DENYING ACCESS
by Carycomic
Synopsis: a sequel to "I'm Dreaming of a Quiet Christmas" (in which another layer is peeled off the WOD* onion).
EARTH-TRN-7481-A
(40TH CENTURY A.D.)
Axel Asher, of Earth-616, materialized before the heavily bound-and-gagged Grodd, with the latter's verdant doppelganger leaning heavily against him.
"How are you doing in there, Boston?"
Back when he was still alive, Boston Brand had been a professional circus acrobat. One who had ironically billed himself as "Deadman," due to his willingness to perform stunts that other acrobats had considered too risky to even think about performing! It was for this reason that, following the taking of his life by an assassin-in-training, Rama Kushna (maternal embodiment of the collective unconscious of the universe) had recruited him to act as "her" personal agent of intervention. And, in this case, "she" had loaned Deadman's services to Axel, if only to keep Grodd's psionic essence from once again usurping control of Beast Boy's body.
"Not good, Axel. I can't keep him suppressed much longer. If we're gonna reverse this body switch, we gotta do it now!"
"Fine. One amalgamation, coming right up."
Whereupon, the man also known as Access practically threw the green pseudo-gorilla into the corporeal form of the true Grodd. The latter screaming painfully through his gag while simultaneously straining against his manacles! When the merged being had stopped screaming, Access bent forward and withdrew the restored human form of Garfield Logan.
"How about it, kid? You finally back home?"
Beast Boy smiled. "Yes. For which, my mistress thanks you."
"What do you mean, 'your mist. . .' MMMMPH!"
Before Access could finish his question, his green-skinned acquaintance had transformed himself into a starfish and attached himself to the former's face! This was followed by about thirty seconds of intense struggling to remove that starfish. But all in vain.
"It is done, my mistress."
Llyra of Lemuria smiled as she entered the hut where Grodd had been imprisoned on the orders of Dr. Zaius. Her pet hypno-fish still accompanying her.
"Very good! Now, here is our Xmas present to you, Grodd, as promised. Return him to his original timeline, Access."
"Your wish is my command."
At which point Grodd disappeared. His shackles- -along with the basket-like muzzle that had been gagging him- -being the only traces that he had ever been there in the first place!
"Well done. Now, come. We have a master plan to initiate."
"Yes, mistress."
EARTH-9151 (SOMETIME EARLIER)
"Voila!" exclaimed Llyra. "Your new host body. An amalgamation of your father and this world's counterpart of Sir James Jaspers. With their combined memories revised, accordingly."
She pointed at the disoriented serpent man in front of them; her right arm extended, hand open, like a game show model pointing out a new car. Whereupon Proteus extended the field of energy that used to be his left arm: "hand" downward. The instant he did so, the entirety of his psionic essence began flowing into that serpent man! With the process nowhere close to being painless. Once the serpent man had stopped screaming, however, Llyra smiled and asked the obvious question.
"How do you feel?"
Proteus (his new host body still clad in a now ill-fitting business suit) sprang to his feet and laughed in triumph.
"Bwa-hahahahahaha! I'm flesh-and-blood, again. It feels wonderful!"
"Good. The rest is up to you, now."
"Don't worry. I'll keep my end of the bargain."
"In that case, we'll be on our way."
Whereupon, she looked at Access (still mind-controlled through the transformed Beast Boy and Llyra's hypno-fish) who subsequently enveloped them in a field of yellowish-orange energy. A second later, the strange quartet was gone.
The Watcher of Earth-616 looked at his counterpart on the Moon of Earth-7642. A horrified expression on his usually impassive face.
"By the Primal Atom! How could I have been so blind?"
"It was not you. It was our mutual counterpart, psionically transmitting us false data from his Earth. Observe!"
The image in Uatu's viewing crystal changed to show the Watcher of Earth-9151 lying flat on his back. With a relatively medium-sized clone of Starro the Conqueror clinging to his face!
"Needless to say," continued the Watcher of Earth-7642. "...if their master plan comes to fruition, not only our multiverse will fall. But, his multiverse, as well!"
The image in the viewing crystal changed yet again. Only, this time, showing the Phantom Stranger... who added how the conspirators had already begun meddling with his Earth!
"Regrettably, that precludes me from aiding either of you more actively. The best I can do is contact Axel Asher's counterparts and confer with them here."
"By all means," replied the Watcher of Earth-7642 (with a sly smirk). "That particular action I _guarantee_ will have no interference from me!"
At that same instant, atop the Mount Everest of Earth-7642, Deadman was conferring with Rama Kushna.
"She used that hypno-fish on the kid while his mind was still trapped within Grodd's bod. I had a vision of that almost as soon as Access merged all three of us! Unfortunately, I got expelled from the merger before I could warn him. What beats me is how Llyra got to the fortieth century of a parallel Earth in the first place?"
"She was teleported there by the Queen of Fables," replied Rama Kushna. "Using an enchanted copy of this story."
Whereupon "she" materialized an image of a magazine entitled "Classics Illustrated Presents: H.G. Wells 'THE TIME MACHINE.' "
"Once she had Access under her psionic sway, however," the spiritual entity continued. "...Llyra had no need to return by the same route. Yet, that knowledge is of no use to us, now. Not compared to the knowledge of what else she might do through exploitation of his powers!"
"The way I see it," replied Deadman. "...the best way to prevent that is to separate Beast Boy from Axel's face. But that means working fast to track her down."
This caused Rama Kushna to smile. "You have just given me a good idea, Boston Brand."
The End
GLOSSARY
WOD: Web of Deceit
Earth-TRN-7481-A: my own term of convenience for the parallel-future Earth where Grodd wound up a booby-trapped prisoner at the end of the GL/POTA crossover co-published by DC and Boom! Studios (before Dr. Zaius et al got resold to Marvel/Disney/Fox).
