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This story follows immediately after Path of the Immortal and builds on events recounted in that story. If you haven't read Path of the Immortal already, you should read it before starting this story.

Part 1: The Second Birth of Mekanique

Mekanique appeared in the control room of her fortress in Limbo, smugly satisfied with what she had already achieved. She had collected the empty mechanical body of Robotman and the amber-encased human body of Gloria Giles, battered and broken but still containing the engrams she required, and she had succeeded in changing history. She had one more task, perhaps the most important of all, to complete before she was assured of success. And only a limited time to complete it.

Changing your own past was always a difficult, dangerous task. The timeline strongly resisted such tampering, and you might encounter a fatal accident. Or, perhaps worse, make a change that erased you from history and you would simply cease to exist. From this fortress in timeless Limbo, she had used her time monitor to reviewed the events leading up to the battle in the pyramid thousands of times. Many years of subjective time had gone into planning the myriad of small changes she had made. She waited with patience, and the time-destabilizing aftereffects of the Crisis had provided her with a perfect opportunity. Temporal inertia was temporarily lessened, and her careful planning and bold actions paid off in the paramount event - Steel donning his costume and joining his team of field operatives.

None of Steel's operatives, nor even Odysseus nor Arn Monroe, the most powerful, had the combination of power, experience and focus required to best Savage in hand-to-hand combat, as Steel himself had. If Steel had not joined his forces on this mission, the present-day Savage would have first totally destroyed the dry land team, and then the team in the pyramid. He would have gained increased power from the ritual that had summoned Cthulhu.

With the additional power stolen from Cthulhu, Savage would have easily regained absolute control of the Illuminati. Weakened by the loss of his forces, Steel's ability to oppose Savage in the future would likewise be weakened, and by the time the other great world powers recognized the extent of the threat posed by Savage, the immortal caveman would be unstoppable. His growing, irresistible power would lead inexorably to world domination from his capitol city of Metropolis - and Mekanique's own creation.

In the new time line, Steel's agents all survived, and instead of being fatally weakened by losses in the battle in the pyramid, his organization was stronger than ever, and the leader was newly in touch with his own humanity. When Savage failed to soon return to the Illuminati, his powerful lieutenants would quickly become engaged in a desperate power struggle, and several of them would be wiped out and then replaced by less effective leaders. When Savage finally escaped from Steel's imprisonment and regained control of the Illuminati, the weakened group would be no match for Steel and his secret team, forcing Savage to find other, slower avenues to power. He would eventually regain some of the power he had lost - short of killing him, there was no way to prevent that - but he would never regain the advantage that had allowed him to rule the world from his capitol city of Metropolis.

The changes she had just made had created a 'wave' of change, starting in 1987 and rolling inexorably into the future, constantly growing, erasing the 'old' present as it rolled in and leaving behind it a new present, with a new history. Here in Limbo she should be isolated and protected from the effects of that wave - but if she didn't manage to get the engrams from Gloria's human mind into her earlier robotic body the tidal time wave remade the 23rd century, she didn't know what might happen to her. And she didn't want to find out!

Mekanique carefully adjusted the controls on her time monitor, looking for a specific event. She remembered the exact day vividly - she had gone to Rotwang's lab for a routine checkup, but something totally unprecedented had happened. Rotwang had cut her power during the procedure, rendering her briefly 'unconscious' (though, perhaps, for a robot, 'dead' would be an equally apt description of that powerless state) and when he had restored power, she was Mekanique no more - instead she was now Gloria Giles.

She still had Mekanique's memories, but somehow, Gloria's human personality had completely supplanted the original Mekanique personality. There was no sense of loss - the original Mekanique was little more than a robotic slave, who was only barely capable of independent thought. With all the memories of the original, and the human personality of Gloria Giles instead, the new Mekanique was infinitely better than the old.

She hadn't known, then, why she had changed - but she had instantly known she would never again pass another of Rotwang's examinations. His diagnostic machines would detect the new personality instantly, and he would activate a self-destruct mechanism in her body. If she was going to continue to live, she would have to come up with a plan to escape from the domination of Savage and Rotwang. At this very moment, only nanoseconds after her rebirth, she had begun making plans to change the past.

The plans that had come to fruition today! All that remained was to transfer Gloria's consciousness into her past self, and then wait for the wave of change to wash the timeline clean of the stain and stench of Frederson's Metropolis.

When she found the exact instant, she pressed a button, and motion in the monitor stopped. Rotwang was poised to throw the switch that would restore her power. Her machines would anchor her to this precise instant until her task was completed. The only thing that could interfere was the tidal time wave itself. Her calculations suggested she had about an hour before it reached this far forward into the future.

Working with robotic speed and precision, but no haste, she cut away the amber surrounding the top of Gloria's head. She shaved all the hair, then fitted a bowl-shaped device to the exposed skull. A touch of a switch, and a faint humming began, as millions of molecular-sized surgical nanomachines did gross things to Gloria's head, thankfully hidden from our view. Shortly, there was a web of incredibly-fine platinum wires woven through Gloria's brain. Mekanique's sensitive devices measured Gloria's brain, recording and analyzing every fine detail. All the electrical fields were recorded, all the interconnections mapped, and then all the data was transmitted to another machine.

Mekanique split open a hollow shiny metallic sphere, and another army of nanomachines started spraying a spongy metallic-hued material in careful patterns, building an exact positronic replica of Gloria's human brain in the well-padded interior. The final act of the nanomachines was to seal the shiny globe firmly shut. Power was again applied to the network of platinum wires twined through Gloria's human brain. Pulses of energy gently stimulated and strengthened the complex energy fields that comprised Gloria's mind, then gently loosened the mind field from the brain that had sustained it for almost 80 years.

The free-floating mind field was guided through the connecting wires and flowed into the new, more durable receptacle that had been prepared for it. The guiding energy was withdrawn, and the mind nestled snugly into the familiar structures in the new positronic brain. Finally, Mekanique broke the last connection, and was pleased and a little relieved when her instruments showed mental activity in the new brain Gloria was dreaming now, a dream created by Martinique to prepare her for her new existence. When she returned to consciousness, Rotwang must see nothing that made him suspicious.

As she turned away from the operating theatre, the obsolete, no-longer-functioning human shell was automatically incinerated, and the ashes dispersed in Limbo by an automatic housekeeping machine. The original body held no interest for Mekanique

This new brain was pin-compatible with the original brain Rotwang had created, though it was incredibly more advanced and complex than the original. And housed a human consciousness! She could unplug the old, and plug in the new, and the change would be complete.

Mekanique grabbed the silvery sphere and pulled down a large lever on the control panel. She typed a final command into a keyboard, which opened the armored door of her fortress. She stepped through the door into Rotwang's laboratory. Nothing around her moved, and she was surrounded in the most complete silence she had ever experienced.

She moved slowly to the examination table. It required most of her robotic strength just to move in this strange environment. Even the air around her, suspended in a zero-time state, fought against her, but she prevailed.

She reached the table and gently tapped the pressure points that released her earlier self's skull. She gently pried it open, then reached in and carefully disconnected the existing sphere and umbilical cable. Just as gently, she plugged in the new cable and nestled the new sphere into the skull cavity, and closed the skull. When Rotwang restored power, Mekanique would find herself a new being.

Once back inside her control room, she sealed the door, then typed in another command on the keyboard. The time anchor was switched off. On the monitor, Rotwang resumed his interrupted motion, and restored power to the earlier Mekanique. She was watching her own birth!

She weighed the older globe with the original Mekanique's brain. She could restore her earlier self to life, easily, by building another robotic shell in which to embody this brain. She might even install it into the Robotman body, but she had other plans for that one. Or she could discard it. She felt no kinship with the pre-Gloria Mekanique; she shared that one's memories, but nothing of her mind. She might have use for a robotic slave someday. She closed the old brain in display case, another trophy of her long existence, and turned her attention back to her monitor. Only a few minutes after she re-entered her fortress, the tidal wave of time change reached Rotwang's lab.

She watched as the time wave erased Rotwang and his lab from existence. The colors on the screen faded towards pastels, almost imperceptibly at fast, then continued fading to various shades of gray, until she was looking at a bad TV program from the late 50's, mad scientist in bizarre laboratory, and then reception started going bad, and the picture faded to snowy static. Then the process reversed - she could make out a picture, hidden by the static, which slowly cleared. She was watching an outdoor scene, a pond in a forest on a beautiful sunny day. In the distance she could see a city, and there were vehicles flying nearby.

She touched another button and the view switched again, some 57 years further into the future, into Joh Frederson's office. The time wave would reach this period in only a few minutes more minutes. Savage was due to return from a trip to the past only seconds before the wave would erase his era and that particular incarnation of her former master. There was still a Savage in the new time line, but that other incarnation would have no knowledge of her, and in particular, no knowledge of the secret fail-safe devices built into her body, so cunningly included in her construction that they couldn't be removed or disarmed without destroying her. She hoped Savage would recognize what was happening to him; she wanted to see the helpless look on his face when he finally understood his inevitable doom!

Part 2: Vandal Savage Takes A Tumble

Significant passages in this chapter are very similar to events in Chapter 40 of Path of the Immortal, and in some cases, I borrowed Starsky-Hutch's prose exactly.

As he fell into the bottomless pit of the ancient malevolent alien god Cthulhu, with both arms wrapped around his wounded stomach to keep himself together, Joh Frederson (also known to us as Vandal Savage of the 23rd century, ruler of futuristic Metropolis and the world of that time) assessed his situation. "Not too bad" he decided, compared to his earlier memories of the dire fate of the mystery man (who he now knew had been an alternate future version of himself).

True, his stomach wound would surely be fatal for an ordinary man, and the pain was tremendous. During his hundreds of centuries of life, though, he had learned that if he could feel pain, he would survive. Only patience was required, and he knew patience well.

True, Mekanique had betrayed him - but he had learned that betrayal was as inevitable as pain, and while he never assumed betrayal, he always prepared for it.

True, he was falling into a seemingly bottomless pit that was home to an ancient, immortal alien god, an incarnation of evil who fed off the life-force of its victims - but he could easily resolve that situation.

He activated the temporal recall transporter built into his belt. In a second, he felt the familiar temporal distortion, and the pit around him faded into the featureless gray mist that indicated he was outside of the normal time stream.

Almost immediately, Savage was aware that something was wrong. Normally, there were no sensations in this strange dimension outside of time, no heat or cold, no up or down, no motion, just gray nothingingness that had to be endured as you traveled from one time to another. This time, he felt as if his body was being pressed against a wall - a spongy wall, it seemed. but the pressure was inexorable, and growing. He tried to face a different direction, but he couldn't move - it was if he was now totally surrounded by this invisible sponge, and the pressure was growing, the sponginess changing to diamond-like hardness. It was something like the G-force of a rocket launch, crushing his body from every direction, and it continued to grow. Every muscle and nerve in his body strained to resist this unknown force.

Savage had flown in Soviet rockets that pulled 12 Gs and remained conscious. He was on the point of blackout when the pressure vanished. He thought of a slippery watermelon seed, squeezed between two fingers, suddenly shooting free. His straining body jerked violently as the pressure ceased. The violent spasm combined with the existing damage to his stomach forced his body into shock… His mind retreated from consciousness, and he floated heedlessly in this strange dimension, in virtual sensory deprivation, while his mind replayed the events in the pyramid - the events as he had remembered them, events which were subtly different from what he had just experienced….

(Note: This eyewitness account of the final confrontation in the pyramid in R'lyeh recounts events that occurred before Mekanique introduced her changes in the time line. What Savage remembers differs slightly from what was recounted in 'Path of the Immortal' by Starsky Hutch. Generous passages in the descriptions below are taken directly from the climactic scene in Path of the Immortal. If they seem familiar, it's because you've read them before! ie, some of what follows is not my work but that of Starsky-Hutch.)

****

The Vandal Savage of 1987 stepped through his teleportal into the giant pyramid in undersea R'lyeh, scowling in satisfaction. He had just started the short self-destruct sequence that would destroy the Illuminati headquarters he had just abandoned, obsolete now that he was moving command to this undersea pyramid. Incidentally, a squad of Steel's government agents were inside the doomed building and were doomed themselves, leaving him free to see to the destruction of Steel's second squad, which was currently invading the pyramid.

Suddenly, he was struck on the head from behind. Though he was barely affected by the blow, he slumped quietly to the stone floor. This attacker must be a traitor from within the Illuminati organization, and he might learn something useful if the man thought him a helpless captive. The mystery man was surrounded by a half-dozen figures. Through slitted eyes, Savage could see that they appeared to be cyborgs, clearly Illuminati technology, though surprisingly advanced. The internal rot in the Illuminati had proceeded further than he had imagined. Starting today, he would purge all traitors!

He was dragged into an enormous room whose main feature was an enormous pit. Behind the pit was a stone dais, standing before an enormous stone carving of the Illuminati symbol.

As his cyborg soldiers spread throughout the room, the mystery man dropped him, mounted the dais and began a low chant. He continued to repeat the same words over and over again, his tone growing louder and more forceful with each repetition. Suddenly, Savage recognized the words of the chant.

"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wagn'nagl fhtagn."

The traitor was trying to awaken Cthulhu and raise R'lyeh! The arrogant fool! Yes, if he could master the ancient alien god, he would gain immense power. But this power belonged to him, Vandal Savage, and no one else! With a roar of anger, Savage surged off the floor and slammed into the man, driving him savagely into the stone wall. With a sickening thud, his head bounced off an outthrust corner of rock, and he fell to the floor, unconscious and bloody.

Savage felt a quick flash of panic. He had been preparing for this ritual for years, and delaying for almost as long, because he wasn't ready! Another part of his mind responded, sardonically "Is _anyone_ ever truly prepared for Cthulhu? You've been lying to yourself, putting it off because you are terrified!"

His anger at himself quickly quenched the flicker of panic, and he stepped onto the dais and resumed the chant, continuing the summoning himself. Without the proper preparations, Cthulhu would be harder to control, but he had a made-to-order sacrifice readily available. This should appease the ancient monster-god somewhat.

Strangely, the cyber-soldiers appeared confused and made no move to interfere. Perhaps they understood the dangers of further interruptions to this ritual. Or perhaps they were already under the influence of the great evil power that was not climbing from the pit.

Several tendrils began to appear at the rim of the pit. They moved about, searching the edge as if guiding themselves, feeling the way for whatever monstrosity lay below. Savage's resolve waned momentarily at the sight of the long tentacles issuing from the pit. It had been over 50,000 years since his first encounter with this monstrous entity, and it had all but overwhelmed him at that time. Well, he was much more knowledgeable and powerful now than he had been, and Cthulhu had been asleep during that whole time. He would prove his superiority by draining the life from this monster and usurping its powers for himself.

The green, scaly peak of the monstrosity's head began to break the surface, making it apparent that the tentacles weren't appendages but what passed for the creature's face, except for two serpent-like eyes. The peaks of two narrow, bat-like wings came into view next, followed by enormous, taloned hands. More and more of the monstrosity came into view as Savage continued to chant.

There was a sudden crash and the stone door leading to Cthulhu's tomb shattered as Agent Liberty and his team burst through. An outraged Savage turned at the sound. Even the inhuman eyes of Cthulhu turned in their direction. "Ah, the cavalry has arrived," Savage said, mockingly. "Too little, and much too late!"

The monstrosity from the pit gave an horrible, inhuman scream and its head flashed downwards, too fast to follow, and snatched up the unconscious mystery man. Savage was again shaken - if the monster had been attacking him, he would not have been able to escape, but the mystic power of the ritual had protected him. He didn't spare a thought for the traitor who had just been sacrificed.

Cthulhu raised one of his taloned hands. Eldritch energy fired out from his hand and ensnared Vixen. With a jerk of his wrist, she was flung across the room and smashed into one of the ancient machines along the far wall. There was a burst of light and she disappeared.

"No-o-o-!!" Baby Boom screamed. She generated one of her explosions by the monster's head and it let out another outraged screech. It turned its hands towards Baby Boom and she let out a pained scream as she was enveloped by eldritch energy.

"He's draining her life force!" Agent Liberty exclaimed, raising his blaster and firing at the beast.

Distracted, Cthulhu turned towards Liberty and inadvertently released Baby Boom, snaring several of the mysterious cyber-soldiers instead. Since they didn't have super powers, their life forces were quickly consumed and their rotted skeletons dropped to the ground and fell apart with a clatter.

With the new power it had gained, Cthulhu became more active. It flapped its wings causing powerful tornado-like winds, then leaped out of the pit towards the attack team. The wind caught Baby Boom and whisked her into the pit, along with Matches, who had been racing to her side.

Agent Liberty screamed as he was the next target of the ancient god's eldritch attack. Cthulhu bellowed in rage as it attempted to drain his life force. Monroe was weakening quickly. He raised his blaster and fired again, to no result.

"It's killing him!" Indigo exclaimed, trying to fight her way through the remaining cyber-soldiers towards him. "Somebody do something!"

"Steve, your sword?" Monroe gasped, still finding winning tactics, even as Cthulhu leached his life from his body.

"Perhaps," Odysseus nodded, understanding his meaning. "Could a weapon created by one god slay another?

Odysseus flew towards Cthulhu, drawing his sword. With a swing, he deflected the eldritch blast from Agent Liberty. It struck Savage and he was enveloped by a brilliant flame. The ritual had prepared him to absorb power from the ancient monster, and this blast was just an appetizer!

Odysseus found himself suddenly enveloped by the creature's eldritch force as it began to feed on his godly life force. A very different shriek issued from its obscene tentacled excuse for a mouth and everyone realized it was the sound of exultation and satisfaction. The entire pyramid began to shake.

"We're rising!" Monroe exclaimed. "He's stealing Odysseus's power and using it to raise R'yleh! We've got to end this quickly!"

Odysseus continued to fly up at Cthulhu, despite the eldritch onslaught. A glow now seemed to issue from beneath the beast's scales from the godly energy it had consumed. Odysseus hurled his sword at the monster. It hit with a sickening sound, striking Cthulhu between the eyes, and the monster let out an outraged painful howl before disappearing in a burst of light.

The explosion of eldritch energy burst the walls of the pyramid, and the ocean came roaring in. Savage staggered as his new power source was wrenched from him, only instants before he could become a god himself! Still, he had gained enough power to save himself easily. A casual wave of his hand, and he was enveloped by a glowing bubble of mystical force. He willed the bubble into motion, and floated casually through the relentless churning waters pouring through the ruptured wall of the pyramid. Without Cthulhu's power, the raising spell had failed, and R'yleh sank back to the bottom of the sea, while Savage's bubble majestically carried him towards the surface and his destiny.

He hadn't achieved all he wanted here, Savage thought to himself. Steel yet lived. But Steel would be weakened and disgraced by the loss of his team, and his judgment would be warped by his need for vengeance. They would clash again, and Savage would inevitably triumph. Only patience was required, and he knew patience well…

Somewhere, deep in the pit, Savage knew that Cthulhu still lived, and his vast power still awaited its rightful owner. And R'lyeh remained submerged, perhaps for more eons, without seeing daylight. He would come back for this power in a later day.

Yet, he had won a great victory today, and came out of this confrontation with more power than ever before. He wondered briefly who the mystery man had been, then dismissed the thought, and turned back to his usual pastime - conquering the world.

***

As the scene finished playing out in his mind, the external environment intruded on him again - an 'environment' in a dimension which had never before had an environment… The pressure started building again, feeling first like spongy foam that pressed on him from all sides, and then became more and more solid as the pressure increased, to the previous level, and then more, and Savage finally, mercifully, passed out…

After a dreamless interval, he awakened, lying curled up on the floor in Joh Frederson's empty office. With grim satisfaction, he realized that despite the strange phenomenon he had encountered outside the time stream, his temporal transporter had worked flawlessly.

He was still exhausted, and weak with pain from his wound. He clawed his way into his high technology chair, and touched a switch on the control panel built into the right arm of the chair. The automatic medical diagnostic machinery built into the chair came online. While the damage was serious, it was something the chair's autodoc could handle. A flexible tendril extended from the back of the chair and injected Savage with a painkiller and a mild sedative, and a variety of self-replicating nanomachines. Like the transporter, this was _his_ technology, and he knew he could count on it.

As the pain faded, he noticed the world around him began to fade, as well. All of the colors were becoming more and more pale. It must be a side effect of the sedative, but he had never experienced anything like it before. Everything was turning gray. The same gray he had just passed through on his trip through time…

As a 50,000 year old immortal who had independently developed time travel technology and had first hand experience with traveling between universes, Savage had a good understanding of the phenomenon known as Time - as good as a three-dimensional being could have, anyway. Even in his current semi-somnambulant state, he put the clues together. The changes to history he had personally witnessed, the two violent disturbances he had encountered in the emergency time recall, and now, reality fading away… his time line was about to become 'never was'!

A surge of adrenaline cut through his torpor, and with a roar of anger that forever linked him with the beast-man he had been, so long ago, he forced himself to move. The time transporter could take him outside the time stream again, outside the influence of this gigantic eraser. He slapped a switch on his belt, but it was too late! The world was nothing more than gray mist and he no longer had a hand to move or even a belt. Savage and his world vanished.

Elsewhere, in Limbo, Gloria Mekanique Giles laughed. With her creator vanished, and all knowledge of her erased from the mind of her former master, she was finally free. More than 400 years of secret planning had paid off. Gloria allowed herself a moment of celebration, quoting a line from her favorite TV show:

"I love it when a plan comes together!"

Part 3: Never Count Vandal Savage Out

Mekanique watched as the time wave erased the Joh Frederson incarnation of Vandal Savage from existence. She focused on Savage's face as all the colors on the screen started to fade. He was lethargic, and she was starting to think he would never realize his doom, and then suddenly, his body jolted as if from an electric shock!

She laughed out loud at the look of horror on his face as he realized that his timeline was being erased - and he himself along with it. He tried frantically to move, but by now his body had become insubstantial. She was stealing his greatest accomplishments from him, the erstwhile absolute monarch of the world, and he knew it and there was nothing he could do about it! She laughed again as the picture was overwhelmed by snowy static.

"I love it when a plan comes together!" she quoted a line from her favorite TV show as she gloated in her final victory over Savage. She was finally free to pursue her own destiny. She contemplated her next self-assigned task. The Robotman body should be complete refurbished, upgraded to be the technological equivalent of her own, in anticipation of its soon-to-be new resident.

On the monitor, the snow slowly cleared to solid gray, and then outlines of slightly different shades of gray faded into existence. The gray color gradually changed to pastel colors, and Mekanique was horrified! It was impossible but Savage still existed! He had somehow resisted the time change! His expression was as stunned as her own, but it quickly changed to exultation as the colors regained their full brightness. Savage was seated in a sunny meadow. There were buildings in the background, but Mekanique's attention was on her deadly nemesis.

He turned to stare directly at her, and smiled savagely, then raised his hand in an ancient salute of contempt - as if he could see her watching. She recognized that smile; she had seen it many times before and it always meant something deadly was about to befall one of his enemies. The air around him suddenly pulsed with a golden glow and the wound in his stomach closed. He snapped his fingers and vanished from her monitor. She reached to her keyboard.

But Savage reappeared instantly in front of her. Before she could complete her action, he pressed a stud on his belt, and she was frozen in place.

"A traitorous robot - once I would have thought that impossible! Rotwang failed me again. No matter. It is my destiny to triumph over betrayal. I could destroy you instantly - but I will need a replacement for a lost paperweight. You will do nicely" He looked around and smiled. "I see we are in Limbo. This will make an excellent base of operations until I can restore Metropolis. And restore it, I will" Savage was unusually talkative.

"You must have been planning for centuries, eh, traitor?" He sneered at her. "And all your plans brought to naught in seconds. What terrible bad luck! Hah!" He snorted his disgust. "As usual, I make my own luck. I underwent a mystical ritual of my own design even before returning to the past, to prepare me to accept Cthulhu's eldritch power, and that power was flowing into me during the entire confrontation in the pyramid, continuing even as I fell into the pit. Cthulhu's ancient race is immune to petty changes in time such as the one you engineered, and now I am as well."

Trapped in an unresponsive body, all Mekanique could do was observe. But she knew that Savage had not expected to survive the time change, and that he had been as surprised at this effect of Cthulhu's power as she herself had been. That look of horror on his face as his universe faded had been genuine. His continued existence was no more than luck, no matter that he claimed it was the result of his advance planning. She wondered why he bothered to lie?

****

During the days that followed, as he explored his new fortress, Savage occasionally talked to her. He either didn't know, or didn't care, that there were millions of sensors scattered throughout the fortress and that Mekanique could look out through any of them at any time, even though she could do nothing else. So she observed his every action, and his actions gave her plenty to think about.

"This fortress is quite extensive. It must have taken you many decades, perhaps even hundreds of years to steal all the equipment you needed, and carry it into Limbo with you, bit by bit. I notice you've stolen extensively from the Illuminati. Did you know that many many trusted members of the Illuminati died when they were unable to account for vital equipment missing from their inventories? Your thievery caused the deaths of innocent men and women."

She knew better. Of course, she had known of the deaths, but it had never weighed heavily on her, nor did it now. Nobody that Savage would entrust with advanced Illuminati technology was 'innocent'!

"It's clear that you never expected human guests! No kitchen, no washroom, no bedroom. And I have no idea what the big empty storerooms are for." Nor would she ever tell him. "But, I have the perfect solution for the amenity problem."

He set the time monitor to 1943 and zoomed in on a small harbor on the MidAtlantic Coast of North America.

"Sharktooth Bay. My one-time ally, Dr. Henry King, is about to suffer a serious setback at the hands of our mutual enemies, the Justice Society of America". The view slid through the wall of a tower, revealing a top-floor laboratory, and Brainwave holding a plunger-type detonator.

"He thinks that plunger will set off concealed landmines that will destroy the JSA - but the Thunderbolt has arranged a devastating surprise for him. Still, he will survive."

Just as Brainwave began to depress the plunger, the action stopped. "This is a very useful device, madam!" He bowed mockingly at the helpless Mekanique. "Dr. King's shrinking ray was assumed destroyed in the explosion. No doubt none will note its absence."

He was out in the frozen timeline for only a few seconds, returning with a pistol-like device. With no further notice of his colleague's impending disaster, he quickly readjusted the monitor.

"The one thing I regretted most about crossing to Earth-1 was leaving behind my yacht, the Conquest. A lovely vessel, outfitted with all the amenities infinite wealth and power could provide, provisioned to cruise nonstop twice around the Earth without a stop, and a crew fiercely loyal to me alone."

The monitor focused on February, 1987, an expensive private villa on the western shore of the Croatian island of Cres, shortly after 2 AM. The entire live-aboard crew was asleep, even the Officer of the Watch, who would soon learn a lesson about working for Vandal Savage. Savage stepped from the Fortress into the bridge of the yacht, and blasted the man with the shrinking ray, then swept him up and threw him overboard. He stepped off the boat and onto the dock, shrank the yacht to the size of a toy, then picked it up and stepped back into the fortress. He carried it into a large empty storeroom, where he enlarged it again. The crew would have a shock when they awakened! And yet another shock when their missing captain returned and explained their new circumstances!

He bowed again to Mekanique. "I am forever in your debt for this opportunity. An efficient solution to some of my more pressing needs. Elegant living quarters, a chef beyond compare, and a staff of loyal servants. I wish I could invite you aboard to dine!" He shook his head inmock regret. A pity you are otherwise occupied. No mtter... Shortly I will begin my campaign to restore Metropolis!"

If he was now immune to changes in the time stream, why was he provisioning for a long stay in Limbo? She sensed that her own time was limited, and she redoubled her efforts to find a way to escape. Mekanique could split time much more finely than mere humans could. Normally she didn't bother - most of the important events in her world occurred on the human time scale, so why wait for subjective years for someone to finish a sentence? But at her best perception speed, she could stretch seconds into subjective decades. She did so now.

Perhaps the desperation of the situation inspired her, because she suddenly thought of a way she might escape. It was an extreme long shot, but it was. She used the sensors scattered through her control room to minutely examine her own body, concentrating on the forearms, searching in all wavelengths and at highest magnification. Yes, maybe... she moved to the next phase of her plan. But even if she was successful, she still had to count on Savage behaving as she predicted him might. Finally she was as prepared as she could be. She had no idea if she would be successful. Just in time, too, as two of Savage's new crew members carried her to a lab in another part of the fortress. Savage was tossing the silvery brain sphere of the original Mekanique gently up and down in one hand, while the other was poised over a panel of switches.

"While I will miss your eloquence, madam" he mocked her "I've decided I would like my original servant back. I can see now that it was Rotwang who betrayed me, not the original Mekanique. Unfortunately I cannot currently punish him - but I will change that. Farewell."

He pressed a switch, and turned Mekanique's brain off.