Crisis on Infinite Earths
Chapter Two- The Death of Earth-3
On another earth, five superhumans advanced through the destruction. Owlman dropped down from a tree to watch the world die. A bright red flash appeared beside him. Johnny Quick had arrived.
From the sky, Superwoman broke off from the other two to go and try to prevent a volcano from erupting over a city.
"This is your doing, woman!" One of the policemen screamed at her as she landed. "These great white walls, they're a plan of you and the rest of the Crime Syndicate to destroy the world!"
"We don't kill." Superwoman growled, punching the officer. He dropped to his knees, then slumped over. He didn't die, he just wouldn't feel a thing.
Superwoman backed up against the volcano wall now. "Easy, Superwoman. Easy. Let's do this... one natural... disaster at... a... time!" She began to scream to herself to encourage her. "Yes... yes... YES!" She cackled as the volcano began to calm down. It ceased, and she ran towards another.
Back in the sky, Power Ring desperately tried to seal off volcanoes as Ultraman used his telescopic vision to look around the universe. He did not enjoy what he saw.
"Ultraman!" Snapped Power Ring, having lost much of his legendarily low patience.
"Yes?" Ultraman asked, turning to the emerald warrior. "I'm sorry."
"Ultraman, it's no use- even my power ring can't seal these volcanoes fast enough. Nature's gone insane!"
"It's more than nature." Ultraman gloomily sighed. "Power Ring, it's the entire universe."
"What?" Power Ring asked, frightened.
"I've used my telescopic vision, and we're the only world that remains!"
"B-but with all the power we possess, certainly we can stop this madness!" Power Ring inquired, desperately trying to rally both Ultraman and himself.
"I'm afraid not." Ultraman sighed, then suddenly looked up, enraged. He sped faster than a speeding jet down to the surface of his humble planet, where he shoved two walls of a volcano up against each other, trying to seal it up. "I've changed the course of mighty oceans. Don't tell me my super-strength can't save my adopted planet!" The volcano began to rebel against Ultraman. "Power Ring! Summon the rest of the Crime Syndicate! Heaven help us, but we can't do this alone."
"They're already doing the best that they can, but it's useless, I tell you, we're all going to die!"
Power Ring was wrong. Two members of the syndicate were not doing all that they could. Owlman and Johnny Quick, feeling as General Benedict Arnold surrendered the control of colonial England over to General Cornwallis in 1783.
Owlman glided down from a tree onto the beach's sand. "Johnny Quick, I've never felt so helpless in my life before."
"I know what you mean, Owlman." Johnny Quick sighed, looking at the beach sands that the Japanese had landed on to take America on so many years ago.
"Do you really?" Owlman inquired. "For years, we used our powers to make us Masters of the Earth! But now we're going to die just like the rest of the chattel. Why? Why did the gods give us these powers if we can't use them to save our own lives?"
As a look of sheer terror filled Johnny Quick's eyes as some tourists were swallowed up, a hum filled the sky above Manhattan.
The white wall of antimatter had landed here about a minute ago. Now, Alexander Luthor, the one hero this planet had, hummed above it in his jetpack. He watched as many proud cultural achievements vanished like so much grass in a wildfire. "With all my powers, I can't save any of them. I feel so useless." Alex sighed, his slight British accent leaking into his voice. "That wall of anti-matter dissolves all it touches, and not even my science can stop- wait!" Luthor's attention shifted to a black figure supporting a wall of rocks.
"Come on, Diana..." Superwoman tried to rally herself. "Just a pile of rocks. I can handle this."
"She and the others have stayed true to their word! They've been trying to help save the Earth! She doesn't realize that the wall of anti-matter is behi- Superwoman!"
"Luthor? Want to you wan-"
Then, the wall was upon her. Diana Prince, Amazonian princess who came to Earth out of bitter hatred towards a mortal man... who had challenged and defeated Wonder Woman and Black Canary, was plowed down as though she were a normal human being. Sadly, on this earth- on any earth, for that matter- she was far from human.
Luthor hovered up in the air, quaking for a moment, watching the great white wall. His blue eyes began to water. The end was near. "G-gone, as if she never existed. Lord, though we battled time and time again, I never wanted her to die like that." Luthor paused now to wipe a tear from his eye. "Her or the rest of my world."
Luthor turned at a one-hundred-thirty-five-degree angle away from the great white wall. "But if it's over... and if I'm to perish... let it be at the side of my loving wife." He muttered to himself.
"Ultraman!" Power Ring screamed. "We've lost Superwoman!"
"Damn!" Ultraman screamed, slamming one muscular fist into the other. "But, if we are to die, let us die as martyrs to our world, not as cowards who looted it as it vanished.
"Lois! The anti-matter's wall is spreading everywhere... it's only a matter of time now." Luthor despairingly stated as he pulled his helmet off, revealing his bald head.
"Alexander..." Lois Lane-Luthor, Alex's wife, choked out as she walked up to her husband, clutching their infant to her chest. "I think I can die peacefully, knowing I'm with you." She now turned to her son, who was blissfully unaware of these events. "But our son is so young... he's been cheated of living and knowing love... Alex, must he perish too?"
Both Alexander and Lois' eyes were streaming with tears as they thought of their child. Suddenly, Luthor sucked back his tears, straightened his back, and began to walk into another room. "Come with me quickly. There's little time." Luthor sighed, trying to hold back the tears and appear strong.
A light appeared in Lois' eyes. "There's hope?" She asked, as excited as she was when she was a young girl on Christmas.
"Johnny Quick... Johnny Quick???" Owlman asked, wishing for help as he tried to flee from the antimatter, only to see that the speedster was caught in the great white wall. Owlman, who simply stood there and gaped, suddenly felt the wall against his outstretched hand. "We're-"
Any last insights that the man with the powers of an owl could have given were cut off, his great mind vanishing.
"It's everywhere, Power Ring. We just lost Owlman and Johnny Quick." Ultraman stated, morbidly cold. "I used to revel in my powers, but when I need them most, they're useless. It's ironic, isn't it?"
Power Ring probably did not hear most of this, since a bubble his ring formed was begin swallowed, causing excruciating pain on the part of the warrior. His mouth opened and his eyes were fixated on the dying people.
"We've spent a lifetime terrorizing this world, yet out last moments alive are spent trying to save it." Ultraman stated, his eyes closed as he tried to think of something that brought him joy.
"From the moment I first learned of the other earths, and the multiple dimensions-" Alexander Luthor began a scientific lecture as Pariah gently glided into the back. He was now on Earth-3.
"Earth-3." Pariah thought to himself. "The Earth-1 Justice League and the Earth-2 Justice Society had both fought the Crime Syndicate here, in the Earth-Prime year of 1963."
"-I strove to find some way to bridge the vibrational gap which separates us." Luthor continued.
Pariah removed his hood, pondering the name he had given himself. It was from Hinduism- the name for the untouchables. Perhaps, Pariah thought, he had been evil in a past life. Perhaps he died with each Earth, only to be reincarnated in the same form for his failure to do anything.
"This is a prototype, only large enough for one." Luthor stated, dashing all of Lois' hopes that they would survive as the watched her only child go into the pod. "We will die, but our son shall live." Luthor confidently stated. Neither of them noticed that Pariah had vanished.
Pariah reappeared on a street, roughly a half-mile from the white wall. He'd also landed right in front of Power Ring and Ultraman.
"Ultraman, look!" Power Ring exclaimed, extending his right hand out at Pariah. "Who are you, man?"
"I am called Pariah. And I mourn for this world about to die." Pariah sighed, feeling as though he was waving a placard proclaiming the end of the world.
Power Ring's eyes lit on fire with a cold hatred. "Then you caused this? I'll kill you for this..."
"No, no. Mine is not the hand which slays worlds. I can do nothing more than cry." Pariah stated, rubbing his hands through his hair.
The crowd that had been behind Power Ring and Ultraman had continued their futile resistance, so the only sound that could be heard was the sound of the sirens. Suddenly, some blood-curling cries were heard behind the three. The walls were closing in.
"Then I guess this is it." Ultraman sighed, stepping forward.
"Ultraman? Ultraman, wait! What are you doing?" Power Ring demanded of his friend.
"What I have done all my life. I fight to the very end." Ultraman morbidly stated, flying directly into the white wall. Unlike his peers, he had died a warrior.
"Ultraman! Ultraman! Don't leave me to-" Power Ring screeched, only to meet death himself.
"My love... and so the world ends... but our hopes and prayers live on!" Luthor stated, drawing his wife closer to him. Pariah, again in the room, ducked into his cloak and vanished. "I know where other heroes live. They will care for our son." Luthor now launched the pod. "Farewell, my son. May they treat you with love." Luthor now turned to his wife. "Lois, our time together has been all too brief, but you've given me a love this old scientist never though he'd know."
Lois looked up at him. "And you're given me more love than I had any right to expect, my husband. I love you." The two kissed as the white wall claimed their lives. Unlike their world, they did not go out screaming. They had hope. Yet Earth-3 was now gone.
The child Luthor's ship escaped the white death, and rattled through the dimensions until it stopped vibrating. It pointed down, and dropped into the satellite headquarters of the Justice League of America on Earth-1. Sadly, the league had abandoned the satellite. The baby slept now, unaware that his parents were dead.
Elsewhere, however, another satellite burned with life.
Chapter Two- The Death of Earth-3
On another earth, five superhumans advanced through the destruction. Owlman dropped down from a tree to watch the world die. A bright red flash appeared beside him. Johnny Quick had arrived.
From the sky, Superwoman broke off from the other two to go and try to prevent a volcano from erupting over a city.
"This is your doing, woman!" One of the policemen screamed at her as she landed. "These great white walls, they're a plan of you and the rest of the Crime Syndicate to destroy the world!"
"We don't kill." Superwoman growled, punching the officer. He dropped to his knees, then slumped over. He didn't die, he just wouldn't feel a thing.
Superwoman backed up against the volcano wall now. "Easy, Superwoman. Easy. Let's do this... one natural... disaster at... a... time!" She began to scream to herself to encourage her. "Yes... yes... YES!" She cackled as the volcano began to calm down. It ceased, and she ran towards another.
Back in the sky, Power Ring desperately tried to seal off volcanoes as Ultraman used his telescopic vision to look around the universe. He did not enjoy what he saw.
"Ultraman!" Snapped Power Ring, having lost much of his legendarily low patience.
"Yes?" Ultraman asked, turning to the emerald warrior. "I'm sorry."
"Ultraman, it's no use- even my power ring can't seal these volcanoes fast enough. Nature's gone insane!"
"It's more than nature." Ultraman gloomily sighed. "Power Ring, it's the entire universe."
"What?" Power Ring asked, frightened.
"I've used my telescopic vision, and we're the only world that remains!"
"B-but with all the power we possess, certainly we can stop this madness!" Power Ring inquired, desperately trying to rally both Ultraman and himself.
"I'm afraid not." Ultraman sighed, then suddenly looked up, enraged. He sped faster than a speeding jet down to the surface of his humble planet, where he shoved two walls of a volcano up against each other, trying to seal it up. "I've changed the course of mighty oceans. Don't tell me my super-strength can't save my adopted planet!" The volcano began to rebel against Ultraman. "Power Ring! Summon the rest of the Crime Syndicate! Heaven help us, but we can't do this alone."
"They're already doing the best that they can, but it's useless, I tell you, we're all going to die!"
Power Ring was wrong. Two members of the syndicate were not doing all that they could. Owlman and Johnny Quick, feeling as General Benedict Arnold surrendered the control of colonial England over to General Cornwallis in 1783.
Owlman glided down from a tree onto the beach's sand. "Johnny Quick, I've never felt so helpless in my life before."
"I know what you mean, Owlman." Johnny Quick sighed, looking at the beach sands that the Japanese had landed on to take America on so many years ago.
"Do you really?" Owlman inquired. "For years, we used our powers to make us Masters of the Earth! But now we're going to die just like the rest of the chattel. Why? Why did the gods give us these powers if we can't use them to save our own lives?"
As a look of sheer terror filled Johnny Quick's eyes as some tourists were swallowed up, a hum filled the sky above Manhattan.
The white wall of antimatter had landed here about a minute ago. Now, Alexander Luthor, the one hero this planet had, hummed above it in his jetpack. He watched as many proud cultural achievements vanished like so much grass in a wildfire. "With all my powers, I can't save any of them. I feel so useless." Alex sighed, his slight British accent leaking into his voice. "That wall of anti-matter dissolves all it touches, and not even my science can stop- wait!" Luthor's attention shifted to a black figure supporting a wall of rocks.
"Come on, Diana..." Superwoman tried to rally herself. "Just a pile of rocks. I can handle this."
"She and the others have stayed true to their word! They've been trying to help save the Earth! She doesn't realize that the wall of anti-matter is behi- Superwoman!"
"Luthor? Want to you wan-"
Then, the wall was upon her. Diana Prince, Amazonian princess who came to Earth out of bitter hatred towards a mortal man... who had challenged and defeated Wonder Woman and Black Canary, was plowed down as though she were a normal human being. Sadly, on this earth- on any earth, for that matter- she was far from human.
Luthor hovered up in the air, quaking for a moment, watching the great white wall. His blue eyes began to water. The end was near. "G-gone, as if she never existed. Lord, though we battled time and time again, I never wanted her to die like that." Luthor paused now to wipe a tear from his eye. "Her or the rest of my world."
Luthor turned at a one-hundred-thirty-five-degree angle away from the great white wall. "But if it's over... and if I'm to perish... let it be at the side of my loving wife." He muttered to himself.
"Ultraman!" Power Ring screamed. "We've lost Superwoman!"
"Damn!" Ultraman screamed, slamming one muscular fist into the other. "But, if we are to die, let us die as martyrs to our world, not as cowards who looted it as it vanished.
"Lois! The anti-matter's wall is spreading everywhere... it's only a matter of time now." Luthor despairingly stated as he pulled his helmet off, revealing his bald head.
"Alexander..." Lois Lane-Luthor, Alex's wife, choked out as she walked up to her husband, clutching their infant to her chest. "I think I can die peacefully, knowing I'm with you." She now turned to her son, who was blissfully unaware of these events. "But our son is so young... he's been cheated of living and knowing love... Alex, must he perish too?"
Both Alexander and Lois' eyes were streaming with tears as they thought of their child. Suddenly, Luthor sucked back his tears, straightened his back, and began to walk into another room. "Come with me quickly. There's little time." Luthor sighed, trying to hold back the tears and appear strong.
A light appeared in Lois' eyes. "There's hope?" She asked, as excited as she was when she was a young girl on Christmas.
"Johnny Quick... Johnny Quick???" Owlman asked, wishing for help as he tried to flee from the antimatter, only to see that the speedster was caught in the great white wall. Owlman, who simply stood there and gaped, suddenly felt the wall against his outstretched hand. "We're-"
Any last insights that the man with the powers of an owl could have given were cut off, his great mind vanishing.
"It's everywhere, Power Ring. We just lost Owlman and Johnny Quick." Ultraman stated, morbidly cold. "I used to revel in my powers, but when I need them most, they're useless. It's ironic, isn't it?"
Power Ring probably did not hear most of this, since a bubble his ring formed was begin swallowed, causing excruciating pain on the part of the warrior. His mouth opened and his eyes were fixated on the dying people.
"We've spent a lifetime terrorizing this world, yet out last moments alive are spent trying to save it." Ultraman stated, his eyes closed as he tried to think of something that brought him joy.
"From the moment I first learned of the other earths, and the multiple dimensions-" Alexander Luthor began a scientific lecture as Pariah gently glided into the back. He was now on Earth-3.
"Earth-3." Pariah thought to himself. "The Earth-1 Justice League and the Earth-2 Justice Society had both fought the Crime Syndicate here, in the Earth-Prime year of 1963."
"-I strove to find some way to bridge the vibrational gap which separates us." Luthor continued.
Pariah removed his hood, pondering the name he had given himself. It was from Hinduism- the name for the untouchables. Perhaps, Pariah thought, he had been evil in a past life. Perhaps he died with each Earth, only to be reincarnated in the same form for his failure to do anything.
"This is a prototype, only large enough for one." Luthor stated, dashing all of Lois' hopes that they would survive as the watched her only child go into the pod. "We will die, but our son shall live." Luthor confidently stated. Neither of them noticed that Pariah had vanished.
Pariah reappeared on a street, roughly a half-mile from the white wall. He'd also landed right in front of Power Ring and Ultraman.
"Ultraman, look!" Power Ring exclaimed, extending his right hand out at Pariah. "Who are you, man?"
"I am called Pariah. And I mourn for this world about to die." Pariah sighed, feeling as though he was waving a placard proclaiming the end of the world.
Power Ring's eyes lit on fire with a cold hatred. "Then you caused this? I'll kill you for this..."
"No, no. Mine is not the hand which slays worlds. I can do nothing more than cry." Pariah stated, rubbing his hands through his hair.
The crowd that had been behind Power Ring and Ultraman had continued their futile resistance, so the only sound that could be heard was the sound of the sirens. Suddenly, some blood-curling cries were heard behind the three. The walls were closing in.
"Then I guess this is it." Ultraman sighed, stepping forward.
"Ultraman? Ultraman, wait! What are you doing?" Power Ring demanded of his friend.
"What I have done all my life. I fight to the very end." Ultraman morbidly stated, flying directly into the white wall. Unlike his peers, he had died a warrior.
"Ultraman! Ultraman! Don't leave me to-" Power Ring screeched, only to meet death himself.
"My love... and so the world ends... but our hopes and prayers live on!" Luthor stated, drawing his wife closer to him. Pariah, again in the room, ducked into his cloak and vanished. "I know where other heroes live. They will care for our son." Luthor now launched the pod. "Farewell, my son. May they treat you with love." Luthor now turned to his wife. "Lois, our time together has been all too brief, but you've given me a love this old scientist never though he'd know."
Lois looked up at him. "And you're given me more love than I had any right to expect, my husband. I love you." The two kissed as the white wall claimed their lives. Unlike their world, they did not go out screaming. They had hope. Yet Earth-3 was now gone.
The child Luthor's ship escaped the white death, and rattled through the dimensions until it stopped vibrating. It pointed down, and dropped into the satellite headquarters of the Justice League of America on Earth-1. Sadly, the league had abandoned the satellite. The baby slept now, unaware that his parents were dead.
Elsewhere, however, another satellite burned with life.