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Post by HoM on Jun 4, 2008 6:10:15 GMT -5
Prologue. The Black Sun came at dawn. Some announced it as the second coming, but the second coming of what? The world was on high alert. The superheroes rallied around the Justice League; the Justice Society of America stood by their side, and the Titans beside them. The Outsiders, new and old, were ready for anything, and those unaffiliated with anyone else looked to Superman for guidance. The Sun, once a glowing beacon of hope, had been tainted by this new horrendous entity that had scorched across the universe. The end of the world followed soon after. The Black Sun was not a natural event, but a mystical one. The thin divide between reality and unreality snapped, and the ley lines across the world warped and whipped together. Tectonic plates shattered, cracked, sent continents drowning into nothingness. Themyscira, long unprotected by the old charms placed upon it by the dead Greek pantheon, was torn asunder from its mystical moorings, and collided with the Americas, right atop New York city. Millions died, Amazon and American alike. Superman was the first superhero to fall. His Kryptonian super-cells were affected by the Black Sun radiation and became bloated, surging with power. He died quickly, as did those around him. He became a living weapon, scathing solar radiation scouring a crater that burned the flesh off the bones of those around him. Metropolis fell. The year was 2013 when the planet Earth fell. The end of the world was quick. |
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Post by HoM on Jun 4, 2008 6:10:48 GMT -5
I. The cape was wrapped tightly around her body, and bits and pieces jangled and clanked around her waist. Her head was covered by the cape, looped into a hood, and her eyes bore forwards. The Sun hadn’t risen yet. She would be safe, she assumed, for nearly an hour before it rose up. She’d been searching for supplies, but they had nearly butchered what was left of anything in this world. On her back she carried water. She’d been able to find a water main that’d been separated from the pipes that they had discovered and drained. The water was stagnant, but she could refine it, she hoped, and besides, stale water was better than no water. She had filled bottles, sealed the main back up, and hoped to return tomorrow night. Hopefully they[/i] wouldn’t come across it. She could hear them, miles away, howling and chattering. She dismissed the thought of confronting them and cutting down their immense numbers, and instead trudged onwards. The ground beneath her sandled feet was scorched old concrete covered in dust and debris. She paused for a moment, the cool breeze of the night air a brief reminder of what life used to be like before the Black Sun. She stood tall, surveyed the land, and took a bottle of water from her back. She removed the top and took a short sip, and then hesitated. Her ears piqued up. She heard something. She looked around, and tried to get a fix. Her hand went to her waist on instinct, her fingers moving past her sword, her axe, her pick, and finding the golden lasso she wore with pride. As soon as she touched it, everything but what she wanted to hear was cut out from around her. The eerie night air fell silent. The howls in the distance of them[/i] were cut short. She could hear-- human voices. Real, human voices. She looked around in a hurry, found a sewer grating that was barely covered by the sand and debris, and pushed the massive concrete block atop it clear. She opened it up, and removed her supplies, placing them inside for safekeeping. She covered it back up, fully acknowledging the fact that these might not be pure-humans anymore. The Black Sun had taken to changing the people of the world. Twisting their flesh, their souls, their minds. She looked at where she placed her belongings, and then took a deep breath. And then, like a shot, she flew across the sands, toward her quarry. She didn’t like flying at night. Not that it was dangerous, not that the Black Sun would find her, track her down, kill her. The Black Sun was just a weapon. A signal call. But when she flew at night, the dread crept up upon her, and she didn’t like that. She was an Amazon, trained in war, trained to fight. Amazons should never feel fear, and if they do, they should channel that into the fight. There was no fight here. No big battle. Only survival. She heard, even over the shriek of the winds, what was happening. She prayed she got their in time. “What do you think you’re doing?” screamed a woman, dressed in old clothes, patched together trousers, worn shoes. On her back was a white cape, not because she was a superhero, but because it was the only thing she could find that would protect her from the Black Sun. “You said you’d help us get to safety!” “Sssafety,” hissed a man, or was it a man? It could be one of them, misshapen, mutated. His tongue flickered as he spoke. “There isss no sssafety anymore!” He struck her, the blow like an echo across the desert plains. “I am tired and I am hungry and you are doing me a might fine favor carrying my sssupplies!” He slithered over to her, his body twisting and contorting, and his large mouth opening wider than humanly possible. As the traveller hurtled toward this malformed creation, she knew that this was not one of them[/i]. She lowered her fists, clenched them together, and as she came within inches of the underneath of his face, swung upwards, slamming his reptilian mouth shut and sending him flying into the sands. “ Copperhead! Of all the people to survive the Black Sun, you had to be one of them?” Copperhead looked up, his snake eyes wide. “ Wonder Woman[/i]!” He leapt to the offensive, and dove straight for her jugular. She deflected him with ease, her armored wrist colliding with his skull with an almighty THUD. He fell to the ground, slipping into unconsciousness. She turned to the travellers, a small group of them, a woman and two children, both carrying more than they could bear. “Are you alright?” “Is it true?” asked one of the children, approaching her slowly. “Is what true?” she asked, as she knelt down to her. “Are you Wonder Woman?” She smiled solemnly, and pulled back her cape, revealing the golden W insignia emblazed across her chest. “Yes.” |
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Post by HoM on Jun 4, 2008 6:11:14 GMT -5
II. There was no safety. Copperhead had been right in that regard. Wonder Woman first flew the three survivors to her home, the ruined palace of Themyscira, and then, with scant minutes before sunrise collected the water supplies she had been searching for all night. She heaved the debris away from the sewer grate, constantly aware of the sense of being watched at her back. The Black Sun was rising. She had to hurry. She collected the supplies, and jetted across the deserted cityscape. She reached the royal palace with mere moments, and then sealed the door behind her, the creeping darkness blistering at the entrance. “Free me.”When the island had been torn from its mystic moorings off the coast of Greece, it had landed squarely atop Manhattan, and thousands had died in the aftermath. She led the trio down into the catacombs beneath the city, and it was there where they were met by a dozen or so others. They were inside what appeared to be a theatre, large pillars propping up the roof, and illumination provided by globes of floating light. “W-what is this?” asked the mother of the children. “The Black Sun makes travel… difficult,” admitted Wonder Woman, as she lowered her collection of water bottles down beside her, and began to hand them out. “What is left of the oceans are full of… Things. I once tried to reach England, and…” She pushed her cape back from her shoulder, revealing a black discolouration to her skin, a burn that had not healed-- ever. “I gather survivors where I find them. This is the last outpost of humanity in America.” “Are there not… Any more?” Wonder Woman opened a bottle and passed it to the woman. “Drink this. None that I have found. But I hold out hope. I found you, didn’t I?” “No, I mean… Heroes?” Wonder Woman shook her head. “Some. But they cannot help.” The woman didn’t want to touch that last sentence uttered by the hero. “My husband was in Metropolis when Superman died… I miss him. Both of them. But…” “Yes,” Wonder Woman placed her hand on the woman’s shoulder. “I understand.” She looked around. “So. You’re new here. There are rooms in the left wing. They’re not much, but we’re living in the end of the world. You do not go into the right wing. You just don’t. Supplies are straight forward, but we ration everything.” She sighed. “We can’t afford to waste what we have.” The mother looked at her, concern in her eyes. “What about outside? We’re supposed to live underground for the rest of our lives? Like Morlocks or something?” Wonder Woman chuckled. “You can go outside, but they are out there. If you want to go up, ask me, but we only leave this place at night. When the Black Sun has gone down. And even then, for your own safety, you can’t stay out.” The mother nodded. “Wondy! Wondy!” Wonder Woman turned as a man and a woman approached her, their clothes dirty, their eyes frantic. “We need to talk to you.” With that they span back around and descended into the halls to the right. “Okay, I’ll be around. Make yourself at home, the others will help.” She smiled, and then turned to the mother. “You can trust them.” “Thank you, Wonder Woman.” “It’s my pleasure… Well. I’m now quite embarrassed, I never asked your name.” “Donna. My name’s Donna.” Wonder Woman laughed inwardly. “Well. What do you know, that’s my name too.” |
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Post by HoM on Jun 4, 2008 6:11:33 GMT -5
III. Ping Ping! The square piece of technology he was fawning over had suddenly sparked to life, and he was ecstatic. His spare time, filled with tinkering with this slab of sentient circuitry (or so the salvaged Justice League files had told him), had not been a waste. Ecstatic didn’t come near to describing his elation. His sister, on the other hand, not so much. She looked at the print outs she had just made, and then looked up at him in disgust. “Can you turn that thing off?” “Turn it off, I just got it working! It’s a piece of genius technology! I can’t wait to--” “Shut up, she’s coming! And you’ve not even started to--” “Wendy, get off!” He heaved his sister away, as he combed over the machine that looked like it was made of three Ataris strapped to an iMac. It buzzed and beep, and then lights began to flash. “Yes! Okay, okay, Donna, we’ve spent the past year or so working on a scanner powerful enough to have a real look at the Black Sun, you know that…” “Yes Marv, thanks for the exposition,” replied Donna Troy, as she watched over their shoulders as they worked away. “Well we finally have something to show you. With the tech you brought back from the Hall of Justice--” Donna nodded in remembrance. She was searching for survivors in Washington. Hoping, praying, that one of her old friends in the superhero business had fallen back to what was left of the Hall. She’d found nothing but memories. After spending the day there, as the Sun rose like agonising clockwork, she had brought back what she could, and that, she was assuming, was why she was here now. “--We’ve jury rigged this bad boy!” He presented her the device he was working on, a wide grin on his face. “What is it?” Wendy sighed. “Marv, stop embarrassing yourself and activate the holo-projector.” Donna looked bemused. “Holo-projector? You built a holo-projector?” Marv shrugged. “It was something I’d been working on for the past few years. I was able to jury rig it into our other jury rig. I’m quite proud.” He typed into the keyboard in front of him, and a blue 3-D map of the Black Sun was projected upwards. “Here is an indepth analysis of what has been killing us all these years.” “So, break it down for me,” Donna pointed at lines that bent inward toward the centre of the globe. “What’s that?” “Gravity. We think this is where gravity goes to die. The Sun has to be a magical thing, it’s the only way it makes sense! It’s come from nowhere and caused so much havoc, and on top of that, we know it doesn’t follow the rules set out by Newton, Einstein, Caulder and Hawking. Something inside it is absorbing gravity from the world. We think, and I don’t know if you’re going to like this, we think that it isn’t really a Sun, but… a cage? A cage with all the properties of the Sun. It travelled into our solar system, absorbed our yellow sun, an act that would take an unimaginable amount of power. And now it keeps absorbing. An insatiable appetite.” “What do you mean, absorbing? As in, taking away? We’re losing gravity?” This concept was as abstract as they came to Donna, but this was the weird, terrifying, dying world they lived in, and with every punch it threw her way, she rolled with it. Gravity was being snatched from them by a giant Black Sun that had travelled through the universe and murdered their own Sun. “Isn’t that,” She shrugged. “Nevermind, what am I thinking? Carry on.” “Well after we lost the moon, things just kept falling apart. And yes. Soon gravity will cease to exist and because of the sheer speed and spin of the Earth, we will fly every which way to our doom.” Marv rubbed his temples. “And I… We …can’t think of a way to stop it. And that’s killing me.” “Us,” agreed Wendy, her hand squeezing his shoulder softly. “Killing us.” Donna studied the projection. She’d been trained by the finest in Themysciran scientists. Gravity and light went into the Black Sun, and nothing came out. Whatever was inside was trapped. “If it’s a cage, why is nothing coming out?” Marv threw his arms up in the air. “I don’t know! Maybe it needs the Earth to be at optimum conditions, y’know? Or maybe it’s trapped. There’s no key. Maybe the Earth is the key! Maybe the world will chip and flake away when gravity dies and it’ll turn into this great big key and a lock will form and whatever’s inside the Sun will come clambering out.” Donna wiped her brow. “Out from inside the void. You know what that sounds like to me?” “What?” “Lucifer.” Donna turned away from them. “It sounds like Satan.” |
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Post by HoM on Jun 4, 2008 6:12:09 GMT -5
IV. Diana had died. Donna’s sister, Wonder Woman, had died on a mission for the Gods. When the Phantom Stranger had brought her body up from the depths, she cried for days. Just… wept. And when she was all out of tears, she hardened. She found the uniform Diana had left her. She became the new Wonder Woman and vowed that she wouldn’t let anyone else go through the pain and suffering that she had. They had been kind to her on that day. She remembered being welcomed into the League, and she remembered sitting in Diana’s seat and just knowing that she would be proud. She knew. But then she had failed. First the Earth began to die. She lost two good friends to that. To save the world, two heroes had to sacrifice themselves by binding the world together. The world had to be held together, and humanity had to be held together as well. The collective consciousness of the world was crumbling and someone gave their life to bind everyone together. She still missed Raven. After that, she continued to fight to live up to the standards Diana had set. She fought hard. They faced the Planetary Conglomerate in space, saving countless worlds from their global strip-mining. She helped save the world from Darkseid, on his return from the Source Wall. She gained vengeance on her sister’s murderer. It all happened so fast. She sent Granny Goodness screaming into a Sun. And it killed her too. A bit of her died that day. Revenge was not the Themysciran way. Not at all. She handed herself over to the courts. They cleared her of all charges. Everyone stepped forward to defend her actions, even Bruce, which surprised her: “You can’t change what you did. You’ll live with it. And we’ll all be there to help.” His words helped, and at that moment she knew why Diana held this ‘mere mortal’ in such high regard. There were other fights. Wonder Man emerged from Themyscira. He hadn’t intended to be labelled such, but he wore the royal colours, he wore the insignia. He fought side by side with the League, but then, in the coming of the Black Sun he died too. “The world is dying, and I can’t do anything about it. Diana would know what to do, I think. But I’m not her. I’m not Diana.” She stared at the wall. “I know you can’t hear me. I don’t even know why I bother. But I need help. Dick would give me a supporting moral lesson that would be punctuated with a punch to the Riddler’s face or something. But he’s not here. Or Wally. Or Roy. Roy. God, I miss everyone.” She wiped where the tears should have been pouring from her eyes, but none came. The ache was there, but she couldn’t cry. She hadn’t cried. For years. “ I… Can feel… What’s… Happening…” She looked up. “Ronnie?” This was what was contained in the right wing. The chamber that lead down the stairwell that lead down into the middle of the Earth. This is where she came to meditate. Gaea had vanished from the pantheon atop Mt. Olympus, and with that act, the spirit of Earth began to wither. Diana would have found a way to save the world without the death of two of Donna’s friends. Ronnie had ascended that day. Somehow, miraculously, he separated from Martin Stein, and then, when all seemed lost, he became the world. More than the Nuclear Man, more like an elemental; more than a matter rearranger, more like a god… He had entered the core of the world, and taken Gaea’s seat as the spirit of the world. He held the world together, and with Raven’s help, as she spread her soul self across the width and breadth of the world, as her being shattered and rained down, the planet Earth survived. “ The… Sun… Full of hatred….” Cave Carson’s daughter, following in her fathers footsteps, had found the wall. The wall that contained Firestorm’s being, his body part of the stone. They’d brought it to the surface. Donna had found the slab, inaminate in Carson’s New York lab, and brought it here. Ronnie had never spoken, but she couldn’t leave him out there for them to find. Who knew what would have happened. “You know?” Ronnie’s face jutted out from the stone. He was like a statue, encased in the rock. “ Time… Waits…” “What?” He looked at her, with pale, granite eyes. “ You must… Stop it… Before… He… Awakens…” “He? Who?” “ He… Who sees… Everything… He who… Sees… The end… Because… He brings… It…” “Who is he?” Donna pressed her hands on the stone, looking directly at Ronnie’s eyes. “Who is he? What does he want?” “ …The past…” And with that he fell silent. “Ronnie? Ronnie?” She grit her teeth. “Dammit, who is he? Who?” There came no reply. “The Sun. The Sun has caused all this.” She looked behind her, where dozens of the finest weapons that had ever been forged across two universes and three realities were mounted. “I’m going to have to kill a Sun.” |
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Post by HoM on Jun 4, 2008 6:12:36 GMT -5
V. Copperhead came to inside a darkened place, and his eyes took a moment to adjust. “What isss thisss?” He slithered upward, rubbing his jaw, and then realised he was inside one of the many buildings that had been rendered underground in 2013. Wonder Woman had dragged him to safety from the Black Sun overhead. Her mistake. “Sssily bi--” The noise made him freeze. “Hello?” A shaft of light pierced the darkness above him. He flinched backwards. “Free me.”“Huh?” The light seemed to talk to him. He’d never been caught out like this before. He looked around. He could retreat deeper into the building maybe. To safety. “Free me.”The light whispered. He covered his ears. “I can’t hear you. You’re not real.” He heard a scuffling above him. Something was coming. “Oh, Jesssusss…” The roof caved inwards, but the reptilian villain was quick enough to dodge it. “Your God--” barked a voice, “--is dead.” Figures began to drop down from up above, in the light, they were so bright, Copperhead couldn’t make out their features. When he had seen survivors exposed to the light, to the heat up above, they burned away, until nothing but bleached bones were left. They emerged from the light, horrific smiles upon their faces. “Long live the Circle.” “Get away you basstardsss!” He hissed and snarled, but more and more of them dropped through the hole in the ceiling, their teeth filed away into fangs, their lips gone, nothing but teeth and more teeth. Their skin was horrendous, infected and scarred, and their hands… They clawed at him. He looked around. He was really trapped. Him, the ultimate survivor, without a rock left to climb under. “Free me.”“What?” Donna Troy woke with a start. She needed to sleep as much as she could in the day. Besides, what was she going to do? Venture outside? Her arm ached. The wound gained at the coast would never heal, she had thought, and a further inspection by Marv, who claimed to hold a medical license, seemed to reinforce her beliefs. “That damned voice…” She shook her head. That dream had been so vivid. She would have to check on Copperhead in the evening. But she had a feeling… He would be gone. There came a knock at her door, and she quickly pulled on her robes. Now was not the time for her costume. “Who is it?” “Depends on what you mean,” sighed Donna. “Sure, come in.” “You know those motion sensors you set up in the Hall? The ones Marv built for you?” “Sure, what of them?” “Well, keep in mind that it could be a malfunction, but… well… they’re going off.” Donna looked at her with surprise. “What?!” “I know, right? If we had a link up to the Hall then we could access the security cameras, but as it stands, no, we don’t. It could be nothing, you know?” “But it could be something. It could be them[/b]. It could be survivors. Damn. How long till nightfall?” Wendy checked her watch. “The Sun’s probably down now, if it isn’t loitering..” “Sounds like now is time for my costume then.” She looked at her hands. “Right. Okay. Could you do me a favour and get my axe? I’m feeling like the axe today.” “Doable. Meet you upside in a few?” “Indeed, Wendy. Thanks.” Donna kissed her on the cheek, and shut the door on her way out. She leant against it for a moment, thinking. “Survivors. It could be survivors.” She grinned, but then thought better of it. “Or not. Damn.” She dressed in a rush, pulling on the costume that Diana had given her before she had left for the underworld. It wasn’t as clean as it had been, but the WW-insigna still blazed across her chest, and the armour still protected her. She pulled her blue cape from where it hung, and tied it in a hood over her head. She would get to Washington in a few hours if she flew carefully. She didn’t want to attract the attention of any of the packs. She looked at her wound, and sighed, tear a strip from her cape and wrapping it around. She didn’t want it reminding her right now. |
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Post by HoM on Jun 4, 2008 6:12:54 GMT -5
VI. She flew below the clouds. She had kicked it up a notch, a sense of urgency nagging at her back. She didn’t want survivors to move on, she needed… something. Hope. A strand of hope. Right now, she was well aware that a trap was probably in store for her. But Wendy and Marv knew what to do if she didn’t come back. The others would be protected. They’d live out their lives just as they shouldn’t, but it’d be a life none the less. At least until the world crumbled inwards as gravity ceased to exist. She arrived in Washington for the first time in months, and was welcomed by the same, dead surroundings. The city was mostly covered in sand. Buildings had vanished underneath the dunes. The Hall though, that peaked out just up above the sands, and the tunnel that Donna had dug then covered was still there. She pulled up the metal sheet that protected the tunnel, and climbed down inside, until she reached the doors that led inside. They were open. “ Damn.” She clutched her axe tightly; her lasso tied to her left wrist, the strands taut against her gauntlet, and proceeded to move into the Hall. She didn’t want to announce her presence to them if it was in fact them. She couldn’t risk it. So she crept forward; instead of walking, floating an inch off the floor, her approach ever silent. She sniffed the air. She couldn’t smell them, but she didn’t know, she could never be sure… She had set up the motion sensors in the lower catacombs, near the vault which stored all the weapons and trophies collected by the League over the years. So she headed downwards, down staircases, down corridors, until she reached her goal. She sniffed again. Nothing. She pushed open the door leading inside, and was met by a strange sight. “…Wonder Woman…” Donna dropped her axe. “Oh… My God.” |
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Post by HoM on Jun 4, 2008 6:13:18 GMT -5
VII. He looked older than she had ever thought possible. He was emaciated, his clothes loose on his body, his once youthful physique rendered old and decrepit. His bluer-than-blue eyes still shone, his shoes were just as worn down at the heels, and his voice… “… Or shall I call you Donna?” She looked him up and down, taking him in. It felt like it was him. So grandiose and epic in being. But this world had cracked open, reality and unreality were bleeding together. She unravelled her lasso, and handed it to him. “I need… I need to be sure…Are you the Phantom Stranger?” He held the lasso tightly. “Who else could I be?” She looked at him, and he nodded. “Yes. I am the Phantom Stranger.” She crumbled. “Oh, thank God…” She took the lasso back, wrapped it around and reattached it to her belt. “We thought we lost you in the final battle against Zor--” He shook his head. He was leaning back in a chair that faced the door. He always had a flare for the dramatic. “You thought correct, child, I was lost. When the binding spell was put into effect, I was trapped between the folds in reality. Thrown down into the netherways beneath this world. But now, as they say, once I was lost, now I am found. It took a millennia, but I am here.” “A millennia? It’s been ten years…” The Phantom Stranger took a deep, raggedy breath. “You’ve never been down the netherways, have you, Donna?” “No, I haven’t Stranger.” He made her feel like a child. She shook her head, so many thoughts rushing through her mind. “Why are you here, now?” “I know why the world died, Donna. I know what the Black Sun holds within itself. I know how to end this. I cannot sit back idly now and let this world continue to die. Billions dead because of one act…” Donna looked at him. “D-Diana?” He nodded, and stood up, physically changing as he did so. Flesh seemingly funnelled onto bones, and he began to look like the old Phantom Stranger she used to know. “Diana died, and so did the dominoes fall.” “I knew it,” sighed Donna, dropping against the wall behind her and shrinking to the floor. “I knew I could never live up to her name.” “Oh, Donna, no,” the Phantom Stranger placed his arm around her shoulder, and hugged her tightly as he sat beside her. It was a strange feeling. He’d never been this… Human? Maybe walking for a thousand years changed you. “One single act can change the lives of thousands. This wasn’t some poorly made decision on the battlefield, this wasn’t some… some… move that you couldn’t have made in her stead. It was misfortune. Random misfortune. The universe is a finely kept machine, until a piece is removed. I can help you, Donna, I can help you put that piece back into place. But there would be sacrifices on this end too.” “What do you need me to do?” “Face the Black Sun. Only it can change the world for the better.” Donna looked at the Phantom Stranger. “Are you joking?” The Phantom Stranger smiled. “I never joke.” |
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Post by HoM on Jun 4, 2008 6:14:17 GMT -5
VIII. “You need to save Diana from her fate. You need to use the power of the Black Sun and loop back into an early event in the time line.” The Phantom Stranger stood before Donna in the ‘war room’ that the twins had built to operate in. "It’s the only way.” Wonder Woman was armoring up. She needed to be prepared for battle. “How can it send me back in time?” Marv and Wendy poked their heads up from behind their computers, both of them not scared by the Phantom Stranger’s mystical presence, but thrown by it. “It’s gravity and light and energy, swirling at once. But the way in which it all goes inside the void and just… Vanishes? Well, we have a theory on that, one you’re not going to like…” Donna rolled her eyes. “Might as well get it over and done with then, Wendy…” “… You know we think the Black Sun is a cage, and that there’s something inside it. There’s another possibility we haven’t really considered… and that is if the Sun is an egg waiting to hatch. The void in the centre of the Sun doesn’t make any scientific sense, and if the gravity is being sucked up from Earth, little by little, then it makes crazy-sense that it needs the gravity for something, doesn’t it?” “But how does that help me?” “The Black Sun is cycling energy on the outer layer of its body into itself, sparking a chain reaction of chronots to be released. Time travel energy. I’m not joking, I was reading a study by Professor Terrance Hufflestodt and he supposed this whole quantum theory of time travel based around this unit of energy that altered its frequency depending on when it was detected and now I’m boring you and going off topic… Well.” Marv collected himself. “The chronots on the rim of the Black Sun aren’t entirely of now. They’re of before, and that means that the Black Sun exists anywhen.” Donna looked at her sword, and then at Marv. “Anywhen. You mean it exists as a fixed point in time? That doesn’t make any sense.” “It’s a terrible prison idea too, if you think about it. If the Sun cracks open in 10,000,000,000 AD, it opens up in 12 BC. That’s just… Not playing fair.” “Fair doesn’t factor into this creation,” Phantom Stranger paced the room. “You need to use the Sun to travel back into time.” “That’s… relatively easy.” Donna chuckled. “I wish Rip Hunter were alive.” She sheathed her sword. “But tell me this. How am I supposed to get from here to there without dying? I mean, there’s a lot of space between Earth and the Sun…” Marv smiled. “Remember when you went to Gotham on a reconnaissance mission? And you found that cave? That cave that Batman was based out of? Well you brought back a load of stuff, and I found a piece of machinery that I really liked the look of. Apparently Batman beat up a God and stole their super powered God machine, and I’ve finally got it working.” He revealed the small metal box and it immediately sparked to life. “It’s Boom Tube capable.” Ping Ping! “A Mother Box! You fixed the Mother Box!” “And that’s not all…” Wendy rummaged in her desk draw and pulled out a small box, and opened it to reveal a golden ring. “This is what’s going to help you survive in space.” “What is it?” “One of Superman’s prize possessions. Remember when the Legion of Super Heroes returned to the past? And unlocked all Superman’s memories of their adventures as teenagers?” “Vaguely…” “This is a Legion flight ring. You can fly under your own steam, but this is made of so many compounds its hard to believe. I’ve been able to figure out there’s traces of Nth metal, but beyond that… There are elements that new periodic tables are going to have to be built for.” She handed over the ring. “Forcefield. Flight. You’re on your way.” “Wow. So this is actually happening.” Donna sighed, and leant against the wall of the war room. “Ok.” She slipped the ring on, and strapped the Mother Box to her arm. A feeling of elation washed over her. “Whoa.” “Yeah, I got that too,” grinned Marv. “I’ve looped the Mother Box’s program somehow into auto-track for it’s own energy signature. That means it’ll loop back as soon as you enter the Sun into looking for itself. Then you trigger the Boom Tube and it’ll send you into the past.” He moved his arm in a wavy line. “Chrono Tube.” “Are you serious?” “Of course I’m serious. We’re geniuses.” “I know you are, Marv,” Donna kissed the man on the cheek, and then looked to the Phantom Stranger. “And what about this place? This time line?” “It’ll cease to exist. It’ll fold back on itself as if it never happened.” Marv and Wendy looked at each other. “Eeep.” Donna paused. “And me?” “As soon as Diana is saved… You’ll fade from existence.” “Then I go. For a better world.” She looked at Wendy and Marv. “You know what to do. Make sure you’re armed always and--” THRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOMMM! The entire palace shook, and Wonder Woman immediately brought up her sword. “--What the--?!” She turned to Marv and Wendy. “Proximity sensors. See what we’ve got.” “Whatever it is, it’ll be fuzzy,” quipped Marv as he went to work. The television screens they had jury rigged to the cameras outside buzzed online. “Oh, God.” Donna looked up at the screens, the scorching sunlight showing clearly the men and women and inhuman creatures that were swarming over the Palace. “Oh, no. Them.” “You have to go now, Donna. It knows you’re coming!” The Phantom Stranger removed his coat, and hat. “Just remember to hold strong. Whatever is inside that void is there for a reason. The Mother Box will protect you.” “What about you?” “I’m going to show those things what I used to do in a past life.” The Phantom Stranger grinned, and unbuttoned his cuffs. “Go now.” |
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Post by HoM on Jun 4, 2008 6:14:48 GMT -5
IX. Wendy led the survivors down into the catacombs, as Marv did his best to reactivate the defenses from the war room, but simply found that they had burnt out from exposure to the scorching sun above them. He was swearing profusely when the Phantom Stranger emerged from the shadowed corridors, rolling up his sleeves, a look of determination across his face. “Dude, man, I thought you were getting ready to fight? Where are your guns?” The Phantom Stranger smiled, a look that caused a shiver to echo down Marv’s spine and down into his boots. “‘Son, please. I was meditating. And now I’m ready.” “But if you’re not armed--” The Phantom Stranger shook his head, and smiled, in on a joke that Marv wasn’t. “I was born to be the one true weapon of morality and righteousness. I don’t need a gun, I just need to look them in the eye." “Right, well--” CRSSSSSSSSSSSH The sound of footsteps clattering and clawing down the stairwells put the two men on edge, and as Phantom Stranger looked at Marv, and Marv looked at the Stranger, they both knew what they had to do. “Have you got a weapon?” Marv pulled something out from underneath his desk, and nodded. “Rannian laser rifle. A gift from Adam Strange for helping defeat the Elemental Giants.” “Come on.” “ Free him!” the first onslaught of mutated humans charged down the hallway, and the duo went to work. Marv was by no means a good shot but the discharge of the weapon made it so he didn’t need to be. Scores fell, but more and more came. The Phantom Stranger, on the other hand, wove beautiful, intricate webs of spells, that shot down the corridor and caused their attackers to dissolve into nothingness, and simply float away without a sound. “God these guys are ugly…” “Their humanity has been…” Phantom Stranger punched a mutant in the face so hard that it flew head first into two of his fellow un-men and they spilled across the floor, screaming. “… Stripped away. They’re not members of the human race anymore.” “And yet,” Marv pulled the trigger, striking a woman in the chest and seeing her fly back into the hordes, “that doesn’t make this any easier.” “Keep fighting. Never surrender!” The Phantom Stranger was a force of nature. His spells grew bigger and bigger each time, like he was tapping into something bigger than himself, something that kept flowing and flowing, until each enchantment was a tsunami of magical energy, striking down whoever it touched. He was like a god. Marv couldn’t help but be impressed. Even as death loomed ever closer… “What’s going on, Wendy?” The survivors looked to the genius as she lead them deeper and deeper into the depths of the palace. “Where’s Wonder Woman?” “She’s going to end this. Follow me.” The tunnels were winding, but Wendy knew where to go. The palace kept shaking, somehow the monsters up above literally rocking the complex to it’s foundations. Screams of anger and rage were nearing them. They had to hurry… “Oh, God… Come on…” “Meeeeeat!” Copperhead burst out from the ceiling, and dove down upon Wendy, who shrieked in terror as he clawed at her. “You’re not worthy of him! Not worthy of hisss grandeur!” He was uglier than ever. His reptilian skin shredded and burnt, his teeth all fangs and his eyes… Dead and black. He darted down at her shoulder, his fangs barred, but Wendy stabbed him in the side of the head with a Themysciran dagger, stopping him dead.. He looked at her, blinking with snake eyes. “God. Thank you.” He collapsed on top of her, and Wendy pushed him away. She breathed in deeply, and turned back to the survivors. “Well that was anti-climatic. Come on!” She thought of Marv, and the Stranger, prayed so hard for their survival… And kept running. |
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Post by HoM on Jun 4, 2008 6:15:09 GMT -5
X. The flight ring protected her. Even in the scorching sunlight of the Black Sun, she was protected. It even altered the composition of the forcefield it was emitting to give a feeling of cold air… Even though she knew that was impossible in the current climate of the world. The Mother Box pinged in the back of her head, but exposed to the sun light, she could hear the dead whispers of the Black Sun talking to her. “Free me…”She triggered the Boom Tube, the world shaking at the sheer force of the energy being consumed, and vanished, heading straight for the Black Sun. She shot forward out of the Boom Tube, that opened soundlessly in space, and saw the immensity of the thing before her. She prayed silently, and pushed on. “Donna Troy…”She pushed on. It knew her name. Who cared? “You don’t know yourself.”Who did, really? She pushed on, the Black Sun nearing with every second she flew through space. It would have been a beautiful moment for her, if it wasn’t for the fact she was about to fly into the middle of a Sun. “You were never one of them, were you? Never an Amazon.”Now it was just being mean. She kicked it up to eleven, and flew as fast as she could. “Raised as a princess, yet you never knew your origins, did you?”She nearly faltered. “I know all, Donna Troy. I see all. I know who you are. How were you the youngest of the immortal Amazons? Who was your father? I know this…”“I don’t care.” She flew into the centre of the Black Sun, and despair washed over her. The Mother Box began to Ping Ping Ping, blocking out the whispering voice of the enormity, and hope began to seep into her. The Sun was taunting her, teasing her, trying to break her down, and in the mere seconds she was inside, it nearly won, it nearly had her, but she knew that the world needed her more than ever, she could save billions, she could save Diana, the world, the universe and then-- The Chrono-Tube triggered. On Earth, the Phantom Stranger and Marv were over run, but kept fighting. Bleeding from half a dozen wounds, Marv kept firing his rifle, the Phantom Stranger, torn to shreds, parrying over blows and taking others, the magic still a weapon, but at such close quarters, and the sheer number of their attackers? Gradually becoming useless. This was a fight they couldn’t win. And then, as spells began to wither and fade, the Stranger running on pure magic fuelled adrenaline, the attackers began to scream louder, so loud that the Phantom Stranger began to laugh. “It’s happening, Marvin! It’s happening!” Marv smiled, and fell back into the arms of the Phantom Stranger. “Guhhhhhd…” “We won!” The Phantom Stranger laughed, as he was engulfed by his attackers. “We won!” |
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Post by HoM on Jun 4, 2008 6:16:27 GMT -5
N. Her body was transformed into pure information. It was like being stretched out from the Zero Hour to the Crunch and back again, before being snapped back into a data stream of sentient thought. If she had a mouth, she would have been sick, but then this feeling of pure unadulterated happiness was injected into her by some unseen hand-- She was going to make it --Time bent around her. Lights and sounds flashed constantly, an orchestral score of creation sounding high and loud in her ears… She could have sworn that she was being pulled from one side of the universe to the other, clips of civilizations she’d never witnessed playing before her, until suddenly she was in a familiar solar system, gas giants greeted her, asteroid belts, satellites in space, a familiar hidden island not torn from it’s secret hideaway in reality and then-- She kept moving, kept being sucked down… Mother Box burnt out. Why? How was that-- She landed hard, BOOM! Her soft light information body regaining flesh, and she looked up. Granny Goodness bared down on another Wonder Woman, the sting of hypersonics just screaming offline, and Donna knew what she had to do. She threw up her shield, throwing herself between Diana and Granny Goodness, the weapon shattering on impact. Donna looked down at Diana, and grinned at Diana’s first word toward her. “ Mother?” “What is going on here?!” Donna turned to Granny, and grit her teeth. Her own voice wouldn’t come. She couldn’t say anything, her body some how out of synch with this timeframe, but she could still act. Granny pulled another weapon from behind her back but Donna brought down her sword, severing hand from wrist, the gun falling helplessly to the floor. “What…?!” Granny lost all composure as she screamed, black bilious blood splurting out from the stump. “MY HAND!” Donna pushed on, slicing at Granny, pushing her back. Granny was a god, but at this moment in time? So was Donna. Granny screamed as the blade sliced across her face. Parademons looked up, blanked eyed as the scenario unravelled. Ares, suddenly finding his opposition motionless in fascination at this brutal battle, slaughtered them within seconds, before standing and grinning as he saw what was happening. Wonder Woman, his Wonder Woman, was standing, watching, and now, so was he. “That’s more like it.” “Stop it! Stop it stop it stop it!” Granny grabbed her Mother Box, pressed a button, and slapped it back on her arm. “Fine fine fine!” A Boom Tube was triggered and she fell back, clutching at her horrendously ravaged face with her only hand, and then reality sealed shut. Donna took a breath, but immediately felt her body lose something. “Mother!” Diana approached her, tried to touch her, but her hand passed through her like Donna was a ghost. “Wait… No… You’re not…” Diana’s eyes tried to focus on the fading woman before her. Donna felt a weight on her arm, her Mother Box sparking, seemingly solid. How was this possible? God machine, was the half answer she formed in her head. She tried to remove it, fingers passing through it like they were smoke. She concentrated, for a flash, for a second, becoming solid, and she placed it in the open hands of Diana, who looked at it. “What does this… Oh. Gods.” Did she know? Donna couldn’t even begin to think. She was being rewritten. She was out of this story. “You saved me…” Donna couldn’t say anything. Tears streamed down her face, and she nodded slowly, before simply ceasing to exist. “Hera.” “Your mother always did have a flair for the dramatic, Diana.” Ares grinned, and kicked the carcass of a Parademon away from his path. “This day is won!” he clenched his fists. “Yet I don’t feel my rightful power being returned to me. Hmm, I do believe a journey to Mt. Olympus is--” He turned to Diana, who was slowly walking away from him. He fell silent for a moment, and then grinned. “You fought well, Amazon! It was a pleasure fighting side-by-side.” She didn’t turn back to him. She began to ascend toward the world above. “Donna,” she whispered to herself. “Donna.” End.
Wonder Woman
Issue Twenty-Five.
“Era”
Written by House Of Mystery
Cover by Ramon Villalobos
Edited by Don Walsh |
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Post by HoM on Jun 4, 2008 6:18:47 GMT -5
If you wish to comment on this issue, please CLICK HERE to visit the letters page. |
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