Crossover Earth '98
Looking Back
by Paul Cocker and Jay Shaffstall
The compact mass of communities, townships, and municipalities loosely considered Los Angeles can raise much duress for any visiting motorist, who are conditioned to believe that some system or method should accompany the design of the city’s roadways and thoroughfares. Even the highly exaggerated expressway systems, that serve to route more vehicles than anywhere else in the free world, can make foreheads perspire and hearts race at bumper-to-bumper speeds of 60 miles per hour and more, with cars and trucks often coursing along five abreast onto ramps, bridges, cloverleafs and hairpin turns.
Captain Infinity guesses that the energy consumed on those highways each day could probably heat the homes of every Third World nation. And this is noon hour traffic. He shudders to think of the peak hours of this madness.
Infinity flickers in and out of temporal reality as he looks down at the city. He spots Blur racing through the streets. To the normal human eye, she is but a streak, but he sees her clearly as he dislocates his conventional senses. She races over the roofs of trucks, breezes past sports cars as if they aren’t moving at all. She smudges over the landscape in search of criminals and wrong-doers, and whizzes to help those in need.
"Such a young girl," he says to himself. "Yet she seems aware of her role. But I’m not sure if she knows the responsibilities and consequences of her powers..."
Suddenly a remarkable sensation washes over Captain Infinity, one he is all too familiar with. He feels frozen. A ghostly chill pumps through him as space careens by at some transcendent speed. He slips backwards through frames of reality, eternal seconds rewinding. He phases through walls and barriers of time, circumventing corporeal physics.
Captain Infinity now hovers over Blur’s home in the Los Angeles valley. He watches the proceedings of something that occurred precisely ten months, two days, six hours, and twenty-five seconds ago...
Jessica sat back after sending an e-mail to Zephyr. She figures he receives hundreds of e-mails a day; might be days before he got back to her, if at all. At least her identity was safe. She'd used an anonymous remailer, and worded her message carefully.
A breeze blew the ends of the curtains out of the window... out of the window? Jessica turned around to find Zephyr standing behind her. He is an imposing figure in his silver uniform with the stylized lightning bolts on the sleeves. He doesn't wear a mask; apparently he's given up his secret identity some time ago.
"Sorry it took me so long to get back to you," he said. "First I had to find the anonymous remailer's server, try about a million different passwords on the terminal in the sysop's office to get in, find your real e-mail address, go to your ISP and get your address, and then I had the darndest time actually finding your house. They really should mark the numbers better on the curb"
He smiles wryly. "So you're a speedster, eh?"
Jessica looks at Zephyr, her features agape. "Uh, uh, uhm...." It's quite clear she's lost for words.
To Jessica's heightened sense of time, Zephyr actually seems to be flickering slightly. It's so small as to be almost imperceptible even to her.
Finally she manages to muster a sentence, "Uh, no, I'm a speedster -- I mean, yes, I'm not a speedster." She begins to shake her head in embarrassment. "Y-yes, I'm a speedster. Though I'm a slowpoke when compared to the likes of you. Uh, it’s truly an honor to meet you, Zephyr."
Zephyr smiles again.
"Oh, when I was your age, back in...well, a long time ago, I could barely hit 90 miles per hour. Something in the metabolism just wouldn't let go, and well, here I am."
"I've seen some recent clippings of your activities. There aren't that many other of us speedsters around, so I like to keep track of the ones I can find. You've been doing pretty good so far."
Zephyr folds his lean, athletic arms in front of his chest. "So, what can I do for you?"
"To be honest with you," she pauses and bites her lip, "I was hoping that you could maybe show me the ropes. I thought that maybe under your tutoring and tutelage, I could increase my abilities."
"...Maybe I could prevent another disaster like that bombing incident at the LAX from even happening..."
Zephyr nods, not in acceptance, but in agreement.
"When I was first starting out, there was a man calling himself the BombaDeer. The idiot would wire deer with TNT and set them loose at public events. I finally caught him with Armature's help, but not before quite a few people were injured and killed." He shakes his head. "Sometimes, you just can't prevent every tragedy."
"How about once a month training sessions? I'll show you things you can practice the rest of the month, and we'll see how we get along. I'd suggest more often, but believe if or not, I'm actually pretty strapped for time." He laughs. "Take it from me, never put out a public e-mail address and ask for people who need help."
"Meet me out at Joshua Tree on the first Saturday of every month. I can't promise any quick results. Ironically, speed improvements are slow going."
Jessica begins to beam. "Thank you, this means so much to me," she says with a huge smile. "I hope I make you proud."
"Say, you wouldn't by any chance know anything about Agri-Tech Industries? I kinda promised the people of Northridge I'd try to help solve their problem with this fertilizer plant, but I don't know where to begin."
"I read about that one." Zephyr thinks for a moment. "I haven't run across anything about them myself, but I haven't been in California much for quite a while."
"I'll tell you what I would do in your place." Zephyr lowers his voice. "I have a reputation to uphold, so don't let this get out, but I'd break into their research offices and have a look through their records. If there's something rotten, you'll still need to gather admissible evidence, but evidence is much easier to find if you know what you're looking for."
"But then, I started my career when crime fighting was simple, and Miranda rights non-existent." He shakes his head slightly. "The good old days."
Jessica purses her lips and shakes her head. "I really have a lot to learn,"she says. "But if that's what I need to do then I'll do it. I can't let toxic chemicals poison so many people, not if I can do something to prevent it."
She then looks at Zephyr with a smile. "Thanks for your help, Zephyr." She pause with a look of question on her face. "That is the name you want me to call you, right?"
"Zephyr is fine," he says. "Well, I'll see you at Joshua Tree next month. Take care!" With that, Zephyr is gone. Blur catches a glimpse of him moving through the wall, but that's it.
...Captain Infinity, vigilant and silent, nods to himself. "Yes, she will definitely play a valuable role." He says. "So young, yet she must do."
Slowly, he fades from this time only to rematerialize elsewhere along time’s continuum.