Deus Ex Machina # 9

Virginia

It can all go to hell so fast.

One minute, the attack was on and the robots were going down. The seven soldiers broke into the Warehouse and thrashed more security drones inside. Steel and Shining Knight were particularly effective, having both the ability to fly and the ability to dish out damage with an atomic hammer and magic sword respectively.

Then the Sinestro Corps had shown up. Three aliens armed with rings of the yellow light of fear. Three villains as powerful as a Green Lantern.

Spoiler was blasted back through several shelves and crashed into one of Crazy Quilt’s massive Iniquity Quilts. She staggered to her feet and grabbed her arm where it hurt. She was bleeding. Laceration across the bicep. Might need stitches.

Shining Knight was knocked from atop her winged horse and sent plummeting into a dark corner of the warehouse where some of Toyman’s toy soldiers had been animated and set to defend the warehouse.

Sonny Sumo and one of the Sinestro Corps members were locked in a grappling match, the young warrior’s willpower the only thing keeping him from quickly succumbing to the power of the ring.

Squire and Speedy retreated together into the rows upon rows of shelves and storage crates. The latter fired a volley of arrows backwards at the pursuing attack drones, while Squire used her sword to cut through the ones in front of them.

Steel went up against one of the Sinestro Corps members and immediately found her own latent misgivings being used against her; a yellow doppelganger of her uncle appeared in front of her and began taunting her about how she’d let him get captured—possibly executed. And it did this even as it tried to smash her with its energy-construct hammer.

Stargirl might have fared worst of all, because when she tried to use the star-energy of her cosmic staff to blast away a Sinestro Corps member, the alien had lashed out with an energy whip and snapped the device in two. Stargirl fell, slamming her leg painfully against the side of a crate and tumbling the rest of the way to the ground.

Weaponless, she grabbed a nearby rod—the wand of the Weather Wizard—and blasted the Sinestro Corps member with 1.21 gigawatts of lightning. Then she took off running, zigzagging through the maze-like corridors of the Warehouse.

She skidded to a halt in front of a large crate with a tarp over it, stopping to catch her breath. Her leg ached, white-hot pain shooting up from the impact site and into her knee. Damn it, Courtney, her mind hissed at her. Jack is going to kill you.

Above her, the tell-tale glow of a Sinestro Corps ring alerted her to the presence of her pursuer. She slid into a shadowy corner, knowing that the shadows were little protection against the detection powers of a Lantern ring. He could scan the entire building in an instant if he wanted to, she thought.

She could hear him humming, trilling a strange, whimsical alien song.

He’s having fun, she realized. Toying with me.

The alien continued along, shining a beam of yellow light across the walls and floors of the Warehouse. When she saw it coming her way, Stargirl dived out of the way and slid her back up against the tarp-covered crate. The alien went on by, and Stargirl gently pulled the tarp off.

A sticker on the side of the crate read: 12/6/03 – Royal Flush Weaponry

Stargirl removed a royal-looking staff from the crate, hooking it to the spare power source she kept for her cosmic staff. It hummed to life. She crept around the corner, saw the Sinestro soldier hovering high above the crates and shelves, still aiming his beam in a narrow pattern.

Treat this like a game, will he?

She took careful aim, then twisted the end of the staff. A brilliant violent beam lanced out, slamming into the alien’s many-eyed face. Stargirl didn’t stop to see what kind of damage she did; she took off running, darting and weaving through corridors, realizing that she was getting dangerously close to the alien she’d just shot.

He surged forward, blasting wildly and nearly hitting Stargirl.

But he must have seen her form in the light of the blast, because he turned and blasted her square in the back, sending her sprawling forward. She would have been knocked flat on her face if another crate hadn’t asserted its own inertia, leaping into her trajectory and breaking her fall.

She heard footfalls on the ground behind her, felt the yellow light before she saw it. She didn’t wait. She whirled around, leveling the staff at his chest and firing again. This time he didn’t react fast enough and got blasted back. There was a crack and chunks of his armor sprayed through the air.

Stargirl pressed her advantage, lowering the staff and blasting again at the alien’s hand

Bones overheated and cracked. The ring on his finger lanced out of the beam and slammed into the side of Stargirl's staff, snapping it in two diagonally. She leaped back, and tried to jab the sharp pointed stick she now held into the alien's throat. A yellow glow appeared around him, the sharp point breaking against the alien's shielded-throat. Stargirl goggled to see that the ring had slid onto a finger on the monster's other hand.

She ran, rounding a corner but heard the alien swooping up behind her. She zigged right then zagged back down a different corridor. The alien shot by her, but turned and extended an arm, a yellow tendril lancing out of his ring and wrapping around Stargirl's ankles. It pulled her close to him, holding her upside down and dangling, her two eyes just inches from the alien's eleven.

“You have caused me pain,” the alien hissed, the voice seemingly emanating from a thin membrane below the eyes. “It was by my right hand I slew a thousand fugitives and collected the bounty on their heads, and now it is burnt up. I will make you suffer!”

The Sinestro Corps member raised his right arm, and a yellow hand made of energy formed over the bloody stump of the one Stargirl destroyed. He reached out and touched her bare lower leg; unearthly pain shot through Stargirl's body, and she screamed out. He dragged his hand along the back of her leg, and the pain multiplied, every point on the surface of his energy hand sending radiant agony through her body.

He stopped for a minute, and Stargirl felt him remove the hand; still it burned, and Courtney wished her leg would just go numb.

Then it did, and she regretted her wish, because the alien's torture device next grazed her bare stomach, and another burst of agony and screaming commenced.

Courtney felt tears running down her forehead and glared at the alien.

“Ready for death yet?”

Courtney hissed, “Do your worst.”

The alien might have smiled, though it was hard to tell given his lack of mouth. He reached towards her face....

And then all eleven eyes widened in surprise, a resounding BOOM echoing from somewhere nearby, though muffled.. The alien's torso seemed to distort, twisting in on itself as light spiraled out of the center, a Boom Tube opening inside the alien and pulling him, ring and all, through it's dimensional gateways. Stargirl fell to the floor, then looked up to see who her rescuer was.

Spoiler stood, left hand on her hip and right arm extended triumphantly, holding on to a Mother Box.

“Holy spacial anomaly, Batman,” Stargirl said, standing and holding on to her belly where the alien had tortured her. “Where'd you get that?”

“Found it with some stuff from the Apokaliptian invasion three years ago. Her name is Sarah.”

“You named the Mother Box?” Stargirl arched an eyebrow.

Spoiler shook her head. “Nope, the Parademon who used to take care of her did.”

“Whatever. Let's find the others, we have to get out of here before more aliens show up.”

“Couldn't have said it better myself.”

If any gods heard Superman's prayer, they were not those gathered atop Mount Olympus that day. There the talk centered of something far more immediate, pressing, to their minds. Athena stood before Ra and Odin, Dagon and Marduk, Amaterasu and Vishnu—and all the gods that served under them, warred with them, or barely knew them waited outside the meeting place, the stone temple of Hestia.

“Zeus,” announced Athena, “has been taken prisoner by the mortals.”

“This is blasphemy!” cried Odin. “Are the gods trifles, to be toyed with by mortals?”

“Calm yourself, Odin,” cautioned Vishnu. “We were born of the ingenuity of mortals, for better or worse. Perhaps we should choose to make it for the better.”

“There is no better purpose for mortals than to serve at our feet,” Ra declared, crossing his arms over his chest. Dagon and Marduk nodded their assent.

“Who careth how we were born?” Dagon added. “Mankind hath rejected us in favor of the One God, or no god at all. Shall we not do the same and reject them. We must leave them to their fate—and Zeus to his.”

“Not all mankind has rejected us,” observed Vishnu. “Nor has the existing rejection been entirely unwarranted. Is it not true that we usurp the worship due the Creator?”

Ra scowled—a difficult feat with the head of a Falcon. “Is any worship due such a distant and aloof creator, who neither fully solveth his people's miseries nor subjugateth their capricious wills?”

“It is easy to side with the humans, Vishnu, when you yet have many followers,” Athena said. “What course my brethren shall take, I am not yet decided. I would encourage you all to consider wisely.”

Just then, footsteps pounded against the stone path that led up to the meeting place, and the gods turned to see a youthful goddess darting towards them, her red hair fluttering. “Pallas Athena!” she called.

“What is it, Iris?”

“A new god has arrived! He is terrible and dark and wishes an audience with you.”

Athena took up her shield and spear, inviting Ares and Artemis with her, to go down and see the newcomer.

But the newcomer could hardly be described as a god at all, for his body was corrupt and rotting, his armor tarnished and filthy, a jagged Omega carved into the breastplate. His skin was cobalt blue and his eyes spoke profound lies. Long silver hair flowed from his shoulders, but his scalp looked as though it had been stitched together around his skull.

Behind him, four great monsters stood, his apparent entourage.

“Who are you,” Athena demanded. “Speak.”

“My name is Atheos,” he said. “God of godlessness. I was forged by Earth's greatest and most sinister minds to put an end to the god problem forever.” He gestured to his companions. “These are my army, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse—Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death. We're here to commit genocide.”

Athena nodded, then calmly stepped away and picked up a horn, blowing into it a loud clarion. “Gods!” she cried. “To arms!”

Virginia
Warehouse X

Steel dive-tackled a robot guard drone, then wrenched its head off and hurled it at the reptilian Sinestro Corps member pursuing her. The alien batted the projectile away with yellow energy, and then sent a flurry of glowing spikes towards her. Steel dove out of the way, but one of the spikes tore through the armor on her foot, destroying the thruster that allowed her to fly. She cursed and hoped that he hadn’t hit a hydraulic line.

Before she could get to her feet, the alien was right above her, and grabbed her by the arms. Yellow tendrils snaked out and into her helmet; she felt a surge of effort and her faceplate popped off, clattering against the floor; the cool air of the factory rushed in and immediately began evaporating the layer of sweat on her face.

The alien turned her over, his tongue flashing out to taste the air. “Delicious fear,” he whispered.

“You’re one sick mother—”

THWACK. Steel’s insult was cut off when the alien’s fist lashed out and hit her in the face. The jolt of pain wasn’t as bad as the dull ache of her head that followed. She felt blood trickle out of her nose and wished she could lift a hand to wipe it off. All the while, the alien’s tongue was lashing about, the alien taking sick pleasure in whatever emotions he thought he tasted.

“You really oughta taste the air behind you,” Steel spat.

The alien’s yellow glow flared brighter, his ring blaring a warning; but as he whipped his reptilian head around for a glance, a loud BOOM echoed through the warehouse, and a Boom Tube formed inside his reptilian body. The alien hissed a dozen curses as he was contorted into the wormhole inside him. It closed as he vanished completely inside it.

Behind him, Spoiler and five other soldiers stood, worn and weary, the towering Sonny Sumo looking out of place amongst the girls, even more so than Shining Knight’s winged horse.

“Where’d you get a Mother Box?” Steel said, standing and reaching into a storage compartment in her leg armor. “I found the No-Fear gas.”

“Good.” Spoiler raised her Mother Box. “Then let’s get out of here. To Fate Tower, Sarah.”

She extended a hand and pressed the button, another Boom Tube formed.

Then a beam of yellow energy slammed into Sony Sumo, blasting him backwards into the portal. The others whipped around, firing any weapons they had on them at the last Sinestro Corps member, a creature that looked like a mime with fangs. But the attacks slammed into a yellow force field and fizzled out.

More security drones approached from their flank.

“Retreat!” Steel called. “Into the Boom Tube!”

Immediately Squire and Speedy complied, followed by Stargirl. Steel ran for it; Shining Knight cut a robot in two. They both reached the Boom Tube at the same time, with Spoiler right behind them.

The purple heroine turned and raised her Mother Box once more, aiming it at the Sinestro Corps member, who was flying towards them. Just as she depressed the button, a laser from one of the security drones sliced through the Mother Box.

Spoiler gasped and whispered “Sarah!”

Then the Mother Box exploded, blasting Spoiler backwards, a wave of quantum energy distorting space-time. Spoiler slammed into Steel, and the two of them tumbled through the Boom Tube together.

The Boom Tube closed, the seven soldiers safely inside Fate Tower. Steel got up to see Spoiler, her masked discarded, crying.

“Even though I only knew her for one chapter,” she said, choking back her tears. “I’m really going to miss that sentient computer.”

Steel arched an eyebrow. What did Spoiler mean by ‘chapter’?

Delphi, Greece

Barbara Gordon stared at her computer screen, her gut twisting into a knot of worry and pain; the footage seemed as clear as day, but she didn’t want to believe it. Barda and Mister Miracle, blasting their way through a Sinestro Corps guard post to rescue the captured Rocket Reds. And then Mister Miracle giving his life, vanishing in a massive explosion that took two Sinestro Corps members with him.

He was the god of escaping, but Babs didn’t see how he could have escaped that. Two days and passed and neither Barda nor Scott had been seen.

Just then, there was a pound against the door to her hotel room, and Barbara got up, grabbing the crutches that supported her and her currently broken leg; the Titans’ attack had been enough to bring her temporarily out of retirement, only to incur an injury that forced her back out of the game. She made her way to the door and opened it slightly.

She gasped. “Barda!?”

“Barbara!”

The New God pushed the door open and staggered inside, limping and holding her stomach. She did not look good; her hair was a mess, and bruises dotted her arms. She was wearing a traditional Greek dress rather than her typical armor, and it was barely a shade whiter than her incredibly pale skin.

Barda staggered and collapsed, and Barbara hobbled on one foot over to her, and practically fell down beside her, her broken leg banging against the side of her bed.

“Barda, what’s wrong?”

“Don’t have much longer,” Barda said. “Elana, my Mother Box, said that the Source has abandoned New Genesis. The Fourth World is coming to an end.”

“What is the Fourth World? Should I call a doctor?”

Barda winced. “From the start of New Genesis and Apokalips until now. This has been the Fourth World, an age of celestial gods. Soon the Fifth World will begin. I hope you’re ready for it.”

Barda laboriously pushed herself up with her arms and turned over. Babs could now see she had a deep wound in her abdomen, and she was clutching a small golden Mother Box in her hand. Barda handed Babs the device.

“You take her. She’s ready for me to go. I’m ready too. I… I think that you’ll be important to the Fifth World, Barbara.”

“What about Scott?” Babs asked, already struggling over to the dresser to get her phone.

“Scott died in Russia.”

The words hit Babs like a wrecking ball, and she clutched her phone tightly and waited for the wave of grief to subside. By the time she was able to crawl back over to Barda, the New God lay dead.

Elana, the Mother Box, glowed in Barda’s cold hand.

New York City

Zeus’ head hanged lower, his eyes drooping. It had been weeks since he had tasted ambrosia, weeks since cool nectar had quenched his parched throat. His powers were depleted, his godly glow less pronounced. He had begun to understand what it was to be mortal, to some small extent.

In the silence of the Sinestro Corps prison, he heard everything. Tonight he heard voices—the voices of Sinestro Corps members plotting. And their words made him feel even smaller.

“Will it do the trick? Will it finish this monster off?” hissed one of them.

Another responded. “We believe so. We recovered it from the remains of a vessel that sank into the English Channel centuries ago. Excalibur, the natives call it.”

“I don’t care what the backwards apes here call it. If it will kill this self-proclaimed god then—”

“It will. It was forged for a king, a vanguard of one of their religions, to defeat supernatural elements worshiped by older, so-called pagan religions. It should have no problem ending Zeus. He’s about as pagan as the gods of this planet come.”

The Sky Lord’s eyes widened, and for the first time in thousands of years, he knew true terror. In his melancholy, Zeus tuned everything out, not listening further to the conversation, nor the rain that pounded against the walls outside. Only to his heart beat.

“Why does the King of Olympus despair?” The voice was new.

Zeus looked up to see a man—a stranger—clad in a long blue cape, eyes covered in shadow and a small blue hat on his head. The stranger looked up at the towering figure of Zeus not with awe, but with compassion. Not something Zeus was used to.

“I have long called myself a god,” Zeus said. “And now, here I sit, defeated, bound, and awaiting my own execution.” Zeus stroked his long white beard. “I see no escape, little mortal.”

“And what, Cloud Gatherer, would you do if you could escape?”

“I do not know,” Zeus said. “I would return to Olympus and see if there is any place left for me. See if the new world has anything to offer me.”

“Perhaps you have something to offer the world.” The stranger bowed his head. “Incidentally, Olympus is under attack. You, perhaps, could turn the tide in that battle.”

The stranger turned and walked away, fading into nothingness as he exited the room.

Zeus pondered his words, and felt the burden of his heart lifting. His restraints seemed less cumbersome, his predicament less dire. Outside, it thundered, and Zeus remembered who he was. In a flash of light, a bolt of electricity blasted through the walls of the prison and struck the restraints, shattering the shackle that held his left wrist. Another bolt arced in and Zeus grabbed it, transforming it into a sword, wish he stabbed into the restraint holding his neck shattering it as well. He cut his other arm free, and stood.

He still needed food, but the rain falling, the thunder; it made him feel energized. He had languished in self-pity for far too long. The two Sinestro Corps members who had spoken of his execution burst into the room, but Zeus inhaled deeply and then blew them away with a mighty breath.

He smashed through the wall and felt the rain pouring down on him. It was time to marshal the clouds. It was time to return to Olympus.