Directly following one of the JLR's most heated battles with the CSF, what's left of the team, both old and new, gathers at Pirate Pete's Pancake Paradise at 3 a.m. Licking their wounds, they've won the battle but lost loved ones, and grimly enter the empty restaurant with battle-scars and shredded clothes. Quietly taking a booth the members sit in an uneasy silence. Pirate Pete himself comes up to take their order
Pirate Pete (breaking the silence): Well if it isn't my favorite super-group? What can I get you guys?
Wednesday: Not now, Pete--
Stupid Dogg: Yeah I'll have a shortstack of pancakes, biscuits, and gravy, and... Uh, sorry, these awkward silences kinda make me a little hungry.
Pirate Pete looks around the table surprised and confused
Pirate Pete: Hey, where's that western gal with the fancy boots?
The entire team looks down sad and wordless. Tears begin to form in they eyes of some of the senior members.
Pirate Pete: Ohh... Oh God, I'm sorry, maties. I didn't know....
Midnight: It's alright man
Pirate Pete: Look, uh, foods on the house, alright. Free of charge.
Britannica: Yeah, thanks, Pete. But you better wait a while on the order, ok.
Pirate Pete: Sure, sure, I understand.
Fused: Well at least we won, you know? Couldn't have done it without her.
Registered Member 552 (a bit harsher than intended): Kind of a hollow victory, dont'cha think?
JLR:
Hybrid: Hey at least he's trying to stay on the positive side.
Alex (Centurian): You know, maybe she's not really dead. She only popped away, right? Maybe she just--
Ace: No! You know what The Time Trust said. He couldn't sense her living anywhere in the timestream. She only exists in the past now...
Alex (Centurian): Yeah... I guess I just miss her. I know I didn't know her quite as long as most of you but when I was with her, it was great. It was like I'd known her all my life.
SpandexMonkeyMan: I guess it was like that for all of us.
Britannica: Yeah. You know I still remember the first time us senior members all met. The Starsky Hutch thread. The very beginning of the JLR. November 20, 2002
Unbeknownst to the JLR at that very moment, Chant, hidden in his impenetrable mail truck in an faraway but undisclosed location, listens in on their conversation
Chant: Lucky thing Hook mailed this crystal ball back to their hideout or I might never have stumbled across it.
Registered Member: Man if it wasn't for that one poster the JLR would have never existed.... but I suppose a few more of its members may still be around....
The JLR lower their heads in grief again.
Chant looks distracted. Then he whispers...
Chant: CJ...
Quickly regaining his composure he shakes the thoughts out of his head and continues with his scheming.
Chant: Of course! That's it. If I could just find some way to change the past; to stop that thread from ever being created, the JLR would never be. And if the JLR would never be, Chant would never be stopped. It's brilliant! Hmph, now all I require is some means into the past.
20 minutes of Chants eyes rolled back, tongue sticking out, and a pencil tapping on the dashboard later...
Chant: Dammit!
Chant slams his hands down and a sack of mail tips over and mail rains down on his head. He grabs at one of the falling letters and studies it
Chant: Hmmm.... Hello, hello what's all this then? Yes that will do rather nicely.
Chant pitches the letter to the ground revealing the address.
Chant: Next stop, THE U.S. PATENTS OFFICE!!!
