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Post by arcalian on Dec 29, 2009 22:22:07 GMT -5
Deus Ex Machina #10 It's Hotter Than Hell in Heaven Tonight Story and Art by Chaltab Edited by Jay McIntyre [/i]
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Post by arcalian on Dec 29, 2009 22:25:51 GMT -5
Limbo
“Laws of physics ruled unconstitutional!” Superboy called from the cockpit of the massive rocket. Half of Limbotown had been taken apart, piecemeal, to construct the missile, and dozens of Limbo's residents had crowded around outside the rocket. Young Justice had personally invited Amy to join their number—though she was a bit older than any of them, her scientific prowess had been instrumental in figuring out how to use Chaos' remains as a fuel source.
Wonder Girl and Miss Martian accompanied Superboy in the cockpit; Superboy was uncomfortable with the idea of having a telepath beside him and his girlfriend, especially when his mind was constantly drifting towards into the curves revealed by Wonder Girl's tank top, but he didn't say anything. Instead he pulled one of the levers that started the engine humming.
Merryman's voice crackled over the radio. “Superboy, the last of the heroes who elected to leave Limbo with you has boarded the rocket. You're free to launch.”
Superboy smiled. “You sure you don't want to come with us, Mr. Mayor?”
“No, not now, son,” said Merryman, his voice betraying a hint of sadness. “I would love to, to be honest, but I have a duty to my people. I hope that—if you do get out—you'll send someone back to rescue us, though.”
“You can count on it,” Superboy said, giving a ‘thumbs up’, then wondering why he’d done that, considering that Merryman couldn't see him.
“We're ready to go Sup—Conner.” Wonder Girl beamed. She put her hand on the lever that would begin the ignition sequence. Amy called up an affirmative: everything was working.
“Lift off in four... three... two... one!”
Wonder Girl pulled the lever and a huge fireball exploded below the rocket, sending it careening skyward. Up, up it went, until Limbo below was a dim haze, and then nothing. Memory of it began to fade even as the ship left, and Superboy fought to keep his mind on where they had been and what they were trying to do.
“Engine holding!” Amy called.
The ship rocketed on; Superboy's mind drifted, with time and space seemingly losing their meaning and the white nothing that surrounded them dulling to a drab gray that threatened to consume his mind in boredom. He felt warmth against his hand and looked over to see a blonde girl clutching it with her own.
“Cassie?” he whispered.
“I'm here Conner.”
The flight continued. After a long time, years perhaps, a voice crackled over the speaker.
“Fuel running low.” The voice belonged to someone named Amy. Conner remembered that much. He didn't remember where he met her.
Focus. The voice was not audible, but it was no less loud. It was the green girl behind him. Miss Martian. Martian... Megan Morse. White Martian—the enemies of the Green Martians. J'onn J'onnz. The Justice League. Crisis. Darkseid....
“Superman!” Conner shouted, sitting bolt upright in his seat, not remembering having leaned back. Memories—stories—came flooding back into his mind. His senses came into sharp focus—the smell of Cassie's hair, the muffled conversations coming from the passenger section, the thump of Megan's five hearts.
He grabbed the control stick of the rocket and pulled it to the left.
“Conner, what are you doing?” Wonder Girl leaned forward.
“Telescopic vision,” he said. “There's a spot of light, bright White Light in all this grey. And I'm aiming for it.”
“You see something?” came the call over the intercom. Amy's voice.
"Yeah, it's dead ahead. Give me all the power you can.”
Amy exhaled, a forced sigh. “Not much left,” she said. “Are you sure?”
“Yes! Never been more certain! Do it!”
There was a muffled explosion and the ship blasted forward, the inevitable gray background growing brighter and brighter until it seemed like there was a fissure in reality—directly in front of them. Conner hesitated, not sure whether to slow down.
It was closer than he thought. The ship plowed right into the fissure.
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Post by arcalian on Dec 29, 2009 22:28:03 GMT -5
The stream of Light unleashed from the Source Wall was falling towards the center—not the center of the Universe, though.
It arced around Oa and kept on going, its trajectory comprehensible only as 'down' when one factored in all eleven dimensions of the universe. The Guardians of the Universe were capable, with some difficulty, of doing so, and gazed into the beauty of the Radiance with awe and terror. The Sinestro Corps guards that surrounded them had no idea what they were seeing and demanded an explanation from the Guardians.
High above Oa, there was a flicker of color in the column of Radiance and a tiny sepia-toned ship sputtered out of it, reconstituted from the germs of ideas and manifested above the core of the Universe.
Superboy gasped, not expecting a planet to appear on the other side of the fissure—not really knowing what he had expected. The ship arced downward, breaking the atmosphere and plummeting towards the surface. It didn't have wings, he realized in terror. There was no way to guide its descent... unless... He glanced down at Wonder Girl's safety harness; a beam of infrared energy lanced out of his eyes, welding the metal together. Wonder Girl gasped, but before she could demand to know what he was doing, Superboy punched through the cockpit shield and flew out into the thin upper atmosphere, holding his breath and grabbing onto the side rocket.
His powers... they were weakened. Not enough time in the sun. The rocket seemed to struggle against him, its inertia pushing so hard that it was all he could do to hold it up. He was afraid the air resistance would tear it apart if he didn't slow the descent or angle the nose just right. His muscles tightened, weary from his time outside the universe, his hand slipping along the side of the super-hot metal. Superboy focused, extending as big a field of tactile telekinesis as he could muster. The ship slowed for a second, then speed up again. Superboy cursed and thought he’d pass out.
Just then, the ship slowed again, but Superboy hadn’t increased his force…
He looked over to see Wonder Girl holding the nose of the rocket.
“We do this together, you jerk.”
Too quickly for Superboy’s taste, the rocket continued to fall, his and Wonder Girl’s efforts only managing to keep it from breaking to pieces. When they were just above the ground, Wonder Girl gave a shout and Superboy let loose a burst of tactile telekinesis as Wonder Girl dug her fingers into the metal and lifted, turning the ship horizontal and slowing it to a near stop, just before it crashed against the ground. Metal bent and twisted; the transparent cockpit shattered and cracked, and black slime sputtered from the rocket engines.
Superboy collapsed and fell back and lay on the stone terrace where the ship had crashed, staring up at the sky. The beam of White Light streaking through space above the planet continued on unhindered. Suddenly, a silhouette of a round head interposed itself between Superboy and the White Light. The half-Kryptonian gasped, and sat up, turning to see a fist with a yellow ring on it extended to his face.
The arm it was attached to belonged to a diminutive chipmunk-esque creature, clad in yellow and black armor. Its fur was jet black and its eyes glowed with an eerie yellow light.
“Identify yourself!” hissed the Sinestro Corps member, his voice surprisingly deep for a creature his size.
“Um… I’m Superboy.”
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Post by arcalian on Dec 29, 2009 22:30:02 GMT -5
Wonder Girl stepped up beside the Boy of Steel. “Who is this guy?”
“I am Damonk!” he said, thrashing his arms about and chattering his teeth. “The Sinestro Corps enforcer of order hero on Oa.”
“Sinestro?” Superboy scratched his head. “Isn’t Sinestro that purple guy that’s always causing trouble for the Green Lanterns?”
“If he’s the leader of Oa…” Wonder Girl looked down. “Hera! We must be in a parallel universe where Sinestro kicked the Green Lantern Corps out and took over.”
Behind them, there was the sound of pounding on the door of the rocket, and it repeated several times until finally the door popped off and flew across the terrace, crashing into the colonnades.
Miss Martian joined Superboy and Wonder Girl, followed by Arrowette, Secret, Kid Eternity, and Amy.
“You don’t look so tough,” Damonk said, taking a step back. He formed a yellow scimitar with his ring and slashed at Superboy. Superboy shouted a protest and stumbled back, too tired to dodge effectively. Wonder Girl blurred forward, her fist slamming into the force field around Damonk’s face. The little Sinestro Corps member’s head didn’t even move, and he swatted Wonder Girl aside with a huge frying pan—which he then turned towards the rest of Young Justice. Miss Martian flew back and up, blasting at the alien with her eyebeams, while Arrowette strafed to her right and knocked three arrows, while Amy broke left and fired her Mega-Rod. Aero-disks appeared beneath her feet and lifted her off the ground. Arrowette let her arrows fly, but like all the projectile attacks, the arrows bounced harmlessly off the force field.
Secret just stood still and let the frying pan come down on her, her gaseous form dispersing from the blow and reforming in the pan tray.
“What do you fear, little girl?” the chipmunk alien hissed, aiming his ring at Secret. The frying pan vanished and a yellow copy of Secret formed in its place, gaseous blades extending from its tail.
Secret’s eyes widened and she flew backwards. “If I had a bladder, I totally would have just peed myself,” she whispered.
“She’s afraid of herself?” Kid Eternity asked. “Not a good thing to be afraid of.”
He swept his hands in front of him and shouted. “ETERNITY!”—and suddenly General Robert E. Lee stood before him, along with a platoon of Confederate soldiers.
“Is that a giant chipmunk?” General Lee asked.
“Less questioning, more shooting,” Kid Eternity said.
Robert E. Lee shrugged and raised his saber, commanding his troops to fire their rifles at the alien.
The bullets slammed into Damonk, driving him back.
Amy landed by Wonder Girl and tapped her on the shoulder. “Look!” She pointed towards the rocket, where the rest of the men and women they had saved from Limbo were climbing out of the rocket.
Suddenly, Wonder Girl’s jaw nearly hit the floor. When they had been in Limbo, she hadn’t recognized any of them. Now, back in the universe, her memories returned, she instantly knew several of them:
Alan Scott—the first Green Lantern. Power Girl, a cousin of Superman from a parallel Earth. Jack Knight, the man who held the title of Starman before Prince Gavin. Paul Kirk, the original Manhunter. Johnny Quick, the man who figured out the formula for super-speed. Rex Tyler, the original Hour Man.
“You young’ns look like you could use a rest,” Jonny Quick said.
Young Justice stepped back and watched as Robert E. Lee and the Justice Society of America kicked Damonk’s ass.
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Post by arcalian on Dec 29, 2009 22:31:40 GMT -5
John Stewart heard the commotion long before he knew who was causing it. Someone was attacking the Sinestro Corps guards left on Oa. John only hoped that they weren’t about to go from a sticky situation to the dark crevice between a rock and a hard place. There were worse things in the universe than a Sinestro Corps prison, like being slowly drained of your fluids by a colony of microscopic space vampires. John remembered that unpleasant case as he waited, the commotion growing ever closer, his shoulders growing ever tenser.
Soon, the form of a teenager in a scorched pair of jeans and tattered black shirt descended into the basement accompanied by a legend.
“Superboy—Alan Scott!” John stood up, walking over to the yellow barrier between him and the heroes. “I’ve not seen you since—I don’t even remember.”
“We’ve been in Limbo,” Superboy said, his heat vision blasting the control panel for the force field. The field fizzled out and John stepped forward.
John arched an eyebrow. “Limbo?”
“You know those old Justice Guild comics you read as a kid?” Alan Scott asked.
“Yeah?”
“Remember how characters would sometimes vanish without a trace and show up years later as if they were never gone?”
“Yeah…”
“It’s kind of like that.”
“Okaaaay….” John blinked.
Superboy ran down the hall, blasting the force field controls on every cell that contained a Green Lantern. “We’re freeing as many Lanterns as we can. What the heck happened here?”
John frowned. “Sinestro happened. He said Darkseid gave him the power to capture Parallax and form his own Lantern Corps.”
“Darkseid…” Superboy thought out loud. “Omega symbols were carved all over Mount Olympus, and all over the cavern that lead to Chaos’ lair.”
“What?”
“Earth has been under attack since you left, Stewart.” Superboy finished freeing the Lanterns in that cell block, and they all followed him. “We need to find your rings. The Titans of Myth, the gods themselves, and now the Sinestro Corps. It’s like the entire universe is crashing down on Earth. And I bet you anything that Darkseid is behind it. Darkseid or his ghost.”
“Also might wanna look at that column of White Light up in space,” Alan Scott said, pointing up beyond the ceiling.
John paused. “Did you say White Light?” He took a deep breath. “This is bigger than I thought.”
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Post by arcalian on Dec 29, 2009 22:33:05 GMT -5
The Etherverse Mount Olympus
Zeus stood, his jaw hanging open as he took in the carnage that raged on Mount Olympus. The vile deity that called itself Atheos—along with its minons—had run roughshod over the gods, and many lay dead. Zeus raged, swooping down into the fray, blasting thunder from his fingers and lightning from his eyes. The Four Horsemen were sent sprawling, and Atheos, locked in combat with Marduk, looked over his shoulder, seeing the Sky King swooping down from above.
Atheos pushed Marduk away with his battle hammer and then brought it down on the Babylonian god's head, crushing Marduk's skull.
He dropped the hammer and drew his serrated sword, then flew, his eyes blazing with darkness, towards Zeus.
“Marshaller of Clouds!” Atheos cried. “The king of the gods! I've come to destroy you!”
Snarling, Zeus formed a blade of lightning in his hand and brought it crashing down towards Atheos’ head. The god of godlessness raised his own weapon, and the swords clashed, a burst of arcane power exploding from the collision and toppling statues that adorned the darken crest of Olympus.
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Post by arcalian on Dec 29, 2009 22:34:54 GMT -5
On the ground, Ares lunged forward, blasting away the advances of Pestilence and Famine with a Machine gun, and when that ran dry of bullets he pulled out his mighty ax and charged, carving a deep gash into Pestilence from which toxic fumes exploded.
“Germ warfare?” Ares spat. “I invented germ warfare.”
Ares kicked Pestilence, sending the monster flying across Olympus; even as he did, arrows from Artemis and Apollo flew up and struck the monster. But meanwhile, Ares turned and swung his ax at War. The armored anti-god ducked, drawing a metal pole, more than a foot wide, triangular and rusty, and slamming it into Ares' armor. Ares staggered back, then slicked with his ax again, lunging into the blow. But War interposed his pole, and a sliver of metal broke from Ares ax as the two weapons clashed.
“How does your rusty, crude weaponry withstand the power of arcane steel?” Ares demanded.
“Foolish god,” War crowed, his eyes glowing red beneath his helmet. “You've tried to refine the craft of slaughter for so long, you've forgotten. War is not won by the most intelligent or the most advanced, but by the side most willing to slaughter the enemy. Even in the wars that the modern man considers 'just', bombs and gas killed indiscriminately. My weapons are forged from the thought behind Hiroshima; my armor is tempered with the screams of Cambodia. What do you have, god of war?”
“I have—heard it all before!” Ares shoved War back with his ax, then whirled around, smashing the hammer-sided back end of the ax into War's helmet. The rusted metal shattered and fell away, revealing War's face to be a death mask, the face of someone caught in the trenches when the mustard gas rolled through.
War's eyes flared and he kicked Ares in the chest, the touch melting his breastplate and the impact sending the god flying backwards into a statue of Nike, which crumbled to the ground. Ares sat up and saw War aiming a crude bow knocked with three jagged arrows.
War grinned. “Be that as it may, I only tell you the truth.” He let his arrows fly.
Ares closed his eyes and awaited the sharp pain. But it did not come.
He opened his eyes again to see a woman's silhouette standing before him, arrows piercing through her thin satin dress. His eyes adjusted to the radiance that surrounded her, and he knew who she was.
“Aphrodite!” he gasped.
The goddess of love and beauty fell to the cold stone ground, and Ares rushed over to her. Her dress was stained with dirt and blood, and her arms and face were marred with small cuts, but she remained beautiful despite it all. In her hand a small sword that Ares knew belonged to Athena rested loosely, stained black with her enemies' gore. His Cypris, his Urania—fighting, in spite of her calling being elsewhere.
Ichor flowed freely from the arrows that had pierced her torso, and she was growing paler.
“Aphrodite!” he whispered. “You should not have saved me! It wasn't your place.”
“It's my place as your lover,” she said. “What could be more beautiful than to lay down my life for the one I cherish?”
Ares heard the clank of War's heavy boots. “The whore sacrificed herself to save you,” it laughed. “Saves us the trouble of hunting her down.”
The god of war moved faster than he had ever moved. He only regretted that he was not holding a weapon; his gauntlet-covered arm flashed upwards, smashing War in the lower jaw and staggering him back. Ares reached into his cloak and drew his sword; he took a step forward and sliced into War's elbow before the monster could react. Its forearm was severed and fell to the stone, and it dropped its bow. Ares pressed his advantage, stabbing his blade into War's neck.
“You!” Ares spat. “You think that you can come here and usurp the position of the gods? You think that you represent war?”
Ares twisted the blade. “I am the GOD of war, and nobody takes that which is mine!”
War tried to respond, tried to give his rebuttal, but he could only gurgle as blood filled his throat.
Ares flicked his sword into War's trachea, then removing it for a strike that severed the monster's head.
He stared scornfully at War's corpse for only a moment, and then returned to Aphrodite, kneeling beside her. He could feel her life force ebbing away, and for the first time in eons, Ares had to fight back despair.
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Post by arcalian on Dec 29, 2009 22:37:51 GMT -5
“So... Hungry...” hissed the huge crocodile-esque monster that was stalking Uzume. Famine had not eaten in minutes; he was so famished that he'd latched onto the nearest creature he saw and kept on stalking it, oblivious to other issues.
The goddess of joy stepped back, a strange blank look on her face, her kimono dragging the ground. “You will not find satisfaction of your hunger in my flesh, beast,” she hissed.
“You have no weapons, you have no friends. You have nothing but your succulent flesh.” Famine lunged, but just then a massive fist made of earth shot up and smashed into his face, even as a boot descended from above and smashed into Famine's face.
“She's got me,” said Demeter, standing with a broad grin on her face, her hands on her hips.
“Another succulent morsel,” Famine said, his lips dripping. “This one with meat on its bones.”
“If you're that hungry, then by all means—” Demeter raised her hand, and suddenly plants—corn and barley and wheat—began to grow on the dirt all around them, some of it tearing through the cracks in Olympus' ruined walkways. “Eat your fill.”
“Grains cannot satisfy me,” Famine hissed. “Only the flesh of the gods!”
Demeter's eyes narrowed. “I said... EAT!”
Suddenly the grains flew off their stalks and into Famine's open mouth. The monster struggled to shut his jaws, but his gag reflex forced his mouth open again, even as his stomach began to bulge with its fill of corn.
The monster clawed at the ground trying to struggle away, but soon he was too bloated to move.
“A good show,” Uzume said. “This would make an entertaining night at the cinema.”
“Yeah, but it's lacking something,” Demeter said. She snapped her fingers, and Famine exploded, tiny pieces of puff white popcorn flying everywhere, mingled with the blackened guts of the anti-god.
“Now it's a night at the movies.”
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Post by arcalian on Dec 29, 2009 22:40:22 GMT -5
Frigg blasted Pestilence backwards with a beam of concentrated love energy, but even her mighty powers as the goddess of Friday weren't powerful enough to take down Pestilence alone. The leprous monster shrugged the attack off and continued stalking towards Frigg, pathogen-filled slime bleeding from his wounds.
“Give in to the infection,” Pestilence coughed, reaching out to touch the goddess with a necrotic hand.
Frigg snarled and drew her falchion, slicing the appendage off. A cloud of toxin spewed out of the stump, and a new hand grew in its place. Frigg coughed and took a step back, drawing on her powers to fight off an infection.
“Sorry,” came a new voice. Frigg glanced to her right to see Apollo land beside her, towering in his masculine perfection. He aimed his bow at Pestilence. “I'm not down with the sickness,” declared the Far-Shooter.
“It took you long enough,” Frigg muttered.
Apollo smiled. “Must give my entrances dramatically appropriate timing.”
“Shoot him already!”
Apollo let the arrows fly, healing arrows that sliced through Pestilence's tattered straitjacket and sent him staggering back. He tripped over a broken chariot wheel and fell onto his back.
“What is this?” Pestilence snarled. “These arrows burn me. Who has such skill? Certainly not you, Pheobus Apollo, the cold and distant one.”
Apollo cocked his head to the side. “I know a bit about healing myself. But those arrows were forged by Athena and enchanted by Asclepius, so no, it's not my craft that kills you, beast. Remember that for any illness your dark heart can concoct, there is a god who embodies the cure. Now die, descend into the pit and never return.”
Pestilence struggled to get up, but pure water began leaking from his wounds, the pathogens burning away. He collapsed, his flesh deflating as the sickness that empowered him died.
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Post by arcalian on Dec 29, 2009 22:42:18 GMT -5
The final Horseman of the Apocalypse had turned to run, tearing down the winding steps that lead up Mount Olympus' great fortress. He glided over the landscape like it was nothing, his mind focused on retreat. His allies—all dead. How could the gods have mustered such efforts against the greatest criminal minds of Earth?
Suddenly, three figures appeared in Death's tracks, and the monster stopped fleeing.
“Children?” he whispered. “They send children to protect their flank.”
Indeed, the figures before him were two young teens, one a boy and the other a girl, and a slightly older teen in a wheelchair. They were clad in red, white, and blue shirts respectively.
“We thought something might be going on here,” said the young boy. He stepped forward, raising his hand. There was a small ring with a lightning bolt engraved on it. “Turns out the Wisdom of Solomon was right.”
The monster extended his hand and formed a great black scythe.
Before he could swing it down, the children spoke.
“SHAZAM!”
Three bolts of lightning flashed from the ring, one arcing across the arm of its bearer and into his chest and the other two bolts hitting the girl and the boy to his left and right. There was a flash of light, and suddenly the children were replaced by Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, and Captain Marvel Jr.
“Captain Marvel!? A mere child!” Death cried. He leaped back. Now that he had this information he had to survive, he had to tell Dr. Sivana, one of his creators. Sivana had fought against Captain Marvel for years! He had to know this astounding secret—
The Marvels said nothing, instead lancing forward, pistoning back their fists and delivering a mighty trio of punches to Death's head. The cranium shattered, and the Fourth Horseman fell dead.
The Wisdom of Solomon brought an appropriate quote to Captain Marvel's mind: “And the last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death.”
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Post by arcalian on Dec 29, 2009 22:44:51 GMT -5
It wasn’t quite accurate, as Zeus and Atheos still clashed in the sky above Mount Olympus, golden lightning and blue waves of power streaking out of a funnel cloud. Around the two gods, reality warped and perception faltered, the strain of their battle too much for the minds of many—even among the gods—to comprehend. Athena alone among the Greek pantheon could comprehend the struggle in all its metaphysical intricacies.
She lowered her sword and shield. “By the Styx, Zeus is losing.”
Shiva appeared beside her. “We must help him!”
“How do you plan to do that?” Iris asked. “I can’t even comprehend what I’m seeing. It’s as though the universe is protesting their battle.”
Hades frowned, stroking his beard with an armored hand. “The universe does not like what it cannot easily explain.”
Odin then said, “We’ve mortals coming this way.”
The gods turned to see the Captain Marvel family, hovering up the walkways of Olympus, and turned to regard them. Several began murmuring amongst themselves, but none spoke until Athena stepped forward. She towered over the Marvels, and looked down at them with curiosity—and shame as well, shame that any mortal had seen Olympus in this state.
“What draws you to the seat of power in the magical realms, child?” Athena said, addressing Captain Marvel.
Billy Batson blinked, trying to clear his mind, and then spoke. “Zeus—the Wisdom of Solomon has told me that he’s losing. But he’s not at full strength. Some of his power is locked away inside of me—some of several of your powers are not at their full potential because we are using them.”
Hermes nodded. “The Flashes got you your powers back, but without the Rock of Eternity and the Wizard to regulate the flow, you’ve taken more than your fair share. I’ve felt pretty slow myself lately.”
“I’ve stored it all in this ring,” Billy said, “but I don’t know how to get it back out and send it to the gods.”
Billy handed the ring to Athena, who took it and examined it. “This was forged in the fires of Mount Doom. Only there can it be unmade. No, just kidding, Hephaestus should be able break it.”
The ring was given to the god of the forge and he led a small party of gods along with the Batson twins down to Hephaestus’ forge, where the god tossed a dead Harpy aside and placed the ring down on an anvil. He took a gleaming silver-blue chisel from the wall and an ornate hammer from his work table, and then leaned over the anvil, closing his eyes. It seemed a solemn moment.
Then Hephaestus spoke: “Luck, be a lady tonight,” he whispered.
He smashed the hammer down on the chisel, and chunks of the Sinestro ring sprayed all over the room, even as cords of raw magic twisted and contorted out of the destroyed core. One thread each hit Athena and Hermes, while many more arced across Olympus to where the various gods that empowered Billy and Mary were standing. More still flew off into the distance to return to beings that weren’t gods, such as Solomon.
The biggest strand, however, arced up towards the sky, towards Zeus electricity coursing over the beam. Billy ran outside, looking up at the sky as beam broke apart into dozens of arcs of electricity and expanded, merging into the bright clouds that swirled above. A sonic boom rattled through the heavens, and the bright clouds grew larger, overwhelming the dark clouds, until a vortex twisted down from the sky, spinning and falling faster and faster until it slammed into the sacred temple at the top of the hill; all of Olympus rumbled from the impact and shattered marble from the temple blasted away from the building.
Billy ran up the hill, though Hermes made it before him. He saw Zeus now, kneeling over the body of Atheos, a golden sword crackling with lightning pierced through the dark god’s chest.
“You can’t defeat me,” Atheos spat. “The thought of me is in everything. I am the fear in ever believer’s mind, the conviction of every depraved soul; I am Xarxagas and Xaos, I am Cthulhu and Nyarlathotep, Asmodel and Maggedon--”
Atheos flinched, and suddenly a feathered shaft was protruding from his forehead.
“And you’ve got an arrow stuck in your skull, bitch,” Artemis said, lowering her bow.
Zeus removed the blade from Atheos’ chest and stepped back, nodding to Hades; the god of the dead stepped forward and picked up the god of godlessness by the mail shirt revealed after his breastplate had melted away.
“You’re mine now,” Hades said with a smirk. Fire swirled around Atheos and he vanished to the nether realms.
“So that’s it,” Billy said. “We’ve won?”
“Not without cost, young one,” Athena said. “Come with me.”
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Post by arcalian on Dec 29, 2009 22:46:01 GMT -5
Ares knelt, cradling Aphrodite’s head in his lap as Asclepius, his surgeon’s tools in a bag by his side, knelt, working his healing magics and his master potion craft over Aphrodite’s wound. His hands were moving with a frantic speed that no mortal could match, a precision greater than any machine—but Aphrodite was fading, her godlike glow growing dimmer.
“There’s something here,” Asclepius said. “Some poison so powerful that my magics are unable to stop it.”
Aphrodite looked up at her lover Ares. “I guess it’s time for us to part. I am far from pure of heart, but this one purity I do have: my beauty. That, I will grant to you all.”
The goddess closed her eyes, and suddenly her dimming glow surged back, brighter than before, and then brighter still, until Aphrodite was blinding, brighter than the glow that illuminated the sky of the Etherverse. As the gods gathered around, a beam of light shot up into the sky above Olympus, the shattered into a sparkling fractal pattern that covered the mountain in light.
Billy Batson stared in wonder—and then he watched as the statues of the gods broken and desecrated began to mend themselves, every particle of marble floating back into place. The columns of the temples were made whole again, and the greenery began to bloom once more. The graffiti carved and painted by the in monsters that had overrun Olympus in the gods’ absence vanished, the marble restored to its natural beauty. The entire mountain shone with its original radiance.
When Billy looked back down, Aphrodite’s body was gone; only ashes remained.
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Post by arcalian on Dec 29, 2009 22:47:33 GMT -5
Earth-321 The North Pole
Sinestro felt the bitterness drain from his heart, replaced with a sort of ambivalent satisfaction. Somehow a component of the universal tuning fork had been stolen with the Corps standing right in front of it; Sinestro had received a nasty shock when the device hadn’t worked at first. But once the problem was discovered, it was repaired easily enough.
The ambivalence of Sinestro’s satisfaction came from the delay. Every moment through which he didn’t understand the mysteries of the Multiverse was a moment in which is control over Earth was unraveling. The rebellion—aided by the disappearance of fear from the planet—was undoing much of the ground the Corps had gained. His men had traced the sudden malady to a chemical reagent spreading through Earth’s atmosphere. They were working on an antidote, but time was not on their side.
“Activate the machine,” Sinestro said, trying to keep the weariness out of his voice. A dozen members of the Corps extended their rings, using the energy to power the tuning fork. The lights and moving parts began to hum, activating the quantum devices within that began boring into the fabric of reality. The top of the machine, the two-pronged fork that gave it is colloquial name, began spinning… faster and faster. Reality seemed to bed around the zenith of the device…
And then the world went white.
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Post by arcalian on Dec 29, 2009 22:48:17 GMT -5
The White Light moved with an inconceivable speed, flashing across the entire universe in a matter of days—all the way to an unassuming planet in a spiral arm of an unassuming galaxy. The column of light crashed into the North Pole, crashed into the tuning fork, and all creation groaned in protest.
Fractal patterns of light lanced out from the Earth, all the colors of the visible spectrum, combining here and there into other colors. And at some points—dozens of points in the heavens that surrounded earth, all seven colors of light met, recombining into the White Light. And from these combinations sprung worlds—new creations, planets from beyond the Multiverse, copies of alternate Earths that shone with the light of the sun in the sky above Earth, their gravitational forces ignoring each other.
Glowing beacons of cosmic power. Their energies stirred Darkseid’s soul.
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Post by arcalian on Dec 29, 2009 22:49:17 GMT -5
The book of Revelation speaks of a Bottomless Pit:
And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit… And the demons had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon…
The matchless forces which the White Light unleashed shook open the Pit, the runs of ancient Babylon crashing down into a hole that formed in the desert beneath it. Smoke began pouring into the atmosphere as a machine deep within the pit began churning out minions—Parademons with vicious visages and wings that beat like the sound of chariots: servants of the Most Wicked—Darkseid, the god of evil. Reborn from the souls of the massacre on Apokalips, the Parademons flew throughout the parallel earths that gathered in the sky and began tormenting the inhabitants of the worlds.
And the Doomsday Machine churned on.
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Post by arcalian on Dec 29, 2009 22:51:51 GMT -5
With the planet rebelling, the Sinestro Corps was scurrying to respond. The first thing they had done was to take the military weapons that the Corps had confiscated from the various governments of the Earth and use them as arms against the rising populace. With their rings’ powers ineffectual against the newly fearless humans, they needed any advantage they could get.
The second thing they had done was speed up the executions of the superheroes. No longer an effective bargaining tool, the heroes were now nothing but a liability. The Daxamite Corbat Struum, the leader of the Corps in Metropolis, had immediately ordered the one known as Kent Nelson—the wizard Doctor Fate—brought before the public. He would be the first to die.
Nelson was disheveled, reeking of days without a shower and having grown a scraggly beard during his captivity. The appointed executioner led him up the platform where a trio of Sinestro Corps members guarded the proceedings with the humans’ primitive laser rifles. Their media utilities—‘video cameras’—had been brought in, but when the news crew had demanded that Nelson was freed and attacked Corbat, he had killed them. They would still record the execution, of course.
They had to send a message to any humans still undecided about defying their new masters.
“Sir,” one of the guards said. “Hundreds of… copies of the planet Earth have appeared in the sky above us. Orders?”
Corbat turned his head and glared at the white-skinned Brylyx. “Continue as planned. We’ll deal with one mission at a time.”
At that time, a human conscripted into the Corps’ service entered. “Commander Struum,” he said, “there are reports that monstrous demons have been spreading out from a site in Iraq and attacking civilian and Corps member alike. Some of them are on their way here.”
“Do nothing until I order it!” Corbat barked. “Sinestro will lead us through this. Execute the prisoner.”
The executioner wrapped a yellow energy-cord around Kent Nelson’s neck, then lifted both himself and the condemned into the air via a platform of the same energy.
Corbat scowled. “Kent Nelson of Earth,” he began. “You have been charged with sedition and rebellion against the Sinestro Corps.”
An explosion rocked the building. Corbat ignored it.
“You have been sentenced to be executed by hanging. If you do not wish to suffer this fate—or a more painful one selected at the discretion of the commanding officer, you may renounce your position as Doctor Fate and swear allegiance to the Sinestro Corps. Will you renounce your treason?”
Doctor Fate looked up and smiled. “Do your worst.”
Corbat nodded to the executioner. The platform vanished, and Nelson fell…
Just as an Nth Metal mace blazed across the room, snapping the energy cord that made Nelson’s noose. Nelson slammed into the platform and exhaled hard.
Corbat jerked his head around in time to see the Sinestro Corps member Shayera Hol punching out the human conscript—and then his vision was blocked as Wonder Woman’s boot slammed into his face and sent him staggering back into the platform. The other Sinestro Corps members moved to react, when a pair of Nth Metal batarangs slammed into their rings, slicing deep into their fingers and destroying the weapons.
Kent Nelson got up as Shayera helped him to his feet.
“Your timing could have been better,” rasped Doctor Fate, his voice ragged from having his trachea half crushed. The energy that made up the noose dissipated.
Shayera glanced at Batman. “Bruce wanted to stop and get himself updated on the situation,” she said. “Chaos is the general consensus.”
“The Lords of Order will not be pleased,” Doctor Fate said. “Pray tell, did you retrieve my helmet?”
Batman pulled the requested armament from a bag around his shoulder, and Kent put it on. He rasped an incantation, and immediately, his filthy prison rags were transformed into the armor typical of Doctor Fate, his appearance and hygiene restored.
“Much better,” he said, his voice back to normal. “Now let’s save the planet.”
Batman nodded. “Assuming we’re not too late.”
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Post by arcalian on Dec 29, 2009 22:53:07 GMT -5
A flash of green light in the sky was the only herald to the return of the Green Lanterns. John Stewart, Kyle Rainer, and Alan Scott led the way, with Young Justice and the other heroes rescued from Limbo right behind them—and a cartel of other members of the Green Lantern Corps for good measure. They entered bedlam—hundreds of copies of Earth in the heavens around their planet, along with millions of Parademons pouring forth into the atmospheres of those planets. Some of the Earths drifted too close to others and whatever the barrier that protected them from the gravity of the others broke down—and the Earths along with them, exploding into showers of energy and rock.
“I think it’s safe to say that all hell has broken loose,” Superboy said.
“Broken loose and taken the gate with it,” John agreed. “The White Light of Creation must have done this.”
Wonder Girl hovered closer to Superboy and Green Lantern. “So these are parallel Earths? Like the one the Justice Lords came from?”
John Stewart looked down at his ring, then shook his head. “The ring says these aren’t actual parallel Earths—they’re copies of parallel Earths. We don’t have anywhere to send them back to—which means they’re eventually going to break this entire solar system apart!”
Alan Scott hovered forward, his magic-based power ring flashing green fire. “How do we stop it?”
There was a silence so heavy that, had they not been in the vacuum of space, they could have heard a pin drop on Earth.
Then John said, “The Guardians are still working on that.”
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Post by arcalian on Dec 29, 2009 22:53:51 GMT -5
The psychic backlash of billions of people suddenly coming into existence had rattled J’onn J’onnz so hard that he broadcast a headache to everyone within a one-mile radius. The last son of Mars stood up, rubbing his head, aided by the new Supergirl named Matrix.
“Are you okay, Mr. J’onzz?” the biological android asked.
Parademons descended on the duo, but Supergirl dispatched them by blowing their heads off with heat vision.
“We need to get out of here,” she said. “There are more coming—I can hear them.”
“Wait,” J’onn said. “The people on the new Earths aren’t the only presences I sense on Earth. John Stewart has returned—as well as—”
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Post by arcalian on Dec 29, 2009 22:55:23 GMT -5
Superman opened his eyes, his mind swimming through space and time and finally settling back into his head. He slowly sat up, expecting his shoulders and neck to protest, expecting his head to ache. But neither forms of pain came. He felt… good. Strangely, inexplicably good. He could hear screaming, he could hear the sounds of battle… but they were distant. Hundreds of miles distant, echoes of battles that had transpired an hour ago.
He could smell… hay, and apples, and cattle. He sat up, and realized that he was in Smallville. Dozens of people gathered around, staring at him in awe. Their heart beats were steady, as if they utterly lacked fear.
“It is him!” someone said. “It’s Superman!”
Superman stood up, and forced himself to remember everything—the destruction of New Genesis, the Wall, and the music of creation on the other side. Now he was back on Earth, his clothing repaired and his body restored. He tried to estimate the time based on the position of the moon, but couldn’t because of the dozens of other Earths in the sky around it.
He scratched his head. “Wait,” he said. “What the heck?”
“Superman,” the voice of J’onn J’onzz echoed in his mind. “I heard from Supergirl that you were on New Genesis. I’m glad that you’ve returned safely.”
“J’onn!” Superman said, ignoring the murmuring of the Smallville citizens around him. “What’s going on?”
“I was hoping you could shed some light on that. I’m contacting the Justice League. We’re meeting in Centennial Park in Metropolis. We’ll compare notes when you arrive.”
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Post by arcalian on Dec 29, 2009 22:56:38 GMT -5
Barbara Gordon’s skills were reaching their limit. She could only work as fast as her computer processor and her own brain could muster, and that was increasingly inadequate to deal with the chaos that was quickly overwhelming the world—worlds actually, given the sudden appearance of hundreds of parallel Earths in the skies above the planet.
Babs kept sending sideways glances at the Mother Box of the departed Big Barda. Elana was glowing lightly, reaching out with her psychic draw and urging Babs to do something. Babs couldn’t quite understand what, though. The Mother Box must have been damaged, because it wasn’t making any coherent sense.
Then her computer flashed red, and Babs jerked back as a thousand evil ideas invaded her mind. Her body convulsed, and she blacked out for a split second. After a moment, she looked up, surprised to find herself conscious. Her computer was completely fried, with Elana hovering over it glowing softly. Babs felt the Mother Box urging her to take it in her hand. Babs did so, and felt information flowing into her brain—that a lethal level of Anti-Life had just spewed forth from her computer.
“An attack?” she asked the Mother Box.
No, it wasn’t an attack, Elana told her. The Anti-Life equation was infesting the very air, corrupting all the energy around Earth. And it was too much—too heavy a dose to merely take away the will of the victims. It was living up to its name and taking their lives.
Barbara swore. “Is there anything I can do?”
Elana chimed an affirmative, and opened a Boom Tube in the middle of Babs’ hotel room. It urged her through, and Babs emerged on the other end to find herself in the JLU Watchtower; it had been abandoned during the Sinestro Corps invasion and the computer screens were displaying a system failure error. The chaos in the Solar system had been too much for the Watchtower’s computer.
The Mother Box in Barbara’s hand spoke again and told Barbara to let her go. Babs did so, and Elana hovered over to the computer systems—and then merged with them in a flash of light. LEDs and fiber optic tubes all over the walls of the space station began to glow, and radiance poured out from the machinery. Babs limped over to the chair where Mr. Terrific usually operated and sat down. Light flowed out from the computer system even as a representation of the hundreds of parallel Earths appeared on the computer screen. The light formed a wireless headset on Barbara’s ear… And suddenly the voices of thousands began pouring into her mind.
“Oh my…” she whispered. “Digital telepathy.”
Barbara heard some of the voices respond, questioning where the new voice had come from. They demanded to know who she was. Babs thought about the fact that she had been coordinating operations from, of all places, Delphi.
“Attention all superheroes!” she said. “This is the Oracle and we are connected.”
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Post by arcalian on Dec 29, 2009 22:59:24 GMT -5
“Barbara?” Batman whispered to himself as soon as he heard the Oracle’s voice. “Is that you?”
“Present, Bruce,” Babs said. “I’ll be listening in here, but right now I need to coordinate the fight against the Parademons.”
Bruce hoped that she had somehow found a way to broadcast to individuals and not just revealed his identity to the entire world.
Batman was gathered along with dozens of other members of the Justice League in Centennial Park; J’onn J’onzz had been instrumental in getting them together, and even now they were delegating duties to the heroes that had arrived—remnants of the Sinestro Corps as well as Parademons were assaulting people all over the ravaged planet Earth. As if the world hadn’t gone through enough.
Sudden gasps drew Bruce out of his internal monologue, and he looked up to see Superman, the sun behind him as he landed in the middle of Centennial Park. Wonder Woman and Mr. Terrific ran forward to greet him, and John Stewart wasn’t far behind.
“We’d feared the worst, Kal,” Wonder Woman said. “You were gone so long—”
Superman looked at the ground. “It’s Darkseid,” he said. “It’s all been Darkseid from the start. He was the one who showed Ra’s al Ghul how to control the Titans of Myth, and he was the one who gave Sinestro the power to forge his own Lantern corps.”
Wally West was suddenly in front of him. “Do you have any idea what’s with all these alternate Earths? Where the heck have you been, anyway?”
“It’s a long story,” Superman said. “I was taken to Apokalips…and then went to investigate on New Genesis. Both have been destroyed. The New Gods are dead."
“Not all of them, sadly,” intoned a new voice, a strong feminine voice that resonated with authority. Superman turned, with the rest of the Justice League. Everyone recognized the newcomers, though nearly all of them held their tongues. They were twelve feet tall, clad in flowing garments and shining armor, and possessed an otherworldly grace.
"Athena!” Wonder Woman stepped forward and began to kneel, but then Athena stopped her.
Athena stopped her by kneeling herself. Wonder Woman’s eyes widened in shock.
One by one, the gods stepped forward and knelt before the Justice League—Apollo before Superman, Hades before Batman, Hermes before the Flash, Hephaestus before Green Lantern, Ares before The Martian Manhunter, and Artemis before Hawkgirl.
Wonder Woman could only stammer: “W-what is the meaning of this?”
“The gods have failed you, your highness,” Athena said. “For years we kept our shame and our secret concealed in the darkness of the past, accepting worship based on false premises. And then, when the day came that you needed us most, we were not fighting alongside you, but against you, driven mad by the machinations of our common enemy. A new being calling itself a god—with aspirations to be the only god—has pitted us against one another in an effort to corrupt and destroy us. His is a name you are well familiar with.”
“Darkseid,” Wonder Woman growled.
Athena nodded. “Our number has been greatly reduced, but our resolve has only been strengthened. We’re here to repair the mistakes of the past. The gods are at the service of the Justice League. We will go where you command and fight this battle until the matter is resolved. The gods have elected me their leader, and this is the decision I have made.”
Up in the Watchtower, Oracle took all this in, and sent a telepathic message to everyone: Whoa.
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Post by arcalian on Dec 29, 2009 23:00:27 GMT -5
Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Despair, Desire and Delirium. They are the seven Endless, having existed since the dawn of time. Unlike gods, their powers are not dependent on belief or worship. Unlike gods, they are not limited by space or time. Unlike gods, their positions are not voluntary, but duties that must be executed.
So, great was the tragedy when one of those Endless—Destruction—abandoned his post and became known as the Prodigal. It fell to lesser powers to execute his duties.
The Endless known as Death watched from a high ridge on the bleak darkness of the moon as Parademons moved throughout the solar system, pushing planets out of their place and into a new shape. Finally, she understood Darkseid’s ultimate goal. The shape of the fundamental nature of reality—the DNA of creation—was replicated in grand scale in the heavens. She could make out a massive triple-helix that wove in and out of the third dimension in ways impossible for mortals to comprehend—forming a funnel that led down into the Bottomless Pit on Earth.
To Babylon, where human evil was born.
Destruction, summoned forth from unknown realms, plummeted through the Helix, crashing through parallel Earths and shattering them. Death heard a cry of his rage from across the vacuum of space, and then he fell into the pit. Death was powerless to alter his course. Instead, she looked across time and space to the place where the Black Racer—the New God that had usurped her calling at Darkseid’s behest—was reaping the souls of the dead.
Her battle was there.
The battle against Darkseid was someone else’s to fight.
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Post by arcalian on Dec 29, 2009 23:01:25 GMT -5
The Doomsday Machine welcomed Destruction in with open arms, driving spikes into his arms and nailing armor to his body, shearing off his scraggly beard and putting a cobalt-hued helm around his head. Beam of flaming plasma lanced out of one of the machine’s arms, carving an Omega symbol into the chest.
Destruction cried out in agony, futilely beating against the oncoming tide of Darkseid’s soul. His time outside the universe had made him weak.
A being born anew crawled out of the Bottomless Pit. He shed his old name, Darkseid, and took a new one.
“I am become Abaddon,” he said. “Destroyer of Worlds.”
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Post by arcalian on Dec 29, 2009 23:02:22 GMT -5
Continued...
Author's Note: Amy is not an original character; she was a background character with ties to Intergang in the Superman: TAS episode Little Girl Lost. When she learned that Intergang was working with Darkseid, she changed sides and helped Supergirl defeat them. Her obscurity makes her a perfect candidate for someone who would fall into Limbo, and sense this story takes place years after Superman: TAS, I decided that Amy had gone on to college and become an engineer before Limbo claimed her. She is also the Fifth World reincarnation of Barda.
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