through gritted teeth.

    “I am doing my best, sir,” Skeets replied. “I am not designed for medical applications.”

    Nanite surgery was a nightmare without anesthesia, but you didn’t want to risk an incorrect dose. That would result in the nanites running wild across your skin, setting to work on areas where the flesh was fine and leaving you skinned several layers.

    Horrendous, really. And that was why Skeets was keeping a handle on things.

    He chanced a glance at their work, noting the superstructure required for mounting the arm was nearly complete. Michelle had turned her attention back to him, a wry smile on her face.

    “That’s the worst part,” she commented. “Once the mounting is built, the nerves need to be attached in series. It’s...painful.”

    Booster didn’t dare speak, as the first stings of his nerves springing back to life as they linked into this new interface.

    “So…” Michelle began, looking to his arm, then him. “I’m guessing you have some questions?”

    Booster nodded.

    “I’m guessing you got your fashion sense from him,” Ted said, nodding to Booster. “Like brother, like sister.”

    Michelle scoffed. “Hardly. I was the one sticking a gold star to his uniform since little league.”

    Ted raised his eyebrows. “Why, Michael, I never knew you were failing to provide proper credit for your merchandising.”

    It was Michelle’s turn to raise her eyebrows. “Merchandising?”

    “Oh, he’s got a whole line. Booster Gold cologne, deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrushes, pajamas, blankets… okay, I’m noticing a theme here, I might need a nap.”

    “If you two are done gibbering…” Booster began, teeth still gritted. “Maybe Michelle would like to tell me what the f*ck she does for a living.”

    Michelle grinned again. “I’m sort of a thief… a really good one.”

    “World famous,” Skeets chimed in. “Stolen hundreds of rare items from heroic archives, mostly technology.”

    “Where the hell did you… who told you to do this!” Booster shouted. “‘Chelle, what the hell!?”

    “From you, dumbass.” Michelle frowned. “Did you really think I didn’t figure out why you were working in that museum? You were going to rob it before you ‘died’... And, you know what? I was right! You did rob it.”

    Ted broke down laughing. “She’s got you there.”

    “I didn’t steal them, I borrowed them,” Booster muttered scornfully. “Nobody was using them and I intended to put them back… eventually.”

    “Exactly my thinking when it came to the Wonder Woman’s shield.” Michelle seemed to drift off, recalling the relic. “Worth for a fortune…”

    “A fortune, huh? Looks like it’s bought a lot.” Booster meant it sarcastically, and Michelle caught his tone.

    “I never sold it, Michael,” Michelle replied. “I just wanted it, so I took it.”

    Booster bit back a curse as another spike of pain shot through his arm. This process was not only unpleasant, but it was also irritating. Kind of like a younger sibling jabbing you in your side when you’re not looking.

    “Patrols,” Michelle said, nodding toward the horizon. “Mind telling me what the hell you’re doing being chased by because it seems to have taken over the…” She stopped, staring at a point behind them. “Who the hell is that?”

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

    The Stranger wasn’t a stranger, not really. He looked charred. As if someone had stuck Booster Gold on a barbeque and forgotten about him, burned black on one side and gleaming gold on the other.

    It was… strange. Booster didn’t expect to look into a horror-house mirror image of himself today, and everything about the situation felt wrong.

    “Wait, wait,” the Stranger whispered. “You need to leave.”

    He reached out, metallic arm slightly melted. That was troubling, the arm he and Ted chose was supposed to be able to stand up to extreme temperatures.

    The Stranger wheezed, then coughed.

    “You need to leave,” he repeated.

    “Michael,” Ted took a step toward Booster. “Do you need to tell us something…”

    Booster said nothing.

    “Because that’s kind of obviously not a different you, he’s got your arm.”

    “Ted, could you shut up for a minute.” Booster stared at his counterpart, taking in the damage. “Um, Booster Gold, what the hell happened to you.”

    The Stranger blinked at him, revealing that only one eye was intact beneath the charred. He brought out a sphere, it gave off an ethereal glow as he set it down. Then looked back at them, smiling.

    His teeth were either black or missing entirely.

    “Gotta close the loop…”