Transcendent Wings
An LLS Production
Well, yeah, I'm here again with the sort-of sequel to Stardust Shimmer. Introducing Transcendent Wings, which is what I'm using to further develop upon Star Light, Star Bright for later purposes... or just for fan-service.
I finally decided to try a Doma revival arc myself again, this time in conjunction with the Earthbound Gods. I know it's not the first time someone's tried this, but then they assuredly didn't do it as a crossover... with Batman. Holy vigilantes... someone won't know what hit them...
Of course, given the flexibility of the DC time-line in comparison with the Yu-Gi-Oh time-line, some creative interpretation of the Atlantis subject would have to be expected.
Also, from a cursory study of Elseworld, Batman seems to kill everybody when he get superpowers, seeing as he's not really that different from his Rogues' Gallery... I'm trying to see if there are any other possible outcomes... it's not working...
Enjoy!
Edited: 12 August 2012
Prologue: Dimensional Prison
A long time ago...
Defeat...
A man, screaming, a word of command, the conclusion of a duel...
Powers lost...
In the skies, hidden amidst shadows and nightmares long lost, a single eye began to yawn open again.
Tangled in cotton sheets and freezing, blue eyes snapped open. Set in the young face, they blinked, the disorientation of sleep fading over time as sentience rapidly returned to those eyes, turning them hard like chips of glacial ice.
A knock sounded in the darkness. "Missy?"
"Just another dream, Nakamura San," she answered, sitting back up. A silver chain around her neck played out, a silver locket gleaming in faint light to briefly illuminate the silhouette of a snowflake... and the ice gathered around it.
"This is the fifth time already, Missy," Nakamura answered behind the door, his voice muffled. "Are you sure about this?"
"No," she faintly replied. "No. Something's going to happen. I know it. Nakamura San, check on Seika."
A harsh sigh, before the soft pitfalls of footsteps. Then, quiet, for a few moments...
"Missy... Seika Sama is still asleep," Nakamura reported.
"Good," Setsuka Shimotsuki, now twelve approaching thirteen, took a deep, shuddering breath. "Good... excellent. Good night, Nakamura San."
A brief silence. "Yes, Missy."
A flash of green light came before her eyes, and she flinched despite the room being shrouded in total darkness.
The Watchtower rotated as it continued on its orbit through space, spinning like some top about its axis-point, suspended in nothing. Inside it, not all was idyllic and peaceful, which was to be expected for the headquarters of the Justice League.
"And how is this different from normal reports?" J'onn repeated.
Diana, Princess of Themyscira and Wonder Woman, sighed. "You know what i mean, J'onn. Batman... is not himself."
"We have the occasional reports of terrified criminals from Gotham City," the Martian Manhunter pointed out. "This is nothing unusual."
"The 'creature of the night' haunting Gotham, no," Diana agreed. "When the 'creature of the night' in question is said to look like 'the visage of death' to the point where hardened mobsters leave Gotham for good, yes. That is unusual, even for Gotham."
"Nightwing and Robin have not relayed anything too unusual," J'onn stoically answered. "It is possible that this is a mere exaggeration, Diana. Batman is perfectly fine." He paused. "As fine as he is ever likely to be."
"It's not right, J'onn," Diana whispered, ignoring the looks from super-heroes all around the two founders. "He's... he's listening to voices in his head and he trusts them. It's... it's almost like he's locking away from everyone in his own world."
"He is still... placing down boundaries," J'onn chose his words carefully. "I suggest you bring up this problem to the Batman himself, or to one of his wards."
"But..." the princess was at a loss for words as J'onn turned his attention back to the monitor womb. "Argh!"
Every hero present scattered before the irritated Amazon.
"What's up with Batman?" Mr Terrific warily asked in the post-Amazon hubbub.
"Merely a few issues," J'onn deliberated. "Although, I do think he is adapting admirably. Few would even consider such a practical usage for extra eyes about..."
Hidden in another world, and shrouded in shadows, a broken god struggles futilely against bonds that cannot be broken.
"You cannot stop me, darkness..." the proud fighter roared to the darkness, like Ozymandias fighting fate. Well? He thought. Answer that, darkness. Take me if you can. But don't ever think that you'll win. I am Darkseid, I am a god... and gods will triumph.
But here... this was the world of darkness, of snakes and shadows and he was no god here, a mere mortal, soon to become a new addition of the glade of Venominaga. His warden, his warden who would not die the first time, nor the second time, and was immune to his Omega Beam... his accursed warden.
"Release me!" he roared, parts of him were mottled with moss, and vines wrapped around him securely and tightly and drove their roots deep within.
Only silence answered, in the everlasting darkness between dimensions and space that none save those trapped in it will ever understand.
Darkness... darkness and silence everlasting... so different and alien and cold. Here, there was silence. Complete and absolute and hungry. Darkness so deep that light would be swallowed whole, flashes of the unknown within folds of shadow. An eternal crepuscule suspended between space and places and there were hands reaching out for him, hands clammy and cold and faces of man and woman and they're all mouthing and bleeding and they're trying to drag him into the black-
They want him, they want him to suffer as they did, in everlasting black and greys and suspension whites and silence-
Try and block out the endless shadows and receive only mocking laughter in ruthless return. Light is never so treasured as by those who have been blinded. Try it. Try choking on the darkness until all you breathe is the night. Try wandering the endless pathways of your mind until days melt into years and into centuries more, so you think while only mere seconds pass at the hands of some capricious deity who hurts you for no reason, and still all you can do is keep searching and pray for the darkness to vanish, try it, come-
"Good evening, pet." the hiss sounded, interrupting his spiel of thoughts.
"You won't break me, Naga," he spat in answer. "You won't, you hear me?"
"You are bound to rulesssss and obligationssss," Venominaga hissed in answer. "It isss time to feed, pet. If you are good, perhapssss Vennominon will sssslit your throat sssso that you forever remain here."
"Unhand me!" the dark god roared as hissing snakes descended on him.
"Wait."
The voice echoed in the darkness as Venominaga stopped. "You are?"
"My name is no concern, dark goddess," the figure spoke low with respect. "Merely that I am a messenger of the Dark Necrofear to retrieve your... pet."
"Ah," the poisonous goddess sighed. "I shall clean him up for her to take when she arrives."
"Erm, my lady requests that you send him as he is," the messenger answered. "She is testing a new type of cleaning device, that appears to be so strong as to bleach through bone, you see..."
"Very well," she held up a bunch of shackles, from which hung a large iron ball with a grinning face. "Pet, if you escape, I shall be ever obliged to hunt you down, and then Caius shall sentence you further."
The grey-skinned one moaned in answer as the shackles bound his feet and the vines digging into transformed skin receded, and stone flaked off his exposed skin and cracked with every painful step as he followed the messenger out, from the swamp to...
To where the sun shone, and Darkseid winced as the light hit his face and gentle hands latched onto his shackles. "De-Spell."
"I... who are you?" The tyrant rumbled as the painful shackles fell to the ground. "Where... where is this? Why? Why?"
"Calm yourself, Lord Darkseid," the cowled messenger spoke. "As spoken, I am indeed a messenger, but not of the Dark Necrofear, the Queen of Demons. I am to rescue you, for the unknown purposes of my... employer. He goes by Aldric, and he is a powerful man, as the champion of Wiraqocha Rasca and our leader."
"That name, I know not," the dark god rumbled, staring at the green surrounding him. "This... I have not felt the sun in a long time. Who are you?"
"I am the champion of the Earthbound God Aslla piscu, and I go as Ixchel," the messenger revealed her face under the cowl to be dark-skinned and dark-haired. A circular symbol glowed green upon her forehead, a circle with a six-pointed star formed by two intersecting arrow-points. "Like Aldric, I am a follower of the Orichalcos. We have... released you for a single reason. The destruction of worlds."
Please review! Stay tuned for the next duel: Battle Fader! Duel, Acceleration!
