Apparently, the JLA didn't have ready access to the equipment that the Tinkers needed. Rather than wait for Access to appear again, the decision had been made to raid one of the local villains instead – a man named Dr Sivana, the self-proclaimed 'World's Wickedest Scientist'.
"We could have just asked him." Alexandria said, smashing the projector of a proton beam that had been trying to drill its way through her chest.
"He wouldn't have helped. Most likely, he would have tried to hold the multiverse to ransom." Batman said, currently locked in a martial arts battle with a robot that had chainsaws for arms.
"You know, most of the villains back home are happy enough to help make sure they will still have a city to terrorise come tomorrow."
"Yeah, the small fry. All the powerful troublemakers on your world are either actively slaughtering people or locked up."
"That reminds me – I need to put you in touch with Dragon. I understand you can't seem to build a prison that can actually hold anyone."
"Bicker later, fight now please!" The Flash called, trying to free his leg from the 'Suspendium' bubble it was trapped in.
As usual, a Tinker was busy being completely ridiculous. Dr Sivana didn't appear to be 'home', but his automated defences had kicked in immediately, throwing a hodge-podge of physics-violating gadgets at the team.
"There!" Mr Fantastic yelled, his body wrapped halfway round a turbine of some kind, his head and arms stretched out to rummage around in the control panel of another device. "The energy cage should start draining out now!"
"Does this happen often around here?" Doctor Strange asked Doctor Fate, head resting on a hand whose elbow was in turn resting on his knee. The pair were trapped inside a strange purple energy field that appeared to be somehow cancelling out their powers.
Fate shifted uncomfortably. "Sivana is… something of a special case."
With a loud crash of tearing metal, Superman burst back up through the floor. In one hand he held a piece of armour plating that he'd apparently ripped out of something. When he dropped it, it created a deep dent in the floor, giving onlookers a rough idea of how dense it was. "The lower floors are clear. The main turbines must be up here."
"Orange cylinder at the back of the room." Mr Fantastic mentioned casually, already arms-deep in the Suspendium generator.
Flash's head snapped up. "Supes, wait! This place is supposed to run unsupervised and undetected for long periods, so it's probably powered by a –"
There was a loud squeal of tearing metal as Superman ripped the turbine in half, which was followed immediately by a clang as he dropped the piece he had been holding, falling to his knees and clutching his chest in pain.
"– Kryptonite reactor." Flash finished lamely.
Alexandria, finding herself momentarily unhassled by the automatic defences, flew over to the other hero. "What's wrong with him?"
"Supes absorbs sunlight through his skin, but Kryptonite radiation gets in through the same way. It's basically poison to him." Flash explained, too busy trying to get his foot free to see the extremely annoyed look Batman was shooting him. "Look for a glowing green crystal."
Alexandria turned to the destroyed wreck of the reactor and started to sift through the debris, Superman coughing and wheezing behind her. "Sivana built a whole reactor just to deal with one cape?"
"Doubt it." Flash replied. "Kryptonite is pretty weird stuff – if you build a reactor to run off it, the reactor will decay before the Kryptonite will."
Superman managed to get an annoyed grunt in between his heaves. Lex Luthor had tried to use that fact to justify filling Metropolis with Kryptonite reactors more than once.
Alexandria finally found the fuel rod equivalent in the wrecked reactor, pulling out a small green crystal the size of her thumb. "The whole base ran of this little thing?"
"Well, it was probably just trickle-charging the main capacitors, but could you please get rid of it? Like, now?" Flash's voice started to sound urgent as Superman's heaves started sounding weaker.
Alexandria looked behind her at the rather sickly-looking Superman, who managed to grimace painfully at her.
"Stay there." Batman commanded. "I'm almost finished with this thing, and I have a lead-lined compartment in my –"
Alexandria ignored him, pinched her nose shut and swallowed the Kryptonite crystal whole.
Superman took one more deep gulp of air, then shot forward in a blue-and-red blur as though trying to make up for lost time. He washed over the room like a wave, leaving dismembered and destroyed machinery in his wake.
Batman, his opponent destroyed by a speeding Kryptonian, walked over to Alexandria and narrowed his eyes.
Alexandria glared at him. "My body is frozen in time. It'll work better than any lead at containing the radiation."
Plus, this way nobody would be asking for the crystal back. Alexandria really wanted Dragon to have a look at it, if it was as useful as it seemed to be.
If there was one technology of the JLA's that Alexandria really wanted, it was their teleporters. One of the greatest challenges of Endbringer battles was just getting everyone there in time. A set of teleporters with worldwide reach that were safe for human use? Alexandria couldn't even begin to count how many lives that would have saved.
Plus, they apparently worked on the 'disassemble-me-here', 'reassemble-me-there' principle, so converting them into disintegration devices with worldwide reach should also be easy. (Such thoughts were probably why the Justice League didn't share them.)
Regardless, with their stolen equipment in tow, the heroes rematerialised back in the Hall of Justice, where Doctor Pym was waiting for them with the skeletal frames of several car-tyre-sized devices.
Flash and Doctor Richards both moved forwards with armfuls of machinery. Flash kept blurring around the small workshop at the back of the Hall, running his load through various tools to disassemble, file, cut, glue together, and reassemble the various electronics. Richards and Pym, meanwhile, seemed to be marrying the stolen equipment to some they had brought themselves. Alexandria blinked as Pym tapped one of the pieces, causing it to shrink to 1/6th of it's former size.
Armsmaster would kill for that kind of tech. She thought. Possibly literally.
"Have you found a solution to the power problem yet?" The gravelly tones of Batman demanded.
Pym made a 'sort-off' gesture with his off hand. "We've identified the universes around 'ground zero' with the highest energy readings. We can get you as close as the right planet, but after that it's up to you to convince the locals to let you plug the dampeners into their 'energy crystals' or 'magic rock' or whatever it turns out to be."
Plastic Man raised his hand (stretching it all the way to the ceiling). "Can't we just ask the Spectre to juice these things?"
"Sure." Flash responded. "If you know how to find the guy. He usually turns up on his own."
"Have ya tried asking Zauriel?"
Pym looked up at Richards. "Speaking of super-powerful people whose names start with 'S', should we ask the Sentry for help?"
"Is the universe actively collapsing around us?" Richards responded.
Pym blinked. "No…?"
"Then the situation is not bad enough to risk getting the Sentry involved." Richards said with an air of finality, slotting another component in place.
The room flashed golden as Access appeared again. "Found a few more o' yer friends, Alexandria."
Three people stood behind him, having appeared in the same teleport he had. Joseph Joestar and Kumagawa were there, having apparently survived the battle in Tartarus none-the-worse for wear.
But Alexandria's eye were focused on the third arrival, Legend. He face was locked in serious contemplation, but as soon as he noticed her it twisted into fury.
"What. The hell. Was that." He said, low and tense.
The League looked at Access in confusion. For his part, Access blinked somewhat stupidly at the brewing storm. Legend evidently hadn't show any sign of this reaction until just now.
"Legend –" Alexandria tried to head the argument off, but Legend wasn't having any of it.
"She knew you, Alexandria. She knew you! Not telling me about Ajimu is one thing, but now this? How many secrets are you keeping from me?!"
Alexandria managed, somehow, not to flinch.
The League, unsure about whether to intervene, shared uneasy looks. Those working on the dampeners continued working, but with one eye on the commotion. Joseph scratched his head, and Kumagawa continued his empty smile. Access, feeling the tension, decided discretion was the better part of valour and left in a teleport to go find more dimensionally-displaced people.
Legend glared at her for another few seconds, drawing the moment out, before breaking eye contact with a huff. "I suppose you're going to tell me that you didn't tell me about this 'White Queen' girl for my own good?"
"Of course not!" Alexandria bit out, hiding how much the words stung.
"Then tell me why!" Legend demanded. "Why didn't you tell me about her!"
"I did!"
The entire room paused.
Legend blinked, slowly. "Come again?"
"I told you, and Eidolon, and Doctor Mother – all of you." Alexandria said. "She's a Stranger. I explained about her twice before I realised I was the only one who didn't forget everything about her over time. She's what the Foundation call an Anti-Meme – a self-keeping secret."
"Oh." Legend said, in a tone of voice that made Alexandria half-expect his next words to be 'Well, that's all right then'. It made her feel twice as bad about all the secrets she was keeping from him.
"If I may interject." The voice of Doctor Fate broke in.
Legend looked over at the other assembled capes in the room, and seemed to suddenly realise what a scene he'd been making. "Oh, ah, yes?"
Fate wiggled his fingers, and a book floated into the room. Alexandria managed to catch the title as it floated past her - 'The complete works of Hans Christian Andersen'. Fate caught the book deftly, and waved his hand over it. The book opened, the pages turning as though caught in a strong wind. "If the issue is that people cannot remember the Queen because they are not part of the legends of the world –"
Fate's hand and the book suddenly shone a white so bright that it completely blinded Alexandria, and she raised her arms to guard herself purely out of reflex. That proved to be unnecessary, however, because when the light faded the only thing that had changed was their location. Herself, Legend, and Fate had all been moved to beside a pond in the woods somewhere.
"– then one should be able to remember everything one is told about her, so long as they were in the legends of the world at the time." Fate finished, a group of ducklings and an infant swan swimming away frantically from the strange arrivals.
Alexandria blinked at the sudden transition. Somehow, that feels different from when Ajimu does it…
Fate pointedly turned to the pond and attempted to coax the ducks back, leaving Legend and Alexandria to talk alone.
Legend cleared his throat. "Alexandria. The Queen?"
Alexandria sighed, and began to tell a story for the third time. "Remember last year, when Behemoth attacked Cambodia?"
Name: Doctor Sivana (full name: Thaddeus Bodog Sivana)
Series: DC Comics
Disposition: Villain
Location: Unknown, last seen in Earth Tsadi
General Information: You know the stereotype of the mad scientist?
[Draft rejected: unprofessional]
General Information: Readers may be familiar with the stereotype of the 'mad scientist'. They are portrayed as being bald, wanting to conquer the world, being able to build whatever gadget they need, has a beautiful daughter, and when defeated, will utter the phrase "Curses! Foiled again!"
That's not a stereotype. That's literally Doctor Sivana.
[Draft rejected: unprofessional]
Most stereotypes are based on one influential figure, and in this case that person is Doctor Sivana.
Sivana holds the dubious honour of being the first 'recurring' Villain - that is, he is the first Villain to launch a plot that captured the media's attention, get captured, then escape and try something equally attention-grabbing. He also seems to be immersed in his role - he will quite happily describe himself as the "World's Wickedest Scientist".
Sivana has four children, all of which have parahuman powers of their own: Beautia (Master), Magnificus (Brute), Georgia (Tinker) and Sivana, Jr (Tinker). Holds a personal grudge against the Hero Shazam (formerly known as Captain Marvel), who has usually been the cause of his defeats.
Classification:
Tinker Yes:
[Draft rejected: unprofessional]
Tinker 10: Sivana is a 'Free Tinker' - that is, he appears to have no specific specialisation, and has been known to build everything from time-stopping 'Suspendium' to mind-controlling nano-worms and even a 'Reincarnation machine' that can revive the dead. Like most Tinkers, if caught between plots he is far less dangerous, but he has genuinely threatened world order on multiple occasions, and has been caught experimenting with inter-universal travel before.
Mover [Intangibility] 5: A device that Sivana keeps on his person at all times allows him to walk through solid objects. It is activated by reciting a mathematical formula out loud. Sivana claims that the formula alone is what grants him this ability, which is of course ridiculous.
Recommended Strategies: Anti-Tinker tactics turned up to 11.
[Draft rejected: unprofessional]
Recommended Strategies: Anti-Tinker tactics.