Inviolate
Chapter 21
by Scriviner
All rights belong to owners, I make no claim to any of these chars.
"Last few monopole nodes. Let's not have any screw ups." Lex said across the comm link, examining their handiwork from afar. His scanners were based on his slide panel tech and he was amazed at how closely they'd managed to match his plans. Then again, the Martian had pulled the designs straight from his mind and relayed it to the builders, so he should have been more surprised if they had not matched up.
They were working several hundred miles away from him, but across the vast gulf of space (well, vast only from a human perspective, from another scale it was barely any distance at all), he could still just barely make out the flare of Firestorm's burning hair and the goldish energy signature being generated by Captain Atom. There were four amplifier modules arranged in a square around the expected landing area. Each was the size of a small building and had a metahuman strapped into an energy chamber.
The equipment was separated by tremendous distances. Lex was further still. From his vantage he couldn't even see the equipment unaided, but they were there along with their precious human power sources. The fact that the whole thing had been created from debris of the battle in the past three minutes made the whole even more impressive.
Firestorm's voice held a note of affronted dignity to it, "Hey, we're League, Luthor. We don't screw up. Much. Not when it matters." He finished lamely.
Lex bit down on a snide comment. There wasn't time. His attention flicked to the chronometer display in his field of view. They were cutting this very close now.
"These molecular structures don't make any sense-" Atom's deeper voice came over the link.
"They don't have to make sense to you. I'm basing these designs off of New Gods tech I only barely had a chance to study."
"My confidence is at an all-time high." Firestorm quipped.
"If you have time to make jokes, you have time to work. We need these finished in the next three hundred thirty seven seconds or there won't be much point."
"Calm down, sir." Captain Atom made the 'sir' sound like a curse. The military man still hadn't entirely forgiven Luthor for some of the orders he was given during his tenure as Commander in Chief. "You can understand we're a little concerned given how much is at stake."
"I know exactly what's at stake, but you try designing a continent-sized magnetic containment bottle designed around amplifying metahuman abilities in under three minutes and see how confident you are of your results."
There was silence on the com link for a second before Lex snapped, "Just get back to work."
"Wow. He sounded almost exactly like Bats." Firestorm responded
Atom's only response was a wry chuckle.
Lex sputtered, unable to spare the necessary brainpower for a witty response, but he could see that they had turned their attention back to manufacturing the necessary components in the necessary places.
Oracle's smooth voice whispered into his ear. "That was a compliment, by the way."
His grip tightened on the metallic oval in his hand. The device, otherwise known as a techno-seed, was grooved and lined with patterns of circuitry and Lex was not entirely comfortable with handling it. Even though he knew in theory that the techno-seed, also known as RMTN81503 was completely inert until it was encased in energy.
Oracle had pulled the location for it from DEO files. She'd done it so quickly that he was certain she'd had a back door into their system and must have consulted with it regularly. It was good luck that the records had been quite precise about its location, right down to the shelf it had been on. Lex had been prepared to teleport the whole building there if he had to, instead a quick transport later, he'd had it tucked under one arm like a football. One more part ready and waiting.
Lex glanced off to the side where the group he'd mentally dubbed 'Team Grunt' floated patiently waiting for their part of the plan. They'd flashed into position a minute ago on the League's teleporter, using his suit's slide portals as relay beacons.
He'd cut them out of his voice circuit since he didn't really feel like talking to any of them. He was busy and did not need to be distracted by his need to mercilessly taunt big blue. The Martian had the rest of the plan from his mind and would finish their briefing.
They'd been issued breathing gear and communications gear, but not much else. All of them were sufficiently resilient to survive prolonged exposure to deep space, although Lex could see signs of chills on a few of the younger members of the group.
Superman, Superboy, Powergirl, Black Adam, Captain Marvel, his younger counterpart and the Polly-anna-ish one he always assumed was Marvel's sister. Wonder Woman, Wonder Girl and the one who used to be Wonder Girl were there as well. He could never remember what the woman called herself now. Troika? Something like that. He wasn't entirely sure where the Amazo had come from and did not want to think about how they'd convinced Bizarro to help. Probably by telling him they would be destroying Oa. Captain Atom would be joining them once his stint on construction work was completed. The one that Lex had to keep pulling his attention away from was the new Supergirl in the belly baring top. She reminded him far too much of his ex- well, he supposed 'girlfriend' applied even when the being in question had been a shape-shifting artificial human.
It was a strange and mismatched group, but they would do for what he needed.
He worked on the field programmings in parallel with Captain Atom and Firestorm's construction work. He wished he'd had time to really test the design, but the theory was sound. The rest of the so-called geniuses with the JLA weren't much help.
The interview broadcast, which he'd been allowing to run in the background caught his attention. Jemastan's network news ship, which had been ghosting the edges of the battle was also the closest to the disabled Rannian ship and had rescued their crew.
He half-listened and cursed, before he called Oracle back on. "Are you watching the feed from that war correspondent?"
"No, I was monitoring your power couplings." She replied.
"Their ship just rescued the crew of the Rannian cruiser." He replied. "They're interviewing the Rannians. Their captain just told everyone what they did to Sto-Oa."
She paused for a moment, no doubt to catch up with what he'd been watching. She finally said. "The rest of the blockade fleet is seeing this, aren't they."
"I stopped filtering them out after the ships started standing down." Lex said, clearly annoyed. "Make sure Malone keeps any panic conta-."
She cut him off, "Already on it... damn."
Lex cursed under his breath. That could seriously undermine their ability to keep this from exploding into violence once more. "What's the reaction?"
"The guy they're talking to is a fanatic, but he's claiming they have independent confirmation of all the data provided in what they're calling the Dox broadcasts. The blockade fleet's not sure what to make of it. Some of them are relaying it back to their governments to get some sort of official stance. No one wants to make a move, but the Tamaranians of all people are goading everyone else to start attacking again." Lex wasn't surprised. Lex had found that the Tamaranians lost their entire original home-world to Guardian manipulation and had told them as much. "A few are panicking and want to get as far away as possible.
Lex glanced "up" relative to himself and noticed that a few of the ships were already starting to break off and leave the vicinity. "That's sort of good, then?" Lex said tentatively, idly noting that his construction team were getting close to done. One less thing to worry about.
"Yes and no. All sorts of debates are breaking out. Looks like Rann violated some sort of weapons test ban treaty... and they're arguing that they weren't testing. Thanagarians are talking sanctions for Rann. At this rate the fighting's going to start spilling out of the local area."
He grit his teeth and shook his head. Too many details to deal with all at once. His attention flicked to the Green Lanterns in the area and felt annoyance. They could have saved them so much time if they'd actually helped, but they'd pulled back to join the other Lanterns gathering at the edge of the system. Orders from Oa, no doubt. More details. He glanced at the chronometer. Two hundred fifteen seconds.
Oracle's voice cut into his thoughts, "Don't worry about it now. Let me and Batman deal with them."
The relief was evident in his voice. He had to trust other people. It was the only way this would work. "Good. Thank you."
"I'll keep you updated, but we'll handle it." She replied.
He switched channels to the containment team before he got further distracted. He thought of them as Team Magnet. It was ironic that they'd had a much more difficult time finding members for this team than it had been for Team Grunt. The Martian had only been able to locate two magnetic manipulators in the time they had and two electrical manipulators who could control magnetic energy to a limited degree. Of the four, three had been guests of the Department of Corrections, which was why they'd been easy to find.
He pulled up the individual members in his display. Examining the two men and two women briefly before he made a general broadcast to them. "Is everyone ready?" He asked.
Black Lightning merely nodded. Unlike the other three, he had been in the League files rather than in custody. The man was almost painfully noble and Lex wasn't worried about his doing his part.
Livewire, a chalk-white woman with electric blue hair, said cheerily, "Just have my five million ready, Lex." Her voice was pleasant to listen to, but that wasn't too surprising as she'd been one of his favorite shock jocks back in the day, who'd made a living out of bashing Superman on a regular basis.
"It'll be in your Swiss bank account before you know it." Lex said paternally on a private line to her. She'd been the next simplest to motivate. Five million dollars against half a million lives? Cheap at twice the price.
His magnetic meta-humans however were another story. After his question they'd both began babbling incoherently at him and Lex had only caught a few words here and there to give him an idea as to their state of mind.
He suspected there was something inherently dangerous about manipulating magnetic fields for humans. The only ones they'd been able to locate had both been undergoing extensive therapy to deal with their issues. The pun "bipolar" had occurred to Lex far too often in this instance to ignore.
Doctor Polaris was ranting about Neil Emerson, his other personality coming back from hell. Magenta on the other hand was demanding to know where the Flash was. Lex cursed under his breath and shot a message to the Martian through the comm link. "Soothe them. I could probably talk them through this, but it'll take too long."
"I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that, Luthor."
"Your comfort will not matter to the people on Oa in the next eighty six seconds." Lex snapped back. His tone softened. "If it'll make you feel any better, use what I would've said. Pull it from my mind. I've worked with Polaris before and Magenta's got a fairly obvious obsession."
"You are trying to mollify me, but it is as you say." The Martian replied coolly. Lex felt ghostly fingers pick through his mind as brief impressions of a conversation with both meta-humans flitted through in a half-memory. They needed to be ready the moment the equipment was ready.
Almost on cue, Captain Atom's voice called out to Lex on the construction channel, "Done!"
Lex checked with his chronometer. "Forty three seconds to spare. Good work. Get back over here. I'm priming the bottle." Lex replied. He raised a hand, tying somatic gesture controls into the complex startup sequence.
The babbling on the open channels tapered off and Lex noted the sharp and sudden increase of electromagnetic energy within the zeta beam reentry zone. Captain Atom and Firestorm were being bathed in a storm of electromagnetic energy, but they were tough enough to survive it until they reached the edge of the area. At the very least Captain Atom should be able to absorb enough energy to protect the younger hero.
He smiled grimly. Once Magenta and Polaris reached a certain level their powers and his equipment would begin feeding off of each other, using Livewire's and Black Lightning's energies to amplify the power of the containment field. Atom and Firestorm exited the field just as the deadline for the field to be primed passed.
Zero count.
They now had one hundred eighty seconds until the actual arrival of the stellar mass. Which would just just barely be enough time to have the field steadied and applying the necessary pressure. He promised himself that once this was all done, Polaris and Magenta would receive the best treatment money could buy, or create. It would be the least that they'd deserved. There was a flitting sensation of approval at that thought.
Lex spoke sharply to the Martian, "You've done what you had to, now get out of my head."
He glanced up and caught the glare Superman was directing at him. Lex met it without flinching and after a moment, the Kryptonian looked away. Lex allowed himself a small sneer of victory. Just a small one.
The power within the seemingly empty space continued to build steadily. Lex's augmented reality display overlaid the lines of magnetic force comprising the containment field. It didn't need to hold for very long. It just had to hold for long enough. He switched viewpoints and watched as the fabric of space-time within the reentry zone began to deform heavily.
Ninety seven seconds to go.
The tell-tale flashes of color told Lex exactly what was about to happen. Even as he watched the audio stream from the interview caught his attention again.
"... you can do nothing! The Guardians and their tools are doomed! My people will not see another generation thanks to them and so we return the favor. Their time on this plane of existence is at an end! We have calculated it! Their destruction has been foretold by science!" Thus ranted the bald, spitting Rannian in his sweat-stained red and white uniform. Below his image scrolled Interlac text that identified him as "Commander Vadar Delko: Rannian Science Zealot and Genocidal Maniac." If nothing else, the Gil'dishpan's network was being known for being bluntly honest.
The interviewer, who resembled a flattened tube worm in a floating bubble spoke in a synthesized voice that had been smoothed out to a cultured polish. "You are not concerned then by the reports that there are still considerable numbers of civilians on Oa?"
Commander Delko gestured dismissively, and Lex noted idly that his hands were bound. Just off-camera, a Thanagarian Hawkman was not quite visible. The Rann were obviously in custody, but some leniency had been allowed in the interest of ratings. "They are acceptable casualties. They sought to suckle upon the Guardian teat then let them pay the same price! No shield their soldiers can create... no defense they can muster will stop our vengeance."
"And the actions of the humans led by Lex Luthor?" Lex found it amazing how expressive something so completely non-human could be. The image cut to a live one of him floating in space, Team Grunt behind him. He hadn't had a chance to pose heroically, but they did a good job catching his profile.
Lex allowed himself a brief moment of amusement on realizing that somehow the media had gotten the impression that he was in charge. Junior had been properly coached and could have dropped the right hints here and there, but the journalist had struck him as having a good eye for detail and probably had figured it out on his own.
As Lex mused, the Rannian seemed to consider a reply. "They are as much victims as the Rann are. We applaud their rescue efforts and while we cannot condone their seeking to save this blight upon the cosmos, we acknowledge their nobility in seeking to do so. This universe will be a poorer place when our vengeance explodes and takes them all with it."
Lex smiled grimly. Not if he had anything to say about it.
The Gil'dishpan seemed as dubious as it's complete lack of a face would allow. "You do not believe there is any way that the Oans could be saved?"
"The time of the Guardians as a species is almost at an end. It is science. There is no arguing with science." The Rannian replied serenely.
Lex laughed. "Damn straight." He glanced up as space began to twist itself into a horrific knot. Forty seconds to go. "Except my science is better than yours."
He smiled broadly as Oracle's voice whispered into his ear, "Stellar mass is returning to real space in three seconds. I hope this works."
"Didn't you hear the interview?" He replied to her, raising the hand that held the techno-seed up as though in welcome and declared aloud, "There is no arguing with science! Phase one is a go!"
The Rannian vengeance, the stellar mass from the heart of Sto-Oa appeared with shocking suddenness, space twisted and tore. Even from the distance Lex could feel the heat radiating from the massive chunk as it flashed into existence. Without his field, he was certain he'd be boiling. He noted that the capes on a few of Team Grunt's members began smoldering immediately.
From the distance, Lex had difficulty appreciating how big it was. He had the readings for it's mass, for it's volume... but those were numbers. Seeing the building sized magnetic amplifiers reduced to tiny near-invisible pinpricks in perspective against the green-gold of the stellar mass just drove home the immensity of the task before him. It filled up the majority of his field of view, far too close to get a feel for it's full size.
Oracle's voice spoke urgently, "Magneto-compression field is online. Active containment is holding. We're getting some pressure spikes, but it's stabilizing..." she paused for a moment then added. "Not so good for Magenta and Polaris. Blood pressure's way too high and still rising."
"Understood." He replied and sighed. He wished they didn't have to hold out so long, but conditions needed to be at the optimal before he could proceed to the next step.
The news broadcast caught his attention once more. Lex could almost feel the shock and awe in the journalist's ship. He savored it and was certain the reaction on the other ships of the former blockade fleet were much the same. Even better, the whole thing was still broadcasting live.
He shifted his attention a bit more to the Rannian zealot's horrified screaming, "Impossible!" repeatedly, as he desperately tried to deny what he was seeing. The Gil'dishpan tried to talk over him, describing what he saw.
It was rather easy to sum up. A chunk of the Oan sun, despite every indication that it should, was failing to explode in a fairly spectacular fashion.
Their makeshift preparations had stopped the explosion for a few moments, but Oa was still hurtling towards it at tremendous speed. Lex noted with satisfaction that the entire planet was now glowing the bright emerald green of ring constructs and a Green Lantern symbol was emblazoned over the entire world. At least Stewart had gotten them prepared in case something happened to go catastrophically wrong with Phase two or three.
Contained though the stellar mass was, it was still too volatile and too hot to be moved. Lex could also see the bio-readings from the two electrical and two magnetic meta-humans and it did not paint a pretty picture. There was no way for the mass to cool down sufficiently to be moved before someone's heart gave out.
Fortunately, Lex had already planned for that. Hence, the techno-seed Prisoner RMTN81503, otherwise known as Brimstone. Technically he hadn't stolen it, since the techno-seed did not officially exist. A UN resolution right after the Impiriex war had made it illegal to trade in Apokalisian technology. Lex always did have a flexible view on such things.
He would have preferred to teleport the techno-seed directly into the center of the mass, but between the zeta beam residues and the strangeness in local physics being induced by the magnetic containment field, there was no way to do it without having to do extensive calculations to account for those factors. Fortunately the low tech solution would still work.
Lex sighted down his arm, allowing his targeting system to select the point of entry. Then again, with a target that size, missing was not a likely scenario. The suit still had no 'real' weapons integrated into it. At least not what Lex would consider some proper ones, but the extensive programming he'd done while strapped to the back of Lobo's space-hog had allowed him to creatively reuse some of his other systems.
Such as the artificial gravity which was supposed to augment his strength and allow flight. It was surprisingly simple to program the field to allow for a section of it to be used as a linear accelerator.
The techno-seed shot out of Lex's hand like an oversized silver bullet. Oversized from one perspective, but miniscule from another. In a fraction of a second, Lex's telescopic view revealed a tiny splash of stellar material as the techno-seed made impact.
Lex switched to a channel that included Oracle and John Stewart. "Phase two is a go. Bring Oan shielding to maximum. Techno-seed has been delivered. Now we wait."
Stewart replied, "Lantern Salaak is coordinating the officers down here and taking control of the shielding, I'm eavesdropping on the Guardian headnet and they are too busy trying to figure out what's going on that they can't be bothered to help save the rest of us."
"That sounds like typical behavior for them." Lex sneered.
John nodded. "Somewhat, but you'd think they'd do something. They're considering retreating into the Central Battery to save themselves, but haven't decided yet if it's hopeless or not."
"So they're waiting to see if we can save them?" Lex asked in disbelief. "Are they planning on taking anyone with them?"
"I'm getting the impression they're trying to decide if it's worth the energy expenditure. They definitely don't want to save anyone but themselves. A couple of them are complaining that their power isn't flowing like it should."
Lex smirked, "I'd be very surprised if it did."
"Also, be advised, Lantern Qarrigat is making his way in-system. I think he might be about to offer to help. The rest of the Green Lanterns that have already made it here are holding position. There's about a thousand of them so far."
Lex grumbled to himself, "Great." He said aloud, "I don't think he's going to make it until after we get the ball rolling. Send me his personnel file. I'm going to need a handle on the man if I'm going to talk to him."
He read through the information Stewart was passing to him direct from the Guardian's files, with half his attention. The rest waiting for the seed to do it's work. He hoped his metahumans could keep it together. He flicked back to Oracle, "How bad is it?"
"Livewire and Black Lightning are straining, but nothing serious on their end. Polaris is barely keeping it together, but Magenta's already beginning to hemorrhage out her nose." Oracle said tightly.
Lex shook his head. "No choice. Can she hold for another two minutes?"
"We have the Flash on her audio hook up whispering encouragement to her, she's might be able to hold it for that long."
"The Martian's idea?"
"No, Batman's."
J'onn's voice interrupted. "I am prepared to pull back Magenta, Polaris, Livewire and Black Lightning at your word."
Lex didn't reply, but simply watched and waited, the news channel was just so much background noise that took very little of his attention. They were bringing in experts to explain what they were seeing. Lex smirked as he saw the coloring of the mass begin to change.
Their expert was about to get his mind blown.
One thing that interested Lex about New Gods technology was how it seemed to accomplish the impossible on a regular basis. He wished he understood it better but he was as much an engineer as a scientist. An engineer would use something even when he didn't fully understand the underlying principles, as long as he could model it's behavior and get it to react predictably.
Such as a Brimstone techno-seed Drop one in a mass of energy, such as a nuclear reactor, a volcano... or a sun... and it would take that energy and begin converting it into a useful form. It did so within a predictable amount of time the could be calculated based on the total amount of energy available, with greater energy densities actually shortening the amount of time needed.
Lex could actually count on one hand the number of ways the techno-seed violated the laws of physics he was familiar with, but what mattered here was the end result. No matter how terrifying.
"It looks like it's working." Oracle said excitedly, drawing Lex's attention back to his telescopic, augmented reality view of the scene. The energy output, and radiated temperature from the stellar mass as a whole was dropping sharply. The energy was being internalized and being used to generate a body for itself.
Lex could not help but stare in awe as the green-gold of the stellar mass darkened to a dead, flat black that all but blended into the background of space. Sections of it cooled to a dull red even as the semi-globular mass began to reshape itself. It began slow, but almost before anyone realized it, stumpy limbs were beginning to grow out of it and the beginnings of a head were emerging. It took almost another minute before the form began to firm up, still stumpy and lumpy, but definitely humanoid. Hands that could hold a city on a single fingertip came into full form and began to curl with terrible inevitability into fists.
Lex flicked his attention back to the rest of his readings and the video feed. Polaris' eyes had rolled up into his head and Magenta's mouth and chin were covered in the blood pouring out of her nose. They were almost at their limit, but the magnetic containment field was intermeshed with the field the techno-seed was creating to reshape the stellar mass. They were superfluous and in too much danger now.
Lex barked out, "Martian, pull everyone out now! My suit's in direct control of the magnetic amplifiers. The techno-seed's almost ready to wake up."
Oracle whispered in awe. "I saw you do it. I know exactly what you were planning, but it's still..." she ran out of words. Lex could appreciate the feeling.
Off to the side, even though he did not have them on the comm channel, Lex knew that Superman and the rest of Team Grunt were murmuring uneasily. For all their vaunted strength, for all the power in that collective that could shatter a world with a careless shrug, even they were terrorized. Captain Marvel was not even hiding the look of stupefied amazement as he looked first at Lex, then upon what he had wrought.
Lex had just transformed a continental-sized bomb of stellar matter into a burly continent-sized bipedal, humanoid engine of destruction. The eyes in the black skull face opened and flared with terrible golden flames. With exquisite minutes long slowness it opened its mouth and a flare of energy larger than entire countries poured forth. From experience, he knew it was ranting about being a fallen angel and its service to its dark god. Usually accompanied by taunts and rambling about its own magnificence. Lex was glad that airless space was useless for conducting sound.
He shook his head and put his voice on the general channel. "Phase two's complete. The mass is solid. Team Grunt, phase three. Stewart, make sure the Lanterns keep the shielding up, this is where it gets very dicey."
Lex allowed himself a moment of amusement as Superman and those with him realized that they were 'Team Grunt'. Superman and Black Adam sent him sour looks before they all shot forward, crossing the empty space between themselves and Brimstone. Bizzarro took a moment to mouth, "Hello," and give Lex a cheery wave before he too flew after the rest.
Lex's attention was pulled away from their departure by a message. "Mr. Luthor, It's Mercy, do you copy?" A small window opened in his field of view showing Mercy in a rather nicely fitted white jumpsuit with dozens of pockets and some sort of ring oversized gasket around the collar. Lex suspected it doubled as a space suit of some sort. Clinging to her shoulder was Teddy in his own version of a space suit. Lex wondered to himself where it even managed to get that outfit? He suspected Eve raided the Build-a-Bear Workshop every so often for Teddy's outfits.
"It's about time you showed up," He said with a grin, "You took so long I had to rescue myself."
"I'm sorry, sir." Mercy replied in her professional voice. "I'll try to cross interstellar space faster next time." Well, perhaps not entirely professional, Lex mused. There was a hint of her off-duty snarky voice. He wondered why she was being so stiff, but realized with a small chuckle that she was embarrassed. He'd gotten kidnapped on her watch and her pride was a bit bruised.
"No worries, my dear. I've been keeping busy." He smirked, enjoying her discomfort.
"I've been listening to the broadcasts. We're still en-route, but only just got close enough to broadcast directly to you. Did you want to board the Moonraker, once we get there, sir?"
"I will in a minute. Things are still a bit busy here. I notice you brought Teddy."
"He's the closest thing to a navigator we were able to find." She replied.
"Lex," Oracle's voice cut in on the channel. "They're in position, but Brimstone's also starting to move."
"I'm on it," Lex replied cheerily.
On the display, Lex noted a slight narrowing of Mercy's eyes. "Who was that?"
"Oracle. She's with the Justice League. She's been helping me coordinate everything."
Mercy's voice said, "I see." Her expression said something else entirely.
Lex began making connections between his armor and the magnetic amplifiers that were maintaining position around Brimstone. As he worked, he noted Mercy's expression and gave an exasperated, "What?"
"That's the voice from the Mageddon incident. The one that talked to everyone."
"Yes." Lex replied distractedly.
"The one you've had a geek crush on." Her expression turned sly and impish, unable to keep her professional mask on.
"What?"
"Eve is going to be so disappointed that she's not your favorite voice in your ear anymore."
Lex sputtered before finally telling her with a sniff, "I'm in the middle of trying to save a planet here. We can talk more later."
She laughed and Lex was glad to have her smiling again, even if it was at his expense. He put her out of his thoughts and concentrated on the task at hand once more.
What Team Grunt was doing was slow. Painfully slow. Lex couldn't even tell just from visual inspection if anything was actually happening, although his instruments showed a definite, thought slow, acceleration out of Oa's orbital path, orienting Brimstone out of the system.
He could see the beginnings of twitches across Brimstone's massive form. Indicators of an intent to move. At that size, the energy fields that acted as its muscles and nerves operated at a crawl. He could tell it was trying to move and struggle against the motion, but its own movements were far too slow.
The flame blasts it could unleash were still fast enough to cause concern... but fortunately it couldn't aim them properly. Unfortunately an unexpected silent roar sent a gout of flame hundreds of miles wide and tens of thousands of miles long it wavered and scattered unpredictably, but a massive section of it lashed against the Oan shield, which flickered and recoiled, but snapped back in a fraction of a second. Lex cursed himself for wasting time on banter and focused. "Stewart, Report!"
"Over three hundred wills bent on keeping the planet in one piece and we're holding, but just barely. Some of that got through, turned a section of desert about the size of California to glass, but we got lucky. It didn't come anywhere near the Citadel and it didn't penetrate the planetary mantle."
"Acknowledged. I'm taking care of it now." There was no helping for it now. It would need to be quieted down. Lex completed the links for his armor to the magnetic amplifiers and activated them. He'd been hoping for an opportunity to test them, but there had been so many interruptions.
Lex had occasionally told Mercy that a true genius usually had more than one plan running at any given time and that any step such a being took was generally in furtherance of more than one goal. On the one hand, transforming the stellar mortar into Brimstone would save Oa, but on another level, showing the ability to create a humanoid that could crack a planet like an egg with a swipe of a single oversized fist would ensure that the former blockade fleet, and the governments behind them, would listen to what he had to say. After all he now had the biggest stick on the block.
But beyond those valid arguments was the one thing in the back of his mind that often drove Lex to do what he did. He wanted to see if he could.
In this case, Lex just wanted to see if he could make a continent-size speaker.
"Brimstone. I address you," Lex intoned. The regular transmitters on his armor might have served him well enough in communicating with the artificial being, but given its vast size and the urgency of their situation, he didn't want to leave things to chance, especially since a simple modification to the plans for the magnetic containment equipment transformed them into amplifiers. The largest plasma arc amplifiers in the history of the universe. It would be feeling his voice through every inch of its body.
As he waited for it to respond, Lex wondered to himself what it would be like to have that creature in an atmosphere while he ran some John Lennon into the audio input. He imagined it would be some of the purest sound he'd ever encounter... right up until the vibrations tore the planet apart, but it might almost have been worth it. Even without an atmosphere, the magnetic resonance being generated by the amplifier components was interfering with the local subspace, making everything he said through it audible as static on almost every transmitting device within several million miles.
"Who speaks?" It boomed back. Lex had the volume dialed down on his communications systems, but its voice remained painfully loud.
"Your god addresses you, Brimstone."
"Are you? Are you that being that called this one forth from the void and set him among his angels? Are you the dark and vengeful god that cast forth this fallen angel among the heathens? Are you that which seeks to command Brimstone now, after such a base and faithless betrayal?" The voice boomed and ranted and Lex could see tiny twitches in its arms and legs. Twitches that would be practically tectonic movements.
He was glad the being's size limited its ability to move. It would take the better part of an hour before he could even raise a hand. However it didn't need to move to spew flames. It's voice seemed to be coming through real time, which was fortunate. "Answer if you dare! Are you my God?"
Lex spoke back, cranking the volume up to reverberate through Brimstone's body. "Lex Luthor is."
The random flailing movements of the creature stopped and Lex could see it trying to move itself into a kneeling position with arms outstretched on either side. The speed at which it was moving was beginning to pick up. Lex estimated perhaps another half an hour of pushing before it would be beyond the ability of Oa's gravity to pull it back. In the meantime, he just had to make sure Brimstone behaved.
"I cannot sense you, my God! Your magnificent form is veiled from me!" Brimstone cried out.
Lex replied, improvising as best he could, "You do not need to see me! My visage alone would blast you into nothingness! Can you not feel my presence through you? Feel my mighty hand upon you, moving you?"
"Where am I to go, my God?" It seemed to whine.
"I am giving you a chance to return to my good graces, my servant. Let my power move you to where you need to be and all will be revealed in time."
"I await your pleasure my dark and vengeful Lord!"
Lex sighed as he shut the connection. The primitive AI that ran Brimstone was designed to run on the delusion that it was a fallen angel seeking to redeem itself. Since the techno-seed was designed and built on Apokalips, redemption usually meant a great deal of death and destruction. Lex was broadcasting the correct signal to make it accept his voice as that of Darkseid himself. It was the only way to control the creature
Brimstone began to curl in on itself. Lex suspected it was trying to achieve a fetal position, but it would take a while still. In the meantime, Team Grunt was doing it's job well. They were almost entirely out of Oa's direct orbital path, but it would still be sometime before it was far enough away that it wouldn't get caught up by Oa's gravity and simply fall back onto it.
Mercy's voice was an amused whisper in his ear. "I know you've got a massive ego, but that's just a little much even for you, isn't it?"
Lex frowned, "How do you keep breaking in on my command channel?"
"I have all your access codes." She said smugly.
Lex's proximity alert began screaming at him. He turned his head towards the approaching green streak and braced himself. He had no clue what to expect, but a "thank you" didn't seem likely given the approach.
The streak resolved itself into a massively muscled humanoid with dark blue skin. He wore a Green Lantern uniform with no sleeves, but bicep length gloves, showing off immensely developed shoulders. His head was covered with a green hood, but his eyes burned intensely. The Lantern emblem on his uniform gleamed brightly as he floated to a stop before Lex.
"Where did you get the techno-seed?" He asked harshly, the ring facilitating communication despite the lack of an atmosphere. He reached out and grabbed hold of the collar of Lex's armor and pulled him closer, "Are you of Apokalips? Speak!"
Lex grit his teeth and stared down his assailant. Qarrigat had been abandoned on Oa when the Guardians pulled out of their battle with Darkseid, that was sealed information. The being was much older than he looked. The file had been sanitized somewhat, reflecting that they'd somehow completely eliminated any references to the war against Apokalips, but enough clues had been left behind for Lex to read between the lines. The correct answer to his question was painfully obvious. "They were spoils of war. Earth does not, and never will serve Darkseid."
The being stared unblinkingly into Luthor's eyes for long minutes. "You speak with sincerity and conviction. I can also see the flicker of hatred in your eyes at the name Darkseid. This is good."
"We have little reason to like self-proclaimed gods." Lex allowed a small smile to break through his expression at the irony of that statement. "As for Oa, if I wanted it destroyed, I would not have bothered stopping the Rannian's weapon."
Qarrigat shrugged elaborately. On shoulders as broad as his, it was a particularly impressive sight. "There are those who would not wish for the deaths of their enemies to be an impersonal thing."
"You don't say..." Lex murmured.
Mercy's voice whispered into his ear, "I think he means you, boss." Lex did his best not to allow his expression to change.
"How did you get it to quiet down for you? There were days when Parademons would throw techno-seeds into the fire pits just to watch the Lowlies run." Qarrigat's voice was oddly nostalgic, but hard.
"There's specific command codes that force it to listen to you. They change frequently but I can give you the ones I have." Lex said helpfully. Of course the codes he had wouldn't be useful on any other techno-seeds but the ones he'd gotten from Darkseid personally,, but appearing to be cooperative looked like the way to avoid a confrontation. The last thing he needed was another fight just as things were beginning to settle down.
The blue skinned man nodded once, then looked around. "I notice you have also managed to quiet down the fight as well."
Lex nodded. "We do not like useless violence."
Qarrigat gave a sly smile. "As opposed to the useful kind?"
"Just so."
Qarrigat nodded, then gestured to the slowly moving Brimstone. "Did you need help?"
"Getting it to a safe distance would be a lot easier with more hands helping." Lex said carefully.
Qarrigat gave a sharp nod, then closed his ring-hand into a fist. "Kraken. It's Raker. Send about a hundred of the Lanterns you like least over to the Brimstone. We're helping the humans get it out of this system."
He gave Lex one last salute, a fist to his chest, then flew off to help. Lex let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. "Martian, make sure Superman's team knows that they've got Green Lanterns incoming to give a hand." Lex spoke into his communicator.
J'onn's voice began to reply, but his face in the display a mask of alarm, "Luthor, we have a situation. How much longer will you need Superman and the rest of his team?"
"Half an hour at least. Not counting on whatever help they from the Lanterns." Lex replied, wondering if Mercy was still on the circuit.
"This cannot wait. Deep space telemetry has detected nineteen meteors on direct courses for Earth. There may be more, but we have not yet been able to pick them out."
"That doesn't sound too bad." Lex said with a frown, "The orbital defenses should be able to handle them, rig-"
J'onn cut him off. "They came out of the asteroid belt at relativistic velocities. We have perhaps seventeen minutes before impact."
"From the asteroid belt to Earth in seventeen minutes?" Lex inhaled sharply as he did the calculations in his head. They were moving at an appreciable percentage of the speed of light. "You have their trajectories plotted out?"
"Yes. They all project out from a common point deep in the belt. Each one will impact a major population center, but even a single strike will be sufficient to ring the planet like a bell."
"I know. Death toll in the millions. Possibly billions." Lex said sharply. Single point origination. Targeting specific points on a planet fourteen light years away. This was deliberately aimed. "You need an intercept before it gets near Earth. Somewhere around Martian orbit, I'd imagine. "
"Yes. And for it to work we will need all of them." J'onn replied. "Oracle ran the numbers-"
Lex interrupted, "No, I understand. Let me work out-" He closed his eyes for a moment then spoke rapidly into the Grunt channel. "We're aborting phase three early. Continue pushing for one more minute, then prepare for teleport evac. We need to get you all back to the Sol system."
Superman's voice came to him. The comm units they received had no video. "What's going on, Lex?"
"Attack on Earth. You're needed for an inter-planetary intercept."
"What about Oa?" Superman's voice was suspicious.
"It can fend for itself while we deal with this!" Lex snapped. "Another thirty eight seconds of pushing should put Brimstone on an unstable long orbit that will keep him from hitting Oa for a few days. Qarrigat is sending Lanterns to move him the rest of the way from there before that even becomes an issue!"
"Superman, we need everyone back. Teleporters are online to pull everyone back. I can fill you all in once you get back here." J'onn's diplomatically pitched voice cut in smoothly.
"Do that," Lex said impatiently and shut them out of the circuit. He didn't believe in coincidences. Why an attack now? And who would- his mind quieted itself as he realized the obvious answer. He noticed a communication attempt from John Stewart and allowed it through. He was certain it would confirm what he'd just realized.
"Luthor, we have a problem." He said without preamble.
"They've figured out it's me." Lex said tonelessly. "The Guardians know the threat they're dealing with is from Earth."
"Right! There's a Manhunter-"
"They have some sort of base with a mass driver in the asteroid belt." Lex interrupted.
"Look if you already know all of this-" John's voice held a tone of annoyance.
"I just found out. How bad is it?"
"Extremely. They just came to a decision. They're broadcasting this to the other Lanterns now." John's image raised a closed fist and allowed his ring to speak. It was not in the toneless, noninflected voice of the ring, but instead the urgent treble of the Guardians.
"We have confirmed that all ships currently in orbit around Oa are part of a multi-world coalition created by the criminal human Lex Luthor and is intent on the destruction of the Guardians and the Green Lantern Corps. They must be stopped at all costs! We hereby authorize the use of deadly force. They will offer no mercy, so we must give them none. Destroy the invaders!"
Lex swore. Today really was not his day. "Oracle, did you catch that?"
"Yes. We're on it." Her voice was tightly controlled and Lex could see some of the ships were beginning to leave the area, but even as that happened, green streaks began shooting across the system. The Lanterns were charging in, no discipline and no formations. A few of the ships began shooting and the war above Oa was back in full swing within the blink of an eye.
He supposed he should have been happy that Brimstone was still being pulled away by other Lanterns, but there were still more than enough Lanterns charging into the area, filling the space with green death.
Lex shook his head and realized his proximity alarm was screaming at him once more. He cranked his force field to the maximum and braced himself as best he could in the fraction of a second before Raker Qarrigat plowed fist-first into him.
This was not going to be pretty.