Sell you a Bridge

by MalcolmTent6730

Have you ever gotten an email telling you you've won a free cruise? Or one for a work out that will get you ripped in ten days? Wouldn't it be crazy if those offers were legit? Well for Morgan O'Malley they can be. Spam becomes real life when his meta powers finally manifest. Hopefully the perks of the super life aren't false advertising.

37. Chapter 37

February 26th 2011 The OZ 8:00 AM EDT

We were really lucky the others had left, because we absolutely would have had to leave some of them behind. The hot air balloon was barely able to fit the seven of us. The cornerpups spent the entire trip hanging from the ropes and basket by their claws and yipping joyfully as we listened to Ahamo regale DG with stories about how he ended up in the OZ and met her mother and just generally bonding with his daughter. Artemis was glaring most of the time, mostly because my bestie had no patience for this obvious conman trying to reconnect with our friend after he abandoned her.

To be fair his reasoning for bailing was more valid than Larry's, but I personally thought "I had to stay here and prepare for your return and protect the secret of the emerald" was a copout. He couldn't have just raised her like a decent person and told her all this shit growing up? Lying to her for her entire life and then dumping all of this on her all at once seemed like exactly the worst way to handle things. At least her mother had the excuse of being imprisoned, this asshole was just a lazy dick.

Finally we made it...somewhere. We stopped on a seemingly completely random cliff top and we all climbed out of the balloon. Wally raced off to use the bathroom and the rest of us just looked around. We'd followed the weird weathervane compass to this spot and looking around it seemed like it had led us to a dead end. There was nothing obvious around here to see so I switched to aura sight and then stopped, raising an eyebrow. "Found it." Everyone turned to look where I was pointing.

DG checked the compass before nodding. To my eyes there was a big ass set of double doors sitting there, but apparently the others couldn't see them. As they stepped in closer though, Artemis inhaled sharply. I turned off my aura sight and gave it a shot, stepping forward myself and then side to side. "Huh. Magic camo doors. Basically invisible. I wonder if these are even here if you don't have the compass." Even if they weren't this seemed pretty safe since I didn't think anyone had been here for decades aside from us.

She held up her palm with the brand, and just like at the ice palace the door swung open as her hand glowed. I glared at the thing. "What the fuck is the point of even having doors with knobs when they just magically pop open when they talk to the hand. Like couldn't they have save some effort making a portal or something." Zee snickered but elbowed me in the ribs as Dreamer gave me a disapproving frown, presumably for undercutting DGs epic destiny. I sniffed and headed inside, ignoring them with as much dignity as I could muster.

Once we got in we found...grey. Artemis whistled. "Wow the Grey Gale is really committed to their color palette huh? I have to be honest, in terms of designs for a mausoleum I give them ten points on style and one point of shading. This place is fancy as hell, but it's pretty drab." She pointed to the grey and white walls and the large hole that fell away into the floor, which was also grey. Well, the hole wasn't grey, but the stuff around the edges was grey, including the giant ass spiral of stone steps.

Ahamo cleared his throat with a glare. "This is where the royal family is interred DG. Down there lies those whose blood flows through your veins." I rolled my eyes. According to his little bonding speech he was from Kansas in the first place. Clearly he'd gotten super into his wife's family history and was being way too enthusiastic about it all. It was pretty inappropriate to gush about finding your daughters family gravesite.

We came to the entrance to the space where the Grey Gale was housed after Wally came back, and Ahamo stopped us all. "This next part is DG's alone. She must make her way inside and retrieve the emerald alone." I was about to argue that when Dreamer put a hand on my arm. She nodded to DG, who had a determined look on her face. I sighed and stepped back, gesturing her ahead to her destination.

It took like twenty minutes for her to get in and get the emerald, coming back out a bit dazed. She didn't want to talk much about it, but she mentioned meeting Dorothy. THE Dorothy. Apparently our farm girl hadn't caught on to this place being the literal land from the wizard of oz, though to be fair all the symbolism was probably less obvious if you weren't looking for it, plus she'd had a lot going on. She seemed a bit dazed by the fact that she was related to one of the most prominent fictional characters to ever live.

Ahamo meanwhile was practically glowing. Crowing about how amazing she was. "You're everything I always hoped you would be DG, I am so proud of you!" The man was practically manic with energy and excitement. "With the emerald in our hands we've as good as won!" He swept DG up into a hug spinning her around. "I'm so grateful that you lived up to all our hopes for you."

A sardonic voice cut in, punctuated by a slow clap, and I turned to see Azkedelia step from behind a veil along with a dozen long coats. She sighed dramatically. "Oh daddy, always such a romantic." She cast a lascivious look at me. "Hello again pretty. I'll get to you in a moment. But first, DG why dont you share your pretty new trinket with your big sister." DG yanked it away, hissing that Azkedelia wasnt her sister. She held out a hand, pouting impatiently.

I raised an eyebrow. "So...are you stupid? Because I kicked your ass last time we fought. What gives you the incredibly mistaken impression that I'm going to let you take the emerald we came here for to begin with?" I didn't like how smug she seemed. She was acting like she had a plan for me, and as much as I wanted to just handwave it as pointless this was the OZ and she was the "wicked witch of the dark" apparently. Which made her a prehistoric witch of the west on steroids.

She smiled coldly, tracing her nail over her cleavage again, except this time the tattoos didn't shift, something else did. Energy to be specific, energy that made the heart behind that cleavage glow a toxic green. "She said it herself didn't she? I'm not her sister. But this body is. You'll give me the emerald or I'll tear the heart from her pretty little chest." I blinked. I...hadn't even considered that. I flexed my hand a bit, getting ready to try to restrain her, but she just tsk'ed at me.

The glow brightened. "Ah, ah, ah. I made sure to begin this spell hours ago. Right now the magic in her heart is all that's holding it in place. If the flow cuts off...well." She gave DG a dark smile. "I wonder if our pretty princess will be so pure and innocent with bits of her sisters organs splattered across her face?" DG paled, looking at her sister and the monster inside her in terror.

Fuck. I probably shouldn't have baited her about the manipulation thing. Because this was a decent hostage negotiating tactic. DG was...literally the most innocent person I'd ever met. Even after what we saw at Cain's place she had this sort of unstained optimism that only got dented when she found out how her sister got possessed. I didn't think the person my friend was could survive watching the sister she felt she'd failed have her heart ripped from her chest.

I sneered at her. "Rule one of hostage negotiating, you need to give the other party some incentive. Azkedelia lives if you get the emerald but you collapse the whole world into darkness with your stupid machine. I can take you even with the glowy rock I'm betting. Plus she's your host, if you kill her you're fucked or else why stick with her for so many years? There's too many holes in your trade."

She just giggled. "I've been in here for years, I've regained enough power to stand on my own, and if I don't have the emerald what's the point anyway? I'm so close to my goal, I'll risk it all if I have to. As for the OZ being doomed you can all just leave. You don't belong here anyway. Go home and let me rule in peace and we don't need to have any more problems."

She turned to look at DG. "Or don't. Push me and she dies. Or perhaps you want to hear that from her?" She lifted her hands and projected an image into the air before her. A twelve year old girl with curled up hair and a look of fear on her face. She was looking at DG with tears in her eyes, and when she opened her mouth the witch giggled again and clutched her hand, choking off the supposed plea for help. "See? She's still in there, scared and alone. I used to lie to her you know, tell her I was her friend, tell her I was always going to be here for her. She's been so lonely for so long."

DG's horrified eyes were locked on the illusion of her older sister as tears streamed down her face. She turned to look at me in horror. "Morgan...I can't lose her. I have to do this." I sighed but nodded. I got it. I'd have done the same for Artemis, or Zee, or Reggie. She turned to the witch, holding up the glowing green stone the size of my thumb. "Here. Take it. But this isn't over yet. We aren't going to just sit back and let you turn out the sun. We'll come for you, we'll break down your doors and we'll save my sister."

The emerald zipped across the clearing into her hand and she gave a sharklike grin. "Oh my dear, I'm counting on it. It'll be so much more satisfying to do this while all of you try in vain to stop me." She shot me a wink. "As for you, well...the things I can do with this emerald will make even you miss a step. If you want to come and play though I'll be ready for you, so don't disappoint me lover." She snapped her fingers and she and all of her goons vanished like a puff of smoke.

I winced, teleportation had taken her a big wind up before, but once she got the rock she just blinked them all out of here. I was guessing her little speech about the emerald making her stronger wasn't just for show. I checked my points. Twenty five thousand five hundred. I'd burned some taking down the bounty hunters in Ahamo's bar. I needed a new party trick, something that would maximize my combat potential, which meant I needed to think.

I sighed and reached into my spatial ring, slowly beginning to set up camp as Zee and Artemis comforted DG. Wally came over to pitch in with setting up the tents and Dreamer walked over to stand at my side. She put a hand on my shoulder, giving it a squeeze, and gave me a proud smile, as if to let me know she thought I'd done the right thing. It was frustrating, but I knew she was right. Still I couldn't help shake my head. "Gods, I really hate that stupid fucking witch." My voice must have carried because there was a tense beat throughout the camp before we all burst out laughing. And if some of us were laughing more hysterically than others, no one chose to comment.

February 29th 2011 The OZ 5:00 PM EDT

The trip to Azkedelia's tower took three and a half days. We'd traveled so far to get to the realm I'd expected it to be even longer, but luckily the shitty cliff tomb hadn't been in the exact opposite direction, just sort of adjacent. Arriving however hadn't been the call to arms I expected. We did in fact beat the eclipse, which was great, and we met up with our reinforcements, which was also good, but we were stonewalled outside by an army of longcoats and some VERY thorough and powerful wards erected with the emerald.

I spat in annoyance. My aura sight was lit up like a christmas tree as I stared at the ugly tower. Aside from the army out front there were spiderwebs of wards crisscrossing the surface of the tower, and beyond that I could see the cloaked form of something absolutely massive and blazing with energy crouched on the tower. Which meant she'd used that fucking emerald summon SOMETHING powerful. I turned to Zee. "You see the wards there? And more importantly whatever that huge beastie is on top of the place?"

She scowled. "I can crack those, I'm assuming you can handle the big guy while I'm doing it?" We were going to have to time this carefully. This fight wasn't just us. If we did this wrong the longcoats would steamroll the rebels while we were distracted and we would have waves of laser guns blasting away at us while trying to handle Queenie's defenses. I checked my points. Twenty nine thousand. It would be enough for a big ass fight. I had some ideas of how to do this, but it would be expensive. That thing was big and powerful, and I was going to have to blitz it if I wanted to effect the battle.

I turned to the others around the table. We were in a command tent the rebels had set up on the hills around the tower. Cain's son, Jeb, was scowling at the table with the map and little models that seemed to be standard in military command tents. He looked at us. "I don't like this. It feels like a trap. Why haven't they attacked us yet? It would be a hard battle, but they could gain much from taking the initiative."

I shook my head. "Forest for the trees man. They don't need to win, they just need to not lose. If that machine goes off that witch is going to get MUCH more powerful. She'll have us all in the palm of her hand. At least I would assume, considering she's the wicked witch of the dark, and I doubt she's going to this much trouble to turn out the sun because she doesn't tan well." I gestured at the map. "The longer we wait the closer we get to the eclipse and the better for them. They have no reason to start the party early."

He snarled at the thing, but Cain put a hand on his sons shoulder. He looked to me. "There's more there than we can see from what you were saying. If you need to fight something powerful should we wait to take the field until you finish it off?" Which was my whole dilemma. I didn't know. I wasn't a strategist. I was an assassin, a thief, the only reason I accounted for enemy logistics was to find holes in their security. Which there were none of in that fucking ward, and I'd checked.

I looked at the others, shrugging. Wally spoke up, surprising all of us, but then, he had worked with the Justice League's master strategist. "I'd say yes. I can run damage control and make sure none of the rebels get stomped while Morgan throws down with...whatever the hell that is. Artemis can help out on long range support. Once Zee gets the barrier down we can escort DG in to..." He turned to the girl. "I'm sorry, but what are you actually planning to do? Because honestly this seems like a whole lot of hoping and praying."

DG glared stubbornly at him. "Don't you patronize me Wally West. My sister is in there. I couldn't get close to her before, but I know if I can reach her and take her hand our magic will be strong enough to get rid of that witch. It might not kill her but it should kick her out. After that we just have to hold her off until the eclipse ends and she won't be much of a threat to anyone anymore."

That last part would be harder than she thought. I cleared my throat. "Which is why Zee will be with you in there. The eclipse is a temporary state of the permanent midnight the witch is aiming for, it's reasonable to assume she'll be much stronger than normal at that point. Even with your super princess sister magic holding her off you'll need backup. At least until I can finish her summon and come join in."

I was pretty sure I could take her without a body, even with the emerald and in her powered up state. Incorporeal shit was kind of my jam, and fighting as a ghost should be a huge advantage to me. I looked at Zee. "The question is can you handle all that? Taking down that ward is going to be a pain in the ass. I'd honestly prefer to do it myself since I have the training, but that...giant whatever she has cloaked up there is going to be too much for anyone but me. Even I'm going to need to really cut loose to take it down quick."

I was basing my strategy off something I hadn't been able to do in the fight with the Monkey Prince, but had almost managed, but even with that ace in my pocket that thing's aura was strong enough for me to be incredibly worried about how quickly I could put it down. She nodded. "Yeah I can do it, but it might not be fast. Once I start I'm guessing that thing will come out of the wards to try to stop me. Wouldn't be much point in it if it couldn't defend it's position."

I just grinned at her. "Don't you worry about that. I have the fight well in hand, I can promise you that thing isn't going to be in any position to bother you once I'm done." I shuddered internally at how much it was probably going to cost me to manage this next fight. My abilities could scale as high as I needed and I had a way to make sure to maximize their effects during my fight, but it would but probably almost all of my points. Still, this was going to be my biggest fight yet, and I was excited to see what I could do.

I turned to the cornerhounds. "Speaking of positions that keep things from bothering you, Patches, you're going to be protecting Zee with your brothers. I want a dedicated guard force on her just in case." The void hound yipped seriously and Zee smiled and scooped him up, cooing about how much of a good boy he was. "Just the dogs won't cut it though. Dreamer, can you and the Forever People play bodyguard for our resident siege breaker?"

Dreamer gave me a confident smile. "Of course Morgan, we'll make sure Zee is safe no matter what." Dreamer had brought up the possibility of them using 'infinity man' in the fight, but I honestly thought using the crazy uber magic megazord fusion power during an evil eclipse while a primordial witch tried to blot out the sun forever with a magic emerald was just mixing way too many supernatural variables for me to be comfortable with it. Especially when Wally mentioned the time that they'd used it on earth and someone had corrupted it and turned it into an enemy.

We debated the finer points of the battle for a bit longer, but after about an hour we realized we were cutting it a bit close. "Alright folks. Time to start knocking on the door. Zee, you ready?" She nodded confidently and we all headed outside. Zee had been studying the library I got her and even doing some light reading from my void tome, and I was confident in her learning ability, especially supplemented by the Outer Body Trance. I was sure she could break down the wards if given a bit of time.

I leaned down to press a soft kiss to her lips, then stepped back so she could work and turned to Dreamer. "Take care of our girl ok?" She nodded and I leaned down to kiss her as well, before turning and stepping back to give them some room. Once I started my fight being close to me would be a problem. Zee closed her eyes and let her hands hang at her sides as she began to speak.

She intoned the words to her spell too fast for me to follow, and too low for me to really pick up, but as she did lightning began to flow over her skin. It started as sparks, then grew to jumping arcs, until she was sizzling with building power. Symbols began to spark up on the ground and the air, and I recognized some of the placements from my void magic, she was casting in more than three dimensions. Not as complex as the cipher the book was in but Zee had definitely upped her game.

There was a titanic roar from the tower as her magic built and the cloaking on the monster dropped to reveal...a moneky. A giant fucking flying monkey the size of a fucking seven forty seven. It glared hatefully at my girlfriend, hissing as if to warn her off. Zee took no notice, continuing her spell, and at the monkeys screech the longcoats all glanced up to see what the fuss was about.

The monkey hurled itself from the tower, swooping down towards Zee, and I acted. I shifted to my shadow form, and with as much power as I could I created a hundred foot tall shadow construct of my body to inhabit. I'd tried this back in Gotham and it had worked, but it had been a thin and hollow version. This was a full transubstantiation to a larger size, bringing all my stats and abilities with me. That in itself wouldn't have broken the bank though. My next move was to weave void, darkness, and ectoplasm together into that unnatural dark alloy...and COVER myself in it.

I manifested a hundred foot tall suit of flawless armor based on the Warlord's plate mail, reinforced with every ounce of power I could manage as I drew my hundred foot King's Sword of Haste. The expenditure of that much creation was absurd. I drained over fifteen thousand points off my twenty nine thousand total, but I did it. It made me smile that both times I'd used this titan form ability it was against a monkey. The monkey's eyes widened as I spread my now giant devil wings and blitzed in at it.

With my ghost devil speed I was FAST, but that fucking monkey was faster. Even with my reflexes and my sword the thing's aerial superiority allowed it to weave seamlessly around the storm of metal I was trying to catch it in. In terms of raw flight pace I was pretty sure I had the advantage, but sadly my ability to turn wasn't exactly flawless. The monkey howled in rage and a boly of black lightning struck it from the tower, sheathing it it armor of burning black hellfire. I grinned. I didn't mind if she wanted to gear the little bastard up, it just meant Zee was free to blow a hole in her house. Staring at the now armed monkey holding a big ass spear I grinned. This was going to be fun.

February 29th 2011 The OZ 6:00 PM EDT

The metal of my sword clashed as it slammed into the apparently solid black flame weapon the giant monkey was swinging around. The weapon was made from the same horrible energy the witch has inside her, so absorbing it was out even if it wasn't solid, but I didn't need to. I blitzed forward, blade swinging, and used the skills I'd honed training against some of the most skilled combatants in my world.

I used Myrina's combat style to close the gap in turning speed. Short accelerations by using my muscle tension perfectly let me launch split second attacks on the shit flinging villain. The monkey's blade, on the other hand sparked off my plate mail as it made contact, the magic unable to split the alloyed void, ectoplasm, and shadow, bound together with demonic power. The suit was hands down the most durable thing I'd ever made and the monkey's weapon had no chance.

I flicked my eyes back to watch Zee for a second, her spell was glowing like a small star, but I could see the shifting runes still spinning into place, rearranging and creating substructures in the spell to reinforce and amplify the overall effect once she dispatched it. The thing was a massive threat to the wards, even I wouldn't want to be standing in front of it when it went off, but it drove the monkey into a battle frenzy.

The frenzy didn't actually help it sadly. It sped up, literally going ape shit, and left itself wide open, I stepped in and slit it's fucking throat as it tried to pass. It's wings gave out and it smashed to the ground, twitching and bleeding. I smirked at how easy it was. That had been a huge waste of time, I shouldn't have bothered with the power up, I could have just used a shadow blade or something. I turned back to look at Zee and Dreamer smugly, but my eyes widened and I had to zip forward to intercept the black flame blade of two more giant monkeys.

I snarled and parried the attacks, driving them back and opening up some space for my girls. Another monkey jumped on my back, clawing and biting at my throat, and I was suddenly glad I'd gone for overkill. I body checked the closest monkey and dragged it's partner by the tail, taking the one on my back along with me and hurling the things into an empty plain south of the tower before I engaged again.

I was going to kick that witch's ass when I got ahold of her. Fucking flying monkeys, there was never just one, that was a stupid slip up on my part. Fighting three of the monkeys was much less straightforward than fighting one, the bastards were quick and very in sync. I ended up relying on the armor suit heavily. I was calling it abyssal armor, because of the devil and void aspects, and it seemed to be holding up pretty well under the assault. I had my eyes peeled for more monkeys but these three seemed like they were it for the moment thankfully.

My blade licked out, intercepting a cleaver slash at my eyes and I shifted sideways to take one on the chest instead of the joint where it would have seriously fucked me up. I was lucky I had a gorget on this suit or that monkey would have opened me up like I'd done to it's buddy. I leaned forward, flipping off the monkey on my back and watching as a black flame blade skewered it through the chest.

I took advantage of the confusion from the monkeycide to shove my King's Sword of Haste through the arm pit hole. It did some damage but the thing danced away before it got deep enough to finish it off. The second monkey had kicked the third of it's sword and left it dying on the ground between us as a shield while the wounded one and the accidental killer retreated a bit.

I dove in at them to attack, but they split focus and came at me from opposite sides forcing me onto the defensive despite my mostly impregnable armor. Unfortunately for the wounded one it left a big ass opening in it's guard because of the injury and was able to tank the unwounded one and spear it through the eye, killing it instantly. I threw it's body at the last monkey standing as I swept in to finish off the one on the ground, killing it fast enough to spin and meet the last one head on.

I finished off monkey number four and stood, panting in exertion. The tired feeling only lasted about a minute before my Vitality had me back at top shape and I turned to check on Zee. My aura sense showed no more monkeys sneaking up or anywhere nearby. They must have gone around wide to get behind me without notice, or Azkedelia just summoned them directly back there, but whatever the reason, she couldn't do it again.

Which left me free to watch my girlfriend do her sweet funky. Apparently giving her the Outer Body Trance had been an amazing idea, because the spell work she was using was flawless. She'd gotten a ton stronger, which supposed happened when you could spend hours a day training at maximum output and risk with no consequences or fatigue. Her eyes shone bright purple and her body surged with currents of violet lightning as she finished chanting and pointed her finger at the tower in the distance.

A TORRENT of arcane energy surged from her hand, a spiraling drill of pure mystical force that smashed into the tower, illuminating a bright green shield as it struck, before a sound like screeching metal filled the air. The runes and patterns of the ward started to flicked, some growing dimmer and some brighter, subtly at first, but then whole sections were surging and blinking, until finally too much of that magic ended up in one spot and the overload caused an explosive burst of emerald force from the shield as part of it blew out, ejecting green flame out over the battlefield.

I stepped forward flashing out to tank that hit, soaking the energy to make sure it didn't fry our army, which was make great headway up against the longcoats with Wally and Artemis's help. Turns out a giant armored nightmare figure slaughtering your equally giant backup while a siege breaker blows a hole in your magic shield is distracting, and the longcoats weren't having an awesome time trying to keep up morale. Losses were had on both sides, but the longcoats were losing faster.

With a horrible screech the ward finally shattered, coming down in a wave of emerald flame I had to once again tank to ensure it didn't demolish our people. Knowing I wasn't doing anything useful in this form, I focused on the abyssal armor, manipulating the construct to create a series of bunkers and points of cover behind the lines of our army, but far enough back to avoid giving the longcoats an advantage. The rebels dipped back a bit to take up an entrenched position behind the walls of powerful metal and I grinned, shifting to shadow form and then back to normal size.

I was clocking fourteen thousand points or so left still since I could manipulate active constructs pretty easily. The bunkers and walls would hold for quite some time given the amount of power in them, weirdly I felt myself losing contact with them but the constructs themselves weren't fading. I touched down at the entrance, seeing Wally and Artemis bringing DG over with Zee and Dreamer, while Vykin and co split off to help the rebels. I waved them all in with a huge grin.

Artemis scowled as they got closer. "What are you smiling about you fucking lunatic? Also nice job, that was actually kind of impressive." She turned to our resident princess. "Next part is on you Deej. Are you sure you can reach your sister in there? Because holding off that witch without your magic once she gets that power boost is going to be..." She turned back to me. "Hard right?"

I snorted. "Yeah, hard. Doable maybe, with me and Zee teaming up, but that's a maybe. I have no clue what the hell this eclipse will do to her. I don't know if the boost will be additive, multiplicative, exponential, or just literally infinite. For most of those we need DG to be able to hold out. Her magic is native to this place, and has some kind of hookup with that emerald. She was able to hold off the witch's possession when she and her sister were young and I'm betting she can at least give us a much needed boost against her now."

DG nodded. "When Az and I are together there's nothing our magic can't do. My mom brought me back to life when I died, and when my sister and I team up we're much stronger than her. If I can talk to my sister I can get through to her. We can end this guys, and everything will be ok." I wasn't actually sure how the citizens of the kingdom Azkedelia's body had been running into the ground would take her sudden change of heart, personally, but then again back home you couldn't really just plead possession and have everyone believe it might actually be a thing.

I cut in. "Sorry to disturb your epic speech DG but the sun is gettin' real low. We need to go. The place is full on longcoats, but I can just blast us through." It would be loud and annoying but it would have to do, time was of the essence. As we walked inside though a small shape zipped past us, weaving between the cornerpups crowding Zee's heels. The small yapping dog bolted out into the hall and between two guards, who looked confused. Then he stopped between them, and when they leaned down for a better look.

The dog shifted morphed back in the blink of an eye, knocking out the two guards as he grew explosively. He grinned at DG. "Go on. I'll run ahead and distract them to clear the path for you all. Go save your sister." The girl's eyes misted over and she hurled herself into the older man's arms, giving him a huge hug and thanking him emphatically. He just smiled proudly. "I'm here for you DG. I won't let you down." Then he shifted back into a dog and bolted into the hallway.

I turned to the cornerpups. "Go back him up." They started to leave but I stopped them. "Wait!" They froze, and I glared at the biggest. "Patches, listen to Todo when you're out there, no running off on your own, stick to the plan." Safety wasn't an issue for them, void beings were near impossible to kill. But I did know that cornerpup instinct would be to spread out and hit from different angles and they were easily distracted. Being able to emerge from behind any corner was kind of a terrifying ability if you thought about it.

We bolted through the tower, coming to a room near the top where a machine was set up. The glass case in the center percolated with green liquid around a brain that was an aura match for Glitch. He froze when he saw it. "Hey look. I'd recognize me anywhere." He stepped up to touch the glass, staring at his brain. After a minute he shook himself and turned back to us. "All of you go ahead. I'll get my brain settled back in and try to shut down the machine. You take DG up there and see about saving that girl. She's been trapped with no way out for far too long, it's time to bring her home." He smiled confidently and just for a moment I could see the brilliant advisor to the Queen. I kind of liked him already, we all grinned and then took off for the way up to the top of the tower. It was time to finish this.

February 29th 2011 The OZ 7:00 PM EDT

We slipped past the guards as they freaked out about the machine malfunctioning and headed for the roof. A journey made infinitely more complicated by the absolute asshole who had designed this place not bothering to put STAIRS or a DOOR to the roof, and just slapping a fucking ladder on the size of a fucking skyscraper like it was a decent idea. I mean, I could fly so I was fine, but it was undeniably a pain in the ass moving like six people up that shitty single person ladder. I was able to carry Zee and DG (I'd been planning to bring Dreamer, but the princess had made the decent point that we needed her to talk her sister down).

When we got up there we found Azkedelia, wearing that big ass emerald around her neck in a gaudy gold setting and standing in a huge green beam of light shooting up from the tower into the sky. A beam that was flickering, luckily for us. She was also standing on some kind of skylight with her back to a big open room on a marble balcony, instead of the shitty roof I'd been expecting. I cursed. There WAS a fucking set of stairs, we just hadn't found it.

Before we had a chance to interact though the beam flickered and doubled in strength. I cursed. Glitch had been derailed, clearly something went wrong. There was a shift in the sky above us and then a sort of shudder as a wave of magic rolled over the sky. Azkedelia...or rather the witch who had taken over her body, smiled widely. "Finally! Permanent darkness! I've won." She had her head tilted back, staring up into the green tinted dark of the eclipsed sky.

I cursed silently. Cain and Jeb had stayed down with Glitch for cover but apparently they'd been overpowered. I hoped they were both ok. I didn't know Jeb, but Cain was a friend, and I absolutely didn't want him to go through the heartbreak of losing his son for a third time. I was pretty sure this one would be the opposite of a charm. Still I was positive letting her gloat like that was a bad plan, so I shot a bolt of ectoplasm at her.

I once again lamented the fact that this was a brainwashed kidnapping victim who was possessed as a twelve year old and was the sister of a friend of mine. My uncle's twenty two would probably be perfect for dealing with something like this witch. Ectoplasm, sadly, was not nearly as effective. She felt it coming and flicked a hand, deflecting the bolt as she looked over at us with a grin. "Wonderful. My guests have arrived! Please, have a seat."

She flicked a hand and tendrils of darkness lashed out from the nearby shadows to grab ahold of us and drag us to the ground. I snorted and flexed my own shadow powers, stopping them cold, but I grunted in surprise at the strain. She'd gotten MUCH more powerful. I hadn't competed against her with shadows last time, but this was my domain, I should be able to overpower her pretty easily, and I was having to dump serious muscle into stopping this attack. Still it was gratifying to see her scowl when I forced her restraints to a halt.

DG stepped forward, and without paying any attention to the shadow tendrils I was holding at bay, began to sing. "Two little princesses, dancing in a row. Spinning fast and freely on their little toes." She sang the lullaby I'd seen her mother sing to her in bed the night she died, and her voice was soft and hesitant, but with a core of steel as she looked her sister dead in the eye. "Where the light will take you, no one ever knows, two little princesses dancing in a row."

She looked at Azkedelia, whose eyes were fastened to her sisters face. I was guessing that when they met before the witch had been whispering in Azkedelia's ear still, but this was the portion of a possession when subtlety went out the window and the spirit just took over. People were much less likely to fight back when they thought they were in charge. DG's big blue eyes were boring into her sister, and I saw some flicker of light spark through Azkedelia's toxic aura.

DG stepped forward slowly. "Do you remember that time in the cave? When you knew what those symbols meant? You were always so smart. You were smart enough to know we shouldn't go in, but I didn't listen. Your adventures have a way of getting me into trouble. That's what you said." Her voice broke, tears streaming down her face. "Your adventures have a way of getting me into trouble." She repeated. "And you were right."

She sniffed loudly. "Do you remember my spinning doll? How we made it fly together? Concentrate, just concentrate Deej, that's what you said." Azkedelia looked dazed, clinking in confusion at her sister. The light in her aura got stronger. "And do you remember the bear? How scary it was? And you stood up, you were so brave, you made me brave." Her tears were flowing freely as she stepped up and held out her palm, reaching into the emerald light. "Hold my hand. Nothing can hurt us if we're together." Azkedelia was frozen, but DG just cried harder. "Take it! Please!"

Azkedelia's aura surged but the light couldn't break through. "I'm sorry I let go Az! Just, take my hand, and I promise I'll never run away again." She held her hand out beseechingly. There was a shudder and the witch appeared in Azkedelia's place shouting at DG and trying to drive her off.

The twisted old woman in the robe snarled at the princess. "No! " But before she finished talking Azkedelia's familiar form flickered back in, all that remained of the witch was a slight vibration in the voice as she said. "You're talking into the wind girl!" DG ignored her, holding out her hand unflinchingly, eyes locked on her sister as she waited for her to reach out for her again after all those years.

Azkedelia grabbed her sisters hand and threw her head back to scream. Or rather, the witch screamed. There was a warping shift of Azkedelia and the witch shifting places over and over until DG gave a mighty heave and hauled back, yanking her sister free of the spirit and leaving the witch standing in the beam of light, though the color shifted to a darker bluer hue without the emerald. She sneered. "Have the little bitch, I care not. For the heavens do my bidding!"

So I slapped her. She stumbled back, flabbergasted. "But...I don't have a body? How?" Her puzzlement was once again interrupted by the back of my hand upside her face. She went flying, still reeling with confusion as I show ported over to her and punched her in the mouth. She roared with fury. "Enough!" Throwing her hands out a wave of dark shoved me backwards as she stood to her full height, which honestly wasn't much.

She glared down at me, which considering she was like five inches shorter than I was, was actually impressive, but I was pretty sure it was just a perspective thing. "Fool! I am eternal, unending. I am primordial and inescapable. I am the blackness that casts a shadow on darkness itself! I existed before time and space, before light and reason! You think to defeat me? To stop me? Even if you bind or banish me I will always ret- wait what is that?"

I held up my hand, which was now holding a twenty two pistol with a pacifier silencer. "Oh this?" I weighed it in my hand casually. "It's a gun." I grinned nastily at the spirit, who was staring at the weapon in my hand with a very wary expression on her previously smug face. I took a step forward. "Why? Do you want to see it?" I extended my hand, but kept the barrel of the weapon trained lazily on the witch.

She took a hurried series of steps back. "That's..." Her face hardened. "Your abomination doesn't frighten me boy. What is a tiny piece of metal to one suck as I." She spread her arms, grinning nastily, and began to grow. "Your despicable device may indeed be a threat to me, but it is a limited thing, an insignificant piece of metal at it's core. A wound from such a thing would be devastating for something the size of a human, but not for a being that towers over this very land itself. I control the darkness of the sky above, all of the OZ is at my command!"

She floated off the balcony into the air, growing in size until she towered of us all. I was not impressed. I raised an eyebrow. "I'm gonna shoot her." I turned to look at the others. "Any votes against me pulling this motherfucker's muffin cap back?" I had no clue what that statement meant, but I heard someone say it once and had always wanted to say it myself.

No one argued. DG and Azkedelia were holding hands, a shield around all of my friends I hadn't noticed when I'd been smacking a witch up. Artemis was smirking proudly and even Wally looked like he had zero issue with me putting some supernatural lead in the ancient ghost's spectral breadbasket. Zee shot me a thumbs up and dreamer giggled behind a raised hand.

I opened a Hole. Specifically, I opened two Holes, a small one at the tip of my gun, and one the size of a fucking bank vault behind the witch's head. She didn't notice, partly because void is a sneaky fucking element, and partly because she was doing that bad guy gloating thing. She grinned malevolently down at me, clearly relishing her superiority over my tiny insignificant form.

Then I shot her. Six times. In the back of the head. The bullets shifted through the Hole, going in a normal twenty two round and coming out more like the giant bullet things from a Mario game. Despite being a ghostly witch spirit of primordial darkness, she stood no chance. Her head exploded all over the tower, showering the whole building with dark brains that turned to smoke before they made contact.

I looked down at the gun. I expected it to hurt her but not that much. I looked down just in time to see the nearby black mist being sucked up into the gun, which turned from a shiny chrome color to an ominous pitch black. I blinked. That...could be either very good or very bad. Regardless it was done, so I put the gun away in my spatial ring carefully. I'd consult Zee and Dreamer about it, or Jim and Madame X if we got back to Gotham soon. I turned to the princesses. "I killed your ghost witch. You're welcome."

DG burst into giggles and dragged her sister over, still clutching her hand to hurl her arms around me in gratitude. I looked past them at the others. "Well...not reason to make this a private party, you guys going to get in on this?" Apparently deciding leaving me in a princess sandwich would be awkward everyone filed over throwing their arms around us in celebration of what we'd accomplished. With the emerald and the witch both gone the eclipse faded, showing the two bright moons behind it.

Smiling down at everyone I exhaled in relief. This whole thing was over now. We'd ended it. Now we would reunite DG with her parents and sister, and hopefully catch a ride back to Gotham via whatever a travel storm was. I wondered who was coming with us. It would certainly be something I'd offer most of our new friends. I was pretty sure Gotham could use a man like Cain, though I'm not sure it would survive him and his rebel leader son. For now though we needed Azkedelia to order the longcoats back and go pick up our reinforcements. There was a lot to be done.

March 4th 2011 The OZ 8:00 PM EDT

It took about five days for everything to settle down. Azkedelia released her mother, who was happily reunited with her daughters and husband. She also made the longcoats stand down. The Queen took back control with her daughters blessing, and began the incredibly long and arduous process or removing the rampant corruption that had flourished under the witch's tyranny.

I'd never run a country before but I was guessing unfucking the shithole the witch had let this devolve into when she unleashed her corrupt guards on the populace with zero fucks given about reigning them in would be annoying to say the least. Luckily, the rest of the developments were actually pretty positive. First of course was Glitch. He was fine, Cain had overpowered the doctor or whatever that had knocked him out and they'd even gotten him his brain back. I suppose I should call him Ambrose now, but he still felt like Glitch to me.

Cain and his son had been promoted to royal guards. The kid was still icy around Azkedelia, but he grew up hero worshipping the Queen so he kept his mouth shut about it. Azkedelia was...not well. DG was spending lots of time with her sister, but having been basically a puppet since you were twelve and being the only hated member of a beloved royal family was not great for mental health. Dreamer had spent the last few days giving her therapy sessions to try to help, but after we left it would be a long road.

DG was over the moon. Her robot parents had been de-reprogrammed after Azkedelia had apparently replaced DG with herself in their programming under the witch's influence. She had her old family, her new family, and all her friends nearby, and the OZ's newest princess was almost vibrating with happiness at all the love. She was trying not to overdo it around her sister though, and she was around Azkedelia as much as humanly possible. The former evil queen seemed to only be at ease around her little sister and their shared protective magic, and I didn't blame her.

I was up to twenty thousand points, after days of both regenerating and stockpiling points from tantric rituals where I was able. We'd asked the Queen about getting home, but it had to be put on hold until today because we needed to let Azkedelia get past the trauma a bit. Apparently bringing her daughter back from the dead had tapped the Queen out for big magic, and DG and Azkedelia would be getting the instructions on making a travel storm to bring us home. Which left us here, outside the lake estate, with everyone gathered to say goodbye.

It was...rougher than I expected. I'd gotten used to all of them. DG was like the sunny little sister I never had, despite being older than me, Cain was the gruff father figure, and Glitch was the fun uncle. The Queen had been grateful to have her girls back and welcomed us with open arms, and after seeing everything she went through it was hard not to like her. Raw was the only one I hadn't connected with much, though I did like the hairy empath. Well, I wasn't going to miss Ahamo. That guy was a dick.

DG was wringing her hands, making sure everyone was ready to go. "Are you sure you don't want to stay a while longer? It would be so much easier putting things right with everyone around. I don't know what I'll do without all of you. We can always send you back in a month or two." Her eyes were rimmed with red as she stared at us with a forlorn expression, and I could see in her aura she would be missing us when we were gone.

Artemis body checked me out of the way to pull the older girl into a tight hug, with Zee swooping in on the other side to

box the princess in. I glared at me best friend but she ignored me, seeing that they were bogarting DG I decided to put her goodbye off and headed over to Cain, who was looking stiff and formal in his royal guard attire. I raised an eyebrow at him. "You sure you don't want to come with us? Gotham could use a man like you."

Wally snorted from behind me, stepping up to give Cain a quick hug. "Damn right it could. That place is a pigsty. But I get it. This is his home. Still, we'll definitely try to come visit if we can ok? Artemis and I already talked about it and we want to take our next vacation over here. This lake villa is swanky and you guys don't charge for a room." It was my turn to snort, giving can a hug of my own.

I turned to Jeb, offering my hand. "Take care of your old man ok? He's got a good heart but he's a bit of a loose canon. Needs us younger guys to keep him in line." He took my hand with a laugh and I shot him a wink. I turned to the man next to use, waiting with a patient smile. "And you...I think I'll miss you most of all Glitch." Because I just had to, then I paused for a second. "Nah I'll miss DG the most, she's by far the most likable of any of us." We all burst out laughing, though only Wally got my reference.

Todo was there, having regained his position with her heroics during the final battle, and I gave the old man a firm handshake and a smile because he earned it. Then I turned to Azkedelia. Dreamer had decided in therapy that losing her connection to the mobats was one of Azkedelia's biggest traumas, so I'd decided to leave the five cornerpups with her. Patches was staying because the girls would murder me if I tried to leave him, but the nameless puppies hadn't had time to bond with any of us yet so we were leaving them to guard the princesses.

I'd spent maybe two days with my nose in my void book to figure out how to tweak the spell so they would passively absorb void. They would grow MUCH slower, but they would grow. "So, you two are getting us home huh? You're the one whose done a travel storm recently, how tough are these things to aim?" I really didn't want to end up in Timbuktu, or worse, on the wrong earth or something. The League had dealt with alternate earth shit a few times. Evil twin? No thanks.

She shrugged. "You can't? Or not really. There's a natural thinning between the OZ and the other side. The travel storms just kind of shuffle things between them. You'll end up within a few dozen miles of the same town where DG came from. Smallville I think she called it?" Which wasn't bad. Smallville was within an hour or two of Metropolis, which was right over the river from Gotham. We could make our way home on foot from there. Or fly more likely.

I exhaled, and walked back over to DG. Bumping Artemis aside. "Enough you jackals, I want to hug my friend goodbye. Don't be princess hogs." I stuck my tongue out and got an eye roll from the girls as DG laughingly put her arms around me, I pulled back. "You're the kindest, brightest person I've ever met Deej. Don't lose that. The OZ needs someone like you running things when your mom steps down, and I'm sure your sister will be all good with someone like you watching out for her."

She swallowed hard, tearing up. The girl was such a crybaby. "I don't know how to thank you for everything you did. You came out of nowhere and saved us. You were our rock out there, and you never let us down. I couldn't have done any of this without you showing me how to stand strong." She put a hand on my chest. "I heard some of what Dreamer said to you back at camp during one of your talks. You've got a good heart Morgan. You don't mind breaking some rules, but at the end of the day, law or not, you ARE a hero. You're MY hero. The OZ will always remember you."

Great. Now I was going to start crying. It was contagious. I didn't, but just barely, and I pulled the girl into a tight hug. "Keep it one hundred princess. And come visit if you get back over earthside. We're in Gotham but this is my number." I wrote it down for her on a pad from my spatial ring. "Call first, never know what crazy shit is going on in Gotham." She giggled and hugged me again with an agreement. I called to the others. "You guys come on. We're heading home. Wally, Artemis, Zee."

I stopped short as Dreamer stepped up next to me to take my hand. I looked at her in surprise. She smiled. "I'm coming with you. I'm looking forward to seeing more of Earth and it's culture. Plus Zee and I are working on her powers still." I smiled at her as we all lined up. I nodded to DG, who walked over and took Azkedelia's hand with one of hers, waving with the other. Their auras which I hadn't seen during their last sister power incident, melded together and sort of caught fire. They were powerful as hell together no doubt.

DG and Azkedelia focused, and there was a shift in the sky, the clouds darkened, wind began to rise. The sound of the air beginning to swirl was audible as the votex started at cloud level. I grabbed the others, holding on tight as the funnel cloud slowly lowered from the air above us, touching down around us, slowly cutting off our vision from the others. There was a slight resistance before the suction grabbed us and hurled us up into the air. I held on tight to the others as we were pinballed back and forth across the inside of the funnel, until we slowly slid back to the ground.

The vortex faded, and in it's place we saw...farmland. Slightly rumpled farmland but still farmland. I grinned. "I think we're in Kansas now guys." That got various groans and boos, except from Dreamer who either didn't get it or was too sweet to boo her boyfriend. I took a long, deep breath. "We're home guys. We're back. I bet I can get us a ride too." I fished my phone out to scroll through my emails, looking for something about cars or rides.

I scrolled through all of the options, some from new genesis, some not, but I didn't see anything that wouldn't be overkill for a quick ride. I got to the most recent emails and froze. I double checked. In New Genesis the emails had stayed consistent, a side effect of my power most likely. But now that we were back I was getting up to date messages again, and what I was seeing from them was...jarring. Zee came up behind me, looking concerned. "You ok baby? What's wrong?"

I handed her the phone wordlessly, pointing at the date. She looked where I was gesturing and her eyes went wide. She recoiled in horror, dropping my phone, which I easily plucked from the air under her limp fingers. I could understand the reaction, the other crowded around and I showed them. I wanted to think it was a mistake. But my power had never made mistakes before. I stared down in shock at the date on the email. The first part was right. March fourth. The issue was with the year that was listed. March fourth, two thousand and sixteen. We'd missed five whole years while we'd been gone. What the fuck had happened? And what were we coming back to?

And we're back in Gotham! what changes have happened over the last five years? what butterflies have altered the timeline, and what has stayed the same? As usual pat-reon has the advance chapters on that site /malcolmtent