Chapter 61
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Note: The Zeus character is from "Batman: the animated series." Katsopolis is from the same universe as my story "Slouching towards Bethlehem" but is not a character seen in that story. Lee and Beth are two minor characters from the television version of "Lucifer." Kaliback is from "Superman: the animated series" from the 1990s. I think you already know where Trade Federation battle droids and imperial clone troopers are from.
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The group, including Supergirl, Alex, Lucifer, John Constantine, Coulson, Ward, Daisy, Batman, his HARDAC duplicate, Robin/Tim Drake, and Jonah Hex arrived in Hell. It was indeed a frightening sight. For one thing, there were children on the streets, ready to sell their bodies for food. Jonah asked Lucifer a question.
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Jonah: Remind you of home sweet home?
Lucifer: Hardly. Why do you think I'm bad around children, because there are no children in my Hell. We should bring them back to Antarctica, where they'll be relatively safe.
Supergirl: Agreed, you're not so bad.
Lucifer: Please don't say that, I'm willing to bribe you.
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As the group prepared to transport these children home, it was clear that the children were expecting to have to "pay" for this service, and were willing. All of these heroes ofcourse rejected this "payment."
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Jonah: Nice to know you have some limits.
Lucifer: Children, incest, non consensual sex of any kind. And I still owe my brother payback for starting that story about me and the goat.
Batman: I know him.
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The group was unclear what Batman meant, but he pointed to the television screen. A speaker in a nice suit, was introducing the man behind him, a man who claimed to be Zeus, king of the gods.
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Batman: He was a lunatic who really believed himself to be Zeus. He developed a device capable of artificial lightening, fostered the delusion that he was a god. I don't know the other speaker however.
Duplicate: I've heard of him. He's from that world where the asteroid was coming, and their whole world went a little nuts. His name is, or was, Katsopolis. He was a professor in ancient history, specializing in ancient mythology. He was also a minor politician in their parliament before the announcement of the asteroid. Katsopolis came to believe that the old gods had returned, and were punishing humanity for abandoning them. People were desperate enough to believe this, and Katsopolis became their prime minister. He instituted a program where people could offer their children to be sacrificed to the gods, in exchange for money. Aside from trying to placate the gods, it also meant that the state had fewer mouths to feed. There was a rumor that an oracle foretold that he was required to sacrifice his own children. Some say he did it himself, others say that his oldest daughter shot her younger siblings then sacrificed herself. In any event Katsopolis was assasinated, a few months before impact, by followers of the ancient titans, who thought they could avoid the asteroid by returning to the mythical "golden age."
Alex: And now it seems he works for a guy who really believes he's Zeus.
Constantine: And they seem to have their own mini-kingdom. Still, we've heard that Hitler might be in charge.
Ward: If there's a power struggle in Hell, Hitler would have a major advantage.
Daisy: Numbers, there's got to be a fair amount of nazies in Hell.
Ward: Exactly.
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As they were gathering these children, the "parents" of one of these children came out. The father was a man who Lucifer had dealt with on a number of instances. His name was Lee, and he was so grateful to see his old "friend" that he actually hugged Lucifer. Lucifer recognized Lee's partner, her name was Beth. Lee had tried to rob Lucifer, and he didn't care much about money so he just let Lee have it. After Lee was murdered and wound up in Hell, Lucifer helped him solve his own murder. Beth had gotten into a fight with her sister, and ended up killing her. Beth tried to frame her other sister, she was one of the cases that Lucifer and Chloe solved. Beth was convicted of murder and executed in the electric chair. Beth and Lee both suffered in Hell, until Linda arrived and helped them overcome their guilt. Now, it seemed they were in the new Hell.
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Lee: It's so good to see you again Lucifer.
Lucifer: Happy that you two found each other. Say, about your child.
Lee: Yeah, we try to keep her away from this crap, but there's only so much we can do here. I owe you a lot man. Your friend Linda, really helped me and Beth in Hell.
Lucifer: I can see why listening to people like you was her personal torment.
Lee: Still counts man. You are here to take us away, right?
Lucifer: Why not. Incidentally, is this really your daughter?
Lee: Not biologically. But a lot of families were torn apart, finding them again is more difficult than you can imagine.
Lucifer: Then promise that, if they can't find parents for these other children, that you and Beth will help take care of them.
Lee: You have my word.
Beth: Mine too.
Lucifer: Good. John, let's get these people home. One more thing, Robin here is looking for an old friend here, Annie. She was a child when she died, she might have the ability to shapeshift and become a clay-like figure.
Beth: I don't know anyone named Annie, but this place is pretty big.
Lee: Yeah sorry. Even the clay part isn't ringing any bells.
Lucifer: We'll keep looking then.
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Lucifer and Constantine opened the portal to transport these twelve children, along with Lee and Beth, to Antarctica. As it closed the group of heroes tried to explore this Hell a bit more, hoping to find and rescue Annie. Robin knew he was well past the age where he could date Annie, but he couldn't abandon her either, he was a hero after all. As the heroes walked around they saw many scantily clad women and men. This part appealed to Lucifer. He said that there were suprisingly few porn stars in his Hell, evidently they did too much good on Earth. It was obvious that they were being watched, they just didn't realize by whom. Before they knew it, they were surrounded by many soldiers. Half were Trade Federation battle droids, the other half were imperial clone troopers. Their leader was Kaliback, son of Darkseid. Supergirl and Lucifer were exceptionally strong, but they were outnumbered at least ten to one. They feared that if a battle could not be avoided, that they could't protect all of their friends.
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Kaliback: I understand you are from Antarctica.
Supergirl: Yes. We are here with permission from your secretary of state, Nicolae Carpathia.
Kaliback: And you have brought others back to your world.
Supergirl: They wanted to leave yes.
Kaliback: No doubt. We therefore ask you to bring us back with you. We wish to defect to your side.
