Post by HoM on Dec 22, 2015 9:09:39 GMT -5
PREVIOUSLY, IN THE AUTHORITY…
Over ten years ago a small cadre of heroes was cast adrift into the multiverse aboard a mysterious shiftship known as the Carrier, a dimension-traversing craft powered by a caged baby universe, that from the outside appears to be 50 miles long, 35 miles high and 2 miles wide but is actually much larger on the inside.
Since then they’ve fought for survival against hostile worlds, alien dimensions and violent parallel realities. The crew came to refer to themselves as The Authority, a group of good men and women who vowed to do whatever it takes to restore order to any world they could, no matter what the cost.
After facing the Crime Syndicate of Amerika, the Phantom Beyonders, Brainiac Prime, the Bleed Vampires and more, the Authority are now confronted by a threat they could never have seen coming-- a Great Darkness that plans to spread throughout the multiverse using an army of violent killers known as the Decade, and infect other realities with its malevolent existence.
With the team battered and beaten after months of being chased from reality to reality by the Decade and its armada of vicious hunter-shiftships, the Authority find themselves in a dead reality where only three objects exist… a star, a moon and a planet. The Guardian, haunted by prophetic dreams for months, realises that this is what he’s been seeing during his sleep, and that the only thing capable of stopping the Great Darkness has been trapped here… a young girl named Jenny…
THE AUTHORITY ROLL-CALL:
Apollo (Earth-1) – All-American Andrew Pulaski always wanted to be a superhero, so when Henry Bendix’s enhancile program came calling he was the first to sign up. Rebuilt as a solar-powered super-deterrent, Pulaski was renamed Apollo and his previous life was erased. After escaping from Bendix’s clutches thanks to the Justice League, Pulaski fought to regain his identity alongside the Midnighter and takes a drastic approach to ensuring the safety of those he cares for, though not as drastic as his husband Midnighter does.
Captain Marvel (Earth-1611) - Geheneris Hala’son Mahr Vehl defected from the Kree Void Navy and sacrificed his life to save young runaway Wilhemena ‘Billie’ Jones from certain death, but in the process an unintended bond was formed, linking the two via the cosmic-powered Nega-Bands the two now wear. Once the Nega-Bands are struck, the two swap places, one residing in now-space, while the other is stored in a pocket-dimension known as non-space until the bands are struck once more!
The Engineer II (Earth-1) - The daughter of a mad scientist obsessed with unlocking the secrets of nanotechnology, Angela Spica committed her life to becoming better than her father ever was, mastering numerous scientific fields until her father unleashed a cloud of deadly nanomachines on Las Vegas. In a desperate act, Angela reprogrammed the wave and took the nanotechnology into her own body, transforming her into the techno-organic being known as the Engineer and giving her powers beyond her imagination!
Firestorm II (Earth-2) - Utilising her godfather Martin Stein’s state-of-the-art Firestorm matrix, Lorraine Reilly combined with the older scientist to form the nuclear hero Firestorm until his death left her powerless. Months later, she found a second compatible partner, the young student Jason Rusch, and together the two became one of the greatest heroes the world had ever seen, all the while discovering that their abilities may have started in the realm of science, but now go far beyond that into the elemental…
The Guardian (Earth-1) - Originally a policeman in the 1930s, James Harper was recruited into Project: Guardian during World War 2 in an attempt to build the greatest soldier the world had ever seen. Utilising technologies beyond those of the day, Harper became the Guardian, and fought through countless wars all the way into the present day. With his ageing retarded thanks to his enhancements, the elder statesman of the superheroing world recognises that right and wrong aren’t black and white and refuses to see innocents suffer. It’s that moral code that informs the Authority as he acts as their leader as the team drifts through the multiverse!
Iron Man III (Earth 2302) - A former agent of S.H.I.E.L.D and the genius heir to the Stark weapons empire, Antoinette ‘Toni’ Stark understands the cost of war thanks to a near-death accident that left her reliant on the artificial heart inside the Iron Man mecha she wears. A firm believer in war being won by those with the biggest gun, Toni held numerous arms contracts with the US government that ensured it became the greatest superpower on Earth, bringing about an era of unprecedented peace maintained by the Defenders Initiative, a team she helped found.
Jack Hawksmoor (Earth N) - As a child, all the way into his teens, Jack Hawksmoor was abducted by aliens repeatedly so they could operate on his body and overhaul his physiology so that he would become the first post-human linked symbiotically with cities. Able to communicate with cities and move through them with ease thanks to his enhancements, Jack is known as the King of the Cities, but due to the elemental force known as the Green overrunning his home world he was forced into hibernation until he was rescued by the Authority. Now he fights to prevent civilisations falling to threats beyond imagination, the moral heart of a team that fights such threats on a daily basis.
The Midnighter (Earth-1) - Even before being recruited into Henry Bendix’s enhancile program, British Special Forces operative Lucas Trent was known as one of the deadliest soldiers alive. With powers extrapolated from the original Guardian project, the Midnighter is every soldier’s worst nightmare, a man with the ability to anticipate any move you’re about to make, and with a computer in his brain that gives him access to every fighting style known to man or alien. The Midnighter and Apollo escaped enslavement thanks to the Justice League and fight the good fight, though the Midnighter knows that sometimes being good means you sometimes have to be very, very bad…
THE AUTHORITY SUPPORT STAFF:
Doctor Peta Cross (Earth-3497) - An award-winning doctor with a speciality in metahuman medicine, Peta was blinded during a mugging and had the eyes of the recently deceased heroine Doktor Midnite surgically implanted into her head. Using her knowledge of medicine in conjunction with her new eyes, Peta pushed medicine to the very limits of previous convention, becoming the foremost authority in medicine on her world.
Doctor Alexi Luthor (Earth-92) - An arrogant scientist who become the mayor of Metropolis prior to his world’s subjugation at the hands of the rogue Kryptonian Va-Kox, Alexi channelled his hatred of the mad superman into protecting the survivors of his planet and fortifying Metropolis until the Authority arrived and evacuated the world. Since then, Alexi has utilised his penchant for mad science in assisting the Authority in uncovering the secrets of their shiftship-- the Carrier-- and assists Toni Stark in maintaining the systems on board.
ALSO ABOARD THE CARRIER:
Unwilling to abandon those in need, the Authority have taken on refugees from numerous worlds, including the entirety of Earth-92 (numbering approximately twenty thousand after the rampage of a rogue Kryptonian) and hundreds of thousands from Earth-10 at the behest of that world’s Uncle Sam.
The Carrier is psycho-receptive and its interior inhabits a form of tesseract space that grows as necessary to accommodate those in need. When trouble rears, the civilian areas of the ship are shifted into state-of-the-art null space buffers, a ghost-dimension where they sleep, unaware of the wars being waged back in reality. What originally started as a life raft hurtling through the multiverse has become a world-ship, with unimaginable technology taken from countless worlds filling its spaces…
It’s been a long road, and it looks like the end is finally near….
THE DC2 PRESENTS…
Series Finale: “A Finer World”
HoM / KILBURN / BOWERS
DIARY ENTRY - DAY 2,967:
HoM / KILBURN / BOWERS
DIARY ENTRY - DAY 2,967:
The representatives for the refugees from Earth-10 sometimes ask when we’ll settle on a new world. I’ve tried to explain it to their elected leaders that it’s not as simple as that; we’re in free-fall through the multiverse, never able to stay in one dimension for longer than a month (if we push the anchors to extremes).
Back on day one, Angie said that she’d read papers by academics who theorised that a membrane existed between every parallel universe to prevent what she called ‘memetic infection’. Let me kick my eidetic memory up. She said that memetic infection was some kind of mega-cultural spillover from one parallel reality to another. If there wasn’t anything keeping the ‘memetic infection’ out, all parallels would be the same, identical worlds with no variation. She’s already managed to write the paper confirming that’s the case. We’ve landed in hundreds of alternate realities from home, and we’re no closer to figuring out a way back than we were that first time.
I’ve asked Angie what the likelihood of getting back to Earth-1 is. She tells me she’s working on the calculations with Toni, but the Carrier’s base code is unlike anything she’s ever seen before. I regret bringing her into this world of capes and masks, but ever since the nanomachine infusion, she’s never been happier. She told me, a few years ago, that when it happened she felt more alive than ever. She felt like a superhero.
I just want to get home again. I pray that we won’t be too late, and that Earth-1 hasn’t broken in our absence. Or is that just my arrogance talking?
DAY 4,973:
REALITY-479
ABOARD THE CARRIER:
REALITY-479
ABOARD THE CARRIER:
The Guardian fell down to a knee, reeling from the attack. They’d managed to force the Decade off the ship, they’d taken down as many of them as they could, but they were outnumbered ten-to-one, the lives of so many were at stake, and if he failed in his mission, everything would be lost.
Outside the ravaged hull of the Carrier, a split in the Bleed had opened up. The membrane between universes they kept ending up in whenever the countdown clock reached zero was haemorrhaging. Whatever the Decade had used to cut the gash into the Bleed was causing debris to hurtle out from other parallel universes, and if the Authority weren’t careful they’d get hit hard and not make it to the final tick of the clock. How long did they have until they phased out this reality and into another? Six hours?
“Jim?”
James Harper, aka the Guardian, looked up at the Engineer’s extended hand. He took it without hesitation. “Winded is all. Need a second to catch my breath.”
“They won’t stop until they have her,” said Midnighter. His coat was ripped to shreds, his uniform slathered in blood. His more direct approach to combat made him look like a demon straight from hell, and the extra psychological edge was well within his wheelhouse.
“You suggest giving her up?” asked the Guardian.
“Never,” said Midnighter. “Stating the obvious is all.”
“Where’s Apollo?” asked Jack Hawksmoor. “Or Captain Marvel?”
“Or Firestorm, or Luthor?” continued the Engineer. “We’re down a massive number and the Decade have scrambled the radiotelepathy and our teleport capabilities. We’re crippled.”
A duplicate of the Engineer appeared, one of the main techno-clones Angie could create, and she began to read out a damage report. “Null space buffer is intact, all life signs at 100%. Should I go check on them anyway?”
“They’re safe until we die,” said the Guardian. “After that, they’re dead too. Where’s Jenny? I need to know where our team is now.”
“I can interface with the Carrier’s systems with Angie’s help, send out something over the tannoy if it’s still operational. We’ve come too far to fail now.”
“Do it,” said the Guardian. “Jenny wanted to look at the engines before all hell broke loose. Lorraine was down there protecting Jason in the medical bay, wasn’t she? She’s the closest one we’ve got.”
“But powerless,” said Midnighter. “I’ll find Toni and then make my way down there.”
“Not enough time,” grimaced Hawksmoor. “The size of the ship, and with the teleport down…”
“I’ll make it in time,” said Midnighter. “Okay?”
“Go,” said the Guardian. “This ends today.” He closed his eyes, tried to focus. Something in his head had come loose after he’d caught the bad kind of punch-- the one you don’t see coming. In his thick skull, something was rattling around and he could feel memories jumble up and roll around, like they’d come free from their moorings. He opened his eyes again, and focused on the events of the last few days.
DAY 4,972:
REALITY-479
ABOARD THE CARRIER:
REALITY-479
ABOARD THE CARRIER:
The countdown clock reached zero and the Carrier shuddered as it arrived in the latest corner of the multiverse. On the bridge of the Carrier, the gathered members of the Authority looked out at where they’d ended up.
Outside, there were no stars, only inky blackness. Just darkness in every direction. That wasn’t right. Universes were swirls of colour. Stars blinking, nebulae drifting. Planets spinning on their axes like some celestial ballet recital. This universe was dead. That wasn't good.
“Where are we?” asked the young Billie Jones. “I’ve never seen anything like it… no stars… I wish Oracle was here.”
The Engineer bristled under the girl’s comments, but knew there was nothing she could do to undo that tragedy. “It looks like a dead reality but how is that possible?” She pondered. “We’ve seen a few before, empty voids, but this is Reality-479-- we’re too far into the centre multiversal structure to be near a dead reality. Is there something wrong with the central processor, Toni? Damn! Your calculations…”
“--Weren’t necessarily off,” said Toni, shrugging as she cut Angela off. She took a sip from her hip flask, the home-brewed moonshine taking the edge off her hangover. “I put us within landing distance of your Earth-1, but like I said before, the algorithm can only predict arrival within a range of… a thousand realities. Maybe the map we got off the Monitors was inaccurate?”
“I wish you wouldn’t drink when we arrive,” said Billie. “After last time we arrived and the carrion beasts were on us in seconds… we need all hands on deck and we don’t need you drunk. My dad…”
Toni waved off the young woman and took another slug. “I can fly the suit while wasted. Besides, this is the only way you’re getting me functioning like a human being today. I’m more interested in the readings our beauty is picking up.” She began typing into the console in front of her, the long range sensors scanning as far as their antennae could reach. “I can’t see anything.”
“Talk to me, Engineer, I need intel,” said the Guardian, entering the bridge. “Stark, stop drinking. Billie, could I please speak to Captain Marvel?”
“Sure, if it gets me away from Mrs Booze Hound,” said Billie. She rolled up her sleeves to reveal golden bands latched to her forearms. “You stink by the way.”
“Miss,” corrected Toni. “I never married.”
Billie shook her head, then ran a hand through her long, dark hair. She took a moment to centre herself, then slammed her wristbands together. With a crack of lightning that arrived from nowhere, she was gone, replaced by a seven-foot tall man wearing red and black, a yellow symbol emblazoned across his chest. “What’s wrong, Guardian?”
“I want you and Apollo ready in the hangar bay. This place…”
“Guys, I’ve got three objects a few sectors over,” said the Engineer. “A star, a planet and a moon.” Her eyes widened. “It’s an Earth. But there’s nothing else… no solar system. No other galaxies.” She looked over at the Guardian. “Like your--”
“My dream,” said the Guardian. “I think this is it.”
“Your dream?” said Toni. “Catch those of us up who aren’t part of your inner circle, why don’t you?”
The Guardian gripped the command console in front of him. “The past year, I’ve been having dreams of a girl, begging for my help from across the multiverse. A young girl who was taken from her home like we were from our reality. And all she needs is for me-- us-- to find her. To get her to safety.”
“From what?” said Toni.
“The greatest darkness the multiverse has ever known,” said the Guardian. “The darkness we’ve just landed neck-deep in. You’ve seen the recording Angie took from my head, but I’ll play it again to remind you.” Harper pressed a combination of buttons on the console and a projection emerged from the emitters in front of them.
In the projection from a few months prior, Toni could see Harper impaled by the inky black tendrils of the immense being that had stalked them through the multiverse over the last year or so. The voice it spoke with was like razor blades, and the recording didn’t do the tone and timbre justice. The way Harper described it, when they were able to save him… was horrifying.
“Do you know why my men are called the Decade, little man?”
Floating in front of the Guardian, composed of the same dark energy that currently stabbed into nearly every part of his body in different degrees, a mocking, almost human but definitely more daemonic, face hung in the air. There was a dissonance between the words clawing at Harper’s brain and the way its mouth moved, but the effect was horrifying to be exposed to either way.
“I-- I didn’t-- think-- to ask,” said the Guardian. Defiant until the end, blood caking his face and scabbed across the numerous wounds on his body. This was prior to the optical exchange that left him minus an eye, and the disgust he had for his captor was plain to see.
“If you had, you would truly understand the scope of your failure. Ten years of murder, Torture. Violence. Then, and only then, when you have lived the life of the killer can you join the ranks of my army. From across the multiverse I take only the best.”
“Guess-- we-- we’re doing-- the multiverse-- a-- a-- favour taking your-- your boys down.”
“Your efforts are for naught. For every one you kill, there will always be a billion murderers more. Mine is an infinite resource. Good men are not.”
“I have-- more than-- enough,” said the Guardian.
“Your ‘Authority’? Who made you the arbiters of rightfulness in the multiverse? Your sense of morality is small, while my reach is incalculable.”
The Guardian thrashed against his restraints, even though that made the barbed edges of them tear at his flesh even more. “Yeah, but you threatened a little girl and now I don’t give a damn about your reach--” His teeth were red with blood, the fire in his eyes was burning brighter than ever. Not long until he’d be rescued, but he wasn’t to know that. This was the real face of Jim Harper. “So you either kill me and my team finish the job I started, or I get out of here and kill you with my bare hands, but either way-- You will be dead.”
“You’re arrogant enough to think you could kill an entire universe?”
“Universe?” repeated the Guardian, confused by the thing’s meaning.
“And even if you live past this day-- I will use your every failure-- your every mercy-- and wipe the taint of the Authority off the face of my multiverse. I am the Great Darkness. And I will watch hope drown in the shadow. Now. Let us continue--”
The Guardian’s eyes opened wide but then the memory recording snapped to black as his torture continued.
Harper turned off the emitters. “The girl. She’s here. I can feel it.”
“Uh.” Toni looked at her flask, and then back to the Guardian, who wore an expression unlike any the technologist had ever seen on the man. She put the container down and walked past Harper, landing a hand on his shoulder as she went. “I’ll prep the suit, chief.”
“Don’t you need this to be a human being today?” asked the Engineer, holding up the hip flask.
“I’ve got a batch of the extra strong stuff in my lab,” said Toni. “Something tells me I need to take my drinking up a notch.”
THE DAY THE AUTHORITY MET CAPTAIN MARVEL:
REALITY-1611
EARTH:
REALITY-1611
EARTH:
“Surrender now or this’ll end badly for you,” said the Guardian. The squad of Kree Void Navy had him surrounded, and the young woman in his arms, his only ally within the immediate area, was unconscious. This didn’t look good.
“You are outnumbered and surrounded, human,” said General Yahn-Rgg, “the only ending will be yours.”
“That’s not the first mistake you made today, but it’ll be among your last,” said the Guardian. “You’re an invading force and you’re in the process of occupying this world. You’ve put the heroes of this world in chains and you don’t seem to know who I am, so let me fill you in. I’m the Guardian. I lead the Authority. And if you don’t know what that word means in this context then you’re in for a treat, because today I’m in the mood to show you.”
There was nervous chittering among the Kree squad. Yahn-Rgg shook his head. “Only words. And they will be your last. Squad, level weapons.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” said the Guardian. “Guess they are just words. But you know what else they are?”
“You’re about to say ‘the truth’?” said the General. “I am bored of your braggartry.”
“Sure, if I wasn’t outnumbered twenty-to-one and holding an injured civilian in my arms,” said the Guardian. He took three steps back. “That should do,” he said to himself, before smiling at Yahn-Rgg. “But in this case, no. In this case, I was buying time. Goodbye.”
With no further warning, there was a massive explosion as a figure made landfall on top of the squad. The impact sent a cloud of smoke flowing outward, blinding the assembled soldiers of the Void Navy and allowing the cause to run rampant, dismantling the Kree before they could follow through on the General’s orders.
“Apollo, are you a sight for sore eyes,” said the Guardian. “Good thing these ears can recognise when a superhuman is about to land hard.”
“Not Apollo, no,” said the seven-foot tall figure as it emerged from the clearing smoke. The blond was clad in red and black, a yellow star jagged down his chest. The way he carried himself, the innate nobleness damn hard to fake, even harder to affect, reminded Harper of his Superman, the Kal-El he knew back on Earth-1. Here though? Who was this man? “I am Geheneris Hala´son Mahr Vehl. That girl is under my protection. Your intentions. Now.”
“Oh, well,” said the Guardian. “I’m here to save the world from a race of alien invaders. Yours?”
Mahr Vehl smiled. “Similar. Your name?”
“Guardian,” said Harper. “Mahr Vehl, was it?”
DAY 4,973:
REALITY-479
ABOARD THE CARRIER:
REALITY-479
ABOARD THE CARRIER:
The nine-foot tall silver-and-scarlet Iron Man mecha was ravaged, a hole in its chest where an energy blast had torn through its shields and armour and caught the pilot inside. There was blood and gore streaked down the front, and a trail that led out of the armour and down the corridor that was lined with dead members of the Decade.
“Godammit, Antoinette,” whispered the Midnighter, as he moved through the hallway, blinking lights telling the man that the Carrier was running on emergency power after the latest attack. “Where is…?”
<LORRAINE, THIS IS HAWKSMOOR. ANGIE HAS UPLOADED COORDINATES TO THE DATA NODES ON YOUR LEVEL. PLESSSZZZZZ>
The tannoy system was immediately disabled by whatever technology-devouring entities the Decade had deployed. The Midnighter cursed, but had a job to do. He turned a few corners and entered the room where the bloody trail led and was surprised to find a large pile of the Decade dead at the hands of their teammate, who herself was closer to dead than alive in the corner.
“Wh… what… took you… so long?”
Stark was covered in energy burns, her stomach was a bloody mess and she was paler than any human had the right to be. Her left arm was clad in a smaller version of her armour’s energy gauntlet and it was smoking from overheating, while the control web that linked her physiology to her mecha was a shredded mess, patches exposing the wounds she’d incurred during the assault.
“You are a hot mess,” said Midnighter.
“I always knew… you… cared…” said Stark. “Where’s… Jenny?”
”We don’t know for sure,” said Midnighter.
“Shit…” said Stark. “Last I saw… saw… ah god…” She reeled back in pain, her body straining against the damage inflicted upon it.
“I need to get you to Cross,” said Midnighter. “You’ve come back from worse, right?”
“Did I… ever… tell you how… I got my… scars?” asked Toni, chuckling as she gestured over her sternum, at the medical scars that radiated out in circles over where her heart pounded in her chest. “I’ve been… through hell… kids…”
“And here’s to going through it a hundred times more,” said Midnighter. He lifted Stark up carefully. “Cross is in the sealed areas, where we’re keeping the buffer secured. Antoinette, you need to keep talking, and I’m going to get you to her, all right?”
Stark shook her head vehemently. “What… about… the others…?”
“They can look after themselves,” said Midnighter. “They trust us to do that and we trust them to do it too. C’mon, tell me about how I’m just a sub-par Nighthawk, okay?”
“Yeah… I can… do that…”
THE DAY THE AUTHORITY MET IRON MAN:
REALITY-2302
EARTH:
REALITY-2302
EARTH:
“Please stop trying to punch me!” said the Guardian, as he leaped over the head of the attacking creature. The raging, grey-skinned creature in front of him had dented his shield with one punch, something not even Superman had done on his best day, and so the last half hour had been spent prancing about, trying not to get the thing’s fist connecting with his face.
The thing breathed in deeply, shaking with rage, and the Guardian’s brain raced to calculate the weak point in this creature’s hide. Whatever fuelled this thing, it had grown bigger since Harper had engaged it, and it also seemed to be getting stronger. This didn’t look particularly good. The rest of the team were busy with the spatial anomaly that had the Carrier in its clutches, and he was the only one on the team available to face this thing down-- maybe he should have sent Quex-Ul in his place?
No time to linger on that, as the creature threw two hammer fists straight for the Guardian’s head. “HULK SMASH PUNY MAN!” growled the creature. “HULK HATE THE DEFENDERS!”
“No, you won’t, and I think you have my affiliation all wrong,” said the Guardian. “My name’s Jim, what’s yours?”
“HULK-- Hulk-- Hulk’s name is Hulk,” said the Hulk. “Puny… man… not Defender?”
“No, I’m with the Authority,” said the Guardian. He activated radio-telepathy and communicated with his team. {Guys, I could use a hand down here. I’m interacting with some kind of super-strong troll and I don’t know if I can talk him down.}
The Engineer responded. {I’ve managed to reopen the singularity that sucked up this world’s heroes, but so far only one of their people has managed to get out. She’s on her way.}
The Guardian put his hands out, slowly taking his shield off his arm and lowering it to the floor. “Hulk, I’m going to put my shield down and we can talk about this, okay?” {Is she on her way? Did she provide any intel?}
{When I told her you were facing down some kind of angry grey lump she said something about her workshop and then blasted out of there. Jim, I have no--}
<HULK!>
The Guardian’s expression dropped when he saw the large, mobile weapon platform in the shape of a gigantic man descend from the sky. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me.”
<YOU’RE BEING INHOSPITABLE TO OUR GUESTS. DOES MAMA HAVE TO SPANK?>
The Guardian grabbed his shield as the Hulk roared and leaped toward the new player in the game. “Why can’t life ever be easy?”
<SORRY NEW GUY BUT HULK HERE IS A PLAYMATE OF MINE AND I KNOW JUST THE RIGHT BRAND OF MEDICINE HE NEEDS TO GET HIS HEAD ON STRAIGHT.>
The Guardian considered the scene in front of him as the giant robot battle suit battled the Hulk, and considered his options.
<YEAH BEST TO JUST SIT THIS ONE OUT. I’M IRON MAN BY THE WAY.>
DAY 4,971:
THE BLEED
ABOARD THE CARRIER:
THE BLEED
ABOARD THE CARRIER:
“…And anyway, after all that, how are you feeling today, Jim?”
James Harper, aka the Guardian, looked up at Doctor Peta Cross and smiled. “Yeah, good thanks.”
“And your eye socket?” Cross took out a small pen-sized torch and lifted up Harper’s eye patch, to get a closer look at the void left by the removal of his left eye in one of the previous dimensions they’d crossed into. “Any residual sensation? Any pain?”
“Nope,” said James. “There’s nothing. In more ways than one.” That last line was followed up with a smile. “Toni thinks she can build a replacement. I’ve told her to put it at the bottom of her to-do list.”
“Sounds like you’ve retained your sense of humour, too,” said Cross. She leaned back, and shrugged. “There’s nothing else I can do for you then and this is a particular area of interest for me. Unless you have anything you want to tell me? I am a trained psychiatrist too.”
“Nope, just didn’t want to avoid my check-up again, especially after the last few days,” said Jim. He pulled his shirt back on, and stood, working out the kinks from his tired body. “How’s the rest of the crew doing? How’s Jason?”
“They’re probably as tired as you are,” said Cross. “I’ve not checked in with the heads of medical across the residential areas but I’m told everyone’s all right. Jason is in a coma and I have no idea when he’ll wake up.” She glanced over to the big clock on the wall, counting down in an alien language. “We’ve got, what, another hour or so until we hit a new dimension? Any idea where we’re going to land?”
“Angie tells me that Stark’s algorithm put us within range of Earth-1, but that there’s a thousand-to-one chance of actually landing there,” said Jim. He chuckled, then grabbed his jacket from the chair by the door. “So, at least we’re not on the tail end of the multiverse again. Clear of the dead spaces that sap the engines and mean we have to panic every time we land there.” He sighed. “And hopefully as far away from trouble as possible. But who can even tell…”
DIARY ENTRY - DAY 1,343:
Sometimes, when we make dimension-fall, we arrive near ‘Earth variants’. Worlds like the one we left behind when we fell through that hole in reality. Worlds like home.
It’s always interesting to see how they react when they see us. I remember our first arrival on the twelfth day and how we thought we were home. When the Blue Martians bombarded the ship with cannon-fire we knew that wasn’t the case. Twelve days in, and our hopes were dashed. How many days ago was that?
DAY 4,972:
REALITY-479
EARTH:
REALITY-479
EARTH:
“This planet is dead but there’s something…” said Captain Marvel. They had made landfall a few moments prior, and currently Apollo, Iron Man and himself were surveying the world. “Something is bending my cosmic awareness away from this Earth… something is buried here.” The black of Captain Marvel’s costume began to twinkle as the star field formed across the darkness. Whenever he accessed his senses-overloading cosmic awareness, the effect spread across his being. Apollo had seen the man’s costume blasted to shreds by ionic cannons but when he tapped into the cosmic awareness… his entire body affected the look.
Dismissing the memory, Apollo looked across the dead world. “Can you detect anything, Toni?”
Compartments in Iron Man’s armour opened up and blue rays of light began to move across the ground, spreading out until the edge of the scanning aura was hard to see. <Nothing. Which is weird. Even if there’s a nothing, there’s always a something in the air. Y’know… I’d like to get Jack down here, but will he have a seizure if the cities are empty?>
“It really does depend,” said Apollo. {Jack, what do you say?}
Jack Hawksmoor stepped through an orange portal and arrived on the planet and immediately felt his knees weaken. “Oh, oh wow.” The experiences of the world flooded to him as his nervous system plugged him into the cities that littered this world. “There’s… there’s no humanity here. No animals. Nothing biological apart from the plant life. It’s like my home dimension after the Green took over…”
{Not that you’re not already, but be on your guard,} said the Guardian from the bridge of the Carrier, {we had a bad experience with the Green when we first met Jack. Be ready to bug out if this turns sour. I don’t want a replay.}
“No, no, it’s not… there’s nothing,” said Jack. “In fact, London is telling me there’s a distinct nothing under its skin… that she can’t see inside…”
“What are you thinking?” asked Captain Marvel.
“Could be some kind of bunker,” said Hawksmoor.
“Or a prison cell,” said Iron Man.
“Only one way to find out,” said Jack. “Door.”
DAY 4,970:
THE BLEED
ABOARD THE CARRIER:
THE BLEED
ABOARD THE CARRIER:
“How is he, doctor?” asked Lorraine Reilly. The healing chamber held the love of her life-- her soul mate-- Jason Rusch, currently in suspended animation after the last attack at the hands of the Decade. ”Any change?”
“None, I’m afraid,” replied Alexi Luthor. “He’s alive, maintained by the intricacies of your Firestorm Matrix, but I can’t reach into his head and drag him out of the coma. He should have died after that explosion. How was it possible?”
“I don’t know,” said Lorraine.
Reilly remembered being violently separated from Jason, their joint Firestorm form dissipating like smoke. The two of them were nearly overwhelmed by the forces of the Decade. The enemy force had deployed elemental ravagers, inhuman creations capable of twisting complex molecular bonds into nothing but string, and the Carrier was nearly eaten from the inside out before Jason did something unimaginable. The young man managed to manifest the Firestorm Matrices solo, disrupting the ravagers’ molecular cohesion and rendering them inert. Lorraine didn’t think it possible, and apparently reality agreed with him and Jason was left burned, unconscious and unresponsive to external stimuli.
“And your godfather was the genius who came up with the Matrix,” sighed Luthor. “What I’d give to have someone like him here… someone with the same level of intelligence as me…”
“Alexi,” growled Doctor Cross, entering just as Luthor spoke. “Now’s not the time for your ego.”
“Sorry, my love,” said Alexi, kissing Peta on the cheek “What I mean is… I’m not smart enough or specialised enough to even begin to figure out how to bring Jason out of his coma. I don’t know anything about the Firestorm Matrix and if I poke and prod in the wrong way…”
“…You’ll tear the Carrier apart,” said Lorraine, sighing. “I’m aware of the energy held within the Matrix. But I thought it was just that-- held within the Matrix. Not capable of manifesting without two people present inside it.”
“Well, I can only speculate. Care to check the patient, Peta dear?”
Peta Cross nodded slowly and removed the opaque glasses that kept her enhanced eyesight from going into overdrive. She looked over Jason and began to nod to herself. “I’ll need some time.”
DAY 4,973:
REALITY-479
ABOARD THE CARRIER:
REALITY-479
ABOARD THE CARRIER:
“Christu! We’re under attack, Engineer!” said Luthor, the holographic display showing a swarm of missiles and crafts approaching the larger mass of the Carrier. They’d impact soon enough, and the first volley had knocked them on their backsides. “I mean, you knew, but if this keeps up--”
Angie knew and wasn’t happy. She directed her thoughts toward the team on the ground. {We need to get clear of the planet, Jim.} A dozen or so of her duplicates were rushing around the bridge of the Carrier, trying to maintain shields and prevent the attacking hunter-shiftships from penetrating their hull. {This was a trap, it’s like they were waiting for us. I’ve lost half the main systems.}
On Earth, the Guardian looked at the black door in front of the team, and then grimaced. “Everybody back to the ship. You’re on defence. I want the null space buffer’s encryption turned up to eleven. No casualties apart from the bad guys.”
“What about you?” asked Hawksmoor.
“I have to go through that door. I’ll do it alone,” said the Guardian.
“But we don’t know what’s behind there!” said Captain Marvel.
“That’s why I’ll go on alone,” said the Guardian. “You’re needed upstairs. Go now, that’s an order.”
Captain Marvel grumbled, but nodded in understanding. Multiple transport doors opened around the team and the Authority departed, leaving the Guardian alone underground, a small door the only thing around him.
“I guess this is it,” said the Guardian. His hand closed around the door handle and he opened it with surprising ease-- there was no locking mechanism, nothing preventing him simply opening it. When he pulled it open, the light from inside was blinding, so much so that he had to shield his eyes. But once he’d finished the task at hand, all that was left was an open door and a children’s bedroom.
“Hello, Jim,” said the small girl sat at the foot of the bed. Across the floor were toys of all sorts, in the corner were numerous piles of books. “Are you here to save me?”
“Yes,” said the Guardian. “What’s your name?”
“Jenny Infinite,” said the girl, smiling. “I’m the spirit of the multiverse. I’ve been waiting for you for a long, long time.”
DAY 4,972:
REALITY-479
ABOARD THE CARRIER:
REALITY-479
ABOARD THE CARRIER:
“What do you mean the Great Darkness is this universe?” asked the Midnighter. “From what Harper said after his last face-off with this thing, I thought it was an evil parallel, like Earth-3, but you’re saying the entire universe is sentient? And rotten, to boot?”
“A sentient reality, sending tendrils of itself spiralling out into the multiverse,” said the Engineer. “We’ve seen fragments, like… fingernails raking across the skin of space time, and now we’re where it lives.”
“I can’t punch a universe to death,” said Midnighter, aggravated. “How do we get out of here? Godammit, what about the civilians in the buffers?”
“If we don’t get clear, then the Great Darkness kills us all,” said the Guardian. “And then spreads unchecked through the multiverse.”
“What about Jenny? The girl from planet-side?” asked Apollo.
“I don’t know,” said the Guardian. “But I think the Darkness is pissed we let her out.”
In that moment, huge ruptures streaked through reality all around them, and from inside the black-clad forces of the Decade began to flood through. The Guardian raised his shield and roared, and the Authority went to war.
Apollo and Captain Marvel were dragged out of the interior of the ship by a dozen or so black-clad marauders, and Midnighter screamed as his husband was wrenched away. That showing of emotion was wiped from memory nearly instantly as the Midnighter unleashed a fury upon the Decade unlike anything they’d ever seen.
Engineer pushed the attackers out of the bridge, even as her duplicates went to work sealing the hole in the hull. Various other incursions were taking place across the ship, and the team split, heading to the various points of ingress. This would be the hardest night of their lives.
DIARY ENTRY - DAY 12
We’ve been working non-stop since our arrival in what the sciences refer to as the ‘Bleed’, the membrane that separates universes. Realities, I mean. Angie talks about harmonies, and vibrations, and mentioned something called a ‘Cosmic Treadmill’, but it goes over my head when she gets going on about high science. In all the years I’ve lived, I’ve experienced so much, but this is beyond my experience.
Whatever our means of first arriving here, it left us adrift in the Bleed. The ship’s command interface was wrecked by our forced entry into the Bleed, and Angie’s working on regaining control of the ship so we can find our way back home.
When exploring the ship, Midnighter found what we’re calling the ‘Countdown Room’. There’s a clock, or, at least, we think it’s a clock, the numerical values are counting down, but we don’t know what the values mean. We don’t know what happens when the clock reaches ‘zero’, but Midnighter hasn’t left the room since. He tells me he’s standing guard, but I can read him like a book. He’s hoping something happens so he can be useful.
I ask Apollo if he was always like this, and he just smiles and nods knowingly.
They’re good people. I just hope we can get back home in one piece without losing anybody.
--
Countdown ended. Something weird happened to the ship. We’re back in normal space. I can see Earth. I’m headed to the engine room to see if we can open up a line of communication with home. We’re back.
DAY 4,973:
REALITY-479
ABOARD THE CARRIER:
REALITY-479
ABOARD THE CARRIER:
A small child sat in front of the Carrier’s engine, watching the fluctuating energy source that was stored in a sphere at the heart of the ship.
“Jenny!” said Lorraine, her hand gripped tightly around one of the energy guns stored in the weapons cache she’d raided on her way down here. “What are you doing down here, kid?”
“The dark is a bad universe,” said Jenny.
“Yeah, and right now it’s doing all it can to drag you back into your prison,” said Lorraine, looking frantic, “I need to get you back to the bridge, where it’s safe.”
“The dark will kill everyone it can to get to me, and then it’ll spread throughout the multiverse. I’ll go back to my room and then nothing can stop it. I brought you here for a reason,” said Jenny.
“Why’s that, honey?” said Reilly, one eye on the entrances to the engine room, the other on Jenny.
“The Carrier is powered by a caged baby universe. The dark is a bad old universe that needs to go away.”
Lorraine’s eyes lit up. “Oh my God.”
“Yeah,” said Jenny, beaming. “But we’re going to need help.” She grabbed Lorraine’s hand and the two appeared suddenly in Alexi Luthor’s lab. The redheaded doctor yelled in surprise and nearly blasted their heads off with his rifle. “Hello, Doctor Luthor.”
“Reilly, what the hell? Is this her?” said Alexi, wiping his brow. “Bad enough I’m down here and not with Peta, but-- wait-- how did you get in here?”
“Looks like Jenny has powers of her own,” said Lorraine. “I don’t even know what’s going on.”
“Well, ever since you left to go find her, I’ve had people trying--” There were numerous concussive blasts outside the lab, whatever it was trying to get in was kept out by the sealed doors, but the scorch marks were beginning to spread inside the door, rather than being kept to the outside. “-- Trying to get in. It won’t be long until we either get her to teleport us out, or we, well, we die.”
“I was born to protect the multiverse from things like the Great Darkness,” said Jenny. “But it locked me up in a place I couldn’t escape and took my light to spread its shadow.”
“Yeah, yeah, so you said before,” said Alexi. “But now you’re out, you need to escape this, and I want to see my wife again, so help us now.”
“He’s all broken,” said Jenny, looking at Jason as he floated unconscious in the fluid-filled tube. “But you can fix him… if he was awake.”
“We can’t wake him up because he’s ‘all broken’,” said Alexi, aggravated. “So what do you suggest, young lady?”
The door to the lab burst open and the Decade began to flood through. Lorraine spun around and began to fire her weapon, and Luthor activated the room’s defences, grabbing Jenny before she was caught in the crossfire. A dozen or so members of the Great Darkness’ army made it through before being mowed down, and then there was the sound of bones breaking and flesh splitting outside.
Alexi cursed under his breath, but then the Midnighter emerged holding the decapitated head of one of the Decade’s members, the rest of their number annihilated by this deadly figure.
“Oh, thank Christu,” said Alexi. “I’ve never been happier to see you.”
“You’re not my type,” said Midnighter. “I told them I’d make it down here in time.” He glanced up at the countdown clock in the room. “Four hours. Okay. We can still make it out of here.”
“We have to stay,” said Jenny.
“Yeah? And die? C’mon, kid. You’re not making the decisions here,” said Midnighter.
“She… she has a plan,” said Lorraine. Everyone looked at her and could see blood spreading from a wound inflicted on her abdomen during the last skirmish. “…Oh, God.”
The Midnighter caught Lorraine before she fell over, and helped her onto one of the medical beds. “Luthor!”
“I know, I know,” said Alexi, grabbing his instruments.
“You can save them,” said Jenny.
“He better,” said Midnighter, shooting Luthor a look.
“I’m talking about you. Your blood can kick start them. You’ve done it before. Saved the Guardian after the bad dark hurt him really bad.”
The Midnighter’s eyes widened. “How did you know--?”
“I know everything about you,” said Jenny. “I’ve been with you since you first fell into the multiverse.”
“Then… what…” The Midnighter’s eyes widened as his brain did the calculation. That was the way his brain worked, after all. Anticipating what was coming next, be it a conversation, a fight, a war. He could take all the information available to him and predict the future. And that meant he knew what she was about to say: “You’re the one who kept us falling through the multiverse.”
“And I’m the one who can get you home,” said Jenny. “But before that, you need to transfuse your blood into Jason. It’ll wake him up.”
“It’ll burn him out,” said Alexi, tersely, “don’t think we haven’t considered and then immediately discarded it, child. How old are you anyway? Harper is an enhanced human, that’s why he survived Midnighter’s transfusion-- and barely at that-- if we pumped Rusch full of Midnighter’s blood… he’d literally explode.”
“Not if they combine as soon as he wakes up,” said Jenny. “Then we can stop the dark.”
Luthor’s eyes lit up. “Christu, Christu, Christu. That makes sense!”
“D-do it,” hissed Lorraine. “B-before… before…”
The Midnighter smashed the containment tube that held Jason and carried him over to the nearest bed next to Lorraine.
“I could have opened it!” said Luthor.
“Get an IV,” said Midnighter, removing his body armour. “And your sharpest needle.”
DAY 4,973:
REALITY-479
ABOARD THE CARRIER:
REALITY-479
ABOARD THE CARRIER:
With the nanomachine blood wrenched from her body, Angela Spica was human. She lay twitching and nude on the floor of the Carrier’s bridge, surrounded by the snorting, howling hordes of the Decade, while the Guardian was pinned to the front of the vessel by an invisible force, his body buckling under the titanic weight that the Great Darkness had exerted to take him out of the game.
To the Guardian’s right he could see Apollo, nearly hollowed out after his solar charge was removed from him. Captain Marvel was in a state of flux, the cracks in his Nega-Bands swapping Billie and him between the non-space that one would exist in when the other was in now-space. Jack Hawksmoor had been split open, his alien organs spilling out across the cold metal floor of the ship. Toni Stark had been dragged across the floor, a bloody trail in her wake.
The Authority were down. He couldn’t communicate with the others, no matter how hard he tried. His team-- his family-- were fractured, broken and bleeding, and the only hope of survival was with those in the belly of the ship who didn’t know how bad it had become up on the bridge.
As slowly and malevolently as it had the first time they’d interacted, a colossal voice filled the mind of the Guardian, pushing up hard against his rational thought processes. The psychic invasion sparked against the computerised aspects of his brain, but he didn’t feel the presence go any further. He began to think things through-- how far could the Great Darkness travel into his mind?
“Hello again, James Harper of Earth-1.”
Dark matter swirled in the bridge of the Carrier, frying systems, sending electrical systems haywire, and it manifested as the face of the Great Darkness. It was here, among them, and that meant it knew how close to victory it was.
“You-- haven’t-- won--” said the Guardian, his every word a strain.
Without fanfare, the bones in the Guardian’s left arm shattered. He held in a scream. He could control his body’s functions, so he turned off his pain receptors. The only thing he could feel was the discomfort of bone shards grinding against other bone shards.
“It is over,” said the Darkness. “You are the final stand of the multiverse and it doesn’t even know it. You will die un-mourned and soon the multiverse will be me.”
“Never-- you bastard-- never-- “
“I’m strong enough now. Strong enough to spread freely. You released the girl but it’s too late. I don’t need to keep her alive anymore.”
“Then-- why-- did-- you--”
The laughter caused the hull to shudder and rend. “You don’t know anything of the nature of the multiverse. Of the immune system that protects it from harm. Or the cancer that becomes alive and infects universes. I am that cancer. I am the Great Darkness.”
The Guardian strained but his head was slammed back into the hull. “Nnn!”
“The girl was born to stop me but I got to her first. Killed her world and trapped her in my heart.”
The Guardian’s right arm began to bend in an uncomfortable direction under the psychic mass the Great Darkness utilised. This time it was slow, deliberate, and he couldn’t seem to turn off his pain receptors-- the Great Darkness was in his head, making him feel every single second of the agony.
“If she got out she’d have eaten me up. Cured my hosts of the infection. But I’m too strong now. Nothing will ever stop me from manifesting across the multiverse. I will become all.”
The Midnighter leaped into the fray without fanfare, breaking skulls and crippling members of the Decade. He went for the ones who had Apollo at their mercy first, grabbed one of their weapons and raised it in the direction of the baying crowd around the Engineer. Before he could fire off a salvo, the Great Darkness swatted him aside and pinned him opposite the Guardian.
“Is that it? Your final stand?”
“Not yet,” said Jenny Infinite. “Please get out.”
The small girl raised her hand and a bright light expanded outward, disintegrating the assembled members of the Decade and pushing the Great Darkness out of the Carrier. She was backed by the reformed Firestorm, burning brightest blue and white instead of flaming red, yellow and orange, and Alexi Luthor, who held an energy rifle in shaking hands.
The dark universe shuddered as it was forced to exit the Carrier and there was a silence throughout the ship. The Midnighter fell hard onto his knees, but readied himself and clambered up to the hole in the hull-- he saw thousands of the Decade floating outside the sphere of the ship in the void of space.
“What did she do?” asked the Midnighter. He turned back as Firestorm sealed the crack in the ship with a wave of her hand.
The Engineer managed to draw the nanomachine blood back into her body and began searching for a working console to scan the immediate area. Jenny Infinite didn’t concern herself with that, instead she pressed her hands over Captain Marvel’s Nega-Bands and sealed the fissure, securing the Captain’s place back in reality. She then raised her hand over Apollo as he was cradled by the Midnighter, and sunlight filled the man’s cells, restoring him to his former glory. Finally, with a wave of her hand, she returned Jack to his previous, un-spilled state and knitted Toni back together. They were alive and whole for however long the Great Darkness could be kept out of the Carrier.
“God,” said the Engineer. “We’re surrounded by some kind of energy field, the Darkness has been pushed back…”
“It won’t hold,” said Jenny. “Not forever. We need to end the bad universe forever.”
The Guardian clutched his shattered arm, and Jenny laid a hand on it, knitting the bones back in place and back together before he could say a word. “How do we stop it?”
Firestorm cleared her throat. “We overwrite this reality with the baby universe that powers the ship.”
“We do what?” asked Jack, incredulously.
“If we do that then the Carrier is powerless. If we thought it was hopeless before, this time we’ll be in a ship without an engine, without power, and everyone we’ve saved, every refugee we’ve got in the buffer right now, they’ll all die,” said the Engineer. “We’ll be in a coffin, crashing through reality. We’ll either die immediately, overwritten by the new universe, or we’ll… okay, look, we’re dead. We die no matter what.”
“It’ll work?” asked the Guardian, looking at Firestorm.
Firestorm floated beside Jenny, her amalgamated body glistening with celestial light. “We were entrusted with the stake to drive into the heart of the Great Darkness. The Carrier holds within it the only known instance of a contained, baby universe, just waiting to extend out and exist in the multiverse. We can give it a place in the multiversal structure.”
“You want us to midwife the birth of a universe?” asked Toni. “I mean we always talked about changing worlds for the better, but this… this is massive. And I don’t have a suit for that anymore.”
“We can do it,” said Firestorm. “I can manipulate the ultra-elements that keep the baby universe in check. I can make sure the overlap is seamless.”
“Is there anyone left alive in this universe?” asked the Guardian, looking at Jenny.
“Every living soul in this universe died when the bad dark woke up,” said Jenny, a sad expression on her face. “Every star went out. Every sun, every light.” She wiped tears from her wide, reddening eyes. “I was the only one left, and he locked me up while he spread out to infect the rest of the multiverse.”
The Guardian turned away from his team and clenched his left fist, feeling a tinge of phantom pain from when his limb was broken. He counted the lives of every person under his care on this ship. Every person currently asleep in the null space buffer in the belly of the beast. How many lives did he have duty of care for against the number of lives throughout the multiverse?
“No other option,” said the Guardian. “If it’s our last chance—our only chance-- then we have to do it.” He smiled. “We always said we wanted to make a finer world.”
“We have to do it,” said Apollo.
“No other choice,” agreed Midnighter.
“Inter-ship teleport is back up,” said the Engineer. “I’ll lock down the bridge and transfer what’s working to the engine room.
“Let’s go,” said the Guardian. Glimmering orange doors opened up in space and the Authority stepped through, arriving in the engine room of the Carrier.
“Do… do you need me for this?” asked Luthor.
The Guardian turned and looked down at the man who’d been with the crew for years, but was still eyed with suspicion. He’d proven himself time and time again, but due to Harper’s own experiences with the Lex Luthor of Earth-1, he found himself unable to fully trust a man with the last name of Luthor. But as time had gone on, they’d given him the run of the ship, of the technology available, and… he hadn’t killed them all in his sleep. They’d been close to death countless times, and he’d never betrayed them. Hell, they were invited to his wedding a year or so back to Peta, and Harper was the de facto best man.
“Go to your wife,” said Harper. “Keep your heads down.”
Luthor nodded. “Thank you, James. Thank you.” Alexi vanished through one of the portals, leaving the rest of the team in the engine room.
“Mahr,” said the Guardian, turning back to face the Kree captain, “you can go down to the buffer, transform into Billie and escape into the null zone. There still might be a chance you can all survive this…”
“We both know that’s highly unlikely,” said Captain Marvel. “But no, Billie and I have discussed it. I will not leave your side. We’re a team until the end.”
The Guardian patted the man on the shoulder and nodded in thanks before turning to face the large containment sphere that held the Carrier’s engine—the baby universe just waiting to mature. “So, this is it. A brand new universe.”
The Carrier shuddered and Jenny Infinite looked up. “The bad universe trying to get back in.”
“It probably knows we’re about to ruin its day,” said Toni. “I wish I was armoured up for this…”
Firestorm held out her hands and balled them up into fists. The containment sphere began to creak loudly, the swirling lights inside intensifying. “I feel like I was born for this.”
“Reborn,” said Midnighter. “But that’s the thing, isn’t it,” he glanced down to Jenny, “we were always meant to end up here. She led us to this point.” He grabbed Apollo’s arm as the Carrier shook. “Jesus!”
Firestorm gritted her teeth and cracks emerged across the face of the sphere.
Jack Hawksmoor’s hand found the Engineer’s. Midnighter put his arm around Apollo. The Engineer’s hand found the Guardian’s and Toni took a swig from her hip flask. Captain Marvel closed his eyes, even as the Carrier shook with a severity that demonstrated just how close the Great Darkness was getting to crushing them all. Firestorm grinned, already combined with the love of her life, and Jenny Infinite just watched the events unfold.
Above them, the countdown clock ticked down from ten down toward zero…
Finally, the unit shattered and a bright light spread across the assembled crew, blinding them to what emerged. The world went white and the shaking ended.
The Authority were engulfed, absorbed, and everything stopped mattering in that long, haunting moment.
An old universe died. A new universe was born.
And the Authority died in the ashes.
DIARY ENTRY - DAY 3:
We’re lost, and Angie told me I should make a record on one of the spare tablets, a time capsule when we’re found so they know what happened here. She made the same suggestions to the others. Don’t know if they’ve done the same, but it’s day three. We’re lost. But I’m going to get these people home. It’s what they deserve, and I won’t disappoint them. I can’t. Even if it takes me a lifetime, I’ll get them home. They… you… have my word.
- Brigadier General James J. Harper
DAY 4,974:
REALITY-1:
REALITY-1:
“I never thought I’d say this, but Great Rao is it a boring day on the moon,” said Superwoman. The Justice League were assembled in the conference room aboard the Watchtower, their lunar headquarters hanging silent on that grey rock locked in orbit around the Earth.
“Not every day can be a big terrifying crisis,” said Hourman. Rick Tyler looked over to his wife, Jesse. “But a Justice League meeting is a Justice League meeting, Challenge of the Masters be damned.”
“Challenge of… the… what?” said Superwoman. “I know I’ve been on Earth for a while now, but did that make sense to anyone else?”
“Don’t mind him, he’s just sour we’re going to miss the first show in the Bruce Lee matinee,” said Jesse Quick. She tutted. “But if he doesn’t watch himself we’ll miss The Deadly Breaking Sword too.”
“Uncle!” said Hourman, raising his hands in mock surrender.
The Atom cleared his throat. As Chairman of the Justice League, he’d called the meeting to order. “You know why we’re here, folks. It’s that time of the year.”
Superwoman glanced over toward the crimson patch of space a few hundred miles past the dark side of the moon where a scab in space time had been locked down over thirteen years ago when a ship fell into the Bleed. No space craft was allowed near it, and markers had been placed in its vicinity to prevent any accidents from taking place.
“We lost good people that day,” said the Atom. “Jim and Angie. Apollo and Midnighter.” He sighed. “There have been odd fluctuations coming from the Bleed scab. Unlike anything we’ve seen in all the time--”
The Watchtower shook and the Justice League jumped out of their seats—Superwoman was gone in a flash, out of an airlock and toward the source of the space-time explosion—the Bleed scab.
{What can you see, Kara?} asked the Atom.
Superwoman’s eyes opened wide as a colossal shape pushed through the hole in reality until it made its way to their side. It was clearly a ship, battered and dented, large holes cut into its hull and bigger scratches running down either side of it.
{…50 miles long, 35 miles high, 2 miles wide…} thought Superwoman. {Matches the description of the ship we lost the others on… could it be back?}
Superwoman was joined by the two Green Lanterns that called Earth home, Kyle Rayner and John Stewart, as well as Blue and Red Tornado. Even Flamebird and Nightwing had made the journey out, prepared for anything that might come with the return of the mysterious ship that stole four of their own over ten years ago…
<This is Green Lantern, sending out a transmission over all available communication channels,> said Kyle. <Please identify yourself.>
There was a long silence. {It could be another trap, like the last one of these things that came out of the Bleed,} said the Atom. {Keep your distance until we know what’s--}
There was a loud, static shriek across the airwaves.
And then a voice emerged from the belly of the mysterious ship: {This… this is the Guardian. I… we… we made it… we made it back.}
ABOARD THE CARRIER:
The Guardian opened his eyes and found himself surrounded by his friends. The engine of the ship was gone, but his teammates remained. Whatever Firestorm had done at Jenny Infinite’s behest had apparently worked, and they were somewhere new.
“Well, I’m still alive,” said Toni Stark, taking another slug from her hipflask. “Where are we now? What fresh hell…”
The Engineer checked a console nearby, emergency power helping it remain operational after the loss of the baby universe that kept them flying. She ran Stark’s alogirithim and was surprised by the result. “…Reality-1.”
A voice came through the Carrier’s emergency speakers: <This is Green Lantern, sending out a transmission over all available communication channels. Please identify yourself.>
“What?” said the Midnighter, his head nearly spinning off his shoulders. “Run it again.”
Apollo shook his head at his husband’s rudness. “Please, Angie. Can we just be sure?”
“I know, I know…” The Engineer ran the multiversal equation again and nodded. “There’s no doubt. We… we’re… we’re home…”
The Guardian’s eyes widened and he activated the communication array aboard the Carrier. {This… this is the Guardian. I… we… we made it… we made it back.}
“Speak for yourself,” said Toni. “I’m headed to the lab… maybe some of my moonshine didn’t get spilled in the attack. Call me if this all turns out to be a huge misunderstanding.”
“I’ll head to the buffer,” said Captain Marvel. “I’ll get the restoration process started.”
“You might need a hand with powering it up,” said Firestorm. “I’ll come too.”
“Good, good…” The Guardian knelt down next to Jenny. “Honey, did you do this?”
“After everything, you deserved a win,” said Jenny. “There are so many waiting down in the belly of this ship hoping for a second chance. And now you get to make them a finer world. ”
The Guardian nodded slowly. They were back. They didn’t need to be the Authority anymore. After all the evils they faced and the worlds they changed for the better, their work out in the multiverse was done… but here… on Earth-1?
“A finer world…” said James Harper, pulling off his mask and discarding it. He turned to Apollo, Engineer, Jack Hawksmoor and Midnighter. “…Let’s get to work.”