On the surface of mercury a being sits cross legged, meditating. Surrounding it is a magical barrier keeping the intense heat from burning it alive. It dresses in blue fabric so fine emperors wept at its sight and several pieces of gold armor that once belonged to several of Earth's greatest warrior kings. On its back is a yellow cape that once belonged to the lost pharaoh Akhenaten and resting from its neck is the ankh that represents the entity that even it bows to. Lastly, held on its head is the helmet of Nabu.
The being is called Doctor Fate, and it is both a human and a god. Currently it is a man, Abdul Maverick. Both its gender and host change frequently. Maverick is tall and lean, although still somewhat muscular, as strength is required to host the god Nabu. Abdul is Egyptian, as are all primary hosts to Nabu, though nearly anyone can be a secondary host. His skin is brown, once dark and vibrant now pale like a corpse. His brown eyes glow white while he serves as Fate, illuminating the holes of the helmet to appear as though the helmet itself has white eyes.
As Doctor Fate meditates, his mind spreads out across the cosmos, peering into the minds of six million beings across twelve hundred thousand planets. He hears the whispers of the dying, the threats of the powerful, the pleas of the weak, the monologues of the cruel and the speeches of the just. He tunes it all out. What he seeks is evil, true evil, something that threatens the very balance of the universe.
His eyes shoot open as just for a moment, he feels it. A force unlike anything he had felt before. A being that wished to commit genocide on a universal level, to wipe out all life from the very fabric of reality. From there to tear the universe itself apart, to discard time and space and rebuild it anew in his own image. It was true evil beyond which even Nabu thought possible, and it was coming to Earth.
Fate rose to his feet as he looked out across the cosmos, peering through planets and beyond galaxies. The ship it traveled on was fast, but it wasn't a ship. Not in any traditional sense. Fate turned his attention to Earth, resting blissfully unaware of the horrors that soon awaited it. He would need champions if Earth was to stand any chance of survival. Champions who would need time to train.
In London, a man sits in a pub half drunk and completely naked. His right arm is handcuffed to his chair leg, while he holds a royal flush in his left hand. His name is John Constantine, and he is the world's greatest sorcerer. He is also being held at gunpoint by a Nazi without a face. Specifically, his face had been surgically removed and was now resting on the table in front of Constantine.
Constantine is 34, although he had the body of a 22-year-old, quite literally. He has peach blond hair and sharp blue eyes, along with fairly attractive features that he would never admit to improving with magic. His jaw is thin and nose sharp, and at on point in his life he always held a smirk on his face. Now that smirk only appeared when his life was in danger, as it was now.
"You've got nothing, Constantine," the Nazi growled in an American accent. "Give up! Give me back my face, and I'll let you go!
Constantine chuckled before saying, "O' course mate! I'll give you back your face… if you win it of course. But what's worth a face? I say… six thousand… what are you again? American or Canadian? I can never tell you two apart."
"American, you British fuck!"
"Oh, right. The mouth on you… So, six thousand dollars, my suit back, and I don't know… your left arm?"
"Suck my dick!"
"I love to suck dick, but I would rather place my mouth on the devil's bollocks before I go near your rotten sack. So, minus the arm part, do you think that bet works?"
"Fine, fine, fine… just give me back my face already."
Constantine smirked and placed his cards down before saying, "Read 'em and weep."
"What!? You cheating bastard!" the Nazi growled before quickly pulling the trigger.
Time crawled to a slow as the bullet crept towards Constantine and its explosion remained visible, before stopping completely. "Well," remarked Constantine. "That was convenient."
"John Constantine of Earth," came a deep otherworldly voice from behind him, that seemed like two people speaking at once.
"Ah, shit," Constantine whispered to himself. "Hallo, Nabu! How've you been?"
"There is a great danger coming, John Constantine."
"O' course there is. Always is. What's that mean to me?"
"This is unlike anything you've ever faced before."
"That's what you said last time. An the time 'fore that."
"A great evil spreads across the cosmos, slaughtering all life it finds. It will arrive on Earth in a single year, and it will wipe all life from your planet, before moving onto the next."
"Course it will. Why do you care?"
"This evil seeks to rewrite the very laws of reality and remodel the universe in its image."
"Ah, there it is. You wouldn't care unless it fucked with fate, would you?"
"Of course not. The universe is far more important than a single planet."
"Right. Now, what about this bloke? He worth a planet?"
"No."
"Good," Constantine said, before snapping his fingers. Just like that he stood next to the chair dressed in his black suit, while the Nazi's face was perfectly stitched back on, upside down. "That's a good look for him… ah what the hell, I'll give him two days to live. Hope he likes total organ failure."
"Why don't you kill him now?"
"He's a Nazi, fate. A monster. He deserves to suffer first. That's why he gets two days to live."
"You are a strange creature, John Constantine. Do I have your assistance?"
"Course, mate. What's our next move?"
"We meet our net recruit."
Broadway, New York City
Constantine sat in a theatre booth next to Doctor Fate as he mouthed along to the lyrics of Time Warp, refusing to dance alongside the two goth nerds next to him. He turned to Fate and asked, "No' that I don't love the show, but what are we doin here?"
"Pay attention, John Constantine," Fate replied.
"Keep your voice down!" one of the nerds hissed at him.
Constantine looked back down at the play as Columbia's solo came, and he heard the most beautiful voice anyone in the theatre ever heard. A voice that was all too familiar to him. "Ah hell," he whispered to himself.
On stage Zatanna began to sing, "Well I was just havin' a think, when a snake of a guy gave me an evil wink!" and as she said those words, she locked eyes with Constantine.
"I don't like where this is going…"
Two hours later the pair met Zatanna backstage as she undressed from her role, which involved mostly redressing. Zatanna was a beautiful woman with jet black hair and crystal blue eyes, who usually held a kind smile. For Constantine there was only a scowl. Unlike him she was her natural age of twenty-six. She was 5'7 outside of her heels, which she wore everywhere, along with her magician's uniform almost everywhere other than the play. When she started, she wore fishnets, although she quickly realized pants were much more practical, and earned far less stares. From men, anyway. She didn't mind when women looked at her.
"Well, well, well," Zatanna said as she pulled a pair of jeans over her fishnets. "John fucking Constantine. To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Owe, you know," Constantine replied. "Saving the world. Same as usual."
Zatanna began to pull off her corset while Fate held his cape in front of her chest and looked away in embarrassment as she said, "I still remember the last time we saved the world. A one-night stand and you never called again. Next thing I know you're hooking up with a dead guy!"
"First of all, it was a night and a half. Second of all Boston came onto me! Although I was the one to seduce Leonard. Cold bastard never called me back…"
"It's what you deserved," Zatanna replied as she pulled a tank top on and Fate lowered his cape. "Now what do you want?"
Fate spoke up, "A grand evil sweeps across the,"
"I'll do it," Zatanna cut him off.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Something evil's trying to destroy the Earth. Happens every other week. Of course I'll help, I'm not some kind of asshole who needs convincing. Constantine."
"ME!?" Constantine cried. "I was more eager to join then this sack of metal on a stick!"
"Of course you were. Who are we recruiting next, Abdul?"
"A monster that was once a man,"
"Mel Gibson?" Constantine asked.
"Oh my god," Zatanna said as she facepalmed.
"He was once known as John Wilson," Fate continued. "But is now known to the residents of Louisiana as The Swamp Thing."
"That is a terrible name," Constantine said.
"Shut up, John," Zatanna said. "Let's go, boys."
Angelville, Louisiana…
Two men rowed through the bleak Angelville swamp as a black teenage boy laid bound and gagged on the bottom of the dingy. Their names are not important. The boy's name was Jackson Hyde, and he was only sixteen years old. He had white hair and a sharp nose inherited from his mother, and a strong jaw inherited from his father. He was still dressed in his varsity jacket from his high school, which was now torn and stained with his blood.
The two men joked back and forth about murdering him, and he wasn't their first. They had experience murdering innocent people. There were already six bodies in the water below them, each one held down by a cement brick.
As they reached their dumping spot, the short man began to tie Jackson's feet bindings to the brick while The thin man lifted it up and prepared to drop it. Once finished the short man grabbed hold of the rope on Jackson's hands and pulled him up before pushing him over the ledge. The thin man immediately dropped the brick, and Jackson quickly sunk down to the bottom of the swamp as he desperately attempted to swim upwards.
He reached the bottom and hopelessness began to set in as he looked around at the six other bodies. Then, a set of gills opened on his neck. Jackson's eyes went wide as he realized he could breath, and he began to focus on pulling free from his bindings. He didn't have to work hard however, as a pair of reeds began to saw away at both his hands and feet, freeing him. he wasted no time swimming away, to where he hoped led to freedom. Luckily for him, the swamp was on side, and guided him safely towards the exit.
As The short man and the thin man rowed away, oblivious to their now escaped victim, the Swamp Thing followed them. Thick vines crept from the trees, before shooting forward and wrapping around the boat. A moment later it was torn in half, sending both men into the swamp water. It gave them no words as it grabbed hold of the thin man's head and crushed it in its fist. It said nothing as it ripped the short man in half and tossed his body into the swamp.
As it looked back in the direction of Jackson it said, "Be free, brother. Be free and remember the horrors of man."
A golden portal opened behind him and out stepped Zatana and Constantine, their feet resting on a large golden disc while Doctor Fate floated behind them. He said, "John Henry of Earth, champion of The Green. We have come to ask your assistance in saving your world."
The Swamp Thing look to them and said, "A mage, a prostitute,"
"Hey!" Zatanna yelled.
"I was referring to the blond one," Swamp Thing replied, causing both look at Constantine.
After a moment of silence he said, "Well I mean, he's not technically wrong."
Swamp Thing continued, "And a god. What makes you think I'm interested in joining your cult?"
Doctor Fate moved forward and said, "A great evil heads to Earth. It seeks to wipe out all life, including The Green."
"I see… and what do I have to go on, to prove you aren't seeking to trick me?"
"Our word," said Zatanna. "Gniht Pmaws yarteb ton od."
"Thank you for that, mage. But I still don't trust you. Not the god anyway."
"I have no interest in affecting The Green," said Fate. "It's existence leads balance in this world."
"Fine. I will aid you, only on the condition I return to my swamp once we're done, and you never return."
"Deal," said all three at once.
"Now," said Fate. "We go to our final champion. Be warned, she is far more volatile than any of you. She is most likely to refuse our call."
"You never told us what happens if we refuse," said Constantine.
"You die," Fate simply said.
A remote village in Spain…
There stood a legion of nightmarish creatures made of shifting black shadows who held no solid shape. The village they stood in was littered with mutilated human corpses and black goo. A single person stood against them, undeterred by their sheer numbers and impressive body count. That person was a fifteen-year-old girl.
Her name is Amaya Winston. Her name is Amethyst. She is the sole survivor of Gemworld, and a force of destruction for all things evil. She has long brown and blond hair held back by a purple crown that rests over her forehead. Her skin was light brown and eyes deep purple, although only when she was in battle. She dressed in an elegant purple combat suit, one of the last relics of her home. In her right hand she holds an ornate straight sword imbued with pink magical energy, and in her left hand was a matching dagger. Strapped to her left side was her sword's sheath, and on her lower back a sheath for her dagger.
Amaya raised her sword and focused a large amount of magical energy into it, before slashing at empty air. Just like that half her opponents were cut in half, their bodies turned to goo before falling to the ground in thick puddles. She had slain hundreds over the past hour, each attack draining her of energy, this one leaving her so weak she could barely stand. She pressed her sword into the dirt to keep herself standing as she panted and stared ahead at the approaching horde of shadows.
"Rehto hcae llik," came Zatanna's voice from behind her, and almost instantly the shadows began to tear each other apart.
Amethyst turned and looked up at Fate's champions, who all stood ready to defend her, while the god looked down at her in mild curiosity. "Who the hell are you?" she asked.
"The good guys," Zatanna said.
"More or less," Constantine replied.
"Princess Amethyst of Gemworld," said Doctor Fate. "You have been chosen to defend your planet from a great evil.
"Didn't you get the news?" Amethyst asked. "Gemworld's gone. Everyone's dead."
"That is true. However, that is not your planet. I refer to Earth, the place you were raised."
"Isn't Earth always in danger? That's why we have Green Lanterns."
"I fear the Lantern Corps will not be enough to protect this planet."
"Then why do you want me?"
"In addition to your powerful magical and combat capabilities, you have an additional reason to join us. The one who seeks to destroy this planet, destroyed your home."
Amethyst looked up at him in disbelief before saying, "Are you telling the truth?"
"I am."
"Then what's that monster's name?"
"His true name is lost to me, unknown to any being in this universe, I fear. However, I know the name his followers call him. Those worthy of calling him a name in place of a title."
"Who?"
"He is called The God of Evil. His name is Darkseid."