Time Out

"**Time Out**" is the twenty-seventh episode of Justice League Action.

## Summary

While fighting HIVE in the streets, Booster Gold notices that time itself has been interrupted and so has to use his time-travelling ability to seek a remedy with the aid of a sceptical Batman.

## Story

At night, the soldiers of HIVE swarm in streets of Metropolis while HIVE Master, from his bipedal vehicle, appeals to the citizens to submit to him. Batman and Wonder Woman fight them and seem to be winning until the fallen soldiers suddenly revive and attack again. As Booster Gold flies over, Batman calls out to him to intervene, but Booster is distracted by the strange sight of a fire hydrant vanishing and becomes entangled in a net (his own?). Unimpressed, Batman improvises and throws a batarang at HIVE Master's vehicle, disabling it, which causes the HIVE soldiers to run, pursued by Wonder Woman.

Batman turns and issues a stern reprimand to Booster but while he is doing this events around them begin to slow down and stop. Seeing Wonder Woman and the HIVE soldiers frozen in the street, Booster explains that it must be a time flow interruption called a "time fissure" and is also the cause of the disappearing fire hydrant. As he further explains that Batman is not affected because he is inside Booster's "temporal bubble", they come under attack from flying creatures with a broad, flat shape (like manta rays). Booster says these are time's "antibodies" and to escape ever increasing numbers of them he opens a portal and takes Batman to his secret base, Vanishing Point.

There, Booster's droid, Skeets, takes a picture as Batman staggers from the effects of the journey. Moving into the heart of the place, he sits down in front of a display to search through time for the cause of the frozen events. He identifies it as a time-eating monster called a "chronovore" that stores stolen time energy in a crystal that only has to be removed to restore the time flow. Batman is stunned by the realisation that Booster is more capable and responsible than he had ever realised. They now exit through the portal entrance to re-emerge in the street where they had been but at a slightly earlier time.

Hiding behind a bush to avoid their other selves, they emerge to be confronted by the chronovore and are attacked by it and the antibodies. After a long struggle, they are no closer to defeating them and Batman defers to the expertise of his colleague. Booster decides to shrink the 'bubble' to increase his power while leaving his partner outside it to return him to the frozen point in time and with no memory of what has happened. Batman fades away, praising Booster as a person. Fighting his way through the antibodies, Booster penetrates the chronovore's body and swims through its watery interior, suffering extreme aging. As his body shrivels and his hair and teeth fall out, he sees the crystal and reaches out to grip it, and when he does, causes a violent reaction that changes the scene.

Fully restored, he finds himself in the street in front of an irate Batman who continues to berate him. When this has finished and Batman and Wonder Woman leave, he wanders off sadly, looking at the picture taken by Skeets and sighs for the better time when he and Batman fought as a team.

## Notes

* Skeets, Booster's robot companion from the comics, makes a cameo when Booster and Batman enter the former's hideout.