Chapter XXI: Age of Ultriac! Part 5
Steve walked, cautiously, through the mist forest, unaware of how he got there. No matter which way he went, he could see nothing but trees, rocks, and shadows. "Hyperman, are you there?" He tried into his earpiece. "Kent, I can't see anything, where are you?" Then he called his other partner. "Thunder Woman, do you read? Dina, can you hear me?" But still, there was no response. Steve decided to try running, going faster and faster until he saw something.
Suddenly, he heard a soft cry coming from the distance. His pace started to slow down, letting the heels of his boots skid on the ground. He made his way to the source of the sound, thinking that if he found that person, he could find a way out of there. "Why…?"
Steve stopped, dead in his tracks. Lying on the ground, burying his face in his palms as tears of pain ran down his cheeks, was the seventeen-year-old boy, once known as Kid-Flag. His leg had been blown off by the explosion, and he was bleeding uncontrollably. "Why didn't you find me?"
Steve's lips trembled as he tried to speak. "Wally, I didn't know-"
"You promised me…" Wally looked up at his mentor. "You said you would be there for me… 'til the end of the finish line…"
"Wally, please, I thought you were-"
"You broke your promise... " Wally's words hurt Steve more than any villain ever could. "You left me for dead… let Stalin take me... do you have any idea what I've become?!" A flash of blue lightning struck the wounded child, prompting Steve to cover his eyes. When he looked again, Wally was now back as the Winter Speedster, complete with the metal leg. The super-soldier stepped back in fear before Wally revealed an AK-47 from behind his back and blew his shield-wielding arm off. "You did this to me… and you're going to pay."
Steve didn't try to argue any further; he knew he was right.
(...)
Kent was very confused. Just a moment ago, he had Ultriac-5 pinned to the ground, beating him senseless with his hyper-powerful fists. But then, a black mist had apparently taken him to a dark place. At first, he thought he was in space, but there were no stars in the distance, nor was there any vacuum straining his muscles.
Suddenly, the blackness disappeared to reveal a clear, blue sky over the Heartland. The deafening wail of a fire truck's siren made his ears hurt. Using his telescopic vision once again, he gasped when he saw the source of the emergency. Kent shot down to the ground, flying as fast as he could to the accident. He landed on the ground with a powerful stomp that shattered the road's pavement like glass in a window. He used his hyper-breath to blow away the cackling flames, tore the wrecked vehicle's door off with little effort, and gently carried the bodies out of the pickup.
Jonathan and Nora Kent. The kindest, most caring people whom God had set on Earth's soil. The couple who found an infant boy, crying in a spaceship that landed in their cornfield, and took it upon themselves to raise him as their own. The couple who were just heading into town when a reckless driver had hit them.
"Ma…? Pa…?" His hyper-hearing didn't pick up any inkling of a heartbeat coming from either of them. Kent had relived this horrible memory many times throughout his life, but this felt so real. The sight of the man and woman he'd known as his parents, motionless and lifeless.
Kent Milton. Kal-Ran. Hyperman. Faster than a speeding laser beam. More powerful than a nuclear warhead. Able to leap out of a planet's atmosphere in a single bound. None of that mattered to him if he couldn't save the people who meant the most to him.
The bodies dissolved in his hold, not leaving a trace, and the last son of Radon was alone again. But that was only the beginning of his suffering. Everyone he loved would grow old and die while he was cursed to remain forever young. This was his worst nightmare; his purgatory; his hell.
(...)
Diana stumbled aimlessly through the ruins that were once Asgard. As her eyes shone from the tears being held back, she came to the broken thrones of her parents. The shining paradise that was once full of happy noblemen, women, and children, was now a burning wasteland. The stench of death burned Diana's nose as she continued to shift through the rubble.
Suddenly, a triumphant chant was heard in the distance. Diana froze in position as the chant grew louder. The Olympians, longtime rivals of the Asgardians were destroying what was left of her home. Zeus, himself, wore her father's crown like a trophy to appease his never-ending vanity. Ares and his brothers had trapped some of the women in cages, as if they were savage animals, most likely to use them for their own selfish purposes. At the same time, Athena and her sisters were executing all of the men and children that had survived the initial onslaught.
But what disturbed the Goddess of Thunder the most was the sight of Major John Foster, the only mortal she had come to love with all her heart, being impaled by the blade of Eros, Ares' firstborn child. The humans had thought him to be a god of love because he was also the son of Aphrodite. But that was a lie. Eros was just as violent and wicked as his cruel father, if not more-so.
"How could this happen?" She thought to herself.
"Because you let it happen, sister!" Diana turned to see Nubia, the Amazonian Goddess of Protection. She was often seen with her adoptive brother Heimdall, the Asgardian protector of the Rainbow Bridge, together they would foresee any threat to Asgard and stopped it before it happened. But the Bridge was shattered and Nubia's watchful eyes were dimmed with blindness.
The ruined kingdom started to crumble away, and Diana saw six colorful rings flying through the vast emptiness of space before being conjoined onto a gilded gauntlet. The last thing she saw before the nightmare restarted, was a pair of ominous red eyes piercing her soul. What did all of this mean?
(...)
H.I.D.R.A. headquarters. Berlin, Germany.
"What am I looking at?" Zemo asked with excited curiosity as he gazed at the images on Darkstar's cloak.
"It's the spell I placed on the JLA, Baron Zero." Darkstar explained. "Ultriac-5 said he needed something to put them in a daze so that the mind-control device wouldn't have any trouble. My spell is forcing them to see what they fear the most." The muta sorcerer's eyes narrowed at the image of Thunder Woman. While Flag and Hyperman's visions felt like bad dreams or horrible memories, her's seemed more like one of his premonitions.
["Come along, Tod."] Ultriac-5 called to his friend. ["Baron Zero has allowed you and your sister to accompany me on my little side-quest."] Tod respectfully bowed to H.I.D.R.A.'s leader and made his way towards the hangar with them.
"May I come with you?" A voice called. The trio was surprised to see it was Blizardkrieg who asked.
"Didn't your dad tell you to get some rest?" Jenny-Lynn crossed her arms.
"And I did. Now, I would like to do something productive. It's not a problem, is it?" Truthfully, Helmut needed an excuse to get away from the facility for a while. He was still confused about what the Winter Speedster had said to him.
["I suppose not."] Ultriac-5 shrugged, and motioned his hand for Blizardkrieg to follow.
"So where are we going?" Jadestar asked as they boarded the jet.
["Tell me, Jennifer-Lynn; have you ever been to Poland before?"]
Meanwhile, back in Brazil.
Matthew Wayne, better known by his peers as Gargoyle, had been preparing for this ever since the Justice Legion had been formed. His armor was built out of a flexible kevlar suit, with just enough patches of titanium alloy to provide strength and protection. His utility belt holstered two custom-built energy guns to protect himself from Hyperman and protect himself against Thunder Woman, he had smaller pieces of Nth metal built into the seams of the titanium.
Tony Jordan, on the other hand, had only been prepared one month ago. His armor was bigger and bulkier than Gargoyle's, standing at ten feet tall. The pieces came to him separately from a Jordan Industries satellite orbit that latched onto his immediate armor. The larger suit was activated by interfacing with the alien lantern that kept him alive, this meant he needed to use all of his willpower to successfully control it without hurting himself.
The two heroes faced their friends with a mixture of worry and remorse. They didn't want to hurt them, but they couldn't let the civilians get hurt. "Listen to me now, guys…" Tony tried. "That muta-wizard is messing with your minds. You're stronger than him. You're smarter than him. You're the Justice Legion of Avengers."
The trio simply glared at them with an empty look in their eyes. Gargoyle deduced that they were completely unresponsive, and unable to understand them. "I guess we do this the hard way." He muttered and aimed one of his guns at Hyperman. He fired a capsule the size of a hand grenade, and the mind-controlled Radonian caught it before it made contact. But before he could dispose of it, a blinding red light flashed from all sides, bathing Hyperman in red solar energy.
Gargoyle didn't waste any more time; he fire his grappling gun at Hyperman's feet and slammed him into Thunder Woman. He turned to face the Flag, but was fit directly in the face by his shield. Fortunately, he reacted quickly, firing his other gun at him. The gun was loosely based off of the schematics of Baron Zero's cold-ray; it was strong enough to slow him down, but not do any real damage.
Hyperman and Thunder Woman recovered and readied for another attack. But this time, Emerald Man was prepared for them. His new armor had larger lenses in the palms, making his repulsor-blasts much more powerful. The blasts held the two strongest members back for a short time, but it didn't last. Thunder Woman's hammer knocked Tony's hand back, giving her a chance to deliver a devastating blow that tore off the larger armor's right arm.
"Ah!" Tony wasn't hurt, but he was growing more worried that he'd lost so much of his armor. Thinking quick, he grabbed Diana's waist and smacked her into Kent. "Friday, I'm gonna need another hand."
["On it, boss."] The new A.I. chirped.
The satellite sent more pieces to Tony's location just as Hyperman got up. Emerald Man kept him back with his left repulsor-ray long enough for his new arm to finish assembling. When it did, he and Hyperman swung their fists at each other and the collided to make a demolishing shockwave.
Meanwhile, Gargoyle was doing his best to keep up with the Flag. His suit was designed for strength, not speed. The cold-ray had slowed his opponent down, but he still had the upper hand; landing hundreds of strong punches on the titanium armor in the blink of an eye. At last, Gargoyle's sonar-vision managed to calculate his fight pattern, and he could finally defend himself properly.
He grasped the Flag's chest and flung him into a wall. But his victory didn't last long, Thunder Woman had taken Flag's place and was now bombarding Matt with a steady stream of thunderbolts.
Tony had managed to hold Hyperman down with one hand and began pounding his other fist into his face like a jackhammer. "Go to sleep. Go to sleep. Go to sleep. Go to sleep." He chanted to himself. But Kent managed to break on arm free and held onto Emerald Man's fist with a strong grip. Using his heat-vision, he managed to push the armored Avenger off of him so that he could get up.
Hyperman picked up Emerald Man and Thunder Woman picked up Gargoyle. Together, they slammed their oppressors together and continued to punch and strike until the armor was in shambles. But before either of them could deliver a killing blow, Ultriac-5, under the orders of Baron Zero, commanded them to head straight to H.I.D.R.A.'s headquarters.
When the trio was gone, Wally rushed over to the two Avengers to see if they were alright. "Don't try to move, I'm gonna help you." He told them as he took Tony's earpiece. "Hello? I have Emerald Man and Gargoyle in critical condition. Where can I take them so they can recover?"
"Who is this?" Fury's voice answered.
"This is the guy who's trying to save their asses!" Wally wasn't in favor of wasting time.
Berlin, Germany. H.I.D.R.A. HQ
Baron Zero paced around the Flag's frozen body. According to Ultriac-5, all three members of the JLA would obey his commands if he spoke firmly enough. This made the former Natzi scientist feel very satisfied. "You have no idea how many times I've dreamed of this moment, Herr Flag…" He smiled, wickedly. "Kneel before me." But the Flag would not move, he was trying to resist the mind-control. Zero backhanded him across the face in anger. "I said kneel!" he sneered.
At last, America's speeding champion dropped to one knee with both fists resting on the ground. "That's better." Zemo smiled again. "Now, who is your master?"
"Y-y-you… are…" Flag choked out.
"Darkstar told me that there is a small part of you in there that is still aware of what is happening…" Zemo tilted Steve's chin up so he could look into his eyes. "If that is the case, I just want you to know; I'm not going to kill you. After what you did to me seventy years ago, death would be too quick of a punishment for you. No… I will leave you alive long enough for you to see your beloved country fall under the command of H.I.D.R.A. You will see everyone you love suffer as I have suffered! And then… once I have taken away everything you care about, and you fully understand the depths of your failure… then, you have my permission to die."
To Be Continued!
