Post by HoM on Jul 13, 2017 13:25:17 GMT -5
Previously, in OMEGA CRISIS…
It was supposed to be the wedding of the decade when Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson had finally decided to get married! The heroes of the world were invited, and as a special gift to the happy couple, in one night, every wanted criminal, every supervillain across the world, was taken down! With this new era of peace established, the wedding goes forward, but they don’t know what’s coming next…
The villainous Key, long forgotten after his defeat at the hands of the Flash and the Justice League, was awoken from a near decades-long coma by the mysterious Libra and a purple-robed master. At the behest of his saviours, the Key used his powers, expanded a thousand-fold by the experiences that sent him into the coma, to open every door in existence-- including the doors to the cells inside every prison across the universe, be it Arkham Island and Iron Heights, Takron Galtos and the Sciencells of Oa, and even the Source Wall!
From a moment of infinite peace to a time of infinite crisis, the universe underwent a catastrophic change, and the heroes who vowed to keep it safe have just realised that they have their work cut out for them-- the Source Wall kept back an unrelenting entropic wave of destruction that already displaced trillions of lives across the universe in a matter of hours, and is headed to Earth with every passing second!
Some of the world’s greatest heroes have already fallen, and many more stand on the precipice of certain doom, while old faces from the earliest days of this age of heroes return from the shadows in this time of need, but when there doesn’t seem to be any hope of survival, how will the heroes of the universe survive in the midst of …
As the daughter of the world’s greatest villain, Lena Luthor understood pain. She’d been abandoned by her father at a young age as his obsession with a strange visitor to Metropolis took hold, and she had long learned to quell its effects. But in this moment, stood in her lab in the heart of L-Tower, her heart raced for some unknown reason, a giant chasm opening up in her chest that caused her to gasp for breath.
The wristwatch she wore, the one that monitored her vitals could detect no physical reason for her heart to suddenly ache so much, but that didn’t stop that being fact that it did.
L-Corp’s private security force was supporting the Metropolis Police Department in securing the city, and they’d thankfully secured Stryker’s Island before the escapees could get to shore. Now they were just buzzing overhead, protecting the citizens as best they could. Next steps included a plan to roll out support to neighbouring cities, but they hadn’t finalised that yet.
She’d been so busy monitoring the mecha suits her team were wearing, that she hadn’t noticed the alarm buzzing in the corner, the one that monitored the Moon colony she’d helped develop with Power Girl and Superwoman, as well as the two Fortresses of Solitude Kara maintained across the world.
Finally, after becoming comfortable with the fact that Metropolis was safe, Lena headed deeper into her lab, and the flashing red alarm drew her attention. She worked in silent confusion, trying to understand why the Antarctica-based Fortress of Solitude was no longer recognised as existing.
Crystalline information lines relayed the events of the last hour to her monitor:
The Phantom Zone had opened. Superwoman was on the scene immediately, fighting against Faora and the mutated, parasite-ridden escapees that emerged from the event horizon of the zone.
Blue Lantern arrived, dropping Batman off in the technology centre, and while the Lantern went to help Kara, the vigilante began securing the doomsday weapons that were stored there.
When Faora demolished the Phantom Zone projector, Batman immediately began rewiring the crystalline control panels, and when he was finished, they transformed the Fortress into a massive Phantom Zone projector, folding in on itself and--
“Oh, no.”
--Lena’s cheeks were lined with tears. The Fortress of Solitude folded in on itself, with Superwoman still inside, wrestling with a thing from a Kryptonian’s nightmares. Then the information feed blinked to black.
And it was over and done with.
“No no no no no!”
Lena smashed her fists into the bank of computers before her, hard light armour forming around her hands that caused the entire wall to fold into itself under her might. She sobbed, screamed, but before she could figure out what to do next, a proximity alarm went.
Two figures stood in her office. One was causing the energy monitor to spike madly, while the second was faint, barely there, like a ghost.
“Who…?”
Lena allowed her armour to spread over her body and rushed to her office, where Batman and Blue Lantern stood. Lantern was clutching the stump where his left arm had once been, a pained expression on his face, while Batman stepped forward when Lena entered.
“Lena-- Kara, she--”
Lena swung a massive fist down and demolished her desk. “I know what happened!”
“The broad stopped something from getting out that could make this whole situation worse,” said Guy. He was pale, but the wound was sealed, and there was an odd shimmer where his arm should be, a weird cerulean outline, as if some phantom limb was present where a flesh and blood one had been previously. “No one deserves to go like that, but the world is coming to pieces right now. She held it together for longer.”
“Don’t waste your time here then. Go save it. Because my world just ended.”
Batman went to say something but knew that nothing would make this situation better. Instead, he tapped Gardner on his good shoulder and the two men flew out of the tower and headed to the next fire that needed putting out.
Lena screamed, and her world went red, but before she could do anything she regretted, a flaming figure floated at her window. She glanced up, hoping that it was Kara, but instead Kon-El
“Alan? Alan, can you hear me?”
After their friend’s apparent seizure, Spectrum-- Jessica, the energy wielding daughter of Hal and Chloe Jordan-- along with the rest of her elite Young All-Star class, sat around Meteor’s medbed as the machines ran their analysis cycles and tried to figure out what caused him.
Meteor was the son of Captain Comet and an unknown mother, his grey-skin and large, black eyes-- deep as any ocean-- signalling to the world that she wasn’t of this one. As they opened, Jessica exhaled, relieved her friend was stirring from the catatonia that had descended.
“Whuhh… whaaa?” he mumbled.
Jessica placed a hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay? You passed out. Cyborg got you down here and we’ve been waiting for you to wake up.”
He rubbed the discomfort from the corners of his eyes with balled fists, then looked around. His movements increased in frequency, he was twitchy, suddenly agitated. “My dad, he… we share a telepathic link…”
“Uh, take it slow, Al, please,” said Lightning Bug, raising his hands.
Akihiko Kord-Hoshi, son of Ted and Kimiyo Kord-Hoshi, was young and small for his age, but more than made up for it with his genius level intellect and ability to cast hard light illusions. He was quiet, introverted, took more after his mother than his father, and was struggling to find the offense application of his powers. He was trying though, and was determined to become the best he possibly could.
“Sorry, Akihiko. It’s just… I sensed… maybe… maybe it’s better if I showed you.”
“Hey dude, if you’re gonna start doing some weird alien psychic link kinkiness, I don’t wanna be involved,” said Cat.
Kyle-- no second name that he’d shared so far with his friends-- was about eighteen years old, an African-American male who stood second tallest in the group. He was lithe, with the build of a gymnast or professional dancer, and had a physical awareness the rest of his young classmates lacked. With light brown hair and bright green eyes, his costume took inspiration from those worn through the years by both Selina Kyle and Thomas Blake, causing those around to constantly question who exactly he was taking his namesake from.
“Shut up, Cat,” barked Minuteman.
This young man was the youngest of the class, though he appeared fifteen. The circumstances of Jonathan Tyler’s birth meant he could generate short bursts of both speed and strength, but with the added side effect of age spurts that left him looking fifteen when he was coasting towards his tenth birthday. Thankfully, his maturity and intelligence levelled up along with his age, so the doctor’s concerns about developmental issues were assuaged early on. It didn’t terrify his parents any less though.
“Oh! Oh, I’m sorry, Minuteboy,” Kyle shook his head and pointed a clawed finger at the younger Tyler, “but you know I don’t like people rattling around in my--”
“Guys, c’mon,” mumbled Lightning Bug.
“Cat, why is it you’re always an ass when Carrie isn’t here?” asked Stars, sticking a pin in Cat’s bluster.
Patrician Whitmore was a young, energetic dancer; slim of body and face, with bright red hair and freckles scattered across her cheeks. While she was the shortest team member she was also the fieriest, and as if to punctuate her point the Nth Metal Cosmic Bracers-- a redesign and improvement of the old cosmic converter belt, courtesy of her father-- worn on the wrists crackled with celestial energy.
“Guys, guys, guys, focus, c’mon,” said Stripe, repeating Lightning Bug’s sentiment..
Marcus Reyes was the tallest of the group, with broad shoulders and the intimidating promise that he hadn’t yet fully-filled out. A Puerto Rican with short black hair and darker black eyes; he wore the old Liberty Bell belt buckle-- the same one that empowered the original Liberty Belle back in World War II-- that provided him the ability to unleash sonic bursts and enhanced strength when needed.
Alan had finally caught up with himself and with Jessica’s help scooted around the edge of the bed, so his feet touched the floor. “No. I’m not talking psychic links. I know your preference toward secrecy Cat, I wouldn’t breach that. No, I’m talking this:”
Holding out his hands, he generated a sphere of energy. The blue, fluctuating light was similar to the explosive bolts he’d usually cast, but as he concentrated it took on a shape, then a face, and it was one that held some resemblance to the young man casting it.
Captain Comet’s head spoke quickly, the same speech heard across the universe these last few hours:
{This is Captain Comet of the LEGION, with a distress call across all known frequencies. We have managed to secure the continued existence of numerous worlds across the universe, but we need assistance if we are to keep the billions of lives we’ve secured safe. Our coordinates are encoded in this transmission. We cannot maintain our current speeds and outrun the destructive wave that is approaching from all corners. Please. We need help. And if you are a survivor, and you’ve made it this far, join our convoy, and we can ensure the continued existence of you all, for as long as there is air in my lungs, the LEGION will protect you.}
“My dad needs help,” said Alan, once the projection faded.
“B-but he’s all the way in space, what can we do?” asked Akihiko.
“We need to tell the faculty; they’ll decide who goes and they’ll help,” said Jonathan.
“All Justice League teams are focused on the immediate solar system,” said Alan, slowly.
“What do you mean?” asked Patricia.
“There are groups across the universe-- the Green Lanterns, LEGION-- who have the resources to answer my father’s distress signal. Current priority for the Justice League is all solar system-based crime. There are hundreds of superheroes that call the Milky Way home, but there aren’t any to spare to go off into space… not now…”
“We’ll be grounded. Told we can’t go,” said Jessica.
“Go? You’re mad. We can’t go off into space,” said Kyle.
“We’re the only ones who can!” said Jessica.
“What the hell do you mean?” said Marcus.
Jessica was nodding now, finding a purpose, doubling down on it. When her mom saw this behaviour in her, she said it reminded her of Hal, of her father, how he used to talk himself into some hare-brained scheme to save the world. If he believed it to be the right thing to do, then he would do it. Always. Never backing down. Her costume throbbed emerald, all other colours faded as she mainlined the one thing her family was known for-- bone headed willpower.
“Alan can track his dad down easily, their mental connection links them across the universe, remember? Everyone else is on Earth, doing their thing, but we’re just scanning police channels, fielding calls. Cyborg has algorithims for all that-- we’re just being kept busy! We can go, we can go help where they can’t!”
“You’re mad. You’re absolutely mental,” said Kyle.
“What, you think we should just let them die?” said Jessica.
Alan nodded. “We need a Boom Tube generator, but Principal Free would never let us take one.”
“You’re crazy,” repeated Kyle.
“Are you just going to stand there and be a dick or are you going to come up with--”
Kyle grinned, and held in his hand a familiar looking object. “You didn’t let me finish. You’re crazy to think I didn’t pilfer this from Big ol Barda’s office before we teleported up here.”
“You stole a Boom Tube generator,” said Jessica, her eyes lighting up.
“I didn’t want to be stuck up here all god damn week with you kids,” said Kyle.
“There are internal sensors that monitor all incomings and outgoings, they’ll know if we Boom out of here,” said Akihiko.
Alan shook his head. “I can create a psychic blip that’ll cover the time it takes for the tunnel to open and close so no one hears, and I know you’ve thought about how to deactivate those sensors, Lightning Bug.”
“Hey, don’t go running around in my head,” said Akihiko, covering his ears.
“No, no, I mean, you’re the smartest kids in school, you think about everything, so you must have some idea, right?”
Lightning Bug looked at all his friends and then shrugged. “Maybe…”
Over the last few months there had been other oddities reported in the criminal underworld. First came the disappearance of the vigilante known as the Shrike, the white-clad entity who slipped in and out of the shadows seemingly at random, his appearances always marking the vicious takedown of members of the ‘Gotham Underground’-- those of a criminal disposition who thought they could act without repercussion in a city marked by the Bat.
In the wake of the Shrike’s disappearance, the Dark Knight began a brand-new blitz on crime that left the remaining those of a devious disposition reeling. No matter which direction they turned, the monsters and madmen of the city were routed by the Caped Crusader and his allies, and soon enough the old guard of the underground were removed.
Of course, the two faceless vigilantes who came to the city in the wake of this siege on crime knew the truth. The first Batman had retired, his body finally betraying him after a lifetime spent opposing evil. Shrike, better known to those in the know as Tim Wayne, had assumed his father’s mantle, and from the ashes of a great man’s retirement came a new version of the Bat, one with the mental prowess and mettle to do the old man proud.
That felt like an eternity ago, even though it had only been the better part of a year. Now, in the apartment the top of Wayne Tower-- long left dormant-- the old man had returned, his body wracked by the disease that had caused his retirement. His wife was with him every step of the way, but this wasn’t their moment.
The Questions stood before their audience of two, the hastily assembled conspiracy wall tying together events from the past all the way to the present day.
“Time is shrinking. Or… being eaten. Choose your metaphor. They all apply.”
Vic Sage spoke quickly, sharply, outlining the facts with the same journalistic flair that made him the scourge of Hub City’s underworld, the same flair that led to his near-death at the hands of the criminal element.
Renee Montoya kept the facts closer to her chest, a habit hard to break from her days as a Gotham City police detective. If Vic was all id, she was all ego, and the audience they had before them? Pure super-ego, critically analysing the events like any good detective should.
“How do you know this?” asked Bruce. He sat with his wife, her hands surrounding is own, but they could see him struggle to control the tremors that riddled his body.
It still astonished that Bruce Wayne had been the Bat back when Montoya had a gun and shield. She always had an impression of him, clearly distaff to his true self. The playboy persona, the wimp, the fop. Later on, when she wore a mask and they came to know each other’s true faces, he had revealed a key fact about himself-- that the man who raised him after the death of his parents, Alfred Pennyworth, had taught him all about masks and when to wear them.
Renee had discussed the mask of ‘Bruce Wayne’ and the mask of ‘the Batman’ with Vic at length. They were both falsehoods, in their own way. Beneath both there was a private man with his own drives separate to the illusion he wielded.
Montoya answered the question. How did they know? “A keen eye. It started with an argument.”
“Doesn’t it always?” offered Vic.
Montoya smiled. Sage had saved her life when she was on the edge, given her purpose, and in return she’d done the same for him. When his lung cancer tore the life from him, she dragged him across a wasteland, all the way to the gates of the mystical city of Nanda Parbat, where, unbeknownst to them both, a man capable of curing his cancer resided. They’d worked together since, and apart, but when they needed one another, they’d always find a way back.
“Anyway. In an attempt to settle said argument, we found there historical inconsistencies between the Justice League database and recorded history. Remember what everyone is told when they first board a Justice League base? Martian wetware is psychic in nature, so the content can never change. A database that cannot contain a lie. So, in theory…”
“…A database impervious to changes in the time stream,” finished Bruce.
“You’re following. And in addition, every time travel event is recorded for future reference, and once a Leaguer, always a Leaguer. Do you know who Jonah Hex is?”
Bruce arched an eyebrow. “The bounty hunter from the Old West. We’ve met.”
“Of course you have. A few other Leaguers over the years have met him as well. Matter of fact, there's a great deal of information on Jonah Hex's life in the database, up to and including his death in 1904. His legend survives to this very day... or at least it used to." Vic turned to Silver. "How about you? Before I said it, did you ever hear the name Jonah Hex before?"
"I...don't think so?" A look of concern crossed her face. "I'm really not certain..."
“What’s your point, Vic?” Bruce snapped.
“What if I tell you all recorded history points at his dying-- sorry, his vanishing-- in 1875? That he disappeared in a flash of light from a saloon in front of two reputable witnesses and never returned? That the entirety of Hex's long bounty-hunting career from 1875 to 1904 no longer exists outside of the League database?"
“I’d say you were mistaken,” said Bruce, leaning forward.
“But you’re not, are you?” pressed Silver. “You’re the one who always has an answer. That’s what Bruce always said about you. That if there was anything worth knowing, you would know it. You wouldn’t come here with some half-baked theory. You’re saying history is changing?”
Vic nodded. “Not just for a man like Jonah Hex, either. Disappearances. You ever wonder why those who claim to have been abducted by aliens give the same story nearly every single time? Why those on LSD and other mind-altering drugs refer to the same mind-expanding environment?”
“Because they’re experiencing the same thing,” replied Bruce.
Renee cleared her throat. “I’ll cut to it. Events have changed in the past. People who died didn’t. They simply vanished. And if you look back, you find that all the recorded history we have on paper is beginning to fade, and people's memories are fading along with it. When we came across his name in the database, both Vic and I could only vaguely recall who Jonah Hex was. For Silver, his legend is already gone from her mind. Your memory of him is still fairly strong, Bruce, because you actually met him...it'll take longer for that to fade away. Pretty soon, any influence his presence had on your life will unravel, changing your own history without you knowing it. The timeline is shrinking, we’re losing events, and something is taking advantage of that fact and snatching people up in the chaos.”
“You need to tell the Justice League,” said Bruce.
“Vandal Savage was hunted down by an entity at your son’s wedding. Rip Hunter was murdered. Those in the know, those clued up in time, are being taken out. This is so much bigger than anything we’ve faced on the street,” said Renee.
“They’ll know what to do with the information you provide them. They always did and they always will,” said Bruce.
Vic pouted. “Huh. You’re not going to come with?”
“You’ve always been a good friend, Victor. But my body has betrayed me. I went out tonight and barely scraped through. I can’t do what I used to. I can’t help like I used to. I don’t want to distract from the situation, but I can give you the master teleportation codes for the Science Tower, and you can do what you need to do. But just… don’t tell anyone you saw me.”
Vic nodded and placed a hand on Bruce’s shoulder. “We’ve been through hell together, haven’t we?”
“Across nearly twenty ignominious years.”
“Stay strong, Bruce. And keep your head down. Something tells me this isn’t as straightforward to all the prisons busting open.”
What use was being a member of the premier peace keeping force the universe had ever seen when the universe was dying? When already, hundreds of thousands of worlds had been lost. And with each extinguished light, a Green Lantern lost their sector, their home worlds, their families.
Hundreds of Lanterns had been lost already, trying to save worlds from deletion. Whatever the Source Wall had held back was now running rampant across the galaxy, the wave of entropy annihilating everything in its path.
Sinestro had raised the alarm. Fall back to the Emerald Cove. And where was that exactly? Where else but the Mogo system, where countless sentient worlds took residence? It was a safe haven for the once near extinct race of living planets, and Mogo kept it safe. Nomadic in nature, they drifted from sector to sector, but when in doubt, they would be here, waiting to assist the group of heroes who saved them from genocide.
The Emerald Cove. Countless migratory worlds that could act as refugee camps that travelled the universe. Led by Mogo. A place the Green Lantern Corps came to take stock before going to war.
“I needch to get backch to mych hiveworld,” clicked TarKan-12, the insectoid Lantern who was known for butting heads with Kyle Rayner.
“We were ordered to fall back to this position,” said Soranik Natu, checking an injured Corpsman’s wounds over. Falling back under fire was one thing, but surviving such a confrontation was a near miracle.
“I don’tch care! Mych hive isch on the fringech of the galaxy--”
“You were ordered to fall back here, and here you stand.”
TarKan looked up as Sinestro descended side-by-side with the Green Lanterns who’d come back to him during the fall of Oa mere hours ago.
John Stewart and Katma Tui were no longer with them, having been redirected to needy worlds on the way back, but the trio who floated above head were still legendary in their own right-- Thaal Sinestro, Corps Leader and the indomitable will of the Green Lanterns; Kyle Rayner, the once and future Torchbearer; and Hank Henshaw, the man who wouldn’t stay dead. Songs were sung in their honour around the universe, but that was then, not now.
Sinestro was drained but determined. Now was not the time for conflict within the Green Lantern Corps. When Soranik saw her father, she finished up the hard-light bandage on her patient’s arm and rushed over to her old man, embracing the curmudgeonly, moustachioed Lantern tightly.
“I thought you were dead,” said Soranik.
“I would have been if not for the Earth Lanterns. Once again, they disobeyed a direct order…”
“…And yet here you stand, old man,” said Henshaw.
“That’s not enough, Corps Leaderch, my hive, my sector--” started TarKan.
Kyle cut him off with a curt raise of his hand. “Not now, 12--”
Tomar Tu shook his head sadly. “Lantern TarKan-12 has made a good point in your absence. If the universe is falling, we need to be out there, we need to protect those who--”
“The universe is dead. We are caught up in her death throes-- but that does not mean we give up hope!” said Sinestro.
Murmurs of agitation ran through the masses of Green Lanterns. They knew it was bad... but this?
“If the Source Wall has fallen, that means the entropic energy it held back flows freely through the galaxy. Oa is gone. But that suggests something much more sinister-- Oa was the centre of the universe. The linchpin. But if it’s gone and we still stand…”
“Then where’s the centre of the universe?” offered Tomar.
“Itch Earth, isn’t itch?” clicked TarKan.
Sinestro’s gaze lowered. “As ever. Yes.”
Unrest began to blossom. “How is that fair? How can that be? Our worlds fall, our sectors suffer, but it’s Earth, it’s always Earth, why do they cause all this horror?”
“It’s not about fair, it’s about doing what we can in dire circumstances; and we don’t know why it’s happened, but I’m from Earth-- and I can assure you, we had nothing to with causing this,” said Kyle.
“Of coursech you’d say thatch.”
Sinestro formed a massive pair of hands and clapped them together, silencing the crowd.
“Quiet! We are at our lowest. Countless Lanterns have fallen. No time for rings to recruit new Corpsmen. And yet we are needed. Now more than ever. But we will not abandon our posts. We face a battle on two fronts. The first-- we must venture to Earth, the new centre of the universe. That is where the last stand will take place, and that is where we are needed. And the second-- we will not abandon our charges. Most of our number will venture out into the universe, rescue as many as we can, and fall back to Earth. The Emerald Cove will disperse, acting as transport for those that can be rescued. Mogo--?”
“NOT ENOUGH,” boomed the sentient world.
“…What do you mean?” asked Kyle.
“THERE ARE MORE.”
Mogo piped the transmission throughout his cave systems, amplifying the distress call across his surface. His children’s bodies reacted the same way, the dozen or so sentient planets all relaying the message sent across the cosmos.
{This is Captain Comet of the LEGION, with a distress call across all known frequencies. We have managed to secure the continued existence of numerous worlds across the universe, but we need assistance if we are to keep the billions of lives we’ve secured safe. Our coordinates are encoded in this transmission. We cannot maintain our current speeds and outrun the destructive wave that is approaching from all corners. Please. We need help. And if you are a survivor, and you’ve made it this far, join our convoy, and we can ensure the continued existence of you all, for as long as there is air in my lungs, the LEGION will protect you.}
Sinestro grimaced. There were still heroes out in the universe, beside the Corps. “Three fronts then. Save who you can. Take them to Earth. Mogo, can you distribute your peoples evenly, giving equal cover to each surviving sector?”
“WE CAN TRY.”
That would have to be enough. “I will lead a team to the LEGION convoy. We will redirect them to Earth. If they have billions… they will be protected. In Brightest Day--!”
The response from the Green Lantern Corps was subdued. The oath was recited, but not with the exuberance they would have once held. The universe was dying. It was the Blackest Night. Would there be Brightest Days after? Or were they delaying the inevitable? Sinestro couldn’t linger on that thought process. Instead he sent orders out through the surviving rings.
“Dad… why aren’t I going with you?” asked Soranik, looking at her ring as it relayed her role in the coming operation, then back to her father.
“I… I cannot spare your expertise. I need you here, caring for the refugees… the survivors. You are the best doctor the Corps has, and now it is time to focus on that.”
“It’ll be okay, Soranik,” said Kyle.
Hank nodded in agreement. “We’ll keep your dad alive. We’ve done it once today, and we’re not going to let that all go to waste.”
Sinestro placed a hand on his daughter’s shoulder. “I promise you-- I’ll come back. Just keep those under our care alive, all right?”
Jason Todd blinked, completely forgetting where he was for a second, before his surroundings came into focus. He was stood on the solar deck, the side of the Watchtower’s main array that pointed toward the sun, and was marvelling at the swirl of almost liquid-like fire that washed over itself. The metamaterial the glass screen was constructed from prevented those watching the sight go blind, but it felt naughty, almost forbidden, to stare at the sun for so long without there being any repercussions.
“Do you have a minute?” asked Cyborg.
From his vantage point, Jason looked back at Vic Stone, whose body was currently sprawled out and multiplied across multiple stations. The sight was disconcerting, almost painful looking, but he knew that it was nothing to the human-cybernetic hub of all Justice League operations.
“Yeah, I got all the time in the world. What’s up?”
“The All-Stars are all logged as being in observation room 12, but the amount of data being processed is nominal at best. Can you check in on them? I’m fielding dozens of calls here, and I can’t spare a body.”
He shoved his hands into his jacket and headed toward the door, a grim expression on his face. “Yeah, they’re probably due a check-up anyway.”
Before he could get out the room, Cyborg called out after him. “Hey, man, are you all right?”
“Ah, I feel useless up here. But ever since my leg got messed up… ever since that whole fiasco at Lady Styx’s colosseum, I’d just get in the way on the streets. I know… I know I’m doing good work up here, training the kids, doing my thing, but when it all went down at the wedding yesterday, I put my mask on but it was just… what could I do?”
“You’re doing the right thing keeping the kids safe, Jason. You’re making a better future for them and for the world. Remember that, yeah?”
Jason smiled. “You learn your pep talks from the old man? Bats always knew what to say.”
“Thanks, dude, he always did leave an impression,” said Cyborg, before returning to his work.
Tim Wayne stood in the Clocktower at the centre of Gotham City, and analysed the information as it fed into their computer banks. The superhero community was out there, on the streets, across countless cities, across the planet, doing whatever they could to push back against the villains who’d swarmed out of the prisons when the doors all opened, and they’d done one hell of a job saving the world so far.
While he was useful out there as a symbol, to inspire fear and make the criminal element doubt their actions, perhaps surrender that little bit earlier, it was his brain that he needed to flex right now, not his legend. And after what happened in the Fortress of Solitude…
“Focus, Tim. Focus,” he hissed to himself.
Justice League alerts tumbled down the screen, and he filtered out all unnecessary information, until something clicked into place from a day or so before.
A prison break from the Slab. Warden Shilo Norman, long time keeper of the place, had asked for a Justice League investigation, but then everything had happened and now there was much more to be concerned about. That was one escape, when a day later there were hundreds of thousands occurring across the globe.
But the name of the escapee was of interest…
“Honey?”
Batman turned and saw his long-time girlfriend standing there. She’d once been Batgirl, before returning to the role that she’d made her own back when they were young teenagers. Spoiler had a mind as fast as his, able to make connections where others might miss them.
“Sorry, Steph. I was all up in my head.”
Spoiler approached and found Batman’s hand, gripping it tightly. “I got your call. What’s up?”
“I’m being summoned to the Watchtower, but I have an assignment for you. Look at this.”
The computer showed the face of the escapee from the Slab. Someone who’d been in a coma for over a decade-- nearly two. The kind of man who might have it in him, in his bag of tricks, to do exactly what the world had experienced the day before.
“The Key? But I thought he was in a coma?” said Spoiler.
“Apparently he woke up, and an entire medical team and security unit are dead because of it. The Slab is nearly wholly locked down, but can you head over there and check in with Shilo? I want to know exactly what happened. All the media uploads from his server are corrupted, so we don’t have the footage from the escape…”
“Okay, hon. I’ll get right on that,” said Spoiler.
Tim leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “Be careful. Call if you need anything.”
Spoiler winked and then twirled her cape. “Do I look like the kind of person who’ll need a team-up on this?”
“All right you whippersnappers, what the hell is going on in here?”
Jason entered observation room 12 and saw the Young All-Stars working away in silence.
Akihiko turned at the assistant principal of the All-Star Academy’s entrance and swallowed hard. He looked pale, a sheen of sweat covered his face, and he opened and closed his mouth nervously.
Jason laughed to himself. “I’ve never heard you kids be so-- oh.”
“Um, ‘oh’ what, sir” said Akihiko.
Jason snatched a batarang from the inside of his pocket and threw it through Spectrum, who immediately blipped out of existence and back again.
“Nnnn, kid, you think I don’t know the difference between your illusions and the real thing? I’m the one who’s been training you to focus on your god damn details! You might have followed a camera but you ain’t fooling me!”
“Now, where the hell are the others? Where have they gone?”
“S-sir, I can’t…” stuttered Akihiko.
Jason loomed over Lightning Bug and shook his head. “Akihiko. I know the stories that are told about me. I know how you entertain each other with tales of the Robin who went to the dark side. The one who broke bad. I know you know about the stuff I did when I wasn’t on the side of angels. I know all of it but I come into work every single god damn day because I’m trying to do right. So, when I tell you that you are pushing me to the edge of my patience and I need god damn answers, do you really think--”
“Ah!”
When Jason took a step forward and crowded the young hero even further, Akihiko threw his hands up and blasted the elder hero back into the wall with a beam of light.
Todd looked at the burn mark in his shirt then up at the son of Doctor Light, an amused smile on his face. “Colour me impressed. But if you don’t tell me what I wanna know, I’m gonna make you eat those blasts, y’hear?”
“please don’t expel me,” whispered Akihiko.
“What does that mean, ‘time is being erased’?” asked Doc Robotman.
The data map from the Time Sphere’s black box rewound and a light blinked into existence. It was the visualisation of a branch of time, a century in the earliest days of existence-- and then when it played back, it was gone.
“It’s a hardened database, meaning we can roll it back and forth to see what’s happened,” said Blue Beetle.
“The same as the Justice League’s database, but not just… living history. Beyond that,” said Doctor Light.
“Aaaaand that’s where we come in.”
Behind the science team, an authorised teleport had taken place. And now two faceless figures stood among them, ready to give one hell of a speech.
“…Question?” said Beetle.
The older Question, Vic Sage, pointed at himself, then pointed at the younger, Renee Montoya. “Who me? Or her?”
“…Yes,” replied Beetle.
“Correct answer,” said Renee.
With the pleasantries exchanged and over with, the Questions joined the big brains in front of the Time Sphere’s projection and began to murmur amongst themselves.
“Where have you been hiding yourselves? Not that I’m not happy to see you, we could use another set of eyes on this thing, and the whole conspiracy angle…”
Renee began to explain. “We noticed discrepancies between the Justice League database and the actual events of the world. The database said things happened that we can’t remember happening. Upon closer investigation…”
“…We pulled the thread and now we’re here,” said Vic.
“Okay, okay, but that doesn’t help explain the future vision I had. The end of the world. Or, well, the darkness that comes with it,” said Hourman.
“Well that sounds heavy,” said Vic.
“Yeah, it’s pretty god damn terrible,” said Rick Tyler.
Jessie Quick placed a hand on her husband’s shoulder. “Yeah, so we have all this intelligence, we have a theory, and we have evidence to back it up… isn’t it time we took it to the rest of the Justice League? And… and check in on the kids?”
You couldn’t really tell, but Vic Sage was smiling. “You just said the magic words. Justice League assemble.”
Flamebird landed in Lena Luthor’s office but it was a disaster site, with furniture singed and strewn everywhere. The windows had already healed themselves, their mutable quality helpful when their owner threw a fit, even if it was for the most heart breaking of reasons.
“Lena? Lena, are you there?” he asked.
The door to Lena’s laboratory-- the dimensional tesseract that immaterially appended the edge of her office and the air space over Metropolis-- was open, and there were sounds emerging from inside. Kon followed the sounds, and found Lena working above a device he recognised, but it was incomplete and nowhere near being ready for us.
“Lena. It’s Kon. I… what’s happened? Where’s Kara?”
She didn’t look up from her worktop, but her frustration was palpable. “Batman says she’s dead. That she sacrificed herself to save the world. But I saw the footage from the Fortress. She’s not dead. She can’t be dead. That’s not-- not--”
Abruptly, she dropped her screwdriver then swiped it off the worktop, clutching her face in despair as her sadness washed over her.
Kon rushed over and embraced her, and Lena clung to him while she sobbed.
“She-- she-- can’t-- be-- be gone--”
“Then she’s not. If you say she’s not gone she’s not gone; what can we do?” said Kon.
“The-- the Phantom Zone portal folded in on itself while she was inside the Fortress… she’s trapped in there…fighting… fighting whatever it is inside there,” said Lena.
“You’re trying to build a projector here, I recognise the technology.”
“But it’s… there’s more to it than I can… with what…”
A siren blared throughout the lab. Something was happening down in the lobby of L-Tower, and by the looks of the energy signatures currently being analysed, it was nothing good…
“She isn’t answering my prayers. Something is wrong. Something is terribly wrong. So I need to go find her. I need to go to Heaven.”
Doctor Fate had assembled a handful of the heroes she trusted the most in the world, and gathered them in the Tower of Fate, the cross-dimensional stronghold she acquired when she’d accepted the vestments of Nabu.
“Okay, so how do you recommend that?” asked Natasha Irons, better known to the world as the technological titan Steel.
“And ignoring the, uh, theological implications?” added Courtney Whitmore-Batson, the cosmic rod wielding protector of Opal City, known as Starwoman.
Traci Thirteen shook her head, pulling the helm of Nabu off as she spoke. “There are… there has to be… a spell. I’ll find the spell. I have her sword, it’ll be enough. But… I don’t know what I’m going to find up there. I need… help. I need you.”
“I’ll call the hubbie, maybe he has access to something on that rock of his,” said Courtney, pulling her phone out her pocket and dialling.
Natasha put her arm around Traci’s shoulders and gave her a reassuring squeeze. “We’ll find her, hon; okay? We’ll find her.”
“She said she’d come home to me… but when I saw her sword…”
“She was letting you know she needed help. And she trusted you enough to send up that flare. I’m not going to let you down, and neither is Courtney. We’ll put our heads together and come up with a solution.”
Zauriel spat a heavy globule of blood out as the lion-headed angels of the host wiped their knuckles clean. They were mindless automatons under the thrall of the Key, and the other thing that kept her resistant to the villain’s control was the fact she was different to the rest of her brothers and sisters, and that difference was what the villain wanted to exploit.
“You can end all your suffering if you give me what I want,” growled the Key.
“Y-you know th-that’s not g-gonna happen.”
“You hold the blueprint of creation upon your flesh. It’ll take some work but I can skin it off your back, or you can relinquish it. I don’t want to hurt you any more than my heavies have all ready, but if it comes to that, we’ll gristle away all the rubbish and get to the good meat.”
Zauriel raised her head defiantly. She’d been given the celestial duty of safeguarding the blueprint of reality by the Presence itself. She’d relinquished a slither of it once, back when a deadly threat nearly destroyed all reality, and used it to fix every piece of damage done, but it took everything out of her.
In fact, the damage done to her was so severe that the body she had back then-- namely male-- was no longer something she could wear. So she went with this flesh suit, this version of herself, and it had stuck since.
“Y-you make me sound like a steak, you nebbish piece of trash. And those ‘h-heavies’? They’re my kin. And when they’re free of your spell, there will be hell to pay.”
The Key leaned back in his throne. “That’s not very lady-like. That’s not very angel-like at all.”
Hal Jordan was checking on Guy Gardner’s arm, where a brand new limb compromised out of energy had sprouted. Batman lurked somewhere at the edge of the room, restless, an attribute he didn’t share with his predecessor, while the Flash tapped his foot unrelentingly. Power Girl sat alone, staring at her hands, wringing them together as she considered what happened to Superwoman mere hours ago. A friend-- a sister-- lost. She wouldn’t let her sacrifice be in vain.
Across the room, Nightwing and Batwoman were together, while Wonder Woman-- Cassie Sandsmark-- listened intently while sat next to Arsenal-- Cissie Jones, formerly known as Arrowette. Others had gathered too, taking a brief respite from the intense nine hours since the prisons had spilled open. Zachary Zatara’s top hat had a hole in the centre, just above his hair, that his husband Red Devil was currently sticking his fingers through.
Stood with members of the Justice Society were Hawkman and Hawkwoman, along with Captain Marvel who was currently—somewhat anachronistically—on his cellphone talking to his wife. Jade flexed her fingers, looking down at the Starheart ring on her finger that crackled in proximity to the Blue Lantern. The two power sources didn’t much like each other, considering their origins.
Cyborg addressed the gathered members of the de facto Justice League team, updating them on the current situation.
“Ground teams have rounded up most of the escapees, but housing them again is the biggest problem.”
“Well, I can tell ya that temporary Phantom Zone imprisonment isn’t an option. We don’t know if we can keep the portals closed. They’d just fly out again,” said Blue Lantern, extending the fingers on his new energy arm out and then in, making a fist and marvelling at the latest feat his cosmic-energy infused body was capable of.
Cyborg nodded. “I’ve been discussing a solution with the lunar council. There’s a disused outpost located under the Watchtower’s main pylon. With a few hours concentrated work by my doubles, we can make transform it into a rudimentary holding facility. It’ll mean strip-mining the Watchtower’s lower levels, but I can get it done, and it takes the pressure off Earth authorities.”
“Have we heard any word from Barry? Diana?” asked Hal.
In the corner of the room, the Flash, better known as Wally West, shook his head. “Barry’s in the future with his family, happily retired. And Diana--”
“I may have some bad news,” said Hourman, entering the briefing room accompanied by his wife Jesse Quick, the Atom, Blue Beetle, Doctor Light and others from the Science Tower.
“Rick? You’re up?” said Captain Marvel. He beamed, even amongst the chaos that unfolded across the world. Hourman’s seizure and comatose state had left the Justice Society on edge, but they hadn’t had a chance to check in on their teammates or headquarters since this whole crisis had begun.
“Yeah, now wasn’t the time for napping,” said Hourman.
“Bad news?” pressed the Flash.
Before Hourman could answer, another voice piped up. “Time is shrinking. Events are changing without warning. It’s why Booster got taken out. Vandal Savage too.”
Behind the group of scientists stood the Questions, Vic waving as everyone looked at him, while Renee stood behind him, looking uncomfortable at the attention.
“How did you--?” started Hourman.
The Question shrugged. “Read a couple of books, how about you?”
“We analysed Rip Hunter’s temporal black box,” replied Blue Beetle.
“That’s one way, sure,” said the male Question. “Uh, we were told to come to you… because this is end of the world type stuff.”
Batman almost asked, ‘told by whom?’ but tamped the question down. “We’re beginning to understand that. All the prisons breaking open was a distraction from the main event. If this is a temporal attack, they’ve taken out those best positioned to put an end to it.”
Jordan’s ring buzzed and said <Incoming transmission,> then Kyle Rayner’s head appeared in front of the two members of the Corps, concern written all over his face. “Hal-- ! Guy-- ! Are you reading me--?”
“We’re here, kid. We’re with the Justice League. What’s wrong?”
Kyle spoke breathlessly, his face enlarged so everyone in the briefing room could see. “We’ve put out a broadcast over all communication channels-- there’s a wall of entropic energy traveling across the universe, destroying everything it touches, and all the escapees out here, they’re causing even more damage on top of that!”
Cyborg turned to the others. “The Source Wall fell. Fastbak went to see if he could help the New Gods with containment… he must have failed…”
“All our readings confirm that the cosmology of the universe has changed again-- like it’s shifted on its entire axis! Oa is destroyed but it isn’t the centre of the universe anymore-- Earth is! We need to get as many survivors to the Milky Way, evacuate as many worlds, and get them to our solar system-- we’ll have to make our-- “
The transmission was interrupted when an almighty, thunderous explosion shattered the construct of Kyle’s face, and smoke filled the spot it impacted. As the smoke cleared, a figure became visible, kneeling down and staring at the floor.
“Who the hell are you?” asked Green Lantern, his ring raised and crackling with destructive energy. He was joined in this gesture by Blue Lantern, his new arm, constructed entirely from the cerulean energy that coursed through his body, throbbing threateningly when levelled in the newcomer’s direction.
The figure, himself crackling with a hypnotic blend of white and black energy, stood from his kneeling position, his hands raised in surrender. The Ying and Yang motif across his costume was clear, half his body stark white, while the other half pitch black, the symbol itself swirling in the centre of his chest. One eye was empty while the other twinkled with an otherworldly light, and his face was not visible beneath mask he wore. Finally, bands of red circled his wrists and ankles, and he was built larger than most of the men gathered to witness his arrival.
“Thank the Lords I made it-- I’ve come so far to warn you!”
“Guys, this gentleman is exuding a massive amount of mystical energy,” whispered Zachary Zatanna. The magician’s hands moved quickly, containment spells flowing from his fingertips to the area around the newcomer, while the others took steps to surround him. “Niatnoc, niatnoc niatnoc niatnoc…”
Without any patience, Blue Lantern stepped forward. “Answer his question. Who are you?”
“My name is Equinox-- my brother is Libra-- we are-- were-- agents of balance. But he, he’s joined forces with an immense cosmic monster-- they want to tilt the balance of reality! I-- we-- need to stop him before they kill anyone else!”
“Your brother look like this?” asked Hourman, as Doctor Light projected a vision of the figure that murdered Rip Hunter, and attacked the Atom down in the Science Tower. The details were blurry, extrapolated from the black box and Palmer’s first hand description, but it did the job.
“That’s him! He’s become unstable! Partnered up with a monster unlike any you’ve faced before!”
“Try us,” said Blue Lantern.
“He’s called the Infinite Man, he’s from the future, but it’s not as simple as that. He… he travels backwards and forwards through time, normally without affecting the events of it, but after a thousand lifetimes of solitude he’s been driven mad! With Libra, they hope to destroy this timeline and create a new one, in their image!”
“And you have a plan to stop him?” asked Hourman.
“I know how to contain the Infinite Man. I have future knowledge that I can share with you, snatched from his timeline before it fell… we need to trap him, to stop his movements. If we don’t… this timeline will die in flames!”
It was supposed to be the wedding of the decade when Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson had finally decided to get married! The heroes of the world were invited, and as a special gift to the happy couple, in one night, every wanted criminal, every supervillain across the world, was taken down! With this new era of peace established, the wedding goes forward, but they don’t know what’s coming next…
THE DC2 UNIVERSE PRESENTS…
The villainous Key, long forgotten after his defeat at the hands of the Flash and the Justice League, was awoken from a near decades-long coma by the mysterious Libra and a purple-robed master. At the behest of his saviours, the Key used his powers, expanded a thousand-fold by the experiences that sent him into the coma, to open every door in existence-- including the doors to the cells inside every prison across the universe, be it Arkham Island and Iron Heights, Takron Galtos and the Sciencells of Oa, and even the Source Wall!
…AN ADVENTURE OVER A DECADE IN THE MAKING…
From a moment of infinite peace to a time of infinite crisis, the universe underwent a catastrophic change, and the heroes who vowed to keep it safe have just realised that they have their work cut out for them-- the Source Wall kept back an unrelenting entropic wave of destruction that already displaced trillions of lives across the universe in a matter of hours, and is headed to Earth with every passing second!
…THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF AN ENTIRE UNIVERSE…
Some of the world’s greatest heroes have already fallen, and many more stand on the precipice of certain doom, while old faces from the earliest days of this age of heroes return from the shadows in this time of need, but when there doesn’t seem to be any hope of survival, how will the heroes of the universe survive in the midst of …
PART FOUR: “LENGTHS OF STRING”
Story by Susan Hillwig, Don Walsh and House Of Mystery
Written by House Of Mystery with Susan Hillwig (and thanks to Don Walsh)
Cover taken from concept designs by Brandon Herren
Story by Susan Hillwig, Don Walsh and House Of Mystery
Written by House Of Mystery with Susan Hillwig (and thanks to Don Walsh)
Cover taken from concept designs by Brandon Herren
As the daughter of the world’s greatest villain, Lena Luthor understood pain. She’d been abandoned by her father at a young age as his obsession with a strange visitor to Metropolis took hold, and she had long learned to quell its effects. But in this moment, stood in her lab in the heart of L-Tower, her heart raced for some unknown reason, a giant chasm opening up in her chest that caused her to gasp for breath.
METROPOLIS:
The wristwatch she wore, the one that monitored her vitals could detect no physical reason for her heart to suddenly ache so much, but that didn’t stop that being fact that it did.
L-Corp’s private security force was supporting the Metropolis Police Department in securing the city, and they’d thankfully secured Stryker’s Island before the escapees could get to shore. Now they were just buzzing overhead, protecting the citizens as best they could. Next steps included a plan to roll out support to neighbouring cities, but they hadn’t finalised that yet.
She’d been so busy monitoring the mecha suits her team were wearing, that she hadn’t noticed the alarm buzzing in the corner, the one that monitored the Moon colony she’d helped develop with Power Girl and Superwoman, as well as the two Fortresses of Solitude Kara maintained across the world.
Finally, after becoming comfortable with the fact that Metropolis was safe, Lena headed deeper into her lab, and the flashing red alarm drew her attention. She worked in silent confusion, trying to understand why the Antarctica-based Fortress of Solitude was no longer recognised as existing.
Crystalline information lines relayed the events of the last hour to her monitor:
The Phantom Zone had opened. Superwoman was on the scene immediately, fighting against Faora and the mutated, parasite-ridden escapees that emerged from the event horizon of the zone.
Blue Lantern arrived, dropping Batman off in the technology centre, and while the Lantern went to help Kara, the vigilante began securing the doomsday weapons that were stored there.
When Faora demolished the Phantom Zone projector, Batman immediately began rewiring the crystalline control panels, and when he was finished, they transformed the Fortress into a massive Phantom Zone projector, folding in on itself and--
“Oh, no.”
--Lena’s cheeks were lined with tears. The Fortress of Solitude folded in on itself, with Superwoman still inside, wrestling with a thing from a Kryptonian’s nightmares. Then the information feed blinked to black.
And it was over and done with.
“No no no no no!”
Lena smashed her fists into the bank of computers before her, hard light armour forming around her hands that caused the entire wall to fold into itself under her might. She sobbed, screamed, but before she could figure out what to do next, a proximity alarm went.
Two figures stood in her office. One was causing the energy monitor to spike madly, while the second was faint, barely there, like a ghost.
“Who…?”
Lena allowed her armour to spread over her body and rushed to her office, where Batman and Blue Lantern stood. Lantern was clutching the stump where his left arm had once been, a pained expression on his face, while Batman stepped forward when Lena entered.
“Lena-- Kara, she--”
Lena swung a massive fist down and demolished her desk. “I know what happened!”
“The broad stopped something from getting out that could make this whole situation worse,” said Guy. He was pale, but the wound was sealed, and there was an odd shimmer where his arm should be, a weird cerulean outline, as if some phantom limb was present where a flesh and blood one had been previously. “No one deserves to go like that, but the world is coming to pieces right now. She held it together for longer.”
“Don’t waste your time here then. Go save it. Because my world just ended.”
Batman went to say something but knew that nothing would make this situation better. Instead, he tapped Gardner on his good shoulder and the two men flew out of the tower and headed to the next fire that needed putting out.
Lena screamed, and her world went red, but before she could do anything she regretted, a flaming figure floated at her window. She glanced up, hoping that it was Kara, but instead Kon-El
WATCHTOWER:
“Alan? Alan, can you hear me?”
After their friend’s apparent seizure, Spectrum-- Jessica, the energy wielding daughter of Hal and Chloe Jordan-- along with the rest of her elite Young All-Star class, sat around Meteor’s medbed as the machines ran their analysis cycles and tried to figure out what caused him.
Meteor was the son of Captain Comet and an unknown mother, his grey-skin and large, black eyes-- deep as any ocean-- signalling to the world that she wasn’t of this one. As they opened, Jessica exhaled, relieved her friend was stirring from the catatonia that had descended.
“Whuhh… whaaa?” he mumbled.
Jessica placed a hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay? You passed out. Cyborg got you down here and we’ve been waiting for you to wake up.”
He rubbed the discomfort from the corners of his eyes with balled fists, then looked around. His movements increased in frequency, he was twitchy, suddenly agitated. “My dad, he… we share a telepathic link…”
“Uh, take it slow, Al, please,” said Lightning Bug, raising his hands.
Akihiko Kord-Hoshi, son of Ted and Kimiyo Kord-Hoshi, was young and small for his age, but more than made up for it with his genius level intellect and ability to cast hard light illusions. He was quiet, introverted, took more after his mother than his father, and was struggling to find the offense application of his powers. He was trying though, and was determined to become the best he possibly could.
“Sorry, Akihiko. It’s just… I sensed… maybe… maybe it’s better if I showed you.”
“Hey dude, if you’re gonna start doing some weird alien psychic link kinkiness, I don’t wanna be involved,” said Cat.
Kyle-- no second name that he’d shared so far with his friends-- was about eighteen years old, an African-American male who stood second tallest in the group. He was lithe, with the build of a gymnast or professional dancer, and had a physical awareness the rest of his young classmates lacked. With light brown hair and bright green eyes, his costume took inspiration from those worn through the years by both Selina Kyle and Thomas Blake, causing those around to constantly question who exactly he was taking his namesake from.
“Shut up, Cat,” barked Minuteman.
This young man was the youngest of the class, though he appeared fifteen. The circumstances of Jonathan Tyler’s birth meant he could generate short bursts of both speed and strength, but with the added side effect of age spurts that left him looking fifteen when he was coasting towards his tenth birthday. Thankfully, his maturity and intelligence levelled up along with his age, so the doctor’s concerns about developmental issues were assuaged early on. It didn’t terrify his parents any less though.
“Oh! Oh, I’m sorry, Minuteboy,” Kyle shook his head and pointed a clawed finger at the younger Tyler, “but you know I don’t like people rattling around in my--”
“Guys, c’mon,” mumbled Lightning Bug.
“Cat, why is it you’re always an ass when Carrie isn’t here?” asked Stars, sticking a pin in Cat’s bluster.
Patrician Whitmore was a young, energetic dancer; slim of body and face, with bright red hair and freckles scattered across her cheeks. While she was the shortest team member she was also the fieriest, and as if to punctuate her point the Nth Metal Cosmic Bracers-- a redesign and improvement of the old cosmic converter belt, courtesy of her father-- worn on the wrists crackled with celestial energy.
“Guys, guys, guys, focus, c’mon,” said Stripe, repeating Lightning Bug’s sentiment..
Marcus Reyes was the tallest of the group, with broad shoulders and the intimidating promise that he hadn’t yet fully-filled out. A Puerto Rican with short black hair and darker black eyes; he wore the old Liberty Bell belt buckle-- the same one that empowered the original Liberty Belle back in World War II-- that provided him the ability to unleash sonic bursts and enhanced strength when needed.
Alan had finally caught up with himself and with Jessica’s help scooted around the edge of the bed, so his feet touched the floor. “No. I’m not talking psychic links. I know your preference toward secrecy Cat, I wouldn’t breach that. No, I’m talking this:”
Holding out his hands, he generated a sphere of energy. The blue, fluctuating light was similar to the explosive bolts he’d usually cast, but as he concentrated it took on a shape, then a face, and it was one that held some resemblance to the young man casting it.
Captain Comet’s head spoke quickly, the same speech heard across the universe these last few hours:
{This is Captain Comet of the LEGION, with a distress call across all known frequencies. We have managed to secure the continued existence of numerous worlds across the universe, but we need assistance if we are to keep the billions of lives we’ve secured safe. Our coordinates are encoded in this transmission. We cannot maintain our current speeds and outrun the destructive wave that is approaching from all corners. Please. We need help. And if you are a survivor, and you’ve made it this far, join our convoy, and we can ensure the continued existence of you all, for as long as there is air in my lungs, the LEGION will protect you.}
“My dad needs help,” said Alan, once the projection faded.
“B-but he’s all the way in space, what can we do?” asked Akihiko.
“We need to tell the faculty; they’ll decide who goes and they’ll help,” said Jonathan.
“All Justice League teams are focused on the immediate solar system,” said Alan, slowly.
“What do you mean?” asked Patricia.
“There are groups across the universe-- the Green Lanterns, LEGION-- who have the resources to answer my father’s distress signal. Current priority for the Justice League is all solar system-based crime. There are hundreds of superheroes that call the Milky Way home, but there aren’t any to spare to go off into space… not now…”
“We’ll be grounded. Told we can’t go,” said Jessica.
“Go? You’re mad. We can’t go off into space,” said Kyle.
“We’re the only ones who can!” said Jessica.
“What the hell do you mean?” said Marcus.
Jessica was nodding now, finding a purpose, doubling down on it. When her mom saw this behaviour in her, she said it reminded her of Hal, of her father, how he used to talk himself into some hare-brained scheme to save the world. If he believed it to be the right thing to do, then he would do it. Always. Never backing down. Her costume throbbed emerald, all other colours faded as she mainlined the one thing her family was known for-- bone headed willpower.
“Alan can track his dad down easily, their mental connection links them across the universe, remember? Everyone else is on Earth, doing their thing, but we’re just scanning police channels, fielding calls. Cyborg has algorithims for all that-- we’re just being kept busy! We can go, we can go help where they can’t!”
“You’re mad. You’re absolutely mental,” said Kyle.
“What, you think we should just let them die?” said Jessica.
Alan nodded. “We need a Boom Tube generator, but Principal Free would never let us take one.”
“You’re crazy,” repeated Kyle.
“Are you just going to stand there and be a dick or are you going to come up with--”
Kyle grinned, and held in his hand a familiar looking object. “You didn’t let me finish. You’re crazy to think I didn’t pilfer this from Big ol Barda’s office before we teleported up here.”
“You stole a Boom Tube generator,” said Jessica, her eyes lighting up.
“I didn’t want to be stuck up here all god damn week with you kids,” said Kyle.
“There are internal sensors that monitor all incomings and outgoings, they’ll know if we Boom out of here,” said Akihiko.
Alan shook his head. “I can create a psychic blip that’ll cover the time it takes for the tunnel to open and close so no one hears, and I know you’ve thought about how to deactivate those sensors, Lightning Bug.”
“Hey, don’t go running around in my head,” said Akihiko, covering his ears.
“No, no, I mean, you’re the smartest kids in school, you think about everything, so you must have some idea, right?”
Lightning Bug looked at all his friends and then shrugged. “Maybe…”
GOTHAM CITY:
Over the last few months there had been other oddities reported in the criminal underworld. First came the disappearance of the vigilante known as the Shrike, the white-clad entity who slipped in and out of the shadows seemingly at random, his appearances always marking the vicious takedown of members of the ‘Gotham Underground’-- those of a criminal disposition who thought they could act without repercussion in a city marked by the Bat.
In the wake of the Shrike’s disappearance, the Dark Knight began a brand-new blitz on crime that left the remaining those of a devious disposition reeling. No matter which direction they turned, the monsters and madmen of the city were routed by the Caped Crusader and his allies, and soon enough the old guard of the underground were removed.
Of course, the two faceless vigilantes who came to the city in the wake of this siege on crime knew the truth. The first Batman had retired, his body finally betraying him after a lifetime spent opposing evil. Shrike, better known to those in the know as Tim Wayne, had assumed his father’s mantle, and from the ashes of a great man’s retirement came a new version of the Bat, one with the mental prowess and mettle to do the old man proud.
That felt like an eternity ago, even though it had only been the better part of a year. Now, in the apartment the top of Wayne Tower-- long left dormant-- the old man had returned, his body wracked by the disease that had caused his retirement. His wife was with him every step of the way, but this wasn’t their moment.
The Questions stood before their audience of two, the hastily assembled conspiracy wall tying together events from the past all the way to the present day.
“Time is shrinking. Or… being eaten. Choose your metaphor. They all apply.”
Vic Sage spoke quickly, sharply, outlining the facts with the same journalistic flair that made him the scourge of Hub City’s underworld, the same flair that led to his near-death at the hands of the criminal element.
Renee Montoya kept the facts closer to her chest, a habit hard to break from her days as a Gotham City police detective. If Vic was all id, she was all ego, and the audience they had before them? Pure super-ego, critically analysing the events like any good detective should.
“How do you know this?” asked Bruce. He sat with his wife, her hands surrounding is own, but they could see him struggle to control the tremors that riddled his body.
It still astonished that Bruce Wayne had been the Bat back when Montoya had a gun and shield. She always had an impression of him, clearly distaff to his true self. The playboy persona, the wimp, the fop. Later on, when she wore a mask and they came to know each other’s true faces, he had revealed a key fact about himself-- that the man who raised him after the death of his parents, Alfred Pennyworth, had taught him all about masks and when to wear them.
Renee had discussed the mask of ‘Bruce Wayne’ and the mask of ‘the Batman’ with Vic at length. They were both falsehoods, in their own way. Beneath both there was a private man with his own drives separate to the illusion he wielded.
Montoya answered the question. How did they know? “A keen eye. It started with an argument.”
“Doesn’t it always?” offered Vic.
Montoya smiled. Sage had saved her life when she was on the edge, given her purpose, and in return she’d done the same for him. When his lung cancer tore the life from him, she dragged him across a wasteland, all the way to the gates of the mystical city of Nanda Parbat, where, unbeknownst to them both, a man capable of curing his cancer resided. They’d worked together since, and apart, but when they needed one another, they’d always find a way back.
“Anyway. In an attempt to settle said argument, we found there historical inconsistencies between the Justice League database and recorded history. Remember what everyone is told when they first board a Justice League base? Martian wetware is psychic in nature, so the content can never change. A database that cannot contain a lie. So, in theory…”
“…A database impervious to changes in the time stream,” finished Bruce.
“You’re following. And in addition, every time travel event is recorded for future reference, and once a Leaguer, always a Leaguer. Do you know who Jonah Hex is?”
Bruce arched an eyebrow. “The bounty hunter from the Old West. We’ve met.”
“Of course you have. A few other Leaguers over the years have met him as well. Matter of fact, there's a great deal of information on Jonah Hex's life in the database, up to and including his death in 1904. His legend survives to this very day... or at least it used to." Vic turned to Silver. "How about you? Before I said it, did you ever hear the name Jonah Hex before?"
"I...don't think so?" A look of concern crossed her face. "I'm really not certain..."
“What’s your point, Vic?” Bruce snapped.
“What if I tell you all recorded history points at his dying-- sorry, his vanishing-- in 1875? That he disappeared in a flash of light from a saloon in front of two reputable witnesses and never returned? That the entirety of Hex's long bounty-hunting career from 1875 to 1904 no longer exists outside of the League database?"
“I’d say you were mistaken,” said Bruce, leaning forward.
“But you’re not, are you?” pressed Silver. “You’re the one who always has an answer. That’s what Bruce always said about you. That if there was anything worth knowing, you would know it. You wouldn’t come here with some half-baked theory. You’re saying history is changing?”
Vic nodded. “Not just for a man like Jonah Hex, either. Disappearances. You ever wonder why those who claim to have been abducted by aliens give the same story nearly every single time? Why those on LSD and other mind-altering drugs refer to the same mind-expanding environment?”
“Because they’re experiencing the same thing,” replied Bruce.
Renee cleared her throat. “I’ll cut to it. Events have changed in the past. People who died didn’t. They simply vanished. And if you look back, you find that all the recorded history we have on paper is beginning to fade, and people's memories are fading along with it. When we came across his name in the database, both Vic and I could only vaguely recall who Jonah Hex was. For Silver, his legend is already gone from her mind. Your memory of him is still fairly strong, Bruce, because you actually met him...it'll take longer for that to fade away. Pretty soon, any influence his presence had on your life will unravel, changing your own history without you knowing it. The timeline is shrinking, we’re losing events, and something is taking advantage of that fact and snatching people up in the chaos.”
“You need to tell the Justice League,” said Bruce.
“Vandal Savage was hunted down by an entity at your son’s wedding. Rip Hunter was murdered. Those in the know, those clued up in time, are being taken out. This is so much bigger than anything we’ve faced on the street,” said Renee.
“They’ll know what to do with the information you provide them. They always did and they always will,” said Bruce.
Vic pouted. “Huh. You’re not going to come with?”
“You’ve always been a good friend, Victor. But my body has betrayed me. I went out tonight and barely scraped through. I can’t do what I used to. I can’t help like I used to. I don’t want to distract from the situation, but I can give you the master teleportation codes for the Science Tower, and you can do what you need to do. But just… don’t tell anyone you saw me.”
Vic nodded and placed a hand on Bruce’s shoulder. “We’ve been through hell together, haven’t we?”
“Across nearly twenty ignominious years.”
“Stay strong, Bruce. And keep your head down. Something tells me this isn’t as straightforward to all the prisons busting open.”
THE EMERALD COVE:
What use was being a member of the premier peace keeping force the universe had ever seen when the universe was dying? When already, hundreds of thousands of worlds had been lost. And with each extinguished light, a Green Lantern lost their sector, their home worlds, their families.
Hundreds of Lanterns had been lost already, trying to save worlds from deletion. Whatever the Source Wall had held back was now running rampant across the galaxy, the wave of entropy annihilating everything in its path.
Sinestro had raised the alarm. Fall back to the Emerald Cove. And where was that exactly? Where else but the Mogo system, where countless sentient worlds took residence? It was a safe haven for the once near extinct race of living planets, and Mogo kept it safe. Nomadic in nature, they drifted from sector to sector, but when in doubt, they would be here, waiting to assist the group of heroes who saved them from genocide.
The Emerald Cove. Countless migratory worlds that could act as refugee camps that travelled the universe. Led by Mogo. A place the Green Lantern Corps came to take stock before going to war.
“I needch to get backch to mych hiveworld,” clicked TarKan-12, the insectoid Lantern who was known for butting heads with Kyle Rayner.
“We were ordered to fall back to this position,” said Soranik Natu, checking an injured Corpsman’s wounds over. Falling back under fire was one thing, but surviving such a confrontation was a near miracle.
“I don’tch care! Mych hive isch on the fringech of the galaxy--”
“You were ordered to fall back here, and here you stand.”
TarKan looked up as Sinestro descended side-by-side with the Green Lanterns who’d come back to him during the fall of Oa mere hours ago.
John Stewart and Katma Tui were no longer with them, having been redirected to needy worlds on the way back, but the trio who floated above head were still legendary in their own right-- Thaal Sinestro, Corps Leader and the indomitable will of the Green Lanterns; Kyle Rayner, the once and future Torchbearer; and Hank Henshaw, the man who wouldn’t stay dead. Songs were sung in their honour around the universe, but that was then, not now.
Sinestro was drained but determined. Now was not the time for conflict within the Green Lantern Corps. When Soranik saw her father, she finished up the hard-light bandage on her patient’s arm and rushed over to her old man, embracing the curmudgeonly, moustachioed Lantern tightly.
“I thought you were dead,” said Soranik.
“I would have been if not for the Earth Lanterns. Once again, they disobeyed a direct order…”
“…And yet here you stand, old man,” said Henshaw.
“That’s not enough, Corps Leaderch, my hive, my sector--” started TarKan.
Kyle cut him off with a curt raise of his hand. “Not now, 12--”
Tomar Tu shook his head sadly. “Lantern TarKan-12 has made a good point in your absence. If the universe is falling, we need to be out there, we need to protect those who--”
“The universe is dead. We are caught up in her death throes-- but that does not mean we give up hope!” said Sinestro.
Murmurs of agitation ran through the masses of Green Lanterns. They knew it was bad... but this?
“If the Source Wall has fallen, that means the entropic energy it held back flows freely through the galaxy. Oa is gone. But that suggests something much more sinister-- Oa was the centre of the universe. The linchpin. But if it’s gone and we still stand…”
“Then where’s the centre of the universe?” offered Tomar.
“Itch Earth, isn’t itch?” clicked TarKan.
Sinestro’s gaze lowered. “As ever. Yes.”
Unrest began to blossom. “How is that fair? How can that be? Our worlds fall, our sectors suffer, but it’s Earth, it’s always Earth, why do they cause all this horror?”
“It’s not about fair, it’s about doing what we can in dire circumstances; and we don’t know why it’s happened, but I’m from Earth-- and I can assure you, we had nothing to with causing this,” said Kyle.
“Of coursech you’d say thatch.”
Sinestro formed a massive pair of hands and clapped them together, silencing the crowd.
“Quiet! We are at our lowest. Countless Lanterns have fallen. No time for rings to recruit new Corpsmen. And yet we are needed. Now more than ever. But we will not abandon our posts. We face a battle on two fronts. The first-- we must venture to Earth, the new centre of the universe. That is where the last stand will take place, and that is where we are needed. And the second-- we will not abandon our charges. Most of our number will venture out into the universe, rescue as many as we can, and fall back to Earth. The Emerald Cove will disperse, acting as transport for those that can be rescued. Mogo--?”
“NOT ENOUGH,” boomed the sentient world.
“…What do you mean?” asked Kyle.
“THERE ARE MORE.”
Mogo piped the transmission throughout his cave systems, amplifying the distress call across his surface. His children’s bodies reacted the same way, the dozen or so sentient planets all relaying the message sent across the cosmos.
{This is Captain Comet of the LEGION, with a distress call across all known frequencies. We have managed to secure the continued existence of numerous worlds across the universe, but we need assistance if we are to keep the billions of lives we’ve secured safe. Our coordinates are encoded in this transmission. We cannot maintain our current speeds and outrun the destructive wave that is approaching from all corners. Please. We need help. And if you are a survivor, and you’ve made it this far, join our convoy, and we can ensure the continued existence of you all, for as long as there is air in my lungs, the LEGION will protect you.}
Sinestro grimaced. There were still heroes out in the universe, beside the Corps. “Three fronts then. Save who you can. Take them to Earth. Mogo, can you distribute your peoples evenly, giving equal cover to each surviving sector?”
“WE CAN TRY.”
That would have to be enough. “I will lead a team to the LEGION convoy. We will redirect them to Earth. If they have billions… they will be protected. In Brightest Day--!”
The response from the Green Lantern Corps was subdued. The oath was recited, but not with the exuberance they would have once held. The universe was dying. It was the Blackest Night. Would there be Brightest Days after? Or were they delaying the inevitable? Sinestro couldn’t linger on that thought process. Instead he sent orders out through the surviving rings.
“Dad… why aren’t I going with you?” asked Soranik, looking at her ring as it relayed her role in the coming operation, then back to her father.
“I… I cannot spare your expertise. I need you here, caring for the refugees… the survivors. You are the best doctor the Corps has, and now it is time to focus on that.”
“It’ll be okay, Soranik,” said Kyle.
Hank nodded in agreement. “We’ll keep your dad alive. We’ve done it once today, and we’re not going to let that all go to waste.”
Sinestro placed a hand on his daughter’s shoulder. “I promise you-- I’ll come back. Just keep those under our care alive, all right?”
WATCHTOWER:
Jason Todd blinked, completely forgetting where he was for a second, before his surroundings came into focus. He was stood on the solar deck, the side of the Watchtower’s main array that pointed toward the sun, and was marvelling at the swirl of almost liquid-like fire that washed over itself. The metamaterial the glass screen was constructed from prevented those watching the sight go blind, but it felt naughty, almost forbidden, to stare at the sun for so long without there being any repercussions.
“Do you have a minute?” asked Cyborg.
From his vantage point, Jason looked back at Vic Stone, whose body was currently sprawled out and multiplied across multiple stations. The sight was disconcerting, almost painful looking, but he knew that it was nothing to the human-cybernetic hub of all Justice League operations.
“Yeah, I got all the time in the world. What’s up?”
“The All-Stars are all logged as being in observation room 12, but the amount of data being processed is nominal at best. Can you check in on them? I’m fielding dozens of calls here, and I can’t spare a body.”
He shoved his hands into his jacket and headed toward the door, a grim expression on his face. “Yeah, they’re probably due a check-up anyway.”
Before he could get out the room, Cyborg called out after him. “Hey, man, are you all right?”
“Ah, I feel useless up here. But ever since my leg got messed up… ever since that whole fiasco at Lady Styx’s colosseum, I’d just get in the way on the streets. I know… I know I’m doing good work up here, training the kids, doing my thing, but when it all went down at the wedding yesterday, I put my mask on but it was just… what could I do?”
“You’re doing the right thing keeping the kids safe, Jason. You’re making a better future for them and for the world. Remember that, yeah?”
Jason smiled. “You learn your pep talks from the old man? Bats always knew what to say.”
“Thanks, dude, he always did leave an impression,” said Cyborg, before returning to his work.
GOTHAM CITY:
Tim Wayne stood in the Clocktower at the centre of Gotham City, and analysed the information as it fed into their computer banks. The superhero community was out there, on the streets, across countless cities, across the planet, doing whatever they could to push back against the villains who’d swarmed out of the prisons when the doors all opened, and they’d done one hell of a job saving the world so far.
While he was useful out there as a symbol, to inspire fear and make the criminal element doubt their actions, perhaps surrender that little bit earlier, it was his brain that he needed to flex right now, not his legend. And after what happened in the Fortress of Solitude…
“Focus, Tim. Focus,” he hissed to himself.
Justice League alerts tumbled down the screen, and he filtered out all unnecessary information, until something clicked into place from a day or so before.
A prison break from the Slab. Warden Shilo Norman, long time keeper of the place, had asked for a Justice League investigation, but then everything had happened and now there was much more to be concerned about. That was one escape, when a day later there were hundreds of thousands occurring across the globe.
But the name of the escapee was of interest…
“Honey?”
Batman turned and saw his long-time girlfriend standing there. She’d once been Batgirl, before returning to the role that she’d made her own back when they were young teenagers. Spoiler had a mind as fast as his, able to make connections where others might miss them.
“Sorry, Steph. I was all up in my head.”
Spoiler approached and found Batman’s hand, gripping it tightly. “I got your call. What’s up?”
“I’m being summoned to the Watchtower, but I have an assignment for you. Look at this.”
The computer showed the face of the escapee from the Slab. Someone who’d been in a coma for over a decade-- nearly two. The kind of man who might have it in him, in his bag of tricks, to do exactly what the world had experienced the day before.
“The Key? But I thought he was in a coma?” said Spoiler.
“Apparently he woke up, and an entire medical team and security unit are dead because of it. The Slab is nearly wholly locked down, but can you head over there and check in with Shilo? I want to know exactly what happened. All the media uploads from his server are corrupted, so we don’t have the footage from the escape…”
“Okay, hon. I’ll get right on that,” said Spoiler.
Tim leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “Be careful. Call if you need anything.”
Spoiler winked and then twirled her cape. “Do I look like the kind of person who’ll need a team-up on this?”
WATCHTOWER:
“All right you whippersnappers, what the hell is going on in here?”
Jason entered observation room 12 and saw the Young All-Stars working away in silence.
Akihiko turned at the assistant principal of the All-Star Academy’s entrance and swallowed hard. He looked pale, a sheen of sweat covered his face, and he opened and closed his mouth nervously.
Jason laughed to himself. “I’ve never heard you kids be so-- oh.”
“Um, ‘oh’ what, sir” said Akihiko.
Jason snatched a batarang from the inside of his pocket and threw it through Spectrum, who immediately blipped out of existence and back again.
“Nnnn, kid, you think I don’t know the difference between your illusions and the real thing? I’m the one who’s been training you to focus on your god damn details! You might have followed a camera but you ain’t fooling me!”
“Now, where the hell are the others? Where have they gone?”
“S-sir, I can’t…” stuttered Akihiko.
Jason loomed over Lightning Bug and shook his head. “Akihiko. I know the stories that are told about me. I know how you entertain each other with tales of the Robin who went to the dark side. The one who broke bad. I know you know about the stuff I did when I wasn’t on the side of angels. I know all of it but I come into work every single god damn day because I’m trying to do right. So, when I tell you that you are pushing me to the edge of my patience and I need god damn answers, do you really think--”
“Ah!”
When Jason took a step forward and crowded the young hero even further, Akihiko threw his hands up and blasted the elder hero back into the wall with a beam of light.
Todd looked at the burn mark in his shirt then up at the son of Doctor Light, an amused smile on his face. “Colour me impressed. But if you don’t tell me what I wanna know, I’m gonna make you eat those blasts, y’hear?”
“please don’t expel me,” whispered Akihiko.
SCIENCE TOWER:
“What does that mean, ‘time is being erased’?” asked Doc Robotman.
The data map from the Time Sphere’s black box rewound and a light blinked into existence. It was the visualisation of a branch of time, a century in the earliest days of existence-- and then when it played back, it was gone.
“It’s a hardened database, meaning we can roll it back and forth to see what’s happened,” said Blue Beetle.
“The same as the Justice League’s database, but not just… living history. Beyond that,” said Doctor Light.
“Aaaaand that’s where we come in.”
Behind the science team, an authorised teleport had taken place. And now two faceless figures stood among them, ready to give one hell of a speech.
“…Question?” said Beetle.
The older Question, Vic Sage, pointed at himself, then pointed at the younger, Renee Montoya. “Who me? Or her?”
“…Yes,” replied Beetle.
“Correct answer,” said Renee.
With the pleasantries exchanged and over with, the Questions joined the big brains in front of the Time Sphere’s projection and began to murmur amongst themselves.
“Where have you been hiding yourselves? Not that I’m not happy to see you, we could use another set of eyes on this thing, and the whole conspiracy angle…”
Renee began to explain. “We noticed discrepancies between the Justice League database and the actual events of the world. The database said things happened that we can’t remember happening. Upon closer investigation…”
“…We pulled the thread and now we’re here,” said Vic.
“Okay, okay, but that doesn’t help explain the future vision I had. The end of the world. Or, well, the darkness that comes with it,” said Hourman.
“Well that sounds heavy,” said Vic.
“Yeah, it’s pretty god damn terrible,” said Rick Tyler.
Jessie Quick placed a hand on her husband’s shoulder. “Yeah, so we have all this intelligence, we have a theory, and we have evidence to back it up… isn’t it time we took it to the rest of the Justice League? And… and check in on the kids?”
You couldn’t really tell, but Vic Sage was smiling. “You just said the magic words. Justice League assemble.”
METROPOLIS:
Flamebird landed in Lena Luthor’s office but it was a disaster site, with furniture singed and strewn everywhere. The windows had already healed themselves, their mutable quality helpful when their owner threw a fit, even if it was for the most heart breaking of reasons.
“Lena? Lena, are you there?” he asked.
The door to Lena’s laboratory-- the dimensional tesseract that immaterially appended the edge of her office and the air space over Metropolis-- was open, and there were sounds emerging from inside. Kon followed the sounds, and found Lena working above a device he recognised, but it was incomplete and nowhere near being ready for us.
“Lena. It’s Kon. I… what’s happened? Where’s Kara?”
She didn’t look up from her worktop, but her frustration was palpable. “Batman says she’s dead. That she sacrificed herself to save the world. But I saw the footage from the Fortress. She’s not dead. She can’t be dead. That’s not-- not--”
Abruptly, she dropped her screwdriver then swiped it off the worktop, clutching her face in despair as her sadness washed over her.
Kon rushed over and embraced her, and Lena clung to him while she sobbed.
“She-- she-- can’t-- be-- be gone--”
“Then she’s not. If you say she’s not gone she’s not gone; what can we do?” said Kon.
“The-- the Phantom Zone portal folded in on itself while she was inside the Fortress… she’s trapped in there…fighting… fighting whatever it is inside there,” said Lena.
“You’re trying to build a projector here, I recognise the technology.”
“But it’s… there’s more to it than I can… with what…”
A siren blared throughout the lab. Something was happening down in the lobby of L-Tower, and by the looks of the energy signatures currently being analysed, it was nothing good…
THE TOWER OF FATE:
“She isn’t answering my prayers. Something is wrong. Something is terribly wrong. So I need to go find her. I need to go to Heaven.”
Doctor Fate had assembled a handful of the heroes she trusted the most in the world, and gathered them in the Tower of Fate, the cross-dimensional stronghold she acquired when she’d accepted the vestments of Nabu.
“Okay, so how do you recommend that?” asked Natasha Irons, better known to the world as the technological titan Steel.
“And ignoring the, uh, theological implications?” added Courtney Whitmore-Batson, the cosmic rod wielding protector of Opal City, known as Starwoman.
Traci Thirteen shook her head, pulling the helm of Nabu off as she spoke. “There are… there has to be… a spell. I’ll find the spell. I have her sword, it’ll be enough. But… I don’t know what I’m going to find up there. I need… help. I need you.”
“I’ll call the hubbie, maybe he has access to something on that rock of his,” said Courtney, pulling her phone out her pocket and dialling.
Natasha put her arm around Traci’s shoulders and gave her a reassuring squeeze. “We’ll find her, hon; okay? We’ll find her.”
“She said she’d come home to me… but when I saw her sword…”
“She was letting you know she needed help. And she trusted you enough to send up that flare. I’m not going to let you down, and neither is Courtney. We’ll put our heads together and come up with a solution.”
HEAVEN:
Zauriel spat a heavy globule of blood out as the lion-headed angels of the host wiped their knuckles clean. They were mindless automatons under the thrall of the Key, and the other thing that kept her resistant to the villain’s control was the fact she was different to the rest of her brothers and sisters, and that difference was what the villain wanted to exploit.
“You can end all your suffering if you give me what I want,” growled the Key.
“Y-you know th-that’s not g-gonna happen.”
“You hold the blueprint of creation upon your flesh. It’ll take some work but I can skin it off your back, or you can relinquish it. I don’t want to hurt you any more than my heavies have all ready, but if it comes to that, we’ll gristle away all the rubbish and get to the good meat.”
Zauriel raised her head defiantly. She’d been given the celestial duty of safeguarding the blueprint of reality by the Presence itself. She’d relinquished a slither of it once, back when a deadly threat nearly destroyed all reality, and used it to fix every piece of damage done, but it took everything out of her.
In fact, the damage done to her was so severe that the body she had back then-- namely male-- was no longer something she could wear. So she went with this flesh suit, this version of herself, and it had stuck since.
“Y-you make me sound like a steak, you nebbish piece of trash. And those ‘h-heavies’? They’re my kin. And when they’re free of your spell, there will be hell to pay.”
The Key leaned back in his throne. “That’s not very lady-like. That’s not very angel-like at all.”
WATCHTOWER:
Hal Jordan was checking on Guy Gardner’s arm, where a brand new limb compromised out of energy had sprouted. Batman lurked somewhere at the edge of the room, restless, an attribute he didn’t share with his predecessor, while the Flash tapped his foot unrelentingly. Power Girl sat alone, staring at her hands, wringing them together as she considered what happened to Superwoman mere hours ago. A friend-- a sister-- lost. She wouldn’t let her sacrifice be in vain.
Across the room, Nightwing and Batwoman were together, while Wonder Woman-- Cassie Sandsmark-- listened intently while sat next to Arsenal-- Cissie Jones, formerly known as Arrowette. Others had gathered too, taking a brief respite from the intense nine hours since the prisons had spilled open. Zachary Zatara’s top hat had a hole in the centre, just above his hair, that his husband Red Devil was currently sticking his fingers through.
Stood with members of the Justice Society were Hawkman and Hawkwoman, along with Captain Marvel who was currently—somewhat anachronistically—on his cellphone talking to his wife. Jade flexed her fingers, looking down at the Starheart ring on her finger that crackled in proximity to the Blue Lantern. The two power sources didn’t much like each other, considering their origins.
Cyborg addressed the gathered members of the de facto Justice League team, updating them on the current situation.
“Ground teams have rounded up most of the escapees, but housing them again is the biggest problem.”
“Well, I can tell ya that temporary Phantom Zone imprisonment isn’t an option. We don’t know if we can keep the portals closed. They’d just fly out again,” said Blue Lantern, extending the fingers on his new energy arm out and then in, making a fist and marvelling at the latest feat his cosmic-energy infused body was capable of.
Cyborg nodded. “I’ve been discussing a solution with the lunar council. There’s a disused outpost located under the Watchtower’s main pylon. With a few hours concentrated work by my doubles, we can make transform it into a rudimentary holding facility. It’ll mean strip-mining the Watchtower’s lower levels, but I can get it done, and it takes the pressure off Earth authorities.”
“Have we heard any word from Barry? Diana?” asked Hal.
In the corner of the room, the Flash, better known as Wally West, shook his head. “Barry’s in the future with his family, happily retired. And Diana--”
“I may have some bad news,” said Hourman, entering the briefing room accompanied by his wife Jesse Quick, the Atom, Blue Beetle, Doctor Light and others from the Science Tower.
“Rick? You’re up?” said Captain Marvel. He beamed, even amongst the chaos that unfolded across the world. Hourman’s seizure and comatose state had left the Justice Society on edge, but they hadn’t had a chance to check in on their teammates or headquarters since this whole crisis had begun.
“Yeah, now wasn’t the time for napping,” said Hourman.
“Bad news?” pressed the Flash.
Before Hourman could answer, another voice piped up. “Time is shrinking. Events are changing without warning. It’s why Booster got taken out. Vandal Savage too.”
Behind the group of scientists stood the Questions, Vic waving as everyone looked at him, while Renee stood behind him, looking uncomfortable at the attention.
“How did you--?” started Hourman.
The Question shrugged. “Read a couple of books, how about you?”
“We analysed Rip Hunter’s temporal black box,” replied Blue Beetle.
“That’s one way, sure,” said the male Question. “Uh, we were told to come to you… because this is end of the world type stuff.”
Batman almost asked, ‘told by whom?’ but tamped the question down. “We’re beginning to understand that. All the prisons breaking open was a distraction from the main event. If this is a temporal attack, they’ve taken out those best positioned to put an end to it.”
Jordan’s ring buzzed and said <Incoming transmission,> then Kyle Rayner’s head appeared in front of the two members of the Corps, concern written all over his face. “Hal-- ! Guy-- ! Are you reading me--?”
“We’re here, kid. We’re with the Justice League. What’s wrong?”
Kyle spoke breathlessly, his face enlarged so everyone in the briefing room could see. “We’ve put out a broadcast over all communication channels-- there’s a wall of entropic energy traveling across the universe, destroying everything it touches, and all the escapees out here, they’re causing even more damage on top of that!”
Cyborg turned to the others. “The Source Wall fell. Fastbak went to see if he could help the New Gods with containment… he must have failed…”
“All our readings confirm that the cosmology of the universe has changed again-- like it’s shifted on its entire axis! Oa is destroyed but it isn’t the centre of the universe anymore-- Earth is! We need to get as many survivors to the Milky Way, evacuate as many worlds, and get them to our solar system-- we’ll have to make our-- “
The transmission was interrupted when an almighty, thunderous explosion shattered the construct of Kyle’s face, and smoke filled the spot it impacted. As the smoke cleared, a figure became visible, kneeling down and staring at the floor.
“Who the hell are you?” asked Green Lantern, his ring raised and crackling with destructive energy. He was joined in this gesture by Blue Lantern, his new arm, constructed entirely from the cerulean energy that coursed through his body, throbbing threateningly when levelled in the newcomer’s direction.
The figure, himself crackling with a hypnotic blend of white and black energy, stood from his kneeling position, his hands raised in surrender. The Ying and Yang motif across his costume was clear, half his body stark white, while the other half pitch black, the symbol itself swirling in the centre of his chest. One eye was empty while the other twinkled with an otherworldly light, and his face was not visible beneath mask he wore. Finally, bands of red circled his wrists and ankles, and he was built larger than most of the men gathered to witness his arrival.
“Thank the Lords I made it-- I’ve come so far to warn you!”
“Guys, this gentleman is exuding a massive amount of mystical energy,” whispered Zachary Zatanna. The magician’s hands moved quickly, containment spells flowing from his fingertips to the area around the newcomer, while the others took steps to surround him. “Niatnoc, niatnoc niatnoc niatnoc…”
Without any patience, Blue Lantern stepped forward. “Answer his question. Who are you?”
“My name is Equinox-- my brother is Libra-- we are-- were-- agents of balance. But he, he’s joined forces with an immense cosmic monster-- they want to tilt the balance of reality! I-- we-- need to stop him before they kill anyone else!”
“Your brother look like this?” asked Hourman, as Doctor Light projected a vision of the figure that murdered Rip Hunter, and attacked the Atom down in the Science Tower. The details were blurry, extrapolated from the black box and Palmer’s first hand description, but it did the job.
“That’s him! He’s become unstable! Partnered up with a monster unlike any you’ve faced before!”
“Try us,” said Blue Lantern.
“He’s called the Infinite Man, he’s from the future, but it’s not as simple as that. He… he travels backwards and forwards through time, normally without affecting the events of it, but after a thousand lifetimes of solitude he’s been driven mad! With Libra, they hope to destroy this timeline and create a new one, in their image!”
“And you have a plan to stop him?” asked Hourman.
“I know how to contain the Infinite Man. I have future knowledge that I can share with you, snatched from his timeline before it fell… we need to trap him, to stop his movements. If we don’t… this timeline will die in flames!”
TO BE CONTINUED...
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