? December 22nd 2010 11:00 AM EDT

I woke with a groan. My head hurt, my body hurt, my hair hurt somehow. I was basically just a walking concentration of pain at this point and I did not enjoy that. I shifted slightly, checking for broken bones, and fortunately I didn't find any. I was surprised I'd even taken this much damage with my frankly absurd vitality. As I moved however I noticed something slightly unnerving. Pine needles. Also dirt, and small rocks, and roots. I was lying in the woods. Which was weird because I was not an outdoorsy person, so the reason for me being here couldn't be good.

I finally opened my eyes, and sure enough, I was in the woods. Well, that was misleading. Calling this "the woods" implied that it was in any way similar to forests that I had seen before, and it really, really wasn't. For one thing the trees were absolutely huge. Like... as wide around as a relatively small building, and much taller than they should feasibly be based on their width. My eyes widened as my brain revved up and finally processed where I was and what had happened. I rolled over, scrambling in the dirt to try to find any sign of the girls.

I heaved a sigh of relief when I saw them nearby. I was guessing one of us had shielded them or something because they looked a bit jostled but not nearly as beat up as I felt. I was glad, since I suspected the amount of damage it would take to leave bruises and lasting pain on my half ghost half devil body was enough to smash them into paste. I spotted a shock of red hair off to one side and noticed with some relief that Wally was in one piece too. That was good, Artemis would have killed me if he died.

I considered waking them up now, but I figured it would be a better idea to do some recon. For all I knew sleep might be hard to come by here. Their auras were stable, so I wasn't worried about head trauma or anything. I just dragged Wally over by the girls and created a few clones to head off and look around while I got started building a fire. Luckily Jim had been fanatical about preparation and shoved tons of books down my throat, and I remembered how to make a smokeless fire.

The clones cost twenty points a piece and I made five of them, bringing my now fifty six hundred points down to fifty five. I seemed to remember being at seven thousand still, so I must have pumped out quite a bit shielding the others. Once they headed out I started gathering all the broken branches and sticks I could find into a pile along with a pretty decent moss bed. It took me a while to remember exactly how to make a smokeless fire, but it seemed like time worth spending to make sure we weren't noticed by whatever lived out here.

Digging a hole to burn the stuff in was much less annoying than expected, mostly due to my ability to make a shovel out of the grey amalgam of ectoplasm and shadows that I had mentally decided to call Deadsteel. I'd noticed during the fight with Circe that the combination of shadow and ectoplasmic constructs created much more durable and much longer lasting objects. In fact, I was pretty sure the stuff would actually stick around unless I dissolved it, so it was pretty ideal for tools.

After I dug the pit and got the fire going properly without the big cloud of smoke to tell all the ghoulies and ghosties where we were, I carried the others over to lay them down around the fire. I didn't feel like it was night time exactly, but the canopy of these giant ass trees was so dense it kind of seemed like the middle of the night. After I got that done I sat down on a chair I pulled from my spatial ring and took out some food. I had hot dogs I could cook, but I didn't want to give us away to predators with the smell so I decided to wait until my clones got back. I just had some chips.

After fifteen minutes or so my clones came back. Or at least four of them did. Their flight was pretty damn fast under the combined propulsion of my wings and ghostly power, so they had covered about a mile around us in four different directions and found...nothing. Well, they found more woods, and in one direction what seemed like some sort of giant ant hill, but the aura around the place was freakish and horrible and I definitely didn't want any part of whatever lived down there.

One of the clones had tried going up into the canopy to check out the sky and hadn't come back, which meant that was the only direction I didn't know was a dead end. I integrated the knowledge of the one mile around us as thoroughly into my mental map of the place as possible and considered what to do next. Before I could decide though, a groan reached my ears. I was up in a flash, sword drawn, but it was only Wally waking up.

I sighed and sat back down, nodding to the sidekick. "Oh, hey. Try not to make too much noise, the girls are still out. I want to let them have their rest while I know they can get it. We have no clue what's here." I reached into my spatial ring and tossed him a power bar. "I know how much you eat, figured you might need a pick me up. I hate these things and only keep them for emergencies so you can have it."

He stared at me, his brain catching up to the situation as he looked around, then down at Artemis, and up at me. He unwrapped the power bar and bit into it viciously, clearly angry. "Do you really need the mask Morgan? It's not like it's hard to figure out who you are now that I found out my girlfriend is a murdering sociopath." He spoke around a mouthful of food but his voice was still icy and biting. I was pissed at the comment, I wanted to blast him with a bolt of exctoplasm, but cooler minds prevailed and I held back.

I took a deep breath. "First of all. Artemis has never killed anyone. She doesn't approve of me doing it either, even though she knows its necessary. If she had been awake to hear that you would have a foot of steel in your guts, instead of getting the rational response I'm giving now. Second of all, for someone who doesn't care it was awful stupid to throw yourself into an unstable portal to an unknown higher dimension to try to save her. Maybe snapping like an asshole isn't the way to play this."

He looked frustrated, and for a second I thought he would attack me, but he just slumped down. "How could she lie to me about this? How could she not tell me? After all the things we went through lately..." He stopped, blinking. "Shit that's why she broke up with me isn't it? She found out I was Kid Flash." I nodded, taking off my mask and he just sighed. "I don't...I don't know what to do Morgan. I love her. I love her so much it hurts, but how do I live with this?"

I shrugged. "You just do, man. If you hadn't noticed my lady love and I aren't exactly on the same pole of the moral compass, but we make it work. Sometimes it's hard, sometimes she hates the things I do. But she loves me, and she knows her world is better with me in it. Or at least that's what I've gathered from her responses when I ask her what she's doing with a basket case like me." I chuckled a bit at my own joke, because no one else was going to.

Wally furrowed his brow. "Is it really that easy? Love will find a way? That just seems so...delusional. Like I'm just ignoring reality to live in my own little bubble. Because yeah, I have to admit my world is better with her in it, but how do I deal with know she could be out robbing or hurting someone, doing the exact same things as the people I work so hard to stop, and not feel like a total hypocrite?"

I rolled my eyes. "Oh get over yourself." He looked shocked.I could see his face better since his mask was shredded and his eyes had widened in incredulity at the comment. "Your entire profession is an exercise in self delusion. The world sucks, everyone in it suffers. For every person you save a million more will die before you finish asking if they're ok. We take the happiness we can get. Is you ignoring Artemis possibly committing crimes any different than unknowingly ignoring a hundred thousand other people doing the same thing?"

He seemed lost for words, so I kept going. "You delude yourself every day, thinking the one or two bad guys you stop make a difference in the grand scheme of things. Artemis isn't a monster, she isn't sauteing babies and pairing them with a nice cabernet, she's a thief. Hell all of us are thieves, the killing was never something I wanted, I did what I had to do to protect my own, and it made me sick, but don't project that onto her. She's her own person, and if your relationship isn't more important to you than her snatching a rolex from some rich guy, you don't deserve her."

The fire crackled, but I hear another sound under it, a gasping sound of pain and sorrow, and I jerked my head over to see Artemis sitting up on the other side of the fire, hand over her mouth and eyes full of tears. She was looking at me with gratitude and affection, and I just rolled my eyes at her. "Oh stop that, you'll make me regret it." I turned back to Wally. "Don't be an idiot. Don't throw away happiness because of some imaginary line you don't want to cross. Hell, I'm pretty sure Batman is banging Catwoman, so it's not like the League can demote you for having a criminal sidepiece."

I had to dodge the rock Artemis threw at me for that comment but it was pretty much childs play. I looked over to see Zee still resting peacefully but the love birds needed alone time so I stood up and offered them my chair. "You guys take a seat." I tossed some food on the chair. "Eat up. I'm going to go do some recon, I checked most directions but I still have to see what's up above the canopy." With a nod to both of them I melted into shadow form and raced across the clearing and up onto the nearest tree.

My clone had tried intangibility but that hadn't save it, so I decided to rely on not being physically present to get the job done. Hopefully whatever killed my clone couldn't hurt me like this. I headed up the trunk of the tree. And up. And up. And up some more because dear gods these things were tall. It felt like I was traveling for a half an hour before I finally made it to the top and slipped out between the branches.

I didn't see what had killed my clone, maybe it was an ambush predator, but at the very least my aura sight wasn't picking up anything out here in the sky with me, so I very grudgingly returned to my physical form so I could use my eyes properly instead of relying on the weird sort of area of effect sight I had as a shadow. I turned on the tree top, looking in every direction but when I turned one specific way I froze. Huh, I'd expected a lot of things in this weird higher world, but giant floating golden city was not one of them. That was new.

? December 22nd 2010 12:00 PM EDT

I should clarify. When I say giant, I don't mean giant by the standards of a normal city. I mean giant like there was a fucking continent floating off in the distance. The sun was massive and shining white, the sky was the clearest crispest blue I could imagine, everything above the skyline looked like a wonderland. The actual planet however, was anything but friendly. I didn't see any sign of life or habitation on the ground, in fact, aside from what looked like hundreds of miles of fucking trees I could only spot a massive mound of dirt, presumably the hellhole my clone mentioned, which was admittedly way too close for my liking.

So, obviously, our best move was going to be to head for civilization. I wasn't sure where the actual fuck we even were, but I would pick shining golden city in the clouds over monster infested bug pit or looming terrible forest every time. I melded back into the shadows and slid down the tree soundlessly, once again bypassing whatever killed my clone. I made sure to pay special attention to the direction of the city, and even marked the side of the tree when I got to the bottom so we would know which way to go.

Artemis and Wally were hugging when I came down, which was a good sign I was hoping, but I had to break up the love fest sadly. I cleared my throat and they jumped and turned to look at me. Artemis was glaring. "Gods Morgan, do I have to put a bell on you? I've told you not to sneak up on me like that. What did you see? Anything important? Do you know where we are?"

I exhaled heavily. "Yes and no. I know where we aren't. I know we're nowhere on Earth, which we already kind of knew, and we aren't anywhere near civilization, though I did see some from the top of the tree. There's a giant floating fortress city made of gold in that direction." I pointed towards where I'd seen the floating continent. "Well, city is an understatement maybe, but it's made up of buildings, which means probably sentient life. Most likely gods if we go off the theory that Circe opened a portal to the Sphere of the Gods. Though given its unstable nature maybe not."

She puffed out her cheeks, clearly annoyed. "Well at least we have a direction we can head in now. You want to wake sleeping beauty over there?" She nodded to my girlfriend, who was amazingly still snoozing away. I smiled softly at how gorgeous she looked like that, even dirty and curled up on the ground my Zee was something else. I nodded and she and Wally headed over to the tree I'd marked, giving me some space to wake up Zatanna. I crouched down next to her and gently brushed some of that silky black hair from her face.

I shook her by the shoulder gently. "Zee? Wake up baby." She grumbled and tried to bury her head in my hand to block out the noise. I had to smile because Zee was always a huge pain in the ass to wake up. Even on an alien planet sleeping in the middle of a primeval forest she managed to be grumpy in the mornings. I shook her again. "Rise and shine love, we need to get going." She grumbled a bit more but peeked open one eyes, already pouting before she even saw me. The pout vanished however when she saw where we actually were.

She was sitting bolt upright in an instant. "Morgan? Where are we? I remember..." Her face paled, which was a trick considering how milky her skin already was, her elfin nature causing her to develop an almost shining pallor to contrast with her pitch black hair. Still, it was clear she was distressed as she looked around. "We went through the portal. Is this the Sphere of the Gods?" She spun in circles, coming to her feet ready to fight, but when she saw no one in the nearby wood and noticed how relaxed I was, she calmed down.

I beckoned her over to Wally and Artemis, filling them all in on the things my clones and I had seen despite the other couple already knowing some of it. Zee frowned when I finished. "Did you try the sending stones? They can't be interfered with right? Maybe we can reach them that way?" I shook my head. That had been one of the first things I'd attempted. She cursed. "Alright, well, maybe we have other options? What about..." She trailed off, eyes darting to Wally. I instantly got what she meant.

I hadn't actually considered that, my power might still be working, even if I didn't have any new emails even the list I'd managed to gather before might have something helpful, the only real issue here was that we were in mixed company. I wasn't going to let my girlfriend and my bestie die because I was reticent to share my secrets, but at the same time I didn't have to go full idiot and completely expose myself to the enemy, or whatever Wally was at the moment.

Luckily I had other options, just because he realized I could do something doesn't mean he would know what, and as long as he didn't see my phone he wouldn't know how it worked. That was an easy fix, I just raised a wall of shadows around me to stop him from seeing what I did. It wasn't exactly a brilliant plan, but hell it could be much worse. Since the girls wouldn't answer even if Wally asked a question, at least I could preserve some of my secrets this way. Besides, hopefully he would respect professional courtesy at least until we were out of this.

I opened my email on my phone, not surprised it was fine because I'd been smart enough to store it under my Armor of Gloom, which was durable as all hell. I opened my email and flipped through my various spam. The usual items were on there, the weird stuff I got from visiting odd forums and so on, but when I sorted the emails by most recent I saw that there were indeed some from the last few hours. I had no idea how because I wasn't connected to any networks, but I was definitely still getting spam mail. Thank you reality bending super power.

The emails were weird, and the point values were insane. Luxurious high rise dwellings in "Supertown", which I had to assume was that giant golden continent sized city until I knew better. Golden apples of Divine Might imbued with divinity to help strengthen the consumers godly power. Various weird elixirs and potions with effects ranging from changing the nature of someone's divinity to turning them into s Verrofax, which based on the pictures seemed to be some kind of giant eight armed ogre bear.

All of these were in the hundreds of thousands of points at the low end, and some even in the millions. The most expensive, sitting at a hundred million fucking points, was an ad for a black market version of something called a "Mother Box" whatever the fuck that was. I put my phone away and sifted through the information I'd gathered before dropping the shield and giving the non scam related stuff to the others as info. Wally looked curious as to how I learned any of this, but that curiosity was washed away by recognition at my last tidbit.

His eyes widened in excitement. "I know that term! One of Conner, er Superboy's friends used it. Some big weird guy named Bear. He traveled with a group of three other guys and this super hot girl named..." He trailed off when he realized Artemis was there. "Er, a very nice young lady named Dreamer. They came from a place called New Genesis, and they called themselves New Gods, which kind of fits with that Sphere of the Gods thing you were all talking about. That must be where we ended up! Those Forever People or whatever might have a way home!"

Artemis didn't seem too bothered by Wally's slip, but I knew she was trying to train him not to be such an incorrigible flirt, so I didn't expect her to let that comment lie. She raised an eyebrow and Wally sheepishly apologized. She just gave him a sweet smile that would have immediately put anyone who knew her on guard. "Oh no need to be sorry babe, we're aloud to find other people attractive. I don't even mind talking about it if you don't." Casually she turned to look at my girlfriend. "Speaking of Zee, did you see that hunk of beef Superboy? I'd love to ride that pony."

Zee snickered while Wally looked halfway between horrified and disgusted, clamping his hands over his ears. "Argh, no, I can't get that mental image out of my head Arty! Point taken, I wont drool over other girls, especially in front of you. Just...never say anything like that again? There's not enough bleach in world to burn that out of my brain." She winked at him and he chuckled a bit himself, rolling his eyes. "Anyway, I figure we can try to find the Forever People at that city you saw."

I nodded. "It's as good a place to start as any I'd say, slight problem though. When I said I saw it I meant in the distance, like...barely the size of my pinkie nail in the skyline, which considering the scale of it based on the mountains nearby means it's REALLY far away. It will probably take months to get there even at our top speed." I remembered something and mentally skimmed the list of new emails with my perfect memory. "I might have a solution though. If we wait a week or two I can get us something called a "Whiz Wagon". It's some kind of god car or something."

Wally once again looked curious but wisely tamped down on that. He seemed to be much more upbeat given our possible way home, but I had to let him down again. "Also, sorry to tell you but that city is like the size of a small continent. Even once we get there it might take us a while to find your friends." His shoulders drooped, but I didn't want to crush his spirit completely. "It's more than we had earlier though, and hope is always better than nothing." Plus worst case I could save up over a few years and get us the mother box. It sounded like that was how they traveled.

I gestured off into the dark woods in the direction of the city. "In the meantime we head for Supertown I suppose. Better start walking." We set off in the direction of the city. I put an arm over my girlfriend's shoulder and sent out an invisible clone or two to scout for us as we walked, but other than those precautions I tried to take in the scenery. Other than the forest being dark and primordial and full of weirdly large plants this place was actually pretty cool. I looked over to Artemis. "So does this count as a really long double date?"

My best friend snorted. "Oh sure. Other friends double at the movies or a diner or something, but an alien super planet full of literal gods definitely seems more like the kind of place we'd take our significant others." She looked to Zee. "What do you think? These boys getting lucky tonight, because I don't know about you, but nothing gets me hotter than the thought of small sticks poking me in the back when a big one is poking me in the front." I grimaced at that mental image and Wally groaned at the joke but Zee just burst out laughing. I began to reconsider my stance on this place. I hated it here.

New Genesis December 30th 2010 8:00 PM EDT

Traveling on the surface of New Genesis was weird. Half the time we were bored out of our minds and had to entertain each other talking, the other half we were running for our lives from horrifying freakish bug monsters so terrifying even I didn't want to mess with them. I was still a ways out from being able to get us that Whiz Wagon thing, so we were hoofing it for the most past, though Wally and I also carried our respective girlfriends as much as possible given our notable advantage in raw speed.

After more than a week traveling together though we were all getting much more comfortable around each other. I had to admit that part of me was pretty sure we were using Wally as a substitute for Reggie because out group dynamic felt off without him. Still, the redhead was a blast to have along on a road trip and a genuinely funny guy and the longer we were around him the more I hoped he and Artemis worked things out. Occasional monster beast aside, the whole trip really did kind of feel like a camping trip.

I'd used my phone secretly a few times to grab some survival gear, some food, and various other supplies, blowing through a thousand points between supplies and travel. Luckily my spatial ring was pretty much the perfect excuse for conjured items as long as we were careful not to let Wally see them showing up. I pulled things out of it all the time, so when a random tent with a bedroom in it showed up, or a machine that converted raw materials into delicious meals, there was no reason to question where it came from.

Today was nice enough. The trees had become sparser, letting in actual sunlight, which seemed to make the horrifying bug monsters less likely to attack. We were all walking at the moment, because we tried to save carrying the girls for when we needed to run from a monster or had confirmed we would be safe for the next while. However, as we made our way into a particular clearing, I froze. The others stopped on a dime, trusting my sense. Zee sidled in close, whispering to me. "What's wrong? Is it another bug beast?"

It wasn't. I hadn't sensed one of those for days. I could sense something though, a new aura I didn't recognize. Or rather quite a few of them. I tried my best to keep my voice casual. "Nah, nothing like that. I think we might have some new friends to say hi to is all. No reason to be anything but calm." I hoped my tone conveyed the mood I was trying to communicate. The auras I felt seemed on edge and potentially violent. I absolutely did not want to fight anything native to this planet after meeting the bug things.

Luckily they also seemed intelligent enough to watch us and try to puzzle out what we wanted instead of just jumping us. I stepped out into the clearing, pitching my voice low enough to be nonthreatening but not so low that nearby listeners couldn't hear me. "Hello? Is anyone out there? We don't mean any harm." I kept my eyes focused straight ahead as I spoke, doing my best to look between the groups of auras I could see without making it obvious that I was doing it on purpose.

No response. I gave it a minute and then looked to my friends. "Ok, guess there isn't anyone there after all, my bad." I winked, making sure my head was turned away from the woods where the auras were gathered. I saw their heads all nod slightly, proving they got it, and then we started forward again, pretending to be oblivious. I raised my voice a bit, just so they would know we were talking. "So, Zee any ideas for what you want to do for new years? As far as I can tell it's tomorrow."

Her voice at a perfectly normal pitch, and clearly not acting, she immediately responded. "Sex." I stopped and turned to stare at her, a bit surprised to see her being so blunt. I knew she'd been pent up but she was usually a bit more discrete about our sex life. At least when we weren't in the actual process of engaging in it. She shrugged. "What? It's been over a week, and before that we took like a month of for your meditation. I mean sure, I'd love to kiss you at midnight and be all sappy and romantic too, but a girl has needs. I want my tonsils tickled from the bottom."

Artemis burst out laughing, ignoring her boyfriend's distinctly uncomfortable look. Which I suspected had more to do with how hot it was when Zee talked like that than any prudishness. My best friend wiped the corner of one eye. "Oh gods, I needed that. I'm a bad influence on you baby girl and I love it." She shot her own boyfriend an appraising look, chewing her bottom lip. "Also not against that plan. We can split up a bit and have some fun. The sending stones can't reach home but they still work between us."

I actually had no reservations about that plan at all. I'd been pretty pent up myself, and clapping my girlfriends thick juicy cheeks in the woods for new years sounded like paradise to me. She could obviously tell too because she shot me a smug little smirk and a wink of her own. I laughed. "Ok then, tomorrow night we'll give each other some alone time. Though maybe Zee can make us some sound dampeners or something? They won't affect the sending stones and I have literally no desire to hear my surrogate sister hit a high C on her back."

Wally threw his hands up, his face almost as red as his hair. "Oh my god do you guys have to be so gross about everything." He couldn't meet any of our eyes and it was hard to hold in the giggles. We'd noticed Wally was, despite his flirtatious nature, uncomfortable with blunt talk about sex. We'd made sort of a game out of trying to get him to break by making the lewdest comment possible. As soon as he said anything both girls threw up their hands with a groan, glaring at the redhead.

I however, whooped with glee, pretty much forgetting our wood dwelling stalkers. "Fuck yes!" Wally looked confused as I stalked over to the girls, holding out my hands as both of them coughed up some of the more delicious berries we'd found on the walk. My aura sight made finding edible food easy, but some things tasted better than others. I collected the mouth watering delights as I turned to the redhead. "Sorry about that. We had a pool going about who would get you to crack and say something first."

His jaw dropped in shock and Artemis snickered a bit. "Sorry babe, but you kept wincing so cutely whenever one of us made a euphemism or crude joke. It started out as just trying to make you flinch a bit but then kind of spiraled. It was just a joke I promise. If it helps we have almost no boundaries anyway because bright eyes over there screams like a banshee during sex. Seriously, I know things about their sex life I can never unhear, so it's only fair that you join in my torment."

Wally rolled his eyes a bit but I could see from his aura that he wasn't offended. The guy could take a joke, and that's clearly what this was. There was a reason I liked him after all. Despite that, he narrowed his eyes at all of us. "You realize of course, that this means war?" We all grinned as he declared his intention to prank us all back. It was the reaction we'd been hoping for. Especially me since my ninja powers made sneaking up on me or getting me in a trap impossible.

All I had to do was keep up a bit of vigilance and enjoy the constant terror the girls were subjected to by the revenge seeking speedster. It was kind of nice really. Having enough faith that we would get out of this to feel comfortable ragging on each other like that. Sadly, all good things must end, however, because apparently our mystery peeper got tired of waiting and suddenly, we weren't alone anymore. Suddenly there was a woman standing in front of us. She appeared out of nowhere like a ghost (and I should know) but that wasn't the most shocking thing about her.

Wally raised his hand in a mockery of a kid asking a question in a classroom. "Um? Does anyone else see a naked woman standing in front of us?" When we all signaled that we did he exhaled in relief. "Oh good, I thought it might just be me." He wasn't the only one confused. The woman in front of us was...well, gorgeous. I was taken but I still enjoyed a good view and this lady was a nine out of ten. Tall and lithe with olive skin covered in colorful tattoos and absolutely physics defying tits that had to be E cups and completely defied gravity.

I admit it, I stared a bit, at least until Zee elbowed me in the ribs. I winced and glared at her but she just arched an eyebrow. I rolled my eyes and focused on the newcomer. "Hello. I'm Morgan, what's your name?" I didn't speak slowly or louder than usual because neither of those helps people understand a language if they don't speak it and I always hate in movies when people do it. Luckily, I didn't need to because one of my least utilized and most interesting devil abilities chose that moment to rear its head.

Devils, for whatever reason, can speak any language. Well, no, that wasn't accurate. We spoke our own language, the passive ability "Language" just translated it into understandable speech for anyone hearing it and vice versa. Still, even the appearance of being able to speak their dialect seemed to stun the beautiful woman, whose aura suddenly seemed much less hostile. I was pretty glad of that because I could sense a shit ton of power from her and I really didn't want to have to fight her.

Her body hummed with natural energy, especially the gems seemingly embedded in her flesh. She raised one delicate eyebrow and spoke, her words sounding like English to me. "You speak our tongue? Not even all of the City Gods bother with such respect. Why do you traverse our wilds? We do not appreciate uninvited guests, even those who pay us the courtesy of learning our tongue." I had to bite down to prevent myself from making a joke about learning her tongue that would have gotten me on the bad side of both the native woman and my girlfriend, but I managed.

I shook my head. "We didn't come here on purpose. We ended up stranded here and we're trying to make our way to the City. I don't suppose you have some means of reaching there more quickly?" Judging by her comment about the City Gods I somehow doubted the two peoples were close, so unfortunately we were most likely on our own in terms of transport to the golden continent.

To my surprise she gave me a sharp smile. "Perhaps. Why don't you return with us to our home and discuss it." I got a very unpleasant feeling from that smile, which unfortunately was almost immediately confirmed as dozens of the natives came pouring from the trees to appear encircling us. Her smile pulled into a baring of teeth. "Please. We insist." Somehow, that didn't seem like it was going to end well. Shit.

New Genesis December 30th 2010 9:00 PM EDT

I know I should have been surprised, but honestly, shit like this happened to me way too often. Of course the natives were hostile and decided to capture us. Because why not right? But unfortunately I wasn't even remotely confident in beating all of these people. My clones were glass cannons that could only fire once, and these people were literal gods from what I knew of this place. Even just based on aura any one of these assholes could throw down with me on my best day.

On the bright side, despite their obvious aggression here they didn't seem to want to actually kill us, more like...they needed our help with something. The others meanwhile, had no idea what was going on, mostly because they didn't speak Low Genesisian (which is what my Language ability deemed this particular tongue to be). They only saw us being surrounded by randomly appearing primal looking naked people who live in the forests of a planet exclusively populated by literal deities.

They were understandably displeased with this turn of events, so I tried to calm everyone down. Since my voice would be translated to them but still English to my friends I help up both hands to placate everyone. "Whoa there, we appreciate your generous invitation but we really need to get to Supertown. Still, if you could help us out there we'd be happy to help you with something in return. I imagine you have something specific in mind to require our help so urgently?" That was about the most diplomatic way I knew how to ask them what the hell they wanted, so I hoped it was enough.

The woman's sharp features tensed, her eyes narrowed in suspicion, but her aura cooled slightly. They obviously really needed us for...something. I wondered why they wanted our help specifically. I could only assume they had been watching us for a while and seen one of us use an ability that they needed. That implied some of them had stealth that could avoid even my senses, which wasn't comforting but made sense considering they were actual gods.

The woman's frown dropped as she sighed, gesturing to the others around us who all stepped beck in unison. She was clearly the leader here. I sighed in relief and she started talking again. "We have watched you, this last week. This land is ours and none can enter without our knowledge. We have seen your means and your stealth, and we find your abilities...intriguing. If you truly mean as you say we will indeed help you reach the City Gods. But the task with which we seek your aid is no mean feat. Will you accept it?"

It sounded like it would be a pain in the ass, but if it got us home faster I wouldn't bitch about doing a job. The issue was that they hadn't told us what the hell they wanted us to do. In my experience someone trying to get you to commit to a job before taking it was never a good sign. Sadly I didn't have much of a choice here. Still I wanted them to at least say it before we agreed. It would seem more like a favor than blackmail that way.

I raised an eyebrow. "I don't know, maybe you can start by telling us exactly what you need done." I made sure to be as cavalier as possible with my tone, making it seem like I didn't care much. While we couldn't take these guys in a straight fight most likely, they didn't know that. Plus I could teleport so getting away wouldn't be out of the question. Our position wasn't good but it wasn't untenable either.

The woman's nostrils flared and she looked ready to start a fight for a second, but in the end she sighed again, her shoulder slumping in a way that definitely didn't make her very large, very bare breasts bounce noticeably. I winced as Zee elbowed me in the ribs again turning to glare at my irritated girlfriend and shooting her a message via sending. "Oh come on, how am I not supposed to look?"

She didn't respond, arching en eyebrow and then very deliberately looking away. My attention was drawn back to woman as she spoke. "You possess an admirable ability to slip unnoticed into the most secure places. Recently we were raided by a small party of the bio-freaks." I blinked, thinking my Language skill was messing up somehow, but upon reviewing what I'd heard it seemed pretty seamless. Huh, weird name. Her eyes flashed with pain as she continued. "They took captives. Among them my daughter, Naka."

I nodded in understanding. It was my turn to sigh. I knew very well no one in my group would leave a little girl in the care of anything called bio-freaks. I turned to look at the others just to be sure and as I suspected they all nodded. I turned to the woman. "Fine. We'll help get your daughter and the other captives free. In return you have a way to get us safely to Supertown? Because if not we can always just walk."

She burst into giggles, covering her mouth as she snorted a bit in her laughter, seeming embarrassed by the noise. After she stop chortling she apologized. "I am sorry, it is just that at your current pace, you would arrive at the City God's territory in roughly a thousand cycles of the sun." I was pretty sure that last bit was a weirdly translated way of saying days, but that wasn't the part that caught my attention.

My eyes widened in shock. "Days? A thousand DAYS?" I glanced up between the trees to see Supertown off in the

distance. I had apparently low balled how fucking huge the place had been. I'd used the mountain as a reference, which meant they were probably also much bigger than the ones on Earth. Supertown wasn't the size of a small continent, it was the size of fucking Eurasia, at least. I silently cursed perspective tricks. I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply then out one. "Ok, that's fine. We were already going to help. So you have a faster way to get us there?"

She nodded happily. "Oh yes, New Genesis is a vast planet, and we, as the children of it's soil are relatively few in number, at least comparatively speaking. We have means of transport to any part of the planet's surface. We can bring you to the peak of the nearest mountain to Supertown, Mount Creation. The City Gods keep a guard post there to retain contact with us in case of emergency. Traversing the natural path to the mountain will take hours at most."

That was much less horrifying, and all of us calmed down a bit when we heard it. Saving some kids in exchange for skipping literal years of walking seemed like a pretty fucking good deal to me. Focusing back on the task at hand I cleared my throat, regaining everyone's attention. My friends had been gaping at the floating city in the distance. I looked at the woman. "Ok, so tell us who and what these bio-freaks are. Also where? Because I'll be honest, if they can travel like you can we might all be out of luck."

She shook her head vigorously. "Oh no, the bio-freaks possess no means of transportation. We would have been overrun long since were that the case. They are the failed experiments of the Old Gods, disgusting abominations created in an attempt to create the perfect warrior. The bio-freaks possess monstrous strength, but their intellect leaves much to be desired. They swarm within the planet, only coming out to hunt. They mainly live in small burrows, though there is a larger society of them in the bug mounds."

I winced, great. Evil godspawn super soldier mutants. Because that sounded pleasant. Still, if they were stupid that might make this way easier. I could slip right by and teleport the natives out past the bastards and then split. I kind of wished my bloodline had been some kind of all consuming destruction force or something, but then berated myself. That would have been way too overpowered even for a cheating bastard like me. There was no use in wishful thinking.

I stepped forward with a smile. "Alright, can you lead us to the burrow where the bio-freaks took your daughter? I assume it's nearby? Also do you have any information we might be able to use on the bio-freaks? Weaknesses, phobias, food allergies?" I'd take literally anything that would give us some kind of leverage to use against these things. They sounded horrifying.

She gestured for us to follow turning to walk and drawing my eyes to a very expansive jiggling rear that was as naked as the rest of her and just as colorfully tattooed. I caught myself staring and jerked my eyes to Zee worriedly but I just saw her staring back at me and when she noticed my gaze she rolled her eyes, using the stone to send. "Oh please, like I wasn't expecting you to be staring at that wagon she's draggin. I know how you get about butts, I'll let it go since we're going to go save a little girl, but try not to stare TOO hard. And if you touch her I'll never have sex with you again."

I smirked lightly at how well she knew me and slid my hand down her back to grab a handful of her own generous rump. I leaned down to whisper in her ear. "I think I can keep my eyes off her, after all, I've had better." She gave a shuddering breath and pressed back against my hand. I hadn't realized exactly how much her elfin nature increased her sex drive. I made a mental note to make sure we got that alone time on new years. Those bio-freak's asses were grass if they got in the way of my sex life. God weapons or not.

Meanwhile Zee's little interlude had dragged my eyes from those fat bouncing cheeks, which allowed me to have the brain space to hear the woman filling us in on what they knew. "We do not know much about them. They predate us, as New Gods we are those who came after, the Old Gods are those who came before. Their power and magics dwarf our own by a considerable degree. Even the City Gods, who embrace technology over the powers of nature, are hard pressed to understand the bio-freaks."

She hopped lightly over a log in her path, not stopping as she did so and chattering away in a relaxed manner that belied the strenuous activity we were all engaged in as we followed her punishing pace. "The bio-freaks fear no magic that we are aware of, only overwhelming force, though they are susceptible to attacks of the spirit." I wondered if that counted attacks FROM a spirit, because my ectoplasmic bolts could be just what the doctor ordered. Hell, if I got the hostages out first my ghostly wail might clean out the whole lot of them.

I pondered the issues at hand as we we led deeper into the forest, through fields and over streams until we came to a massive open field of dead grass. The yellowed plant life drew even more attention to the giant fuck off hole in the middle of the field. The woman (who had informed us on the way her name was Vana) stepped to the side and gestured at the whole with a single expansive gesture. "This, my friends, is the location of your trial. May it be only a proving ground on your path to glory, and may you return safely with our kin." I had to smile at that, it was the nicest way anyone had ever told me to fuck off.

New Genesis December 30th 2010 10:00 PM EDT

One of my favorite things about my abilities recently, whichever caused it at this point, was my absolutely amazing night vision. My eye sight was aces in the dark, which really came in handy as we climbed down into a giant messy hole in the ground to try to find a bunch of godspawn supersoldiers and fight them to save people we'd never even met. Still, I could tell this meant a lot to both Wally and Zee for different reasons.

I suspected that my girlfriend had been genuinely worried what the siege in Gotham was doing to me mentally, given all the hard calls and violence I'd been engaged in. This clearly heroic rescue mission, selfishly motivated or not, helped put her mind at ease. I was coming with her to rescue a small child, you didn't get less evil than that. Wally in the meantime seemed like he really need to engage in some heroics to feel like he was accomplishing anything.

In both cases I was glad to see I could do something to help them out. They deserved the peace of mind and honestly I'd been feeling like a bit of an asshole lately myself. Helping some random kid was a great way to lift some of the weight from my shoulders about all the killing I'd had to do. Well, killing of humans. I don't think anyone here cared if I had to cap a couple failed science experiments with no sapience to save some kids.

It took longer than expected to reach a point where the tunnels leveled off. I once again wondered exactly how big this planet was. Could we keep climbing like that for days without seeing any real change in the surrounding dirt and stone? Did this planet even have a mantle and a crust like Earth? I signaled for my friends to stop once we reached level tunnels and spammed a dozen clones to check down the varying tunnels. I was fairly annoyed still that dying prevented the memories from returning to me, but at least if one didn't come back we'd know which tunnel was occupied.

We stayed put for about an hour before I finally got a response from one of the clones. The tunnels were too expansive for intangibility to be a good search method but using it to come back to me worked fine and they phased through the wall, dismissing themselves as they got within range so I could get the memories of all the various endings and locations. Luckily one of them actually spotted the kids and was able to lead us there.

I considered bringing the others, but finally decided it wasn't exactly what would be most effective. I turned to whisper

to my friends. "Ok, so here's the plan. My clone found the nest with what looks like the captives based on Vana's description. They're lightly guarded but the patrols are mobile. I'm going to slip over there and slide between their guard and start teleporting the kids to you, and then Wally can run them up to the surface as they come through. You two can keep a lookout to make sure none of the large groups I saw in the other tunnels come down and pen me in."

Naturally Zee wasn't please about this, but even she had to admit this was the best plan. I might be able to avoid even being noticed, and if I wasn't I was the one with the best chance of escape. Once they nodded their assent I turned and shifted into my shadow form, figuring in these dark ass tunnels it would be even better than intangibility. I was packing more than thirteen thousand points still so it was no problem to move at a decent pace down here as I headed for the nest, despite my stealth.

Despite being a literal shadow on the ground however, I was forced to actively dart around as some of the monsters stalked through the intersection I was crossing. My stealth skills and aura vision combining with detective mode to give me a sort of predictive sense for when they were starting to notice me. It was actually kind of cool, and it reminded me of stealth mode in video games where it gave you an indicator of how close your were to discovery. These things clearly had razor sharp senses and I had to dance around along the walls and ceiling to stay out of their detection range.

Finally though, I managed to reach the room where the captives were being held. As my clone had noted they weren't being directly guarded, but the room itself was being regularly patrolled. My immediate instinct was to jump out and face murder all the guards and save the kids, but I was an assassin, not a warrior. This wasn't earth where my stat advantages could let me bully or even equally match my enemies. These things were fucking ancient bio weapons and from their auras any one of them was a serious threat.

So I relied on the skills I'd learned from Jim. I waited. I cased the target. I wasn't rescuing these kids, I was stealing them. I sat on the top of the cavern as a shadow and I watched, I tracked the movements of the guards, I memorized their individual rhythm of motion and created a tapestry of information in my head, breaking down every single stem and lurch into minute increments and mapping out every second of my rescue to the exact inch of where I should be and when.

I had to admit, these things were fucking ugly. Twisted humanoid monstrosities covered in black chitin like beetles, with strange elongated and sharpened limbs that acted as built in weapons. I could see how something would intend being like this to be living weapons, and I absolutely understood why the natives called them bio-freaks. Still, even monsters have patterns, and after about a half hour of watching I was pretty sure I had theirs down. Any longer would be an unnecessary risk, so I'd have to hope there were no surprises.

I slipped down off the wall and into the cavern as the guards passed, skating around their range of detection and resumed my human form as I approached the cage, motioning for the captives to be silent as I approached. The natives looked thrilled to see a human looking person, or New God looking person I guessed, but either way I had to remind them to keep quiet as they spotted me. In the end though, they didn't make a sound and I approached the cage, forming a key from ectoplasm and fitting it into the lock before solidifying the gelatinous substance and opening the lock with a click.

The wide eyes shifted slightly and lost their focus on me, and I almost didn't even need to turn and look. I could sense the fear and despair as they glanced over my shoulder, and I turned with slow, deliberate calm, to look at the room behind me. Sure enough, I'd been discovered. But luckily it wasn't a patrol, just a single lone bio-freak. I wasn't sure if I was strong enough to kill it in a fair fight. I had to protect the hostages, so I stepped forward and drew my King's Sword of Haste, facing the monster.

I began to walk forwards. I expected it to scream or alert it's fellows, but it just cocked it's head like it was scenting prey. It began it's own implacable march, and once it reached the center of the room I stopped, and it mirrored me. Then, slowly I began to circle. It watched as I walked forward, noting as a clone fell out of step lagging behind me, then one behind that, and again, creating a full ring around the creature. The clones all turned and lashed out with their empty hands, bursts of energy converging from nearly every angle. Disturbing for their utter silence even as they closed.

The beast was fast and strong and dangerous. It had the animal instincts of a true predator and it saw the weakness in the web of blasts instantly, darting forward, still eerily silent but with a burst of glee in it's aura to slip past the attack. It was fast and strong and cunning. Unfortunately, it wasn't intelligent. Which was why it didn't notice that none of the dozen or so clones that had now vanished after burning their singular attacks had been the real me.

The real me had been invisible since before the clones even started circling and had silently and imperceptibly walked ti exactly where the gap in the wave of blasts would be and waited for the thing to slip through. Aura, detective mode, and my assassin training made finding a weak spot simple, and I used every bit of my monstrous strength and every bit of martial ability to deliver a picture perfect blow right through a gap between it's spinal plates and up into its brain, killing it instantly.

Assassins like me excelled at powerful but stupid opponents. I flicked the apparently acidic blood off my blade and sheathed it, nodding to the gaping hostage, and after glancing around to make sure there wasn't another one coming I opened a portal to Wally and the girls and had them walk through it one at a time. It was fucking hard. The space on New Genesis was...more, and teleportation was way more complicated here. Porting myself short distances was doable, but holding a stable portal for more than a few seconds was like bench pressing the sky.

It felt like it took ages for them all to get through, but in reality it was probably more like five minutes tops. When the last hostage escaped I released the portal and melted back into a shadow, fleeing down the tunnel toward the girls and Wally. My whole body was exhausted, the strain of fighting the space here for an extended period having depleted my strength completely in a ways I hadn't felt for a long time.

I made it back without any more incidents and got to the girls as Wally was taking the last of the kids up. I reformed in my human shape to see the speedster looking disturbed. I asked if he was ok and he looked up with a jerk of his eyes. "I feel weird. Faster. It's increasing too, but there's something else, like I'm touching something powerful. Every time I run I get closer and closer to it."

That was...interesting. Wally hadn't been pushing too hard since we got here, but it sounded like his power was changing from being on New Genesis. The girls hadn't said anything similar, but they didn't really connect to outside forces. I wondered what those fruits of divinity would do for them. That particular thought process was cut off as a terrible shrieking cry tore through the tunnels from behind us.

Our eyes widened and we bolted, all of clearly hearing the multitude of inhuman voices doing that shrieking. If we could get to the surface we could at least force them to come at us through the tunnels and attack them as they lined up for us. We scrambled and slipped through the dirt as we climbed to the top, barely managing our way out but doing it in half the time the descent took in our haste. I heard a curse and turned to find Artemis had slipped coming out and the first of the bio-freaks had made it out and was bearing down on her.

I saw Wally's eyes widen and Zee's fingers crackle with lightning even as I reached for the shadows to spear the thing and Artemis drew her bow, but none of us were faster than the globe of whirling power that smashes into the thing from above. A loud, deep voice bellowed. "Monsters of below, you face the Monitors of New Genesis!" I looked up to see an army of green armored figures barreling from the sky right towards the oncoming wave of bio-freaks. I smiled in relief. Oh good, that would have been annoying to deal with.

And onward to Supertown we go! also if anyone is interested my new litrpg Wish upon the Stars is on royal road on the rising stars category. If you can check it out, any bit helps! patr-eon has the advance chapters at that site /malcolmtent.