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Post by arcalian on Oct 21, 2009 15:22:10 GMT -5
 Deus Ex Machina #8Eloi Eloi, Lama Sabachthani!?
Story and Art by Chaltab
Edited by Jay McIntyre
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Post by arcalian on Oct 21, 2009 15:25:00 GMT -5
Apokalips
The acrid smell of desolation permeated the air. Clark scanned all the way to it with his extraordinary vision, and saw only death and decay in the wastes of Darkseid's former planet. Darkseid had not been lying, then. Apokalips, always desolate, had been murdered. And Clark wondered with horror if the New Gods had actually done it, as Darkseid had said.
He walked down a dusty path and stooped next to the bones an armored being, one of Darkseid's generals by his dress. A Mother Box dangled from his belt, and Clark took it, the mechanical presence of the thought-powered machine buzzing inside his brain as he touched it.
“Is that what I think it is?” Lois Lane asked.
“It's your way home,” he said, looking from Lois over to his parents, Jimmy, and Perry. “But not mine.”
Clark took a step past Lois and looked up at the sphere of New Genesis looming in the sky above Apokalips. It's once-lush greenery was subsumed by a gray gloom that hung over the planet, and a red-haloed moon that Clark had never seen before hovered above the planet, misshapen... Like a giant skull.
“Is that the home of the New Gods?” Lois asked. “I always imagined it to look more inviting.”
“Something terrible has happened,” Superman said, handing Lois the Mother Box. “I have to find out what. I have to see if I can help the New Gods.”
“But how will you get back to Earth? I mean what if they're all dead?”
Superman grimaced. “I'm sure this isn't the only Mother Box left alive. I'll find my way back. But I have to help them.”
“We'll wait here for you, then,” Martha said, placing her arm on her son's shoulder.
“No.” Superman looked over at his father, leaning against Perry and breathing heavily. “No, dad needs to get home. He needs his medicine. You're all dehydrated, and you need food. Go to Smallville and get well. Metropolis isn't safe.”
Lois nodded, reaching out her hand and aiming the Mother Box along the dusty path. She closed her eyes and pressed down on the button. A loud WHOOSH accompanied the burst of wind, and a Boom Tube appeared in the air in front of them. Superman waited until everyone had gone through, and the Tube closed.
He took off out of the atmosphere and headed towards the remains of New Genesis.
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Post by arcalian on Oct 21, 2009 15:30:04 GMT -5
The Boom Tube gave a mild pop as it slid closed and, and Lois Lane turned to see an old white farm house a few yards away, a mailbox out in front of it with the name KENT tacked onto the side. She took pleasure in the quaintness of it all, and watched as Martha and Perry helped Jonathan inside. She looked down at the grass. It had never looked so green before. Jimmy and Lois started towards the door to the old house, Lois casting a glance at the photographer.
“Hard to believe,” Lois said, “Seventeen years since Perry hired him, and we didn’t notice that Superman was the guy in the next cubicle over.”
“Oh,” Jimmy said. ‘I thought you knew. I mean his disguise was just a pair of glasses, after all, I figured you would have seen through it.”
Lois gave him a sardonic stare.
“Yeah,” Jimmy frowned. “I was totally clueless too.”
The two went inside, where Martha led them to the kitchen so they could both have a much-needed glass of water. Jonathan Kent was sitting on the couch, his glass already half empty and his feet propped up on a coffee table. Lois sat down an easy chair while Jimmy and Perry joined Jonathan on the couch.
Martha made sandwiches and Lois thought Jimmy was going to down an entire bag of potato chip himself, the way he was pigging out on them.
“He’ll be alright, dear,” came Martha’s voice, along with her hand on Lois’ shoulder.
Superman’s mother turned, and walked outside, calling out the door. “Mae! Mae! Where are you?”
After a moment, nothing happened, and Martha returned to the living room and sat down. Lois had the urge to reach for the television remote, but she feared to as well. Smallville was probably far away from the Titans or the Gods, but the idea that the attack was still going on just made her that much more nervous. Would it ever stop?
Just then, a small dog pushed the front door open and came inside, its face misshapen and its tail missing.
“Oh, Mae!” Martha said, “What’s happened to you?”
Then the dog started melting. No, Lois realized, not melting, but shape-shifting, transforming from the form of a small dog into the form like play-doh, and from that form into something like a young woman. Color faded onto the dull pink blob and suddenly Mae the dog was a girl dressed as Supergirl, the misshapenness of the dog’s face translating into a rather glaringly black eye.
She was not, as far as Lois could tell, the actual Supergirl—Superman’s cousin Kara In-Ze of Argos, whose facial features had been rounder and stronger than the person in front of her now. But the costume was unmistakable.
“Ma, Pa, I’m so glad you’re back!” she said. “I couldn’t find you. I’ve been all over the planet looking for you! Where have you been?”
Lois just glanced over at Martha, not sure who this was or what was going on.
“This is Mae,” she explained. “Short for Matrix. She’s what Clark called a biological android that he brought back from New Genesis about a year ago. She helps Jonathan out with the farm work and such—”
“Not that I needed the help,” Jonathan interrupted. “I just appreciate it.”
“Where have you been?” Matrix repeated. “You had me… worried.”
“We were kidnapped, Mae,” Jonathan said. “Taken to Apokalips by Darkseid to keep Clark there.”
“And where is Kal now?” she asked.
Lois winced. Superman was far away on the planet from which this Matrix creature had originated.
“He’s gone to help people,” Martha said. “Your people, Mae. On New Genesis.”
“Help them? What has happened there?”
“We don’t know,” Jimmy said. “Clark thinks Darkseid attacked them.”
“But that’s impossible,” she said. “You say Darkseid did this, and Darkseid did that, but Darkseid is dead. He’s gone forever.”
"Apparently not,” sighed Lois.
Martha stepped up and placed a hand on Matrix’s shoulder, the blue fabric rippling, in an unnatural way, belying the illusion that there was anything normal about the girl.
“Mae, what’s this? Why are you wearing that costume?”
“I’ve been out,” she said, a guilty smile and a flush filling her face. “Like I said, looking for you all.”
Perry, who had until now been silent, looked up and frowned. “What’s going on in the world? If you’ve been out there. What’s happened since we’ve left. Are the Titans defeated? Is Metropolis still standing?”
The flush left Matrix’s cheeks. “The Titans are gone,” she said. “But… well… see for yourself.”
Matrix motioned towards the television, which flickered on. Lois had been expecting a makeshift newscast or more-likely static, but instead, an image of the President of the United States appeared on the TV, with a LEX-News banner below it with a headline that made Lois’ stomach sink:
EARTH SURRENDERS
The president spoke: “It is with the gravest of conscience and the most sober of minds that I speak to you today. Earth’s heroes have been stretched too thin. The rebuilding of this planet will be sped immeasurably and the recovery hastened if you will accept what I’m about to ask of you. As of this today, the United States of America unconditionally surrenders to the Sinestro Corps. They will harshly deal with any resistance, and I urge all countries listening to this broadcast to do the same. Their leader, Sinestro, assures me that the current occupation of Earth is only temporary, and that once the planet is stabilized, the majority of the Corps will be stationed elsewhere in the galaxy. I do not condone any further metahuman resistance, because to do so would be to condone the senseless slaughter of more of our world’s heroes, who fought so hard in the past days to rid us of the threat of the Titans of Myth.
Thank you, and may God bless America, and speed our recovery from the horrible tragedies that have befallen our planet.”
Lois stared at the television, disbelieving.
But it was Jimmy who said what was on everyone’s mind: “What the hell is the Sinestro Corps?”
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Post by arcalian on Oct 21, 2009 15:32:55 GMT -5
El Paso
Jaime felt incredibly self-conscious at the dinner table, despite the pleasant smell of roasted chicken wafting up to his nose. He felt Traci next to him give his knee a squeeze, and he glanced over to her.
“What?”
“You’re too nervous,” she said tersely. “Lighten up some.”
“Sorry.” Jaime looked across the table to their guest. “I’m just not used to having primordial entities over for Sunday lunch.”
Jaime’s mother, Bianca Reyes, set a dish full of enchiladas down on the table and then took her seat by Jaime’s father, Alberto.
“We’re glad to have you Miss… Um… Death,” she said. Indeed, the Endless had been invited over to stay at the Reyes’ house while the war against the Sinestro Corps raged, and Brenda had even brought over a box of clothing from her unfortunate ‘goth’ faze as a freshman for Death to wear. Black, they found, suited the pale cosmic personification just fine.
Death smiled at Bianca, taking a fork and stabbing an enchilada, then bringing it to her plate. “It’s a pleasure, really,” she said, smiling. “I spend one day every century as a mortal anyway, so I figure it might as well be today. Besides, it’s been ages since I’ve had a good enchilada.”
“Um, shall we pray?” Alberto said. He looked over to Death. “Or would we be wasting our time?”
“Not at all,” said Death. She bowed her head and waited for Alberto to pray for a blessing upon the meal, and then began eating as soon as he had finished.
A few moment’s passed with some rather nervous eating, nobody talking to each other. Finally, Jaime’s little sister Milagro broke the silence, pointing at the muted Television. “Look, the President Lady is on TV!” she said.
Bianca looked over to Death, as if for permission.
“Go right ahead,” Death said.
Bianca turned the volume up and it became apparent that President Dibny was answering questions at a press conference. Most of them were along the lines of 'How long will the occupation last?' or 'Where is Superman?' One press reporter accused the president of colluding with the Sinestro Corps to save her husband, the hero Elongated Man, from having to fight and die at their hands. The president gave him a nasty 'I'm going to raise your taxes' look and denied the allegation.
The word MUTE appeared again in the bottom left of the screen, and everyone turned to look at Bianca, who was now leaning forward over her food and poking at it absently with a fork. She looked as though she would cry.
“It's just what you'd expect,” she said. “We finally get a woman as president and the world ends.”
Death placed a comforting hand on Bianca's, which still held the remote.
“The world isn't ending.”
“Will things ever go back to the way they were before?”
Death looked away. “No, probably not.”
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Post by arcalian on Oct 21, 2009 15:36:18 GMT -5
Washington
Sinestro dragged the condemned man through the air to where the cameras were filming a press conference. The elected leader of the United States was announcing her country's surrender; no doubt many would be watching. It was the perfect place for Sinestro to make his first gesture of good will to the people of Earth.
Yellow beams lanced down from his ring, slamming to the ground and kicking up dirt. The press took a step backwards, screaming and aiming their cameras up towards the airborne leader of the Sinestro Corps. Sinestro heard several shouts of his name as he landed, then gasps and shocked exclamations when they saw who he was dragging.
He pushed the man forward so the camera's had a good view of him, his scraggly beard and black turban, his familiar wild eyes.
“This man,” said Sinestro, “is a known terrorist. Several years ago he was responsible for a plot that took the lives of many people of this country. He used his power and his religion to spread terror and fear. Yet he did not spread this terror to bring order and stability, but to bring chaos and destabilization. His ends did not justify his means, and that sort of senseless violence will not be tolerated on Earth as long as I am in control over it.”
Sinestro hovered up, a cord of yellow energy extending to wrap around the neck of the condemned man. Many of those in the press gasped and pointed, but nobody moved to protest or to stop him.
“This is a gesture of good will to the people of Earth who accept our authority.”
The condemned man fell, the cord pulling tight. There was the pop of a neck breaking.
A terrorist hung dead, the image of his corpse transmitted around the world.
Sinestro smiled. The people of Earth were not complicated. They were easy to please. He would have little resistance from this planet now that the superheroes had been captured or driven into hiding.
Things were going well.
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Post by arcalian on Oct 21, 2009 15:41:41 GMT -5
Stephanie Brown's bag was slung over her shoulder as she entered the cool lobby of the Holiday Inn, remotely situated in a Kentucky about five miles west of the Virginia border. She checked her paper and headed down the hall towards where the conference room was located.
She pushed the door open and the smell of stale coffee drifted over to greet her nostrils. Three people were already in the room—two young women with blonde hair and a young man with none—all sitting around the huge conference table. Steph stepped inside and sat down at the conference table, dropping her bag in the chair beside her.
“You here for the Special Human conference?” one of the girls asked.
Steph nodded slowly, hoping she hadn't walked into a trap.
“Good, good,” the girl said.
Just then the door opened again and a young black woman walked in, holding a clip board and studying the papers attached to it intently. Her brow was furrowed in intense concentration. When the young woman reached Steph, she extended a hand without looking away from the clipboard. “Natasha Irons,” she said. “What's your name?”
Steph shook Natasha's hand. “Stephanie.”
“Any.. unique abilities?”
Steph frowned. “None.”
“Former base of operations?”
“Gotham City.”
“Spoiler, I presume, then,” Natasha said.
The blonde girl on the other side of the conference table leaned forward. “Who?”
“My reputation doesn't really precede me,” Stephanie said. “I work with Batgirl when she needs backup.”
The girl had a catty glint in her eye. “So you're the sidekick of a sidekick.”
“Leave her alone, Courtney,” Natasha barked. “We need all the help we can get.”
The other blond girl extended a hand to Natasha. “I'm Mia,” she said. “Mia Dearden.” She lowered her voice. “Green Arrow's new sidekick.”
Soon after, two more showed up—one young woman with black hair who didn't say anything and gave her name as Ystina, and a British girl with long red hair pulled back into a pony tail. After the 7:30 deadline for the meeting had come and gone, Natasha walked to the front of the room and began speaking.
“Seven of us. The turnout wasn't as high as I had hoped, but not as low as I feared. I've been in contact with several members of our community over the past few days formulating a plan to negate the Sinestro Corps' advantage.”
“Saying they have an advantage over us is a bit of an understatement,” Mia observed.
“Yes, but it's not a hopeless one.” Natasha passed around some sheets of paper that included a diagram of a Sinestro Corps ring as well as a lengthy explanation of its mechanisms. Stephanie didn't understand a word of the scientific explanation, but her eyes lighted on a simplified summary below.
In other words, these rings are powered by the fears of their victims.
Natasha went over the basic principles, including how she had learned of the way the rings work from Raven of the Teen Titans, who had in turn learned it while studying a captured ring along with Jason Blood and Inza Nelson, the wife of the captured Doctor Fate.
“The idea of the mission I want to undertake depends on this fact,” said Natasha. “Our goal is to remove fear from the human populace, thus negating the power of the Sinestro Corps rings long enough for us to fight back.”
“How exactly are we supposed to do that?” asked the young man from before. “Fear is one of the most basic instincts of all life.”
“That,” said Natasha, “Is phase one of our mission.”
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Post by arcalian on Oct 21, 2009 15:44:04 GMT -5
New Genesis
Superman swooped down, arcing over the crashed remains of Supertown, scanning its collapsed buildings and damaged citadels with his X-Ray vision. There were corpses of Bug and New God alike, but many more ran through the streets, smashing vehicles and destroying property. There seemed to be no method to the madness, as if Darkseid had just unleashed a horrible virus and was content to sit back and let the New Genesians tear their planet apart.
The Temple of the Source in the distance was surrounded by a massive energy field, and Superman sped up, landing just outside it. Debris was scattered around the plaza in front of the temple, as though a massive battle had been fought there. He heard stone crack behind him and a foot fall hit the ground. Superman turned quickly to see Lightray running at him full bore, his eyes feral and drool falling from his mouth.
Superman froze, not wanting to fight back against his one-time ally.
Lightray's fist lashed out and slammed into Superman's face, sending the Man of Steel careening backwards into an obelisk. The stone monument cracked at the base and fell forward, tumbling towards Lightray. The New God caught the massive stone pillar and hefted it above him, flying into the air and then slamming the pillar into Superman like a massive club. The obelisk shattered and Kal-El slammed into the force field around the temple, a wave of Anti-Life energy rippling through the barrier and bouncing Superman off. As he got up, Lightray charged again.
“ANTI-LIFE JUSTIFIES MY HATRED!” Lightray snarled.
His fish pistoned back, but as he punched Superman caught it and swung Lightray around, slamming the New God into the barrier and then holding him in place.
“I will die for Darkseid!” shrieked Lightray.
“You're not going to die,” Superman said. Lightray struggled to break free, but Superman flew forward, pressing the god against the Anti-Life Barrier.
More footsteps behind him alerted Superman to more presences. Dozens of figures, New Gods and Bugs, were stalking towards him, all with the hatred burning in their eyes. At the front, the tall bearded figure of Highfather, limping forward without his staff. His beard was scraggly and his clothing torn.
Superman closed his eyes and reached deep into his brain, finding what Lex Luthor had given him.
Luthor had called it the Life Equation, the opposite of the Anti-Life Equation. But that name didn't cut it for Superman.
Superman opened his mouth and out it emanated—light and music and memories of a sunny day spent with Lana Lang at the Small County Fair, the day Dan Turpin was murdered, of the day Lois Lane won her Pulitzer, and the day she lost her father and how she had used Clark's shoulder to cry on; of the day Kara In-Ze first set foot on Earth and of the loneliness Superman felt when she had gone away to be with Brainiac 5 in the future. Life, Superman knew, was not an equation. It was a beautiful, profound inequality that could not be expressed in simple words.
The New Gods' and Bugs immediately stopped lurking towards him and fell back, Lightray snarled and jerked, then collapsed, his head resting against the force field. Superman let him down gently and waited. One by one the New Genesians started to rise, rubbing their heads and groaning.
Highfather looked at Superman with a deep thankfulness in his eyes.
“We are indebted to you, Kal-El.”
Superman gave a weary smile. “It's good to see you, Highfather, though I wish it were under better circumstances.”
Highfather took a step forward. “Yes, but the planet may yet be saved. The Source is in the Temple, and It will know what to do.”
Superman turned to regard the Temple through force field surrounding it.
“How do we get inside?”
Highfather motioned up to the sky, where the skull-shaped moon orbited New Genesis, spewing the power of Anti-Life down onto the planet. Superman studied it with his telescopic vision and saw a craggy surface full of caves and grottos.
“That's no moon,” Highfather said. “It's a machine, an intricate god-machine that can process the Anti-Life equation.”
Lightray stood. “Superman, shall we smash it? Get rid of that barrier and see what the will of the Source is?”
“I don't have a better plan,” admitted Superman. He hovered off the ground and was soon followed by Lightray.
“Go with the Source, Sollis, Kal-El.”
The two blasted off.
Back on the planet, Highfather lowered his head in shame.
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Post by arcalian on Oct 21, 2009 15:46:28 GMT -5
“Do you have any word of Barda and Scott Free?” Lightray asked as they neared the moon.
“Last I heard,” Superman said, “They were fending off an attack by Marduk in Baghdad. The Old Gods have been ravaging Earth. Darkseid's attack is bigger than any one planet. He even told me that he'd destroyed the Green Lantern Corps.”
“There's something that Highfather has never told you,” Lightray said. “You know that Oa is the center of the universe. But there is more than one universe.”
“Yeah, well aware of that,” Superman said, recalling his battles with the Justice Lords, among other parallel universe friends and foes. “What has Highfather not told me?”
“Earth—it's special.” Lightray flew ahead, turning around to face Superman and flying backwards towards the moon. “I mean important. Twenty-four years ago, there was a war, and Earth was the planet where the decisive battle was fought. Entire universes lived and died, and when the cosmic turbulence subsided, Earth had become the center of the Multiverse.”
“What does that mean?” The two swooped down and landed on the surface of the moon. The gravity was light.
“Highfather never told me that,” Lightray said. “But it has to be important. Maybe that's why Darkseid focuses so much of his energy there. Maybe it's not just because of you.”
“I'll keep that in mind,” Superman said. In truth, he didn't care why Darkseid focused on Earth—only that Darkseid's plans be stopped.
Superman's vision scans found a cave, and he and Lightray followed its tunnels deep into the moon, through dark corridors and crevices where the presence of Anti-Life was so thick that Superman felt as though he would suffocate. Finally they came to a massive mechanical apparatus in the core of the moon. Superman's eyes widened with horror. Screaming apparitions, souls of dead mortals, were streaming into one end, and the machine was torturing them, compacting them into nothing and using their energy as a power supply.
“By the Source!” Lightray exclaimed, flying down towards the machine. An arc of electricity flashed and slammed into his chest, blasting him backwards. Superman caught him before he hit the walls of the cavern.
“Darkseid has gone too far this time,” Superman whispered. “Too far.”
Heat vision lanced out of his eyes, tearing into the machine at the points from which the electricity had emanated, then slicing across the entire contraption, cutting a deep gash into the side of the machine. Sparks and smoke belched from the wound as well as from the gears and moving parts.
Lightray hovered by Superman’s side and aimed his fists at the man of steel.
“Lemme give you a boost, Kal.”
Beams of solar energy lanced out of Lightray’s hands and into Superman’s body. Before Superman could react, his heat vision kicked into overdrive, a massive arc of energy lancing out and blasting a massive hole in the machine that continued deep into the asteroid; molten metal and rock exploded in all directions and the souls of the dead scattered.
Several of them slammed into Superman, their mystic energies blasting him backwards. He felt the thoughts of Maggie Sawyer and Jose Delgado rush through his mind, felt their cries for justice, and knew that they were victims of Darkseid’s plot.
He finally managed to turn his heat vision off long enough to assess what was happening. The cavern they were in was collapsing, energy still pouring out of the machine as the souls it was processing were set free. Superman turned and flew towards the outside, Lightray following him.
“We did it, right?” Lightray asked.
“I’m not sure,” Superman said. “Something… something doesn’t feel right.”
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Post by arcalian on Oct 21, 2009 15:47:20 GMT -5
The force field gone, Highfather and the other New Gods rescued by Superman had run into the temple, finding the chamber of the Source guarded by Parademons. The New Gods and Bugs quickly took them down. But when Highfather entered the chamber, his eyes widened in horror.
The massive slab through which he communed with the Source was cracked down the middle, the burning radiance of the Source extinguished. Highfather knelt in front of the slab and closed his eyes.
It was time. The end had truly come—the long conflict between New Genesis and Apokalips would end the way Highfather had foreseen a thousand years ago, the way he had been working to avoid ever since.
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Post by arcalian on Oct 21, 2009 15:48:44 GMT -5
The cavern shook violently, stalactites breaking off from the ceiling and fissures forming along the walls. The rumbling continued, even as souls of the dead arced by.
“The moon is breaking apart.” Lightray said. “You need to get out of here!”
“What about you?” Superman turned; something in Lightray’s voice didn’t seem quite right.
“Highfather has been in telepathic contact with me the whole time, Superman.” Lightray extended his hands again. “He says that our world—the Fourth World, the world of New Genesis and Apokalips—is coming to an end. It’s time for us to let go and rejoin the Source. It’s time for the Fifth World to emerge.”
Superman’s eyes widened, a well of anxiety forming in the pit of his stomach. “You can’t be serious.”
“Take my energy,” Lightray said. Light extended from his hands, rejuvenated Superman’s exhausted body, filling his weary cells with life. Superman flew forward and grabbed Lightray by the wrists.
“Lightray, you’re coming with me. We’re going to stop Darkseid together!”
“Not ‘we’ Lightray said. “You.”
The cavern exploded around them, rocks peppering the two and breaking apart. New Genesis loomed below them, ruined and grey, full of death. Superman was paralyzed; he felt helpless, and he had no idea what to do. Using the Life-Equation was draining—how could he save the whole planet?
“Look at New Genesis,” Lightray said. “Its time is over. The Source is gone.”
The moon exploded, a piece of the Anti-Life machine lacing out and slamming into the back of Superman’s head, and everything went black.
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Post by arcalian on Oct 21, 2009 15:50:07 GMT -5
A starship appeared beyond the skies of New Genesis; aboard, a lowly skeletal figure who had once gone by the name of Steppenwolf manipulated the controls. Lord Darkseid’s machine had broken apart, its fragments slamming into New Genesis. The planet was breaking apart; soon it would fall out of orbit.
New Genesis orbited unusually close to its star, Empyrean, the incredible radiation and gravity negated by the reality-bending machines of Supertown. Now, though, it began to fall.
Steppenwolf activated a Boom Tube big enough to swallow the planet; then he sat back and waited. He had died for Lord Darkseid before, and now he would do so again. The ship was caught in the gravity well of the planet, and there was not enough power to get away.
New Genesis fell through the Boom Tube.
On the other side, Steppenwolf beheld the Source Wall—behind it resided the secrets of the universe.
Fire consumed the planet as it crashed. The planet shattered.
But much to his horror, Steppenwolf realized that even a planet crashing into the Wall would never be enough to destroy it. His last thought as ship began to break apart around him was that despite all his lord’s efforts, Darkseid’s plan had failed.
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Post by arcalian on Oct 21, 2009 15:52:09 GMT -5
Limbo
The sensation of wind seemed new to Superboy as he soared over the landscape of Limbo Town. Dull and sepia as far as the eye could see, it didn’t make for very inviting scenery. But Superboy was bored as he could be. His memories were fading; his emotions towards Wonder Girl—who had, if his own journal could be believed, had once been his girlfriend—were confused. It pained him to look at her and feel nothing, to have no memory of the time they had supposedly shared. They passed their time by telling each other the stories they’d written down—the stories of Young Justice before they were Young Justice.
Superboy swooped down when he saw a strange black movement, and as he lowered he heard the startled cry of a young woman. As he neared the movement, he saw that the woman was wearing an armored jumpsuit and being attacked by a moving, writhing liquid blob of darkness. She fired an arm-mounted cannon at it, and Superboy helped out, blasting at it with his heat vision. It jerked back, but made no noise other than the sloshing of liquid.
“Looks like you could use some help,” he said as he swooped down, the jet stream behind him sending the goop monster splattering across the field.
He landed and extended a hand. “Nice to meet you,” he said. “I’m Superboy.”
The woman smiled. She might have been in her late twenties.
“I’m Amy,” she said, taking Superboy’s hand. “Thanks for the help. You’re one of the kids who arrived when and when, aren’t you?”
‘When and when’ was an expression the residents of Limbo used to denote some vague time in the past, as much as you could say Limbo had a past. Superboy had noticed that even the entries he made every night in his journal weren’t as reliable as they should have been. Events that he had written about over the course of a week would, after several weeks had passed, read as the entry of a single day. As if time itself compressed the further back you went.
“I am,” Superboy said.
“What was that thing?” Superboy motioned to the goo all over the ground now. “I didn’t think there was anything dangerous or exciting in Limbo.”
“There isn’t,” Amy said. “Or at least there isn’t supposed to be. I’m a scientist, actually. I’m studying this black goo. Sometimes when there’s enough of it in one place, it becomes animated and attacks.”
“Where did it come from?”
“I’m not sure,” Amy said. “It started falling into Limbo just before you all arrived. I’ve been analyzing it in my lab. It seems to contain a very strange, primal energy. Something unpredictable and… chaotic.”
“Chaos….” Superboy said. Something seemed familiar, something he thought he should remember. But it was fleeting.
“I’ll help you collect it if you want,” Superboy said. It was really an excuse, he realized. An excuse to get away from Wonder Girl for a while. But he welcomed it.
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Post by arcalian on Oct 21, 2009 15:54:20 GMT -5
Earth, West Virginia
Warehouse X, they called it. A building where the United States government stored the confiscated weapons of supervillains and alien invaders when the Justice League and STAR Labs weren’t dissecting them for clues or science.
The seven soldiers approached, six in a Humvee and one on her winged horse. Steel had been elected as their leader, and had briefed them on their mission.
“November 1st, 1997. A rash of strange instances of people abandoning all reason and doing whatever they wanted to. Batman investigated. Turned out that Jonathan Crane—Scarecrow—was using a new reagent he had developed to negate fear.”
“Without fear people went mad?” Squire asked, adjusting her beret. “But what about rational reasons for not acting like ruddy fools?”
“Well,” said Steel, “it didn’t make everyone go crazy. Batman was reportedly exposed to the stuff and managed to function. The problem was he had lost his fear of crossing the Moral Event Horizon and Robin had to tie him up to stop him from killing people.”
“And you want to do what with this stuff?” Spoiler asked.
“Right now people want the Sinestro Corps gone. The Sinestro rings are powered by fear. My guess is, we take away the fear and we take away their power. What we’re going to do is break into Warehouse 13 and grab some of Scarecrow’s chemical.”
“And then?” asked Speedy. “How do we reproduce it? How do we distribute it? What do we do if it works and we beat the Sinestro Corps? The population would go wild.”
“We’ll cover those parts of the plan when we get there,” Steel said. “The important thing is, I have the antidote already, so we don’t have to worry about a complete meltdown of global society after the Corps is defeated.”
The Humvee came to a stop atop a hill overlooking the Warehouse, and Shining Knight on her magic horse landed beside them. Two enormous security robots patrolled the outside, of the building, which had been re-colored black and yellow in honor of the Sinestro Corps takeover of the planet Earth.
Sonny Sumo was the first to get out of the car. “Let’s get this show on the proverbial road.”
Steel and Sonny were the point men, with Shining Knight and Stargirl right behind them; Squire, Spoiler and Speedy, lacking combat powers and weaponry that defied the laws of physics, took up the rear. Speedy notched her bow with some explosive arrows while Spoiler pulled out a pair of nunchaku. Squire pulled a sword that looked too large for her to wield in one hand; she did anyway.
Together, the seven soldiers charged.
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Post by arcalian on Oct 21, 2009 15:55:11 GMT -5
Fire and chaos abounded. Metal so hot it seared even Superman’s hands glowed in the vast darkness of space. Superman didn’t know where he was nor how he had survived the destruction of New Genesis, but he knew he had hold on.
There was a fissure in the Wall. Superman didn’t know what the wall was, but he could feel deep within his bones that the integrity of the universe depended on the wall remaining sealed. So he held on, even though his strength was running out.
Light was shining through the fissure.
On the other side, he could hear music...
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