DC/Marvel: Access Denied
Chapter 3
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…"We acknowledge that you are our master, our lord, and our savior," the acolyte said kneeling before Holocaust. The creature cocked its head, wondering what this was about. Here were humans that did not run in terror but instead seemed almost thrilled to see him. The creature was confused and that did not set well with it.
In a rage, it reached out and grabbed the kneeling acolyte and hauled him up by his throat. "Take me, father!" he cried out while reaching up and trying to increase the pressure of the creature's grip. In response, Holocaust obliged and his fingers clawed through the man's throat.
Several of the others, almost a full score began to moan as if in ecstasy and the creature wondered who was truly the insane was. "Speak!" it barked.
A female stood up and dropped her red robes, revealing her naked flesh. "Take me, my lord, let me carry your blessed child!"
Again, the creature was shocked and also angry. There was no stirring in his loins and he knew it was because he was not complete. He was not the whole of what he should have been. He was a part. "Get out of my sight!"
The woman immediately backed up, stopped down for her robe and then ran to the back of the crowd. Another acolyte stepped forward, a large dark-skinned man with a long scar down his cheek. "I am Collin, a disciple of the Church of Blood. You are our savior in his true form, we know this for you have come and slain the pretender!"
The creature looked back to his first kill of the day, the one called Brother Blood. He had no idea of the significance of the man until now. These people worshipped him!
Now they wanted to lift Holocaust to the level of a god. The creature liked this idea and a new sensation filled its dark heart. "Yes. I am your god."
"You are called Holocaust. We shall be your host, the Host of Holocaust!"
"Yes! We are your servants!"
"Punish us!"
The creature liked this new feeling, it fit well with the dark desires it had in its mind. It would kill all who opposed it and accept the fealty of those who accepted him as their god. "I am a god!" he cried out loud, enjoying the sound of it.
"Yes, lord, yes!" Collin exclaimed. "And there are more! We have soldiers for you, mercenaries that have agreed to work for you in exchange for the chance to revel in your victories over the sheep of this world!"
Holocaust smoothed out his bloodstained suit. "Bring them before me."
Seven costumed figures came forward and kneeled before him. "You are my Savage Seven, my elite guard. It is your duty to hunt down all of the heroes in this world and bring me their hearts!"
"We will perform this service," the chosen leader of the Savage Seven said from behind his black mask with the large white bulls eye on the forehead. "But, what heroes are left?"
"Despair, madness, doom and destruction make heroes. They will come. I must not be distracted from my duties!" Holocaust warned. Though his mental powers were great, he found the willpower of this leader were able to defeat his subtle probes. Perhaps there was as much anger and rage in this man as in he. A kindred spirit?
Holocaust now found himself wondering about friendship. Again the creature realized that the component that made it truly alive was missing, but what exactly was that piece? Not fatherhood; not lust and not love. Perhaps godlike status and friendship? "What is your name?"
The villain looked up into the ghastly face. The pink eyes filled with a hunger for knowledge and the villain thought he saw something like desperation. "I am called Bullseye. I am an assassin, an artist in the ways of death."
"Life and death are but a tragic comedy," Holocaust said. "An artists of one is a critic of the other. Can you be loyal to a god of death if all you care about is your life?"
Bullseye smirked. "I'll kill my own mother to save my own neck."
Earth-T…
Deadman was enjoying his newest body. His original body on this world of a rather obese pornographer had finally given out after the defeat of the Time-Guardian (actually, the Spectre had told him either give it up or wear it for eternity!). Now he paraded around the Warden's mansion in a younger, firmer body, the body of a male model that had died of a drug overdose. It would be weeks before this new skin would start to rot.
The spirit of Boston Brand, the true self of Deadman, was the only member of the team to regularly access the Prime Universe. For most of the members of the Wardens, the Prime Universe represented the pure timeline, the river from which the springs of Hypertime flowed. He was here to change those beliefs.
The Huntress and Nightwing waited patiently by the pool for Deadman to finish getting used to his new body. She pulled out a cell phone and contacted her stockbroker as she looked through the paper. Her lover and leader was busy writing equations while letting the sun tan his bare chest.
"Okay, it's time for the briefing," Deadman said as he stepped out next to the pool.
The Huntress hung up the phone and Nightwing turned his attention to his teammate. "Should we get the rest of the team?"
Deadman shook his head. "Naw, let 'em rest, especially the new guys. They've had a rough way to go." He dipped a toe in the water and then moved over to sit with his friends. "We have a slight problem."
It always seemed to start out that way Nightwing thought, but he tried to remain positive. "Then we will solve it…together."
Deadman nodded. "These people, these Avengers, are from a world called the Cross-Over Earth, a place where two distinct dimensions interact. Captain America and the other heroes that you don't recognize are alternates based upon real individuals found in a dimension full of true marvels."
"This 'Marvel Universe' as you call it, it is entirely different from our own?" the Huntress asked.
Deadman told her it was. "I can't even access it. Why it exists, I can't tell you; I can only say for certain that it is there and it is real. There are more than just that one. From what I've been able to learn there are literally hundreds of dimensions out there with their own timelines."
"Incredible," Nightwing murmured. "This is a whole new chapter of temporal physics! The universe is indeed an ironic mistress."
"Yeah, I thought it was pretty screwed up, too," Deadman responded with sarcasm. "This Cross-Over Earth is where the realities of our Prime Universe and Captain America's Prime Universe overlap. As such, it is a place where everything from both exists together in harmony. Every once in awhile, a Hypertime string or some other 'what if' scenario actually causes persons from the Prime Universes to slip into this world where they exist for awhile."
"So, it's possible that if you're on this planet, in this dimension I should say, that if you meet Batman, it might be the real one?" Nightwing asked.
"Yeah, ain't it a hoot? I asked and asked what the purpose of all of this was, but I couldn't get a straight answer out of anyone," the hero responded. "One of those cosmic mysteries I suppose."
"Well, then I bet these people need to get back to their own world," the Huntress asked. Then she thought for a moment. "Wait! If what everyone is saying is true, then this buffer zone is a very hostile place! Anyone from either prime universe entering there could be killed! That could have disastrous effects!"
"Bright girl," Deadman said with a nudge to the Huntress. "Except that the Cross-Over Earth, in fact all of them, are a safety device with a back-up. If one gets screwed up, then it becomes a Hypertime variant and a new one is created to ensure that the buffer zone remains intact."
"So, their world is by itself now? Sort of like ours?"
Nightwing answered, having figured out the theory. "Yes, it will be it's own little reality until it's timeline dies out through entropy."
"Problem is that the creature that they described, this Holocaust," Deadman said as he rubbed a hand over his beard stubble, "is something…odd."
"Odd? How so?" Huntress asked.
"It's hard to explain, but this creature is made from something akin to dream energy, and dreams do not obey dimensional boundaries."
"This thing could travel to other dimensions, then?"
Deadman was silent for a moment. "Hell, it could destroy dimensions. Not just these overlapping ones, but also the main ones. Create Hypertime disturbances and all kinds of chaos."
"Sounds like our kind of problem," Nightwing remarked. He tapped a finger on the table. "Do we contain the threat or what?"
"If he is a dream being," the Huntress started, "then he has to have some sort of anchor in the real world, right? He has to draw power from the nightmares of the living, correct?"
"Until he either leeches everything from that person," Deadman said. "I'm not the expert on things like this, but I do know that Holocaust is a dream version of the Joker. The Earth-1 version."
"Dangerous S.O.B.," Nightwing said. The Joker of Earth-2 had been a foe of both the Huntress and her father, the Batman, but he was a mere 'joke' compared to his Earth-1 counterpart. And both of them were nothing when held up to the true Clown Prince of Crime in the Prime Universe. "That means the real Joker is probably dying."
"Good riddance," the Huntress replied. "I agree with what Batgirl said. The Joker is a monster. Let him die."
"This is something we need to bring before the membership," Nightwing said.
Aquagirl and Super-Woman walked out, towels and sun tan lotion in hand. "Sounds serious, Van," Super-Woman said as she laid the towel down on a lounge chair. Deadman whistled as she bent over. "Want to see what a couple doses of X-Ray vision do to that body you're wearing, Boston?" she asked.
"We were talking about the Joker," the Huntress interrupted. "He may be dying."
"Aren't we sworn to protect all life and let the courts render judgment?" Aquagirl asked. The rest of the team was silent. "I don't think this needs to go before the general membership; this is something that is ingrained in all of us. Maybe the Joker does need to die for the crimes he's committed, but he doesn't need to because we decided not to help him." She put her hands on her hips. "I seem to remember that the Joker saved this world and lost his life over it."
"Perhaps we should consider sending someone to check on the Joker," Super-Woman said, biting her bottom lip. Being a hero meant making choices she wasn't sure she was comfortable with.
"Go to the Prime?" Kid Flash called out, carrying a tray of sandwiches. Everyone looked to him. "Hey, I'm all for it!"
"Where are the others?" Deadman asked.
"Hawkman and Dawnstar are with the Avengers down in the training room and Bruce is on monitor duty. I think he's playing a video game with Jason over the internet." He set the tray down and stretched. He felt out of place being in costume and ran in the blink of an eye up to his room and back, brandishing a yellow pair of swim trucks with a black lightning bolt on the fanny.
"Can I go?" he asked.
"No!" Deadman said quickly. "No more multiple Roy Harpers on any planet!" Their adventure with the Time-Guardian had proven that too much of anything was not good. Kid Flash muttered a curse under his breath and then hurriedly jumped into the pool, chased by Aquagirl. "Guess if he don't go, she don't go."
"She might have another reason for hanging around," Super-Woman said, hinting at Aquagirl's sudden interest in Aqualad. "If it's the Joker, then maybe some of our bat-related members should go."
"I'd like it of one of my people went along," Captain America said as he walked out, Johnny Storm behind him. "I apologize for eavesdropping, but once I saw all of you together, I assumed it was a war council."
"Not at all, Captain," Nightwing said, standing. "We actually conduct a lot of informal meetings around the pool."
The leader of the Avengers joined them, but Johnny stood back, his hand drifting up to his eye patch. All of the Wardens had noted that the leader of the Fantastic Four seemed to be preoccupied with his injury and inquiries into how he got it were met with a silence. "I can appreciate that and I can also appreciate the young ladies' argument. If the Joker is in danger because of Holocaust, then he needs to be rescued as well."
Deadman stood up and introduced himself as he shook Captain America's hand. Johnny continued to stand away and only nodded as Deadman acknowledged him. "I'm sure we have our own Boston Brand, but I can't say that I've ever met him," the Avenger said.
"I think it would be a good idea to check on the Joker; that would at least confirm our theory," the Huntress said.
"While another party goes to my world to combat Holocaust." Captain America looked down. "Unfortunately, our world will never be the same."
"But it can be saved, Cap," Nightwing said.
"Doesn't matter, so long as that creature dies," Johnny said. "With your help, we'll have a chance."
Nightwing agreed to the plan. "Huntress and whomever you decide will go the Prime Universe for recon on the Joker."
"Good. When my team gets to my world, we'll split into two groups. One will run cover, harassing Holocaust while the other tries to see if Dr. Doom left any notes about what he was doing. Perhaps there is a way to undo what he did." Captain America saw the disbelieving looks and smiled. "Only a fool passes up even the slimmest chance."
There were several nods and Johnny abruptly turned and went back into the mansion, dodging a splash by Kid Flash.
If the younger hero had seen the look of death that Johnny had as he considered the water attack, his heart would have froze.
The DC Universe…
"I'm not a psychiatrist," the Martian Manhunter said as he reviewed the tapes of the Joker from the Arkham Asylum. Batman stood behind him, his cape wrapped around him. "I'd say he's crazy."
"That's not funny," Batman said coldly.
"I wasn't being humorous. The Joker is insane when compared to a normal, rational human being…"
"None of those around here."
"Indeed. As I was saying, normally the Joker's mental state is at a certain level of insanity; he is surpassing that level. In effect, something is making the Joker go crazy." The Manhunter turned off the tape and stood up, his massive green frame eclipsing Batman's. "It has to be an outside source. I would guess that he is being deprived of his dreams."
"Explain."
"Dreams are what the human mind use to get rid of the garbage; it is the cleaning process of the psyche. Even the Joker must dream." The alien seemed to shiver slightly; years before he had made the mistake of using his telepathic abilities to enter the mind of the criminal. He was still performing mental exercises to remove the demons from his brain. "If he is being denied his dreams, he will go insane."
"He already is insane."
"Then he'll die."
The Batman already knew that, but he had hoped that the big Martian would have found a more simple answer to the Joker's problem. The Clown Prince had asked for Batman's help and the Caped Crusader's code of honor prevented him from denying that request.
"Who could do this?" he asked.
The Manhunter shrugged. "Several persons. Doctor Destiny for one; but that is assuming this is not mystical in nature. I would recommend looking into anyone with a grudge against the Joker."
"That will narrow it down," Batman replied sarcastically. "I've got Robin watching him; will he be okay?"
Nodding, the Manhunter moved over to one of the security monitors and adjusted its focus. Even though they were on the moon, security was important and there was no excuse for being lax. More than once, the JLA Watchtower had been infiltrated. "If it was something with an area effect, then the doctors attending the Joker would have been affected."
"I can't watch him forever and I'm limited in resources," Batman responded with a sigh. "Nightwing has actually killed the Joker once before and the Huntress will do it just for fun."
"Are you asking me to take your monitor duties?"
Batman gave a little grin. "I'll send up those Dukes of Hazzard DVD's you wanted."
"Ah, blackmail, an interesting human creation; I see its benefits." The Martian moved back to his chair, not at all upset about taking over the duties. He practically lived in the Watchtower and would have been here anyway. "Do be careful, Batman. If you believe that the Joker was unpredictable before, now he will be worse. I will search through the databases for any more information."
Batman was satisfied with the answer and bid his friend good-bye. He would have preferred if the Manhunter had gone with him, but he knew how leery the alien was of getting too close to the Joker. He didn't blame him; whenever the Batman tried to consider what it must be like to think like his nemesis, it made him shiver.
He couldn't imagine anything worse than the thoughts of the Joker.