#timestorm

Could you tell us how Victory Saber came to look like this?

Dear Saber Shadower,

During the Autobots' battle against Dark Nova, Star Saber was ambushed by Super Megatron and his Galaman troopers. Though Star Saber fought bravely, he was unable to defeat the resurrected Emperor of Destruction; he only survived the battle through the ejection of his Brainmaster unit, which contained his consciousness. His larger body was left abandoned and lifeless, drifting through space… until it was found by Dark Nova itself. Using its arcane energies, Dark Nova imbued the empty shell with its own essence, corrupting and twisting it into Dark Saber, a servant to do the evil entity's bidding. Dark Nova even used the battle data stored within the shell to create a drone to aid Dark Saber in battle: Calamity Leo, a dark copy of Victory Leo.

Already displeased with Super Megatron's failure to defeat Star Convoy on Earth, Dark Nova concocted a new plan. Dark Saber and Calamity Leo were sent back through time to the year 2026, in the aftermath of the destruction of Deathsaurus's space fortress, with the mission of slaying Star Saber and causing a timestorm that Dark Nova could exploit to its own ends.

On his arrival in the past, Dark Saber gathered a crew of Decepticon warriors, who had been left scattered and disorganised after Deathsaurus's defeat. Leading his followers to Planet Zone, Dark Saber exploited the planet's unfinished defenses and had the other Decepticons engage the Autobots in battle, while he personally challenged Star Saber himself. Though the two were evenly matched at first, when Dark Saber combined with Calamity Leo to form the mighty Calamity Saber, he decisively overpowered Star Saber and moved to strike the killing blow.

However, Star Saber carried a power that his dark counterpart did not. Dark Saber had been created from an empty shell, and lacked the Brain Power that gave Star Saber his legendary bravery. Drawing on the power of the Brain of Courage, Star Saber struck out with all his will, disarming Calamity Saber and driving him back. The evil copy was unable to comprehend where Star Saber's surge of strength had come from, and was helpless to prevent the Autobot Supreme Commander from cutting him down with the Saber Blade; without the animating force of Dark Nova's power holding him together, Calamity Saber crumbled to dust.

Some sort of energy wave transported Spider-Man through time, and now he’s somehow stuck in an asylum… strange comic book logic…

I think that Rip finds Jax's tattoos fascinating.  I mean, he knows what tattoos are, obviously.  Tattooing is an art that is practiced across a number of different cultures throughout time, after all.

But well, let's be honest, the Time Masters don't seem like the type to really appreciate or understand tattoos.

The Time Masters don't seem like a culture that puts a lot of stock in permanence.  I mean, they have technology that can heal anything from severed limbs to brain damage without even a scar.  They have machines that can create materialize food, clothing, anything to fill an immediate personal need whenever they want.  Vanishing Point seems to be the closest thing that most of them have to a home outside of their ship, and well, it doesn't seem very home-like to me.

And well, we've seen how well they seem to understand things like sentimentality and attachment in general.

I'd imagine they have all sorts of prejudices about people who permanently alter their own bodies without even any practical purpose.

But Rip knows Jax.  He knows the man would not resemble any of the stereotypes that the Time Masters likely have about people who engage in the art.

So I think he probably wonders about them.  Are they simply decorative?  (Jax is a good looking man after all, one could hardly blame him for showcasing that.)

Do they serve a symbolic or sentimental purpose?

Of course, Rip being Rip can't very well ask outright very easily.  But I think Jax will notice him staring at some point, and after initial understandable defensiveness, he may actually be willing to explain them.

I think that would be fascinating to Rip, because, as we've seen, Rip DOES seem to appreciate permanence in a way that most of the Time Masters don't.  He collects objects.  Artifacts, if you will.  He has Jonah Hex's wanted poster on his wall and wears his damn coat.  He keeps stashes of sugary cereal and makes cakes, even though he could just have Gideon create either.  And of course, there's that hologram.

But to carry something with you, under your skin?  That's a permanence on a whole other, intimate level.

And I was thinking about Rip and his grief.  And I wonder, has he ever talked about it?  With anyone?

Gideon is probably out.  He loves her, but she isn't going to process this the same way that he does.  The Time Masters...

I wonder how the Time Masters talk about death.  I wonder how they talk about grief.  I wonder if anyone ever sat little Rip down and explained that even though someone is gone from your life, and you'll never see them again, you will always carry a part of them with you.

I kind of doubt it.

But Jax knows this by heart.  Jax has grown up, all his life, with a father who died before he was born.  Who Jax has only ever known through his mother's memories and his own face in the mirror.  And it's even more true now, because he actually got to see the man that his father was in the flesh.  He got to speak to him and embrace him.  And that's something he'll always have.

I suspect that at least one of the designs on Jax's skin was put there in honor of his father.

I wonder then, if as part of the grieving process, Jax might suggest a tattoo.  Nothing too big or decorative.  Rip isn't the sort.  But something small and secret and easily hidden.  Like a pair of initials on the underside of the wrist.