Washington, D.C.

"You failed."

"Not really," said Luthor. "You told me to prevent Superman from reaching Gabriel. And I was successful. You said nothing about David Clinton. And need I remind you that it was your job to ensure the rest of the world remained ignorant? Guess that doesn’t apply to Batman or the Manhunter."

The Clock King spun and glared at Luthor. "Watch your tone. Need I remind you you’re speaking to a god?"

"Please," said Luthor. "You’re no god, Tockman. Just a failure who got a lucky break."

"I could kill you where you stand, completely wipe you from existence," said the Clock King.

"Then why haven’t you done it with Clinton? Or Gabriel?" asked Luthor. The Clock King considered the man’s words and turned away.

"If you’re all-powerful, you wouldn’t have needed me," said Luthor. "Superman may be out of your reach, but what about everyone else? Don’t mean to tell me your powers aren’t as vast as you originally thought."

"Shut up," said the Clock King.

"Admit it, Tockman—you’re not a god," said Luthor.

"Enough!" said the Clock King. "Fine, I’ll show you! I’ve been too slow in the compression. Now, it’s time to speed it up."

Arkham Asylum

"Of course," said Batman. "It would have to be Arkham."

By his side was J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter. After a battle with Manchester Black, J’onn extracted the location of Walker Gabriel from Black’s mind. Walker Gabriel, who once went by the name Chronos, was a time traveler and perhaps the key to solving many mysteries.

The two walked through the halls of Arkham Asylum, without anyone giving them a second glance. There was a chance they could gain entrance, given their status with the Justice League (as well as the Batman’s long association with Arkham). However, with Lex Luthor trying to keep Gabriel away from them, there was no telling what lengths he may go to. He had already declared Superman a threat to national security.

Instead of taking any chances, J’onn used his telepathy to mask the presence of both him and Batman from everyone inside Arkham. Batman himself recognized the faces of many of the inmates—he put them here himself.

One cell was confined to a separate section of the Asylum. It was a solitary confinement and it was also where Black and Luthor were hiding Gabriel. When they came to the door, J’onn simply pried it open with his hands. Batman entered first, and he saw Gabriel writing on the floor.

"So this is him," he said.

"Apparently," said J’onn.

"…all wrong… it’s all wrong…" said Gabriel, not even acknowledging the two.

"Can you?" asked Batman, looking to his teammate. The Manhunter nodded and knelt before Gabriel. He placed his hands on the time traveler’s head.

"Relax, Mr. Gabriel—this won’t hurt a bit," he said. He reached out with his telepathy and began to search through Walker Gabriel’s mind. The man’s memories washed over the Martian, memories of the past and memories of the future.

There was something else there, though. Something was wrong with the world. Gabriel knew it, and had been driven insane by it. He could not concentrate or even speak clearly.

J’onn pulled himself out of Gabriel’s mind and cringed.

"What happened?" asked Batman.

"Superman was right, there is something wrong with the timestream," said J’onn.

"The Clock King, then?" asked Batman.

"It seems like it, yes," said J’onn. "The question is, how did he gain access to that much power?"

Batman removed a small aerosol weapon from one of his pouches. He held it out to Gabriel’s face and sprayed some sort of gas. Gabriel collapsed and fell unconscious. Batman lifted the man and hefted him over his shoulder.

"What was that for?" asked J’onn.

"We have to find Superman," said Batman. "And I don’t think Gabriel would have come willingly."

Ivy Town

"You sure about this?" asked Lana.

"Positive," said Lois. "Steel told us to find Chronos, right? Well, this is where Chronos is."

"Yeah, but the guy here is David Clinton, not Walker Gabriel," said Lana.

"Maybe he changed his name or something, I dunno," said Lois. The two women walked through the front doors of the Kane Fox Retirement Home. A woman sat at the desk up front and greeted them with a smile.

"Hi, how can I help you two?" she asked.

"We’re looking for David Clinton," said Lois.

"I see, and what’s your relation?"

"I’m his niece," said Lois.

"I wasn’t aware he had a niece…"

"Oh… that’s right, he probably doesn’t like talking about it," said Lois. "You see, he and Mom had a falling out a few years ago. But I miss Uncle Davey, and I thought I’d come and say hi. Try to fix things, y’know? Can’t have family fighting."

"Of course," said the woman. "He’s in room 2B."

"Thanks," said Lois. She walked towards the elevator with Lana following close behind.

"’Uncle Davey’?" asked Lana. "Couldn’t you just say you want to ask him some questions for the Planet?"

"I thought this would be easier," said Lois. The two women got on the elevator and rode it to the second floor. Once in the hall, Lois led the way to a door marked 2B. She knocked on it. "Mr. Clinton? You mind if we come in?"

She heard a click and the door opened. An old man stared back at the two of them.

"I knew you’d be here," he said. He opened the door wider. "Come in."

Lois and Lana stepped inside. Once in the room, they received another shock.

"Hello Lois. Lana."

Superman stood before an open balcony, his cape lightly billowing from the breeze that followed him inside.

"I assume you’re here for the same reason," he said.

"If by that you mean fixing this, then yeah," said Lois.

"Then you’ve come to the wrong man," said Clinton.

"What do you mean?" asked Lana.

"I can’t use my abilities anymore," said Clinton. "Neron’s gift of time travel meant every time I used it, my age was accelerated. By the time I arrived here, the powers had faded."

"So there’s nothing we can do?" asked Lois.

Superman remained silent, offering no suggestion or solution.

"What?" asked Lois. "Can’t you do something?"

"I think so." He looked up and walked closer towards her. His bright blue eyes peered directly into hers. Gently, his fingers lifted her chin up and he lowered his face, kissing her. When he pulled away, he kept his gaze on her.

"I’m sorry I couldn’t save you," he said.

A gust of air and a blur of red and blue signaled his exit.

Steel crashed to the ground. His cape was torn and his armor was badly damaged. Supergirl hovered above him with her hands on her hips.

"Please, do yourself a favor and don’t get back up," she said. "I don’t want to hurt you."

Steel used his hammer as leverage to pull himself to his feet. "Little late for that…"

"You can’t win," she said. "And I can’t waste any more time while Superman is running loose. Someone has to stop him."

"Yeah… well you’ll have to kill me before I let you get another crack at him," said Steel.

"No she won’t. You’ve done enough, John Henry. I’ll take over."

"J’onn…?" muttered Steel.

The Martian Manhunter turned visible as he rocketed into Supergirl. She was caught off-guard and crashed to the ground, beside Steel. The Martian Manhunter would not give her a second of rest, instantly bathing her in his Martian Vision.

"You’ve been manipulated, Supergirl—just like the rest of us," said J’onn. "Superman’s not the threat here, and you know I’m right."

"But his actions… they don’t make any sense," said Supergirl.

"It doesn’t matter," said J’onn. "You’ll just have to trust me."

Supergirl prepared to return fire when she caught a glimpse of a blue and red streak across the sky, headed towards Earth’s atmosphere. "Kal…" she muttered. She tried to fly after him, but the Martian Manhunter grabbed her and held her in his grip.

"No, this is something he must do," said J’onn. "You don’t understand what’s at stake here."

"And you do?" asked Supergirl.

"No, but I have to trust that he does."

Superman pushed himself as fast as he could. He broke Earth’s atmosphere and soared through space. He flew past the planets of Venus and then Mercury, pushing himself to the speed of light.

As he came closer to the inner rim of Orion’s arm, he could feel his strength increasing. Although for many, direct contact with the sun would be a life-ending experience, for him it was just the opposite.

He plunged inside the star.

Supergirl and the Martian Manhunter touched down on the ground beside Steel. The Batman was there now as well, with an awakened Walker Gabriel.

"I hope you know what you’re doing," said Supergirl.

"So do we," said Batman. "Can you see him?"

"I tried to keep him in my sight, but he was going too fast and too far," said Supergirl. "But he was on a course with the sun."

"That can only mean one thing," said Batman. "He needs all the strength he can get."

"Yeah, but for what purpose?" asked Steel.

"He’s going to make it right," said Gabriel. "Everything, he’s going to fix it all."

Superman remained in the sun’s core for a bit, absorbing every bit of solar energy possible. He felt his cells brimming with power, about to overflow. He rocketed from the sun at the speed of light, flying back towards the Earth.

As he came closer, he increased his speed, moving beyond light. His speed increased beyond the superluminal capacity, until he felt the barriers of time shifting. For a brief period, he allowed himself to forget everything—Superman, Clark Kent, Kal El, all of it. He was a force of nature at this point, with no limits on what he could accomplish.

The time barrier cracked beneath his strength, and Superman crashed through into the realm of the Clock King, surrounded by clocks in a seemingly endless void. Superman’s skin glowed brightly, crackling with the solar radiation he had absorbed.

"Tockman!"

You do not belong here.

"This is it, isn’t it?" asked Superman. "You’re Hypertime."

I am. And you do not belong here, Kal El.

"Tell me how he’s doing it," said Superman. "Tell me how to stop him."

I cannot.

"Can’t, or won’t?"

What is done cannot be undone. The Clock King has taken control of my branches and is manipulating the timestream as he sees fit. There is nothing I can do to put a stop to it.

"No, this isn’t right," said Superman. "How did Tockman do it? There’s no way he could have, not on his own."

There was no response from Hypertime. Instead, the void around Superman flickered. And he saw eons of time flowing around him. The web of time became revealed to him, and he saw all the threads. Different universes, different timestreams. Alternate pasts, alternate futures. All occurring simultaneously.

"You did it…" he said. "You knew he would try to compress it all, didn’t you? And you gave him the means to."

That’s absurd.

"No it’s not," said Superman. "You wanted this to happen. But why?"

Time has become too vast. The web has grown to catastrophic proportions. It must be simplified.

"But you’ll destroy everything," said Superman.

A small price to pay.

"For you, maybe," said Superman. "But that’s not a risk I’m going to take."

And how can you stop it? Tockman has all of time at his fingertips. You were able to breach the time barrier and come here, but that is the limit of what you can do.

"You said it yourself, I can breach the time barrier," said Superman. "And that means I can prevent Tockman from ever coming here in the first place."

Powerful fists slammed against and tore open the barriers of time once more. Superman rocketed through, going back in time. To the point when William Tockman met his demise.

Moments before Tockman’s death during his first mission with the Suicide Squad, Superman appeared faster than the eye could see and pulled Tockman with him, back to the present.

No! No! You can’t! I was almost free!

In Washington, D.C., the temporal-powered Clock King fell to his knees in pain, clutching his head.

"Tockman?" asked Luthor.

"It can’t be…" muttered Tockman. "How can he…"

The villain slowly began to disintegrate right before Luthor’s eyes, vanishing into nothingness. Before Luthor could even process what happened, Secret Service agents stormed the Oval Office, training guns on Luthor.

"Lex Luthor, you’re under arrest."

Metropolis
Two Weeks Later

Clark Kent knelt down by a gravestone and set a bouquet of flowers down. He ran his fingers over the name LOIS LANE engraved on the headstone. He pulled himself to his feet and when he turned, he saw two familiar faces—the Batman and the Martian Manhunter. However, both of them were in their civilian identities of Bruce Wayne and John Jones.

"I was wondering when you guys would show up," said Clark.

"There was some… confusion at first," said Bruce. "None of us were sure what had really happened. Steel helped us sort most of it out, but there are still some gaps. Such as how did you stop it?"

"I went into the sun, absorbed as much solar energy as possible," said Clark. "I was able to break the time barrier. I saved Tockman before he was killed and met Hypertime. Brought him into the present."

"Gods Clark, all that power…" said J’onn.

"It wasn’t easy and it didn’t come without a price," said Clark. He glanced down to the grave. "Lana said there was a flash of light and then Lois was just gone."

"Apparently, it wasn’t universal," said Bruce.

"I know, Kara’s still here," said Clark. He started to walk away from the grave, towards the entrance of the cemetery, and Bruce and J’onn followed.

"She seemed pretty confused once the smoke cleared and then she just flew off," said J’onn. "I’ve been trying to locate her, but no luck."

"Black is still alive, too," said Bruce. "Both he and Luthor are safely behind bars, though."

"That’s some note of comfort at least," said Clark. They approached the cemetery gates. "There is one more thing, though."

"What’s that?" asked Bruce.

Clark gripped the bars of the gate and pulled. They didn’t even budge.

"My powers are gone."

NEXT: Man and Superman