Lothal,
01:40
Force, why does my head hurt so kriffing bad? Zeb asked himself in his slurred thoughts. He remembered breaking into Governor's Palace, thinking that Rex had been set up and attacked by someone- probably Ezra- and then seeing the young padawan strung up from the ceiling by a thick iron rope, with Rex no where to be found. After examining the body, he and that guy who called himself a "Bat-Man" found a folded piece of paper tucked between the ropes that had some kind of mosaic drawn on it.
Next thing he knew, he was hit over the head by something that felt like a pipe, and subsequently fell unconscious. When he finally came to, it seemed like the world had flipped itself upside down... or wait... no, that was just him. Wait, what? Zeb's eyes fluttered open, taking in his surroundings. He was in the same room he remembered finding Ezra in, but this time it was him that was tied upside down. It was the same steel rope that Ezra was being held up by, but it seemed later on in the night- or maybe it was morning.
He could see his bo-rifle leaned up against the wall across the room, with the massive front window to his left shattered to pieces- wind blowing violently past it. Also to his left was another figure tied upside down, one that looked vaguely familiar to him, "Ezra..." He mumbled to himself, his eyes growing wide as he got a second look at the former member of the Ghost crew. He was dressed in a leather suit with a cloak draped behind him, on his hands were two cracked pairs of steel knuckles, coated with dried blood and dust. His skin was no longer the tan color that it had once been- it was a pale and crazed white- and on his face was a blood red smile painted from one ear to the other.
"Know his name," A voice came from the corner, startling the lasat warrior, "Makes sense. Both clearly crazy... possibly friends?" Zeb's eyes landed on a lone figure resting casually in a chair, his legs crossed and his hands messing with some type of grapnel gun. The man wore a brown trench coat that buttoned and tied tightly around his waist, along with purple dress pants with gloves to match, and a brown fedora perched on his head- obscuring his face, "Or homosexuals?"
Zeb grit his teeth despite himself, "You kriffing piece of..." He struggled a little against the rope, but it held strong, "You'd better hope I don't rip both your arms off and shove them down your throat!"
The figure's hands froze for a moment, before going back to the gun, "Yes, definitely homosexual." Zeb looked to his right this time, thinking there might be something of interest to him, which there was- just not something he was hoping for. Strung up next to him was a neutralized Batman and next to him was Rex, who looked like he'd been thrown around the apartment violently, and hit with some type of blunt object.
"You karking lunatic! I'll kill you, you just... oh... oh karabast," Zeb winced, desperately trying to shut his nose, "What is that smell?" It was a mix of scents that you would find in a junkyard or the lower levels of Coruscant- the smell of damp, dirty fabrics and freshly spilled blood. It became clear from the man's body language that it was him- almost like he hadn't showered since he was a toddler or something.
The man didn't seem to mind, but his head shifted over to Zeb's left, "Took you long enough."
As Zeb looked over the his left, he saw Batman's eyes were open, and his face returning to the grim and serious expression from before- almost as if he was never knocked out, "You're a vigilante," The detective growled, his eyes glowing an ever so subtle blue, "Judging by your DNA readings, you were born in 1940. By now you should be roughly seventy-nine, yet you managed to beat the living hell out of a trained fighter. How?"
The man sat there for a moment, his head tilting a little in obvious confusion, but he shook it off quickly and rose from his chair, placing his grapnel to the side, "Vigilante, yes," He growled, his voice gravely and deep- almost like a loth-wolf had developed the ability to speak, "Seventy-nine, no. Don't think so, anyways." He began to step into the light, revealing his masked face. He wore a white mask that looked like it was made of cloth, with no hole for his eyes, mouth, or nose. The one major detail was that there was an ink-blot pattern on his face... and it was shifting, "And I am Rorschach. Who are you?"
Mars,
3:42 AM EST, Earth Time
"I'm glad to see you're still here," The blank and emotionless voice from the blue man came, as Hopper turned to face him, "I was quite concerned during my travels." Hopper checked his watch, looking to see how late it was- but then remembered it didn't really work too well on Mars, "It is now five hours, six minutes, and ten seconds since I departed, if that is what you are wondering.
He sighed and looked up at the man, "How the hell do you know that?"
"Your ego." The man said, walking past him, seemingly focused on something that wasn't there, "It's quite natural for men like you to want to prove people wrong, regardless of the affect it might have on you or them." Wow. This guy was a dick.
"Alright, what the hell do you want with me?" Hopper yelled, his temper rising, "You somehow know the story of my entire life! You know things that I would never tell my own family, and you're just walking around butt-naked with your glowing blue dick swinging around with some weird logo on your head! I don't even know your name!"
The man froze and turned around, "My name is Jon." He stated simply, before turning back around and walking a few more steps forward, and then finally sat down on the ground cross-legged. Only thing was, he wasn't on the ground. He hovered about two feet above the ground, his eyes fixed onto the area before him, but he said nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Hopper stood their quietly for a moment, as if waiting for something to happen, "Okay..." He offered, watching to see if "Jon" would do something. He didn't. "So, are you just gonna sit there?"
"Why did you adopt her?" Jon asked suddenly, still staring into nothingness, "You seemed drawn to her in some way."
It took the chief a moment to realize who he was talking about, and when he did, he promptly tensed up, "She was alone. She had nothing but a jacket and a beanie," He told the blue man, "Now why the hell are you so obsessed with her?"
Jon didn't respond for a long while, his expression not wavering even for a moment, "I plan to kill her."
Hopper did a double take, his heart dropping into his stomach. His hand flew to his side in an effort to whip out his gun, but he suddenly remembered he'd lost it. And even if he had it with him, he had some feeling that he it wouldn't do anything to begin with, "Y- you..." He stuttered his eyes fluttering in shock as he watched Jon sit there quietly and calmly, "You want to kill... my... daughter?"
"Yes, of course I do." Jon stated, still not turning to face Hopper, "I told you she is the reason I cannot see into the future. For the first time I am not the only being in the multiverse that has power over time and matter. It's really quite exciting." Hopper could barely breathe. His protective nature kicked into overdrive, but knowing he couldn't even make this guy blink, he felt utterly helpless.
"You think she would destroy the multiverse?" He asked.
"Perhaps."
"Well, then you could be wrong!"
"I suppose," Jon stated, still staring blankly into the incredible and amazing amount of nothing that stretched all the way to the horizon, "But if I am, I will be told." This left the chief even more confused, "By fate, since you are wondering. And when there's fate..." A thunderous and heart-stopping rumble came from beneath them, as though the very sand they stood on was shaking and trembling beneath their feet. As Hopper turned his gaze up to where Jon was looking, he saw the sand begin to part as a huge, beautiful golden structure emerge from the baron planet's surface. It was glossy with a center tower winding up the center, with about eight elegant spires surrounding it, "There's always time."
Hawkins National Laboratory,
October 13th, 1985
2:34 AM
"I understand that you have visited this place several times in the past, correct?" The man that called himself Adrian said, walking down the steps into the basement of lab. Steve hadn't been here since the police had started cleaning the place out, taking every bit of hardware that was once stored inside and loading it up into their cars for the evidence locker. Most of it had disappeared due to "Unknown and strange means" as the Chief had put it, but what that really meant was that he and a bunch of the other cops stole it and took it to their houses.
"I mean, yeah," Steve replied, naturally fluffing his hair back and tugging his collar up, "Yeah, once or twice."
Adrian nodded slowly as they continued their descent, "Ran into a few monsters, I presume," He said, looking over his shoulder at the teen, "It was quite brave of you to come here. It must've taken the courage of Montu to fend off those beasts."
Steve looked at him strangely, "Uh, yeah- yeah, I had to do my part y'know," He saw Adrian nod as they descended into a brightly lit room packed with flood lights in each corner, "I kept the kids safe, almost died a few- AHH! Oh god, what the hell is that?" A huge purple cat prowled over to Adrian, growling at Steve so much that its saliva started to froth up around it's mouth.
Steve practically ducked behind the man in fear as he heard it step toward him, "Whoah, easy girl, easy," Adrian cooed. Steve peered out a little to see the blonde man gently patting the cat's head as it nuzzled it's face into his hand, "He's a friend, Bubastis. His name is Stephen." It took nearly every ounce of self control Steve had in him not to correct the man, and normally even that wouldn't have been enough.
As he looked over the animal before him, he noticed it had incredibly long ears, and it had the body of a tiger with the face of a normal house cat, "What is that?" He asked, as Adrian turned to look at him.
"This is Bubastis. She's a lynx, genetically engineered to be more intelligent that her natural counterparts." He said, making Steve briefly recall learning about some god named something like that, "She's fiercely loyal and even more protective, to the point where she has attempted to maul several guests that have come to my home in the past." That did next to nothing to ease his discontentment.
"Well, as long as she doesn't bite me then we're cool, I guess." Steve replied, walking a little closer as the lynx walked away. At the short break in the excitement, he was able to properly take in his surroundings. He looked around to see that they were inside a pretty big room, with concrete walls and cords strung up everywhere. There was a large metal door that looked to function like a garage door, and in the center was a massive, brown ship of some kind that was shaped like a big tic-tac.
"Dan! We have a guest!" Adrian shouted. Steve looked around until his eyes landed on a man poking his head out from a hatch on the top of the ship.
"You got back quick," The guy who must've been Dan said, "You gonna show him the file?" Steve noticed that Dan looked to be in his early to mid-forties, and was a little plump but seemed as though he was actively trying to lose weight.
"Oh yes, of course. I almost forgot." Adrian said, coaxing Steve toward a wooden table with a tan file resting on it. The tab read Jane Ives. The name seemed vaguely familiar to him, but he couldn't put a pin on why. He picked up the folder from the desk, noting that it was about an inch thick. When he opened it he found photographs, all of which were of someone he was quite familiar with.
"El?" Steve mumbled, flipping through the folder. Some of them were from places he recognized, like Star Court and the Wheeler's, but others were in places he'd never seen before, "What is this?" He saw pictures of her when she was very young, a toddler, even. What stood out most of all to him was an image of her in some kind of weird bathing suit, screaming while she was inside a tank filled with water.
"This is our mission," Adrian spoke from behind, "When she was born the cosmic scales were instantly tipped uneven, and she attracted the attention of someone very, very powerful." Steve turned around, closing the folder and looking at the man, who seemed calm on the surface, but going by his eyes he was clearly deep in thought.
"Yeah, and we dealt with him," Steve replied, to which Adrian tilted his head in interest, "We killed that thing back at star court. It's dead."
The other man laughed out loud, but it wasn't menacing like he'd thought it would be, more like amusement, "Do you truly think that a monster from another dimension was the only creature that became interested in someone like her?" Adrian mused, stepping towards Steve, "That something incapable of doing anything but killing and destroying would be the largest threat you would ever face in her presence?" His face had shifted from relaxed and formal to stoic and deadly serious.
"Wait, what are you saying?" Steve asked, furrowing his brow in visible confusion.
"I am saying," Adrian said, stopping when his face was shrouded in shadows, with only his eyes glimmering through, "That if an unstoppable force pushes past everything that threatens her in the universe she resides in," He leaned in his blue eyes shining, "What then happens when she finally meets an immovable object?"
Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face
Stars fill my dream
I'm a traveler of both time and space
To be where I have been
-Led Zeppelin
Finding quotes is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Now I gotta listen to a bunch of '60s and '70s songs. Not that I have a problem with that, since that's the best music (Do not come at me with all that future funk shit, cuz its shit), but you like what you like. Anyways, if any of you are watching the Watchmen HBO series, please do not put spoilers in the reviews, because I'm waiting till I finish this story to watch it, so that the ideas in the show don't bleed over into this. As you can see, I'm starting to tie everything together, but we still have a long way to go before the end, so strap in, this'll be a wild ride.
I'm trying to make this equally story-driven as it is just for fan service, hence the many parallels to Watchmen and Doomsday Clock, but it will not be a carbon-copy like Agent of Chaos was to Killing Joke.
Post a review if you enjoyed, since it always feeds my ego, and when my ego is fed my writing is better. Until next time!
-MB
