Trinity Issue 1

The Fourth World Saga Part 1

"Intergang" Part 1 of 3

Written by Bodhi Ouellette

"There came a time when the old gods died…

"The brave died with the cunning. The noble perished, locked in battle with the unleashed evil. It was the last day for them. An ancient era was passing in fiery holocaust. The final moment came with the fatal release of the indescribable power, which tore the home of the Old Gods asunder, split it in great halves and filled the universe with the blinding death-flash of its destruction. In the end, there were two giant molten bodies, spinning slow and barren, clean of all that had gone before and adrift in the fading sounds of cosmic thunder. Silence closed upon what had happened. A long, deep silence, wrapped in massive darkness. It was this way for an age...

"Then… there was a new light."

Metropolis:

Ever since the attack of the Kryptonians, and the adoption of the cities primary superhero Superman, the city has had a rise in celestial godlike beings threatening to destroy the place with their immense power. Today was no different from any other day of the week.

Cars flung across the street, slamming into buildings. Everyone was running from their lives from a massive bulky figure wearing a neon green spandex suit, with darker green outlinings around his suit and a mask with a dragon like design to it. Black and White Kirby Krackle corrode his massive fists as he shakes them up in the air, victoriously, and laughing uncontrollably.

"HAHAHAHAHA! Can nobody here stand before me?" blared out the man. "What pathetic fools! Mantis deserves only the highest of champions to fight! Those of you who flee will not live into this new world order that will be establish! Fight now, for you will not stand chance against I, MANTIS!"

His gloating was cut short, when a batarang landed just near his feet. He looked down to find that the batarang was beeping loudly. Too slow to reply, the batarang exploded below him, launching him up and he fell flat on his back. Mantis looked up to find Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, descending from the sky, landing safely on the pavement, standing together with strength, and with such bravery you could almost feel it radiate off of them. Mantis smirks.

"Finally!" he exclaims. "I have found worthy champions to fight!"

"You think this is some game?" replied Superman. "Do you even know what you're doing?"

"Mantis plays no games. Mantis is the searcher. The annihilator. I will do whatever my master bids, and my goals are to slay all of this planet's champions, to make room for his thrown!"

"Then you're in for a rough ride," Superman retaliated. "We're far from pushovers."

"I was hoping you'd say that," said Mantis. "Come; let us see who will stand when this is set and done."

"Who gets to hit him first?" asked Batman.

"I think we can do better than that," Superman replied. "How about we make this into a game of our own."

"I like the sound of this," said Wonder Woman. "The one who gets the most punches wins?"

"Sounds good. Now, back to what I was saying-"

Mantis was getting irritated. "Enough of this! This is no game. You are to take me serious, and bow down to Mantis, The Destroyer of Worlds!"

"Allow me to do the honors," offered Wonder Woman.

Superman gestured his arms over to Mantis like a gentlemen allowing a lady to go first. "After you."

Wonder Woman smiled. She pulled her sword out from her sheath attached around her waist, and her shield over her shoulders. This signaled Mantis to strike at them, charging at the three heroes. Wonder Woman pushed her shield into Mantis' legs, tripping him, and sending him flying over her head and sending him down on the ground. When he turned over to get up, Wonder Woman immediately kneed him in the chin. When Wonder Woman made another attack at Mantis, he grabbed her arm, and then swung her around and threw her into three cars, destroying them.

Mantis got back up, only to be smashed by Superman who flew right into his back, and flung him up into the air. When Mantis came back down, Superman winded his punch up and smashed Mantis in the face, which sent Mantis back into the air again. When he came down again, though, Mantis prepared a strike to Superman, by cupping his fists and slamming Superman onto the head. He then continued to bash Superman into the ground, until he felt something sharp stab him in the back. He tried to look back, but he was pulled away from Superman. The sword pulled out of him, and Wonder Woman, now facing Mantis, slashed him with a few more swings, until Mantis got the upper hand and swiped Wonder Woman back.

Batman jumped in and kicked Mantis in the face. When he landed back down, Batman quickly turned around to throw a few more batarangs at Mantis' face.

"Who's keeping score?!" asked Wonder Woman.

"I have," answered Batman, jumping out of the way of a charge attack by Mantis. "You're currently winning by seven, Superman, you have five, and I have three-"

Another batarang exploded onto Mantis. "Correction; four hits on this Mantis guy."

"Gimme ten more punches and this guy will go down," Superman said with confidence. He pulled Mantis out of the hole he created in the wall and began to uppercut Mantis hard twice. Then he grabbed Mantis and threw him across the street with brute force. At the end of the street, Wonder Woman slashed Mantis back down on the ground. Under him however, was Explosive Gel, which detonated, and sent him, flying in the sky. When he landed again, he wiped the blood off his mouth and held his chest. He was beaten.

"Must... escape…" muttered Mantis. He yanked out a rectangular device, designed with an assortment of buttons and fancy designs. He pressed one of the buttons, and appeared before him was a large portal. Though he was just inches away of escaping, someone pulled on his cape, and dragged him back from the portal. He looked back to find Wonder Woman pulling his cape. She quickly held him back, while Batman liberated Mantis' device. After that, Superman came down and struck Mantis with his fist, incapacitating him. Batman finally found a way to shut down the portal through the box, which disappeared. The three regrouped, victorious in their battle. But one last thing needed to be addressed.

"So," said Superman. "Who won?"

"You two did," announced Batman. "You both tied at eight hits. I've got five."

"Nice," exclaimed Wonder Woman. "An excellent challenge it was." she then looked down at the device Batman held in his hand. "What is that?"

"Dunno," said Batman. "I'll have to research into it more. Meanwhile, you two guys will need to deal with Mantis. He also said something about a master. Whatever that is, it doesn't sound good."

"I'll take Mantis over to Belle Reve," claimed Superman.

"Good," said Wonder Woman. "I need to get back home and runs some errands."

"I overheard you, Zatanna and Black Canary talking a few days ago," revealed Batman. "I hear you have a boyfriend now."

"Boyfriend?" asked Superman. "Who is he?"

"His name is Owen," told Wonder Woman. "I met him in a bar in Washington, D.C. We're going out to dinner and a concert sometime soon."

"Sounds like fun," commented Superman. "Well, I'll bring Mantis over to Belle Reve and then I have to get back to work."

"Same," said Batman. "Have a nice day."

And from there, our three heroes departed on their own separate ways…

The Daily Planet; Metropolis:

Clark Kent fixed his tie for the fourth time as the elevator slowly reached up to the top floor, where the Daily Planet offices were based in. He combed his hair with his hand and wiped his glasses on his shirt. Clark expected to have Jimmy approach him and ask him where he was, then Lois would play along, and Perry would come and scold him for being late. But when Clark exited the elevator and entered into the Daily Planet's offices, he found all of the staff crowded around Perry White's office. Clark came up to both Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen, who turned around to see their friend standing.

"Where've you been, Mr. Kent?" asked an eager Jimmy.

"Running late again," joked Lois. "As usual."

"You know me," said Clark. "Traffic gets the best of me. What's going on, though?"

"You're not going to believe this, Mr. Kent," started Jimmy, "But the Daily Planet has just been purchased."

"What? By who?"

"Morgan Edge of Global Communications," answered Lois. "Apparently he made an offer that Perry couldn't decline."

"But Global Communications is mostly a television news network," Clark commented. "Why would they want to purchase a newspaper business like the Daily Planet?"

Lois simply shrugged. Out from his office came Perry White and Morgan Edge following behind him, in his blue suit and white-combed hair. Everyone looked anxiously at them.

"It's official, ladies and gents," proclaimed Perry. "The Daily Planet is now owned by Global Communications!" Everyone clapped. "Don't you all worry, folks, the Daily Planet isn't going to change one bit."

"Quite right," reassured Morgan Edge, who stood forward. "All of you will still be making the newspapers. Nothing here is changing. You can trust me in that."

"Alright now, get back to work everyone!" shouted Perry White, and everyone rushed back to their desks, "except for you three…" referring to Clark, Lois and Jimmy. "I need you three in my office now."

The three followed into White's office, nervously, while Morgan Edge closes the door behind them. The three take their seats opposite to their boss, who then takes his seat, and wipes the sweat off his eyebrows. "Look, you three have been possibly one of my best reporters I've ever had the pleasure to work with," admitted Perry. "You all somehow managed to get great coverage of recent events, and our prices have risen because of your articles… with that said, Mr. Edge has an offer for you three…"

Morgan Edge stepped forward to the three reporters, staring down at them with anticipation. "I want you three to work for me at Global Communications," announced Edge. "Your work here for the Planet has made me realize the sort of talent and hard work you could bring to Global Communications. If you accept, all three of you would be given a hefty raise and will be integrated as field reporters or news anchors."

"What will you be offering us?" asked Lois.

"You I was thinking of giving your own daily segment in the afternoon. The format is all under your control. James, I'd like for you to be our cameraman, recording the most extravagant news stories out there, and Clark will be the field reporter who will go along with you."

The three looked at each other surprised. The offer sounded too good to be true. All three of them would still be doing the same things they've been doing at the Planet, just now in front of a camera, delivering the news and speaking their opinions to an even wider audience.

"So, what do you say?" asked Edge.

"It's a wonderful offer you've made to us, Mr. Edge," admitted Lois. "I'll take it."

"Right on the money," exclaimed Jimmy. "You've got yourself a deal, Mr. Edge."

"Same here," Clark said agreeingly.

"Excellent," said Morgan Edge. "You all start next week, so get ready to pack and head over to our station."

Lois got up from her chair to shake hands with their new boss. "You've got it." She turns around to look at Perry. "Oh, and Perry; it was a pleasure to have been working with you. For all three of us."

"Yeah, yeah," grieved Perry. "You've all done well. Now go; go kick some ass at GC, why don't ya?"

Batcave:

The Batwing burst through the waterfall, leading it inside of the Batcave, as the jet slowly descends back down on a platform. The engines shut down, and the cockpit opens up, with Batman jumping out of the plane, as he begins to walk back to his Bat-Computer. Alfred is there to greet his Master.

"Welcome home, Master Bruce," greeted Alfred, with a plate in his hand. "I've prepared you your lunch. It's a turkey sandwich."

"Thanks, Alfred," Bruce said, pulling his cowl down, taking the plate with the sandwich and chips on it and sat down in his chair to begin work on the Batcomputer.

"Anything in particular happen today?" Alfred asked.

"Helped defeat a crazy strong-arm alien in Metropolis with Clark and Diana," nonchalantly answered Bruce. "He went on about how he will bid his master's wishes. He had something with him too." Bruce pulled out the grey rectangular box Mantis possessed. "It's a device that opened up a portal. Where to I don't know. I'm going to study it."

"If you insist." Alfred left. Bruce took a bite out of his sandwich and then grabbed both ends of the box to find it opened up very easily. He inspected inside of the box, and was baffled by the intricate engineering of the box.

"This is unlike anything I've seen," commented Bruce. Suddenly, he was being called up by his business partner over at Wayne Industries; Lucius Fox.

"You there, Bruce?" asked Lucius Fox from the speakers of the computer.

"I'm here, Fox," Bruce confirmed. "What do you need?"

"I need you to come to Wayne Industries for a moment," said Fox. "There's something that's happened to the supplies."

"I'll be right over, Lucius."

Washington, D.C.:

Diana has returned back home with groceries in her arms. She scurries into the kitchen to sort her food into the fridge, when her cellphone rings in her back pocket. She pulls her phone out and checks to see who is calling her. The Caller ID shows a picture of a man in his thirties, with ginger hair and a scruffy beard. It is Owen. She picks up the number and holds her phone up against her ear, as she continues to put back groceries. "Hey, Owen," said Diana.

"Hi, Diana," Owen spoke back through the speakerphone. "How's your morning been?"

"Simple," she replied back. "I just went to do some errands around town."

"That's great. Yeah, I had to do some business stuff at work."

"I thought you said you worked at home."

"I do, but I needed to go to work today for a specific reason."

"Ah, I see. You excited for our dinner and concert next week?"

"I'm astounded. I can't wait to spend more time with you. And I can't wait for you to meet my friends in the band."

"You've got backstage passes, too?"

"For free, as well. Like I said, I know the Forever People personally; their manager and I are very good friends, so I'm excited to meet up with them again."

"Well, you certainly have your way of getting things, don't you?"

"Don't we all? Anyways, I have to go now. Nice talking to you. See you soon."

"You too… bye, Owen."

Wayne Enterprise; Gotham City:

Lucius Fox, business partner of Bruce Wayne, stands in the basement of the building, where an assortment of prototypes and finished products lay underneath dwelling until Bruce needs a piece of tech for "personal purposes". When the elevator door opens up and Bruce Wayne walks out of it, Fox turned around and shakes Bruce's hand. "Welcome, Mr. Wayne," greeted Lucius. "I'm glad you were able to come."

"Always a pleasure, Lucius," said Bruce. "Now what is it you wanted to show me?"

They started walking through the room, passing by the priceless technology. "Around last week, I've been noticing that some of our tech is missing," explained Lucius. "Now, originally, I thought that someone had simply purchased them from us, but when I tried to look through the database, I found that none of the missing items were even bought."

"What, are you saying that our tech is just disappearing?" joked Bruce.

"It's hard to believe, but yes."

"What's been stolen from us?"

"About eight items," said Lucius. "Each night, a piece of tech disappears from us, and we have no clue where it's gone."

"How's that possible? All of the items in here have a tracer lock attached to them."

"I've tried to check the signals, but it seems like the signal gets lost somewhere near the docks. I was only lucky to find out where they went only this morning."

"You think that there might be a thief that's been stealing our tech?"

"I've thought of that, but there's no way they wouldn't have gotten away with it. Cameras all around the room."

"Maybe they're invisible."

"Maybe, but even then, infrared is built into the cameras, so it would be able to detect the heat signatures. I don't know…"

"Hm… I'll investigate in this, Lucius. Don't you worry…"

Things have just begun for our trio of heroes! Though they have faced what seemed to be a simple threat, they have no idea what's about to come next for them! Check back next issue where we meet the Intergang, and the Forever People!