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Legal disclaimer: I tend to liberally "borrow" character profiles and art from the Earth-27 wikia created by Roy Westerman with art principally coming from digital artist Phil Cho. Other creators and artists are found there as well and will specifically list any creations with creator citations as I utilize them. In short, this is the single most comprehensive retelling of all things DC and beyond I have encountered. In short, it's worth your time to explore.
That having been said, the properties, and their variations belong to DC and its parent, AT&T, with notable exceptions. More on that in the epilogue. I do not own DC characters or their interpretations and reimaginings. My own characters are implied Public Domain since I have not included a copyright notice as required by the 1974 revisions of the copyright statutes and regulations. While an intellectual copyright is implied without the due symbols and language, all such considerations are generally voided under CC-BY-SA, which governs this site, unless duly noted otherwise
And additionally Open Source characters were utilized with attributions needed to satisfy legaleeze. These will be made following the concluding remarks.
Glorith had found herself taken from Balduur as a youth and brought to the Sorcerer's World. Even in the advanced age of technology and science in the 30th Century, magic still ruled the hearts of some. And by the 31st Century, the galaxy and the Sorcerer's World had been conquered by Mordru, one of the Lords of Chaos.
But Mordru had been mortal once and fought the likes of the Justice League and the Justice Society. He was destined to be conquered and killed by Mon-El. But Mordru arranged for his death and that of the Superboy from the Time Trapper's Pocket Universe, so the Legion of Superheroes never came into existence.
But Glorith's core magic was the manipulation of time. And she seen the future where Superboy inspired the Legion into existence. But she saw the potential for a new future that would replace her misery as one of Mordru's hundreds of concubines. But she would have to cement the Legion's foundation and created a quadripartite of Lar Gand but no longer Mon-El, Superboy, Laurel Gand, and the Justice League. And the Justice League's influence would also to the creation of a 31st Century team, Justice League Action.
She didn't have to manipulate the Justice League's history. Iterations of the League appeared throughout the ages and eras following the early 21st Century. Superboy had been the Time Trapper's invention to inspire the LSH's formation but his death and Superboy betraying the Legion caused them to disband. And Gen. Zod and his two loyalists killing Superboy and his Pocket Earth ended any chance of reparations.
Glorith saw Lar Gand, dubbed Mon-El because of his amnesiac entrance into the Pocket Universe and his arrival in Smallville on a Monday.
Glorith decided Lar Gand was the tool she needed to inspire the Legion's membership. And his sister Laurel possessed the same core values despite Daxam being a xenophobic state devoted to worshiping Darkseid. Between them, trillions would be inspired throughout galactic history. Even the jaded Glorith was swayed by their charisma and courage.
But Glorith's power was too weak to completely alter events. She could only slide around history and pull its strings towards one slope or another. She needed power. Fortunately being a sex slave afforded library access. And one entire wing regarding the blackest magics was sealed off with Mordru's Chaos magic. Easy enough to bypass by reverting the entrance to a time before the seal was implaced and restoring it behind her.
It took Glorith two years of diligent searching, after all, she only to endure sexual tedium once a year, and she found what she sought.
Mordru had sought to harness Glorith's power to reverse his own aging and make him a virile young man again rather than an ancient relic fading into irrelevance. So he began his conquests of neighboring galaxies to defeat the Dark Circle's grip on most of them. So Glorith, alone of the concubines, delved into the library's secrets. Lesser repositories were reserved for the minor mages enlisted to administrate Mordru's vast empire. Any potential threats were butchered as youths.
She located a spell to augment her core magic to heights undreamed of since eons past. But the spell invoked the vilest of magicks. It was a brutal exercise that required the shedding of her blood to prepare the grounds. Then she had to carve out her own heart and cast the spell before she died. If she failed to utter one syllable, it was all for nothing. Yet Glorith did cast the spell and she rewrote history to a version where Lar Gand would kill Mordru after being the primary inspiration for the Legion.
Yet, Renfri, the Evil Queen of legend, used the power of the Zero Hour Rose taken from the Genesis Point to recast history as it began at a new Creation. But Glorith overpowered the Evil Queen and forged an unbreakable history by adding her own magic to the Zero Hour Rose. History could briefly be altered but always snap back into its original place. Especially now that the Multiverse no longer exsisted and only a single universe stood in its place.
But history has a way of derailing itself if left untended. So Glorith applied a hands on approach to Lar Gand. She needed him forged and honed like her personal weapon. So she needed to insure his absolute loyalty. And his journey began in the earliest years of thr 21st Century.
She began by defeating the Time Trapper and usurping control over his Pocket Universe, forged from one split second at the dawn of time. But the Time Trapper's power was scientific and she crushed and devoured his essence. Then she shaved off her second of history. And as Pocket Earth was consumed in death by Zod's followers, Matrix, an artificial protoplasmic life form became Supergirl and brought Superman to her ruined Earth. And Superman did the unthinkable. Then he returned to Earth and Matrix followed to become the second Supergirl.
Which Glorith needed to have happen. So she restored that split second in time after the death of Pocket Earth. So no one was aware of what happened until Glorith approached Superboy, who was well aware of his universe's origins.
"Hello Clark, can we talk?" she inquired.
"Now I'm to your pawn, right?" Superboy asked.
"I don't make pawns. I offer choices. Work with me and you'll still be an inspiration in the future, just not the inspiration," Glorith explained the nuance.
"If I refuse?" he asked.
"Then I still unfreeze time and you go on to irrelevancy in the real universe and spend your life collecting cats out of Smallville's trees. Follow me, and you'll have a life of adventure and glory and leave this wretched past for a glorious future. I saved your universe once, once you leave it for the Legion, I'm ending this place."
"If I go, Lana Lang goes with me," he decided.
"Done and done," Glorith smirked, "You haven't told her that you're her neighbor, Clark Kent, have you?"
"It's called a 'secret' identity for a reason," Superboy snarked.
"For now, I have someone to steer in the 21st Century universe," Glorith announced.
"Manipulate you mean," he retorted.
"Clark Kent! How rude!" she pretended to be offended, "Absolutely true but I can only guide, my subject has to make the actual choices."
"Why are they so important?" Superboy asked.
"He's the end of Mordru," Glorith relished that thought, "He'll become my champion. Devoted to my well being and securing our future together."
"Why would he do that?" Superboy asked.
Glorith looked ashamed of him, "For love."
"Good luck with that," Superboy snorted.
"Tell Lana who you are and how you feel about her and see how that story begins," she advised.
But she knew winning Lar Gand's heart wouldn't be easy. Maybe even more difficult than sacrificing herself on a profane alter. The thing was, having viewed him through time, she'd already fallen for him. Now she had to share herself and let him do the same towards her.
"Gand! You are one lucky son of bastich! The Planetary Council approved your exit visa. On two conditions, you never come back on pain of execution and you leave in the next six ticks or you're summarily executed anyway," Lar Gand's governmental advocate informed him.
"Thank you so much," Lar said profusely.
"Don't thank me yet. The countdown began when they issued the proclamation. That was almost two ticks ago," the harried advocate told him, "Personally I hope your homemade light speed drive blows you up," the advocate on his way out.
"You do realize this means we'll effectively never see each other again," Laurel, Lar's sister, bemoaned.
"I have room. You could come with," Lar offered...again.
"I can't," she refused...again, "Someone needs to evolve these people. And you only have four ticks left."
"I was ready six day cycles ago," Lar grinned.
She threw a dirty rag at him, "You could've been ready a solar cycle ago and not told me," Laurel fumed.
"I'm going to miss your temper," Lar confessed.
"And I'll miss your overconfidence. You're so damn unflappable," Laurel threw her hands in the air.
He pulled her in for a tight hug, "Save the planet, you overwrought crusader."
"You explore the galaxy, your idiotic explorer," Laurel sniffed back tears.
"It's okay not to be the toughest one in a room once in awhile," Lar urged her.
"You don't have to be the most starry eyed dreamer in any given room, either," Laurel wiped her eyes.
"You know, ever since dad left they've been afraid that he'd come back and tell them the universe doesn't hate us," Lar opined.
"And here you're making the same mistake. We all hated him for it," Laurel had her tears under control.
"But we saw through our culture's bigotry. So at least you and I don't have to hate him even if mom and our sibs hate me for this," Lar cautioned her.
She had to fiercely hug him again. When they pulled away, Lar advised her, "Keep your views hidden from anyone you aren't certain you can trust with your life. Because you will be."
He started to board Daxam's Folly, a name loaded with double meaning, and Laurel almost followed him up the ramp. But she steeled herself. She had a fight to pick with her own society.
Neither Gand knew that in a few short years, Almerac and a coalition of interstellar powers would blockade Daxam. But then again, they'd have good reason to. Until three Lantern Corpsmen persuaded the blockade commander otherwise.
Lar used antigravs to gain altitude. Once reaching the upper atmosphere, he switched on the plasma drive which would push him out into the outer solar system and with Daxam's red giant sun's gravitational pull weakened, he activated the hyperdrive with set coordinates for a planetary system astronomers knew to inhabited. A system with an orange star for a sun.
Glorith had opened a temporal rift as a viewing window to observe Lar, "Isn't he magnificent?"
"Sure," Superboy snorted, "Why is he so special?"
Glorith had to remind herself in this history, Lar Gand had never visited Pocket Universe Smallville to become Mon-El, "He's a Daxamite, cousins to Kryptonians. And under a yellow sun he'll be more powerful than even you and you're more powerful than Superman. And kryptonite doesn't faze him."
"And he's supposed to fall in love with you why again?" he asked.
"You have no romance in your jaded soul," she complained, "And I thought I was cynical."
"I followed your advice and told Lana who I secretly am. It took her a few days to get over being mad but we've started dating. I just told her about moving to the future. She wants to help out however she can."
"I think I have a place for her in this scheme," Glorith tapped her lip with her forefinger.
Superboy sighed, "She isn't content with being a Legion reservist as Insect Queen either."
"That's on her," Glorith warned him.
"So this guy will kill for love?" Superboy was skeptical.
"He has that unflinching heroic character. Like you used to. He'll do it to protect me," she promised.
"We'll see," Superboy wasn't flinching in the face of her certainty.
Now that Lar had experienced life under an orange sun for several months, his potential powers manifested at half strength. The Justice League hadn't formed yet but Superman was already becoming famous. And word from Apokolips was that there was now a Supergirl as well. So he traveled to Earth to train under people more powerful than he'd become. And he discovered the root of his power from Kara In-Ze and she and Clark trained Lar for six weeks before the Dominators' secret invasion stole six million people. Lar went after them.
"This is it!" Glorith gloated.
"What is?" Lana sat in on these sessions now.
"These are the people that become the human settlers across the United Planets," Superboy predicted.
"I always wondered about how they got there," Lana confessed.
Lar destroyed the Dominator convoy but not before they activated over five million peoples' gen factors. And most of the metas could be grouped by power. A few thousand were left on the planet Winath to thrive there as farmer's with a penchant for birthing twins. All as Lar, now called Valor by an appreciative audience, led them to planets perfect for their powers. A very small minority never became gen active. Most became pirates.
"I've heard of Valor," Superboy admitted.
"So have I," Lana enthused.
"Now you know," Glorith gloated, "In a short time, he'll be catapulted to the future. My future. And out of modesty he'll drop 'Valor' to become M'Onel."
"I thought you said he didn't become Mon-El," Superboy accused.
"Listen to the syllabic stresses, M'Onel versus Mon-El," Lana coached him.
"Why so close of a name?" he asked.
"I wrote a new history but I couldn't take care of every detail. Most things I just slightly tweaked," Glofrith confessed.
"Like saving our universe," Lana explained for Clark, "At least for now."
"And that doesn't bother you?" Superboy wondered.
"We're not real but have the opportunity to become real. So I'm taking it," Lana asserted.
Glorith decided she liked the teen, "They think you're real. Now everyone knows there's only one universe and there has always been just one universe. A few refugees from other former universe still know about what really happened during the Crisis. But as far as post-21st Century goes, there's always been one universe and no Pocket Universe either. That's why the Legion is convinced they're going back in time in a straight line."
"So what's next?" Lana happily asked, "When's the romance start?"
"Now," Glorith confided, "Valor is about to meet 'Lori'."
Valor would never know how intentionally the surveyor crashed or why there was only one survivor. Or why the crash happened on a planet near his current position. All he knew is he had to respond to the distress call, for more than the usual reasons. He had a sense of destiny about this rescue.
He found G"Lori"th outside the ship wrestling with serpents the size of small shuttles. And, he was impressed by this, she was holding her own. Which befitted a native of Balduur. She wasn't as strong as a Martian but she came close. He ended the debate with his Flash Vision.
"So, the great and powerful Valor stepped out of his way to rescue me," Lori teased him.
"I hardly did anything," he demurred.
"That's certainly debatable," Lori protested, "I was halfway to serpent chow."
I think I'm in love, Valor thought to himself.
"So...can I have a ride to where you're going?" she asked him.
"I can drop you wherever," he offered.
"No need. I just want to be where you are," she insisted.
Definitely in love, Valor told himself, Or I'm knee deep in smit.
Every day Clark and Lana observed through the portal rift. Lana gloated, "She so has him."
"Really?" Clark was still skeptical after all these weeks after Lori engaged Valor as his companion throughout his missions of mercy.
"Clark, I know what pussy-whipped god-mortals look like," Lana warned him, "What did you eat last night."
"Hrm," he stubbornly refused to answer.
"Say it!" she firmly commanded.
"Your pussy," Clark was embarrassed to say in that language.
"And if you want to keep on eating it, you'll answer me when I ask you a question," Lana warned him, "But to be fair, I'd do anything to have you keep muff diving me. So there we are."
Scandalous speech for what would've been 1969 on Earth.
After nine weeks of traveling together and aiding those in need, Lori decided to worm some concrete answers out of Valor, "So you trained with Superman and Supergirl, how'd that go? Did they impress you?"
"Superman is so steady. It intimidates and reassures you at the same time," Valor admitted, "But I'd rather discuss Baldurran anatomy."
"Any parts in particular?" Lori was pleased by the change of topic.
Valor looked embarrassed, "Superman is just rock steady. Morally, ethically, and every way imaginable."
"Did you crush on Supergirl?" Lori asked with the right hint of jealousy.
"She was almost as new to Earth as I was, so she reminded me more of my sister Laurel," Valor replied.
"You miss your sister, don't you?" Lori was beginning to realize just how much so and how leaving for the future would hurt him.
"Laurel and I were inseparable until I tore off into space," he grimaced at the recollection.
"I really am sorry," Lori apologized in advance, "Now, what part of my physiology has burned a hole in your mind?"
Valor plunged in, "Are Daxamites and Balduurans sexually compatible?"
"Of course they are!" she was delighted, "Balduur was home to Kryptonian colonial conquerors for a few hundred years. They intermingled with enough of the population to almost make us cousins to Daxamites. We've got mutual parts in all the same places. So I can take you inside me and withstand all the punishment you can mete out."
"All?" his eyebrow quirked.
"All,": she vowed.
Valor pulled Lori to him and they pressed bodies. He roughly put his mouth on hers and their tongues danced. Afterwards, they palled their heads apart but their lust wasn't sated.
"I told you," she smirked with a hoarse voice laden with her desire, "All."
And after their clothes were wildly stripped off, Valor tested that theory.
A three week visit to Caledon became six months. During it they thoroughly explored the planet as well as each others' bodies. And Lar found Lori to be truthful. The sex, whether playful or rough, always satisfied and never exhibited any harm. And every day, in every way, Lori could see Valor getting lost in her eyes ever so much more deeply.
After her time spent with Old Man Mordru, Lori had thought she'd never thrill at another man's touch. But she did with the slightest brush with any contact with Valor's body. And even his ejaculations, which could now harm lesser beings, deeply satisfied her whether received vaginally, anally, or orally. She even enjoyed swallowing once again.
During the sexual escapades, Glorith shut down the temporal viewer. Which had greatly frustrated Superboy and Lana for a time. But they learned to manage their sexual explorations on their own. But keeping them secret from Ma and Pa Kent and Prof. and Dr. Lang proved futile. Especially now that the Kents, like the Langs, no longer worked their own farms but lived in town next door to one another. Martha and Jonathan had purchased the mercantile and ran the store inside Smallville proper while hands worked the farms.
Prof. Sarah Lang taught at the local community college while Dr, Lewis Lang was a globe trotting archeologist. He was beginning to take Lana's three brothers on shorter outings. His excavations had yielded the amulet that transformed Lana into Insect Queen and earned her Legion membership. Not unlike her Earth-2 counterpart that had become Superwoman in the battle against the Justice Lords. But that universe and its history had been erased. But Glorith had left both of Superwomen's memories intact despite their altered histories on New Earth.
On New Earth, Lois Lane had seemingly never died. Despite what Superman and the JLers knew to be true. But the public at large just assumed Lois had taken a sabbatical before returning to the Daily Planet to win a second Pulitzer regarding the Near Apocalypse of 2009, as the Crisis of the Multiverse was commonly referred to. The original Prime Lana remained a top flight fashion designer. The second Lana was an engineer by trade and seeking an employment opportunity that stretched her imagination.
"It seems she did it," Clark was finally ready to concede. He'd bought into Glorith's plan at long last.
"Or course she did. She was already in love with him so she just used that to make him reciprocate," Pocket Earth Lana explained to him.
"You really think so?" he wondered.
"Clark, you can be so dim sometimes," Lana was exasperated, "It was so effing obvious."
Superboy had found he liked when she talked dirty. And she enjoyed doing so just to shock Smallville's conservative residents. Their supposed high morals needed challenging.
Valor and Lori reached Lurani. The jungle planet was as wild and passionate as their own relationship. They'd been together for over a year and sexually active for most of that time. Lori knew she was losing sight of her own goal. But she'd persuaded Lar to enhance Valor's vaunted reputation. He no longer just did rescues from natural disasters and spaceborne piracy. Now was actively enforcing interstellar laws as loosely agreed upon by the confederation of independent stellar nations.
Even distinctly hostile nations as the Khund Empire, the Dominators, Thanagar, White Mars, the Republic of Almerac and scores of lesser powers all agreed upon certain standards of legal behavior.
She even arranged for a lead poisoning plague to afflict Daxam in order to return Valor home with Brainiac-2's lead poisoning cure. Lar and Laurel enjoyed an all too brief reunion before the Planetary Council revoked Valor's permission to walk amongst his people again. A writ of execution was signed and barely missed being implemented as Valor and Lori sped off in Daxam's Folly. Laurel gave up on her people at that time and managed to board a smuggler's vessel and evade the blockade implemented around Daxam by that time.
Valor also defended the colonies made by the gen active meta-humans still plagued by Dominator efforts to recapture them and weaponize them. The Dominators' goal was of harnessing the meta-gene wherever it was found in whomever it manifested. A single liberated gen active was considered an incalculable threat that must be eliminated.
When they reached Zuun, Lori decided to reveal her hidden hand. Gen inactive human pirates had infested the sparsely populated world. The indigenous tribes were so few in number that the thousand pirates outnumbered them. Lori found this situation untenable.
"I'm afraid I haven't been completely honest with you," she told him.
"How so?" Valor's interest was piqued.
"I'm not from this era. I'm a time witch from the 31st Century and I came looking for your help. I just fell in love with you by accident," Lori confessed.
"You're in love with me?" he latched onto that as his take away.
"Desperately, but that's beside my point," she struggled onward, "Would you do anything to protect me?"
"Of ocurse," he easily answered.
"Think about this carefully, Lar. Would you do anything I asked of you to protect me?" Lori specified.
"This is it!" Lana threw her popcorn in the air.
"Now we'll see who he truly is," Superboy promised.
"Of course I would. Who's threatening you?" Valor grew concerned.
"There will be local trouble. I need you to deal with it. And afterwards, you're desperately needed in my time. Will you go there with me? The trip will happen in less than a second," Lori explained.
"I'll do anything," Valor pledged.
"I'm so relieved," she almost sagged in relief, "And my name isn't just 'Lori'. My full and proper name is Glorith. And I am the Time Witch. I've shaped history since Creation but there are details better suited to contemporaries. Zuun is one of them."
"How? Why?" Valor asked, almost desperate to assist.
"In the 30th Century a unique and very rare mineral will be found here and called zuunium. Zuunium will have the ability to transform non-gen latents into meta-humans. And a lawless trade will begin to create enhanced criminals. But that can end here and now."
"Tell me what needs to be done," Valor pleaded.
"I need you to crack the planet open and exterminate its capacity to host life," Glorith told him, "It has to happen now before the settler convoys begin to arrive two centuries from now and there are only criminals inhabiting this world until then."
"What about the natives?" Valor was shocked by the request.
"They get hunted into extinction by the pirates," Glorith shrugged, "And that has to happen in order for the mixed species colonies to be established."
"But a thousand people will die," Valor protested.
"Lar, there are less than three hundred pirates on planet at this time. And there are less than seven hundred and fifty natives. The biggest loss will be the native Zuun timber wolf," Glorith laid it out plainly, "In one thousand years, the zuunium trade will threaten the peace throughout the United Planets and their neighbors. We're talking about the fate of over a thousand worlds, including Daxam. Because the Khunds and Dominators will weaponize zuunium. And both Earth and Almerac will no longer be able to dissuade the victimized planets from obtaining their own zuunium and subjecting their citizens to it, willingly or not."
"This is a moment for Valor to define history and save countless trillions of lives," Glorith ended with a flourish, "If you can't do this you aren't prepared yet to deal with Mordru."
"Who's Mordru?" Valor asked.
"The greatest threat the Milky Way ever faced outside of Darkseid," Glorith said distastefully, "A human sorcerer so vile he was elevated to the ranks of the Lords of Chaos. And both will plague the 31st Century where we'll be going. A century that absolutely needs the legend of Valor to be true."
"How can I cement a legend in mass murder?" he argued his protest.
Glorith closed her eyes and pinched the bridge her nose, "It isn't just random strangers that will be threatened. I'll be one of the chief targets. Of zuunium hopped up metas, of Darkseid, and of Mordru. Even the farking Khunds and and Dominators will be gunning for me. You said you'd do anything tlo protect me and words have consequences and promises need ot be upheld. This is where it starts."
"I won't kill on your behalf based on a nebulous threat that might not emerge," Valor decided.
"Damn. This could've gone better," Glorith muttered, "I'm afraid you're going to the future without me. The very slow way."
"Lori? What?" Valor found himself sucked into the Phantom Zone.
"I know you can still see and hear me, Lar. I'll protect Valor's legacy and add to it through your sister. In the meantime, stay sane. In a thousand years you'll be freed," Glorith vowed.
And in the early 31st Century, Tinya Wazzo, the Phantom Girl of the Legion of Superheroes located Valor by accident by transiting through the Phantom Zone on her way to the buffer dimension containing her home world, Bgtzl. As the Legion's resident expert on all things 21st Century, she immediately recognized him and reported his location to Brainiac 5. Brainiac was pushing the original Supergirl away despite his devotion to her.
Glorith's manipulation of time had become apparent to a select band of Legionnaires and Kara In-Ze was unceremoniously returned to the past with no legitimate explanation. Between that emotional roller coaster and later Kyle Rayner's marriage to Carol Ferris despite his ongoing relationship to Kara pushed her into being a Red Lantern for a time. Afterwards she become one of the two White Lanterns to serve Life before the Crisis unfolded. And she went further into legend as a Darkstar.
Glorith was aware that Brainy, Ultra Boy, Cosmic Boy, Timber Wolf, Lightning Lass, Shrinking Violet, Dawnstar, Wildfire and Andromeda were fully aware of Glorith's tweaks to the time line. And had formed a time traveling cadre known as Legion Lost devoted to undermining her would alter her machinations in any way they could. And the group would expand into containing Lar Gand and Phantom Girl after his inclusion in the Legion. It would also unwittingly induct Superboy and Insect Queen, unaware that they were Glorith's agents.
Glorith reappeared in Smallville. Lane expressed her condolences, "We were pulling for you."
"I meant what I said to Lar. Valor's legend will be protected and expanded. His sister will become Valoria and become a shadow to her bother's fame. But the Justice League is a major influence on the Legion. I need to minimize its future impact. And in order ot do that, I need to discredit and isolate the Justice League Unlimited," Glorith announced, "And I need both of you to help."
"Let me get my amulet," Lana volunteered.
"You won't need it but you'd best pack it away because we'll be going straight to the 31st Century from there," Glorith revealed.
"The Time Trapper made me more powerful than Superman. So no worries there," Superboy boasted.
"Superman dwells on Raan when we're going," Glorith told him, "You'll have a week in New York City to do as you will with unlimited funds at your disposal. Meanwhile I'll be contacting potential allies and deflecting potential nuisances."
"Who could be a nuisance?" Lana asked.
"Saturn Queen has stayed in the past rather than migrate to the new 31st Century. And Eve Aries is obsessed with the Blue Flame of Chaos. She literally wants to end all higher forms of life and start over under this new Age of Chaos," Glorith explained.
"So we crush her?" Superboy had had dealings with Saturn Queen and the Legion of Super Villains alongside the LSH.
"We pacify her," Glorith stated, "I need her back in my future, not mucking up the 21st Century."
Superboy looked crestfallen. Lana consoled him, "At least we can deal with her in the future with the Legion on our side. Even Valor will assist us."
"Except he won't be called Valor anymore," Glorith reminded them.
"Yeah, yeah, he'll be M'Onel," Superboy mocked Valor.
"Clark Kent, you are sooo jealous," Lana realized, "Your head has gotten sooo big and your pecker is shrinking at the thought that M'Onel could be even a little bit better than you at anything."
"Hrm," Superboy hemmed.
"That is sooo it," Lana crowed, "C'mon, let's hit NYC and make you feel better before we rejoin the Legion full time."
Glorith interrupted, "You have a week and then I'll call you to action. You'll need this."
A limitless credit card appeared in her hand, "This will pay for anything and everything. Now get that amulet and a change of clothes for Clark and report back to me."
And afterward she whisked them away to Spring 2010.
Clark and Lana went out in the mornings and evenings. But they spent the afternoons and after hours having sex. All kinds of sex. At first, Clark practiced coitus interruptus to avoid tearing out Lana's innards. As it was, his ejaculations smashed furniture and lamps, even a window the first time back in Smallville. Prof. Lang and the Kents had been beside themselves. But as time and frequency had worn on, when he came it was like a human so Lana eventually grabbed his balls as he tried ot pull free.
"Cum inside me! Now!" she screamed.
And Clark was relieved to see her body practically throbbed and hummed with its pleasure after he did so for the first time and from then on.
And, as warned, Glorith appeared outside their hotel room and waited for Lana to open the door. Glorith, like Lana post-shopping spree, was bedecked in the finest incognito attire.
"Glorith! You're gorgeous!" Lana almost squealed.
"And you smell like sex," Glorith laughed as she entered the suite.
"You try being a virgin for fifty-eight years and see how horny you get," Lana huffed.
Smallville had been trapped in 1969 for forty-one years by the Time Trapper.
"Well there's no more Pocket Universe to speak of. Only you, Clark, and Matrix remain. And Matrix merged with a human girl named Linda Danvers and has a whole new identity," Glorith explained, "The Time Trapper used you to manipulate Clark as Superboy. With the Trapper gone, and you wanted Clark and he wanted you, I only felt it was fair to snap you out of your temporal 'fog' and see what was really going on in Smallville and across Pocket Earth."
"I'll miss my family but not enough to get erased with them," Lana confided.
"Good, because you're an integral part of my plan. You both are. Lana, you'll penetrate the Hall of Justice with me. Clark, you'll be my forefront distraction," Glorith announced, "I've spent the week arranging other, louder distractions further away."
Glorith turned to Lana, "You'd best get dressed. My associates are coming here."
Superboy changed in seconds. Lana snorted, "Show off."
"How will you and Lana get into the Hall?" Superboy was cross. He worried about Lana's safety.
"We'll be out of phase with time. But we'll be 'winking' in and out of visibility so internal security can still detect us. I'll also have an external countermeasure," Glorith described the impending situation.
The doorbell chimed and Lana opened the door to find the titanic Pussy Katnip blocking the entryway. Lana noted the fine cut of the woman's jacket and how it discreetly hid her shoulder and hip holsters. Regina Swann, the Empress Penguin, sashayed passed her bodyguard.
"It's all right, Pussy. We're expected," Regina said in a sultry voice as she smiled at Lana.
Lana had to wonder what kind of woman let themselves be called Pussy. Even one as towering and terrifying as Pussy Katnip. She latched up the door again only for the latches to throw themselves and the door to open. Pussy Katnip went to impede the finely dressed woman in the doorway before she choked on ashes. Erishkigal Narayana, the Disco Mummy, had arrived in style.
Both Glorith and Empress Penguin could be considered beautiful. But Erishkigal had an exotic beauty that vastly exceeded theirs. And even through her finery, she still had a wild air about her that threatened to consume all life in a given space.
Of course, Erish was a five-thousand year old mummy entombed alive and enchanted to never age nor die. She'd be the first to admit she went insane in the stygian darkness of her Sumerian tomb. But in the Seventies she was released to plague the living out of revenge for their being alive when she no longer was in the strictest sense. Plus, the living annoyed the hell out of her.
Pussy Katnip charged Disco Mummy's back but a flick of the wrist made the bodyguard crash into a veritable wall before flying back into the self closing door, "Stay down."
"Do it, Pussy," Empress Penguin ordered.
"Interesting name," Disco Mummy smirked, "My name is Erishkigal Narayana. Call me 'Erish' because I can't abide how you people mangle my given name."
"I'm Regina Swann," Empress Penguin mildly genuflected, "And you, Princess, own Ryder Industries and dwell in its corporate penthouse, having ejected Ruby Ryder out a Thirtieth Floor window."
"You're well informed. And polite enough," Erish decided.
"The word is Knightfall ordered the attack that you galvanized," Regina continued.
"The word would be correct," Disco Mummy smirked at Empress Penguin, "But let's not compare bloodbaths, hmm?"
"I heard you mummify people," Regina continued.
"Open the door and find out," Erish chuckled.
Empress Penguin nodded at Pussy Katnip, who cautiously opened the door and then recoiled. A skeletal husk that had been a server wheeled a refreshment cart in.
"Why would you do that?" Lana asked.
"I hate the living," Erishkigal said dully.
"Maybe you just haven't met the right people," Lana offered.
Erish rolled her eyes, "Case in point. The reason behind the feeling."
"Let's focus here," Glorith insisted, "I can give you advance knowledge of the future in exchange for your services."
"What do they bring to table?" Superboy was indignant over Disco Mummy's treatment of Lana.
"You want a distraction? I can escalate enough criminal activity to keep the United States drowning in criminal activity for a day," Empress Penguin bragged.
"How many people besides this fool do you want dead and enslaved to my will alone?" Erishkigal inquired, "Will two city blocks do it?"
"Let's not go off prematurely," Glorith requested, "I need them occupied tomorrow not preemptively today. And I want them alive. Alive to be sullied, dishonored, disgraced, mortified and morally bankrupted in the public eye."
"A brilliant stroke," Empress Penguin agreed, "No government or law enforcement agency would tough them afterward."
"A fate worse than death," Erish smiled in appreciation, "They'll be alone and dejected. Even possibly hunted."
"I'm glad you both approve," Glorith dryly indicated she wasn't amused, "Now, Regina has been moving forces all week to begin tomorrow at Nine AM. How long will you require to be set?"
"Twenty minutes for my people to spread across New York City," Erishkigal smirked again. As the owner of the multinational Ryder Corp. she had resources beyond those of Empress Penguin's criminal empire. And Regina didn't have enhanced troops, either gen active or mystical. Save for one. Disco Mummy had magical disciples to spare. But she wouldn't share.
"Then tomorrow we begin. I have a few disasters to prepare in the meantime," Glorith shared, "So we might as enjoy the rest of the refreshments, because we need to go over the coordination of what happens next."
"Do mummies even eat or drink?" Lana asked, noticing Erishkigal hadn't touched her tea or scones.
"Just the flesh of annoying girls," Disco Mummy said with a sickly sweet smile.
The next morning, the Justice League Ops Center went insane with alarms. Sue Dibney, the Ops Director, tried to manage the brewing crises while Shayera Hol, new mother and the Intelligence Guru, attempted to stay ahead of Sue's information requests. Col. Steve Trevor, the Mission Administrator, stepped in as well to assist Sue and Shayera alternatively. John Stewart, Shay's husband and the Hall of Justice's Head of Security and League Training Supervisor, also went back and forth between the two women.
The Ops Center had one hundred screens, each displaying a separate request for emergency help.
"When's the last time you saw this?" Sue asked rhetorically.
"Let's prioritize and assign units," Trevor decided, "We can't address everything so hand off to local assets what we can."
MLJ Director and former Gen. Jack Latham contacted Trevor. Latham was Trevor's immediate supervisor and the MLJ deputized the JLU in the eyes of the United Nations. The news was getting grimmer.
"That was Latham," Trevor briefed the senior officers, "Nuclear reactors across Europe have gone critical. Not surprisingly in the countries most reliant on the power they generate. And they all failed simultaneously. Added to that are structural damages to dams all over the world. The Justice Society and the New People's Heroes are on the foreign dams and the Mighty Crusaders can divert from their current mission should domestic hydroelectric facilities fail."
"What's their current assignment?" John inquired.
"Hunting down the Outlaws," Trevor informed them.
"Sec. Bones must not be able to get anyone at Homeland Security to attempt to round them again after Luthor's legal fiasco snowballed," Sue referred back to when the President ordered all the children of deputized superheroes and known vigilantes be seized and their parents prosecuted for child abuse simply because they were heroes and parents. Sue and Elongated Man had been arrested right beside John and Shayera. The Outlaws had been hired by Manhunter to help her clear the case by proving it was a revenge tactic.
"Congress has also authorized the Agents of SMASH to intervene in domestic threats to the national power grid," Trevor went further.
"How generous," Shayera snorted.
The Agents of SMASH had been on the wrong side of it when Gen. Sam Lane seized control of the government using military meta-human resources and regular armed forces. The Heroes of Dakota City, however, had chosen wisely and not blindly.
Icon and Rocket were among the Heroes who were JLU reservists.
"This could've happened tomorrow," Shayera grimly reported, "Today is Anna Fortune and Atom Smasher's wedding. They'll go on even without guests. But we all know Anna can hold a grudge. So pity whoever is behind all of this."
"And unsurprisingly, no one here was invited," Sue grumbled.
"Why is that a surprise?" Trevor asked.
"Before your time," John said consolingly.
"We forced them to join the Justice Society by treating them so badly," Shayera was angry, there were no doubts about it.
"That's mostly the fault of the Huntress and the Question," Sue reminded everyone, or informed them as the case may be.
"But we never welcomed them back into our circle of trust," John reminded Sue.
"Public opinion was poisoned. We should've done better," Shayera meant she should've done better.
"There was the threat of her memory charming us all," Sue protested.
"If she had, you'd have forgotten about it and she and Al would've stayed put," Shay grated.
"Here are team rosters," Trevor uploaded them, "Alert the necessary parties and get them in the field."
"We're calling in reservists?" Sue was surprised.
"We'll still need warm bodies in the Hall in case of escalations or new scenarios opening up," Trevor told her.
"Consider us called as well," John informed Trevor and Sue. Shayera hefted her mace, which was still always handy.
"You're inactive duty," Sue reminded them both.
"Hence the term 'reservists'," Shayera said archly.
"I'm not arguing with her," Trevor held his hands up in surrender, "You can, at your peril."
Sue wisely gave up.
The teams were dispatched. Those going to Europe generally went there under their own power. As Sue collectively briefed them, each of the nations relied on nuclear power stations for at least 30% of their national electric grid. The United States produced more than twice the kilowatts of its closest rival but that only supplied 19% of the national grid. And increasing the chances of deliberate action, only one power plant per most countries had been affected by the sudden aging and failure of selective cooling components, even cases where the parts had just been replaced with new components and the reactors just brought back online.
The two Green Lantern Corpsmen assigned to Earth and the Justice League arrived in France as a national disaster was underway. France relied upon their reactor plants to supply 71% of their national power grid. France was the exception to the single plant rule. Jessica Cruz took charge of the Penly plant and Simon Baz adminstered to the Flamanville power plant.
Jessica had no idea of how to cool a reactor core down much less several but it needed to be done immediately. Both Penly and Flamanville were built along the English Channel for just such an emergency. But the emergency as well as the primary cooling pumps had failed. And the motors to insert the carbon cooling rods to at least stave off total catastrophe had also gone inert from seizing up from old age pitting and warping.
Just dumping water seemed counterproductive. The irradiated runoff would spill into the ocean and soak into the groundwater.
Jess' Ring of Volthoom had been obnoxious as hell but at least was useful, "Ring, are you even there?"
"Standing by, Jessica Cruz," it assured her.
"Don't start that shit with me. I convinced my last ring to just call me J-Bird. I order you to do the same," she tersely instructed.
"Affirmative, J-Bird. How can I assist you?" the ring replied.
"People are going to start dying, you piece of shit and I don't know how to use you. It's not like you came with an effin' owner's manual," Jessica snapped at her power ring, "What the hell do I do?"
"J-Bird, you were chosen by the Green Lantern Corps precisely because you overcame the fear induced callings of your Ring of Volthoom. No Power Ring Corpsman had ever done so before. Your inspiration has enabled Hal Jordan and Spencer Hawke of Earth to do the same. You chose to bully your ring into submission by sheer force of will. I am a conduit to the Emotional Spectrum of Will, the Green Lantern's Light. Mentally urge me to do something with your willpower and I shall do it. The greater the resolve, the greater the results. Your imagination shapes your constructs but your will makes them reality and gives them motive power," her ring explained.
"Nice 101. How do I stop a nuclear meltdown?" Jessica was flummoxed.
"First you must contain the radiation at all four reactor sites. Then you must reapply the cooling rods. Afterwards you must douse the heating rods with seawater but contain the water so that it does not leak into the biosphere before you can decontaminate it. Finally, the local engineering teams can instruct you on how to repair the damaged components and shut the reactor cores down through containment," the ring described the procedures, "It is a difficult mission for a rookie Green Lantern. But you would not have been chosen if you were not worthy of the task."
"I'm not used to pep talks from jewelry," Jessica mutterd as she slapped radiation shields down across the complex. The she began funneling and recycling seawater. Then she inserted the cooling rods in place. But the cores were too far gone. They needed constant cooling and a lock down.
Jessica alighted next to the plant operations building and entered in. Fortunately for all, her ring automatically translated between English and French. Jess had never split her focus on so many tasks at once before. But the engineers walked through the components so she could visualize them and fuse the broken parts back together again. The system began to cool and plummet to safe radiation levels again.
"Now for the most difficult tasks. You must separate the hard radiation from the seawater you cooled the reactors with. And you must expunge the radiation into space," the ring simultaneously translated so the plant manager and engineers understood as well.
Jessica now had complete focus for a single task. And stripped the radiation from the water, even cooling it to the ambient temperatures. The radioactive energy and particles were ejected into space. The workers went insane with gratitude and relief. Jessica begged off.
"I need to lie down. I'm gonna puke," Jessica warned the manager.
She was guided to a quiet corner of the building where she could wretch unobserved.
Simon learned a great deal of the same information and earned basically the same recommendations. But his power ring had last been worn by Sinestro. And the renegade had imprinted a defense mechanism to keep other ring bearers from using it. Like Jess and the Ring of Volthoom, he'd bullied his GL power ring into submission but the constant sneering drove him batshit crazy.
Simon had been a Green Lantern longer than Jessica had been a Power Ring. But he'd been kept off Earth to train. Jessica didn't have that luxury after the near collapse of the GL Corps. With Guy Gardner patrolling the sector, that left Simon and Jessica the earth-bound duties and time to adapt their own training regiments.
Alan Scott, Earth's original Green Lantern, had been a tremendous help. His ring was powered by the Green Flame but worked on many of the same principles. Green Lantern's effortless fusion of imagination and ironclad willpower was an inspiration for both Simon and Jessica to strive for.
Superwoman and Star Sapphire reported to Slovakia, whose nuclear energy reliance reached 55% of their national power grid. So the loss of a single plant clould create vast shortages for people across the country.
Lois Lane was grateful as Deborah Camille Darnell's power ring translated the Slovakian tongue into English and back around again. Of course, Debi Darnell was an alien born as Remoni-Notra. Remoni-Notra, a temporary Sapphire Queen, had fled before the face of the enemy as the Khunds and Dominators decimated the various Lantern Corps. Carol Ferris, the legitimate Sapphire Queen had found Remoni-Notra hiding on Earth and assuming Carol's old life. So Carol gave it to her but banished her to Earth itself to serve as its sole Star Sapphire defender.
Slovakia had been forced by European Union inspectors to shut down three nuclear power plants in order to join the EU. That made the remaining two reactor plants even more vital to the nation's output. But even then, the nation was now an energy importer as it struggled to build new and safer reactors to bridge the electricity shortages. The shortages were estimated to continue as new construction, begun in 1987 under old Soviet engineering standards, were retrofitted to modern EU equivalents. But once the two plants went onmline, the country's energy needs would be met by self-sufficient sources.
Superwoman's journalistic instincts found it suspicious that a plant that had been thoroughly inspected and refitted should undergo catastrophic failure some three weeks later.
After a thorough discussion with the plant engineers, Lois had a mad plan. Debi was already containing the radiation. But if she could allow Superwoman to deal with the reactors directly, Lois was confident she could repair the inexplicable damages with fresh components being stockpiled nearby. Star Sapphire was protected by her power ring. Lois had gained her powers on Earth-2 through gentic splicing. Earth-2's universe was gone and forgotten in a Multiverse that was gone and had never existed according to the revisied history after the Crisis and the Zero Hour.
So Superwoman was almost unique in that the Kryptonian DNA spliced into her genetic code gave her not only human Majestic-level powers: Superman's strength, speed, durability, and flight, but also his esoteric powers regarding vision and hearing. Including his Freeze Breath lung capacity. So she could cool the reactors as well place the new components and apply any necessary pressure or spot welding.
Star Sapphire kept the workers and the populace safe while Superwoman labored. Afterwards, everything settled back into normalcy. Debi took stock as she launched the heavy metal particles into space.
"You should be glad of your gene splicing," she remarked.
"I am. I'm in no hurry to orphan my five kids," Lois admitted.
"I'm in no hurry to have five kids," Debi laughed.
"I need to contact Sue," Lois decided then almost swooned.
"Take a seat," Star Sapphire provided one, "I'll call Sue."
And then she wished she hadn't.
Silver Sorceress portalled herself, Superwoman, and Blue Jay to a nuclear power plant in Ukraine. The two Angorian natives groaned.
"Not here again," Blue Jay lamented.
Lana Lang was quite confused so Silver Sorceress explained, "When we first arrived on Earth from Angor, with Wandjina, we started a campaign to end nuclear power since it had destroyed our world and we three were the last survivors. But we accidentally started a meltdown at this very facility. We shut it down but the effort cost Wandjina his life."
Superwoman wondered if Wandjina had been the inspiration for LuthorCorps' Retaliators' Wundjina. It seemed to coincidental to be an accident, even from the Everyman Project.
"The Ukrainians were on friendlier terms with the Russians back then and the Rocket Red Brigade apprehended Laura and I and interned us in Russia," Blue Jay miserably complained.
"But I broke free of the Russians' control and portalled Jay and I to New York to enlist in the Justice League," Silver Sorceress elaborated.
Superwoman had wondered how the pair had come to join the Justice League. And since Angor inhabited a pocket universe outside of what had been the Multiverse, there had only been the pair of them without any doppelgangers. Which was just as well. The Justice Lords probably would've just killed them upon arrival.
"I can absorb the radiation if you can magic the fixes that'll need to be made," Lana explained, "Blue Jay, you get the engineers into the space with us to explain to Silver Sorceress what to fix and how."
"On it!" he flew off.
"Ready?" Lana asked.
"Of course not," Silver Sorceress feebly laughed.
"Good answer," Superwoman agreed.
Shazam and Strange Visitor swooped into Hungary. Shazam confessed, "I've never visited Hungary before."
"Neither have I...I think," before Kismet had created Strange visitor out of Sharon Vance, the Lady of Order had erased Sharon's memories. She had taken her code-name from a phrase Lois Lane, New Earth's, had coined once, "Strange Visitor from Outer Space".
It had died as quickly as she'd published it. It seemed no one wanted a reminder that Superman was an alien and not a god-mortal. Shayera had dug up the fact Sharon was from Smallville and a childhood chum of Clark Kent and Lana Lang's, New Earth's of course, and she had a daughter. A daughter Strange Visitor had no memory of or emotional attachment to. And an offspring that believed she was dead. Strange Visitor decided not to disabuse her of that belief. After all, Sharon Vance was dead and Strange Visitor survived in her place.
"I think I can deal with the radiation but you'll have to effect repairs," Strange Visitor informed him.
Shazam arced lightning between his hands, "I can super heat metals with this new power. And I have inherited the wizard's wisdom so I can figure what needs to be done."
"Good enough," Strange Visitor led him straight from one reactor to another and they the job done.
The plant manager profusely thanked them in heavily accented English, "Thank you. We lost for good."
"We weren't even certain we could help," Shazam blurted.
"Too much information," Strange Visitor murmured her comment at seeing the manager's dismayed shock.
Lady Marvel bridle carried Zatanna Zatara to Sweden. Even in the height of summer 2010, the air grew noticeably colder over the North Sea and into the Baltic. The first Justice League had begun in 1999, a mere two years after Superman and Batman had their first fateful team-up, in response to a White Martian incursion and infiltration. In 2001, after the shakeups of the Thanagarian invasion and then the completely human depravity of 9/11/2001, the first incarnation of the Justice League Unlimited formed. In 2004 the JLU was disbanded and then reformulated as a United Nations intervention and global police force later that year.
Before the Crisis in the Multiverse concluded as the so-called Near-Apocalypse of 2009 in the winter of that year, the JLU had been disavowed by the UN, deputized by the American law enforcement MLJ Initiative, and reincorporated as a UN agency under the administrative auspices of the MLJ. The MLJ running its own domestic super teams: the Mighty Crusaders and Shadow Crusaders as well as the WEB Agency. The rest of the superhuman assets sanctioned by the US government were supervised by the Dept. of Homeland Security under Sec. Bones, formerly of the UN's DEO.
Max Lord ran the Justice League Task Force through the UN itself. But it was clear the Task Force was loyal to Lord and not the UN's priorities. The Russian Federation had the New People's Heroes and the Rocket Red Brigade to rely upon. The People's Republic of China had the Justice League of China which had replaced the Great Ten. Whose sole surviving member, Ghost Fox Killer, operated as a semi-autonomous agent.
With Batman, Inc. and the Justice League International, indepedent Justice League Dark, and Global Guardians all defunct, the world unwittingly relied up Dark Justice, Young Justice, and the Outsiders to supplement the JLU and the Justice Society of America.
Of course, Young Justice was the JSA's training cadre. The Outsiders were the JLU's covert action squad. And the Justice League Dark had split into two factions: those comprising Dark Justice and those joining/rejoing the Justice League Unlimited.
Zee had kept herself warm with a reverse language spell but groaned as she tried to get the knots out of her hair after they landed, "How do you do it?"
Lady Marvel softly laughed, "My hair's enchanted so I don't get all windblown and ratted out."
"Must be nice," Zatanna mumbled under breath.
Lady Marvel thought about mentioning that's why Power Girl had always worn her hair short. It wasn't that Galatea Hamilton/Karen Starr wanted to make a fashion statement. It was just practical. But the harried plant manager caught up with them. And seemed disapproving of their stress relieving levity.
"If you'd come this way?" she asked rather tersely.
"Coming!" Zee sing-songed.
Lady Marvel smirked despite herself. The description and solution to the problem at hand was the same as at every afflicted nuclear power station the Jlers had been summoned to. The variable was in the responders and their particular capabilities.
"I can lower the temps in the reactor cores so you can effect repairs," Zatanna offered.
"`Kay, let's do this," Lady Marvel agreed as lightning arced between her hands.
"!sllaw eseht edisni wolb sdniw dna llaf wons teL" Zee reverse magicked.
Blizzards quickly lowered the ambient temperatures inside the reactors and even managed to freeze them over. Lady Marvel braved the storms and radiation.
She reinserted the cooling rods and capped the exposed cores and repaired the cooling systems.
Afterwards, outside, the baffled manager exclaimed, "Jag tror inte det! I didn't believe you could do it."
"Welcome to a brave new world," Lady Marvel smiled at her.
Nightshade transferred herself and Supergirl to Belgium through the other-dimensional Land of the Nightshades, one of Twenty-Seven Realms of Existence. Nightshade had abdicated her claim to the throne and chose to live in her father's realm, the universe containing New Earth. Linda Danvers and Eve Eden had never worked together before but both were open to the experience.
"Here comes someone official," Nightshade guessed.
"Merci, Justice League! Nous sommes à bout de souffle ici! Sauvez-nous s'il vous plaît!" the manager fretted.
"You catch that?" Supergirl wondered.
"My high school French is beyond rusy but basically he's beyond happy to see us and wants us to save the day."
"Of course," Supergirl sighed.
"I can relocate the exposed cores to a remote location in the Land of Nightshades if you can survive the residual radiation to fix things," Nightshade offered.
"My psionic shields should protect me for a while," Supergirl guessed. As Matrix, the Supergirl from the Pocket Universe, her protoplasmic body would've sloughed off the radiation. But now Matrix was merged with the very human Linda Danvers. She was tougher than an average human but her psionic powers were the secret behind her "super" status.
"I'm a go," Supergirl promised. They made arrangements with the plant engineers, "I can protect them while they help me."
The process wore Supergirl's mental stamina down. They completed the repairs in time to avoid her shields from collapsing altogether. When they were clear, Nightshade would restore a reactor core to its place and it would be contained.
The manager and the crew were ecstatic, "Merci, merci! Nous devons nous régaler en votre honneur! Beaucoup d'hommes souhaitent vous rencontrer!"
"Huh?" Supergirl wished she could remember high school more clearly. Apparently Linda hadn't taken French.
"He's inviting us to join the men and women in a celebration and a feast," Nightshade deadpanned.
"Sounds nice," Supergirl shrugged.
"Think Bacchanalian orgy," Nightshade clarified.
"Hard pass," Supergirl grimaced.
Cabala's spell delivered her and Capt. Atom to Switzerland.
"So Cabala is actually your name and 'Vanda Emmanuelle' is your code-name?" he sought clarification, "And you're really the illegitimate daughter of Lancelot and Guinevere who was raised in medieval Palestine by Jewish Kabalists until you left the region during the First Crusade and have been wandering the world ever since?"
"In order: yes, yes, and yes," Cabala wondered why it was so hard to believe, "Not unlike you, Col. Cameron Scott, hiding behind the rank and name of a subordinate officer."
"Nathaniel Hale was good man and officer. But he'd been converted into a being of pure energy not unlike Major Force. I'm not. I'm more of a human nuclear reactor," Capt. Atom explained.
"Can you absorb radiation?" she asked.
"To a point," he cautiously admitted.
"Then we stand a chance at resolving this crisis, don't we?" Cabala asked him.
As the plant crisis team approached, Cabala studied the numerological values in the air, "This is hardly an accident. There are heavy traces of temporal magic in the air and embedded in these reactors buildings."
"Why?" Capt. Atom asked.
"Not 'why' but 'who'," she corrected him.
Capt. Atom ended up absorbing radiation, reactor by reactor, as Cabala used her magic to repair each one.
Afterwards he shared, "There are any number of temporal villains that could do this but they'd all demand a ransom to reverse the damage."
"There is one potential suspect who is supposed to be the temporal savior of us all," Cabala said menacingly.
"Again, why?" He inquired.
"Now, that has become the pertinent question," Cabala conceded.
Captain Marvel was enamored with the Enchantress after she portalled them to Slovenia. She gave him a cross look, "Stop drooling. I'm bad news. You're seventeen and my host body may only be twenty-two but June Moone has left town and left me completely in charge. I'm five thousand years old and I have standards, Junior."
Her gibe went over Freddy Freeman's head, despite his being the former Captain Marvel, Jr, "Like you said, June's only five years older."
"June checked out," Enchantress tried not to snarl, "Now zip it up or wank it."
He didn't noticed her fingers tracing symbols beside her leg. He just mysteriously felt aroused and he started swelling into a gigantic erection.
"World's Mightiest Mortal, indeed," Enchantress snickered as his member threatened to split his magically constructed pants.
The very female plant manager arrived, and spotted Captain Marvel trying to hide, "Is this bad time?"
Her English was limited but Enchantress decided to let her in on the joke, "Marvel's having man issues."
"Zaboga, to je prekleto ogromno!"the plant manager gasped at the size of Captain Marvel's swollen and throbbing eighteen inch dick.
"Exactly," Enchantress spoke every language on Earth and a few beyond, "Dal bom dobro besedo in mogoče te bo pofukal, ko bomo končali tukaj,"
The manager couldn't tear her lustful eyes from Marvel's aching penis, "I have recommendation how stop prekleto reactors."
"We're listening," Enchantress grabbed Captain Marvel's throbbing penis, "Get. Over. Here."
The manager was even more rattled than before because she couldn't stop reaching towards his erection, "I...I mean, you...need to… rip...I mean, tear… I mean naked….no, I mean...Hudiča! Zakaj je tako težko prekleto razmišljati? Tako prekleto ogromno!"
Enchantress grinned and promised her, "Ne skrbite, dobro bo poskrbel za vas. Lahko celo zajeba, ko leti,"
The manager barely escaped fainting and and haltingly described what needed to be done. As well as made some suggestions regarding what she needed to have done
Captain Marvel couldn't understand why his erection wouldn't subside but he knew he needed to get off soon or it would become even more painful until he had a release.
"I am Cristina," the manager shyly told him while staring at his dick spearing out towards her.
She finally made eye contact with him and he could see how horny she was. And how she'd mentally undressed him and effed him a hundred times over. While they made mental sex, Enchantress solved the crisis singlehandedly.
Then she steered the pair off to a quiet corner, occluded them with a spell to mask the cries of passion that would be forthcoming for at least two hours until her spell wore off. The manager needed the relief and Captain Marvel needed a lesson in not raping a witch with his eyes. She laughed to herself as she portalled back to Brooklyn.
Ace of Blades delivered Killer Frost to Bulgaria. Katharina Steiner had left Homeland Security to be with Louise Lincoln in the Justice League as well as the apartment and bed they shared. Originally, Maj. Steiner had served the Third Reich until she betrayed Hitler after being injected with theSupersoldatenserum formula that created Captain Nazi and its Japanese equivalent called mirakuru.
After her betrayal the Nazis had been hard pressed to find a means to execute Ace of Blades. So they gave up and used her as a lab rat in the final weeks and days before Berlin fell.
The biochemists perfected the Regenerationsserum and Unsterblichkeitsserum by killing and resurrecting Ace of Blades until she was essentially immortal and unkillable. Then they administered the four compounds to Adolf Hitler and he went to exit Germany and return to influence as the Masked Leader. Ace of Blades went underground in venues across the world, escaping both the Nazis and the Red Army until being found out by Baron Blitzkrieg, who recruited her to the Fourth Reich on the Masked Leader's behalf. But Ace of Blades along with Master Race, Baroness Blitzkrieg, the second Baron Blitzkrieg, and Faye Morgana would escape the Fourth Reich's clutches.
Ace of Blades, who had shared a fleeting moment of tenderness with Killer Frost met up with her and fended off a Fourth Reich attack during their first date. Their three month anniversary had been equally memorable. But Homeland had recruited Ace of Blades while the MLJ debated her merits regarding the JLU. Eventually, Killer Frost convinced Col. Trevor and Sue of just how unhappy Katharina was at Homeland and the invitation for Ace of Blades to join the Justice League was extended.
Killer Frost had wrapped her arms and legs around Ace of Blades during the flight and was held in return. Cold didn't bother Killer Frost and Ace of Blades was immune to her icy touch so it was an action born of intimacy rather than necessity.
Upon landing, Ace of Blades took in the surrounding landmarks, "Scheisse! Ich war seit dem Krieg nicht mehr hier."
Killer Frost, who was now as fluent in German as her girlfirnd's earned English, shrugged, "World War II was a long time ago, baby. No one will remmeber you now."
„Нацист!" a centenrian Bulgarian shouted, waving his crutch at Ace of Blades, "Проклета кучка! Ти уби моето семейство и цялото ми село. Ще се видим в ада, шибана курво!"
The man broke his crutch over Ace of Blades' head as she facepalmed, "Well, this is fun."
"Shoo!" Killer Frost warded the elderly man, "What was that about?"
"I operated in this theater for a time exterminating partisans. But part of that mission included reprisals eliminating entire villages that supported them," Ace of Blades reported without inflection or visible regret.
Killer Frost knew her partner was a cold hearted bitch at times but this rivaled her own ruthlessness. She knew she shouldn't have been surprised but looking it the face with fresh eyes did change the perspective.
The crisis team met them at the power plant gates and explained what was needed to be done en route the the actual reactors. Killer Frost would drop the tempefratures inside each reactor building to several hundred degrees below zero. Ace of Blades would then assist her in replacing the broken system parts. Killer Frost had been a lab tech to Crystal Frost so she knew her way around cryogenic and cooling pumps. Ace of Blades was robust enough to survive the exposed cores in order to reinsert the cooling rods. She also had experience doing aircraft maintenance.
When they finished up they accepted the workers' accolades and quielty departed for Paris where they could sit outdoors and order an evening coffee.
Natalie Reed dropped the Flash, or at least one them, and Cyborg off in the Czech Republic aboard an Oracle-5. Wally West had been through most of Western Europe but hadn't traveled through much of the Eastern side of the continent. Victor Stone still had to admire the differences between the New Earth and the Earth he'd come from before the Crisis erased its existence and history.
Victor, like the few refugees from Earth-4 brought to Earth Prime by the Monitor, was fourteen years older than his doppelganger would have been now should he have have survived the Justice League mission that killed him.
In an even odder twist, a Vic Stone from Earth-16 had also survived the Crisis and served with the Outsiders. That Cyborg was barely eighteen. And their first meeting had been beyond awkward. Vic had expressed a desire to join the Doom Patrol in order to outshine his peers. Victor had berated him up one side and down the other with what it really meant to a hero. It was summarized in one word: selfless. Vic was still with the Outsiders.
The plant manager and engineers described the damage and the necessary fixes. Cyborg addressed the Flash, "My cybernetics are equipped to repair cellular damage. With your ramped up regenerative capacity thanks to your connection to the Speed Force, we can probably survive making repairs."
"Let's do this," the Flash didn't hesitate. Cyborg wondered why Vic couldn't be here to see it.
And so they did and Natalie landed the Oracle-5 and they headed back across the Atlantic while the pair decontaminated themselves.
Flyin' Jenny piloted another Blackhawk Oracle-5 to deposit Fire and Ice in Finland. She stood by while Beatriz de Costa and Tora Olafsdottir received their briefing. Col. Trevor assumed Fire's Green Flame derived powers would protect her the way they did Green Lantern and Jade. Ice was a Norwegian ice goddess and supposedly immune to most forms of mortal harm. Much like Killer Frost, Ice froze the exposed cores and rushed to assist Fire in replacing parts and Fire spot welded where necessary. In the end the crisis passed and the Finns toasted the duo.
They gave each, including Flyin' Jenny, cases of top shelf Russian vodka.
Faceless minions crawled around Metropolis working on behalf of Empress Penguin, striking at Intergang's operations hub. Similarly, agents that had spent the week traversing the country, lashed out at the Syndicate Underground's Los Angeles theater hub. Intergang's Big Boss deployed his meta assets to defend Metropolis. While average thugs and enforcers were dispatched from Connecticut to New Jersey to strike back. Pirate Blue had learned of Empress Penguin's plan and was situated to deal with her on both coasts. Seemingly random major crime sprees broke out across the country. Even in seemingly neutral territories such as Las Vegas and Atlantic City.
In Gotham, Regina Swann stood by at a secret headquarters beneath the new Arkham facility. Pussy Katnip was ever at her side while Empress Penguin manipulated a nationwide chessboard. Penguin forces clashed with the Jokerz to distract Card Queen and J-Man from the lager scope of events. And that was meant to lure the GCPD out in force.
Police Commissioner Barbara Gordon only had two years on the job at the top slot but she was intuitive and canny enough to realize her police department was being mobilized by someone else to deal with an as yet unknown threat. And the former Batgirl didn't like being played. But the usual suspects were out of sight. Jaina Hudson and White Rabbit were out of town. The emasculated Emperor Penguin didn't have the resources any more. Even Knightfall was quiet. Hellequin was MIA but Marion Drews was always maore akin to smaller scaled terrors anyway. But Regina was off the map. And that worried Barbara especially when her lieutenants were on the streets.
Barbara hated doing it but she called in her former associates in the Justice League. And gave notice to the Birds of Prey.
Det. Lt. Harvey Bullock was her head of the Major Crimes Division. She paired him with Capt. Molly O'Moore of SWAT to stop Intergang's march into Gotham from the turnpike exits and the Holland Tunnel.
Det. Lt. Renee Montoya was one of two known refugees from Earth-5. In her GCPD, Montoya had been a Det. Sgt. One that Barbara promoted to deliver the ruse that Montoya was back from the dead. Det. Sonia Alcona in Chicago had faced the same scrutiny. But her doppelganger's girlfriend, CPD Capt. Margo Collins smoothed the way for her to leave PI work and join the Chicago Police Department.
Bullock took every detective from every department and added them to SWAT to barricade Intergang. Montoya took the uniformed officers and headed for the piers since Pirate Blue's Alpha-class Soviet-era nuclear attack sub had surfaced and put raiders ashore. Decidedly male raiders which was in opposition to Pirate Blue's standing policy of having an all-lesbian, or transbian, crew.
"Whad'a hell?" Bullock grated, "Dese loser think they can just waltz back inta Gotham now?"
"Our snipers and spotters have them entering our killbox. It's now or never," O'Moore informed him.
"`Scuse me all ta hell but I joined da GCPD not da Army," Bullock grated again, "We give dese jokers a chnace ta surrender. If dey open fire, den we wipe da floor wit' dem," Bullokc ordered.
"Yessir, Lt. Bullock, sir," Capt. O'Moore snapped off a precise salute with her fist balled and middle finger extended.
"Git oudda here," Bullock growled. O'Moore wasn't in tactical command and that seriously pissed her off. But SWAT didn't have the manpower to unload on Intergang without Bullocks detectives supporting them. And then the shooting began and Bullock ended up screaming in the radio for a sitrep as explosions rolled through their assigned areas.
Montoya's uniformed officers centered around Sgt. Dick Menso, Cpls. Astra Adams, Josh Sabra, and Gideon Abba. Each ranking officer commanded flanking squads while Montoya and her units took the center directly in opposition to the Syndicate Underground raiders. Their very maleness striking Montoya as odd. The whole thing did. Earth-5 hadn't had an Empress Penguin to her knowledge.
But that hadn't been true. Empress Penguin was originally from Earth-4, which meant Gotham had two Regina Swanns. One was fourteen years old and the other was twenty-eight. The younger was in and out of foster homes as the elder Regina had been as well. It was that experience that had developed into Empress Penguin's existence. Regina had taken care of her younger self by investing in finding suitable, and well paid, adoptive parents on the west coast. She'd set up a blind trust in her doppelganger's name and funded a college education regardless of cost. Empress Penguin herself had worked her way through college through a life of corporate espionage. And had been arrested and expelled for her efforts. But her time in prison had paid out increasingly significant dividends.
And just as Montoya puzzled over Empress Penguin's puzzling origins so too did she wonder why Pirate Blue would alter her longstanding, seemingly permanent gender and sexuality policy. It was almost as though the men were expendable.
"¡Maldito infierno!" the very Puerto Rican Montoya swore. That was Pirate Blue's game. The men were cannon fodder meant to distract the GCPD. She called the Port Authority and learned the Plunderer had moved off the docks and submerged after the raiders disembarked. The Coast Guard reported a sighting further east. Montoya's guess was Pirate Blue had gone ashore with a car waiting for her.
Explosions ripped through Gotham and the GCPD's ranks.
Skywolf delievered the JLers to Gotham in front of the boulevard that Empress Penguin's specialists were marching down previously unopposed.
Dinah Laurel Drake had been the Black Siren of Earth-3. And like all heroic figures on Earth Prime, Black Siren had been a villainous opposite of her doppelganger. But on New Earth, Dinah Laurel Drake Lance had been married three times. Once to Larry Lance. Once to Oliver Queen. And now to Nyssa Raatko and Black Canary was the current Ra's al Ghul. Larry and Oliver were dead but Nyssa was very much alive and served as the Demon's Hand to Dinah's Demon's Head.
Black Siren dropped her first name to further differentiate herself from Black Canary. So Laurel Drake found herself opposed by two unknowns to her. Bat-Woman had the audacity, like Black Siren to forgo a mask. Not that her platinum-white hair wouldn't be hard to disguise. Not at all. And Bat-Girl presented another bottle blonde enigma.
Kate Webb had been a Spyral agent aiming to succeed above all others in the Batwoman program. But she was prevented from even becoming a candidate by Dir. Katherine Webb-Kane. Even before Katrina Moldoff earned the position, Kate had resigned and moved to Los Angeles where she decided to carve out her brand of justice as Bat-Woman.
Jessa Carde had been gang raped and decided to undertake vigilante justice when the jury trial had been rigged against her. Kate came upon one of her escapades and recruited the younger Jessa to be her Bat-Girl. Unlike Kate, who wanted public attention, Jessa wore a cape and cowl to maximize the Bat motif they'd agreed to capitalize on to give them a few precious seconds where they had the advantage over the crooks' psyches.
Black Siren shrugged a shoulder back as it was struck by a graphite batarang. She picked it up and examined and felt insulted, "Homemade? Really?"
"Look, I don't have to kill you. Just back the eff off me," Black Siren was feeling reasonable.
"What do you think Batman would do?" Bat-Woman smugly asked.
"Hide in his cave?" Black Siren shrugged, "Where I'm from there was an Owlman instead. And in this situation, he would lay me on my back, rip my pants open and eff my brains out."
And he had on several occasions just to get to scream and inflict property destruction. Black Siren delivered her ultimatum, "So if we aren't doing a menege, walk or die."
Bat-Woman and Bat-Girl just exchanged puzzled, and inexperienced, glances.
Pussy Katnip was in charge of Empress Penguin's personal security but Bird of Paradise was her organizational chief of security. It had been her suggestion that led to the fateful trio being on the boulevard that afternoon.
Lorna Le Verne had tried to shelter her siblings from their abusive parents. Eventually she ended their lives and her sibs were put in foster care while Lorna was put in juvie. When she aged out she out out her assorted brothers and sisters had run away, gotten hooked on drugs and where either dead or dying at the hands of pimps and Johns. And not one of them had been avenged by the justice system much less mourned.
Lorna spent the next few years moving up through the organizational ranks of various criminals and became a henchwench.
She signed on with Oswald Cobblepot, the Penguin himself, and rebuffed his sexual demands by breaking bones. And she served five years on a fabricated eighteen month stretch in Blackgate as repayment. It was there that Bird of Paradise received her true life's lessons. And then the day came when Empress Penguin selectively freed inmates. Bird of Paradise was one of them.
On her Earth, Regina had time in Blackgate and learned at the feet of these women who all served nonexistent sentences for "crimes" perpetuated against the Penguin. As repayment, Empress Penguin freed their doppelgangers and created a private army and led them in taking their revenge by aiding her in securing Gotham's criminal throne.
Knightfall owned the political machine in Gotham and still threatened Regina's hold on crime. Charise Carnes alone could dismantle her fledgling empire with the proper endorsements. Intergang, the Syndicate Underground, the remnants of the fIve Families, and Emperor Penguin all still loomed in the wings. And Knightfall alone could unite them.
Bird of Prey was confronted by Chief Man-of-Bats. The former Batman International member seemed to have had a sidekick at one time but Bird of Prey couldn't spot Raven Red anywhere. But neither vigilante was the original. And Raven Red was among Young Justice's ranks.
"Y'know I'm gonna try and kill you, right?" Bird of Prey asked.
"It seems so," Chjief Man-of-Bats stoically replied.
She shrugged, "`Kay, let's bring it."
Daria Creig had been Amos Fortune's scout for his luck bending crimes. But Jinx had left Amos' employ over his obsession with Anna Fortune and plans to attack the Justice League and then the Justice Society to get at her. He blamed Anna on ruining the Fortunes' family fortunes after the Civil War. Which Jinx thought was nuts. It wasn't until later that she learned that Anna Fortune had been a product of the Antebellum South and a survivor from the Civil War. And Anna's romance with a former slave had ruined the family's prospects in the eyes of the other plantation owners after they lynched her father. Destitute, they'd traveled to Chicago where the family was employed at workhouses until Anna's mother became a prostitute. A vocation the sisters were forced into and the brothers went to work for the Irish mob.
Jinx made the rounds as a lookout and scout for different minor league super villains, including but not excluding, Cluemaster, Kite Man, Tiger Shark, Polka Dot Man, Bird and numerous others. Thanks to the ineptness of her usual brand of employer she was doing a stretch in Blackgate when Empress Penguin was freeing prisoners. And she chose Jinx as her forward security officer.
General Glory launched into a soliloquy about citizen's rights and responsibilities and the patriotic virtues of upholding the law. Jinx was bored to atrophy. She decided to kill him just to shut him down.
Hellequin rested most over weight on a foot propped up on a rooftop ledge. She leaned into it to get a better view of the boulevard below. The Oracle-5's landing had caught her attention. She rested her aluminum baseball bat across her shoulders and pondered how to maximize whatever damage was about to incur.
Regina had been shortsighted and squandered much of the advantage Hellequin had secured for her. Yet Empress Penguin seemed to believe she was owed rather than the reverse. And Marian's own occasional fraternization with Huntress and the Birds of Prey lent her authority as a swing vote in situations like these. So. What. To. Do?
Det. Lt. Dan Jurgens and SCU Capt. Mara Taggard led the Metropolis Police Dept.'s response to the fighting between Intergang and their rivals in the Syndicate Underground and the emergent Penguins. The only thing for certain was that the civilians would be paying the price for the hostilities.
Disco Mummy took a stroll through Central Park, where a Ryder Corp. limo had dropped her off. She'd even been accosted by some rough boys and their rough bitches.
"Now, really?" Erishkigal had grinned, "Let me give you all a gift: eternal undeath."
Their skin turned to parchment. Their tongues shriveled into leather. Their eyes melted and their lungs desiccated and a wheeze of air like a shriek escaped their parched lips. Their muscles withered and their ligaments shortened.
"Now, who's a good boy or girl?" Erishkigal laughed. The newly made mummies all vied for her attention.
They marched with her to the park's center. And there Disco Mummy used her power to stretch out and mummify every human visitor and animal. And every undead "life" belonged to her unbreakable and ironclad will. They would throw their twisted and broken bodies into grindstones at her command. What fear did they have since they were already dead? Destruction just meant freedom from their fiefdom.
The bulk of the former Dark Justicers, and now the official Justice League Dark unit arrived, dispatched by Sue to apprehend Disco Mummy and end Erishkigal's reign of terror. But Erish was just beginning as she stretched her powers out beyond the iconic park.
Ghazia entered Harlem. Some of its residents were descendants of Africans inhabiting the Nile's Upper Kingdom head waters. Ghazia was a reincarnated priestess of Ra and Isis and her power was that, not unlike Amazing Grace, of spoken persuasion. She could lead Catholic priests and nuns into public sexual gratification and Pentecostal ministers to purity. Sister Lilhy knew about persuasion and purity. And she'd rejected them both.
As an adept of the Order of St. Dumas, Sister lilhy had been trained as a warrior and tasked with keeping Jean-Paul Valley loyal to St. Dumas. But both Azrael and Lilhy had fallen from the purer "faith" to find their salvation as Agents of the Bat.
Batman had swayed the resurrected Azrael and the disillusioned Sister Lilhy to be his agents in the broader world beyond Gotham. And he'd arranged with the Sec. for Meta-Human Affairs, Amanda Waller, to get his agents placed within the Justice League. Batman had also contacted Black Canary and Nyssa to apprise them of his plan since the Order of St. Dumas and the surviving Court of Owls had united against the Leagues of Shadow and Assassins. The Court was led by Bruce Wayne's ostensible niece, Helena Lincoln March, and the Order governed by a geriatric claiming to be St. Dumas himself. Sister Lilhy had united the Leagues with St. Dumas' ancient foe, Casare Borgia, the Baron of the Brothers of the Crimson Cross, yet another medieval era secret society of bloodthirsty knights. Yet Borgia was so entranced with the League of Shadows' goals he willingly and ecstatically allied himself and the Brotherhood with the League of Assassins. And not just in a common struggle against St. Dumas and the Court of Owls.
Ghazia wandered from neighborhood ot neighborhood proclaiming her message of the gods' love. And the residents unwittingly fell prey to her hypnotic words. And it was into this canyon of death that Sister Lilhy was delivered to by MLJ agents.
Ghazia was inciting race riots within Harlem. Sister Lilhy had no interest in the victims, just the victimizer. But she was willing to cut down whoever impeded her. Whether with her firearms or sword, it didn't matter to her. Dead was dead. Unless you were Azrael, it seemed.
Black Pharaoh considered himself a suitor for Disco Mummy. Despite his seeming rivalry with Scarab, he was confident he'd win her hand. A Sumerian princess and a pharaoh would make the ultimate power couple. His power was the capacity to animate inanimate objects. And was doing so to the best of his ability but nothing seemed to dissuade Azrael. The Avenging Angel's flaming sword and retracted gauntlet blades had the capability of slicing through anything Black Pharaoh threw at him, including the pharaoh himself.
Even attacks on passerby and hapless civilians failed to deter Azrael's relentless onslaught. Jean-Paul had coldly calculated the swiftest relief from the attacks was to kill the master of the metal and glass puppets. So he bypassed lamp posts, mail boxes, and bus stop shelters attacking people and carved his way through violent vehicles just to reach Black Pharaoh and end his threat forever.
Peter Ward had been a journalist with National Geographic with a background in Egyptology before he found the scarab power ring. It revealed to him he was the reincarnated younger brother to Rameses II and long forgotten in history. But, as in a near mythical golden age, the pre-reincarnate Scarab had defended Egypt and Kahndaq as Prince Khufu, Princess Cha'Yera, Nabu, and Black Adam had done long before the Middle Kingdom's rise to power. Rameses' death chasing after the Hebrew slaves at the collapse of the suspended Red Sea led Kahndaqan separatists to assassinate Scarab and throw the dynasty into a peril not seen since Egypt's founding by the Thanagarians, Katar and Sherya Hol were killed by their high priest out of jealousy and repayment for their infidelities.
John and Shayera didn't recall any real portions of their reincarnations other than when Katar and Sherya were reborn as Khufu and Cha'Yera and John as the royal guard sleeping with the princess. But Carter Hall and Kendra Saunders did. And now the curse was lifted, John and Shay could live their life together free of certain tragedy. And Carter and Kendra could be together at long last, provided of course, that Kendra stopped resenting the hell out of Carter for the long centuries he spent chasing after Shayera and thereby perpetuating the curse. But on a softer note, John and Shayera had named their firstborn Kenra, after Kendra.
Scarab's lifetimes were a blur to him. A miasmic spiral of destruction that swallowed his mind and soul whole. It was Disco Mummy that gave Scarab a sense of purpose. Her ostensible goal of uniting the ancient Fertile Crescent, from west to east Libya to Iran and north to south Turkey to Egypt and the northernmost reaches of Arabia, was a lie. Erishkigal wanted to rule a planet of mummies. The dead serving her every whim as the world decayed around her. Her five thousand years trapped as a young woman sealed in a buried tomb had broken her mind. But, a goal didn't have to be sane to have worth to the one seeking to achieve it.
Black Pharaoh pictured Scarab as a rival for Disco Mummy's hand. The fool hadn't realized yet that Erish would consume any poor bastard unfortunate enough to catch her fancy. Scarab had made overtures to Ghazia. They were both reincarnated Egyptians whereas Disco Mummy was Sumerian royalty from a family that had ruled Mesopotamia before Babylon was built. Erishkigal came from a culture of sexual religious rites with human and infant sacrifices. For her her sex and death were one and the same. So Scarab honestly hoped Black Pharaoh got his wish. He might even survive it.
Jack O'Lantern had a complicated relationship with his fey magic. Daniel Cormac had been gifted with a magic lantern and rose to become Ireland's protector. But Daniel died after the Global Guardians transformed into the Justice League International. And the fey bequeathed the lantern to his cousin, Liam McHugh. But Liam had been a terrorist with the Real IRA. And was now hunted by them for abandoning the Cause.
But Jack had proven himself to the Justice League as well as to Daniel's ex-, Owlwoman. In fact, Wenonah Littlebird and Liam were now a couple. And Liam had absorbed the lantern and was powered in ways Daniel never could have dreamed of.
"You're magical," Scarab realized the flaming pumpkin head wasn't just a stage effect.
"My girlfriend would debate ya," Jack retorted, "Now, whatt'ya think yer doin', yobbo?"
"Don't women always debate men's merits?" Scarab replied, "And I have a cause and I must succeed."
Jack knew about causes. His life had been consumed by them. It still was, "Can't let ya be doin' that. So, are we tusslin' or what?"
Scarab unleashed the power of his ring.
Myra Pyram was a failed Egyptologist who specialized in Egyptian witchcraft and sorcery. The academic world simply scoffed at her finding until she employed a few memorized spells...and transformed her critics into human-animal hybrids. Those hybrids cleared a path through campus security and the police for Myra to escape custody. Even as a fugitive, though, Myra managed to return to Egypt to complete her education. But to what avail?
Disco Mummy had given her a purpose. And today, as Ghazia ravaged Harlem, Black Pharaoh attacked the Bronx, and Scarab let loose in Queens, so Myra was assigned to Brooklyn. And Owlwoman flew from the nearby Hall of Justice ot oppose her. Myra transformed gawkers into hybrid slaves.
"Do you worst, you won't harm these precious, so-called 'innocents'," Myra scoffed.
Owlwoman extended her finger talons, "Let's test that theory."
It was Myra that provided the cursed burial wrappings that transformed a hapless Egyptian Treasure Guard into the Green Mummy. His assignment was terrorizing the inhabitants of Long Island to draw in a Justice League responder. And he got Wonder Woman for his troubles. The greenest Wonder Woman of all. Nubia had been Hippolyta's other daughter, the mortal one, and the high priestess to the gods. Nubia had been Diana's choice as one of the five Wonder Women. Artemis had bested Diana in a competition designed to select a champion to become the official Wonder Woman after Diana returned to Themiscyra prior to Hippolyta abdicating in Diana's favor and returning to Man's World as the original Wonder Woman. Hippolyta's final decree appointed Donna Troy, a child of the Titans Chronus and Rhea, as the fifth Wonder Woman. As the sister of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, Donna had been trained by the Amazons and Diana could do little to protest the appointment of the original Wonder Girl as one of her replacements.
Green Mummy's wrappings granted him two abilities, the first was super speed. Not quite as fast as Lady Flash but faster than Expressman, Express, Speed McGee, or the young Russian woman called Blitz. The second was that the wrappings acted as tentacles, snaring, pulling, and tossing anything Green Mummy aimed at.
Wonder Woman intended to slash the wrappings that had grabbed hold of various residents but all her sword did was distract Green Mummy from his original intended victims. Which Nubia took as a small victory.
Nubia saw several police officers on the scene. As a woman of color, she'd frequently been arrested as a "vigilante posing as Wonder Woman". The MLJ had a lawyer dedicated just to her cases. And no matter how much press Claire Montgomery arranged to display that Nubia was indeed a member of the Justice League, she still faced detainment when not backed by her erstwhile teammates.
"Surrender creature," Wonder Woman commanded.
Green Mummy could offer a dusty chuckle in reply as his wrappings lashed out at her and snared her sword arm and then her other limbs and waist. Nubia struggled to even move and then she felt her strength begin to ebb. And the Green Mummy literally coughed out sandy dust as he tried to laugh at her.
The last of Disco Mummy's intimate circle led a prison break at Stryker's Island. Aten Khalis had been the royal guard that betrayed Katar and Sherya to their deaths. Rather then be afflicted with reincarnation, Wraps, as he was dubiously referred to as, was mummified alive and sealed away to be bound for eternity. But Erishkigal's connection to all things mummified located him and she used her resources at Ryder Corp. to liberate him, in exchange for his services.
Erish had described Aten as a "plague amongst the living". That was something he was still discovering about himself. He hadn't believed he had magic powers like his fellow servants but Erishkigal had sent him into the deserts to learn the truth of his unliving existence. And he'd discovered that he wasn't damned. He was damnation.
His newly discovered geokinetic powers leveled one entire face to the towered prison. He then leveled other sections regardless of potential casualties. He was after mayhem not precision. The number of escapees would cripple the NYPD's resources and strain the JLers' presence at their own Hall of Justice. And with Gotham and Metropolis besieged, no readily available help was on hand.
Massive bolts of energy rained down upon the fleeing inmates. Wonder Woman floated in the air due to her Sandles of Hermes. Artemis drew back an ethereal bowstring and fired several more volleys before she touched the ground. She cast the bow aside and Wraps watched it vanish in midair.
"Mistress, to me," Wonder Woman stretched out her hand and an axe with a blade almost larger than her body flew into it from nowhere it seemed.
"I have no quarrel with you," Aten advised Artemis.
She snorted in contempt, "You should've thought of that before this."
She lunged forward with the massive axe above her head and brought it down to strike Aten. But Wraps had become sand and swirled out of the way. Artemis looked appreciative.
"I've always wanted to kill a demonized mummy," she declared.
Aten began to wonder if she could.
Superboy cracked the portico when he landed on it. Sue deployed the reservists she'd managed to get to respond. The Huntress and the Question were notably silent. Plastic Man was still MIA after Baby Plas' death and Penny's uncontested divorce proceeding. The FBI was extremely interested in his and Nancy Morgan's whereabouts. Plas had surrendered all of his assets by refusing to even be found long enough to receive the summons to court. Penny had applied to the Blackhawks but Lady Blackhawk refused her entrance. Penny wouldn't forgive Zinda Blake for that perceived affront.
The Blackhawks may have refused Penny but Airboy, Valkyrie and her Air Maidens took her on. Crimson Avenger, the elder one, also failed to appear. The younger Crimson Avenger was a member of the rogue vigilante group called the Outlaws. Arsenal was also a member. Both were considered criminals now. Crimson Fox refused her summons, preferring her association with the Birds of Prey now. Both Vivian and Constance D'Aramis now wore the identity together, side by side rather than switching off.
Those respondents Sue was able to reach, most were green. One hadn't even been on the planet for a week. Trajectory, Katana and Shayera were veterans. If barely in Eliza Harmon's case. The Atom had only assisted the JLU and the Outsiders on a few occasions and Ryan Choi still lacked confidence. Holly Robinson had a few years in as the Cat but Catwoman was a huge step up for her. The Creeper was so unpredictable as to be a menace to his teammates as much as his opponent. And Valoria...Laurel Gand had just arrived at the beginning of the week to seek training as her brother had so as to honor his memory among worlds in deep space. Her request was endorsed by the interstellar LEGION put together by Vril Dox, known as Brainiac-2. Several JLers were able to vouch for Dox and his intentions.
And now they faced a Kryptonian teen more powerful than the absent Superman. Only Valoria could match him for raw power. He saw her uniform and smirked.
"You won't be the only one to wear that getup," he promised her. He thought of Andromeda's original costume before she adopted a Legionnaire standardized version. Daxamites passed the familial name down matriarchal lines so the distant future Laurel Gand was a direct descendant of the present Laurel. But he couldn't explain that to her. Not while he was supposed to knock her senseless.
"I've so got this," Valoria declared.
"Wait! It's what he…" Shayera watched Superboy knock Valoria out with a single right cross, "…wants."
"Next?" Superboy grinned.
And Katana and Shayera knew for certain that this wasn't Conner Kent.
Glorith kept herself and Lana slightly phased out of local time. Every few seconds they became visible for a blink of an eye, but the sentries thought they were just imagining things. They reached the server room with its two dedicated access terminals outside of the refrigerated cube containing the actual server banks. Glorith dug through thousands of terrabytes of information while Lana used the screen too patch into the interior security system and deflect its attention to other locales. It was a temporary fix at best since the security office could override her tampering at any minute.
Glorith made a satisfied grunt when she reached the personnel files of the JLers themselves. Lana's screen went dark, "They're onto us."
"I just need sixty seconds more," the Time Witch needed more subjective time and she couldn't provide it herself.
"I'll delay them," Lana exited the room before Glorith could respond. She promised herself she'd get Lana out of this alive and unharmed. She rather liked the spunky teen.
While Valor, Superboy, and Valoria inspired teens to become superheroes, it was the Justice League that inspired them to be a team. And Glorith couldn't change that but she could alter the future United Planets and EarthGov's perception of the Legion of Superheroes. And of the subsequent Justice League Action team. And that in itself was her endgame.
Enchantress was the first return to the Hall of Justice and she found her way blocked. The others all returned apace except Captain Marvel. He still emptying his balls into Cristina for at least another hour and half. The barrier than confronted the JLers was translucent dome that surrounded the Hall of Justice properties down even into the East River. But viewing through the dome was sketchy because movements seemed acceelrated and then slowed.
"This is out of phase with our time," Enchantress, Cabala, and Zatanna all agreed.
"Not a problem," the Flash boasted and attempted to vibrate through it but he almost tore himself apart, "That's never happened before."
"Every guy says that and every woman knows better," Enchantress snarked.
"What if someone durable enough went through the field?" Lois asked.
Lana groaned. Ace of Blades volunteered and Killer Frost merely said, "Be careful, Kata."
"We can make it," Shazam volunteered himself and Lady Marvel.
"Where's Captain Marvel?" she wondered.
"Getting his groove on," Enchantress snickered cruelly. Lady Marvel didn't appreciate her tone. But then again, like Silver Swan and Killer Frost, Enchantress was a former super villain who'd joined the Justice League.
The volunteers pushed against the barrier simultaneously. At first it bowed and flexed but eventually they hit its threshold and they began to pass through. The time differential threatened to tear each of them up collectively and individually. But through sheer resolve they made it through, and consequently weakened Glorith. But the intrepid quintet needed rest to recuperate from the ordeal. Meanwhile events there and abroad continued apace.
Knightfall came calling on Empress Penguin in her full regalia. Pussy Katnip wouldn't admit her in her employer's presence until she'd been ordered to stand down. Knightfall breezed in all confidence, pomp and circumstance.
"You've made a lot of enemies, Regina," Knightfall said from behind her metal mask.
"You can drop the act while in my office, Charise," Regina and Charise Carnes saw each other at social gatherings along with Jaina Hudson and all three women gauged each others' weakness during every climatic meeting.
Knightfall threw back her cowl and removed her medieval styled helmet-mask, "Pirate Blue and Big Boss contacted me. Each is willing to forgive you if they receive an operating license to work within the Gotham theater. I will issue and enforce the licenses. You will honor them in exchange for 10% of the fee and a 15% tribute of each transaction or net value."
"And you have the manpower to enforce these licenses?" Regina almost mocked her considering the catastrophic loss of Knightfall's Disgraced, still unaware that Sally Sarasota had miraculously survived and mended. So Bonebreaker was at Knightfall's side the way Pussy Katnip was at Empress Penguin's. Charise obviously still had designs on creating a well regulated, utopian Gotham. God save her.
"Of course," Charise smirked.
Regina studied her boards. She'd used up her expendable players across the country. Every other head came at a price she wasn't willing to pay yet so she agreed to the terms.
"Excellent," Charise brightened, "I'll call off the dogs. I'm certain the others will employ White Rabbit as a mediator for the specifics."
Empress Penguin wasn't surprised. Jaina and White Rabbit's loyalties seemed vague at best. They'd consolidated the criminal world under her just to consolidate Knightfall's power over Regina.
Pirate Blue did accept the terms without reservation and unleashed the Jokerz on the GCPD take make amends for past grievances with Intergang. The two rivals called a mutual cease fire while the GCPD finished off the Syndicate Underground's undesirables as the two international cartels wiped Empress Penguin's off the map.
J-Man led half the Jokerz in finishing off the remnants of O'Moore's SWAT team. They laughed as they left her alive to be rescued by Bullock's detectives as Intergang retreated back across state lines and the NYPD was unresponsive.
Montoya had figured out Pirate Blue's gambit but her squads, and those under Adams, Menso, Sabra, and Abba were under fire before the smoke settled and Card Queen led her Jokerz against them. On Earth-5, the Joker hadn't disappeared to inspire gangbangers to aspire to him. Frankly, Montoya thought they were all sad, sick, rabid vermin in need of extinction.
Black Siren shattered buildings facades with her Siren Song. Bat-Woman and Bat-Girl always eluded her. But then Hellequin smashed her bat into Bat-Woman's head and swung to club Bat-Girl in the forehead. She pivoted the bat with her wrist like a samurai with a sword.
"You're welcome," she told Black Siren.
"Thank you?" Laurel snarked at Hellequin.
She received a call from Regina. She and the others were to stand down and rendezvous at the Iceberg Lounge. Hellequin winked at Black Siren.
"I got this," she told her.
Bird of Paradise was principally a gymnast. Chief Man-of-Bats was a grappler by preference. But his head clonged Hellequin's bat thereby relieving Bird of Paradise's headache by giving the JLer one. Black Siren explained the situation and they went to relieve Jinx.
General Glory's mystically enhanced skill set enabled him to avoid getting his ass handed to him by Jinx. But after the last time, it took three concussive blows from Hellequin's bat to put him down.
"Damn. His head has gotten harder," she whistled.
Marian disappeared, seemingly in plain sight, and Regina was left demanding an explanation of why Hellequin intervened again. And what her goddamn motives were. No one had the answers.
Across the United States, Empress Penguin's bully boys were killed or arrested to be killed in jail by the usual rivals. Law enforcement spanning the country was oblivious as to why the uprisings and crime sprees had begun to begin with.
In Central Park, the Inwudu sisters worked closely to together with John Constantine to stave off the worst of Disco Mummy's captive thralls. Nimue, now known as Madame Xanadu, used spell work to bind the afflicted souls. Vivienne, now called Vivian Lachlan, used Excalibur to hatchet job the mummies. It was like being in their half-brother's court in Camelot again. Only Morgaine, or Morgana le Fey, was missing. Merlin, now a young man named Toby Merlin, wanted no part of them anymore. Seemingly having both cursed and equipped the fey passing as human sisters to defend humanity. Constantine just wanted a cigarette.
Deadman scouted ahead of the remaining group to steer them clear of the worst clots of the undead. Ragman dealt with those they encountered. Detective Chimp and Black Alice plotted and schemed of how to deal with Erishkigal. She was greatly amused when they reached her.
"So what do you propose to do with me?" Disco Mummy held her wrists together as though shackled. She laughed as Ragman's tatters failed to seize her. And she was even far more mirthful when Black Alice's magic siphoning power failed to affect her.
"Idiot child, your power only works on the living. And I'm decidedly not," Erish laughed at her while mummified squirrels, rats, mice, pigeons, other birds, and dogs and cats swarmed them.
She swatted the ghost called Deadman aside as she exited Central Park to catch a ride to Brooklyn. She official vehicles headed to retrieve all of her disciples.
Ghazia's minions kept Sister Lilhy busy while her mistress' drivers collected her. She'd found Lilhy extremely difficult to kill. As had the Order of St. Dumas. But the damage had been done as Sister Lilhy had cut a swathe through the population to get at Ghazia. A butchered swathe that activists and law enforcement both would set aside their differences to prosecute the adept.
Black Pharaoh watched in horror as Azrael reached him. A defensive spell blew Jean-Paul across the river and Manhattan into Central Park where he took up arms beside his fellow JLers. A black car with Ryder Corp. emblazoned across it's doors arrived to deliver him to his intended. Who didn't fancy him at all.
Scarab was dismayed to discover Jack O'Lantern was his power ring's equal. So Scarab brought a building down onto the street, forcing Jack to defer to that crisis and Scarab vanished from the scene, headed for Brooklyn to reunite with Ghazia...and Erishkigal.
Owlwoman was tearing the guts out human-animal hybrids with little regard for who they had once been. When she finished, she realized Myra Pyran was gone. So it took her tracking senses to learn Myra had absconded in a car and headed to the Hall of Justice. Which Owlwoman couldn't penetrate Glorith's phased barrier.
Wonder Woman freed herself from Green Mummy's wrappings and stabbed him through the heart with her sword. His dusty voice laughed at her, "I can't die twice."
He knocked her out. And she woke him in a precinct jail cell.
"Hera help me," Nubia groaned.
Artemis had to release Mistress and allow Aten Khalis to escape while she stopped the mass jail break. But she innately knew Wraps was headed to the Hall of Justice just as she knew she needed to visit the NYPD to release Nubia.
Trajectory joined Shayera and Katana in dealing with Superboy. Clark had stunned the Atom and the Creeper both as well as Valoria. Catwoman was bold but ineffective. Trajectory constantly had to get Holly out of harm's way. Shayera's Nth Metal mace was a powerful weapon but she'd been inactive long enough her combat edge was dulled.
But Katana was as finely honed as the SoulTaker. Which was the one weapon in the field that could harm Superboy it seemed. And Tatsu Toro was impossibly fast for a mere mortal. Aided by Trajectory, she was everywhere at once. Tatsu had left behind her husband's name to be called "the Dragon". And Katana was hellbent on killing Superboy so her enchanted sword could drink up his soul.
Glorith sent the last of the files to the group server that would redistribute them to WikiLeaks and the major news outlets. The Justice League's harboring of wanted criminals would discredit them and thin their ranks. Every news outlet and blogger on the planet would be foaming at the mouth for the kill within hours.
For now, she could hear Lana through the reinforced door arguing with Col. Trevor and John Stewart she stepped out and froze time within the Hall of Justice and she Lana walked out the front doors. She granted Erishkigal and her followers access to the site and accelerated their passage to reach the front steps.
The embattled JLers noted the fresh arrivals. Glorith took charge, "This would go easier if you would just let us pass."
No one flinched. Ghazia intervened rather persuasively, "Go to sleep."
The rousing Atom, Creeper, and Valoria fell into a deep slumber. Catwoman couldn't resist, "Now that's a helluva thing."
"Their stubborness outweighs my ability to persuade them," Ghazia reported.
"The hard way it is then," Glorith decided. But the JLer backup arrived to intervene.
"How are you me?" Superwoman asked Lana.
"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Lana challenged her older doppelganger.
"She is you," Lois snickered.
"You two shouldn't be fighting me," Glorith advised them, "I insured your existence past Zero Hour."
"Thank you," Superwoman said challengingly, "Now surrender."
"Lois, you don't want to do this," Glorith replied.
"Don't presume to know me," Superwoman warned the Time Witch.
"Okay then," Glorith sighed. And she reversed Lois and Lana's genetic clocks to before the gene splicing gave them their powers.
"What the eff?" Superwoman, now mere Lana again, retorted at returning to her non-energetic state, "I don't think you should've provoked her , Lo."
Shazam tackled Superboy and they began returning thunderclap blows at each other. But Shazam also had his mystical lightning, which staggered Superboy. But his tenacity resulted in Shazam applying a constant stream of it just to keep the Teen of Steel at bay.
"Y'know I rather admired Black Mary. Why'd you give her up?" Disco Mummy asked Lady Marvel.
"That wasn't the real me," Lady Marvel felt quite guilty that her former expression of her Marvel self even had a fan.
"Oh, I think it was," Erishkigal severed Lady Marvel's ties to Shazam's source of power and she reverted back to being Mary Bromfield.
"Shazam!" she shouted but nothing happened.
"I've pulled your plug rather conditionally. You can have your power, if it's your Black Marvel power," Erish laughed, "Maybe you could call yourself Black Lady Marvel if you really want to stick with the new name and all."
"Shit!" Mary exclaimed.
"And to think you were once the prude of the group," Disco Mummy was full of merriment today, "Now, I could turn you into a mummy and you couldn't stop me. But you're too much fun. And eventually you'll see the Black Marvel light."
Mary felt a death sentence being passed down upon her. Like when Darkseid had proclaimed her the "daughter of his heart". And Black Mary had become just that.
Katana sliced Green Mummy's wrapping tendrils like tissue. He whimpered and ran from her at super speed. Shayera easily knocked Myra out even without her mace. Trajectory scattered Wraps' sands so that he had to take precious moments to recollect himself. And she'd scatter him again. Catwoman dealt an easy blow against Ghazia.
Ace of Blades interfered in Scarab unleashing his vengeful heart upon Catwoman. Both he and Black Pharoah were startled by her strength, speed, and ferocity. And the wretched woman could fly as well.
"Überraschungsarschlöcher!" she gloated as she careened around them, delivering hammer strike blows.
Things devolved into impasse whereby all of Disco Mummy acolytes, except Scarab and Black Pharaoh were down or otherwise disabled. Superboy was nearly unconscious and Lana was yelling obscenities at Shazam while futiley beating at him with her fists. Erishkigal was on the verge of drastic actions Glorith didn't want undertaken at this time. Martyred JLers would still go down in history as heroes.
"Stand down," an authoritative voice said from about them all. Superman had returned to Earth and penetrated the dome.
"Damn! I never thought I'd be happy see him," Lois muttered.
"Me neither," Lana had traumatic memories of Lord Superman as well.
"Nun, es ist verdammt Zeit!" Ace of Blades hissed between her teeth.
"Superman's back," Shazam said with awe.
Everyone else just looked tired and wary of how Glorith and her allies would react.
"Damn! Lookit that sausage roll," the younger Lana whispered to herself.
"Aren't you supposed to be on Raan or something?" Glorith testily asked.
"I was. Now I'm here. And you don't deserve that explanation," Superman tersely replied.
"Oh shit," Lana murmured observing Superman's flat emotional affect.
"He's gone `round the effing bend and we're powerless after all this time," Lois muttered bitterly.
"Damn it all to hell. I need you alive," Glorith and her cadre of allies disappeared as she shifted them through space and time.
The Justice League reassembled as the Dark Justicers reported in and the Gotham unit was medevaced in. Everyone seemed to rejoice now that Superman had returned. But the former Superwomen watched with anxiety at his emotional distance from everyone.
"We need to know what happened to him out there," Lana decided.
"Maybe," Lois muttered.
Superman was the one to approach them, "What happened to you two?"
Lois wasn't talking but Lana explained what Glorith seemed to have done to them both.
The Flash approached and raised his hand high, "Hey Supes!"
Superman didn't return the high-five, "Maybe later."
"We're just former parallel universe refugees now," Lana ventured.
"You two will never be 'just' anything," he was concerned for them. Even amidst his personal pain.
He moved off to discuss matters with the administrative team. Lana was concerned, "He's heartbroken. Something must've happened to Maxima or the baby."
"Probably both," Lois felt as dead inside as Clark seemed to be.
"He needs to come with us," Lana insisted.
"No!" Lois was adamant, "Absolutely not!"
"It may save the world," Lana replied.
"I hate you," Lois was honest as always.
"I'll arrange for a Blackhawk flight and you invite Clark," Lana scooted off before Lois could inevitably refuse.
"I didn't realize you were staying with Ma and Pa. They never told me," Clark admitted during the flight to Smallville.
"And you didn't ask," Lois archly pointed out.
"So anyway, after your Lana deeded me the farm, I got a job with Luna Luthor," Lana interrupted.
"Possibly the only decent Luthor," Clark opined. He still had his suspicions regarding Lena's ambitions. Especially after it was revealed she was also Ultrawoman.
"So why come back?" Lois asked crossly.
So Clark explained the situation. And it left both women feeling rather bleak. Lois sighed forlornly.
"You'll need to room with me," Lana warned Clark.
"Ma and Pa have plenty of room. You know that," Clark deflected the offer. Lois shrugged. He'd learn soon enough.
Lois had phoned ahead and the landing Oracle aircraft alerted the Kents of their arrival. They stood as a wall before the door, "We're glad to see you son. But I'm afraid we don't have room for you."
"Pa?" Clark was befuddled as Lois breezed past them into the farmhouse.
"We're truly sorry," Ma assured him.
"I don't understand," he confessed.
"You will now," Lois announced as she came back outside and Ma and Pa stepped aside to reveal five children. Five children that closely resembled him from ages fifteen down to a three-year old set of identical twins. Obviously they were Lord Superman's children. And Lois had kept them a secret from the world.
Clark looked over to Lana, "I guess I'll need that room after all."
Comments: As can be assumed, many references are made to other stories both within the Justice League DCAU Series and the DCAU series Anthology story frameworks. As should be noted, there is no set chronology within the anthology stories metered by release. While there is a continuity I'm releasing them as they interest me and not moribund by the strict chronology of Justice League DCAU Series Parts 1-26.
And expect more anthology series stories because I've always been more comfortable writing short stories, even when I'm paid to write something, rather than 200K word stories. But hey, when Kindle Worlds shut down so did my sales. So I have nothing distracting me from these short stories. God help you all.
Cabala was open-sourced in 2009 and, thus, every aspect of the character prior to then can be used by anyone, so long as the creators are cited.
Created by
Miguel Rude and Leandro Silva
"The character of Express is available for use by anyone, with only one condition. This paragraph must be included in any publication involving Express, in order that others may use this property as they wish. All rights reversed."