In his time, Dr. William Magnus was widely regarded as one of the greatest scientific minds of his time. He was often compared to the likes of Niles Caulder, Ray Palmer and even Lex Luthor. He had created things the likes of which had only been seen in science fiction stories. Truly, he was a genius.
His laboratory didn’t display any of this. The old room had been abandoned for some time. The chalkboards, the books and all the extra bits of machinery were covered in a thick layer of dust. Each corner of the room had a thick cobweb in it. And it all smelled absolutely horrid.
It was here that Will Magnus and his brother David worked feverishly to save the life of the robot Brainiac 8. Her technology was far more advanced than anything they were accustomed to, but still they pressed on, trying desperately to figure out her circuitry.
Hourman stood in the lab as well, silently watching as the two doctors operated. Although he couldn’t physically display it, the time traveler was nervous. If he was ever going to save the future, he needed Brainiac alive.
“So, enlighten us,” Dave asked. “What is the future like? Why does it need saving?”
“It’s a long story.” Hourman answered.
“It’s not like we’re going anywhere.” Will chipped in, a touch of bitterness in his voice.
The time traveler paused, and then began to tell them.
* * * * * *
At the same time, on Titan, in the Psion’s military bunker, a figure strode towards where the numerous robots lay dormant. He was clearly a robot himself; half of his face was an obvious metal skeleton. The other half not only looked human, but looked exactly like a very well-known person on Earth. People often mistook the figure for the Terminator, or Superman.
As Hank Henshaw silently entered the hangar where the robots awaited, the words of his master echoed in his mechanical skull:
There has been a temporal flux. The Hourman has arrived in your time with Brainiac 8. Eliminate him. Bring his captive back to Titan at any cost. Take only a small fleet; we do not want the Earth to find out about our presence.“Self-righteous robotic…what’s so special about this Hourman anyway? What kind of a threat could one…?”
Realizing he was muttering, Hank immediately silenced himself. As he inspected the vast array of robots, he found three who could do the job well.
First, there was the Tomorrow Woman. She was a telepath; not the most powerful, but shutting down minds was still a good way to fight discretely. Plus, Hank wasn’t above admitting that she was easy on the eyes.
Next, he picked the Red Tornado. This one was more for Hank’s enjoyment than anything else. Seeing a former Leaguer fight at his side was too good to resist. He may not have been the most subtle fighter, but this wasn’t an opportunity Hank could pass up.
And finally, Hank found what looked to be Superman. Except he was different. He had a completely different costume. His hair was blond. His eyes were dull and lifeless. But it still looked just like the Kryptonian.
Hank checked the database the boss had provided for him. Apparently, this was the last Superman robot (which may have made Hank the second to last). They were used by the Kryptonian to take his place should the need ever arise. The thought of where they came from crossed Hank’s mind, but he brushed it off as something unimportant.
This one was called labeled “Ajax”. He was captured by some aliens, remodeled and used to try and replace Superman.
I bet I got farther than them. Hank thought.
Without another word, the four of them took off out of the hangar, all of them unaware of the small, extra weight Red Tornado was carrying.
* * * * * *
“In the year 3066,” Hourman explained. “Brainiac 5 of the Legion of Super-Heroes created…will create Computo, a sentient assistant to help facilitate the hero’s base and operations. However, Computo will rebel and will attempt to kill the Legion. Only through use of time technology will he succeed. With no opposition, Computo will slowly conquer the known universe. He will be succeeded by his own creation, Brainiac 6. Then will come Brainiac 7. By 6300, Brainiac 8 will exist and the last free organic life forms will be stuck in a colony on Saturn.”
“Well that’s bleak.” Will muttered as he continued to study Brainiac 8’s inert body.
Ignoring him, the time traveler continued. “During an attack, the colony managed to incapacitate Brainiac 8 long enough to reprogram her. It took a lot of effort, but the colony made her reveal all of the information on the other Brainiacs and Computo. In addition, she provided information on time circuitry, which they integrated into a protector for the colony: me.”
Dave wordlessly noted to himself that Hourman, a machine, referred to Brainiac 8 as “she” rather then “it.”
“However, Brainiac 7 sent an army of soldiers to reclaim his daughter. The colony, Brainiac 8 and I managed to hold them off, but she was damaged. Her self-repair program barely kept her functioning. We needed to find someone who could fix her, and historical records showed Dr. Will Magnus as the most qualified.”
“Yeah, saying that won’t go to his head.” Dave said with good-natured sarcasm. Will ignored the comment and asked “Why would you come to a time when I was on the verge of death to ask me for help?”
Hourman didn’t have an answer. He looked as if he was about to reply, but simply couldn’t produce one. In all honesty, he had made a mistake. Will, seeing he wasn’t going to get a response from the time traveler, muttered “Forget it.” went back to work on Brainiac 8.
“Wait a sec…” Dave said. “Brainiac would know her own circuitry, right? So maybe if we activated her, she could tell us how to fix her.”
“She’s deactivated because she needs rest.” Hourman said.
“She’s a robot. She doesn’t rest.” Will responded.
“Yes she does. Her self-repair program will work faster and keep her operating longer if all other functions are deactivated.” The time traveler answered with a somewhat indignant tone.
“Look,” Dave piped in, trying to keep peace between the two. “If we activate Brainiac and she tells us how to fix her, then she’ll live.”
Hourman paused wordlessly. He walked over to his allies body and placed a gloved hand on her forehead. There was a brief spark between the two and the eyes of Brainiac 8 flashed into life.
She turned to Hourman and asked “When are we?”
“Still 2009.” He said. “You’re in Will Magnus’s lab. He and his brother need help repairing you.”
“Very well.” Brainiac 8 answered. “But you should know that there are five synthetic beings heading this way; possibly hostile, possibly aligned with Computo.”
“I thought he was in the future.” Dave asked.
“The influence of Computo is far reaching.” She answered ominously.
“I’ll be back.” Hourman said. The time traveler flew up the stairs, out the front door of the Magnus home and into the sky.
* * * * * *
Hank Henshaw and his small cadre entered the Earth’s atmosphere. The cyborg leader grinned and said, “reduce speed. We don’t want to cause a sonic boom.” He realized any speech to these mindless drones was a waste of breath, but he was still accustomed to dealing with humans and would continue to do so. Plus, he didn’t actually breathe.
With a quick scan, Hank found Brainiac 8 from the tracking system the boss had given him. She was in Los Angeles, of all places. He made a sharp right turn without warning and his group followed immediately. He had to admit, it was fun being the leader.
Suddenly, a figure in a brown and old costume flew in front of him. Hank stopped his flight and his group followed suit. “What the hell is this?” He asked, sizing up the newcomer.
He said nothing. He merely hovered and stared, waiting for the robots to make a move.
Hank did an impromptu scan of the newcomer, wondering if he had a match. And to the cyborgs welcome surprise, he did.
“Holy crap.” He chuckled, and then talked to his team. “This is Hourman. This is the guy we’re supposed to kill. Grab him.”
Red Tornado, the fastest of them, reacted first. He shot forward and grabbed Hourman, wrapping his crimson arms around his foe’s gold and brown frame. Hank came forward, coming less than a foot away from the hero’s face.
“Where is Brainiac 8?” He said in his most serious tone.
Hourman responded with his own question: “Who sent you?”
“Hey, I’m asking the questions here!” Hank responded with a yell. “Now where is Brainiac 8?”
Again, Hourman avoided the question and said “There are only four of you here. Where is the fifth?”
“That would be me!”
Without warning, a scarlet streak leapt out from behind the Red Tornado and struck Hank Henshaw in his face. Knocked off balance, Hank flipped through the air and plummeted. Using the opportunity, Hourman shoved off Red Tornado and flew down. By this time, Hank had torn off his mysterious attacker and threw him off. Reacting quickly, Hourman grabbed the red blob as it passed by.
“Who are you?” He asked. The blob began to form what looked like a face, with a unique black logo on his forehead.
“Name’s Mercury.” He answered. “The only metal that’s liquid at room temperature!”
Before anything else could happen, Hank Henshaw shot upwards and grabbed Hourman. As the pair ascended, Hank shouted to his team “Do something! Kill the red thing!”
He fired twin beams of intense heat from his eyes that struck Hourman dead in the face. “And you! You’re dead! I’ll find the girl without you!”
“No.” Hourman responded simply. “You won’t.”
He delivered an unexpected kick that sent Hank spinning once more. Hourman shot down to see that Mercury was barely holding his own against the three other robots. The time traveler grabbed him in midair and flew away. The three robots pursued them quickly.
“Where did they come from?” Hourman asked.
“Titan.” Mercury answered. “We were all taken by something called Brainiac 7. He’s building an army of Earth’s robots and reprogramming them.”
“So they all have altered programming?” Hourman asked.
“That’s what I said.”
At this point, Red Tornado had caught up. He shot a funnel of wind at the pair, knocking off their flight pattern and sending them spinning wildly. Ajax went after them next, but Hourman regained control and struck Ajax with his free fist.
“Keep them busy.” Hourman said to Mercury. He hurled to old metal man at the Red Tornado, grabbed Ajax by his cape and flew down.
“Hey! I’m not the distraction here!” Mercury said. Quickly, he turned his attention to Red Tornado and wrapped his loose frame around his foe.
This was turning into a big day.
* * * * * *
With a raucous crash, Hourman and Ajax broke through the ceiling of the Magnus home, into the basement laboratory. Will and Dave both startled; had they been at their regular ages, both of the brothers would have had heart attacks.
Will’s shock was quickly replaced by anger. “What the hell is wrong with you? That’s my house!”
“Can you reprogram him?” Hourman asked, ignoring Will’s outrage and presenting Ajax’s body. Dave, still confused by the general distress of his allies entrance just asked “Wh-what?”
“His programming was altered by Brainiac 7.” The time traveler answered. “Can you change it back?”
Dave gave a quizzical look and said “Hourman, it’s not that simple. Computer code takes a while to figure out, then we’d have to learn the exact code to turn him…”
“Use this.” Will interrupted his brother. He handed a small jump drive to Dave and said “In here is the basic computer code I used on the Metal Men. If you plug it into him, the code will adapt to his underlying programming. He’ll be on our side.”
Dave gave him a look of disbelief and asked “And you just have this lying around?”
“Do you know how many times some mad scientist reprogrammed the Metal Men and turned them against me?” Will answered. “That thing was a necessity.”
“Good.” Hourman said as he took to the skies again.
* * * * * *
Hank Henshaw flew downwards quickly, anger showing clearly on the human half of his face. The phrase
“I’m gonna kill him!” cycled repetitively through his electronic mind. He was out for blood, even if his foe had none.
The cyborg was nearly blindsided by Hourman, who flew straight past him towards Tomorrow Woman, who had snared Mercury telekinetically and attempting to stretch the old metal man and break him. Hourman grabbed her in a flash and turned back to the Earth.
“Oh no you don’t!” Hank Henshaw yelled as he turned towards the time-traveler and fired twin beams of heat from his eyes. Hourman narrowly avoided them and plummeted straight back to the Magnus brother’s lab, almost ignoring the Cyborg Superman. Infuriated even more, he turned and prepared to follow, but was hit in the back by something.
“Surprise!” Mercury said. He stretched and expanded himself around Hank Henshaw’s body, trying in vain to incapacitate the villain. Hank easily broke free, grabbed the old metal man and hurled him at the still afloat Red Tornado.
“Kill it! Now!” The Cyborg Superman ordered. And with that, he turned to pursue Hourman. This was going to end.
* * * * * *
Hourman, flew through the same ‘entrance’ he took earlier. He dropped Tomorrow Woman’s body unceremoniously on the ground and wordlessly turned to fly again.
“Thanks!” Will yelled after him. “I love it when killer robots are dumped in my basement!”
“Lighten up, bro.” Dave said, monitoring the computer as Ajax was being reprogrammed.
“Excuse me for being bitter,” He answered, “But I was just given a second chance at life and so far, it’s pretty crappy.”
“Come on. We both know you’d be trying to do this hero stuff no matter what.”
“Forgive me for not wanting to get drafted on my deathbed!”
“Okay, what is wrong with you?” Dave finally asked. “Since the minute you set foot outside the hospital, you’ve been nothing but angry. You’ve been given a gift! No, you’ve been given a miracle! Why can’t you be happy?”
“Hey, let’s get one thing straight.” Will said angrily. “I did you a favor. I gave you this miracle too. So I’ll act how I want to and you can just shut your damn mouth.”
The argument was interrupted as Hourman crashed into the floor of the basement, the hands of the Cyborg Superman around his metallic throat.
“This is it.” Hank said, a sickening smile on both halves of his face as he mercilessly pummeled the time-traveler. “This is the part where you die. You, then the red thing, then every other person on this godforsaken rock.”
“You’re wrong.” Hourman said, suddenly placing his hands on the Cyborg Superman’s head. “This is the part when I rid this time period of the menace of Hank Henshaw.”
The villain gave a look of terror as he felt the effects of time. His metallic skin began to rust; his human skin began to wrinkle; until finally, the Cyborg Superman faded into brown dust.
The Magnus brothers were both dumbfounded by what they saw. Hank Henshaw had disintegrated in front of them. He was gone. Vanished. And Hourman didn’t at all seem fazed by it as he got to his feet and took to the sky again.
“Did you know he could do that?” Will asked.
“I thought he might be able to.” Dave responded. “I mean, he could make us younger. That stands to reason he could make something older. I just never thought he would. Hero code and all.”
“I guess the rules are different in the future.”
“I guess so.”
They both paused and then turned to look at Brainiac 8. They had repaired her as much as they could; now it was all up to her self-repair function.
“Let’s hope she’s all right.” Dave commented.
“Yeah.” Will added.
* * * * * *
Some time later, the robots stood in Will Magnus’s lab. Ajax, Tomorrow Woman and Red Tornado had all been reprogrammed and Hourman had recovered from Henshaw’s attack. But then Will was more amazed by something else.
“Mercury! I can’t believe you’re alive!” He said with surprising exuberance. “How did this happen?”
“The Psions started snatching up old robots.” The old metal man answered. “Me and the rest of the Metal Men included. We were activated, but the green guys couldn’t reprogram us, probably the failsafe code you installed, Will. Being the only metal that’s liquid at room temperature, I was the only one of us who could escape. I made it to the hangar where the army was and snuck up on Red Tornado. These guys were so robotic they didn’t even realize I was there.”
“Brainiac 7 knows we’re here, in this time period.” Came a voice from behind them. They all turned to see Brainiac 8, conscious, but still lying on the table. “If he has an army of robots, he’s preparing for a full-scale invasion. We need to stop this at its source.”
Hourman thought for a moment. Could they do it? Could they stop Computo before any of this ever happened?
With time travel, he guessed it could.
“Alright.” Hourman said. “The reprogrammed robots, Mercury and I will travel to the year 3066. We’ll stop Computo at its source.”
“I’m going too.” Brainiac 8 said, standing up from the table. The time-traveler didn’t bother arguing, he just nodded his head. The remaining robots gathered around Hourman and all began to glow.
“We’re not finished with our conversation.” Dave said to his brother as he watched his allies vanish into the future.
