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American Patriotic Union of the Superheroes of History: Part Two

American Patriotic Union of Superheroes of History
Underground Headquarters,
Philadelphia, PA.

The chairman re-read the application before him slowly, only once lifting his eyes to give the man before him a quick glance. The form had been filled out neatly, typed, and there wasn't really any flaw that he could point out. The applicant himself had a very good service record, but the chairman still wasn't sure whether this fellow warranted membership.

"Your application here, Mr.-" the chairman pretended to glance back at the first page for a name, "-Glenn, says that you are faster than a speeding bullet. Is this true?"

"Yes, sir," John Glenn replied, just a tad nervous. "I broke the record for a transcontinental flight."

"And what about this other superpower you mention on the form... how do you think that will come in handy?"

"The songs?" Glenn cleared his throat. "Well, I've noticed that a lot a supervillains use songs as clues to their next crime... I thought it'd be useful to have someone who can name that tune."

"I see." The chairman glanced around at the other two committee members, who gave slight nods. The chairman stood and faced the would-be hero.

"Then, Mr. Glenn," he began-

Then he blinked.

John Glenn was gone.

"Well," the chairman sighed, "that's certainly faster than a speeding bullet."

"Is this everyone we could manage?" the chairman demanded, looking around at the small assemblage of heroes. "Did no one else get here fast enough?" Out of the several hundred members, only six had been located before they disappeared.

The chairman made a mental inventory of those present. To his immediate right was one of APUSH's first members, George Washington, the Steel Man. He was currently wearing regular dentures rather than his steel set, but his trusty ax rested near his chair. On Steel Man's other side was APUSH's longest member, Abraham Lincoln. Stretch-Able Lincoln was the tallest of those assembled, and could stretch himself out to over a mile long. Both of them had been present as committee members to witness Glenn's disappearance.

To the chairman's left sat the robust Rough Rider Theodore Roosevelt, complete with his ever-present Big Stick casually held over his shoulder, and the Little Magician sat quietly next to him. Van Buren, normally considered short in any circumstance, was dwarfed by the Rough Rider and his other neighbor, William Taft the Tub Man. The large Taft seemed even larger in his bathtub. Finally, on the other side of Taft's bathtub, was the nonchalant Golf-Guy Gerald Ford, currently engrossed with cleaning one of his golf clubs.

"I believe this everyone who will be coming, Chairman," Benjamin Franklin reported, standing beside the Chairman. Franklin was one of the men who volunteered to watch the history monitoring stations, and today happened to be his turn. "This might be all who are able to come," Franklin added.

"I'm not liking where this is going," the Chairman said. "What have you found out about the situation outside?"

Franklin shook his head. "This, I'm afraid, may be more than our usual cases. We haven't had a case more serious than a misprinted textbook, or an uneducated history teacher, that we've had to correct since our Union began. Yet now I fear that we have been faced with our greatest challenge ever: history is not simply being re-written, it's being changed." He cleared his throat. "I believe all of our members have vanished because APUSH no longer exists. We are all that remain."

"So why are we still here?"

"My best guess is that the Temporal field that surrounds our headquarters has preserved us," Franklin answered hesitantly. "Yet, as Glenn has proven for us, the Temporal Field is not enough; it must be the field plus the protection we have as timeless heroes. Those two factors have influence the rate at which we'll disappear. Unfortunately, our Temporal field is destabilizing..."

"And if the field goes out," Taft continued the thought aloud, "we're all washed down the drain."

"I hope you have a game plan, Franklin," the Rough Rider breaks the following silence. "I don't like the idea of sitting around on my behind waiting to vanish." He waved the Big Stick menacingly at the Founding Father.

"There may be a way to save history yet," Franklin began slowly. "But we don't have much time before our field collapses, about a day, and according to Lewis's Laws of Time we only have-"

"Lewis's Laws?" The chairman frowned. "I don't recall those."

"Well, Lewis's Laws say that no matter how much time travel we do, our field will still collapse within a day and history will be irrevocably reversed. I'll be adding them into the next edition of my almanac."

"Well, if it's in an almanac it must be correct. Go on, then."

"According to Lewis's Laws, we only have one day to fix the changes in history. I've traced the changes down to two specific points in time; we'll have to divide into parties if we want to fix both in time."

"I must object to this plan," Steel Washington interjected. "Dividing into parties would only weaken the strength of the Superheroes' Union."

"I must concur," Stretch-Able Lincoln agreed. "The Union must be preserved."

"I personally don't see anything wrong with dividing into parties," Taft shrugged his massive shoulders.

"Nor do I," Roosevelt agreed, "as long as I'm not on the same party as Taft."

The chairman shook his head. "As loyal defenders of History, we are obligated to correct both changes in history. If Lewis's Laws of Time say we must divide into two groups, then we'll divide into two groups. Franklin, if you'd continue with your plan?"

"The first change in history is December, 1976, near the Delaware River..." Franklin paused a moment, with a quick glance to Washington. "Sir, history now records that you died crossing the Delaware..."

"What?" Washington exclaimed. "What about my men? Did they make it to Trenton?"

"It's not clear on the details," Franklin answered, "but it seems you died of pneumonia a day or two after the battle. Trenton is won, but Princeton is lost."

Washington only grunted, keeping his thought to himself.

"Moving onward, I found the second change to history while trying to discover what happened to our friend Mr. Glenn. In our history, Lindbergh crossed the Pacific in May 1927 and inspired the growth of aviation. Now, he disappeared over the ocean. Aviation was deterred by the string of failures, and Mr. Glenn never became a pilot."

"So those are our two anomalies?" the chairperson confirmed. "Then let's hurry up and divide into parties. History's not getting any shorter."

"I will go to Delaware," Washington volunteered. "I know exactly where I was at the time, and I have a personal investment in it."

"I'll go check out Lindbergh, then," Roosevelt decided next. "I'd like to see Roosevelt field."

"Then I'm with Washington," Taft immediately added. "What about you, Van Buren?"

"New York is my home state; I think I'll go there."

"My stretching ability is limited in cold weather," Lincoln reasoned. "I will go to help Lindbergh."

The chairman turned to the last member of the group. "I guess that means you're going to Delaware, Ford," he told the Golf-Guy.

Ford looked up from his club, confused.

"I'm sorry, did you already begin the meeting?"