16
Legal disclaimer: I tend to liberally "burrow" character profiles and art from the Earth-27 wikia created by Roy Westerman with art principally coming from digital artist Phil Cho. Other creators and artists are found there as well and will specifically list any creations with creator citations as I utilize them. In short, this the single most comprehensive retelling of all things DC and beyond I have encountered. In short, it's worth your time to explore.
I do not own DC characters or their interpretations and reimaginings. My own characters are implied Public Domain since I have not included a copyright notice as required by the 1974 revisions of the copyright statutes and regulations. While an intellectual copyright is implied without the due symbols and language, all such considerations are generally voided under CC-BY-SA unless duly noted otherwise or established prefecture has been proven.
Beneath LuthorCorp-Gotham a soon to be eventful meeting was underway. Lex Luthor himself conducted the meeting, "I'm very disappointed, Ms. Drews. Can you guess why?"
"They rejected your fiftieth application for hair plugs?" Marian Drews, increasingly known as Hellequin, the Neo Joker.
"Very droll," Luthor was not amused, "I gave you a singular task and you failed in a spectacular fashion."
"I didn't fail anything. I changed the conditions of the test," Hellequin tried not to burst out laughing, "I brokered your backdoor deal with Knightfall."
"And yet you and this 'Empress Penguin' shredded the Gotham Underworld and Knightfall's regulatory capabilities. Empress Penguin is protected. You are not," Luthor grated.
"Knightfall was already set to break the deal in order to pit Intergang against the Legion of Doom and use the resultant chaos to export her model of controlling virtue and vice," Hellequin planted her arms akimbo, "That's right. I'm not effin' Harley Quinn. What you've got is an invitation to get in on Gotham's new groundwork under Empress Penguin. Her allies could become your allies, if you bothered to care."
"But why the ire towards Knightfall?" Luthor easily detected the antagonism.
"Charise Carnes' is an elitist hedonist that wants to impose puritanical living on everyone else. Me, I'm a complete anarchist. Her brand of 'law' makes my vagina burn," Hellequin snapped at him, "Now, if you don't want to feel like you've got a case of the clap every time you enter Gotham, use Carnes and put her down wet, then walk away."
Lights were flashing on Luthor's wristwatch, "A highly motivated team of private security contractors will be arriving shortly to terminate you. Don't resist and your death will be painless."
Hellequin rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck to limber up. Her fingers and knees were next, "Prepare for some damage to prime real estate, chuckles."
Luthor and his bodyguards waited outside for five minutes. Five long minutes of silence. Finally, a gunshot rang out and Luthor smiled. This was followed by a series of gunshots and then submachine gun fire.
The bodyguards hustled Luthor towards the tunnel accessways. The doors to the conference burst open as a second round of submachine gun fire pushed bodies through the double doors. Luthor's last sight of Hellequin found her covered, head to toe, in blood. And he instinctively knew none of it was hers.
The head of Luthor's detail remained behind with two agents. He barely had time to register the two gunshots that killed the other man and woman. Hellequin didn't give him time to react, "Hey! Numb nuts!"
He spun, "This won't end-urk!"
He staggered back with one of the Zither issued knives in his throat. He could see the blood coursing from his neck. Hellequin laughed herself silly as she bathed in it. Her laughter slowly tapered off as he died.
"Baldy probably called the GCPD," she rummaged through everyone's person collecting access key cards and weapons. Dust fell from the concrete as charges blew an entrance into the building wide enough to send eight officers abreast into the lobby.
Hellequin imagined the sound as the GCPD SWAT team marched in, "Hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, clear!"
The tunnels she entered drained directly into the Hudson river or headed south into Gotham's heart. Scorch marks indicated where Luthor had been taken away by a hydrofoil. She headed south. Along the way she ripped open a discreet access to a junction box that helped control Gotham's other power grid. Power secretly supplied by Batman. Inputting a code supposedly only known by Batman, Alfred Pennyworth, and Barbara Gordon, she shut the grid down. Rolling blackouts hurled most into confusion and others into a frenzy.
Hellequin emerged from the drainage tunnels twelve blocks from LuthorCorp. As she'd suspected, a pair of goons was eyeballing her beloved Ducati. With all the howling and screams in the night, even the relatively close by GCPD didn't hear the single gunshots that blew the would-be thieves' brains out. With the beat cops and all patrol officers responding to thousands of 911 calls, no one would have time to enforce traffic laws.
Placing her helmet on, Hellequin only flipped down the clear visor owing to the fact it was past midnight. Firing up the engine, Marian Drews was gratified the engine still purred. Kicking back the stand as she roared out of the alleyway, would-be pedestrians scrambled for the lives in her wake. With intersections embroiled in accidents or in the midst of creating accidents, she expertly wove through them, never decreasing her 120mph speed. Tonight it was child's play. On her world, the Justice Lords had reduced Gotham City to a war zone seeking to root out Lord Batman's rebellion.
Hellequin terrorized the inhabitants of Devil's Square. This Gotham District was so disreputable and violent it made the Narrows and Crime Alley look angelic. Here, Marian shared an apartment with her Earth's Lana Lang. Who found it irritating that Marian stored her $30K Ducati 1198s in the living room of the flat they shared.
Marian entered, wheeling the bike inside, to find Lana was out, either with the Justice League Unlimited or with her fellow Superwoman, Lois Lane. Marian would've carved off Batman's left nut to witness how Superman reacted to meeting Lois and Lord Superman's five children. The man had been a douche but he'd had the super sperm to prove his supposed virility. But like Overgirl before them, the brood was half-human so they were less than "super".
Superwoman arrived via the roof and entered to employ harsher than usual language regarding Marian's bike, "Marian! When the eff are you going to rent an effin' garage for this mother effin' bike?"
Marian emerged from the shower wrapped in a towel and still quite bloody, "What the hell has your tights in a twist?"
"You're dripping blood on the floor," Lana sighed.
"It'll hold the floor together better than the roach shit," Marian countered, "Now answer the effin' question. Someone hit you in the girls or something?"
"No," Lana was surprised Marian would ask that, "It just seems hopeless sometimes. All we do is lie and steal and manipulate. For what? So this last universe can die too?"
"It can be gratifying too," Marian smirked, "I antagonized the effin' shit outta Lex Luthor tonight."
"Eff me," Lana gasped.
"No time. Maybe later," Marian's smirk grew.
"No, stupid. Behind you," Lana pointed.
Marian turned to find the Monitor waiting, "Oh, eff me."
Aboard the Orb, situated at the Vanishing Point, outside time and space. The few remaining universes could be seen as well as the Twenty-Seven Realms of Existence. From the Vanishing Point, the Monitor could observe the remnants of the Multiverse and mount interventions as he deemed fit. As he had with Hellequin, Superwoman Lois Lance and Superwoman Lana Lang, all from Earth-2. One of fouruniverses the Monitor had sacrificed to occlude the presence of the Prime Universe from the Anti Monitor. To assuage his guilt, most of the multiversal refugees on Earth Prime came from Earths-2-5.
Earth-2 had been home to the Justice Lords. Earth-3 had housed the Crime Syndicate and a world of evil doppelgangers. Earth-4 represented older versions of Earth Prime's heroes by an average of fifteen years or more. On Earth-5 those same people were twenty years younger than their Prime counterparts.
"Drinks?" Lyle Michaels, the Harbinger, asked.
"Damn skippy," Hellequin blurted.
"Rot gut or the good stuff?" Lyla asked.
"Do I give an eff?" Hellequin wanted to know.
Lyla doled out two fingers and Hellequin grated, "Are we tending effin' bar? Fill the bitch up."
Lyla looked towards the Monitor, who dutifully nodded. Lana and Lois were content with straight shots while Hellequin downed her tumbler. Hellequin snatched the bottle from Lyla's hand and poured another.
Marian's psychosis included her ability to see sadistic or morbid humor in everything. But she seemed off tonight. Lana suspected it was due to the Monitor's increasingly contradictory orders. Contradictions which revealed he was making it up as he went…just like normal folks.
"I have new tasks for each of you. This should not pose a difficulty since you are failing at your primary assignments," Monitor declared.
"Eff you," Hellequin snarled, "You can't just snap your fingers and expect results."
"I have determined who the Paragons are," Monitor announced.
"You feel like sharing with the rest of the effin' class?" Hellequin was increasingly agitated.
"The Paragons are exactly that, living examples of the quantifiable qualities necessary to combat the Anti Monitor's final assault," Monitor handed out bracelets, "I shall deposit you where and when you need to. These will guide you and alert me when you require retrieval."
"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Hold the effin' phone. Why're we doing this?" Hellequin was tired of playing good soldier.
"We still require the sum total of Earth's heroes and villains united against the Anti Monitor. But these thirty-six beings exemplify the needed attributes to personally defeat him. Without them, no matter what else we do, we're doomed," Monitor revealed.
"Now that's what you effin' lead with next time," Hellequin demanded. Lana and Lois tended to agree.
"But eff you," Hellequin snapped, "Someone else can run your errands."
"Marian Drews, as Hellequin the Neo Joker you are uniquely qualified to approach the necessary personnel. Joker was the criminal monarch on your Earth and you were his queen and one true love. You have insights into these doppelgangers they aren't even aware of within themselves yet," Monitor disclosed, "My plans cannot succeed without you and Earth Prime stands no chance whatsoever without my plans."
"Effin' hell. Why now?" Hellequin asked.
"With the death of each subsequent matter universe the weaker I get in direct correlation. What strength I have left I need to conserve to protect our failsafe, the one being who will save all that that has been preserved going forward into the Zero Hour, the destruction of time itself," Monitor had disclosed more in the last five minutes than he had in the previous nine months.
"Marian has an excellent point," Lois was ever the investigator, "Why the sudden bout of honesty?"
"The Anti Monitor isn't aware of the Paragons as of yet," Monitor told them, "You need to deploy and recruit them before he sends forth his own agents."
"Wait, the Anti Monitor is recruiting his own agents in the Prime Universe?" Lana worried.
"Agents who also threaten the Twenty-Seven Realms beyond the Anti-Monitor's reach," Monitor explained.
Lois closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, "And you were going to share this when?"
"When it became necessary. That time is now," Monitor confirmed it.
"God, I hate you," Lana groaned.
"No more than I already hate myself," Monitor allowed.
"I doubt that," Lois concurred with Lana.
"Prepare yourselves," Monitor activated the teleporter, "Lyla, monitor them and transport them where and when they need to be."
"Where will you be?" Harbinger asked.
"Informing the fail safe of their purpose," Monitor told her. And he vanished.
Harbinger resolved to fulfill her purpose. Unknown to her, the Anti Monitor would have purposes for her as well. But that was in the relative future.
Hellequin thought she'd hurl when she materialized outside of Harley Quinn's amusement park. She entered the grounds but the park gates were locked. But the rear of the funhouse was exposed and a residence was attached to it. It turned out to be an apartment building. The mailboxes were labelled and the manager's apartment was labelled "H. Quinzel & P. Isely". It had been two months since Harley and Ivy had married in Boston. And that meant Violet Isely-Quinzel was two months old now. The last she'd met with these two women, Violet was only a few days old.
She knocked on the appropriate door and Harley opened it, "Whadd'ya want?"
"To see you, eff bunny," Hellequin smirked.
Gedd outta here," Harley went to close the door but Hellequin shoved her back and strolled into the apartment.
Ivy came out holding Violet, "Harl?"
"We got company, Red. But ya ain't gonna like who it is," Harley predicted.
"I agree," Ivy's eyes narrowed.
"Wait! I warned you you'd be called into service," Hellequin explained the Paragon theory.
"An' who're we supposed ta be?" Harley snickered.
"Ivy is the Paragon of the Green. You're the Paragon of Reason," Hellequin waited for it.
Harley didn't disappoint, "Ya gotta be shittin' me! I could plotz. Ya hear that crap, Red?"
"It's true," Ivy reopened her eyes, "I've been communing with the Green. I have been chosen for this task and the Parliaments of the Trees and Flowers don't make mistakes. So, applying that, ahem, reasoning you've been chosen as well."
"Ives, yer serious," Harley was aghast, "But we gotta daughter."
"She, if you bring her, will be safer than anywhere in this universe," Hellequin promised.
"This universe?" Ivy caught that.
"Or any universe. The Vanishing Point exists outside of time or space," Hellequin shared, "That's where the Monitor built his station."
"Puh…puh…puh-leaze, me? The Paragon of effin' reason?" Harley laughed.
"Hey, I find it funny as hell. I mean, we have a cosmic being with infinite resources and he picks the one asshat guaranteed to eff up to save the universe," Hellequin genuinely laughed, "You got to love it."
"I ain't doin' it," Harley pouted.
"Harl, it's a calling," Ivy insisted.
"No, let her be a chickenshit. That's why Mister J never accepted her. She was afraid to let him. Too afraid to let go any get into his mind and see the truth there. Too goddamn afraid to really love him the way he needed to be loved. That's why he abused you and never hurt me in any conceivable way." Hellequin snarled.
Harley went to the wall and grabbed her trusty mallet, "Don' ya be tellin' me nuthin' `bout Mistah J!"
Ivy caught the mallet in it's downward stroke, "No! We're doing this. You have to trust me."
"`Course I trust ya, Ives. I don' trust her," Harley spat the last word as a curse.
"Can we get on with it? I have rounds to make," Hellequin asked, "I won't be moving through objective time but I will be cruising through my own subjective time."
"Makes sense," Ivy understood.
"Huh?" Harley was befuddled.
"What do we need?" Ivy asked.
"Your working attire and supplies for Violet," Hellequin shared.
"Ya remember her name?" Harley was startled.
"Of course I do," Hellequin rolled her eyes.
Harley drew back a fist. Ivy interceded, "Harley!"
"I wuz only jokin'," Harley said then muttered, "Cuz dead is pretty damn funny."
Arriving aboard the Orb. Harley's eyes swelled, "There's a bunch Earths."
"Hence the term 'multiverse'," Hellequin was disdainful.
"Hello, I can show you to the nursery," Harbinger volunteered.
Monitor had returned, "An auspicious beginning."
"How long are they going to have to wait around?" Hellequin inquired.
"From their perspective, the Crisis will be upon us in one hour," Monitor revealed.
"Damn," Hellequin breathed.
"But the time shall be longer for you upon returning to Earth Prime. You will still have time to unify the warring factions of villainy into a united army. And they will unite if they comprehend the nature of the threat," Monitor promised.
Hellequin checked the holographic display of her next recruit, "Aw crap. Earth-3 losers are assholes."
"But he is needed," Monitor assured her, "He is, after all, the Paragon of Intellect."
And Hellequin vanished again.
Earth-3 had always had a warped history compared to Earth Prime. Its chronology was as twisted as the personal affiliations of its citizens. The Crime Syndicate and Power Posse's were only two examples. A historical example was the cold war president John Wilkes Booth had been assassinated by Stalinist collaborator Abraham Lincoln. The American Revolution had been masterminded from an armchair by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And John F. Kennedy had led America's Greatest Generation into victory over a pan-European Third Reich.
And so Terry Sloane, whose Prime counterpart served in the Justice Society during World War II, had never seen or been a part of a Justice Society. Therefore, he'd never been Mr. Terrific. But when the Crime Syndicate formed, Master Terrific had been a charter member. Even the Court of Owls' own Owlman had feared him. When Alexie Luthor drove the Syndicate off of Earth-3, Master Terrific had secretly faked his death and arranged for his personal transference to the Prime Universe.
Only the Other, Owlman's confederate, Alfred Pennyworth knew of his existence while Master Terrific established himself as a modern era "Napoleon of Crime". Blackwing and Atomica certainly didn't know. So it was he certainly had expected Hellequin's arrival.
"Your ten minutes late," he judged according to his calculations, "I would've thought the Monitor would be prompt."
"Lots of traffic in the aether," Hellequin tittered.
"And how is the Monitor these days? Still weakening?" Master Terrific wondered.
"He's strong enough," Hellequin didn't trust Master Terrific, 12th level intelligence or not.
"And which Earth did he pluck you from?" Master Terrific gathered his go bag.
"One of them," Hellequin felt evasive.
"I will figure it out," he warned her.
"Then you don't need my help," Hellequin quipped.
"Earth-2," he blurted, "Do you ever miss it?"
"Why would I miss that Justice Lords shit?" she asked, "And here, people pretend to be decent enough but they're all looking for their excuse to snap and act out on their impotent and suppressed rage. To cater to that one freaky desire no matter who else it hurts. So those bits are just like home. So no, I don't miss anything."
"Not even the Joker?" he smirked.
"Look, wise ass. You so much as twitch, tweak, or fart wrong and I'll be so far up your ass I'll tear your head off just to escape," Hellequin advised him.
"Congratulations, you just gave me a reason to enlist," Master Terrific smirked.
Next, Hellequin found herself outside of Gotham's Royal Grande Hotel to recruit the Paragon of Chance. It was guarded of course. The formerly ineffectual "superheroes" broadly known as the Inferior Five had been transformed into the Superior Five. Apokolips had tried for millennia to crack the secret behind Mother Box. The best that they could manage was to corrupt a Mother Box with engrams of Darkseid's malevolent personality, thereby creating a Father Box.
Father Box had transformed the Inferior Five and altered their personalities as well, so they became super villains. And surprisingly effective super villains considering their incompetent origins. Hellequin was in the mood to deliver five beat downs, so she relished the opportunity.
Lights shone upon her and she realized it wasn't a GCPD blimp overhead. It was the Superior Fiver called Hindenburg. She emptied her revolver into him and he began to deflate and blow about. A ripple tore the sidewalk out into street. Tremor had emerged from the hotel. As Tremor slammed both fists against the pavement again, Hellequin ran atop of the crest of shattered concrete. And at the end of the line, she cracked Tremor upside the head with her aluminum baseball bat.
The doors automatically opened for Hellequin. There was a single occupant in the hotel simply because she'd purchased it and closed it down. She dwelt in the Royalty suite which had hosted the same and various world leaders of every description. As the automatic doors closed, Hellequin ducked and two arrows passed by overhead to imbed themselves in the glass. Splitshot nocked two more arrows.
Hellequin sprinted to close the difference and reached him as he raised his bow. A swing guaranteed for a home run swung low then high enough to crack Splitshot's testicles. He fell, unable to even breathe.
Hellequin reloaded her pistol on the elevator ride to the uppermost floor. But she holstered it and instead went into a batting stance. Marian Drews had been a baseball All Star starting in fifth grade stretching through her undergrad studies. She'd even tried out for three MLB teams. But they'd all snickered and laughed despite her doing better in try-outs than her male competitors. Some poser who could barely catch, bat, or even run had been placed in the Minors despite Marian outracing every attempt to tag her out, never missing at bat, and scoring three home runs. And she was told she needed practice.
Something snapped in Marian that day. Her boss at the investment bank she worked at heard of her abortive attempt to be picked up by a professional baseball team fired her for "not being committed to her job." She'd barely managed to hire on as a bank teller. Her boyfriend dumped her, accusing her of being a "pathetic effin' joke" after the loss of her income.
She'd been on duty at the bank, quietly cutting herself to dull the emotional pain when the Joker arrived. He chose her to open the vault and while she did so, she slowly broke into laughter. It wasn't a hysterical laugh but an appreciative one because she got the joke. Joker took her back to his hideout and slowly dressed the wounds she'd inflicted upon herself. And an undying romance was born. And Joker never noticed Harley's absence ever again.
Jongleur attempted to kick Hellequin but spun away as she swung her bat. She dove, tucked, and rolled up onto her feet with her bat poised one again. Jongleur howled in laughter. Hellequin appreciated the fact he got the joke. But she was still good with killing him. The Monitor had prohibited her from killing the Superior Five…but she could inflict as much pain as she deemed hilarious, er, necessary.
"Laugh it up, `cause I get it. I also know you'll never inherit the Joker's throne. `Cause I already did," Hellequin warned him. He dropped his guard.
And she clobbered the said his head with a metallic wang! But a small missile slammed her into the wall. Hellequin spun a backhanded swing. Lagomorph caught the bat, and caved it in with one hand. Now Hellequin understood how Dumb Bunny had been the strongest member of the Inferior Five. Now, as Lagomorph, Athena Trevor-Schwab was also superhumanly fast.
Lagomorph bounced Hellequin off of the wall again, "Stay down."
Lagomorph was the opposite of Dumb Bunny in that she was the smartest member of the team. Hellequin motioned with one hand to ask for a temporary reprieve. Then she smashed Lagomorph's face with the ruined bat. Then she reared it up to swing it down atop off Lagomorph's head. She put a hand to her ear.
"You were saying?" Hellequin tittered.
She made it down the hall to the double doors leading to the Royal Suite. Tapping the door from a distance with the bat, Hellequin called out, "Roulette? I need to talk with you.
A shotgun blast perforated one door and then the other, Hellequin waved the bat up and down in front of the blast patterns. Two more discharges followed. Hellequin tapped the doors again. Two more eruptions of buckshot flew forth. Hellequin draped her jacket from the bat and "walked" it in front of the door. The seventh and final shot was fired.
Hellequin threw open the doors while Roulette reloaded. Drawing her own pistol, Hellequin put a bullet into the ceiling above Roulette's head. Plaster rained down. Roulette put her weapon on the floor and raised her hands.
"Oh, for eff's sake. Put your hands down," Hellequin made her pitch.
"What are our odds if I agree to this?" Roulette asked.
"Better than 'certain death' which is your alternative," Hellequin retorted.
"I see your point," Roulette allowed.
"I hope you ate light," Hellequin fervently wished. She was tired of smelling projectile vomit.
Monitor allowed Hellequin's transfer through her bedroom. She'd lost her favorite bat and her customary jacket. She removed her leather tube top for a T-shirt emblazoned with Daddy's Lil' Monster, a windbreaker, fishnets, a windbreaker, and cross trainers. She selected her back up wooden bat and retired her .357 for her .44 Magnum and necessary holster replete with speed loaders.
And then she found herself at a small privately held island in the Hawaiian chain. Hellequin was suddenly rejoicing over ditching the leathers. Here she'd find the Paragons of Creation and of the Metal. And here it was that the Legion of Doom had sequestered Dr. Veronica Cale. Her assignment: to create a deadlier team of Metal Men loyal to the Legion and its aims. Veronica accomplished both by creating the "other" Metal Men to be completely and solely loyal to her, thereby insuring her continued value to Luthor.
Hellequin knew most of the lab facility was buried underground, tunneled into the volcanic rock. The rich, black soil had been apportioned by Veronica into pineapple plots. She eagerly greeted Hellequin and heard the reason for the visit.
"So which Metal Man do you need?" Veronica was flattered at being a Paragon.
"Uranium," Hellequin told her.
"You know I'll have to report my leaving to the Legion of Doom?" Veronica wondered.
"Just ignore them when they tell you kill me," Hellequin requested, "I kinda humiliated Lex earlier this evening."
Veronica wore a beatific smile, "I'll do that."
Eve Aries walked through her old Brooklyn neighborhood, or at least Tessa Richardson's. Saturn Queen employed her mental hypnosis to remain invisible. She didn't know why she'd returned to Earth. The sting of betrayal was still fresh but she admitted she was here to bury Tessa's ghost within her mind. Saturn Queen lied and told herself her final purpose was to recruit meta-humans to throw at the Anti Monitor.
Her past, everyone else's future, the Crisis had been averted. But numerous changes to the time line had wrought the Zero Hour, which erased all potential futures. Eve wondered if she even wanted to get back to a future she wouldn't recognize. Then she detected a kindred spirit approaching.
"I'll do it," Saturn Queen said as she turned around to face Hellequin.
"And you get the joke too," Hellequin saw the fires of anarchy, as expressed by the Blue Flame. Marian Drews had seen it ten years ago in Joker's eyes. It had entranced her and that was the moment she fell in love him. That was the great joke of it all. Order was a crumbling facade. People, places, and times always reverted back to anarchy and life began again afterwards.
"You'll be happy to learn you were chosen by the Parliament of Decay to be a Paragon of the Black," Hellequin shared.
Saturn Queen wore a self-satisfied smile.
Next, Hellequin recruited the Paragon of the Red…with a complication. Thomas Blake had ended his time with the Secret Six and now Catman was between jobs. He'd adopted Katie Conn at the age of thirteen and she'd been trained as his assistant, Kitten. Katie had two years in juvie while Thomas abbreviated his sentence by serving ARGUS' needs. He wanted a fresh start but wasn't certain of how to begin or what to do. Being a Paragon appealed to him. But not Kitten.
"You are not leaving me again," Katie angrily told him.
"Can she come with?" Catman asked.
"Why the hell not?" Hellequin laughed. Let the Monitor deal with the inconvenience. He'd already taken a baby aboard the Orb.
Next up was the Paragon of the Grey. Solomon Grundy looked confused, "What she say, Goldy?"
"It's reasonable, Solomon," Goldilocks translated, "You should do it."
"Goldy come with Grundy?" he plaintively asked.
Goldilocks looked to Hellequin, who shook her head in the negative, "I'm sorry, I have to stay and look after the others. But you'll be important. People will care for you."
Goldilocks shot Hellequin a glare, and they'd better too. Hellequin made a promise she could care less if it was kept, "The Monitor is looking out for all the Paragons."
The Paragon of the Melt's identity surprised Hellequin. Mostly owing to the fact Tara Markov was supposedly dead. Tara lived an isolated existence in the Balkan mountains.
"I knew someone would eventually come for me," the princess said sadly after Hellequin had kneecapped her two bdyguards and smashed the radio so the cook couldn't call for help. Dr. Helga Jace was terrorized.
"It's all right, Helga," Tara spoke to her in Markovian, "She isn't here for you."
"Take me," Dr. Jace begged, "Leave her from it.
Hellequin rested the bat across her shoulders, "I'm not technically here to kill anyone. Actually, we need your help. The whole universe does."
"My help?" Tara was skeptical.
Hellequin gave an abbreviated synopsis of the brewing Crisis and the necessity of Paragons. Dr. Jace understood, "Your geokinesis. That is why the Melt chose you, your mastery over the soil and the rocks."
"Tell me honestly, I could die?" Tara asked.
"Yup," Hellequin happily concurred.
Dr. Jace looked at Hellequin like she was a madwoman, "That doesn't mean you will die."
"I've been dead before. It was disappointing," Tara sighed.
Hellequin knew Terra should get used to disappointment. But she offered a sop, "Your academic bodyguard could come with."
"Please, Princess. Your health is still…questionable," Dr. Jace tried, but failed, to be discreet.
"Very well, Helga. You may come. But be prepared for anything," Terra conceded. And seconds later, Dr. Jace discovered all of her doubts regarding Hellequin's tale were unfounded.
The Divided had also chosen their own Paragon. And it was the only one Hellequin found unnerving. Sitting alone in an isochamber, Red Claw watched with satisfaction as Marian beat the guards within an inch of their lives. The terrorist looked robust, and in truth, she was but she was a carrier for the most virulent and infectious diseases ever created by man.
The thought had been for Red Claw to travel worldwide, infecting strategically placed metropolitan centers. With a 99% casualty rate, only those specifically isolated to ride out the end of the modern world would emerge to an apocalyptic landscape. And Red Claw would rule that world in cultlike fashion.
Hellequin explained the situation, "The viruses inside of you have been neutralized. But you still have infectious powers."
"And I'll be set loose when this all ends?" Red Claw inquired.
"Hell, yeah," Hellequin promised. What she actually promised was to put six high caliber rounds in Red Claw's face. But the bargain being struck, she released Red Claw from the isochamber.
The Paragon of Conflict, if she existed on Earth-2, had never escaped her five-thousand year confinement. A discreetly located executive office atop Ryder Industries in Gotham, was the scene of Hellequin's final chore of the day. Disco Mummy had stolen the corporation from Ruby Ryder just before Ruby took a header off of the building. The Sumarian princess sat atop her desk wearing a little black minidress and the five-thousand year old woman totally killed the look.
"And here you are at last," Disco Mummy laughed low in her throat.
"You know me?" Hellequin was confused. And how the hell was she expected? Master Terrific had been bad enough.
"I employ you," Disco Mummy reminded Hellequin, "Or, more precisely, the other you."
"You seem to know more about me than I know about you," Marian felt threatened.
"I make it a point to know the power brokers in any given city. You and Empress Penguin proved Knightfall to be an anomaly, the Jokerz to be ineffectual, you mutilated the Superior Five, and now you pop up here out of thin air," Disco Mummy reported, "But I'm certain the Monitor has you here to discuss matters other than your resume."
You know about the Paragons theory?" Hellequin guessed.
"Is that why you're here?" Disco Mummy was intrigued, "Which Paragon am I?"
"Conflict," Hellequin answered.
"Definitely intriguing," Disco Mummy mused.
"So, you'll do it?" Hellequin asked.
"I've fought for far too long to let the Anti Monitor rip everything away from me now," Disco Mummy growled.
Hellequin decided at last that she liked Disco Mummy.
"So it'll just be an hour for these nerds?" Hellequin asked.
"Less than forty-five minutes now. More than enough time for Lois Lane and Lana Lang to complete their missions," the Monitor revealed, "As for Earth Prime, it may only have an actual hour, a day, weeks, months, at the outset, a year.
"Well, I gotta go. Toodles," Hellequin dismissed herself.
"You surprised me Marian Drews. First you demand that Harley Quinn be able to bring her daughter here. Then you allowed Kitten to accompany her guardian, Catman. And finally, Dr. Jace was brought here with Terra. A surprising round table of compassionate actions," Monitor observed.
"Y'know, if the end does come, bend over and eff yourself," Hellequin retorted.
"Stay on task, Marian Drews. Your Joker did not die for naught," Monitor promised.
Hellequin aimed her bat at him, "Say anything like that again and I'll eff your ass myself."
"Be well, Marian Drews," he said and suddenly she was back in her apartment. She decided that after today, she deserved a stiff drink. Or a whole bottle of them.
As is implied, the other Paragons, as recruited by the Superwomen, stories' will be told in a separate Anthology story. The Paragons will not come into play until Justice League DCAU Series Part 32. The reason for parting these things out is my notations regarding Part 32 imply a larger story than I want to develop. And since the recruiting of the Paragons isn't essential to the framework of Part 32, here it is.
Now, not only are the DCAU Anthology stories internally consistent within each other but also within the all encompassing frame of the Justice League DCAU Series. They each have an impact on the whole. But this enables me to encapsulate a much smaller story that while relevant, doesn't push the overall plot of a DCAU Series Part ? forward.