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Post by arcalian on Sept 16, 2009 0:03:14 GMT -5
Deux Ex Machina # 7 A Hiding Place from the Wind Story and art by Chaltab Edited by Jay McIntyre [/i][/center]
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Post by arcalian on Sept 16, 2009 0:08:21 GMT -5
Billy Batson slipped out of his makeshift bed—a sleeping bag in a tent that evacuees from Fawcett City had been using as shelter for the past week. He had heard shouting, which he had at first thought were screams of terror. But then he listened closer and realized that they were shouts of triumph, that there was an ecstatic celebration going on outside in the refugee camp. As he left his tent, he heard his sister Mary slipping out of hers as well, and he joined her.
"What's happening?" she asked.
"Not sure."
Billy led her towards the shouts and soon found a clearing where several hundred adults were gathered around and underneath the tent where radios and televisions were constantly on trying to glean whatever news they could about the Titans' siege of the planet.
One woman standing silently but smiling with a look of utmost content on her face sat down near the outskirts of the celebration, looking quite exhausted. Billy approached her.
"Ma'am... um... what's with the party?" he asked.
"They won!" she said, beaming. "The Justice League won. The Titans stopped attacking and all blew up."
Billy looked at Mary, who was smiling broadly.
"That's fantastic!" his sister cried. "But what about all the gods?"
"From what I've heard," the woman said, "They've been stopping as well. Someone said they saw Thor himself get clobbered by Supergirl, and then get up and start apologizing to her profusely."
Billy took a step back, looking pointedly at Mary. They didn't have to speak to each other to know what the other was thinking. Both of them ran out away from the tent and to a secluded area behind an old garage where no people could see them.
"Sh... SHAZAM!" Billy tried.
Nothing.
"SHAZAM!" he repeated, again to no avail.
"Our powers are still on the fritz," Billy said.
"SHAZAM!" Mary cried. She too did not transform, and she turned to him looking sour. "I was hoping I could still transform since we're powered by different gods."
Lacking anything else to do, Mary and Billy returned to the celebration and grabbed a couple of root beers. It wasn't long before they had put their still-malfunctioning powers to the back of their mind. An hour passed, then maybe another fifteen minutes. Billy lay back in a lawn chair staring up at the sky, where shooting stars periodically fell—supposedly burning remains of the Titans of Myth entering the atmosphere.
And then he noticed one particularly bright falling object that didn't appear to be vanishing.
"Oh no," he whispered to Mary, grabbing her by the shoulder and pointing her towards the point of light. "It's too big a piece to burn, it's going to hit the planet."
"The color is different on that one," Mary said. "It's too... yellow."
Billy looked again, and as the shooting star grew, he realized that she was right. Quickly it became obvious why—the falling object was not an asteroid but a living being. Clad in yellow and black armor, the bird-headed alien slammed into the ground near the media tent, throwing gravel into the air and causing the earth to rumble.
The alien turned to the humans gathered underneath the tent.
"My name is Romat-Ru," he said. "Do you fear me?"
"Not really," said a man who had clearly had too much to drink. He staggered up to the alien and tossed bear on him. "You super putzes all look alike to me."
Romat-Ru tilted his head forward, a dangerous look in his massive eyes.
Before Billy knew what had happened, the yellow ring on Ru's finger flashed, and a massive spike construct of yellow energy erupted through the drunk man's chest, then slid out. Blood started oozing from the wound, and the man fell down and stopped moving. Many in the crowd shrieked in horror, and Billy looked away and winced.
"Foolish," Romat-Ru said. "This planet has been claimed in the name of the Sinestro Corps. Any attempts to oppose our rule will be dealt with..."
Ru paused, yellow tendrils slithering out from his ring and lifting the corpse of the drunk man so that everyone could see it.
"Harshly."
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Post by arcalian on Sept 16, 2009 0:10:02 GMT -5
Metropolis
Dozens of blazing yellow meteors streaked over the skyline. The L in LEXCORP and the giant globe atop the Daily Planet exploded into thousands of pieces as the Sinestro Corps members descended into the atmosphere. Down in Centennial Park, a celebration was cut short by a resounding crash.
"What the hell was that?!" cried Natasha Irons.
Her uncle, John Henry, also known as Steel, appeared behind her, pointing up at the source of the noise. "We might have started this party too early. Looks like we have more bogeys." His voice was full of disgust and fatigue.
John Henry took off, flying up to the nearest brilliant yellow streak of light, his hammer raised and ready. As he approached, he realized that the yellow energy was a shield surrounding a humanoid being, and it was emanating from a ring on the alien's finger—like someone forgot to mix the Blue into a Green Lantern ring.
"Who are you and what are you doing in my city?" Steel demanded.
The being, an alien monster with three mouths and three eyes, grunted something in a guttural language; but a calm voice emanated from the yellow field around him. "I am Tri-Eye of the Sinestro Corps, and I'm here to claim this city in the name of Sinestro."
"Sinestro?" Steel barked. "You follow him? I thought he was in the Green Lantern prison."
The guttural voice intoned again, translated by the ring. "Sinestro has escaped and the Green Lantern Corps is no more. Surrender now or face your worst fears."
Steel narrowed his eyes behind his heavy face plate. "Sorry, I'll have to pass on that."
He rushed forward, ramming into the alien with his shoulder and then swinging his hammer around, bashing the alien's face. It snarled and flew backwards, but a shield had formed around its head to absorb most of the impact. Three more members of the Sinestro Corps appeared behind Tri-Eye, and Steel flew backwards a bit until he bumped into something. He glanced behind him to see Atomic Man, STRIPE, and his niece backing him up. He suddenly felt less tense.
"They're with Sinestro," Steel said. "Let's give them a proper welcome to Earth."
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Post by arcalian on Sept 16, 2009 0:13:18 GMT -5
Space
Robin dove forward, barely dodging a slash from Ra's' sword, and then turned, throwing his own blade up and blocking Ra's' as it came down at his head. Robin stood up, trying to force Ra's' sword out of his hands, but the terrorist overpowered Robin and reversed the momentum. Robin pulled his sword away, trying to pull Ra's off balance; his plan failed, and when Robin tried to counter the next blow, Ra's sword clashed with his and sent the Boy Wonder's blade flying out of his hands. The sword clattered against the wall and transformed into a pair of birdarangs.
Ra's loomed over Robin and raised his falchion.
Then, blasts of fire and ice slammed into Ra's from the side, sending him careening across the room and through an open passage; the sword that Ra's had been wielding clattered to the ground, bent out of shape in once place and cracked half way across the blade in another from the combined fire and ice attack.
"Thanks," Robin called to the heroines Ice and Fire. The two elemental beauties and Black Lightning had succeeded in disrupting Cronus' reproductive functions before Ra's had initiated his protocol to make the chief Titan break apart into separate sections. But now there was—stuff—some sort of healing agent leaking from the pipes throughout the inside of the Titan. Any wound that Ra's and Robin inflicted on each other was closing almost instantly, and Robin was sure that a few minutes ago he'd had a broken rib or two from the portal-dive he took.
Robin picked up his birdarangs and started toward the room that Fire and Ice had blasted Ra's into.
"Wait." Black Lightning stepped up next to him; his suit was dotted with holes where OMAC lasers had blasted through the armor, but there were no wounds underneath because of the healing reagent in the air.
"Pierce?" Robin asked, arching an eyebrow.
"Robin, don't be stupid. That's the reactor room. We shouldn't even be standing here with the door open, let alone following Ra's in there."
Robin gestured to reagent in the air. "I don't think I'll have to worry about radiation."
"What if Ra's overloads the reactor?" Ice said, looking worried. "The explosion could kill you both."
"As long as Ra's doesn't escape, that's a risk I'm willing to take," Robin said, slamming one fist into his other open hand. "He's done too much damage and caused too much death to let him get away this time."
Black Lightning grimaced. "There's a difference in being heroic and being stupid, son. Let's see if we can get back to the Javelin or else we might be stuck on this thing."
An idea clicked in Robin's mind, and he nodded, and began to follow Black Lightning, Fire, and Ice towards the exit. But as the trio of Leaguers reached the door that led out of the genetics laboratory, they turned back—to find Robin gone.
Black Lightning rushed back in to see him, just as he mashed the panel that caused the omnisteel door to slid closed and latch, locking himself in the reactor room. Lightning smashed his fist against the door, shouting for Robin to open it. Robin just shook his head at the sounds of Pierce's muffled curses through the door, and turned to find Ra's.
Robin found that the door to the reactor core had been pried open and peeled back like the lid of a metal can. Robin slid through the door and into the room, where hundreds of reactor rods jutted up from a glowing solution in a gulf that spanned across the massive room. Electricity arced across nodes on the ceiling, and it looked as though the reactor unit had been severely damaged, as wires were poking everywhere. It was warm and muggy, causing the water in the pit below to steam, and between that and the healing reagent that had leaked into the air, visibility was low.
Robin pulled out his bo-staff and reached out with his foot, testing the half-submerged reactor rods. When he was sure they could hold his weight, he started off into the fog, knowing that Ra's was hiding somewhere in the mist.
Robin wouldn't be using his eyes until Ra's was close, so he kept them on the reactor rods, slowly walking out into the middle of the room. The warmth from the liquid below was pouring up, and sweat was pouring off of Robin, getting into his mask and stinging. He pulled the mask off and dropped it into the reactor soup below.
Just then, a sound to his left caused him to turn his head; Ra's was rushing at him, his shirt and cape discarded. The Demon's Head was unarmed, attacking with his hands and feet. Robin threw up a defense with his bo, blocking Ra's' palm strike and then smashing the staff against the follow up kick. It struck the side of Ra's' leg, and Robin tried to follow up with a reverse strike, but Ra's dropped down, one hand hitting the reactor rods to support his weight, even as his foot shot out in a powerful kick that slammed into Robin's chest.
Robin's breath rushed out with the impact, and it took all his mental power to remember to plant his feet on the nearest reactor rods in addition to breathing. He landed a bit off balance had to move his foot from one rod to the next to keep from falling. Ra's stood and strode towards him, his feet finding the tops of the reactor rods effortlessly.
Robin goggled when he realized that his own bo was now in Ra's' left hand.
The terrorist dropped the weapon into the pit and charged at Robin, his feet again effortlessly finding the reactor rods. Robin threw up a defense, but Ra's overpowered him, smashing the Boy Wonder in the face and staggering him backwards. Robin fought to keep his feet on the rods and deflected Ra's follow up punch, then grabbed Ra's' arm. Using himself as a fulcrum, Robin hurled the terrorist over his shoulders and slammed him down against the reactor rods.
Ra's snarled, but Robin didn't let him get up; he kicked down at Ra's head. But the terrorist was incredibly fast, his left hand appearing in front of his face and catching Robin's foot. Ra's pulled the Boy Wonder off balance and Robin's free leg came off the reactor rod. Robin fell, his hands extending to keep his face from slamming into a reactor rod. The rods were so hot that Robin felt his hands blistering through his gloves.
Ra's al Ghul rolled to his left, pulling Robin with him and hurling the Boy Wonder across the room. Robin landed hard on his back, reactor rods holding him up and simultaneously acting as a dozen metallic jabs into his back and shoulders. He could feel the heat of the cylinders threatening to blister his flesh. Robin planted his arms and legs on four separate rods and pushed himself to his feet, just in time to sidestep as Ra's attacked again, his massive fist crashing down where Robin had just been standing. Robin's fist flashed out, slamming into Ra's elbow with a satisfying crack.
A grimace played across Ra's face, but quickly subsided. Robin muttered a curse under his breath—he couldn't use his speed and agility to wear Ra's down because of the healing reagent in the air. If he was going to win, he'd have to do something decisive. Grim thoughts crossed Robin's mind, but he resolved not to act on them. He'd find another way.
He blinked; in that split second, Ra's slammed a fist into his face, driving him back. He slipped off the rods and started falling in between them, but quickly reached out and held himself up with his hands, his arms straining to hold his weight up. His boots hovered inches above the radioactive soup in the pit below them. Ra's smirked and walked over raising his leg to stomp on Robin's hand. Robin pushed up with his arms forcing himself out of the pit; he rolled backwards, just as Ra's kicked him in the chest. It drove the breath out of him, but also managed to drive him farther away from the terrorist, giving him an opportunity to get back on his feet. He reached for his belt and grabbed the pair of birdarangs that formed his sword, and brought them together...
Just as Ra's reached him and kicked his hands, sending both birdarangs flying out. Robin dodged the follow up strike from Ra's and grabbed one birdarang, but the other clattered against the side of a reactor rod and fell into the soup below.
Robin felt something slam into his leg and felt his tibia and fibula snap in two. Pain shot through his body, and he fell onto his stomach, his chin hitting a reactor rod. His face burned then immediately healed, then burned again when he felt Ra's step down hard on his back and force his face back down onto the cylinder. Robin twisted his head so that his face wasn't touching the burning metal, but he could barely move otherwise.
"You really are an arrogant child," Ra's said. "Did you really believe that because of a few training sessions with Master Chu-Hui that you have the skills to face an immortal challenger with nearly six-hundred years experience on you as a martial artist?"
"The thought," Robin said through clenched teeth, "crossed my mind."
Ra's responded by pressing down with more weight on his back; slowly the reactor rods began to lower into the radioactive soup below.
"My intelligence indicates that you were the one who finally killed the Joker," Ra's said. "How did it feel?"
Robin was drawing ever closer to the liquid below. He didn't answer Ra's question, not giving him the satisfaction of getting under his skin. Instead he stared at the liquid and prepared for the undoubtedly unimaginable pain he would soon be feeling.
Just then, a dark blot in the glowing liquid floated into his view, and Robin squinted to see through the fumes that it was his birdarang.
His steel birdarang. Floating.
Robin decided that he really didn't want to touch that substance.
"You know, child," Ra's said. "You don't have to make a martyr of yourself. I could take you as an apprentice. Mold you into a soldier in my army, a warrior to help me bring in my new world order. Spare you from a foolish death."
Robin grunted, biding his time.
The rods sank lower into the super-dense sludge. Robin let his left arm dangle.
Ra's repeated his offer, and Robin could only pray that Ra's could not see what he was attempting to grab.
"Why do you hold to the ideas of your mentor? He has all but disowned you, forbidden you from being Robin and taken in other apprentices to fulfill your duties."
"Bruce does what he thinks is best," Robin growled, just as his fingers grazed the burning-hot soup below. Then they clasped around steel.
"As must I, fledgling." Ra's foot pressed harder on the small of Robin's back, causing further pain in Robin's abdomen as it pressed against one of the cylinders. But it freed his upper body ever so slightly. And Robin leaned up twisting around and slashing the back of Ra's knee with the razor edge of his birdarang.
Ra's staggered as his blood sprayed out, and Robin used this window to force himself to his feet, and slammed the birdarang in his left hand together with the one in his right. They transformed into his sword and in the same smooth motion he whirled the sword back around. The golden blade flashed as Ra's tried to defend.
Two fingers fell from Ra's' hand into the soup below.
"Joker tried to shape me into his apprentice. So did Slade. After their efforts, yours is nothing."
Then a thin red line appeared across the terrorist's neck; blood began flowing out even as the terrorist's footing finally slipped, and Ra's tumbled into the radioactive sludge below.
Even without Ra's weight, the rods were still sinking, now just inches from the liquid, and Robin leaped off, banging his leg painfully against one of the columns but managing to make it up.
He tossed a glance down at Ra's, and quickly regretted. The sight of burning flesh brought back bad memories.
Robin left the reactor room, leaving Ra's charred corpse behind.
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Post by arcalian on Sept 16, 2009 0:14:05 GMT -5
Metropolis
Steel flew backwards, blasting missiles and shotgun bursts from the concealed launchers in his armor; the projectiles lanced out, slamming into the force shield that Tri-Eye had put up. The shotgun pellets stopped dead and the missiles exploded into a cloud of fire and smoke. The Sinestro Corps member emerged from the cloud, swinging a massive yellow hammer at Steel, which smashed into his chest and tore off the S-Shield and mangled the armor underneath.
Steel went careening back and slammed into the statue of Superman that stood in Centennial Park, knocking its head off.
Stargirl and STRIPE appeared beside him, hovering in front of the Superman statue's shoulders.
"They're overwhelming us," Stargirl shouted. "We need the big guns here. Where the hell are Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash?"
"I don't think they're comin', Courtney," STRIPE said, blasting futilely at the approaching group of three Sinestro Corps members.
"You two," Steel ordered, flying forward. "Order a full retreat of all the heroes in the area. Go into hiding. We can't win the fight this way."
"What are you gonna do?" STRIPE demanded.
"I'm going to distract them. You guys get into hiding." Steel blasted forward, setting his nuclear-powered hammer to its highest setting as he blazed towards Tri-Eye. The alien raised his ring and spears of yellow energy lanced out. Steel dodged through them, and Tri-Eye's mouths smiled.
"Like a challenge, do you?" Steel barked. "Well try dodging this!"
And suddenly Steel was surrounded by hundreds of Green Lanterns, green beams blasting from their rings, peppering the Sinestro Corps members with energy...
Steel smashed into Tri-Eye with his hammer; the alien's armor shattered, and he coughed up blood as he went careening into the distance.
"That's impossible!" a nearby Sinestro Corps member called. "We defeated the Green Lanterns! They're all dead or imprisoned."
Steel smirked, hovering in front of him. Just as quickly as they had appeared, all the Green Lanterns vanished. The alien's eyes narrowed as he realized what had happened.
"Holograms!" he snarled. He and his companion blasted at Steel again, and Steel fought them off as best he could.
By the time they subdued him, Stargirl and STRIPE were long gone.
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Post by arcalian on Sept 16, 2009 0:14:36 GMT -5
The Etherverse
The lightning arced across a huge open plain, where villas doted the fields and a gentle breeze was disturbed only by the two lightning-fast streaks of motion that darted across. Flash and Kid Flash blazed every closer to the bolt that would empower Captain Marvel—if only they could catch it.
"Where are we now?" Bart asked, taking point for a change in front of Wally.
"If my Greek-Myth knowledge is right, I think this is the Elysian Field, where the heroic dead go to rest." Flash darted forward, reaching his hand out to grab the tail of the lightning, but at the last minute it changed direction, zigging sharply to the right. Flash stumbled and fell, rolling end over end across the gentle grass until coming to a halt in front of a small villa.
A tall muscle-bound man with a magnificent beard came out and started yelling at him in ancient Greek.
"Sorry, Perseus," Wally said, raising a cautionary hand. "Just chasing some lightning."
Kid Flash skidded to a halt beside him and helped him to his feet. "Let's go, Flash, before it gets away!"
Kid Flash took off and Wally took off after him, wishing that he had Bart's seemingly-boundless energy.
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Post by arcalian on Sept 16, 2009 0:19:16 GMT -5
New York City
Storm clouds churned in the sky above, the maelstrom a mirror image of the Sky King's fury.
Diana charged towards Zeus, smashing her fists into the god's face and staggering him backwards, then whirling around with a powerful kick that sent the god reeling and sent a spray of ichor into the air. Zeus turned and snarled, bashing Diana backwards and following up by hurling a flurry of thunderbolts at her.
Diana's bracelets flashed, moving with superhuman speed to intercept the lightning. But this was no mortal projectile—it was the lightning of the Sky King, and it ran through Diana's body, jolting her bones and sending her five senses into disarray. The jolt subsided with every bone in her body aching sharply, and Diana smelt ozone in the air around her.
Zeus blasted with his thunderbolts again, and this time the jolt made Diana go limp, her body falling down to the rain-soaked street below. She felt the ground vibrate and heard thunderous footsteps as Zeus drew closer to her, and she looked up in time to see the god extend his arms out and form a spear the length of a bus in his left hand. Diana glared at him defiantly, and then shut her eyes, lowered her face and whispered a prayer to Hera.
She heard thunder again, and felt rain start to fall against the back of her arms and legs.
But she did not feel the stabbing pain of Zeus' spear.
Diana looked up to see more figures that had come to he raid—a group of five aliens she didn't recognize, all clad in black and yellow armor and wielding yellow power rings. She forced herself to her feet and flew up to the nearest one, a magenta-skinned male that was observing the others. Then, through the increasingly torrential rain, she recognized his face.
"Sinestro!" she growled.
"Ah." The space-criminal turned and smirked at her. "Wonder Woman. Weakened but not defeated. Tell me, what is this creature you're facing."
"You first," Diana said. "What are you doing here? How did you get out of prison?"
Sinestro glared, obviously affronted by the lack of respect Diana showed him. "That is unimportant. My corps has replaced the Green Lantern Corps as the guardian agency of this universe, and our first conquest is your world, Princess."
"Over my dead body!" Diana growled, raising a fist.
"I can arrange that," Sinestro said dangerously. "I command thousands of soldiers all as powerful as a Green Lantern. This planet will submit to our authority, and any resistance will be eliminated. But first I must tame the chaos that's been unleashed on your world."
"You... you want to stop Zeus?" Diana said, lowering her raised arm slightly, but hovering closer to Sinestro.
"Zeus?" Sinestro said, stroking his chin. "The deity of your lore. Interesting—an apparent incarnation of a mythological being. Likely mystical in nature, much like yourself."
Sinestro turned to Diana and gave her a wicked grin, a twisted yellow light emanating from his eyes. "Help me stop this rampaging god and I will spare you and your Amazon tribe."
Diana bit into her lip. She knew that the Amazons would die before they submitted to Sinestro and his men. If she could find a way to keep them alive...
The hand Diana had clenched into a fist opened slowly and extended to clasp around Sinestro's.
"Deal," growled Wonder Woman.
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Post by arcalian on Sept 16, 2009 0:25:28 GMT -5
The Etherverse
Heavy doors made of oak and embossed with gold exploded into a shower of splinters as the lighting blasted through it, followed quickly by Flash and Kid Flash A massive mead hall lay beyond, with hundreds of helmeted Viking warriors sitting at a long table, imbibing giant mugs of mead and shouting good-natured insults at each other. Those shouts turned into cries of anger and alarm as the lighting bolt streaked across the table, shattering cups and exploding legs of chicken.
Flash and Kid Flash leaped on top of the table and darted across, their slipstream sending plates and mugs flying through the air and covering the table's revelers in their contents. The Flashes quickly reached the end of the table and dived for the lightning, but it zagged when they expected it to zig and flew straight towards a huge burly man in armor.
The man reached out and caught the lightning in his bare fist.
"Oh..." Flash said as he came to a dead stop in front of the man. "I'm sorry, who might you be?"
"The name is Erickson, young one. Lief Erickson."
"The guy who discovered America!" Bart said. "Sort of."
Erickson nodded. "Aye, that was me. Me and my cohorts here don't appreciate our eternal celebration in the halls of Valhalla here being interrupted. Ye're going to pay fer ye'er little trespass."
"We don't have any money," Bart said, a bit too quickly.
"Not with money, lad," Erickson said. "But with entertainment. Ye want this here bolt of lightning, right, lads?"
"Want is such a light word," Wally said. "More like, the fate of the world depends on us grabbing that lightning."
"Alright." Lief Erickson smirked. "Ye get to fight one of our monsters, and if ye win, I'll give ye the lightning. If not, ye'll be dead, and it won't matter to ye."
It only took a few minutes for the preparations to take place. Flash and Kid Flash were escorted through the halls of Valhalla into a massive stadium where a fierce-looking beast was awaiting them, chained to a pair of stone pillars on the far end. It was basically humanoid in shape, but massive, with scaly-black skin and a long fiery-red beard. Several feet in front of it was a massive sword that glowed as if on fire, plunged into the ground with the hilt pointing to the ceiling.
"This," said Erickson, "is Surtr. Come Ragnarök, this beast will destroy the world, they say. But fer now, he's yer problem."
The chains holding Surtr to the two columns suddenly vanished, and the giant lurched forward, pulling his flaming sword out of the ground and lumbering towards Bart and Wally. Wally, for once, was holding to caution, approaching the monster slowly, all the while wondering what the hell he'd gotten himself into.
Bart wasn't so prudent, instead darting forward at full speed and diving between Surtr's legs. The monster growled, swinging his sword around behind him—and causing a huge column of fire to erupt through the air, slamming into Bart and blasting him into a wall.
"Kid Flash!" Wally shouted, darting over to help Bart up. "Are you okay?"
Bart was rubbing his face; Wally could smell singed hair and saw that some of the reddish brown mop on top of Bart's head had been fused together by the heat.
"I'm fine," spat Bart. "He caught me off gua—LOOK OUT!"
Wally looked up in time to see another massive wave of fire streaming at him, and he flung Bart to his left and broke right; the flames slammed into the wall behind him as Wally took off, and Surtr turned and hurled another burst of fireballs at him.
Flash dodged the first volley at superspeed and then ran back towards Surtr as the second ones reached him. He hit the dirt and dropped out of superspeed, and his slipstream hurled the fireballs back towards their creator. They slammed into Surtr and staggered him, catching his beard on fire. Surtr let out an angry wail and raised his sword. The flames on his beard danced through the air and were absorbed by the sword, extinguishing.
"We have to get rid of that sword," Bart said, appearing beside Wally.
"I have a plan." Wally stepped forward slightly.
Bart smirked. "Does it involve running around in circles really fast?"
"More or less," Wally said.
"You know, we're so predictable," said Bart, blasting off towards Surtr and darting around him in a wide arc, leaping over the giant's sword as he tried to skewer Kid Flash.
The Scarlet Speedster joined him, displacing the air around Surtr until it was a massive tornado that jerked the giant off his feet and pulled him up into the air. Surtr tumbled over, flailing with his sword and sending gouts of fire spraying at the ground. Wally zigged and zagged around the blasts and glanced up just in time to see Surtr slam into the ceiling of the stadium.
Surtr let out a growl at the impact and dropped his sword. The heavy steel fell hard and fast towards the stadium, and Wally and Bart stopped. Then Surtr dived after it, reaching out to catch the falling weapon before he hit the ground.
"Don't let him get to it!" Wally shouted.
"Wally!" Bart took off at a run, building up speed as he circled the Colosseum. "Give me a leg up!"
Kid Flash ran directly at Flash, and Wally went into super-speed overdrive, so that even Kid Flash seemed to be moving in slow motion. The Speed Force crackling through his arms and legs, Wally used his body as a step ladder for Kid Flash, and when Bart was off the ground and too high up for Wally to reach, Wally ran to the edges of the stadium and grabbed weapons out of the Vikings' scabbards, hurling them through the air with perfect timing to give Bart a stepping stone.
His muscles burned with Speed Force energy and Wally collapsed, the discharge of Speed Force energy blasting him against a wall of the stadium. All his limbs ached with impacts of Bart stepping on them.
He looked up in time to see Bart kick off the last weapon he'd thrown—a huge Norse battle ax—and leap into the air towards Surtr's sword. Bart kicked the blade's hilt, sending it rocketing through the air at an incredible speed and piercing Surtr through the chest. The momentum sent them flying towards a wall in the stands, where dozens of Vikings cleared out of the way as Surtr was pinned against the wall by his own blade.
Fire exploded from the giant's mouth and nose, and in moments his body crumbled away into ash, and only a charred skeleton remained.
"Holy crap!" Wally said, limping over to where Bart landed. "Where'd you learn to do that?"
"Soccer practice with Superboy," Bart said with a triumphant-but-pained grin.
Leif Erickson appeared behind them, holding Shazam's thunderbolt in his fist.
"That was a fine show!" he bellowed. "It looks as though Ragnarök has been canceled, boys!"
Erickson extended the lightning bolt towards them. "Ye've won this fair 'n'square. Tak yer prize!"
Wally and Bart reached out, both grabbing one end of the thunderbolt and holding on tightly; it struggled and wriggled, trying to escape their grasp, and worse, they had no idea what to do with it.
"Good, good, you got it!" came the voice of Hermes, who appeared beside them so quickly it made even the Flash blink.
"What's the meaning of this?" Erickson barked. "A Greek god in the halls of Valhalla? It's blasphemy."
"Yeah, yeah," Hermes said, rolling his eyes and pushing Erickson away. "Tell it to Odin. Right now I've got a mortal plane to rescue."
Hermes waved his hand, opening a portal in front of the Flashes. Through it, a young boy was struggling as a bird-like man in yellow-and-gold armor lifted him off the ground, torturing him with yellow energy that emanated from his ring.
"SHAZAM!" the boy cried desperately. "SHAZAM!"
"You should have stayed in your tent, little boy," said Sinestro Corps member Romat-Ru. "The Sinestro Corps owns this planet now, and nosy children are the best kind of victims. They scream the loudest."
The boy glared at the alien defiantly.
Hermes slapped Wally and Bart on the back. "What are you waiting for, you dolt's. Send the lightning to the kid!"
Wally and Bart glanced at each other and shrugged, then aimed the bolt at the portal and let go.
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Post by arcalian on Sept 16, 2009 0:27:45 GMT -5
Billy Batson screamed again as the yellow energies flowed through is body, digging into his nerve endings and sending jolts of pain through them at will. He felt spittle running down his face and tears running out of his eyes, but he didn't say anything. He just glared at Romat-Ru, forcing his fear away. He wouldn't give the alien bastard the satisfaction of hearing him beg. That's not what a hero would do.
"You'll break sooner or later," Ru said, sending another jolt of pain through Billy's body. "What do you say to that?"
"Shazam," Billy muttered.
"What was that?"
"I said... SHAZAM!"
The dam broke. A jolt of lighting came from above, slamming into Billy's form and shattering the yellow-energy constructs from Ru's ring. Power flowed out of the gods and kings of lore, transforming his body once more into the form of a superhero. But this time, he was different.
Billy's hair was long, silver—the same color as his costume. The golden thunderbolt on his chest and the golden trimming of his costume was also different, now a deep platinum shade. Energy seemed to crackle through his synapses and radiate out of his skin. He wasn't Captain Marvel. Shazam the Wizard was dead, but now... Billy was Shazam. He could feel the powers not just of his six patrons—Solomon, Hercules, Achilles, Zeus, Atlas, and Mercury—but also the powers of Mary's patrons too, great goddesses of legend.
Romat-Ru formed a spiked mace and swung it at the reborn superhero, but Billy just raised a hand and caught it, crushing it in one hand and returning fire with a powerful punch.
His fist slammed into Ru's chest and kept on going, punching all the way through into the massive boulder behind.
Romat-Ru fell, dead, and Billy's mind was shot through with horror. This was.. too much. Too much power for him to have on his own. He couldn't control it. But the wisdom of Solomon and Minerva told him what to do. The ring on Romat-Ru's finger hovered off the ground, a voice emanating from it.
Ring-Bearer Romat-Ru: Deceased. Searching for New Ring-Bearer
Billy reached out and grabbed the ring from the air, and focused on it. There was power inside it, but it was corrupted, evil. Billy forced his will into the ring, and whispered the wizard's name again.
"Shazam..."
A crack of thunder resounded, but the lighting didn't arc into the sky, but from his body into the tiny ring, forcing out a massive column of yellow energy that split apart and flew off in all directions.
Once again a kid, Billy Batson held up the ring, which now bore the emblem of Shazam on its face. He slipped it onto his finger.
The wisdom of Solomon and of Minerva had told him one more thing: The Sinestro Corps would now be after him. They would be there to avenge their own. Billy Batson was now a killer. He had to get away. He and Mary would have to run.
This thought drove him forward, when all he really wanted to do was collapse and rest.
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Post by arcalian on Sept 16, 2009 0:28:15 GMT -5
The lightning bolt came out of nowhere and slammed into the god of the sky. Zeus' body spasmed and jerked, and when the lightning subsided, some of his glow was gone; the mad rage in his eyes had faded slightly. His body seemed to shrink, and his godlike muscles did not seem to bulge as much. Diana didn't know what had happened, but she quickly blasted forward, smashing her fists into Zeus' face repeatedly, knocking teeth from the Sky King's mouth and causing ichor to stain his beared.
Zeus snarled an insult in ancient Greek and swatted at Wonder Woman, but in his weakened state, she raised her arms to guard and intercepted the god's attack with no problem. Diana grabbed Zeus' fist and pulled it forward, pulling the god off balance and right into a crushing kick to his jaw. Zeus staggered back and fell to one knee, his enormous patella crushing a parked sports car that had somehow managed to survive the battle until that moment.
"You must calm down, Lord Zeus!" Diana shouted, unfurling her golden lasso. She thought that with the power and the rage that were driving Zeus to this frenzy partially subsided, her lasso would now have an affect—that it would make him see the truth, as well as the folly of his actions.
But Diana did not get a chance to test that theory. Huge spiked bludgeons constructed of yellow energy slammed into Zeus from opposite directions, and more Sinestro Corps members swooped in, yellow cords lancing out from their rings and binding the arms and legs of the Sky King. Wonder Woman looked on in disgust as the aliens defied her deity, tying him to massive energy stakes that they drove through the New York City asphalt and deep into the earth. Zeus was forced to kneel on both knees, hunched over and tied so that he could not move his body. The cords around him became massive chains and separated from the rings that generated them, locking the god in place. Wonder Woman could feel the chains radiating fear—and in horror she realized that it was Zeus' own fear—fear that he was going mad, that his kingship was coming to and end.
Fear of mortals.
Wonder Woman landed in front of him, looking up at Zeus in anger and shame and pity. Sinestro landed beside her, a satisfied smile across his face.
"You will leave Paradise Island alone," Wonder Woman said. "Or I will personally make you pay."
"Of course," Sinestro said. He raised his ring and it flashed. Diana looked up to see the other members of the Sinestro Corps turn and surround their leader. They raised their rings.. and suddenly Diana realized that the aliens were surrounding her.
Beams of energy lanced out, slamming into Diana and knocking her back into a fire hydrant, which broke apart and began spewing water into the air. More beams shot through the spray of water, wrapping around Diana's arms and legs and pulling her close, binding her arms behind her back and binding her feet together.
"By the way," Sinestro said, "As the new ruler of planet Earth, I'm setting up a new policy—no superhuman presence will be tolerated. The Sinestro Corps are the new rulers and peace keepers of planet Earth. You, Princess, are unnecessary."
"Go to Tartarus," Diana spat.
Sinestro turned to a nearby Thanagarian Sinestro Corps member. "Take her to the command center," he said. "She will be a useful negotiation tool."
A nearby Daxamite laughed silently and licked his lips."I can think of a few other uses for her as well."
Sinestro said nothing, and the Thanagarian took off, Diana in tow.
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Post by arcalian on Sept 16, 2009 0:30:02 GMT -5
Superman scratched at his chin, a day of stubble making his face rough. Heat vision beams lanced out of his eyes, burning new notes and formulae into the floor of his cell. Across the room, he could hear the heartbeat of his father, inconsistent and slow without his medication. Every beat made Superman's own heart pause with the fear that it could be Jonathan Kent's last.
Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and Perry White were all breathing steadily, asleep. Perry wasn't young, but he was as healthy as the proverbial ox. Lois and Jimmy had managed to put on a brave face, but the silence was getting to them. More than once they'd told Clark that he was free to go, that their lives were useless compared to the lives Superman could save.
But Superman sat. Resolute. Unmoving.
A presence first pricked at Kal-El's senses, and then a voice.
"Incredible," it said. "The Man of Steel reduced to this."
Superman looked up and stared into the eyes of his arch enemy, wondering if he were hallucinating—or whether it was a trick from Darkseid.
"I assure you," Lex Luthor said, "I'm quite real."
Luthor stood on the other side of the field that kept Superman in only through the consequences of breaking it, and then he stepped through, the field apparently not even giving Luthor's presence a notice. Superman scanned Luthor with his more exotic forms of vision.
"You're an illusion," Superman said. "I can't see you in any electromagnetic spectrum except the visible one."
"You can't see me in that spectrum either," Luthor said, stepping closer to Superman. "I'm only in your mind's eye. You see three years ago I succeeded in my goal of taking revenge against Darkseid, but at a small cost. Trivial, in the grand scheme of things, but a useful commodity nonetheless: my body."
"You're a ghost?"
"In a manner of speaking." Luthor turned his back to Superman, only acknowledging him with the occasional glance over his shoulder. "I'm the disembodied sum of all of Luthor's thoughts and experiences, given coherence and form through the esoteric secrets that I learned beyond the Source Wall. I exist on a level that you can't really comprehend, Superman. I am a god without a physical form."
"What's your game, Luthor!?" Superman growled. "Why did you come here? To gloat about how you've managed to cheat death?"
"I've come to make you an offer," Luthor said. "To strike a deal. I'll get you and your loved ones out of this trap in exchange for a favor."
"What favor?" Superman arched an eyebrow.
"Not important now. Listen." Luthor indicated towards the cell where Superman's parents were held.
Superman gasped, ice-cold horror filling his chest. His father's heartbeat had stopped. He looked over to see Johnathan and Martha sitting up, not moving in the slightest. Superman blinked, and then realized that he couldn't hear his mother's heartbeat either, nor those of anyone else. Anyone but his own.
"The flow of time," said Luthor, "is easily restricted when one knows where gate control is."
Superman stood up. "Alright, Luthor. I'll help you..." Kal immediately felt as though he would regret those words.
"Excellent. Now look into my eyes. I have a gift for you like I had a gift for Darkseid. I gave him the Anti-Life Equation. Now you get to see its opposite."
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Post by arcalian on Sept 16, 2009 0:30:37 GMT -5
When Batman had gathered his strike team along with Booster Gold, Skeets, and Robin, in the main chamber of Cronus' head, he asked for a rundown of what had happened. When Robin gave Batman the rundown of his confrontation with Ra's al Ghul, Batman's eyes narrowed, his mouth become a thin slit locked into an immutable frown.
"He's dead, then?" Batman said.
Robin nodded, offering no apology nor explanation.
"Batman, stop," Black Lightning said, raising a hand in caution. "we make tough calls in the field. Ra's would have killed him."
"Robin knows better," Batman growled. "He's out of control."
"What?!" Booster Gold blurted. "How on Earth can you possibly say that? He beat the big villain. The war is over. He probably saved countless lives. Robin should be laud—"
"Batman is angry," Robin interrupted, "because this is the second time I've had to finish off a villain he should have put down years ago."
Black Lightning, Fire, and Ice all turned and looked at Robin quizzically.
"I guess he never told you," said Robin. "Four years ago, the Joker captured me, tortured me, and tried to turn me into his own sidekick. And then he did something stupid. He gave me a gun and told me to kill Bruce. I shot the Joker instead."
Robin lowered his head, not wanting to see the reactions of the others.
"Batman thinks I'm out of control because of what happened afterwards. The fact that I killed the Joker still haunts me to this day. Ra's death won't haunt me for five minutes, because I did what I did four years ago to take revenge. But after I recovered my sanity, I realized that sometimes, lethal force is the only way."
"That's not true!" snarled Batman. "There's always another way. Killing is the easy way out."
"Wake up, Batman!" Tim stepped forward. "Ra's has murdered millions of people—far more than the Joker ever managed. You think for a minute he wouldn't try this again if he got away? The world is in shambles, there's no way to put him on trial. I made a call and we can't fix it now."
"Friends and citizens," announced Skeets. "I do believe it is time we got off this scrap heap before it crashes into the Earth's atmosphere and burns up. All in favor?"
"Aye!"chimed in Fire and Ice.
"One problem," said J'onn J'onnz. "The Javelin was lost to space when Cronus broke apart. We have no way off."
"Yes we do. Raven planned ahead." Robin stepped towards Batman and pulled out his birdarang.
"Robin?" Bruce arched an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"
"I need to cut the symbol off your shirt."
Robin did so, and tossed the bat symbol on the floor. He knelt down beside it and said, "Abra puerta!"
The symbol glowed, and a golden beam of energy shot up out of it, stopping halfway to the ceiling. Robin reached out and stuck his hand into the column of energy and it spread over his body, encompassing him and turning his form into a silhouette, which broke up and slid into the symbol, vanishing. The others followed suit, warping through the portal.
Seconds later they flew out of the Bat Signal, skidding to a halt in front of the young blue-cloaked half-demon Raven and the sorcerer Jason Blood.
"Robin!" Raven cried, rushing forward and wrapping him in a tight hug. "Think you were gone long enough?"
Robin looked up in the distance, over Raven's shoulder, to see dozens of points of light in the sky, energy blasting between them. A battle? But...
"Things haven't improved much since the Titans were destroyed," Jason Blood said, stepping forward and shaking Batman's hand. "Almost as soon as they ceased their attack, a group of Green Lantern-wannabes calling themselves the Sinestro Corps descended on the planet. Dr. Fate went to hold them off long enough for us to get to safety."
Black Lightning arched an eyebrow. "Safety?"
"Heroes all over the world have proven unable to defeat them. Superman is still missing, and reports say that Wonder Woman was captured earlier today." Blood frowned. "Where is Talia al Ghul?"
Batman turned. Talia wasn't with them. And Batman, usually the observant one, was not sure if she had disappeared after returning to Earth—or if she had never returned from Cronus in the first place.
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Post by arcalian on Sept 16, 2009 0:30:56 GMT -5
To be Continued!!!!Please follow this link and tell us what you thought of this issue! [/b]
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