New Gods #5

The green world of Genesis blazed with the fires of death all around. Bodies lay strewn across its surface, noble, righteous Gods brutally slaughtered. The “bugs”, the race who had lived on the surface of the one-time paradise, had been all but wiped out, hunted for fun and sport across the planet’s surface, mortals dying alongside the Gods, and the triumph for the dark forces was nearly complete. The only hope now rested in the shimmering city of Supertown, surrounded by an ever-closing ring of foes…. And with the greatest hope of all being the five youths now meeting their Highfather in the centre of the seemingly doomed city.

“….Why us, Highfather?” asked the one named Mark Moonrider, dark hair combed down to obscure part of his face. “Why did you summon us?”

“Because you are the best of us,” replied the white-bearded Highfather simply, raising a hand to quiet their protests. “You are the five brightest stars in a galaxy of darkness, your hope and your optimism can blaze a trail to new light. Because you are our future, and our present, and in so many ways, even our past. Because you are the best.”

“…We don’t even know what you want us to do…” protested the soft spoken Vykin, face crinkled into a frown. Highfather simply smiled at that, though he then winced as a loud boom overhead indicated the arrival of more enemies.

“That is simple, children,” He told them. “I wish you…. To be yourselves.” He paused, and they exchanged uncertain looks. “Nothing more, nothing less,” he confirmed. “Our people may die today, but you, you will live on… and you must be the last hope in the darkness, a beacon of joy and happiness, simply by your existence.”

“No pressure or anything,” boomed Big Bear, though even his usual happy mirth was more than a little dampened by the gathering dark.

“The burden is tremendous, I understand,” allowed Highfather, his face now deeply troubled. “If there were any other option… but there is none. You must live, children, that is your duty now. Your existence is a defiance of evil, by simply living, you provide hope… and one day, perhaps, your example can lead to the creation of a New Genesis.”

“…And if we fall?” asked Mark, eyes narrowing.

Highfather gave a heavy sigh and seemed to wish to avoid answering, but at last, he did. “…then Darkseid will rule the universe, and there will be no more hope.” For a few second, there was silence, other than the sounds of war coming ever closer.

“….How can we possibly survive when they come?” asked Serafin quietly- he was the youngest of them, and though his pale face showed determination, he was clearly trembling. “They’re Dark Gods, and we… we can’t…”

“That,” Highfather told them. “Is what I was just getting to. I can show you how to unlock the potential within.” From within the folds of his voluminous robe, he produced a seemingly ordinary Mother Box. “This, I believe, will be the key to unlocking a being…” His mouth twisted wryly. “….Of Infinite potential.”



Present Day-

The Forever People… Lightray’s head was still spinning. Every God knew the tale of the five youths, of how Highfather had sent them away when they believed Supertown might be destroyed, of how they somehow transformed into the Infinity Man. The New Gods could not use their full powers in the mortal plane without rupturing reality itself, but somehow, the Infinity Man transcended that limit, making him monumentally powerful, a God among Gods- but other than a single meeting with the wandering god Lonar many years ago, they had vanished without trace. And now, as Orion hunted for them on Exodus- they were here, on Earth!

“…LIGHTRAY?” Serafin, the young God dressed in a makeshift attempt at Orion’s costume, gaped from beneath the helmet, eyes flying wider than he knew was possible. They all took a step backwards as Lightray advanced, but he raised both hands in peace.

“Please, I mean you no harm. We… we had believed you lost for so long, and you’ve been here….”

“Not always,” chimed in Beautiful Dreamer happily. “We’ve been here, and there, and even Apokolips, and….”

“Sorry, Lightray, but there’s a reason we didn’t link up with you,” Mark Moonrider cut across her hotly, before turning to hiss out of the corner of his mouth at Big Bear. “Fire up the SuperCycle!”

“Wait, please,” Lightray spread out his hands further, pleading with them now. “I’m not here to draft you, or to tell you to do anything- I didn’t even know I’d come across you. Just let me speak to you.” There was a long moment as the five friends exchanged glances, and then at last, with a hesitant nod, Mark beckoned to the SuperCycle, signalling Lightray to follow.



Barda and Scott hung from the ceiling of the cavernous underground tunnel, staring at the shape of the Judgement as it made its way on through the murky waters. They had finally reached their quarry, only to find that it lay just out of reach- and with it, the load of deadly Radion it contained. Barda sized up angles, but she could see few ways out- Scott was better than she with matters of escaping death. If they could just engage their enemies face to face, she knew she could be of more use, but as it was, her helplessness made her grit her teeth in frustration.

“With Mother Box’s help, we can just about make it,” Scott told her, glancing at the distant ship and down at the super-computer on his belt. “Then we can take them out and recover the….”

“No,” said Barda, with a flash of inspiration. “Not a fight, not yet.” Scott nearly let go of the rope in shock.

“…Barda, I do believe that’s the first time I have ever heard you say those words.”

She resisted an urge to playfully hit him, correctly judging that such a hit would probably cause him undue pain, leading to him releasing the cable and them both tumbling to their deaths. Instead, she ignored him, pressing on with a slight smile.

“…We get onto the boat and see if we can conceal ourselves. There’s one thing more interesting than why they stole the Radion… and that’s who they were going to deliver it too.” Scott spared her a glance of admiration.

“Even if we somehow manage to make it there, it’s almost impossible that we could possibly conceal ourselves from them for long enough, find out where they’re going, and then beat them all.” He gave a well-rehearsed theatrical sigh. “Why, it would almost take a…”

“If you say ‘Miracle’, I will break your arm,” responded Barda, amused. “Let’s go.”



After a brief and bumpy ride on the SuperCycle to set down in an apparently abandoned mid-eastern field, Lightray came to better know the Forever People. They were, despite their initial frostiness, welcoming to him, and it did not take long before that frostiness melted away completely and they addressed him as one of their own, for they did not have it in them to hold grudges. They had been together for many years now, and the closeness of their bond astonished him. It seemed they had been travelling undercover for some time, but had had to abandon the pretence.

“We tried briefly to work our way into Earth culture,” Big Bear informed him loudly, with a wide smile. “But we could not get used to their traditions here! The sport I was fine with, but these humans are too fragile, and…”

“…And lunkhead here couldn’t understand why they didn’t get up for a while after he ran through them to the finish line,” Vykin finished with a smile.

“And Beautiful Dreamer couldn’t quite make herself fit in,” Serafin added- every time Lightray looked at the youngest of the Forever People, the smaller God’s wide smile seemed to grow. He had, Lightray was to discover, memorised dozens of facts about almost all the New Gods, including feats of strengths and Earth tales he suspected to be sightings- and meeting Lightray seemed to thrill him.

“She did her best,” scowled Mark, instinctively tightening his arm around Beautiful Dreamer’s shoulder, but she seemed far less upset than her boyfriend was, laughing at his discomfort. Their relationship seemed like a bizarre one indeed to Lightray, but Vykin told him later that Mark was emotional by nature, and Beautiful Dreamer was the only person who could really, understand him and comfort him when he became bitter or regretful. And he adored her for it.

“My best? No, not really… but they weren’t like me, like us, so why try? I could see, anyway, see what would happen to them, if it was good, if it was bad… and I knew I wasn’t there either way.” Lightray had to struggle to make sense of her every time, but the others took it in stride, and Mark seemed to hang on her every word.

“…You can see the future?” he asked after he’d puzzled his way through her bizarre speech patterns.

“Sometimes,” she replied gamely- as they sat in a circle, she had been attempting to perform a one-handed handstand, now she stopped and appeared to be conducting an orchestra which existed nowhere except in her head. “And sometimes…. Not. It comes and goes,”

“You can’t control it?” Lightray mused. That was a dangerous and powerful gift indeed, but she seemed completely at ease with it- but at his words, all of them turned to give him a sharp look, and it was Vykin who replied quietly.

“Control? No, that is his game. Her gifts are nature- and nature is best left wild, chaotic, untamed. Controlling things is the opposite of everything we stand for.” The light mood was notably shaken after that, though a few minutes later, the youths apparently forgot his sin and pressed on, unabated. Serafin was in the middle of eagerly describing where he had found the exact material for his Orion uniform after scavenging old pictures from the Apokolips Invasion for reference, when they were all interrupted by Beautiful Dreamer again, who was now sitting in Mark’s arms and spoke loudly with absolutely no warning.

“It’s so sad,” she proclaimed, pointing at Lightray. “You’re happy, but it can’t, it won’t stay that way, and he takes you, in the end, though it’s far from here and far from there and you choose it all anyway. But that’s not for a long time, and first there’s pain and death and Apokolips on Earth, and you ruin it all. Without you, they’d fail, as they always fail, but now you’re here and they’ll be too and that’s what starts the spiral. And instead of twilight, we get night.” Silence fell across the clearing, as Lightray looked at her, stunned- surprisingly, the others looked less concerned, though Mark’s eyes had narrowed.

“You… you saw that just now?” Lightray asked, his head spinning with the weight of everything she had just revealed.

“No,” She shrugged her shoulders non-committally. “A year or two ago. But I felt you should know, because you will know and it seemed only fair, right?”



“Well, all’s going according to plan so far,” Whispered Scott. Barda shot him a worried glance.

“I know, and I don’t understand it. When have things ever gone to plan for us?” At this precise moment, the two New Gods were precariously clutching onto an overhanging edge of the main deck of the Judgement. After a series of calls which were incredibly close, even for Scott, they had managed to use Mother Box to get that far… and then stayed right where they were, under that overhang, for the better part of three hours. Not that Barda’s fingers were even close to getting numb, but she was worried that Scott would not endure for as long as she. Indeed, he seemed about to whisper something in response- when suddenly there came a glint of light.

Both were silent, exchanging a significant glance- their entire journey thus far had been in darkness when not illuminated by the flame traps, so neither had any idea what this meant…. Could it be that they were finally nearing their destination? As the ship continued to sail, they felt it slow around them, the water stirred less, and the light grew, until Barda could nearly see what might have been an underground dock come into view.

“Barda, I don’t think…” Scott began, but she shushed him, ear perking up. Her days in the Furies had taught her to be alert for everything, and she could distantly hear the voice of a man talking with a more animal growl. After a few seconds, she frowned.

“Well? Could you hear what they were saying?”

“I think so, but I’m not….” Barda looked up, scowl deepening. “…Scott, what on Apokolips is an ‘Intergang’?”

“….Intergang are involved with the Dark Gods? And they know about Radion? And now they have some?” Whispered Scott to himself- then his eyes widened within his mask as he looked back at his partner. “Bad news, Barda. Very, very bad news.”



That night, it was Big Bear’s turn to stand guard, which, of course, meant Serafin had to stand guard as well because Big Bear was too clumsy to possibly be trusted as a sentry, but they appointed him for a turn in the rotation anyway because otherwise he felt he wasn’t contributing enough to the group. So, as the other four settled to sleep in the field behind them, they stood together at one side- as always, they were supposed to be silent, and as always, they weren’t, and as always, it was Serafin who spoke first.

“….I’m still a bit disappointed Lightray got taken down by Gravi-Guards,” he told his big friend confidentially. “He’s at least a Class 10, and he got taken down like some mortal. Doesn’t line up with his history, you know?” Big Bear simply shrugged in response.

“The field’s different on different days, buddy. Sometimes the pitcher’s had a hard night and plays terribly, the next, he plays like he’s ready for the All-Stars. Can’t just pull out a bunch of stats and past feats and expect them to do it any time.”

“I guess,” allowed Serafin. He was still wearing his Orion costume, though the colour was fading a bit, and he frowned down at it. “I was thinking of making a different outfit,” he said, trying to sound casual. “…I was watching some of that antiquated stuff we found, that Blue-Rays tech that looked like it was from a few millennia ago, and…”

“….Please, not the cowboy,” Big Bear smiled, shaking his head. “Don’t tell me you want to dress up like the cowboy, my little friend. Pick a real hero, pick Superman or….”

“The Lone Ranger is not a cowboy!” retaliated Serafin heatedly, and the debate had the somewhat rehearsed, friendly quality of an oft-repeated argument. “He’s a symbol of vigilantism and a metaphor! And deeper than you!” And so the routine began again.



Mark Moonrider sat alone at the edge of the group- no-one ever slept on nights when Big Bear was on guard, both the general sense of insecurity and his loud talking with Serafin ensured that. Instead, Mark- as always- made his own way out from the rest, staring up at the sky.

“We failed you…” he murmured bitterly. “You charged us to keep the hope alive, and what did we do? Wandered from planet to planet, and when you really needed us, we weren’t there, and you died. And now they want us again, Highfather, but I don’t want us to go with them….” He shook his head sadly. “Is that selfish? I saw one world burn, I don’t want to fight another war. I don’t want to kill, I don’t want to know what that feels like. I’m going to let everyone down again, like I always did, and….”

“You didn’t let me down,” came a faint, familiar, cloudy voice. “Or did you? I don’t think so, but what I think matters so little. If I do think, because I try not to. I just… do, y’know? And leave the heavy stuff for later,” He half turned, and Beautiful Dreamer was standing there, illuminated in a beam of moonlight. Even now, she could still take his breath away as she advanced, a suggestive smile on her face, one eyebrow raised. “Your problem, Mark? You think too much. It’s like… you’re in the past, and the future, you know?” He stood as she approached, only a few feet away now, and he fought the smile that wanted to rise to his lips, speaking instead.

“The past and the future…. Aren’t they pretty different?” At that, she just threw back her head and laughed.

“Different? They’re the same thing, just in different ways. What you don’t get, is that for us, you know, there’s no past, and there’s no future.” She came closer, so close now that her lips were brushing against his as he stood quite still, and finally he gave in and smiled. “…For us, it’s always today…” she whispered, “…Because for us, today is forever.”



“I know you’ve come to take us away,” Vykin stated it simply, matter of factly, as Lightray lay in the camp-site, feigning sleep. After a moment, he sat up, to look at the younger God warily. Vykin gave a soft, sad smile, and continued. “It’s not hard to see. You want the Infinity Man.”

“….Highfather Orion is looking for you,” Lightray admitted. He wondered how much to tell them, but in the end, brushed aside his inhibitions. It was not long at all since he was as young as they, and they deserved the truth. “He thinks we can defeat the Evil Gods once and for all, and cleanse the universe of their taint- but not without you.”

“He’s wrong,” Vykin said without hesitation. “You can’t kill evil by force. And if you fight it, evil always wins.”

“So you run away?” Lightray responded dourly. He didn’t want to be having this discussion- this was for Orion or Himon, not for he, it was too dark and too serious for the most famously light-hearted of the Gods. Vykin scowled slightly at that.

“We aren’t cowards, you know. We’re just doing what Highfather asked us- we’re keeping hope alive, and we’re keeping the Infinity Man away from the Dark ones.” Lightray did not have the will to argue, so he changed the subject instead.

“What is the Infinity Man?” he asked with some curiosity. “How is it he can bend the laws of this plane without fracturing it, as we do?” It was a subject that no-one could ever quite seem to agree on, and he wished to hear it from the Forever People themselves. Vykin scratched his head, as though debating how to explain, but finally, he looked up at Lightray.

“He is us,” Vykin replied. “He is all of us, joined together, a collective will, a collective mind- he is the best of us. And because he is really five Gods, he can wield the power of five Gods without causing harm to this plane of reality as the rest of the Gods do. That is why he is so much more powerful than even the Gods here.”

“…And why we need him,” Lightray offered quietly. “If the Evil Gods are loose….” He was surprised when Vykin gave a soft laugh.

“If?” the young God’s eyebrows were raised. “Of course they are loose. We all sensed it, a blazing beacon in the Source, and even Mother Box was distressed. They’re manifesting all over this world like leeches, trying to suck it dry, even now.” Lightray’s eyes widened- it was what he had expected, but to hear it so confirmed with such certainty was a blow. He did not doubt the truth of it for a second- youths were far more attuned to the Source than their elders, and Vykin knew no doubt.

“…Then we don’t have time,” He said at last, his decision made. “I need to speak to all of you. Whether or not you wish it, you have to go to war.”



“…They did what?” Granny Goodness leant forwards, eyes bulging, a leer on her cruel face. “Oh, this is perfect.” She whipped her head around, pointing a finger at Simyan. “Are the latest brood ready?”

“Yes, Great Lady,” He bowed his head to her in deference, triggering a switch on his command console as he did so. “If you give me the word, I shall have an entire division of them dispatched at once, you need only command it to be so.” She nodded, stroking her chin for a moment.

“After the information that oaf Vunderbar provided fell through, I feared we would never find the wretched urchins, but they have chosen to show themselves merely to save that fool Lightray. She chuckled, a dark and hideous chuckle which swiftly turned into a hacking cough. “Their trail will still be warm- and we have at our disposal the greatest hunter of them all.” She whirled, gesturing to Mokkari. “Summon Devilance. Let us see how long they can evade the Pursuer….” She raised her rotting silver claw, a smile crossing her withered features. “The children have been so very naughty… and it is time for Granny to punish them.”



“Absolutely not,” Mark shook his head. “We’re happy here, Lightray. We’re living life, free, and we won’t be enslaved by a new master, no matter what he…” He was cut off by Lightray firmly, acting with a certainty he did not feel.

“It isn’t enslavement- it’s to prevent that from ever happening again. If the Infinity Man fights for a few months, then the Forever People will never need to.”

“You can’t promise that,” Big Bear pointed out quietly, arms folded. “I’m no genius, but there’ll always be evil, whether we fight or not.” Lightray waved a hand, exasperated.

“There comes a time when you have to fight, or you are condemning everyone in the universe. If you fight, you could save lives- if you don’t….” He was cut off by Serifan, who was looking at Lightray with a mixture of hurt and anger.

“….Then we do what Highfather Izaya would have wanted. He signed the pact- he wanted peace, instead of war, remember? We’re just kids, let us have the same.” The others nodded their agreement, but Lightray could only shake his head in frustration.

“That’s not going to happen. I don’t… I’m not… I wish I could leave you here, to enjoy your youths forever. Source knows I wish that, but I wish for peace more, and for peace, you need to come with me and stop the fighting.”

“So you say. But you say a lot, and so much of it is so wrong, and some so right, that they kind of blend and in the end, the world lives on,” Beautiful Dreamer chimed in happily, while bobbing her head to the tune of some imaginary dance music. “Or not, really- it depends on the world, and the choices… always the choices.” She then vanished suddenly, but immediately appeared elsewhere in the field, and then did the same again, apparently at random, quite happily bending the Earth’s laws of physics for her own bewildering amusement.

“Right,” said Mark, nodding fiercely though Lightray had absolutely no idea what she had been saying. “It’s about choices- and we choose to stay, Lightray.” He stared at the older God, as though defying him to dispute them, and Vykin, Big Bear and Serifan stood firmly beside him as Beautiful Dreamer hummed merrily to herself, still shimmering in and out of existence. Suddenly, there was a sharp intake of air and the pressure dropped ever so slightly, and even as all of them turned, paling, there came the thunder of the end of their world.

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“Lightray. Thank the Source you contacted me- we may yet win this war.” Orion emerged from the Boom Tube on his Astro-Harness, in full war gear, with Himon, Magnar and Seagrin standing close behind him. The Forever People’s eyes could not help but widen as they saw him, and Serafin quietly plucked the makeshift helmet off his head and, like a guilty child, hid it behind his back. “Come on, children, summon the Infinity Man as quickly as possible- we have little time to waste,” The Dog of War nodded at the Boom Tube dismissively, already turning to leave.

“N…No,” came Mark’s voice, unsteady and wavering, then he became more bold as Orion paused in confusion. “We’re not going, Highfather. We’ve decided to stay.”

For a long moment, Orion seemed frozen, as Himon, Seagrin and Magnar looked on in surprise and Lightray gave a heavy sigh. Then at last, Orion turned, expression unreadable behind his helmet- but his words were stern and his tone unrelenting.

“…Then, children, it seems the decision must be taken out of your hands.”