Back to the Future

[Audrey]

The time had to be around 3 am. Just about everyone was asleep and dreaming of good things. At least, the decent people were. Some time ago, the museum alarm had blared loudly, making the fact that it had been robbed apparent to everyone in the vicinity, not to mention the police station and no doubt the Titans Tower. The perpetrator had taken to the rooftops, carrying their prize under their arms, concealed with a navy blue cloak in hopes that their identity wouldn't be compromised. With swift agile motions and using the shade for cover, they made their way across the city, nervously panting and checking for law enforcement or Titans at every corner. They couldn't be caught. No one could know about this.

For under the cloak was the grey hair of Afterburn, supposed hero. Even as a reluctant hero, she normally would not stoop to thievery, but this was important. She needed this. After a long amount of work figuring out how to bug her Hephaestus surveillance software and make them think she was sleeping in the late hours, she was going to finally meet with someone who could tell her something about her past. The unfortunate consequence, was that he required payment. Payment in the form of a modern artifact. The man was a collector of such things and had ways of upping their value thirtyfold. Theft was really the only way to satisfy his demands. So she hoped that she could do this, and forget she did forever, and that required not having anyone know she was the one who had set off the museum alarm and was making off with a priceless piece. So far so good.

Seeing the alley she was assigned to make her rendezvous in, she found a fire escape to descended to the street level, entering the alley cautiously. Down the brick and mortar, she saw another person dressed similarly to herself. They were far taller than her however, and their metallic clothing glistened beneath their covering. As she approached, she threw down her hood revealing her distinct face. "I trust you brought me something of value, correct Ms... what was it again?" came the voice of the man, middle-aged and stern.
"... Afterburn," she reluctantly answered, pulling the small abstract sculpture she had stolen from the museum from out under her arm. The man took it from her gently and examined it.
"A nice choice. This will suit me well. Of course, I was already aware which you would take, and I know you haven't the guts to stop me from taking, which is the only reason I meet you here to carelessly," he responded, throwing down his hood revealing himself as the time-travelling villain, Warp.
"Your future sight parlour tricks don't amuse me. I want what you promised," Afterburn spoke, giving a look sterner than Warp's voice. He merely smirked at her arrogance.

"All in good time my dear, all in good time," he answered approaching Afterburn as he placed the sculpture into his personal belongings. "You must give me your head for a second," he demanded, gesturing for it impatiently. She paused for a second before scowling and leaning her head forward for him to grasp her temples with each hand. As he rubbed the sides of her head, he shut his eyes and focused. After a couple seconds, a look of dismay crossed his face. "That... That can't be right," he muttered, stopping to open his eyes and look Afterburn over. "You can't be older than 20..." he continued somewhat baffled, but accepting it nonetheless.
"What did you find?" Afterburn asked desperately.
"You seem to have been born in 1955 somehow," he said, continuing to confusedly look her over.
"It's a long story. Is that all you can tell me?" she demanded, frustrating at how little he was giving for such a price.
"I managed to locate a pivotal point in your timeline. If you remain as my bodyguard, I can possibly let you see it for yourself," he answered as he looked towards the rooftop.
"Show me? Bodyguard? Why?" she pressed, somewhat angrily, furious that he would demand even more after what she'd done.
"We're not alone," he replied, charging up his golden gloves prepared for a fight. In a panic, Afterburn threw up her hood again and looked up to the rooftops with Warp.

[Aly]

Since she and Afterburn had... made an acquaintance, Batgirl was puzzled about this girl. She had no idea who she was, and there was someone, some company, telling her what to do. If she tried to figure out who she was, which she doesn't know for some unknown reason, the company, "Hephaestus" would kill her instantly. Something was in her brain, and it seemed like it was some sort of implant set to detonate or at least trigger a response at the controller's will. But who were Hephaestus and why were they doing what they were doing? What were they doing, anyways? So when Batgirl arrived back at Titans Tower, she locked herself in her room and unloaded her giant computer system. Her mere laptop wouldn't work for this one. She needed an untraceable IP address, and specific programs to maneuver around firewalls and encoded documents. It was well into morning when she finally got it all set up and started her search. She had discovered in the briefcase which they had apprehended from a Hephaestus member a picture of four people. One looked strangely like Afterburn, somewhere in between the ravenant form and the grey-skinned one, along with one girl and two men. They all seemed pretty young, maybe late teens, and were all wearing Vietnam-era military attire. On the back of the photograph were four names: Felicity, Tiana, Brody, and Lance. With the names alone, Barbara couldn't find anything. Her Batgirl suit lay on her bed, and she was wearing just a sports-bra and sweatpants. She looked almost like a college student, except for the very advanced technology she was working on. She was just almost normal-looking for a while, but the way she hunched over the keyboard and scanned the screen were un-teenager-like. For days she worked, barely leaving her room for food, and letting the others take care of the minor missions. Despite her efforts, nothing came up with just those four names, as there were countless people that had the same first names. There were no last names, nor any fingerprints that could help her. With no other option, she scanned the photograph into the computer and ran some facial-recognition. What came up shocked her. How can that be? She's only- Barbara stuffed the photograph in her utility belt that was haphazardly dropped on the floor and speed-changed. Night had already fallen, and she found no sign of Afterburn at the last place they had met. Something was wrong, though. Sirens were wailing, and looked like they were headed towards the museum. Well, if she was here, she might as well take care of that. She found the thief hopping rooftops a few blocks away, but something was familiar about this certain criminal. The way she moved, and the grey hair that sneaked out from under the hood. Batgirl stuck to the shadows, letting the cops pass them and speed the other way. She watched as Afterburn descended into an alley, but stuck to the rooftop herself. The girl met another hooded person, but it soon turned out to be one of the Titans enemies. She knew Warp very well from the Titans villain database. Taking out her binoculars, she tried to get a closer look to see what was stolen. Perhaps from that she could determine why.

[Audrey]

As her head crooked to look, Afterburn only managed to get a tiny glimpse before Warp yanked her back to look at him. "She. Does. Not. Know. We. Know. She's. There. Do not make any suspicious moves," Warp mouthed silently to her, depending on his hood to hide his mouth movements. She had gotten only a glance, but Afterburn had recognized the cowl above. It was Batgirl, the girl who had witnessed Hephaestus's worst attempt on her life thus far and had made off with the information pertaining to Hephaestus.

Afterburn was dead sweating with fear. Batgirl could not know she was here, everything would be ruined. All that information on Hephaestus she went to analyze would go up in smoke if Batgirl recognized her as a criminal. Not to mention, if she wound up serving the time she would get for the artifact she stole, it would be long enough that Hephaestus could very well cut their losses and pull the plug, killing her there in the cell. No one would care about a dead meta-criminal in Belle Reve, they'd just assume she'd been killed by Electrocutioner or something. Oh god the worries were plaguing her.

She began shivering as Warp quietly led her down the alleyway as his gear began starting up. "I've pinpointed the time and location we need to get to, to witness your pivotal moment. I am working on generating a cloaking device so that our actions can go unseen by those in the past as it is written will happen. It may take a little while though. If the 'mole' moves in, I'm going to need you to fight them off as I cannot while the machines are charging," Warp spoke as he fiddled with the device on his chest after opening a portal onto the wall, well out of the view of any onlookers from the street.
"A-and if I refuse?" Afterburn questioned, not exactly willing to directly fight with Batgirl at risk of her presence being discovered.
"Well I can easily just toss you into this portal and shut it leaving you 1957 for the rest of your life," Warp snapped back, demonstrating how easy it would be for him to do so by gripping her shoulder. Afterburn gave him a nasty look before nodding uncomfortably. He released her and she stepped away from him, looking about the alleyway, pretending the best she could she didn't know Batgirl was watching from above. She subconsciously held her hood in tight trying to conceal her face from anyone above her. This was getting bad, but she had no choice. She had to know about her past, and there was no better way than to live it.