Okay, I need to reiterate this point again. If you have not read A Dragon's Quest, you are going to be lost as heck. But as I do when continuing other stories, I will give a brief summary of what happened last time. Last time, Purple Diamond, Purple Pearl, Superman, Spider-Man, Aquaman, and Red Tornado took out Mysterio and the Elementals in Neo Metropolis, only to learn they were a distraction to keep them out of Smallville, where other villains are gathering Kryptonite. Meanwhile, Dragnarok, Za'Mag'Nu of the Indigo Tribe, and the Green Lanterns were called to Oa to rescue the Guardians of the Universe from Jinmen the Black Lantern. So, how does this story continue? Read on to discover...
Dragon of Mystery and Yami Null Present:
A Story of Heroism and Sacrifice Spanning 13 Worlds
The Thrilling Conclusion to the Nullverse
Dragon's Quest: Age of Miracles
(Enjoy the Show!)
(Our story resumes in HRL headquarters, where Dragnarok and Za'Mag'Nu have just returned from Oa, greeted by Purple Diamond)
Purple Diamond: Man, do I have a story to tell you guys.
Dragnarok: Guessing the situation was contained
Purple Diamond: Yes, but it was absolute madness how we got it that way.
Dragnarok: (Now curious) Please, do tell.
(With that we transition back a few hours to the Kent farm, just outside Smallville, Kansas, where Purple Pearl, Superman, Aquaman, Red Tornado, and Spider-Man are examining geological surveys of the area, trying to locate the Kryptonite mineshaft Mysterio had mentioned upon his capture. As this is going on, Purple Diamond appears to be radioing in to Dragnarok)
Purple Diamond: PD to Dragnarok, PD to Dragnarok, come in Dragnarok.
Dragnarok: (Over the comm device) This is Dragnarok, go ahead Purple Diamond.
Purple Diamond: Mysterio's been dealt with. Turns out he was a distraction to steer us away from Smallville. Apparently there's a huge mineshaft of Kryptonite beneath the town.
Dragnarok: (Over the comm device) This has Luthor Jr written all over it.
Purple Diamond: How's your mission going?
Dragnarok: (Over the comm device) About to enter Oa's atmosphere. Going to need to hold up communication until we get finished here. Best of luck down there.
Purple Diamond: Copy that. Over and out. (Returns to the group checking the geological surveys) Okay, what have we got?
Purple Pearl: If these documents are to be believed, we've most likely got the mineshaft located, My Diamond.
Red Tornado: (Pointing out the observations as he says them) According to analysis of the geological surveys, this mineshaft stretches under the entirety of the town's main road and branches off at at least seven points, none of which extend beyond the present day borders of the town. Current observations show some of the larger crystals may be holding up the ground beneath Smallville in several locations.
Spider-Man: Wait, wait, wait, hold on a second. If this stuff was beneath the town where Supes here grew up, yet it also weakens him, how the heck did he learn he had powers?
Superman: This farm is technically outside of the Smallville town limits, add that to how deep underground the mine is, the effect would have been minimal. Not absent, but minimal.
Purple Diamond: Good to know, Clark. Now, who are we dealing with down there?
Aquaman: On that front... we are almost entirely clueless.
Red Tornado: I've run an analysis of the mineshaft, and while the radiation patterns match the unusual energy signature produced by Kryptonite, the output is not equal to the amount of Kryptonite estimated to be below this town. There is a frequent high point, but it shifts from location to location.
Spider-Man: Moving Kryptonite? Does that mean who I think it means?
Superman: It does. We're dealing with Metallo at least.
Red Tornado: Biometric readings show a few down there. Four of them show the presence of some sort of meta-gene or other genetic tampering. The rest are fully human.
Purple Diamond: Alright then, how do we get in?
Aquaman: The least busy branch of the mineshaft has an entrance in a nearby river. Entering through there would get us in undetected.
Purple Pearl: I hate to be the pedantic one, but... what about Mr. Kent? Kryptonite drains his powers, and without him we'll be close to sitting ducks.
Purple Diamond: Your concern is perfectly warranted, Purple Pearl. I was about to raise the question myself.
Superman: No need to worry about me, I've got a plan. I hid it somewhere around here after an old friend left Metropolis.
Purple Diamond: Get what you need, Clark. We'll handle Metallo and company until you get back. Let's get in there and stop those goons before they tear Smallville down!
(With their plan of action decided, Superman jets off from the Kent farm towards his friend to get the gear they needed. Meanwhile, we transition to the shores of a river just outside of Smallville, which the team dives into within minutes. Once underwater, Purple Diamond produces a sphere of air for Purple Pearl, Spider-Man, and Red Tornado, which Purple Diamond tows behind him as he follows Aquaman towards the entrance to the mineshaft. Within a few minutes of swimming, Aquaman points out a small cavern in the riverbank using his harpoon hand, just big enough for a person to slip through, indicating it's the entrance. Purple Diamond pops the air bubble, letting Purple Pearl, Spider-Man, and Red Tornado through first, before Aquaman and Purple Diamond himself enter. And as they do, we see the interior of the cavern. The ground is loose dirt that can barely hold any traction with giant crystals of green, red, blue, silver, white, black, and even the rare gold Kryptonite sticking out everywhere.)
Spider-Man: (Seeing how loose the ground is) How the heck does anyone get traction in here?
Aquaman: Barely.
Purple Pearl: Looks like the radiation from the Kryptonite has degraded the soil to the point where it resembles lunar regolith in terms of consistency, but even worse for traction.
Purple Diamond: Your spider grip means you should be fine.
Spider-Man: Good point.
(With everyone back in the game, the team progresses through the maze of Kryptonite crystals, and within minutes they see the massive operation going on here, where Metallo, Orca, King Shark, Killer Croc, and Man-Bat are supervising a metric ton of LexCorp employees mining the Kryptonite)
Purple Diamond: Well, that confirms the hypothesis. Metallo's clearly leading this operation.
Aquaman: So, who else have we got?
Purple Diamond: I see Killer Croc, Orca, King Shark, and... (Seeing Man-Bat, then swears under his breath)
Purple Pearl: What is it, My Diamond?
Purple Diamond: Man-Bat's part of the show. No doubt acting as security. If he hears us, we're dead.
Spider-Man: And just when I thought this job couldn't get any weirder.
Purple Diamond: Now's not the best time for quips, Peter. We need to focus on getting those villains secured, locking down the Kryptonite, and getting the heck out of here. And do it quietly.
(With that, the team splits up and focuses in on each of the villains and those working under each of them.)
Orca: No, no, no! You can't put the Silver Kryptonite with the White Kryptonite! They're different types! I don't care if they look similar!
(As Orca screams at them, Spider-Man has been slowly taking out each of them. Once the LexCorp workers Orca is yelling at are the only ones left, Spider-Man crawls up the wall and snags Orca with his webbing before grabbing the two LexCorp employees and webbing them to the ceiling)
King Shark: Are you that stupid?! Who keeps leaving the green stuff everywhere!? Yes, there's a lot of it but we're grabbing everything we can get!
(While King Shark rants, Aquaman makes his way through the crowd, and as King Shark snaps the necks of the two LexCorp miners he's yelling at, Aquaman jumps in from behind, clamping his trident in between King Shark's teeth, pulling him back behind a crystal. With the two of them covered the team starts making their way towards the big ones: Croc, Man-Bat, and Metallo. But that's when Red Tornado enters the scene, knocking a chunk of Silver Kryptonite into a giant Green Kryptonite crystal, with the vibration signalling Man-Bat to their presence, alerting Metallo and Croc)
Metallo: Well, well. Looks like we've got guests! Why don't we give them some hospitality. Croc?
Killer Croc: With pleasure.
(With that, Croc charges at Purple Diamond and company, followed shortly by Man-Bat and Metallo. Purple Diamond and Purple Pearl are occupying Croc, Man-Bat is fighting Aquaman and Red Tornado, leaving Spider-Man to fight Metallo.)
Metallo: So you're this "Spider-Man" Mysterio would not shut up about.
Spider-Man: Oh, they talk about me? I'm flattered.
Metallo: I don't see what he's going on about.
(Spider-Man may have the agility advantage over Metallo, but Metallo holds the combat experience advantage, and knocks Spider-Man out pretty quickly. Aquaman and Red Tornado see this, and with a mighty effort, Aquaman lifts Man-Bat over his head and throws him into Metallo as Purple Diamond attempts to keep Killer Croc from biting him. Now Metallo is battling Aquaman and Red Tornado, and despite the two of them having immense fighting experience, Metallo is managing to hold them back, just as Purple Diamond and Purple Pearl have Killer Croc knocked out and see how Metallo is about to defeat their comrades)
Purple Diamond: (Somewhat exhausted) Taking Croc down took it out of both of us, there's no way we can fight Metallo in this state!
Purple Pearl: In this circumstance, I suggest we call on Trystine, My Diamond.
Purple Diamond: Good call, Purple Pearl!
(With that, of all things that could happen, Purple Diamond and Purple Pearl start waltzing around the cavern, and just as Purple Diamond lifts Purple Pearl over his head, the two form into white energy save their Gems, and the two merge together into a larger humanoid figure with four arms, a tail, and generally reptilian features, essentially part humanoid part dragon, almost all purple but with golden accents, a purple pearl on it's head, and a purple diamond on it's chest)
Trystine: Much better!
Metallo: (Seeing this) What the...?!
(As Metallo reacts, Trystine summons their weapons, a quartet of swords, each charged with one of the four elements: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.)
Trystine: Have at you, you cur!
(With this, Trystine slaps Metallo away from Aquaman and Red Tornado, just as Spider-Man regains consciousness.)
Metallo: It's going to take a lot more than that to beat me!
(Just as Metallo starts ranting, a blue gloved hand taps Metallo on the shoulder, prompting him to turn around, showing us Superman in a gray and blue suit with his logo on the chest and a protective shield over his face, the Anti-Kryptonite Suit)
Superman: Maybe this'll work out.
(With that, Superman punches Metallo so hard he goes flying right into Trystine's grasp, just as they're grabbing up the other villains in the room)
Trystine: Looks like it did, Superman!
Metallo: This isn't over yet!
(To avoid defeat, Metallo fires a beam from his Kryptonite hard, breaking one of the larger crystals, causing the whole place to start shaking)
Trystine: That was one of the support crystals! We've got to stabilize this place!
(Seeing this, Trystine knocks Metallo unconscious, throws the villains to the ground and starts holding up the ceiling. Superman starts pushing on one of the Kryptonite columns, Aquaman fires his harpoon arm, wrapping it around anoter column and pulling it back up by retracting the cable, Red Tornado uses his wind powers to attempt to blow another support crystal into place as Spiderman starts patching the broken crystal with pieces of Kryptonite from the ground and his webbing before attempting to pull it back to a straight position)
Trystine: I can't hold this position forever! (As they start to glow white) We're about to defuse!
Superman: Just a little bit more everyone!
(Within a minute of this, the team manages to restabilize the Kryptonite columns before the mineshaft can collapse, allowing Trystine to let go of the roof and defuse back into Purple Diamond and Purple Pearl.)
Purple Diamond: Well... that was exhausting.
Purple Pearl: Quite a nostalgia trip though, My Diamond.
Purple Diamond: Couldn't agree more.
(As the entire group is about to burst out laughing for some reason, we transition back to the present day, where Purple Diamond is wrapping up telling the story)
Purple Diamond: From there we sealed up the Kryptonite mine, sent the LexCorp miners back to their world, confiscated all the Kryptonite we saw they'd mined, and then brought the villains back here and locked them up.
Dragnarok: I'll say it, very nice work.
Purple Diamond: And that's 10 more villains down total. So, how did your end go?
Dragnarok: Oa's been liberated. Hal and John are staying behind to monitor reconstruction of the Citadel.
Purple Diamond: All in all sounds like a good day for HRL.
Dragnarok: (Hearing the acronym said phonetically) Remind me to slap Tony for coming up with that.
Purple Diamond: You've got to admit it's funny.
(As the two have a nice chuckle about it, we transition to a castle floating in the void, the Dark World, home to Eternal Exitium and the Spawns of Darkblood, who are currently trying to guide a platoon of Grublins carrying a massively heavy crate of objects to in front of an Altar with a black void over it, which they set down rather quickly)
Malphas: You fools! Be careful with those! Those relics are fragile!
Eternal: Calm yourself, Malphas. (Looking into the container, and pulling out a canister marked TCRI) The canisters are undamaged.
Malphas: They had better be.
Eternal: Just add them to the orb will you?
Scourge: And don't whine about this, bro. You didn't have to pry several tons of living gemstones out of a planet's mantle and then cart it back here!
Sorceress: Calm yourself, my brothers. These items are some of the most key to reviving Father.
Eternal: Listen to your sister, boys. She's not wrong.
(As this is happening, Malphas has thrown in the last of the TCRI canisters into the black void over the Altar)
Malphas: That's the last of the ooze.
Scourge: My turn then.
(With that, Scourge picks up a massive conglomeration of fragmented gemstones)
Scourge: One Cluster, going in!
(Scourge then throws The Cluster into the void, and as he does, Sorceress lifts a white and blue decorated Hourglass with khaki sand within using her magic)
Sorceress: And one Hourglass to finish the job.
(As the Hourglass is placed into the void, the castle starts to rumble as the void appears to develop a heartbeat, louder than previous versions)
Eternal: Yes! That glorious rhythm! The Master will soon return! We must continue! Malphas, you said you had the Miracle Machine located. Why have you not retrieved it yet?!
Malphas: We know where it was supposed to be, but it was not there when we arrived.
Eternal: (Confused) How the hell is that...? (Thinks about it) Oh, those miserable fools.
Sorceress: What are you babbling about?
Eternal: The Miracle Machine wasn't there because it doesn't exist yet! It's in the future! 1000 years from now! We must go to the 31st Century to retrieve it!
Scourge: And how the hell are we supposed to do that?!
Eternal: Don't you worry, my devious Spawns. I have a plan...
(And as Eternal starts drumming his fingers, anticipating his plan, our tale ends for today)
And that seems like a good place to wrap up for now. I hope this is going the way you hoped so far, Yami. I'm looking forward to working on this. Quick note, I'm really deriving the main DC continuity of this story primarily from the DC Animated Universe, so Dragnarok wouldn't freak out by seeing an ally Aquaman looking too much like the version that killed him. Other influences are the Arrowverse for Flash and Young Justice for characters like Superboy and Miss Martian. I hope that explains the harpoon hand. So, it looks like Eternal and the Spawns are heading to the future to try and steal the Miracle Machine. But will they be successful? Or will Dragnarok and company stop them? Tune in next time to find out! Same time... same channel!