Post by HoM on Jun 28, 2017 7:24:21 GMT -5
Previously, in JUSTICE LEAGUE…
The new FIRESTORM is having one hell of a bad first day on the job. Within an hour of getting the call, every body of water across the globe lost its buoyancy, leading to a worldwide catastrophe the likes of which the Justice League have never experienced!
Meanwhile, the team of BIG BARDA, CYBORG, MAJESTIC and MISTER MIRACLE joined Earth’s second GREEN LANTERN-- former astronaut HANK HENSHAW-- out of communication range at the edge of the solar system, as they investigated a mysterious phenomenon, namely the corpse of a god that floated toward Earth! And if that wasn’t bad enough, a horde of carrion beasts, dedicated to devouring celestial flesh, revealed themselves and made a beeline straight toward them!
And finally, beneath the waves themselves, the cause of the planet-wide drowning revealed itself, as AQUAMAN was held prisoner by his mad brother-- the OCEAN MASTER-- who unearthed every weapon of mass destruction the people of Atlantis ever built, and is planning on utilising them to bring the surface world to its knees!
With all this in mind, please join us now for the continuing adventures of the JUSTICE LEAGUE--
Cyborg had a lot to take in. They’d come this far out into space because of some mysterious shape that had revealed itself, upon closer inspection, to be the corpse of a god. That little titbit came thanks to Big Barda and Mister Miracle, who claimed to recognise the celestial when they saw it.
Compounding the amount of information he was currently processing, from the folds of this dead god’s clothing-- miles long and thick and textured-- emerged a horde of ink-black, armoured creatures, with razor sharp claws and mouths intelligently designed to devour. Jaws hinged, teeth like chainsaw bits and in countless rows, stomachs distended and long so as to contain as much meat as possible.
Barda had identified them as the Throshti, servants of a being known as the Klathyr, some kind of entity that was worshipped as the God of Carrion. Theologies piled onto theologies as Cyborg shifted his internal matrices, careful not to displace the armaments designed to keep him alive in space, and readied himself for war.
Instead of his usual white noise weaponry, larger force cannons asserted themselves over his arms, and he felt his digits fold into the appropriate panels inside his limb casings. Sound would do no good in a vacuum, not even compacted, concentrated bursts of it, but the force cannon could shunt anyone away and the lack of gravity would do the rest.
{Okay, Barda, you’re the closest thing we have to a God of War here, so what’s your strategy? What’s the battle plan?} he asked.
Barda smirked as she cast a glance in her teammate’s direction. {I’m not a God of War, I’m the New God of Defiance. But I see your meaning… we push them back to the other side of the corpse’s landscape. Then Green Lantern can drive the entire body back out of the solar system.}
{A casual suggestion,} said Green Lantern.
Cyborg thought he heard a tone of incredulity in Hank Henshaw’s voice when he spoke. He knew that the Green Lantern had run with Big Barda before, back in his two minutes as part of the Justice League, but there was no relationship there, no rapport evident from the mission logs. There was a note that Henshaw got on well with Wonder Woman, but when had they last spoken? It couldn’t have been since he returned from the dead.
{I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t think you could do it. I know John has the will… do you?}
Henshaw grit his teeth and his ring flared as his immense ocean of will began to spill into the parts of his brain that made his weapon work. {Try me.}
{Then on my mark we move. Ready…}
{If she’s the New God of Defiance, what does that make you? New God of Escape?} asked Cyborg, looking at Mister Miracle.
A familiar expression of levity twisted Scott Free’s features beneath his mask. He was smiling, as was his way, and he shrugged nonchalantly. {What else could I be?}
{Enough talk, go— now--!} roared Big Barda, and the group made their move--!
Issue Sixty-Five: “Surface Tension”
The new FIRESTORM is having one hell of a bad first day on the job. Within an hour of getting the call, every body of water across the globe lost its buoyancy, leading to a worldwide catastrophe the likes of which the Justice League have never experienced!
Meanwhile, the team of BIG BARDA, CYBORG, MAJESTIC and MISTER MIRACLE joined Earth’s second GREEN LANTERN-- former astronaut HANK HENSHAW-- out of communication range at the edge of the solar system, as they investigated a mysterious phenomenon, namely the corpse of a god that floated toward Earth! And if that wasn’t bad enough, a horde of carrion beasts, dedicated to devouring celestial flesh, revealed themselves and made a beeline straight toward them!
And finally, beneath the waves themselves, the cause of the planet-wide drowning revealed itself, as AQUAMAN was held prisoner by his mad brother-- the OCEAN MASTER-- who unearthed every weapon of mass destruction the people of Atlantis ever built, and is planning on utilising them to bring the surface world to its knees!
With all this in mind, please join us now for the continuing adventures of the JUSTICE LEAGUE--
Cyborg had a lot to take in. They’d come this far out into space because of some mysterious shape that had revealed itself, upon closer inspection, to be the corpse of a god. That little titbit came thanks to Big Barda and Mister Miracle, who claimed to recognise the celestial when they saw it.
Compounding the amount of information he was currently processing, from the folds of this dead god’s clothing-- miles long and thick and textured-- emerged a horde of ink-black, armoured creatures, with razor sharp claws and mouths intelligently designed to devour. Jaws hinged, teeth like chainsaw bits and in countless rows, stomachs distended and long so as to contain as much meat as possible.
Barda had identified them as the Throshti, servants of a being known as the Klathyr, some kind of entity that was worshipped as the God of Carrion. Theologies piled onto theologies as Cyborg shifted his internal matrices, careful not to displace the armaments designed to keep him alive in space, and readied himself for war.
Instead of his usual white noise weaponry, larger force cannons asserted themselves over his arms, and he felt his digits fold into the appropriate panels inside his limb casings. Sound would do no good in a vacuum, not even compacted, concentrated bursts of it, but the force cannon could shunt anyone away and the lack of gravity would do the rest.
{Okay, Barda, you’re the closest thing we have to a God of War here, so what’s your strategy? What’s the battle plan?} he asked.
Barda smirked as she cast a glance in her teammate’s direction. {I’m not a God of War, I’m the New God of Defiance. But I see your meaning… we push them back to the other side of the corpse’s landscape. Then Green Lantern can drive the entire body back out of the solar system.}
{A casual suggestion,} said Green Lantern.
Cyborg thought he heard a tone of incredulity in Hank Henshaw’s voice when he spoke. He knew that the Green Lantern had run with Big Barda before, back in his two minutes as part of the Justice League, but there was no relationship there, no rapport evident from the mission logs. There was a note that Henshaw got on well with Wonder Woman, but when had they last spoken? It couldn’t have been since he returned from the dead.
{I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t think you could do it. I know John has the will… do you?}
Henshaw grit his teeth and his ring flared as his immense ocean of will began to spill into the parts of his brain that made his weapon work. {Try me.}
{Then on my mark we move. Ready…}
{If she’s the New God of Defiance, what does that make you? New God of Escape?} asked Cyborg, looking at Mister Miracle.
A familiar expression of levity twisted Scott Free’s features beneath his mask. He was smiling, as was his way, and he shrugged nonchalantly. {What else could I be?}
{Enough talk, go— now--!} roared Big Barda, and the group made their move--!
Issue Sixty-Five: “Surface Tension”
HoM / FLINCHUM / BOWERS
ELSEWHERE:
Dressed in the royal regalia that came with being the Chief Guard of the city of Atlantis, Orm Marius was a muscular, barrel-chested man, with jet-black hair that framed his sharp-featured face and complemented his goatee. His shark-skin-effect trousers were pitch black, while his shirt was purple-scaled, a grim inverse of his half-brother’s own gold and green royal uniform.
If you looked closely at his beard you might spot threads of silver amongst the pitch, but growing old was no concern of his. His life was one of duty toward the throne, to his brother the king.
To be the guardian of the capital city of the seas, her bravest warrior, meant leading her armies into the breach, no matter how big or small. Even in peace time, the life expectancy for a man in this role was not the longest.
“My Queen…”
In the royal chambers, she stood at the window that overlooked the north of the city. She wore a many-layered robe whose numerous folds drifted with the currents, but she had left her crown on the dressing table, atop the soft-coral cushioning that kept it in place.
She turned at the voice of her husband’s brother and smiled. “Please, Orm. We’re family. You needn’t ever call me that… it’s Mera, okay? Call me Mera.”
“Of course, my Queen.”
Orm bowed then, respectfully, his head down, but when he looked up there was a glint in his eye, and that smile he used to crack before things got so bad. They’d done this dance a hundred times, a thousand times, and it was their way of staying sane under the pressure of it all.
Mera had come so far, a refugee from a terrible place, and when Orm’s brother Orin-- or Arthur-- or Aquaman-- first laid eyes on her, it was true love. To Orm himself, she was a firm friend. There was never any hint or spark of romance between them, and that suited him just fine.
With the blond-haired boy who’d been raised on the surface now the king of their people, he didn’t want there to be any conflict, he just wanted… a family again. And she was a wonderful, warm presence in a place where sometimes the currents stung cold.
The two of them spent the morning swimming the streets. Mera was popular with the city’s peoples, and she enjoyed being among them. Arthur had initially respected her request to spend her constitutional alone, but after a kidnap attempt at the hands of the Sisterhood of Aipaloovik was narrowly averted, Orm volunteered to swim the streets with her to ensure her safety, even if she insisted at times, that he keep a distance, so as to not show weakness to those who might be looking to exploit her husband’s absence from the kingdom.
In Arthur’s absence, Mera attended her royal duties in the day, and as night fell, she dined with Orm, and the conversation turned to something both had rarely discussed.
“Mera… tell me of Xebel. Tell me about your home--”
“--Listen to me--!”
Orm was yanked from his memories by the grating sound of his half-brother Orin, who was still chained up in front of him. He tended to drift nowadays, he knew that. His memories were a haven, and the present day did damage to him, so if he could find some solace, some iota of calm in the storm that was his head, he would.
“--Orm, you need to stop this, you need--”
“Wh--? Hrm… even now, the world drowns. Every ship, every submersible, every body in our kingdom, sinks. The… the song that Kamchatka’s Drowning sings vibrates the molecules of every drop of water, telling them to no longer support the weight the surface world forces upon it. And yours is the hand that activated it. Yours is the left hand of doom. And what happens to the drowned souls next… yours is the left hand of damnation!”
Aquaman looked down at his hand, clamped against the device known as Kamchatka’s Drowning, held there by the arcane magicks invoked by the spells used to build it. His body was chained, the chains themselves were enchanted, and he couldn’t break them. But as he looked up, an amused expression on his face, Ocean Master took a step back, almost scared.
“…And that’s the crux of it, isn’t it?” said Orin, slowly.
SOMEWHERE IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN:
Wonder Woman descended, and only by the will of the gods, and the powers they imbued in her, was she able to travel under the waves. They’d tested the wasters-- literally-- to see what they could do in the current situation, and they found that if you tried to swim you simply couldn’t. The water wouldn’t support you. She’d heard Firestorm’s analysis and so knew that she couldn’t simply travel as she would normally in water. She had to fly, as if in the air.
The cruise liner could hold over six and a half thousand souls. A gross tonnage of two hundred and twenty-six thousand, nine hundred and sixty-three. It was one thousand, one hundred and eighty-eight feet long and right now, after wrapping her unbreakable lasso around the steel hull, Diana pressed her hands on the ship’s underbelly and began to push. Not only would she have to push it up and out of the ocean, but she couldn’t simply leave it in the water, she would have to find some safe harbour, some empty beach, to leave it. And then… and then…
The cruise liner could hold over six and a half thousand souls…
{That’s the last of the fleet currently on the water,} said Green Lantern.
The Guardian had downloaded manifests from every single shipping company in the world. He’d sent the same message to every business that operated in the sea-- we can try and save their lives, but only if you tell us who’s out there, and where their last recorded position was. Green Lantern could only scan so far, so deep, and if he knew where to look in the first place that would be the greatest help.
Governments were harder to deal with. Dozens of nuclear-enabled submarines patrolled every single hour of every single day. You would only know of their existence for a split second before the end of the world. The Justice League needed to know where they were, and it took all of James Harper’s legend to get that done.
Some countries didn’t play ball. Some wanted to deal with the situation themselves.
Some, like Russia, who ordered Red Trinity and the Rocket Red Brigade to attempt their own rescue, but their initial attempts were thwarted when the ‘scarlet’ speedsters found themselves unable to run on water. They had to be rescued and the efforts had to be restarted after getting them to dry land. The Justice League were called in soon after.
Over in Japan, Big Science Action and the Super Young Team had more success, while in the United States, the Blackhawks failed at their joint rescue efforts with the Sea Devils and had to be rescued by the Justice Society. After that, the joint chiefs gave Harper the rest of the information he requested. But how many had died in the interim?
Every hero in the world stepped up. But as Diana looked down at the bodies stuck to the deck of the liner she’d pulled from the depths, she couldn’t help but feel like they’d failed massively. Her lasso tingled, but she dismissed it. More important questions lingered.
How many had died?
The cruise liner could hold over six and a half thousand souls…
… And they’d pulled countless more from the ocean floor.
LAPUTA:
The underwater hangar used to harbour a small selection of Atlantean submersibles gifted to the Justice League by Aquaman was flooded, the portal separating the dry dock from the ocean losing cohesion too. Thankfully the doors leading to the hangar were already sealed, else Laputa would have taken on enough water to drown anyone caught unawares.
While Earth’s other Green Lantern, John Stewart, and Wonder Woman, headed out as first response, the Guardian was on the horn, coordinating as many Justice Leaguers as he could connect to in the hopes of mitigating the disaster the world was undergoing. All emergency services had been told to keep people out of the water, not to go in after those who were sinking-- because suddenly, swimming wasn’t an option either.
So, across the globe, every hero who could was searching for survivors. They had mobilised quickly, as soon as the Guardian had alerted them to the situation. It wasn’t just the oceans that had suddenly lost their buoyancy. Lakes, reservoirs, any body of water suddenly failed to adhere to the one rule water always stuck to-- you could float things on it. With that gone, the death toll could be massive.
“I take back what I said earlier,” said Hawkman.
He was testing the breathing apparatus in the emergency cabinet outside the hangar along with Firestorm, the duo preparing to go outside and investigate the scientific meltdown the ocean was experiencing.
“What’s that?” asked Firestorm.
“About picking your moment. About the world not ending yet. Whatever this is… whatever’s happening outside… the damage could be catastrophic.”
He hadn’t looked at her while he spoke, instead focusing on the device he checked over in his hands. He wore a hard expression. Impenetrable, but the way his jaw was set, the way she could see him grinding his molars as he worked, she got the jist.
Firestorm’s brow furrowed. “We’ll stop it. Undo it. Whatever we need to do, we’ll do it, right?”
Surprisingly, he smiled in response. “We always do…” But then he trailed off, resuming his checks.
Lorraine was astounded to discover she didn’t need to breathe when fused as part of Firestorm. She discovered this when she picked up a breathing apparatus from the selection in the underwater hanger at the base of the island headquarters, and Martin Stein’s voice filled her head. {There’s no need for that, Lorraine.}
She put down the apparatus. “Oh? Is that right?”
{Correct! As Firestorm, we are more elemental than human. The science behind the matrix is fascinating…}
“What’s that? What’s right?” asked Katar, looking over to Firestorm as he began to latch the breathing apparatus around his mask.
“Sorry, it’s the Professor,” said Firestorm.
“Ah.”
{Don’t you think it’s fascinating, though? This whole situation? With the molecular cohesion of the ocean gone, nothing floats. It took an immense display of strength from the Justice League to breach the surface-- what hope do civilians have to do the same? We need to act fast. We need to get out there.}
“I know, Professor. Hawkman has a plan.”
A mismatched pairing to say the least, Firestorm and Hawkman made sure they were ready, then put them their plan into action. This involved sealing bulkheads on either side of them so that they were in a smaller compartment that was cut off from the rest of the island’s structure. Hawkman pulled an emergency lever and the door to the hangar opened, water flooding in around them.
Utilising elemental power and Nth metal ability, the duo floated through the detritus of the hangar, and Hawkman zipped in and out of the submersibles, his wings making adept flippers to see if they would work.
Firestorm noted how everything in the hangar was on the floor, including the submersibles that hadn’t been hard-docked to the pylons lining the walls. Anything that could float didn’t.
{I’ve activated the autopilot but they’re dead weight,} said Hawkman.
{Even if the engines are on, buoyancy is still an issue,} explained Stein.
Firestorm closed her eyes and found the nanotelepathic channel, then repeated what she had been told by the professor in her head and Katar cursed.
{Nth metal allows me to fly, so it’s allowing me to keep my feet off the ground, I understand that. If I were to remove it, I’d sink. This is maddening. We’re powerless. And we sent our heavy hitters out into space, where we can’t contact them…}
{Do you think this is connected?} asked Firestorm.
{Who even knows. Let’s head back inside. We need to come up with a plan. Maybe Angie has an idea.}
Firestorm held up her hand to stop Hawkman from floating away, and cast her feelers out across the molecular structure of the water around them. There was something definitely off with the composition of the molecules.
Inside her head, she conversed with Stein, their usual vocal exchanges unable to take place due to the liquid environment outside.
“What do you think this is? Have you seen anything like it before?” she asked.
Stein paced across the psychic floor of the Firestorm Matrix. There was a blackboard nearby, covered in calculations, in equations, a brainstorming tool he utilised in these kinds of situations. He shook his head, rubbed his notes clean with the swipe of his sleeve, then turned to Lorraine.
“There is no scientific basis for this kind of disaster. Do we have word on the death toll yet…?”
“No, but we need to focus; what can we do?”
Stein nodded once. “You’re right, you’re right, sorry. Ronald and I had experience with so-called ‘magic’-users in our time operating as Firestorm. They were able to obfuscate the laws of psychics with the wave of a hand. I can sense the familiar unease that magic brings inside the molecules right now. We could reassert the template we know-- hydrogen, oxygen-- and reset the cohesion, perhaps? It’s untested.”
“Then we test it,” said Lorraine.
Outside in the real world, she looked over at Hawkman. {I’m going to try something. We think it can sort this out.}
Hawkman nodded. {What do you need?}
Pacing around inside her head, Martin Stein was concerned. “You need to be careful, Lorraine. You’ve never utilised the Firestorm Matrix in this way before. You could do irreparable damage to yourself.”
“Professor, when would I have ever had an opportunity to even attempt this before? And isn’t this what the Justice League is all about?”
POSEIDONIS:
“Whatever’s happened, it means that no one can swim! Anyone who was at any elevation hit the ocean floor-- hard!” said Vulko, advisor to the royal family, nursing a bloody head injury that the doctors were trying to treat even as he swatted them away.
His focus was on updating the queen. He was the family’s chief advisor, and just because Orin wasn’t here didn’t mean he would abandon his role, even though his head felt like he’d gone on a high pressure dive down the ancient trenches at the bottom of the known ocean.
And Mera listened, but she was multitasking, pushing her hydrokinetic abilities to their limits. She created vast stairwells so that those on the streets of the ocean’s capital could reach the uppermost floors of the more remote towers, where her people were currently marooned.
“What of the sea life?” asked Mera. Something red floated before her eyes, and she realised her nose was bleeding. But she couldn’t pull back from the task at hand yet. There were still people who needed her.
“Oddly enough, we’ve seen--”
Before Vulko could finish his report, the ocean answered for him. A pod of whales in all shapes and sizes descended upon the capital and began to float near the openings on the towers. The people of Poseidonis took the hint, and Mera could finally pull back on her exertions-- the sea creatures that her husband defended so vehemently had come to return the favour, a fleet of whales to help those who needed medical attention urgently.
So, the fish could still swim, but the people who lived above and below the seas couldn’t… so it wasn’t as cut and dry as it appeared.
“Thank you,” Mera whispered, before turning back to the royal advisor. “I suspect I know the cause behind this.”
“What’s that, my Queen?” asked Vulko.
“Magic. Now, where is my husband? And where is Garth? We need everybody on this, Vulko!”
Behind her, an attendant rushed over; unused to walking, his movements were slow and deliberate, but the urgency was clear. “Your majesty!”
“What is--?” Mera turned and her eyes opened wide.
Head bowed and down on his knees, the attendant held out King Orin’s trident. “We found this by the city’s seals, along with the bodies of the inspection team the council sent out yesterday. The king would never leave it behind willingly--”
“Then he’s been taken. Snatched by whoever engineered this attack,” mused Mera.
“Then you know what must be done,” said Vulko.
Mera looked down at the Trident of Neptune, as it was held out toward her, and then with great intent and focus, she took it from the attendant’s hands and felt a charge run through her arm and through her body. “Prepare the armies of Atlantis. We move in two hours.”
THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM:
Mister Miracle somersaulted over the heads of one of the creatures, then cast a glance over at the others. {We’ve been doing this dance for hours! If this corpse wasn’t here, we’d be fine! They only care about dead meat-- and if their meal is being interrupted, then we’re on the menu too!}
{Dead… meat…} murmured Green Lantern.
{Something on your-- urk!-- on your mind?} said Cyborg, claws raking across his cybernetic body.
He had recently redesigned his entire armoured structure so it could survive in extreme environments, be it undersea, outer space, or on the surface of Mars. He didn’t want to be left behind because of his human weakness, the fact that, yes, there was something that needed the right balance of oxygen, gravity-- environment-- to survive.
But as he felt the Throshti’s mythologically sharp claws carve into him, the armour that covered his mostly flesh and blood arm cleaved out of its moorings, and the nanoweave sheaf designed to keep it protected burst. The modifications he’d made with Angie weren’t supposed to be under this much stress so early in its deployment!
{Cyborg!}
Majestic’s cry of surprise was followed by an avalanche of action, as he careened through the bodies of the horde and sent them reeling. If the creatures could burst they would have, but instead they spun off into the void, or back into their own legions. He swatted the creature that had torn Cyborg open aside, and checked on his comrade.
{Are you all right, Victor?} asked Majestros.
{Damn… damn arm… it’s dead… exposed to the vacuum… frozen… just frozen meat…} said Cyborg.
{I didn’t realise you had organic components beyond your--}
Majestros fell silent as Cyborg raised his cannon arm and blasted a group of the creatures behind them.
{…Thank you, Victor,} said Majestros.
{There’s not much of my actual body under the armour… but what’s left is kept alive by the nanites that form my, uh, exoskeleton... because my circulatory system is less… or more… than human now. Not enough time, let’s keep on these things!}
{Our attacks aren’t doing much damage, they’re just scattering, but nothing’s stopping them,} said Mister Miracle.
{What if that god-thing wasn’t dead? What then?}
Barda kicked back against one of the creatures, then looked at the Lantern. {Then they’d have no reason to be here!}
{Try and get me some space-- I have an idea!} said Green Lantern.
ELSEWHERE:
“Don’t look at me like that!” growled Ocean Master.
He punched Aquaman in the face, splitting the king’s lip, but it did nothing to wipe the growing smile that was forming on his half-brother’s smug, royal face. It was another attack, another sign of Orm’s violent anxiety around him.
“Like what? Like you’re a joke? But it’s funny, isn’t it? I’m not an idiot, and I speak Old Atlantean just as well as you. Vulko taught me well. That container that held this weapon, it said that only a king could activate it. I’m not an idiot, and neither are you.”
“D-don’t, Orin. Don’t…”
It was a vague threat, with no weight to back it up. But Orm raised a hand, it shook awkwardly, but it was amusing if anything. Those were the fists that had battered Arthur only once prior to today, back when Atlantis was falling a few years ago, and the beating they’d doled out earlier this day was as if a distant memory.
“You want so badly to be king, but this machine wouldn’t recognise you as one. It’s not about blood, or line of succession, and this weapon recognises that. You’re not the king, Orm. You’ll never be the king. And even in your madness, you can’t escape knowing that, else why would you drag me down here? Drop the delusion, and talk to me, brother-to-brother. You may have done something terrible today, but we’re brothers, and there’s no escaping that. So, now’s the time to talk, godammit!”
DEVON, ENGLAND:
Dripping wet and with the weight of the world on her shoulder, Wonder Woman took a moment to catch her breath. She’d been working for hours now across the oceans, along with so many others.
There had been some lucky moments for them. With the on-rush of water on certain vessels, specially designed bulkheads descended, trapping people inside but keeping the water out. They’d been able to save hundreds, if not thousands, thanks to that precaution. But others… countless others weren’t so lucky.
“You okay?”
Diana looked up at Green Lantern, who had the same grim expression on his face that she did.
“Not particularly, John.”
“Yeah, stupid question.”
“No, no, we have to stay strong. We have to support each other. But it’s difficult in the face of so much… so much loss.”
She looked across the beach front, where they’d dragged countless ocean liners to shore. The environmental damage would be massive, but she hoped that the great minds of the superhero community could do something about it.
Majestros had restored the Ozone Layer*, so perhaps… perhaps…
*Justice League #49
Before she could stand, her lasso tingled once more. “What in…?”
How had she missed this? Magic was present in the air. Perhaps the stress, the work, perhaps it had been so overwhelming, but she could sense it, her lasso could taste it, and that meant…
She looked over at the emergency services, closer to them than the vast liners that blotted out the sky above. She looked at the body bags. So many… dozens… hundreds… why was there a business in the construction of such things?
“What’s wrong?” asked John.
“My lasso has been reacting oddly to the day’s events and I foolishly didn’t pay it any heed,” said Diana.
“What does that mean?”
“Whatever caused this… I think it’s safe to say it’s mystical in nature. But who could do such a thing? Who would have the power, and such lack of empathy… who could be so monstrous?”
Diana stumbled forward, and realised that the lasso was drawing her toward the body bags. She didn’t want this. She didn’t want to see the truth of the dead. But if she was supposed to, then she would have to. They came to a stop in front of the first lines of sealed bags, and Diana knelt and said a prayer to the Queen of the Dead, her grey lady, Persephone.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” asked Green Lantern, as he watched her hand reach out toward the zipper.
“I have to,” she replied.
“Then you don’t do it alone,” he said.
John’s fingers found purchase at the top of the body bag to make Diana’s action easier. She pulled the bag’s zipper open, and the emergency crew took note and began to head over to them. Before they could air their opposition to her actions, Green Lantern put an emerald barrier between them. If she had to do this, then let her do it in peace. It was between Diana and the water-logged corpse they’d pulled from the sea.
“There’s something wrong here… something… off…” said Diana, ignoring the berry sweet smell that had drifted out from inside the body bag, that tell-tale olfactory scent of the recently dead.
“What do you mean? My ring is picking up no life signs. Just… this woman is dead.”
Shaking her head, Diana held out the lasso, whispered another prayer, and then brushed the golden weave across the pale, damp skin of the body bag’s occupant.
Upon contact, a spray of sparks erupted outward that momentarily blinded the duo, but when their eyes cleared they could see that the living colour returned to the dead woman’s skin. She didn’t breathe though, she didn’t move, but her skin was alive, there was a warmth to it, and Diana felt an immense weight lift from her shoulders.
“What-- what the hell just happened?” asked Green Lantern.
“I don’t think… I don’t think they’re dead… I think this is something else entirely…” said Wonder Woman, a note of hope in her voice.
LAPUTA:
“What do you mean you can hear what’s wrong with the water molecules?” said Hawkman.
He was trudging through the halls of Laputa and trailing water, the Nth metal aura that resonated over his body rejecting whatever residue he’d swam in moments before. Firestorm, meanwhile, had increased her core temperature just enough so that she was dry, and was talking quickly, her voice dropping in and out with Stein’s as they explained.
“I have experience with, erm, magic users, back when Ronald and I were bonded. There’s a vibration inherent to magical energies that we can sense as Firestorm, and--”
“--What the Professor is saying is that we’re picking it up now. But it’s not just a vibration, it’s almost a song--”
“--Which, I have to admit, is unfathomable, excuse the pun--”
“--But it’s what we’re, I’m, sensing right now. So, we need to cancel out the notes, maybe--”
“--But more accurately, we want to reset the molecular make-up of every drop of water in the world--”
“--Which sounds massive, but it’s just scale, and scale is nothing if we think hard enough--”
“--But there are dangers--”
“--Risks I’m willing to take, Professor, thank you very much.”
They arrived in the empty laboratory at the base of Laputa, and Angie Spica was waiting for them, fussing over a large tube that took up the centre point of the space. “I’ve cobbled this together. Smart metals mean we can shift the configuration of the lab whenever we want, but why do you need a water tight tube connected to nearest water exit port?”
“I think we need to be submerged when we do this, and I think it’s better we do it--”
“--In a controlled environment, rather than out in the ocean.”
“Whoa, did her voice just drop like thirty octaves?” said Angie.
“They’re two people, atomically bonded together. Long--” Before Katar could continue he doubled over, his body caught up in in the throes of a bone-rattling cough that originated in the bottom of his lungs and carried itself all the way up. His hands covered his mouth in surprise, and after a moment the attack—whatever it was-- settled.
“Whoa, Katar, are you all right?” asked Angie.
“I… I’m fine,” said Katar, discreetly wiping the blood on his palm away.
Angie reached out to him tentatively. “Are you sure?”
Katar looked at her, his face a steely mask of determination. Even though he knew that it wasn’t simply nothing, but something terrible and destructive, and it thrived in his body and one day would be the end of him. Only one other Justice Leaguer knew of his diagnosis, and that was Majestic—sworn to secrecy and loyal so far—and the Hawk Knight wasn’t about to let anyone else know about it yet*.
*Justice League #63
Instead, he nodded and turned back to the Nuclear Elemental as she stood inside the transparent containment tube. “Let’s focus on the task at hand, Angela. Are you ready, Firestorm?”
“Just… when we finish… make sure to flush us out into this space, rather than outside into the ocean. Because this is going to take everything I’ve got, I’m sure of it…”
“Yeah, no worries, man,” said Angie.
She typed something into a console next to her, and grates formed from the smart metal on the floor. She was excited, eager to show off the tech upgrades she’d installed in the space, but without a proper presentation, showing off in situ was her best opportunity.
Firestorm opened the tube and clambered inside. With the flick of another switch, Angie filled it full of water, and then she and Hawkman watched Lorraine lock her eyes tight, concentrating on what had to be done.
Surrounded by the ‘corrupted’ template of water, she felt the web of her powers stretch out across the oceans. She was connecting herself to every single water molecule she could, and the fact of the matter was, that was a demanding and draining task. The thing was, and this was why she was here, she had to do this, so she would. That was the nature of the problem. The nature of being part of the Justice League.
The world needs saving so save it.
She clenched her fists, and then made the switch. Bad water to good. Reset the template. Reset. Change. Transform. Transmute. Transmute-- change-- change-- change--! She felt blood bubble up inside her nose and began to dribble out. It felt like she was deep under water now, at the bottom of the sea where the pressure was so intense as to crush you in a heartbeat. But she held fast. Transmute—transmute--
{What’s going on down there?} came a distant voice-- was it Wonder Woman’s?
{Firestorm is attempting to transmute the water back to normal. Is it having some effect?} asked Hawkman.
His voice was louder. Was it because he was closer?
Lorraine didn’t question it, the only thoughts in her mind crystal clear-- transmute-- change-- transmute--
{We’re getting reports from across the globe, objects are rising up-- it might-- save-- think--}
Words became distorted. Firestorm felt the core of herself grow brighter than anything. Even during her time as Firehawk, Lorraine had never wielded such power, or believed she was capable of such a thing. But she felt things change, transform, transmute, and it was for the better, it had to be.
Hawkman again-- {I’ve-- nev-- she’s-- br-- than-- star--}
“Focus, Lorraine, focus!” shouted Stein from inside their shared mindscape.
With a lurching growl, Laputa suddenly found her buoyancy again. The island headquarters floated upwards, just as the tens, hundreds of thousands of boats that had sank minutes earlier did too, if their hulls weren’t filled with water. Those that needed assistance were being aided by the immense fleet of superheroes the Guardian had wrangled. But whatever had transformed the ocean into a death trap was losing its hold, and it was all Firestorm’s doing.
When the deed was done, and the oceans were restored, she screamed and collapsed inside the tube. Angie immediately drained it, so the now unconscious Firestorm didn’t drown, and the nuclear heroine spilled out onto the smart-metal floor.
Inside the Firestorm Matrix, Lorraine collapsed, and Martin rushed over to her. “You did great, Lorraine. You did wonderfully. Hold on. Just, hold on!”
Hawkman rushed over and noted that the water pooled around her was boiling, the energy she’d expended immense. The flames at her head that had still burned when she’d initially been submerged were now nearly out completely. He wasn’t going to lose this hero on her first day on the team!
He checked her vitals, motioned for Angie to grab a medical pac, but then Firestorm gasped and in a bright flash of light separated so that Lorraine Reilly and Martin Stein were both sprawled out on the floor.
Stein was absolutely fine, but when he saw the state Reilly was in, he crawled over to her. She was pale, and blue at the lips, as if she’d been drowning. Hawkman held his hand up to stop Martin from crowding her, and removed his own mask. “She’s not breathing.”
“We can resuscitate her,” said Stein.
“Chest compressions, you know what to do,” said Katar.
He aligned her head while Stein began to compress her chest-- one-two-three-four, one-two-three-four; Hawkman began providing rescue breaths, and after an agonising minute, with these two men keeping her heart and circulation going, she gasped, suddenly responsive.
“Oh-- oh God-- did we-- did we--” she asked, as Hawkman gently put her in the recovery position.
“You did it. You restored the oceans,” said Hawkman.
“Just try and breathe normally; in all my years, I’ve never seen anything like what you did…” said Stein.
Lorraine nodded, doing as she was told. “Is… is… is it okay… for me to say… how intimidating this is?”
Hawkman smiled warmly. “Not anymore.”
POSEIDONIS:
Dubava Saher may have been as far as one could get from Poseidonis without slipping off the edge of the world, but that didn’t mean distance was going to stop Garth, the king’s closest friend and confidant, from being at the capital when he was needed.
Utilising his gods-given magicks, he had managed to teleport Tula and himself over countless leagues, until they’d arrived, exhausted, on the streets of the capital. His beloved had kissed him on the cheek and joined the others in the royal guard to perform whatever tasks their queen had given them, while Garth sensed something shift in the waters around him.
“Sea change…” he murmured, before kicking up, and finding that the oceans had finally regained their ability to support those who existed within it.
“Garth! You’re swimming!” said Mera, before she herself tried and found that their ability to float had returned. “I can… we all can… thank the gods…”
All around the city, people found themselves able to float once more, and they rejoiced at the fact. Walking along the sea floor was like losing a limb to these people, but Mera knew that it couldn’t be that easy…
She turned to Vulko. “Reactivate the shell-systems and send out the following broadcast across all the cities: By royal decree, no one is to swim more than a foot off the ocean floor until the cause of this cataclysm is uncovered. We believe there are rogue magicks involved, and we will not rest until the perpetrator is brought to justice.”
“The sea lost cohesion, we couldn’t swim, but the ocean’s children could…” said Garth.
“What’s that?” asked Mera.
“We couldn’t swim, but the sea life never lost the ability, and I saw other fish do the same on the way here. I think I know what did this. We’ve covered this in Vulko’s lessons-- it’s Kamchatka’s Drowning. One of the forbidden weapons of the dark ages of Atlantis.”
“The Drowning? How is that possible? It’s a myth,” said Vulko.
Garth nodded. “Yes, yes, but what if it’s not? What if it was a legend because it being real was too terrifying? A weapon that could destroy the surface dwellers, that could bring the sea people to heel, but keep the ocean’s wildlife alive, unburdened, untouched? Mad King Kamchatka and his royal insanity. We’ve all heard the stories…”
“But that means all the people who drowned…” started Vulko.
Mera clapped her hands and a shockwave interrupted the two men. “Gentlemen, please, we’ve been struck a catastrophic blow today. Speak succinctly--!”
THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM:
It took an age for them to create the opportunity Green Lantern needed to put his plan into action, but once the hours had passed and the moment materialised, the power-ring-wielding hero manifested an immense, emerald pick above his fist, big enough to shatter a small moon, then darted toward the head of the god corpse.
The Throshti didn’t know what he was doing, and Cyborg wondered if they were capable of individual, inquisitive thought. But they followed him nonetheless, so salvos fired off from the force cannon dissuaded them from getting close, and Vic let Henshaw do his job.
{He’s-- he’s not--} whispered Barda, some idea of what was coming, but uncertainty influencing her words.
Henshaw plunged the spike into the ear canal of the corpse, and straight into its brain. He then thought electric, and a shock erupted from his ring and into the cerebrum of the body. The corpse flexed-- twitched-- and the Throshti stopped in their tracks. The electricity raced down, into the body’s heart, and the intensity allowed the heart to beat once, and that was enough for the horde. They twisted in on themselves until they vanished, back to whatever realm they had emerged from.
{What did you do?} asked Barda.
{He looked human so I treated his nervous system accordingly, gave it a shock to simulate electrical activity in the brain, made it so his body, for a split second at least, wasn’t dead. Made those things hesitate, and counted my lucky stars.}
{That’s the most I’ve heard you say in one go, GL,} said Cyborg.
{If I haven’t got anything to say, I won’t say it,} replied the Lantern.
{That’s all--} started Mister Miracle.
Before he could continue, Cyborg let loose a horrible scream, a combination of his human vocal chords and a distorted, electronic shriek. Clawed hands jutted through his body, piercing his armoured body where his organic parts resided. His dead meat. The Throshti may have had their appetite ruined for god meat, but this tin man would satiate their hunger.
For the most part, the Justice League knew he was organic under all that armour. Some of his body had survived the explosion that required the nanite infusion that resulted in his transformation into the Cyborg. A few internal organs here and there-- heart and brain, to name two-- as well some skeleton, musculature and flesh on his arms. But the returned Throshti tore at him, devoured what they could before the rest of the team could react.
Henshaw surrounded Cyborg in a protective bubble and expanded it out so the carrion creatures were expelled, while Mister Miracle slipped inside to check on his teammate.
Inside the oxygenated area, Scott spoke quickly, quietly, trying to put his friend at ease, even though he was in agony. “It’s okay, Vic, you’re okay, just try and focus on my voice.”
“h-how // sssrkkttttt // h-how b-bad is it, S-Scott? I c-can’t // skskkrrrtt// seeeeee”
Miracle grimaced. Vic’s face was a mangled mess where the creatures had cleaved it nearly off what was left of the skull. His eye socket was empty, just gored meat where there had once been an eyeball. His mouth was torn, what few teeth he had left mostly gone. His arms were shredded, there was no flesh left, and his chest cavity was open, frozen mounds of blood and organic matter stuck in place, intermixed with metal.
“It’s bad, man. We need to get you back to Earth,” said Miracle.
Vic exhaled and then became unresponsive.
Scott slammed his fists on the emerald construct then gripped his shoulder, where the god-machine he kept on him resided. “Mother Box, activate a Boom Tube-- back to Earth-- now!”
ELSEWHERE:
Ocean Master cried out as the arcane device known as Kamchatka’s Drowning shattered, sending shards of crystal and glass floating around the stone chamber he’d imprisoned Aquaman within. When the debris landed on the floor, the only thing that remained of the weapon was a swirling sphere of ethereal energy that seemed to flash and spin with all too human faces at the centre. Some kind of containment spell? Were those… were those souls?
“How is that-- what did you-- what did you do--?” growled Ocean Master.
“I’ve been sitting right here, Orm. You saw to that. But you forget that I’m not the only protector this world has to offer. You think an attack on the scale you’ve described would go unopposed? Justice League… Justice Society… Titans… Outsiders… Challengers… you didn’t think it would go so swimmingly, did you?”
What did Orm mean earlier, when he said that he, Arthur, would be the left hand of damnation? The song Kamchatka’s Drowning had unleashed, had it drawn the souls of its victims down here, inside this tomb? Maybe that meant… there was still a chance… to save everyone.
“St-stop talking! All you do is talk and I can feel your words bite at the edge of my brain and tunnel their way in like maggots and it hurts, it-- it-- it--”
Ocean Master began to seize up, his body locked rigid as it shook imperceptibly, tiny distortions twisting the waters around him. He was undergoing an attack of some sort, a full body fit, some kind of seizure that caused his eyes to roll back in his head and his teeth to grind themselves together as his jaw locked tight.
“Orm? Orm?”
Aquaman struggled once more against his restraints but he was still unbearably weak, still unable to escape from this chair. If his brother was to die here, it might be a tomb they shared. Rescue right now looked to be the only option, or a polite discussion, but that hadn’t gone well so far.
A grinding sound filled the waters around them, and Arthur found himself girding himself. Maybe this was a rescue? But knowing his luck, that wasn’t likely. Two strong men, built with the kind of muscles that came with necessity rather than aesthetic, swam in and gripped Ocean Master by either arm, then lowered him to the ground. One withdrew a small wooden block and slipped it between the seizing villain’s teeth, before any further damage could be done to them.
“Who are you? What are you doing to him?”
“It looks like your brother’s body is continuing to reject the glory we visited upon him.”
Behind the two men another floated forward. He had a regal bearing, and wore a tunic that resembled an Atlantean scale shirt, but it was of an aged, crimson colour, and longer as well, cutting off just before his thighs. Across his shoulders, he wore armoured pieces that continued down his sides, lashed together by strong leather straps.
In one hand, he held an old whaling harpoon, probably hundreds of years old, and in his other he held a staff Aquaman recognised as once belonging to Orm, back when he was the chief of Atlantis’ security. He had dark, red hair tied into a ponytail, and a thick beard that drifted like seaweed in front of his jaw.
“Damn it, who the hell are you?” growled Aquaman.
The man’s hand drifted across the sphere that had survived Kamchatka’s Drowning’s destruction. “Do you not recognise a fellow king when you see one?” he asked.
“Oh, what, you’re another guy claiming that Atlantis belongs to you? It doesn’t belong to anybody-- it doesn’t belong to me-- it doesn’t belong to Orm-- but I’ll be damned if I let the likes of you bring ruin down upon her!”
“You are so mistaken, Arthur. You see, my name is Nereus, and this realm you find yourself a guest of right now? This is the kingdom of Xebel, and I am her rightful ruler. And between you and me… I hear that you’ve been sleeping with my wife.”
LAPUTA:
The Guardian called the ad hoc meeting to order. It was night now, and they’d not stopped working since disaster had struck in the morning. No word yet from their deep-space team, but their satellites detected a massive spatial distortion near the celestial body that obscured their feeds. They waited for word, and if none came soon they’d have to scramble another space-capable team to follow up.
Harper wasn’t happy. “Hundreds of thousands are already dead. We’ve got Justice League teams trying to find as many survivors as possible. I can’t even… the scope of this… something catastrophic happened, and we weren’t able to stop it. We failed.”
“Our best wasn’t good enough today, but Firestorm made a massive difference,” said Hawkman.
“I think the difference has been made,” said Wonder Woman, trailing water and followed swiftly by Green Lantern.
“The body count is massive, Diana; what do you mean?” asked the Guardian.
He had called the core team back in while the reservists went to work, because they had to figure out what happened today. While the threat went undiscovered, it could strike once more. The waters were no longer safe…
Green Lantern gestured his thumb over his shoulder. “We’ve just returned from the UK, and that lasso of hers worked some crazy juju.”
“Meaning?” asked Hawkman.
Wonder Woman took her seat then leaned forward. “It showed us the truth, Katar. The people we’re pulling from the water. They’re not dead, but caught in some kind of suspended animation. I want to get Zatanna looking at them… I think their souls have been displaced. Drawn out of their bodies when they ‘drowned’.”
“We might have a chance of reversing all this?” asked the Guardian.
“I pray that’s the case,” replied Diana.
“Any word from Aquaman?” asked Green Lantern.
The Guardian shook his head. “Communications with the capital are still down, but with this new intel, I want to--”
There was a massive explosion on the far side of Laputa, and the team recognised it was a Boom Tube-- the others had returned! Mister Miracle’s voice reached out across the nanotelepathic link, and his tone was sharp. {I need a medical team-- or-- or-- a science team-- Vic’s in a bad way-- we--}
Wonder Woman was on the move immediately, flying through the corridors followed by Green Lantern and the others. When they arrived in the teleportation staging area, Angela Spica was already on the scene with the limited medical staff who’d remained on Laputa after the incident. They’d stretched their resources across the globe, trying to do right where they could.
“My God, what happened?” asked Harper.
Cyborg was encased in a cylinder of emerald light, but it didn’t look good. His body was a ravaged wreck, and Mister Miracle was pacing around it, manically. “Long story, but his organics… we need… I don’t…” He trailed off, at a loss for words after what he’d witnessed.
“Let me,” said Green Lantern. He assumed control of the capsule Cyborg was surrounded by, then turned to Angela. “Where do we go, Angie? What can we do?”
Spica was in shock, but she quickly shook herself out of it. “Science lab. Downstairs. I need… I need… I need to think. Come on!” She led the Lantern away, along with the medical team, leaving Miracle with the rest of the team.
“Where are the others?” asked Hawkman.
Mister Miracle pulled his mask off. “With the god corpse-- we were attacked. We’ve been fighting them all day. What-- what’s--- why do you look like that? What’s happened?”
“A planetary disaster. The oceans lost surface tension. Hundreds of thousands lost beneath the surface, but we might have an opportunity to save them all,” said Wonder Woman.
“My God…” whispered Miracle.
Before the team could process each other’s words, the teleporter behind them activated, and a familiar figure arrived on Laputa, a stern expression on her face. Mera approached the meeting table and slammed her trident down, then looked around at the assorted members of the Justice League present.
“I’ll keep this brief: Hundreds of my people are wounded, scores have died, and my husband has been kidnapped by his half-brother. We believe he’s behind the tragedy that struck the planet today, so as of right now I am reactivating my membership in the Justice League. We have to find Orm before he strikes again-- because if I know him as well as I suspect-- next time he won’t be so easily undone!”
The Guardian blinked once. “Well. Welcome back. Let’s get started, shall we?”
TO BE CONCLUDED
Please take a moment and follow this link to let us know what you thought of the issue!
NEXT ISSUE: Mera leads the Justice League into the darkest depths of the ocean to retrieve her husband but also bring about an end to the catastrophe that has robbed the lifeforce from countless victims! Will this group be able to save the day or are the past the point of no return? And what mystery lurks on the edge of space that only one of their own can help solve, and what implication does it have for the future?
Please take a moment and follow this link to let us know what you thought of the issue!
NEXT ISSUE: Mera leads the Justice League into the darkest depths of the ocean to retrieve her husband but also bring about an end to the catastrophe that has robbed the lifeforce from countless victims! Will this group be able to save the day or are the past the point of no return? And what mystery lurks on the edge of space that only one of their own can help solve, and what implication does it have for the future?