Chapter 8
In the days of old, approximately one thousand years after Ro'Dan entered into the Speed Force and nine hundred years after the Neonodes kicked the two, Kryptonian men off their world, Ptah and Oriona-the Siren who Ptah married on Thanagar-met with the gods of Oa on Maltus in the Tower of the Guardians. Now, after nearly a thousand years, over thirty thousand descendants of the Great Ptah and Oriona lived on the world, but he had one thousand kids with her who ran the government. Each one of his male children mated with a Gidison who produced a pure Thanagarian child. In those days, the first law of Thanagar was produce and be plenty.
Thousands of years passed since the last time he came to his children's home, the children of Oa, the ones he had with the Great Mother. His first son, Hermes, hated him but didn't express that hate verbally, but when Ptah met with his first son, he detected the animus that lived within him.
The TOG stood approximately thirty-two hundred feet tall, and it was so tall that Ptah saw it from space. It was an ominous looking building that touched the skyline, and legions of Manbots hovered around the skyscraper protecting it from the enemy, alien races. Upon entry to Oa, several Oan, First Class Battlecruisers orbited the planet, and now, from what he observed, he knew his children had a full army in place to protect their interest.
Oriona stood next to Ptah as they brought the Phantom into Oa's orbit, and she said, "Be careful of these Oans. This is nothing more than a show of force."
"I agree," Orion said as she hovered next to Ptah's head. "We should've come with our own fleet with the Infinity in the lead."
Ptah scoffed and showed a visible disdain for their suggestions because he didn't want a war with his children. "This is nothing more than a peaceful meeting about the future of the Kryptonians. These ships aren't meant to deter me," he said calmly, "It's for the other aliens who might attack this world. Besides, the Phantom is the strongest and fastest ship in the galaxy. It will always be the lead ship."
Ptah wore his snake-like hair long and down the center of his back, and on his right hip, he carried the Hammer of Knowledge while his wife carried the Axe of War on her hip. He metamorphosed himself into a male Siren, and black wings protruded from his back. His children called him the Vulcan in those days. Orion-his robotic wife-set on his right shoulder when they entered the TOG. The main room where they held the meeting was called the Hall of Knowledge, and when he entered the room, all the gods stood to greet him.
Ganthet-a small blue man walked over to his father, and said, "Welcome."
"We come in peace, son," he said with a grimace, "With the Kryptonians now living under a red sun, they are no longer a threat to you."
He laughed for a moment, and then said, "Sit, father? Sit?"
Quickly, Hermes pulled the chair out for Ptah and another one out for Oriona, and they sat at the end of the table. Ganthet sat on the other end of the table with the other Oans sitting on either side. The green rings were prominent fixtures on their hands. Ptah wore a black ring on his right hand, a ring that sucked the energy out of all other rings, and the reason he put on his black ring was that he didn't trust the Oans. In their last war, the Ring of Darkness ended the battle between Luciferous and the Oans, a war between the Yellow Lantern and the Green Lanterns.
"What happens when the Kryptonians escape the confines of their galaxy?" Ganthet asked. "Do we allow another world under yellow suns to suffer the fate of Neo Star?"
One of the Guardians named Scar had a scrunched face, large eyebrows, and a receding hairline said, "These Kryptonians are dangerous to all the other worlds under a yellow sun. We'd be remiss if we don't put an end to them."
Ptah sat back in his chair for a moment, and then Hermes passed him a Booshi drink. He took a sip of the toxin, and then set the golden chalice on the table. Ordinary alcoholic beverages didn't have an effect on him, so he took a few more sips because he enjoyed the sweet taste.
"I see you're enjoying your drink father, but are you going to answer our questions?" Ganthet asked.
"Mind your tone!" Orion exclaimed. "Don't forget you're sitting in the presence of the Great Ptah."
Hermes smirked and then placed his elbows on the table as a form of disrespect. He giggled like a small child and acted like one too. Phat looked over at his first son, Hermes, and then said, "Do we have a problem?" He looked directly at Ganthet's power ring as he twirled it around his right index finger. "Leave the Kryptonians alone or incur the wrath of the Celestial Kingdom."
"Don't come to my world and threaten me!" He exclaimed, "We followed your rules in the old verse, but now we're the deciders. The Kryptonians must die out, father."
Ptah looked directly at Ganthet and then said, "The Kryptonians must be allowed to grow as a people," he said calmly, "Besides, the Great Mother protects them. If you touch them, it will mean war and your toy rings won't be able to save you this time."
Immediately, Ganthet stood to his feet and walked to the far side of the room. He began to laugh softly, and then out of nowhere, he screamed, and said, "Do you think we need your permission? I hope you know Hermes laced your drink with ambrosia."
Oriona hopped to her feet, and said to Hermes, "You snake!"
"Sit down, you winged betty!" Hermes exclaimed.
"How dare you talk to the Queen of Thanagar that way?" Ptah asked.
Hermes slid back in his chair and showed Ptah his power ring. His fingers were spread apart when he laughed ominously. "We can hurt you now, father. It takes over a month for that poison to work out of your system. No healing and you can bleed."
"It's funny you think we asked you here to discuss Krypton," Appa Ali Apsa said as he walked to the front of the room. "We've passed talking twenty-eight thousand years ago when you started working to undo what we did to them."
"Even with the ambrosia in my system, it would take all your powers to defeat me," Ptah said, "You either retreat or I'll wipe you off this rock."
Suddenly, a green laser flew across the room and hit Ptah in the side causing a deep wound. He flew back into the far wall, and then Orion flew off his shoulder and a laser hit Hermes in the left leg, automatically crippling him. He fell to the ground.
Ganthet launched a series of rays that hit Oriona in the chest, and when she flew backward, Ptah caught her with his telekinesis and sat her on the ground. When he ran over to his wife, she had a hole in her chest and didn't appear to be breathing.
"You can just make another one," Ganthet said laughingly. He then shrugged his shoulders, and then Orion flew through the air and hit him with a laser that cut his forehead. He flew backward into the wall and blood dripped down his face. "You, bitch!"
Quickly, Ptah leaped to his feet, threw the table with his mind toward Ganthet as he lay up against the wall, and then he used the energy from his power ring to split the table into two pieces. Holding his side, he waved his hand and a portal opened in the middle of the room. Grabbing his wife, he raced for the portal entryway, but as soon as he went to enter, Ganthet shot Orion and split her case into two pieces.
"Noooooooooo!" Ptah screamed. Waving his hand again, all the pieces of Orion went into the portal, and then it closed.
Dora
Dora's beauty was beyond anything the mind could imagine with seventeen beautiful oceans, and since she regained her conscience, six different species of Sirens lived on the southern continent. When Ptah crashed to the planet with his wives, a plume of dust flew into the air. With all his strength, he tried to heal Oriona's chest wound, but it didn't work because of the ambrosia in his system. He still had his unbelievable strength, speed, telekinesis, and telepathic powers, but his ability to heal was compromised. The effects of the ambrosia lasted for nearly a month, and if he didn't bring Oriona back within three days, then he couldn't bring her back according to the ancient laws of the gods. In addition to losing his ability to heal, he could be hurt by laser blasts and knives. His stomach wound bled liberally, and he felt like he would die too. When he looked over at Orion's casing, he realized immediately her brain wasn't located in the center of it. His heart filled with fear at the fact that he didn't have his first wife with him, and if he didn't get her brain back, Ganthet could use it against the Celestial Kingdom.
He concentrated for a moment on Veo, his oldest son who was on Krypton and tried to contact him telepathically. All he wanted to do was reach out to him to warn him of an attack on the Celestial Kingdom. But when he tried to leave the Dark Corridor for the Celestial Kingdom, the energy from the Great Barrier blocked him. He wept. "Dora, I'm weakened by the wound to my midsection. I'm filled with poison and can't heal myself."
Suddenly, the ground began to shake and a deep roar could be heard around the planet. She then sent him a telepathic message. "It has been a long time, Lord," she said telepathically, "We can become one as we did in the old days, and that will heal your body."
"But it'll still take four days to rid my veins of this poison," he lamented.
"Yes, Lord," she said, "But we all know you'll still bring your Oriona back to life with or without a soul." He slid his right hand over the dirt, and then touched his dead wife on her shoulder. For about three hours he stood perfectly still until he turned into pure electricity and disappeared inside of Dora. "I feel you inside me," she said.
"I've forgotten what it was like to become one with you," he said telepathically. "Once I regain my strength, I will bring the war to this verse just like I did in the last."
She gasped. "Will you destroy this verse too, Lord?" She asked.
"No," he said calmly. "But the Oans have to pay for what they've done."
Five Days Later
Planets-at least in the old days-talked to one another, and when Brion Noir (Dora) sent out a message that the Oans planned to attack the Celestial Kingdom, it spread to Moxia. Moxia took the communication and then gave it to Vega Star. From Vega Star, it went to Doraxia. After Doraxia, the communication came to Neo Star, a planet full of telepaths who received the communication. Due to Ptah giving the Neonodes warp three technology, they had some of the fastest Battlecruisers in the galaxy, and when they heard about the Oans' planned attack on Ptah's homeworld, ten Battlecruisers headed for the Celestial Kingdom, and they used wormhole technology to speed up the eight-year trip.
When Ptah reemerged from Dora's bosom, his snake-like hair was long and extended past his lower back. His dead wife laid at his feet, and he could smell her rotting flesh. The maggots and other insects filled her body, and he could hear them crawling around inside of her. Her black wings were hard and stiff, and as he gazed at her decaying body, he wept. But at the same time, he felt an overwhelming amount of grief for Orion as her metal casing laid at his feet. He picked up Orion's case and felt the coldness of it, and since the brain wasn't at its center, he knew his first wife was back on Oa.
"Word to protect the Celestial Kingdom has reverberated throughout the verse, my Lord," Dora whispered to him telepathically. "The war has begun."
For a short minute, everything became surreal as he looked upon his wife's corpse, and it pained him to no end. He didn't fathom the loss of his wife when he left the Celestial Kingdom for Oa, and now that she had passed, he was living his worst nightmare. But at the same time, he knew there was a strict standard when restoring life, but he didn't care about the rules. And even though the loss of Oriona cut him deeply, it didn't compare to the dismay he felt as Orion's casing set beneath his feet.
"I must restore her," he said to Dora telepathically.
"And break the law of the gods?" She asked. "What would Orion say?"
"It doesn't matter. All I have of her is this steel casing," he said. He bent down, picked it up, and then announced, " I will give Oriona a soul from Dragon Star. She will become Oa's nightmare."
"Once you do this, Ptah, you will bring darkness to this verse as you did the old verse," she said telepathically.
"So be it," he said angrily.
Oriona's wings-stiff and crusty-broke to his touch, and with rage in his heart, he ripped them from her back, tossed them to the side, and then straddled her with her eyes wide opened and facing him. The stench from her decaying body hit him in the face, and he could barely stand it. And as a golden glow encompassed the entire cave, it also swept over Oriona's body, and her bones began to pop, break, and morph into a new creature, a stronger creature, a creature designed to bring death to the verse. She let out several screams in a deep, chaotic voice, and then all of a sudden, fresh, black wings began to rapidly grow out of her back.
"I shall call you Death," he said as she opened her large eyes, and they appeared to be black crystal. "You'll bring destruction to my enemies. You'll contain a dragon's soul, and you shall not feel empathy for those you kill. Death will bring you joy."
Celestial Kingdom
The Great Mother-a Gorgon Goddess-walked through the Celestial Kingdom drinking some tea, but when she looked up, she saw her son, Ganthet standing directly in front of her. Setting her coffee on the table in front of her, she interlocked her fingers and rested her hands on her bosom. "What brings you to the Celestial Kingdom?" She asked.
"The Neuronet," he snapped. "I'll be taking it off your hands."
She gasped. "You can't have it," she said, "Are you mad?" Watching him closely, he began to play with his ring by twisting it back and forth on his right index finger. "Don't threaten me with your glowy toy," she said, "You'll only make a fool out of your self."
"Perhaps," he said, "But it put a hole in Ptah's gut."
She paused for a moment, and then said, "Ptah's dead?" Distraught, she placed her right hand on the counter to her front.
"Probably," he said as he showed her Orion's brain. It was a blue ball that he held in the palm of his left hand.
"Return Orion's brain immediately?" She asked. "By doing this Ptah will show you mercy, but..."
Ganthet laughed for a moment, and then tossed Orion's brain into the air. He grinned mischievously at his mother, but it didn't phase the Great Mother. "I'm your third son, but have you ever given me the love and the praise that you've given Ptah?"
"Is that your pain?" She asked calmly. "Your father is of the highest orders of gods. He inherited the greatest of me." She paused for a moment, and then said, "I will always put his needs above yours for you're of the lowest order."
He raised his ring hand to his Mother, and then said, "May my power ring tear you apart." A stream of green energy protruded from the ring, but the Great Mother flew out of the way of its power, and when she did, a burst of energy came out of her right fist. It hit Ganthet and knocked him into the far wall of the room. She moved like a speedster and put her third child in a chokehold, and as she wrapped her hands around his skinny throat, he let out a scream, and then let go of the blue orb; it rolled underneath the control panel.
Suddenly, a flicker of blue light and a surge of energy moved past her back, and when that happened, she unleashed several of the snakes from her head that immediately hunted for the third godlike creature. "I sense you, Hermes," she said in a harsh tone. "You've betrayed your father."
"In the way he betrayed me?" He said as he traveled faster than the speed of light around the room. When she turned her head toward his voice, he came up to her from the other side, and then she caught him by the throat. Her left foot was on Ganthet's throat and she held Hermes in her left hand by the throat.
"Your powers pale in the face of the true gods," she said, "Your uprising ends here." She listened to her children as they squirmed under the power of her unbreakable grip. But as soon as she went to crush Hermes' throat, she felt a laser strike from behind. It threw her against the wall. When she looked to see where the laser blast originated, a metal man, a man made of iron stood in front of her wearing a power ring. Broad shoulder, nearly eight feet tall, and with two rockets set atop his shoulders, she recognized them as the Iron-oids, a dangerous race of iron robots that supposedly died out in the old verse. "Iron-oids?"
"That's right, Queen Medusa," he said with a grimace, "I hoped for the day I'd have the opportunity to crush Ptah's empire."
Ganthet stood to his feet, wiped off his clothes, and as soon as he began to speak, one of the Great Mother's snakes bit him on the right side of his neck. He wrestled with the animal, but it took him down to the ground, and then he passed out.
The Iron-oid laughed for a moment in his deep, robotic voice, and then said, "The flesh is weak, but the metal is always strong." He quickly raised his ring hand to the Great Mother, and when he went to fire another laser blast, a sapphire shield erected in front of her body, and then deflected the deadly beam of light. As soon as that happened, Hermes began vibrating, and then mustered up enough speed to throw a devastating lightning bolt, and when he did, it knocked the Great Mother backward, and she lost consciousness.
The Celestial Kingdom
(The Return of Ptah)
Even though Ptah was of the upper echelon of gods, he was never angry or overbearing or evil until his children stole the Neuronet, a computer that contained all DNA of all known species throughout the old and the new verses. When he entered the Celestial Kingdom, the air reeked of Hermes' speed signature, a dead give-away that he was part of the thieves. It smelled like metallic and betrayal, and all he wanted to do was reinsert Orion's brain back in the flying disc, save the Great Mother, and return the Neuronet, a computer that had the backups of Orion's mind. If he didn't find her brain and his thieving sons destroyed the Neuronet, Orion would be wiped out of existence, a possibility he couldn't fathom.
Oriona stood by his side, dark and quiet and graceful with her wings expanded in an attack fashion as she touched the floor of the control room. She closed her eyes for a moment, and then said, "Will we destroy them this time, Lord?"
He looked over at her for a moment, and replied with an angry visage, "Indeed. To let Oa survive this betrayal would be a darkness on the House of La." Suddenly, the entire room filled with a blue light that touched everything, and he felt the knowledge of Orion emanating from that light. When he looked at where it originated, he saw the blue orb, secured it, and then placed it inside of an old, highly weaponized flying disc. It wasn't a new flying disc, but a weaponized machine from the old verse, a weapon of war.
"This is her old case," Ptah said as he fastened her brain into the middle of it, and connected her nervous system to all the neural pathways.
"I feel nothing but anger and rage, Ptah," Oriona said as she stood on the opposite side of him. "You should've let me stay dead. I'm an abomination to the verse, a being without a soul."
"But you're also my wife," he said as he looked up from his work. "If you must die, then die getting back the Neuronet. Without it, we will lose the knowledge we obtained from both verses."
"Yes. I'd rather die in battle, then to return to Thanagar without a soul," she said, "A Thanagarian soul."
He sighed for a moment, and then said, "Will the soul of a dragon not do?"
"It will do for the death and chaos in the verse, but not for the Queen of Thanagar," she said calmly, "My death will come with the securing of the Neuronet." She placed her hands on top of Ptah's as he completed his work on Orion. "Don't bring me back once I'm gone. Don't give another creature my mind."
Dragon Star
Dragons existed in every part of the verse, but in the days of old, the dragons on Dragon Star were some of the wisest and noblest creatures of all. They had a sophisticated society with their own industrial revolution, and in most cases, they kept themselves hidden from other beings throughout the galaxy. But when threatened, they could easily turn dangerous and had the technology to protect themselves against otherworldly threats who wanted parts of their bodies for intricate potions. But when it came to Ptah, he wanted one of the souls trapped in the barrier that circumvented the planet and always chose to respect Dragon Star's space. A dragon's soul-outside of its body-was full of rage and without remorse, and if he put that soul in Oriona, she would be an emotionless, unforgiving fighting machine. When he came to the barrier around Dragon Star, he came with anger, with revenge, and with every sin needed to do what had to be done to make Oriona a dangerous and ferocious fighting machine.
He brought his wife into the barrier in a ship he called Infinity, and when the dragon souls flew past the ship, he waited for the angriest soul to arrive. With his god-like abilities, the souls looked like a collage of photos that he viewed in search of the brightest one. It had to be a soul unlike any other soul, a soul without a soul rejected by all other souls to re-soul his wife. It took three days before he saw a dragon soul with the rage and anger he needed to make his wife whole, and it had the brightest effulgence, a brightness that dulled all the other souls. He placed her in a silver pod and took her into the middle of the barrier for she couldn't survive the open space like him. With a few magic words and the power of his mind, he put the soul into Oriona, and she screamed in pain while beating against the pod. Her strength put several dents into the vessel, and Ptah knew he needed to get her back into the ship.
"This is killing me, Lord," she said as soon as he took her out of the pod.
"You will be okay," Ptah said, "It will take a few days before your body gets used to it."
Orion flew into the room, and said, "The Neuronet is on Oa." She flew onto his left shoulder, and then said, "According to the banter on the radio, Ganthet plans on replicating it." Gently, he helped Oriona on her feet, and she had an angry visage. He then turned his head toward Orion as she set on his left shoulder.
"Replication?" He asked with a confused look on his face. "He knows any spawns of the Neuronet will create the brainiac germ just like it did in the old verse."
"It will catalog worlds indiscriminately," said Oriona, "It will wipe out all existence as we know it."
"But the only ones outside of us who know about the inner workings of the Neuronet are the Iron-oids, the ones who helped us build it nearly five million years ago. They died with the collapsing of the old verse."
"That's not completely true, my Lord," Orion said calmly. "Dorax and Doraxia had hundreds of the Iron-oids with them when they crossed over into this verse to escape your reach."
"And you knew about this?" He snapped.
"It didn't seem important at the time," she said, "It was nothing more than a family squabble with me caught in the middle. I discovered the planet Iron Ore nearly fifty thousand years ago, cataloged it, and didn't disturb their progression."
"Must we continue with this chit chat?" Oriona asked. "Give me my battle ax, and we can smash Iron Ore and the Iron-oids in one gigantic blow."
Iron Ore
Ptah flew the Infinity over the industrialized planet called Iron Ore and watched the Oan Battlecruisers closely as they orbited the large, metal planet with iron buildings that reached the skyline. He was cold. The animus he had against his own children was beyond the pale, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't move past what they had done to the Great Mother, Celestial Kingdom, and the Neuronet. The Infinity had a powerful cloaking device that kept the ship invisible to all, including the radar on the Oan Battlecruisers. Orion hovered over the control panel to the front of the ship, and when she suddenly turned toward Ptah as he sat in the command chair, she said, "Oh, dear!"
"What?" Ptah asked with a grimace on his face.
"It appears the Iron-oids have broken the time barrier," she said, "They're planning a million-year jump according to the controls."
"I fathom they're trying to restore the old verse," he said with a grimace. "All time travel is outlawed because of the unpredictable consequences." He leaned back in his command chair, and then looked over at Oriona for a moment.
"Let me smash their ships, wreck their buildings, and eradicate their very existence?" Oriona asked.
"No," he said, "Alert the Speed Force of the transgression, and it will handle the Iron-oids accordingly."
Current time:
Peppermint started cooking the sausage spaghetti as soon as she got home from school. She soaked the spaghetti in some cool water and added a bit of salt to it. She cut up a bundle of sausages and began cooking the fancy meal. The aroma from the cooked sausage permeated throughout the house while JJ and Orion looked at the satellite footage of the tornado that struck Metropolis. One of the partygoers caught the tornado on his camera, and when he wasn't looking, Orion downloaded the footage into her memory banks. Often, she stole critical information from all sources, including secure government sites. She had the ability to crack any known encryption on the planet and she often used it without any warning or known reason. At the end of the day, she added all the information to the Neuronet.
Once she obtained the video footage from the boy's phone, she then downloaded the footage into JJ's laptop and they stood by the dining room table and displayed the video on the far wall. Peppermint worked in the kitchen and cut up the salad at the same time JJ and Orion watched the video footage. Next to his laptop was a puzzle that Peppermint and Vera had been working on for the last week and it set in the middle of the table.
"Don't touch my puzzle," Peppermint said, "I'll move it before the guests arrive."
"Alright," JJ said as he adjusted the screen. It took him almost ten minutes before he had a good picture on the wall. He knew Orion was getting frustrated with him.
"Hurry up?" She said, "This archaic tech takes forever to prepare."
JJ watched the video footage with Orion and it took up the entire far wall. The lights in the living room portion were off, but the lights in the kitchen were on, and it was still dark enough to see the video clearly.
The house had eight bedrooms in it and six full baths and Orion and Veo had their own rooms along with Vera. Every other day, a cleaning crew cleaned the entire house and left it shining from top to bottom. JJ and Peppermint slept in the giant master bedroom and it had another large screen television in it.
"What kind of Tornado is that?" Peppermint asked as she leaned on the banister.
JJ immediately noticed the upside down funnel too and realized it was not something that originated on Earth. "It appears to be something out of this world," he said calmly. He walked in front of the screen for a moment and tilted his head as he looked at the upside-down funnel. He looked over at Orion as she hovered near his right shoulder, and said, "Do you see this madness?"
"Yeah. I'm watching the same footage as you, JJ," she quipped.
"Quit playing," he said, "That funnel came out of the Speed Force, but it only does that when the Speed Force doesn't recognize a speedster's signature. James isn't a speedster, is he?"
"He's never moved like a Speedster," Peppermint said with a grimace, "But his powers could be increasing. Doctor Ballard tested all his powers during the training exercises, and speedster wasn't one of them."
"The Superman formula that Rachel used is based on your original formula that changed the Kryptonians nearly two million years ago," Orion said, "So, James could very well run at the speed of light and have all the attributes of a Kryptonian under a yellow sun."
JJ pulled out a piece of paper and wrote down a series of calculations, and then said, "It'll take two weeks before the Speed Force releases him if it needs to recognize his speed signature," he said with a grimace, "He'll be okay depending on where in the Speed Force he resides."
"I don't know about that," she said calmly. "There are billions of worlds inside the Speed Force where he can be and most of them are full of time criminals of all calibers. You don't know about Ozario, do you? If he's there, it's going to get really dangerous."
He looked at Orion for a second, and then said, "In the ancient language of the gods, Ozario means the forsaken children."
"Yeah," she said, "It's a horrific place where several hundred ancient Trilobites ended up when they tried to break into the Speed Force to save Ro'Dan. They flew a ship into the Speed Force a decade after Ro'Dan became trapped inside. You had taken a respite from the Celestial Kingdom and lived on Thanagar with your new wife. The Trilobites thought you had forgotten about their sister."
"I remember taking that respite, but I don't remember you ever telling me about Trilobites entering the Speed Force," he said calmly. "I'm sure I would've wanted to know that."
"It was two million years ago," she said, "It's of no significance now."
"I still think of Ro'Dan," he said as he sat back in his chair. "I still remember how the Speed Force took her from us. It happened nearly two million years ago when we first initiated the prison for the gods," he said, "The momentum of the Speed Force trapped her in its wake, swooping her up inside. She was my lover for nearly one hundred and twenty years and you tried to break us apart because you thought I was becoming attached to her."
"I see you do remember a lot," she said, "When the Trilobites tried to break into the Speed Force with their ship, it countered their attack, and sent them to Ozario. It took nearly one hundred years for the Speed Force to stabilize before I entered into it. I discovered the Trilobites and they were at peace with living on Ozario. Their numbers had grown from thirty to two thousand."
"The Speed Force is a dangerous entity," he said calmly, "I made it imprison my son, Hermes, for his betrayal, but it took Ro'Dan from me." He paused for a moment, and then said, "Do you remember what happened when I found her inside the Speed Force after all those years?" He asked calmly.
"Of course I remember, JJ," she said in a somber voice, "It was a dark time for the Celestial Kingdom because you became someone none of us recognized. None of us. The radioactive energy changed her into a Succubus, an ancient demon who hated and defied you, but you couldn't take no for an answer."
"I remember," he said in a brittle voice. "After her passing, I tried to bury that part of me."
"You used rape as a weapon of war, and created a race of beings who eventually led to your death," she said, "For every action, there's often a lethal reaction." She paused for a moment, and then said, "Some of those demonic monsters ended up on Ozario and tormented your precious Trilobites. Once an earthling traveled to Ozario and returned. Her name was Dorothy Gale."
"What?!" Peppermint screamed, "Isn't that the girl from the Wizard of Oz?" She laughed out loud. "So, Oz is in the Speed Force? I don't recall that," Peppermint said from the kitchen.
"Just because you and Peppermint chose to sit on the sidelines for nearly two hundred thousand years doesn't mean things didn't happen," she said, "Damn right! Oz is in the Speed Force and Ro'Dan is your ancestor."
"You don't have to get nasty, Orion," JJ said.
We all know Sekhmet was from the Deceivers."
"I'm just keepin' it real," she said, "Just keepin' it real."
"Y'all quit arguing all the damn time," Peppermint said, "It's obvious you two are still married."
"It's a sexless marriage," JJ said laughingly, "She's not putting out at all."
"Here we go," Orion said, "Don't start, JJ!"
"What?" He asked.
"You know what," she said, "It's obviously a mistake was made restoring your memory so soon because a two hundred thousand year reprieve from your shenanigans was barely enough time. I'm not putting on my robotic suit so you can feel me up, you dirty dog."
"I didn't even suggest that," he said, "Did I, Peppermint?"
"Oh, you thought it," she said laughingly, "With your nasty ass."
"Stay out of my head," he said. He turned to Orion, and then said, "Can you build a transmitter that will allow us to send a message into the Speed Force to James?"
"It's possible, but we have to be careful," she said, "It's best to allow the Speed Force to do its job without any interference from us. First, we have to determine his location within the prison and then assess the dangers. We don't know he's in Oz, but it's possible."
Dinner time…
J'onn, Alex, Winn, Kara, Vera, Peppermint, and JJ sat around the table and ate their dinner of sausage spaghetti, and out of respect, they left a space for James. Kara ate a small portion of her food and then pushed it to the side. She looked frustrated. He looked over at her for a moment and new she was thinking about their missing friend, and it was evident by the attitudes in the room.
"Lena is paying thousands of dollars to search Metropolis badlands for James," Kara said with a grimace. "She's not giving up the search." Orion flew into the room because JJ sent her a telepathic message.
"Orion, come here?" He asked telepathically.
"For what?" She asked telepathically. "I'm watching television."
"I'm about to discuss the Speed Force," he said telepathically, "You need to get in here and help me."
"Be right there," she said.
JJ kept his head in his spaghetti while Kara spoke, and J'onn said, "She loves him." Orion flew into the room and hovered right next to JJ's head.
"Orion!?" Winn exclaimed.
"Hey, Winn," she said, "We need to discuss the whereabouts of James Olsen and our theories will sound outlandish at first."
"What's your theories?" J'onn asked.
Immediately, JJ put the video of the Tornado on his big screen television, and he pointed to the upside down funnel.
"What's that?" Winn asked.
"An upside-down funnel," JJ said calmly, "It's not actually of our world."
Orion flew over to the television set, and then said, "This is the funnel outside the nightclub where James and Lena partied on Friday night. This upside down twister is most likely from the Speed Force. It's defying all of nature's laws as you can see."
"The Speed Force?" Kara asked, "But this would mean James defied space and time."
"That's right," JJ said, "It's highly possible that not only does he have super speed, but he's able to manipulate time. The Speed Force is treating him as an undocumented speedster."
"So, if he's trapped in the Speed Force, how do we get him out?" J'onn asked.
"We're building a device right now that will allow us to communicate with him inside the entity, but we don't exactly know his location," JJ said, "We fear he might be in Ozario."
"Ozario?" Kara asked.
"Oz. It's Oz, Kara. Like Dorothy's Oz," Peppermint said, "It's a real place inside the Speed Force."
At first, Kara had a blank stare on her face, and then she burst into laughter, and said, "Get the eff out of here."
"It is Oz," Orion said, "It's a real place."
"I knew it," Winn said, "I knew Oz was real."
"Give us a day or so to get the device built?" JJ asked, "Then we'll know if he's located on Ozario."
"Oz, JJ," Peppermint said, "Just say it."