Booster Gold #2

Within the Time-Stream...

Rip Hunter, who refuses to break the cardinal rule of time-travel, denies Booster the chance to save his old friend Ted Kord. He is convinced however, when Booster threatens to leave the mission altogether. Rip gives Gold his solemn word to help him save Ted, but tells him to prepare for the consequences.

Just as they finish their negotiation, Rip's time-screens (courtesy of T.O. Morrow) reveal that history is undergoing massive change. The Death Certificate of Hal Jordan is their first clue. Rip informs Skeets and Booster that due to their extensive traveling through the time stream, they "chronally contaminate" the things around them, which is why his invitation to the League transformed into Jordan's death certificate. As they watch the time screens, the very title of the "Greatest Green Lantern of All Time" shifts from Hal Jordan altogether, and becomes Guy Gardner! Apparently, some one or some thing has caused Sinestro to interact with Gardner years before he should. This sets off a chain reaction that causes Abin Sur's ring to not find Hal Jordan, but Gardner instead. Because of this, Guy becomes one of the greatest Lanterns of all time, but ends up contracting a "yellow plague" from the planet Ghera, and dies decades before he should. Sinestro goes renegade without opposition, and forges the Sinestro Corps long before the current time-line. He ends up conquering the whole of the universe, turning everything into a militant state.Booster accepts his mission, and Rip goes "time-diving" to find out who has been tampering with things.

August 14th, 1939

Egypt, the Tomb of Kha-Ef-Re

Dan Garrett and his partner Luri discover the Blue Scarab, and when a pillar collapses, Dan transforms into the first Blue Beetle for the very first time.

8 Years ago

Pasadena, California

Guy Gardner skips Christmas with his mother and father to watch the Rose Bowl between U of Michigan and Washington. Booster watches from afar, observing that Gardner looks distraught, and constantly eyeing payphones. Suddenly, Sinestro enters Earth's atmosphere, and Booster intercepts him before he finds Gardner. Sinestro becomes irritated, and engages Booster, levelling half of the stadium in the process. Booster manages to survive afater Skeets reveals that the Green Lanterns are still susceptible to the yellow impurity. Sinestro explains that somebody in white with a mask warned him that Gardner would surpass him as Green Lantern, and he has come to dedce how it would be possible to usurp him.

Back in the time-stream

Rip Hunter continues diving, passing several wormholes and alternate dimensions and time-lines. Suddenly, his machines start detecting something of-the-charts, and he discovers a huge shperical structure residing within the time-stream.

Elsewhen, back in Pasadena

Sinestro continues his zeal to encounter Guy Gardner, but Booster Gold once again interferes. Just before Sinestro once again beats him to a pulp, Booster shouts that he is, in fact, Sinestro's biggest fan. He lies that in the future, everybody worships the legend of Sinestro, and that he has come from the future to warn Great Sinestro that the Qwardians would decieve him, and try to reveal his own fears. By seeking out Guy, he would show his fear of being replaced, and Booster has come to tell him "what he already knows in his heart", and that is that Sinestro can never be replaced. Sinestro, content with himself, notices Booster's yellow flight-ring. Booster explains that they all wear rings as tribute to him in the future, and that they're all members of the "Sinestro Corps", incidentally inspiring Sinestro to forge the faction in the future.

Sinestro departs Earth, and Booster seeks out Guy. Borrowing some clothes, Michael finds him drinking in a local bar. Booster manages to get Guy to talk about his problems, which stem from his relationship with his father. Apparenly Gardner's father is dying, and wants to reconcile with his son. Booster reveals something about his own father, which he notes that he's never even told Ted. Gold's own father was a crook and a gambler, and he died without the chance to see him again. This inspires Guy to go see his father one last time, and gives Booster his Rose Bowl tickets. Apparetly this sets in motion the events that cause Hal Jordan to recieve Abin Sur's ring, putting Gardner in the second spot he so openly loathes.

Booster returns to Rip's time-sphere, when suddenly his invitation once again transforms, but this time into the Death Certificate of Superman! Booster finds that Rip is gone, but when he looks outside of the sphere, he finds Hunter idly floating and injured, and Supernova chasing him! Skeets deduces that the being inside the suit is not Daniel Carter, but before they can investigate any further, "Supernova" enters a wormhole and disappears into the wild west. He shifts into some cowboy appropriate attire, and enters a bar, proclaiming that he needs a "gun-fer-hire". Across the bar, none other than Jonah Hex accepts the bounty.