“…How…do you lose…a TARDIS?!” asked the Doctor.
“You tell me!” replied the Master.
“So you’re stuck in one point in space/time,” remarked Batman. He then smirked. “Just like us humans.”
“Wipe that smirk off your face, Batman! It doesn’t suit you!” hissed the Master.
“So you need the Quake Engine to restore your time travel capabilities,” said the Doctor. She then looked at the Penguin. “What about your angle, Mayor Cobblepot?”
“Do you know how the Quake Engine works?” asked the Penguin.
“Can’t say as I do.”
“Batman, you tell her. You were caught up in its effects along with us.”
“The Quake Engine,” began Batman, “treats time like origami, folding it into various shapes.”
“What?!” gasped the Doctor. “That’s dangerous! One mistake and you tear time like an amateur origami artist tears paper!”
“The Quake Engine can also be used to rewrite parts of history,” continued Batman. “After my adventure in Japan, Ra’s Al Ghul got ahold of it and used it to try and eliminate all but the strongest of humanity, rewriting the Justice League’s history so they would become Yakuza members. Because we existed outside of time for a brief moment, we could access the Quake Engine and refold history back into its proper shape. I thought we took it apart.”
“You did,” replied the Penguin, “but you know me, Batman. I have a nose for information!”
“So your thugs attacked one of the vaults hiding a part of the Quake Engine!”
“And they pulled off the operation beautifully!”
“I then blundered here and found the Penguin working on the Quake Engine,” explained the Master, “and offered my help in helping him turn history into its coherent state in return for locating my TARDIS.”
“Mayor Cobblepot, you have to stop this!” warned the Doctor.
“Nice try, but a lady’s tears won’t move me!” dismissed the Penguin.
“I don’t know what the Master has planned, but this ISN’T about recovering his TARDIS in the long run!”
“Doctor, you’ve entertained the Mayor and I with your theories long enough,” said the Master. “…Now, my Laser Screwdriver? You DID take it while Batman explained the Quake Engine.”
“…Oh well,” sighed the Doctor as she handed over a rod with three laser emitters on one end. “Can’t blame a Time Lady for trying.”
“Doctor, that trick hasn’t worked on me since the days of the Academy!”
“I think we’ve heard enough!” snapped the Penguin. “Batman, you and your friends can leave!”
“Come on, everyone,” said the Doctor. “I think we heard enough.” She and her friends then left.
“Right then,” grumbled the Master. “Now, if Young Martin can return with the power supply, that would be splendid!”
“…I didn’t see him when I brought those guys here,” remarked the Penguin. He pressed a comms button. “Security, someone find that boy.”
“Sir, he left a minute ago,” replied the guard.
“WHAT?!” shouted the Penguin and the Master.
Back in the Batmobile, the Doctor, Winston, Batman, and Tysar were discussing what they learned. “Why would the Master want a coherent past if he’s planning on ruling all of time and space?” muttered Winston. “And why would they WANT to preserve Martin Luther’s history?”
“The Master isn’t exactly a civil rights activist,” remarked the Doctor. “Questions, questions.”
“Perhaps I can provide some answers?” asked the voice of a young boy! Batman turned towards an empty alley and stopped the Batmobile. Everyone turned to see Young Martin in the Batmobile with them!
“What are you doing here?!” yelped Tysar. “It’s not safe!”
“It’s safer than staying with those two,” replied Young Martin. “And I know what they’re up to. They both plan to be the sole ruler of time and space.”
“Because, of course, they don’t trust each other,” sighed the Doctor. “But that doesn’t explain why…Winston, something on your person is beeping.”
“Huh?” Winston listened to the beeping. “…That’s my PKE Meter,” he said. He pulled out the device and the arms of the PKE meter flashed and moved to a near vertical position when the device was waved over Young Martin. “What the-?! The living shouldn’t have a PKE reading! …Unless…” The Doctor and Winston goggled.
“…He didn’t, did he?!” whispered the Doctor.
“What is it, Doctor?” asked Tysar.
“…That would explain why the temporal degradation is so slow,” muttered the Doctor.
“I met him once before on the job,” said Winston. “Let me compare notes.” He pulled out a notebook and looked between the numbers on the PKE meter and the numbers in the book. “…It is! Martin Luther King’s ghost is possessing his younger self!”
“What?!” asked Batman.
“A pleasure to see you again, Dr. Zeddemore,” greeted Martin Luther King Jr, America’s greatest Civil Rights hero!
“So, the mind of your younger self is asleep!” realized the Doctor. “You’re keeping him from learning too much of the future!”
“That’s the idea, Doctor,” confirmed Martin Luther King Jr. “When people started forgetting and I saw my younger body outside the Gotham courthouse, I had to try something. But it seems as if my possessing my younger self has consequences.”
“Yes, but it slowed down the rate of people forgetting you, Dr. King,” said the Doctor. “We need to bring your younger self back to when you jumped out of your house’s second story.”
“Interesting that I was plucked out of time at a low end of my life.”
“The Grouping doesn’t really have much in the way of rhyme or reason.”
“The Grouping?” asked Tysar.
“Those chronal surges are happening all across time and space,” said the Doctor. She then snapped her fingers as she remembered something. “Batman, you and the Justice League are going to meet my past self, but it will happen in your future. You need to remember to tell my past self about the Grouping.”
“Got it,” replied Batman.
“Doctor, I know what the Quake Engine is being used for,” said Martin Luther King Jr. “The Penguin mentioned something about a bird man castle and how he intends to use the Quake Engine to power it.”
“Chojin-jo?! He’s rebuilt it?!” asked Batman.
“Chojin-jo being?” asked Tysar.
“It’s the Penguin’s robotic fortress, also called Chojin Bird-Man Castle, from when the Quake Engine was first used so the Gotham Villains could take over Feudal Japan!”
“But that would mean starting the Industrial Revolution too early for Japan!” yelped the Doctor.
“We fixed that, thank goodness,” replied Batman. “But if the Penguin’s getting his old castle working-!”
“He’ll rule not only Gotham, but the entire eastern seaboard of the United States,” finished the Doctor. “We have to find Chojin Bird Man Castle! Dr. King, do you know where-?!”
“The main factory’s in the underground pumps station,” explained Martin Luther King Jr.
“That’s Killer Croc’s old lair,” remarked Batman. “The pumps are supposed to keep Gotham Bay from flooding.”
“Apropos that a man that themes himself after an aquatic bird should choose that for his base,” said the Doctor.
In the underground pumps station, the Penguin and the Master were putting the finishing touches on Chojin Bird-Man Castle. “And there we go!” laughed the Master as he made the last connection. “All done!”
“Perfect!” cackled the Penguin.
“Hold it!” called Batman’s voice.
“Penguin! Master! Drop this nonsense now!” shouted the Doctor.
“No!” snarled the Master. “Not while I’m so close! You won’t stop me this time, Doctor! Hand over Young Dr. King and I’ll return him to his native time, then come back and rule over this planet!”
“Bit of a complication in returning him,” replied the Doctor. “In any event, you can’t launch this contraption! It’ll fold the Time Vortex into five dimensions instead of the usual four!”
“I’ve come too close! You’ll not ruin my plans this time, Doctor!” The Master grabbed a fencing foil and swung at the Doctor. The Doctor grabbed another and the two dueled. The Doctor noticed a tray of sushi with chopsticks nearby and dueled the Master long enough to disarm him and point her foil’s tip at his left-hand heart. She then grabbed the chopsticks and used them to pick up a sushi roll.
“I still find that violent exercise makes me rather hungry. Do you?” The Doctor ate the sushi roll with a grin.
“Smile all you want, Doctor!” snarled the Master. “It’s still launch capable! One voice command is all that’s necessary.”
“Don’t you dare!” warned the Doctor.
“Oh, I’ll more than dare! Chojin-jo! HASSHIN!” …Nothing happened. “…Chojin-jo…hasshin!” The Master tried again. “…Oh for-! CHOJIN-JO! HASSHIN!” The Master then felt a sharp pain in his right-hand heart. The Doctor saw it in his eyes, he was NOT faking it! He clutched the heart like one does when they’re having a heart attack!
“What in-?!” The Doctor felt for his heartbeat. “…No electrical signal?! How-?!”
“A little something I picked up in the Orient!” cackled the Penguin. “You really think I’d let an alien like the Master or you, Doctor, control MY history?!”
“You paranoid little-!” snarled the Master through his heart attack. “WE HAD A DEAL!”
“And now I have a better one, what with me learning how to stop the electrical signals to a heart! Thanks for leaving your Laser Screwdriver out! Now…time to feather the nest I built! FLY, CHOJIN BIRD-MAN CASTLE! SPREAD YOUR WINGS!” The fortress then moved as the Penguin used his umbrella to fly up to the control room!