The Times Are A Changin'
Here's my first entry, woo hoo...
Title: Time Changes Things
Author: Me
Fandom: DC Comics/JSA
Summary: AU story of Ted Kord not dying during the OMAC crisis and instead working for the JSA
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters here except for Kara's boyfriend, they are owned by DC/Warner Brothers (and sister)
Ted sighed and wiped the sweat off his forehead, hoping to keep it out of his eyes. He had been working on the security system for the last three weeks and the progress was getting slower. Normally a security system would have taken him a month or so to install, at least in the nicer companies he’d been hired to secure. This was a different job all together though. After all, most of the places he did security for didn’t have to worry about alien attacks, sorcerers from the future or the past, or other visiting superheroes.
He’d been hired by Michael Holt to design a new security system for the JSA. A task that had been rather staggering at the time it was first offered to Ted and now… well it was a real “bear” of a problem, as his father used to say. Still, he knew he could handle it. Hadn’t he been the one to design the JLA’s first security system? Why yes he did, thank you very much. He could definitely do this; he just needed patience and maybe a little company. He had barely spoken to anyone during the days when he worked and at night he was usually working on a problem or too tired to hang out with some of the other JSA members, many of whom he had worked with at one time or another.
Over the years a stereotype had developed that said geniuses preferred silence or classical music while they worked. He was not one of those people. He preferred some kind of noise to keep him going, music was fine, but conversation was better. It kept him confident in his work. When he worked in silence he started to worry a lot more and also began to judge his every movement and thought, till eventually the job became slower and slower and… He looked at his watch and saw that it was exactly 12:13 in the morning.
He’d done it again! This was the fourth time that he’d lost all track of time in the last few weeks. He couldn’t help it though; there was this part of him that just seemed to space out when he worked. He would often become absent-minded and usually developed a bad eating habit or two, such as eating once a day or trying to subsist off a diet of Ritz crackers. He had tried over the last several years to not be the stereotypical inventor/scientist who often let their work overcome them, but with each passing the year the fight became harder and harder, especially since he had given up being Blue Beetle.
He had lost track of most of his friends since most of the people he considered friends were involved with heroism in some way or another. It wasn’t their fault, duty called after all. He missed it all so much though and maybe that was another reason he had taken Michael’s offer to set up the new security system. If he couldn’t be a hero he could at least be involved with it somehow. He occasionally helped out Oracle from time to time and had even helped Booster in designing a new suit, but actually being in the JSA headquarters was a lot closer to the life he’d once had. He let his head down on the padded rest of the cart he was lying on and began to push himself out from under the computer mainframe.
“Ted!”
“Huh,” he groggily mumbled. Why was it so dark in his room and why were their wires hanging everywhere? That’s when he realized he’d never made it to his bed last night. He had fallen asleep while he was working. Yet another sign that work was getting the better of him.
“What do you mean, huh? I nearly tripped over you. How long have you been laying there?”
He saw a pair of blue boots and knew who it was immediately, though he should have recognized it from the voice. He smiled and looked at his watch, 9:15. “Twenty four hours and…fifteen minutes, but without you it’s felt like an eternity Kara,” he said as pulled himself out from under the mainframe.
Kara just rolled her eyes at the man standing before her. “I was going to ask you if you wanted to eat breakfast with the rest of us, but if you’re just going to flirt…”
“Breakfast? I’ve almost forgotten what that is, please lead the way and forgive me if I was a bit flirty, my mouth’s on auto-pilot sometimes.” He stared at her and she stared back for a few moments, both measuring each other up. She broke first and started laughing.
“It’s good to see you Ted,” she said, pulling him into a friendly hug. He hugged back, glad to see one of his oldest friends. She was one of the only members of the JSA that he had actually been on a team with. Despite their many apparent differences they had become good friends during their affiliation with the Justice League in its various incarnations.
“So how’s business,” she asked as they began to make their way to the kitchen.
“It’s great. I have this killer deal right now where I’m working on a security system for this group of superheroes and they have this one chick that totally digs me-“
“Ted!” She said with a playful punch.
“Sorry, I think Booster rubbed off on me at some point.”
Kara just rolled her eyes at her friend.
Title: Time Changes Things
Author: Me
Fandom: DC Comics/JSA
Summary: AU story of Ted Kord not dying during the OMAC crisis and instead working for the JSA
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters here except for Kara's boyfriend, they are owned by DC/Warner Brothers (and sister)
Ted sighed and wiped the sweat off his forehead, hoping to keep it out of his eyes. He had been working on the security system for the last three weeks and the progress was getting slower. Normally a security system would have taken him a month or so to install, at least in the nicer companies he’d been hired to secure. This was a different job all together though. After all, most of the places he did security for didn’t have to worry about alien attacks, sorcerers from the future or the past, or other visiting superheroes.
He’d been hired by Michael Holt to design a new security system for the JSA. A task that had been rather staggering at the time it was first offered to Ted and now… well it was a real “bear” of a problem, as his father used to say. Still, he knew he could handle it. Hadn’t he been the one to design the JLA’s first security system? Why yes he did, thank you very much. He could definitely do this; he just needed patience and maybe a little company. He had barely spoken to anyone during the days when he worked and at night he was usually working on a problem or too tired to hang out with some of the other JSA members, many of whom he had worked with at one time or another.
Over the years a stereotype had developed that said geniuses preferred silence or classical music while they worked. He was not one of those people. He preferred some kind of noise to keep him going, music was fine, but conversation was better. It kept him confident in his work. When he worked in silence he started to worry a lot more and also began to judge his every movement and thought, till eventually the job became slower and slower and… He looked at his watch and saw that it was exactly 12:13 in the morning.
He’d done it again! This was the fourth time that he’d lost all track of time in the last few weeks. He couldn’t help it though; there was this part of him that just seemed to space out when he worked. He would often become absent-minded and usually developed a bad eating habit or two, such as eating once a day or trying to subsist off a diet of Ritz crackers. He had tried over the last several years to not be the stereotypical inventor/scientist who often let their work overcome them, but with each passing the year the fight became harder and harder, especially since he had given up being Blue Beetle.
He had lost track of most of his friends since most of the people he considered friends were involved with heroism in some way or another. It wasn’t their fault, duty called after all. He missed it all so much though and maybe that was another reason he had taken Michael’s offer to set up the new security system. If he couldn’t be a hero he could at least be involved with it somehow. He occasionally helped out Oracle from time to time and had even helped Booster in designing a new suit, but actually being in the JSA headquarters was a lot closer to the life he’d once had. He let his head down on the padded rest of the cart he was lying on and began to push himself out from under the computer mainframe.
“Ted!”
“Huh,” he groggily mumbled. Why was it so dark in his room and why were their wires hanging everywhere? That’s when he realized he’d never made it to his bed last night. He had fallen asleep while he was working. Yet another sign that work was getting the better of him.
“What do you mean, huh? I nearly tripped over you. How long have you been laying there?”
He saw a pair of blue boots and knew who it was immediately, though he should have recognized it from the voice. He smiled and looked at his watch, 9:15. “Twenty four hours and…fifteen minutes, but without you it’s felt like an eternity Kara,” he said as pulled himself out from under the mainframe.
Kara just rolled her eyes at the man standing before her. “I was going to ask you if you wanted to eat breakfast with the rest of us, but if you’re just going to flirt…”
“Breakfast? I’ve almost forgotten what that is, please lead the way and forgive me if I was a bit flirty, my mouth’s on auto-pilot sometimes.” He stared at her and she stared back for a few moments, both measuring each other up. She broke first and started laughing.
“It’s good to see you Ted,” she said, pulling him into a friendly hug. He hugged back, glad to see one of his oldest friends. She was one of the only members of the JSA that he had actually been on a team with. Despite their many apparent differences they had become good friends during their affiliation with the Justice League in its various incarnations.
“So how’s business,” she asked as they began to make their way to the kitchen.
“It’s great. I have this killer deal right now where I’m working on a security system for this group of superheroes and they have this one chick that totally digs me-“
“Ted!” She said with a playful punch.
“Sorry, I think Booster rubbed off on me at some point.”
Kara just rolled her eyes at her friend.