"Never leave a child alone in a car." Khonsu had escaped, almost completely at that. But he had lost track of White Wyrm, his only potential ally. It took minutes from when the god dropped the boy off in the parking garage, swapping him out with a screaming child roughly his size, for the god to get back in the car and drive it over the edge of the facility, crashing into a bay window in an adjacent building. He had leapt from the car, hood smoking and sirens activated, and could only assume young Josef Symes had done as instructed, and crouched in fear under a car. The perimeter would be locked down. No one would be allowed in or out. But Josef would wait, hiding until he saw a chance to escape, a chance Khonsu could neither provide nor facilitate. As the moon god ran, lights flashing on the office building through which he tore, he could only wonder how many days the boy would have to wait. The replacement child would certainly have a shorter sentence, though. Khonsu punched through a window as he ran toward it, leaping, grabbing onto the fire escape of the next facility as he crashed through. The car had exploded behind him, and even now, as he made his way south in search of the Red Order, he could remember it clearly, and remember it going exactly as planned. Josef had slugged the child in the skull the minute the god dragged it into the van. Khonsu never told him what would happen next. While the child lay unconscious and Khonsu drove, Josef had tied it to the seat, not asking why. As the moon god scaled the fire escape and made his way up the second building, he could hear the car exploding, knowing Josef could as well. The god had discharged a miniscule beam of moonlight into the engine as he ran. It required precise timing, but it exploded all the same. If he had left the child to wake up in the car, he or she would give away Josef's escape, and the authorities would readily believe. With traffic cameras, someone would have to have seen Josef, awake and next to Khonsu, the child would not be making up a scapegoat. As the demon god heaved himself into a ventilation shaft, he realized he was unsure whether the child was a boy or girl. But with the fire that undoubtedly engulfed what was once a vehicle, no one else would either. The duct tape used to restrain the child in the event it woke up would melt, and the features that defined the youngling as "Not Josef" would soon be gone. As soon as night had fallen, the officers were still searching the building, but Khonsu decided the time was right to escape. He silently flew through the ventilation system and drank in the partial moon upon reaching the roof. In the dark, flight was no issue, and before long he was away.
"Never leave a child alone in a car." said Khonsu as he pondered the fate of the boy or girl. Josef was a fit young lad, and could easily overpower whatever child came his way, especially one younger and not expecting it. The only way the child could have escaped death is if it had not been there, but the god had been relatively sure there would be at least one. Before long, dawn broke and he landed, unwilling to be seen in the sky. There was no question he would be captured or killed if put on the list of super villains, as he could not outpace a military jet and would have trouble destroying something so fast. Therefore, traveling on foot was likely the best option. In several hours, he reached a deep lake, one for which he had been searching and recognized by the small symbol of a bird carved into a nearby boulder. There will be some sort of test- I know it. Out of the serene blue came multiple images on the mist, the first of a child's charred corpse. A deep voice asked a simple question.
"Are you justified?"
"Yes. I must find the Red Order. I'll kill anyone it takes. The child took the place of Josef." The image disappeared, and on the mist formed one of Andy's many fake deaths he had created in her mind. He could see the girl, pale blue skin and lips of a deeper hue, frozen in North America.
"Are you justified?"
"Yes. Andy must know her subservient place. She must learn that death is rarely directly caused by the dead. I don't care what I have to do or say to make that point." Before the next image could appear, two large black vans arrived. A boy completely covered in wooden needles protruding from his skin climbed out of one and a girl with glass needles emerged from the other. The drivers turned off the SUV's and stepped out with automatic pistols.
"Tailors! Kill!" came the shout of a driver, complete with a mob suit. The boy and girl charged forward and discharged the protuberances at Khonsu, who, dodging, noticed a thin red cord following the needles as they flew. Aware he would leave no witnesses alive, Khonsu killed both armed men mid burst of rounds, firing moon beams into their hearts as he dove out of the way of another attack. Continually missing him, the brother and sister, at least conceivably, persisted their efforts until they were out of ammunition, stuck in the ground in various places, and the holes in their skin had sealed up. It was now that Khonsu could clearly see they were both darker, perhaps Indian. Noticing no other weapons or apparent powers on either of them, the demon god strode over to the boy to snap his neck. Why do they need these guys if they have guns? Do the needles have magic powers or something? Without warning, the boy, maybe Andy's age or younger, jerked his right arm and leg backward, then turned around on one foot. Presumably the girl did something similar, and Khonsu found himself tied and on the ground, both of Andy's hands facing away from his opponents. He attempted to burn through the strings, but the boy and girl absorbed the energy he put into them.
"We have you now. Surrender, and we promise we aren't going to hurt you." There's one thing left to do. In broad daylight, Khonsu could not take them straight up into the clouds with him, he would be seen. There was no calling for help, either. He stared forward into the lake. An image came on the mist, the last one. He saw Andy-no, himself tied to the ground with stakes and clever maneuvering, losing energy by the minute. The vision of himself grabbed onto a needle in the ground just close enough to reach. Doing the same, he cut through one of the cords and the boy lost his balance. The girl attempted to double over the snare by leaping over Khonsu, but he thwarted her by firing upward from Andy's only finger not completely covered by red cord. The girl lost an arm, but the cord still took energy out of the god. In minutes he would die. Khonsu took advantage of their pain and confusion, jerking the girl forward with her string. He killed her on the ground with the needle as the boy cried and attempted to stab him. He flung the boy away as the voice in the lake asked the final question.
"Are you justified?" Khonsu in the image killed the boy. The real moon god shoved the child into the lake.
"It's irrelevant." Eight fissures in perfectly straight lines opened up around the lake, the balance of water and earth not changing at all. The land bent backward and the water stayed perfectly in place. There was an ancient god sitting supine in the bottom of the lake, as Khonsu could see as he walked around under the suspended water. Also, he could see the boy, drowning and unable to swim, observing the same phenomenon with wonder and fear.
"You are an order god. And you are evil, evil as I am." The small, withered being died and a red amulet lied on his chest. Respectfully, Khonsu took the pendant and shoved it in a pocket, noticing it looked something like the sun disk, red and circular. Against Andy's leg it felt unusual as Khonsu boarded a black SUV, having thrown the body of the driver out from where it had fallen. Chances are, they figure I'll avoid the road. While that's a valid assumption, they don't know I have places to be. The god found a small country road by which, he assumed, the vans had arrived. The people after him would soon know he had survived, and Joram would send more assaults his way. Without a map, Khonsu made his way to a small town, where he asked about "no questions asked" passage to North Carolina from a few shady characters as he stole a detailed atlas that would direct him to the coast if all else failed. All else did fail, and numerous times he narrowly escaped police, not suspecting a youngish kid to turn a corner, get into a car and drive away. A heavy realization hit as he made his way south with the stolen van and atlas.
"I've made a terrible mistake. Sooner or later, a report will get out with Andy's description." He said to himself as he strode away from the van, a large fire engulfing it. "The authorities will realize, however unlikely, that Andromeda Popolos is lost in Louisiana, driving a black van. There is no escape swift enough, for this time they will be swifter than I. They will bring armored trucks and helicopters, and they will seal off every exit." There was only one thing left to do, and Khonsu knew it. He had to hide, go underground; wait it all out. He took out the Red Order and gleaming in Andy's palm, it called back memories of the only time he had seen it in use before.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
"Monthu! You don't know what you're doing with that thing!" The year was somewhere around the foundation of Rome, and Khonsu's closest guess was 730 BC, Etruscans at full power. He cornered his enemy with a staff, Monthu wielding twin knives. Both, if Khonsu remembered correctly, inhabited the bodies of Hesperian men.
"Oh, I know exactly what I do, Khonsu. You should too." He held aloft the Red Order, the symbol of all evil order gods, most importantly the two squaring off in front of the pre-Roman temple with a crowd gathering. Red light came from the body Monthu was using, the light of the sun channeling straight into the Order. The disk reacted, expanding, extending, and folding out over the man's hand, covering it like shining armor. Khonsu planted a kick on the chest as he hooked his staff around his enemy's neck, threatening to break it with the force. His enemy slashed out with a knife as his leg, and opened a terrible wound as the armor expanded to his neck, saving the life of his host. When they separated, the moon god was wounded and his opponent covered in conceivably impenetrable armor.
"I surrender." Their conflict was petty anyway, he had only replaced Monthu as Mut's child, nothing about which to be upset.
"You have yet to quit. You have yet to see the true horrors of it." And with that, Monthu turned invisible as Khonsu flew away in fear, never to know what became of his former sun god enemy.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
"I have come to a decision." He had. He would find a chamber, somewhere Andy could physically sleep, and use the Order to disguise the vessel, probably a small cabin. There he would wait, for it would be too risky to go out for food as Andy, even if he were invisible. Sooner or later, someone would bump into an invisible individual, and the Justice League would arrive in minutes.
No, he was definitely going to sleep.