Chapter Three- The Fall (Part II, Behind the Curtain)
Location: Unknown
Time: June 6th
Superman's eyes slowly opened to the well lit room. He felt like he had been asleep for days. His entire body was sore and his muscles ached. As his eyes darted around the room, everything slowly came into focus. There were three people standing around him. One looked like a knight from the middle ages without the helmet, there was a woman in brightly colored cloths and long brown hair, and there was another woman with large hair and a long snout...
His head raised in order to get a better look. His vision cleared and there stood in the room a minotaur at average human height and the hair was really just long ram like horns. It had a look of intelligence and was even wearing pants. Superman had seen strange things before so after the initial shock of seeing it, he was able to quickly push its presence out of his head. Instead, he turned toward the woman whose bright colored cloths reminded him of his own costume.
"Try to relax." The woman said to him in a soft almost whispering voice. "The process of teleporting with those things is very tiring."
Superman: "What happened? Where am I? What happened to Green Lantern and Hawkgirl?"
The woman looked over to the knight with a raised eyebrow in a silent way of asking him what Superman was talking about. The knight shrugged his shoulders and said allowed that they hadn't found anyone else.
Amber, the woman standing beside Superman's bed placed her hands on his shoulders and eased him back down as he tried to get up. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions and I'll try my best to answer them, but you really need to rest." Superman realised that the woman was stronger then him, that he was currently powerless and quite human. He wasn't worried about that as much as he was for the safety of the other two heroes that were in the ship with him when it exploded. Superman calmed himself and allowed the woman to continue.
Amber: "We found you out in the open surrounded by drones. The small six legged ones are weaker then their brothers but they come in larger numbers and can pull people through with them when they come back here."
Superman: "And where is here?"
Amber: "We call this place the multiverse. It used to be a world like any of ours but the original inhabitants are gone."
There was a brief pause as she looked over to the knight and back to Superman.
"Well, most of them are gone. They were a very advanced race as far as we could tell. They went into a civil war and somehow destroyed the very fabric of their universe. It became a nexus point. Stuff from other universes just started falling through and filled in the holes. The original inhabitants were called the Deus. Only one full blooded Deus is left."
Her eyes again looked over to the knight. Although he wore the armor of another world, his appearance was a lie. Hunter was a quarter Deus; his grandfather was one of the last survivors of the civil war. Although Hunters family was gone, he was not the last. The other Deus was who Amber was really talking about.
Amber: "His name is Terminus. The war between the Deus was to decide the fate of the less advanced universes like ours. One group wanted to watch over us while the others wanted to destroy us whenever any one race became too advance. Terminus, the last of his kind, has picked up where his people had left off. He pulled those machines out of the ashes of this world and started sending them into others. He steals away people like us to force into slavery or keep as trophies. Then they build large towers throughout your world."
Amber's voice started to crack. Her face began to turn red and tears started to build in her eyes.
"And then they will rip apart your world like they did mine."
Hunter quickly moved forward and turned her toward him. He whispered something in her ear and she shook her head. She took a deep breath and turned back toward Superman. "We are the resistance. We all come from different worlds and ended up here the same way you did. Before they could drag you into their ship and carry you back to Terminus's temple, we ambushed them and saved you. Right now your riding in our base of operations. Our home. We call it the Massive." She smiled as she tried to describe it. "Its like a city inside a four legged walking behemoth."
She reached over Superman and taped a panel on the wall. The wall changed translucent and he could see that he was as high off the ground as if he was in a skyscraper. He also noticed that they were moving. Even though he felt nothing, the entire structure seemed to be moving from side to side as if it really were walking on four legs.
Hunter: "There used to be hundreds of them. The good guys used to build all their cities in 'em to keep the others like Terminus from attacking. They were all destroyed except this one. Found it abandon out in the middle of nowhere. Just needed some repairs and it was good as new. Now Ol' T. M.'s robots can't even touch us and the Massive just steps on anything stupid enough to get in our way."
Hunter put a hand on Superman's shoulder. "Don't worry buddy. We're heading toward Terminus's house as we speak and the Massive is going to knock extra hard on his front door. If your friends were captured, we'll find them. And when we get there and if you've gotten your strength back by then, you can help us put a stop to this once and for all." Hunter took his hand away and started toward the door. Superman gripped his fist and thought about what he had just been told. It was a bit extreme, but nothing he couldn't handle. He hoped he would have his strength back soon. Who ever Terminus was, he was going to be surprised when he learned who he was messing with; Superman thought. The man of steel is coming for him.
