Author's Note: Okay, so I considered Chapter 11 to be the end of this story and continue the overarching plot in another section (which section, though, was a mind-boggler; DC Superheroes, Superman, Teen Titans...hard to pick one, you ask me). So consider this chapter a summary of Earth-side events in the recent DC Universe, as well as a perhaps-needless-on-my-part meshing of events in my own stories that deal with the pending Infinite Crisis in some way or another.
If that makes any sense. Enjoy;), and look for my next story (working title: "Intelligence") around the comics section soon).
It began with a man. A bug.
Ted Kord, known in some circles as the Blue Beetle, is—or was—the second man to carry the title. His progenitor, Dan Garrett, was the original Beetle and Kord inherited the mantle some years ago.
Kord spent years of B-list status on the roll calls of various incarnations of the Justice League—most of them financed by Maxwell Lord's wealth. Many wondered why a so-called newcomer like Kord would join one of Lord's teams, let alone what he hoped to accomplish on such a team. Kord served alongside noted heroes such as the Martian Manhunter and the Batman before the team's dissolution.
Despite his obvious lack of metahumans skills, Kord possessed an IQ unmatched but by few people, most of them Justice League members themselves. Kord used his intellectual gifts to compensate in battles he could not win. As such, he was considered indispensable; inventive on-the-fly. And yet he still lacked the respect afforded to other team-mates.
No one ever thought much of Theodore Kord.
Months ago, Kord began uncovering evidence leading to Maxwell Lord's revamped Checkmate organization. Lord had siphoned money from Kord Omniversal into in an attempt to fund what he called "the OMAC Project": Lord's own personal fleet of soldiers, endowed with an energy field which rendered them all but invincible.
Kord also discovered that a Checkmate computer contained the secret identities, weaknesses, and homes of nearly every metahuman in the world. This knowledge was his alone, until Lord himself appeared.
To cover his tracks, or perhaps to increase his ranks and finally reveal his plans, Lord attempted to recruit his once-friend, the Blue Beetle. Perhaps, Lord reasoned, with an ally such as the Blue Beetle—an avowed hero but one with no superpowers to speak of—he could achieve a psychological victory over the Justice League. As if to say 'I've recruited one of your own; how does that make you feel?'
Kord refused to join Checkmate's anti-metahuman agenda. Maxwell Lord shot and killed him. Kord was the only one with the knowledge of Lord's files on the metahumans; Batman, the system's creator, had deleted the files. Maxwell Lord was left relatively empty-handed, though he still retained control of the OMACS, or One Man Army Corps.
As a result of Kord's death, Checkmate's plans remained relatively clandestine. Only recently has word of Kord's murder begun to spread through the superhuman community. Kord's death, as well as what he learned from Checkmate's computers, impacted not only the heroes of the world, but particularly Lex Luthor's reformed Secret Society of Supervillains—led by the core group of Luthor, Deathstroke the Terminator, the Calculator, Dr. Psycho, Talia Head, and Black Adam.
Luthor, as luck would have it, was a primary party responsible for Lord's installation as the new Black King. He felt Kord's death was a considerable setback for his plans—too vulgar a display of intentions before the Society could be sure they were safe from retaliation.
Several months after Kord's death, amid a war of his own involving the Teen Titans (and to a lesser extent, the Justice League and a group called the Secret Six) Luthor sent Black Adam, Deathstroke the Terminator and Zoom—all members of his Society—to kill Maxwell Lord, disassemble Checkmate, and use the remnants of Lord's empire for spare parts.
Because Maxwell Lord was never much a brain-trust, he was never much of a concern. His death would not throw the universe out of alignment and Luthor's true intentions could carry on, if altered slightly. Lord knew that, sooner or later, Luthor was going to call in his marker. And when the once-President of the United States did, Lord was caught completely by surprise and summarily executed in the fashion with which he murdered Ted Kord.
Black Adam, the ruler of Khandaq and Luthor's strong-man in the Society, disposed of Maxwell Lord's body in the English Channel.
And the upper echelons of the Society went about carrying on their own missions. Marking time until the stars aligned correctly, and their hammer could fall swiftly and without retaliation.
Luthor went on to control Superboy, the youthful clone of Superman and coordinate the destruction of Checkmate's Brother Eye satellite and a less successful attack on the Justice League Watchtower.
Zoom had a war to fight in Keystone City, with the Flash and Captain Cold's Rogues.
Deathstroke went into the criminal underground and began working heroes such as Green Arrow, Batgirl, and Nightwing against miscellaneous foes.
Black Adam returned to his home of Khandaq, to fend off an attack by the Spectre and a new Eclipso inhabiting the body of Jean Loring.
Talia Head went hunting the villain known as Hush and his counterpart Prometheus, custodian of a type of key that granted access to a place called the Ghost Zone. Head's reasons behind finding Prometheus remain unknown.
Even more curious, perhaps, are Talia's recent acquisitions of HIVE shock-troops and the inheritance of the League of Assassins' business properties, formerly headed up by the now-dead Ra's al Ghul.
A HIVE heli-carrier was recently spotted over the English Channel, apparently dredging the lowest points. As if searching for something…
It began with a man--a bug. And it continues.