DC/Marvel: Access Denied
Chapter 2
By Christopher W. Blaine
e-mail: darth_yoshi@yahoo.com
DISCLAIMER: The characters and situations contained in this story are ©2003 by either DC Comics Inc. or Marvel Entertainment Group and are used without permission for fan-related, non-profit entertainment purposes only. This original work of fiction is ©2003 by Christopher W. Blaine and may not be reproduced in part or as a whole without the express permission of the author.
The Crossover Earth…The creature looked out over the burning carnage that had once been Metropolis and laughed to itself. Here had been the last bastion of resistance to its rule; here was where Superman had finally fallen in a vain attempt to protect the last of the super-heroes. Now, as fires spread throughout the urban sprawl and the screams of the innocent played like a fine opera in the creature's ears, it paused, wondering what to do next.
Naturally, the idea of eradicating every last living thing on the Earth came to mind first, but the creature knew it had to prepare for a long journey. Earth was a shining jewel, certainly, but it wasn't the only one. There were so many races and peoples to conquer, so many new ways of death to dream of.
Thanagar, Daxam, the Shi'ar Empire, the Skrulls and Rann were only a few among the tasty morsels being laid out before the creature. Decision-making did not come easy to it as it considered every possibility, a flaw it had inherited from its father.
A sudden movement caught the creature's attention and it watched as two children, a male and female barely in their teens, tried to scurry behind some rubble and out of view. They were no threat, but they represented life and therefore, they were a joke. Life was nothing more than joke. Death was the punch line.
The creature gritted its black teeth and took a step forward. Time shimmered and spun and then it was next to the children. The male wet himself and the female fainted. These responses did nothing for the creature except make it pause to consider why some victims did this and others didn't. None of it added or took away from the satisfaction it achieved by killing.
The make died first, his throat ripped out by those ebony spikes within the creature's mouth. The boy made strangle gurgling sounds as his blood flowed freely away from his body, his young heart beating wildly. The body started to twitch and the creature kicked it aside so that it would not distract it from its other kill.
Females were especially pleasant to kill. Perhaps it was because of their strong connection to life; after all, it was the children that grew in their womb. They seemed to have a more natural aversion to dying and they always struggled harder against it. Males tended to try to be heroic, as if it mattered. Death was death was death.
The creature hunched down and sat there, examining the body of the female, his eyes tracing the curves. They brought no sense of pleasure, no arousal within his being. He had no desire to take her as a woman; she was just another kill. His father had not bequeathed a sexual drive in him and while it allowed him to focus on his mission, he always assumed that it meant he was missing out on something. If he could get aroused, could he not then reproduce?
If he reproduced, would he gain greater pleasure in destroying his children, in effect killing himself? The ultimate irony, the supreme joke.
She began to stir and he watched as her eyes opened to see death staring her in the face. Her companion's blood dripped from the creature's mouth, forming a pool at his feet and his pink eyes bore into her like drills. She began to shake and then her eyes rolled back in her head.
He had frightened her to death.
The creature laughed, howling like a banshee caught in a bear trap. He had just killed two with no effort. His efficiency was increasing. At this rate, he would be done with this world in another year or so.
Then it was off to the stars.
The DC Universe…"Get it out of my mind! Get it out!" the Joker cried as he struggled against the restraints holding him to his bed. At the observation window for his cell, the Batman, Commissioner Gordon and a resident psychiatrist for the Arkham Asylum stared in disbelief.
"He's really going nuts in there," the doctor offered. "Records show he's never displayed symptoms like this."
Batman moved closer to the one-way glass. "When did it start?"
"About a week ago. One minute he was fine, telling dirty jokes to the staff…he does that to get extra dessert…and then the next he fell to the floor, literally pulling the hair out of his head." He opened up a file folder and flipped through some pages. "The Joker has always been…difficult…but he's never heard voices, at least voices he didn't want to continue a conversation with."
"Is it possible he's on drugs?" Gordon asked. The Joker was in obvious pain, but the Commissioner could care less. In fact, he took some slight pleasure in watching the spectacle. The Joker was Jim Gordon's dark shadow, as much his nemesis as the Clown Prince was Batman's. It was the Joker that had crippled Gordon's daughter and murdered his second wife.
Still, Gordon was a police officer and if there was evidence of a crime here he was obligated by law and oath to investigate it. "We ran a full tox screen on him. You'd be surprised what's floating around in his blood!"
"Drugs?" the Batman asked.
The doctor indicated that the tests had come back negative. "Still, something is going on. It could be just another stage of his insanity. Entire text books could be written about the mind of the Joker…"
"Bathroom reading as far as I'm concerned, doctor," Gordon said, turning away from the glass. "I see no evidence of a crime. Leave him restrained. Hell, try some electric shock therapy for all I care."
The doctor tried to hold him up. "He's been losing a lot of weight as well. He won't eat, complains that something is eating him alive."
"Good."
"I asked you both here because," he turned to the Batman, "some of you have some experience with persons who display telepathic abilities."
Batman nodded and Gordon stopped, a heavy sigh blowing by his lips. "You believe that someone may be trying to control the Joker's mind?'
The doctor shrugged. "To be honest, I don't believe in such things, but I'm stumped right now." He closed the folder. "He's a dying, gentleman, slowly being killed by something I can't find. Maybe you can help."
"Ain't this a fine kettle of sh…"
"Jim," Batman said with a scowl. The Commissioner shrugged and pulled out a cell phone and dialed in a number. He moved away for privacy and the Batman again peered in on his greatest foe.
Suddenly the Joker tried to sit up. His neck muscles pooped out from the effort and he bit through his bottom lip with the effort. "Batman! Batman! Stop it! He's destroying everything! Anything! Even the joke…God...it hurts so much…"
Then the criminal passed out, blood running from his wound onto the bed. The doctor shook his head. "What the hell makes the Joker hate killing?"
Batman suppressed a shiver. "Hell indeed."
Earth-T…Nightwing brought the meeting officially to order. "This is our first real mission planning session since the defeat of the Time-Guardian, so I'd like to get some procedures down." He turned to the scarlet haired Super-Woman, his vice-chair. "Shyla, would you begin the roll call for the record?"
She nodded and typed some commands into a laptop. "Kid Flash?"
"Yup."
"Aquagirl?"
"Present."
"Flying Fox?"
"Here, Ma'am."
"Hawkman?"
"Hell, yes; let's go kick some ass!"
"Dawnstar?"
"Here."
"Huntress?"
"Right next to ya."
Super-Woman looked up at Nightwing. "With the exception of our reserve members, Deadman, Robin and the Dark Flash, the entire membership is here." She then said something in their native Kryptonian. He nodded and she turned back to the seated heroes. "We also have several heroes present from a world that has been designated as Earth-CA: Captain America, Shamrock, Spider-Man, Aqualad, Batgirl, Wonder Woman, the Human Torch and Dr. Bruce Banner, also known as the Hulk."
Nods and greetings were exchanged, but there was also some tension in the air. Aqualad, one from a world called Earth-1, had been Aquagirl's lover until he had been killed during the Crisis in Infinite Earths. When this Aqualad had shown up with Kid Flash the day before, Aquagirl had fainted. Since that time she had been very quiet and had been avoiding both men.
"I'd like to welcome our guests," Nightwing began, his baritone voice seeming to come out in stereo (it actually was as he applied super-ventriloquism to his speech). "We have been expecting many people to come through the rift and I personally was beginning to think we never would realize this dream. This world, my new friends, sits on a time nexus, a point in which realities and parallel universes collide. At these points, it is possible to tear a hole, if you will, into the very fabric of time. Through this hole, persons displaced from their home universes may find a new home.
"For example, my name is Nightwing, yet I'm sure I bear no resemblance to the hero most of you know. I am a Kryptonian, from the same world as Superman and Super-Woman here," he said, gesturing to his vice-chairperson. "I come from a galaxy, a reality previously referred to as Earth-1. My reality was destroyed in an event we call the Crisis."
There were eight faces looking at him in some confusion. Captain America, the chosen leader of the newcomers, replied. "I'm afraid this event is not known to us, but if its anything like what we've just escaped from, then the fact that you survived fills us with hope."
Bruce Banner leaned forward and put his hands on the table. "I'm a scientist, but I specialize in nuclear physics, not temporal. However, if I'm getting the idea, here, this is a sort of last stop on the reality train."
Nightwing nodded. "For lack of better terminology, yes. After you have been here long enough, your quantum structure will begin to acclimate to this universe. This is a special reality where some of the natural laws of time do not apply. However, this is also a universe full of innocent lives. We, the Wardens, have dedicated our lives to protecting this world, and time if necessary. This is our home and it looks as if this is your now as well."
"I'm afraid we can't accept that," Captain America said, standing up. He seemed to begin to radiate instant charisma as he spoke, his voice having the same effect as Nightwing's but without the benefit of super-powers. "We used a time machine on our home world to travel one week back in time to try and stop Dr. Doom from releasing the Holocaust."
"Doc who?" Kid Flash asked, scratching his head. He was trying hard to listen, but he could not help but notice how Aqualad and Aquagirl were trading glances.
"Dr. Doom; he's a major villain from our world, ruler of a small European country called Latveria. He used mystical powers to summon forth a creature called the Holocaust. This creature has devastated our world." He waved his hand to the Human Torch, who was sporting an eye patch and some fresh wounds around the eye. "Mr. Storm is the leader of a group called the Fantastic Four. They tried to intercept Doom when they noted he was causing the weather to change in New York. They were too late; Doom was dead before they got there."
"As we fought," Wonder Woman started, taking up the narrative, "the creature simply became too powerful. It was almost as if in each passing second, it gain new energy. It did not tire, it had no remorse, and it was unstoppable."
"Within two days, it had decimated the military forces of the United States," Spider-Man said as he sipped at his hot chocolate, his mask lifted just enough to reveal his mouth. "After that, the Justice Society. Then the League. The Avengers. Defenders. Fantastic Four. Titans. Hero after hero fell. Finally, Johnny's brother-in-law, Mr. Fantastic, came up with the idea that using Doom's time platform, a small party of heroes could go back and stop Doc before he did anything."
"So, why did you end up here?" the Flying Fox asked.
"I'm pretty smart, but I don't know how a time machine works," Spider-Man said. He indicated Bruce Banner with his mug. "He's the brains."
The nuclear scientist blushed. "It's possible, I suppose, that we messed up some controls and settings, caused us to get sucked off of the platform and dropped in the rift."
"If you know what the settings were, I might be able to help," Nightwing said, looking down at Super-Woman. She nodded and again they spoke in their native tongue. After a moment, he turned back. "Obviously, this is not your world and you want to save your own. We would be remiss in our duties of we didn't offer you aid."
Captain America's face darkened. "Your world needs you, Nightwing. You say you're Kryptonian, but before we left, I saw the Holocaust rip Superman to pieces. This is our problem and I appreciate your offer and admire your bravery. It takes a true hero to leap into danger blindly for the sake of those who cannot defend themselves. You remind me of all of the young men I saw charge enemy lines during the great war, throwing caution to the wind in order to serve the greater good."
"We are sworn to protect anything related to time," the Huntress said and receiving an approving nod from Nightwing. "Like it or not, we are involved already. I agree that the team needs to be cautious because the Legion of Doom is still out there."
"Agreed," Nightwing said as he rubbed his chin. "Perhaps we could send only part of the team along to help. Would you accept that aid, Captain?"
The man in the costume the colors of the American flag smiled. "That would be sufficient. I cannot abide by saving one world only to leave another defenseless."
"Very well. Super-Woman, Hawkman, Huntress and Aquagirl will go with Captain America back to his world once we determine its location. I'll ask Deadman to use his contacts to find out any information on this Holocaust."
"It was the Joker," Batgirl said.
All eyes turned to her. The woman in the dark costume, with a cowl that completely hid her face, bowed her head. "I recognized him. It was and was not the Joker. It looked like him, but it was missing something. A soul. Even the Joker has a soul."
The Huntress smirked. "A black one, that's for sure. Well, with one exception. The Joker of this world died when he realized who the Time-Guardian was. He was the only sane person on an insane world at the time."
"Well, we have another insane world if you can find someone like him," Batgirl said.