Times Spheres and Time Packs

Time Spheres have been in the DC Universe since at least the Silver Age. Back then they were pretty common place in superhero comics from the Legion of Superheroes to Lois Lane hopping into one to visit Krypton before it exploded. Since then the use and invention of them has been harder to come by. After Crisis on Infinite Earths it's generally accepted that Rip Hunter invented them with his friend Jeff Smith sometimes credited in helping him. At present it seems that Rip Hunter is one of the few to be able to perfect a Time Sphere. Even the Time Stealers who have vast intellects at their disposal and members who regularly time travel could not perfectly duplicate one. Having borrowed one of the Time Stealers spheres Booster Gold commented that it was a "piece of junk" that was difficult to maneuver. Being able to use Rips' own devices made this far more apparent.

Post-Crisis during the Time Master mini series Rip Hunter invented what he called a Time Pack. Which would allow the wearer to make one trip to the desired timeframe and one return trip back. Smaller in size this time machine was much easier to conceal. 

The Time Stealers

To bring about the end of the Time Masters so they can truly command the time line Mr. Mind joined forces with other villains to form a group called the Time Stealers. Taking matters into their own hands they destroy anyone that gets in their way and do anything they can to get Booster Gold to quit his role as Time Master. Mind informed them that their usual method of killing enemies won't work with Gold. The reason for this was never told only that he could not realize his destiny or that of his line.

The members of the Time Stealers are: 

Mr. Mind: (Not Shown) A two inch Venus worm that previous became a Hyperfly only to have his plans for the 52 stopped by Booster Gold, Rip Hunter and Daniel Carter.

Despero: Plucked from time shortly after his first battle with the Justice League, before he mutated.

Supernova 3: Taking the uniform Rip Hunter created from it's newest user (Daniel Carter), Jon Carter the father of Booster Gold became the third Supernova. Acting the part of a villain instead of a hero, Jon a con man through and through,attempted to disillusion his son.   

Maximillon: A vastly upgraded version of Booster Golds' robot buddy Skeets, the self proclaimed enemy of the droid. 

Degaton: A time traveler that fights the Justice Society of America hailing from the 1940s'. 

Ultra-Humanite: taken from his days fighting Infinity Inc. when he was in the form of an ape.

Black Beetle: Not much is known about the Black Beetle. His own tales of his origin change with each telling. Thus far he has claimed to be a Blue Beetle from the 27th century,Hector (a former friend of Blue Beetle 3/Jaime Reyes), Jaimes' greatest enemy and a future version of Jaime Reyes. Needless to say he's not the most trustworthy of guys. 

Jason Goldstein/Rex Hunter:(Not shown)A former member that the rest of the team decided posed too much of a risk once he was captured by Rip Hunter.

The Countess

Fiorella de Ravenna hails from the Firenze (Florence) Italy. Deeply fascinated with the concept of seeing the future she quickly latched herself onto Konstanin Vyronis, a former member of Goodfellows' trope. In 1464 Walker Gabriel was introduced to her by Vyronis, in hopes that Walker could be of use to their goals. Thinking that he's seen the last of her Walker was in for a surprise when he found her in 2113, claiming that another ex lover had brought her to the present. That man, Baron Winters owned a house with many doorways that accessed different points in time. He warned Walker that the woman known as simply "The Countess" had a habit of seducing and destroying men. 

The Countess wanted to return to her old life in the courts of 1464, only to discover that Walkers' actions had unintentionally trapped her. 

Real Life Connection: Based on a real life mystery woman named Maria Lani who suddenly appeared in Paris in 1930. Lani persuaded several artists, who would later become quite famous, into painting her portrait. She was said to have sold some works, and held an exhibition before taking the remaining paintings. She disappeared without a trace. 

What became of her: Since their introduction Fiorella has greatly improved both her english and her ability to use fire arms. Early on we learned that she was supposed to become Walkers' lover, an experience that would embitter him. She resided in the non-linearly synched city of Chronopolis in the process of remodeling. Stating that she would "live forever" she does her best to keep away the boredom by indulging in parties, gossip and her vanity. This might be a vastly different future thanks to Walkers' meddling with his own timeline. 

The Goodfellow Traveling Theatrical Troupe

Many know of the TIme Masters and the Linear Men, few knew of a group of time travelers that hid in plain sight. A group of twelve individuals from different points in time were brought together by a mysterious benefactor. Their mission was to help keep the timeline on the right path though time enforcement linked to the Linear Men didn't approve of what they saw as meddling into their affairs. The group soon found that the best way to blend into what ever era they were in was to have the front of entertainers as any culture slip ups would be seen as eccentricities of actors.

The troupe was led by Lucas Goodfellow a former gambler who was given the role of guiding the others. Each member was given a Keystone, a device that only worked for the user. It was a means to send one way communications to it's members and used with the Gate of Eternity (an Aztec calender) it could send it's user directly to where they needed to go. Without it the traveler had to jump to several different points until they got where they needed to go. The only person to ever be able to go through the portals without being an owner of one was Walker Gabriel, much to the confusion of Goodfellow and his troupe.

Lady Chronos

Jia seemed like the girl of Ryan Chois' dreams but in the end she chose to marry the jock instead of the socially awkward Ryan. Upon hearing that her dead husband Alvin was stalking as a zombie Ryan offered his assistance only to learn that she wasn't as innocent as he assumed. Little did he know that Jia was responsible for him becoming the fourth Atom in a plot to ruin the reputation of Ray Palmer. Forming a partnership with David Clinton she took the name Lady Chronos. The two became lovers though Clinton did have his doubts of her loyalty having seen possible futures with her deception revealed.

In trying to recruit an unaware Ryan into join her in a possible future where she ruled all of the timeline Jia showed her hand too soon. Her future self sent a message that warned her past self of the threat Ryan posed and Clintons' scheming against her. Jia seemed to know Booster Gold who she called by his real name when he arrived to assist the lost hero. Later the Chronos couple showed up as part of the Starro threat against Time Masters. Having no other option Booster agreed to let her go after she helped him and owe her a favor of her choosing. When the crisis was over Booster who had never met her before (though she was already familiar with him) wanted to know her story. Jia used her wiles again making yet another bold statement that they were lovers in her time. Rip Hunter angrily told her that he would never permit that to happen. She kissed Booster much to Chronos' annoyance saying it was just insurance. How much if any is true has yet to be revealed.

Powers: Lady Chronos has an ability she calls Void Time that freezes the victims body making it impossible for them to move much less defend themselves. How she came by these powers, whether they are natural or a product of her costume has never been stated. She likely can not time travel without the Time Watch both her and David Clinton use though she can open portals through time. 

Her future?: Jia has told many stories of how things will play out. She has said that David Clinton will be/was her husband, that she still cared for Ryan, that Booster and her were together, etc. Not everything is clear with her, like her referring to Dwarfstar, a fake Atom like hero, as her first born. Whether he is in fact her son is questionable at best. What is known is that at some point in time she will gain control over the timeline only to have Booster Gold and an Atom rebel. Her body was found with Ryans' future corpse appearing to have stabbed him while he strangled her.

Chronos 2: Walker Gabriel

The Second Chronos, Walker Gabriel has a history that's a little hard to explain even without my usual "don't spoiler too much" stance. His story involves his 30 year old future self and his rookie 23 self, alternate timelines and his own status as an abnormal life form in the time stream. Walker was adopted not knowing anything about his real parents until sometime after he created his own displacement suit. We never learn why he was kicked out of college (according to Jean Loring) but he creates a costume of his own design to help him steal the money he needs to fund his research. A contact of his that helped him improve his prototype suit was David Clinton. As Clinton was at that point rapidly aging and slowly fading away he was only to eager to help, so long as he got his cut from Walkers' thefts.

Once Clinton was legally declared dead he left Walker in his will though the two were only associates. Many started to dub him the new Chronos, the apparent heir of the title. After an earlier theft gone horribly wrong many time travels soon become interested in Walker. Wondering why his mere presence registered as a temporal anomaly. Through a series of events he became more and more involved in events he'd rather stay out of. The whole hero vs. villain scene didn't interest him in the slightest yet he kept getting pulled into the kind of conflicts where he had to choose a side. 

Through his self interest Walker did come quite close to becoming the bad guy. Making one horrible mistake that he alone had to set it right. He kept people guessing of where he stood usually doing things for the right reason but also having his own self interest tied in. The comic was about Walkers' journey of discovery of who he was and what he was willing to sacrifice. His series didn't last long due to low sales, the demand to tie the character to different DC events and the death of Archie Goodwin, a driving force to the book.

What can he do?: Not much of a fighter Walker can freeze and/or slow down the time around him. John Fox, a future Flash, was in fact affected by this enough to not be able to move. Walker is Time Sensitive. He can touch items to be transported back in time to different points in it's existence. Once the capabilities of the suit have been improved upon he can time travel at will. At this stage the early post-crisis means of time traveling by the 2 way method seems to be void. 

Where is he now?: Walker hasn't made too many appearances since. The biggest ones have been his odd death in JSA (it's odd if you read his series, trust me) which is later erased when the timeline is restored. He was in Superman 3D in Limbo and his costume was seen in a possible future where Lady Chronos rules next to David Clintons' living statue.

Chronos 1: David Clinton

David Clinton started off his criminal career in pretty simplistic terms as a thief content with revolving his crimes around time themes. Sundial crossbows, spring weapons, everything focused on his passion. In those early days his only great foe was the second Atom, Ray Palmer. Over the years Clinton even joined many teams such as the Secret Society of Super Villains,  the Crime Champions, the Injustice Gang and others. Desiring to have actual control over time Clinton was one of the many super villains to agree to sell their souls for an exchange from the demon Neron. He gained the ability to time travel at will but failed to realized that the deal wasn't fair. Soon it became apparent that he was rapidly aging and becoming out of sych of reality. Clinton made several attempts to save himself including leeching the youth from fellow travelers. Before he could fade out of existence he becomes a mentor of sort to Walker Gabriel in his endeavors to research and thefts based on his own displacement suit.

After he was legally declared dead more of his personality was shown. The man was a pack rat collector who had the worst luck with women, already having two ex-wives to prove that point. The latter being a trait that would lead him to his partner/lover the woman that would later be referred to as Lady Chronos. For reason that were never entirely clear Clinton (one version of him at least) returned from his apparent grave to led Ryan Choi to become the fourth Atom when Ray Palmer went missing. To embarrass the legacy of his foe but in a possibly future it is implied that he undermined Lady Chronos to ensure that she was stopped by messing with Ryans' life.

Current Status: Given how often his story changes it's hard to say. He faded away until Lady Chronos came into the picture. In a future where she rules the entire timeline Clinton is a living statue next to her throne. She comments that he cheated death many times "eventually he had to learn that time doesn't heal all wounds." Of course this claim is at odds with her later statement that she "collared" him herself.