March 21st 2016 The Himalayas 8:00 PM EDT
The Abyssal Alloy teeth I conjured onto Tartarus rotated so fast they formed a single cohesive blur around the keyblade as I brought the thing down on the Black Beetle. Sigfreid had locked the bastard up in a grip by twisting his arms unnaturally around the scarab warrior's like a corkscrew, pinning him in place. The big warrior snarled and cannons began to form on the chestplate of his armor, a series of powerful and horrifying blasters that even my armored ally was going to feel. Fortunately for us he didn't get the chance.
I slammed the chainsaw keyblade into the bend of his knee where it would have to be thinner to allow movement. As I did I tapped into my demonic energy and flooded my body with it for the first time, strengthening and enhancing myself with the limitless potential of a devil and propelling the whirling blade at speeds that would make Wally blush. There was a loud screeching grind and a clang as the two surfaces met, and after a brief second of resistance the teeth tore through the dark armor and bit into flesh.
The cannons faltered and were absorbed, sprouting from his back to ventilate me, but I spun away with a twisting jerk that did insane amounts of damage and vanished into the dark. As he whirled sloppily to try to meet me Sigfreid released him, conjured his massive broadsword and smashed it down full strength on the back of the bastards neck. The Black Beetle roared with rage and went pitching forward, but the blow didn't manage to penetrate the armor. The neck was heavily reinforced and without the spinning teeth the blow only drove him forward to his knees.
Judging by the agonized howl of impotent rage that issued forth from his mouth being brought to your knees when one of them was just raggedly chewed up by a chainsaw was not pleasant. I lashed out with Tartarus, calling an Abyss Alloy stockade into existence around his head and shoulders, reinforced as much as I could on the fly, and than emerged from the dark to one side and brought my still spinning chainblade down right on the slight nick in the armor where Sigfreids sword had landed.
There was a jerk and a scream as I felt the blade chew into flesh again, ripping into the fucking spine of the big warrior. He bellowed angrily and there was an explosion of force, knocking both of us back and shattering the stocked. Apparently he'd opened up millions of pores in the armor and used them as cannons to release a massive wave of energy from every part of his body. Sig and I regrouped a ways away. I expected him to be incapacitated after the spinal damage, but he just closed and reinforced the armor on those spots.
I cursed internally. Fucking bugs. He probably had an exoskeleton, which meant no gods damned spine. Black Beetle's eyes were lit with incandescent rage as he snarled at me. "You're going to pay for that meat." He spat sideways, and I noted the neon green fluid looked an awful lot like the shit that spurted out when I hacked into him. "I would have made this quick. I didn't have a reason to make you suffer, but now?"
Eight more arms unfolded from his back, clearly operated independently by the scarab to free him up for movement. I suspected there was some predictive algorithm that would find viable paths around his own movements so he didn't get in his own way. Still, the new limbs had nothing on the absolute hatred in his voice in terms of being terrifying. "I'm going to redefine what pain means to your garbage species. I'm going to start a research project on torment, experiment on every person you love in front of your eyes as I learn the secrets of your agony. And only then, when every person you care for has been butchered in agony and I know exactly how to hurt you the worst, will I finally torture you to death."
The extra limbs sprouted a dozen offshoot cannons and leveled them at me, firing with deadly accuracy. I shifted incorporeal but they chewed holes in Sigfreid. I circled the insane scarab warrior, looking for an opening, for some kind of hole I could exploit to fucking hurt him. I reached out to Miss Martian with the sending stone. "Link me to Nightwing." I focused hard to allow myself to receive what she was sending, to fudge the nature of my mind blindness with my power. I lied to the world again, and whether because I was editing a power I already had or because this was my second time, it was a bit easier.
His voice filled my head. "What the hell is going on O'malley? Miss M told us about your orders and the battle, but we're sitting blind in here. Artemis and Wally are going ballistic, and Impulse isn't doing much better knowing his best friends are out there about to get smashed by scarabs." I ignored the words, focusing on the intent, and I felt...worry. Fear. For all of us. Even me. Nightwing didn't like me, but he did feel responsible for me. I was sixteen, and he brought me out here, and personal dislike aside if I died he was going to feel like fucking scum.
Sig grunted as the blasts bit into his armor, dispersing the sword to conjure a huge tower shield to take the abuse. Black Beetle stalked forward with murder in his eyes, but he was swarmed by the little armors collecting from scattered bits of Sig. "Don't have time to talk long. The scarabs are here, there are seven though they claim there's a hundred on planet. The Black one is kicking my ass, and my other Knights have been waylaid dealing with the others. I need to ask you something, and I need you to think about it carefully and not just answer as a kneejerk reaction."
I exhaled mentally. "Is there any chance that being an intergalactic people eating child kidnapping monster makes someone eligible for the death penalty?" I knew it was a long shot. This was the disciple of the bat. Not killing was baked into his DNA. I hurried to explain. "Because I'm kind of in a him or me type situation here man. He isn't Jaime, I can't knock him out. The Reach have exoskeletons or some shit so I can't immobilize him, and his armor compensates for any injuries to let him keep fighting. We're stuck in here, and if he doesn't die, I think I might." I sent him a series of clips of this psycho and what he'd been saying and doing.
The Black Beetle was on a whole other level compared to the green and blue. I had the forces to take him down if I could use them, but they brought enough to offset my numbers, and I was in sink or swim territory here. If I was going to stop this monster it was going to be permanent, and I needed to know if I was going to get thrown in prison for that shit. I'd still do it if I had to but I hoped, prayed, that deep fucking down, like mariana trench deep, that Dick was willing to let it slide.
His voice in my head was quiet. Deadly serious. "I would never, under any circumstances allow a member of my team to kill anyone. If they did, there would be severe consequences. I do not condone death in any form, there is always another way. Now get back to your fight and hurry up...don't drag your feet. We're going to be in a hurry when we escape, so if you leave something behind here, no one is ever going to find it." Then he cut the connection, and I just sat there, stunned. He gave me permission. Not directly, but he as good as told me to do what I needed to do.
I wasn't on his team, which meant no consequences, and he as good as said they wouldn't look for the body. This was self defense, and I suspected he didn't want to be the one to tell my mother I'd died. I drew my gun again, glaring at the monster trying his level best to crush my strongest summon. I analyzed the situation, waiting for him to be distracted or to hold still, but calculating the speeds involved I knew no shot I took was ever going to land. I was fast enough, but my bullets weren't.
I considered my options. Maybe a void portal? But if he dodged a super sized shot from the holiday gun would end whoever it hit, that might be dozens of people, hell it might even be one of ours. I could teleport in and do it point blank, but those arms would turn me into swiss cheese before I would be able to fire. I needed some other way to do this. Maybe some kind of backup?
I looked around for my allies. Wonder Girl, Superboy, and Blue Beetle were wailing on a green scarab as Dreamer trapped it's mind in a cloud of dreams. Her eyes glowed violet as she wove nightmares and illusions together into a tapestry of confusion and fear that left even the systems of that monstrous creature confused as to which way was up. Both external and internal stimuli twined around each other like the worlds most horrible bad acid trip left the thing dazed and open for the trio of powerful warriors to lay into the thing as it fired at imagined phantoms and ghostly images.
The other blues and greens, and even a pink, had been pinned down by the Knights operating under the control of my clones, and were mostly immobilized or on the way to it, but it was taking everything they had to manage. The pink one was about halfway between the blue and black scarabs and Zee was helping the boys with that one while patches harried at it's legs to distract it enough for them to pin it.
That left one open ally though, one I'd only created today, and I smiled as I remembered what he could do. I sent a command through the keyblade to Solomon, ordering him to use his magic when I said to, and then I turned incorporeal but not invisible and floated through the battlefield towards the Black Beetle. The monster was chewing up Sig, and my armored summon was on his last legs, only a few minutes from destruction.
The savage scarab was beaming gleefuly at the destruction he was inflicting, but he saw me coming and looked up to glare at me. He fired a few shots at me and they phased through my phantasmal form. He sneered at me. "Too afraid to stand before in person meat? Have to send a ghost or illusion? Why am I not surprised you're a coward. Don't worry, I'll find a way to ruin you once I destroy your automaton. If I cant get my hands on you maybe I'll put them on one of your teammates. The one with the pointed ears looks...fun."
I didn't rage. Didn't seethe or hate him, didn't curse or anything of the sort. I simply decided he was going to die, and there was no reason to waste emotion on a corpse. I raised the gun, still incorporeal, and he laughed at me. Laughed at the twenty two pistol with bullets so slow he could dodge them in his sleep. Laughed at how useless and pointless I was, how little I could do to him.
He laughed and laughed. Probably for longer than he should have, given that his laughter was slowing down. His eyes widened as he registered the temporal bubble of slow around him from the stop spell Solomon had cast. Too bad he wasn't fast enough to dodge this one. I found it fitting that he was still laughing when the gun of conceptual death sprayed his brains out the back of his shitty armor and into the open air to drift in slow motion in the time bubble. I didn't even need to watch his aura go out like a light to know he was dead. I did anyway though. And what do you know? I was laughing too.
March 21st 2016 The Himalayas 10:00 PM EDT
We regrouped after the fight. After Black Beetle died we regrouped with the whole crew on the same hill we came from. We were able to successfully subdue the other scarab warriors but everyone was pretty tense. I knew why, even if Nightwing had offered to ignore it basically, the execution of someone like the Beetle or anyone at all for that matter wasn't going to sit well with some of the heroes. There were quite a few glares in my direction. Oddly Wonder Girl and
Miss. Martian were the ones who seemed least upset after Impulse, who seemed to trying to hide a satisfied smirk.
The speedster didn't seem upset at all, but Superboy was another story. The T-shirt clad meta stalked up to me, getting in my face. "What the hell was that?" His eyes were wide and full or rage and denial. I didn't blame him, that must have been jarring as hell. "You can't just execute somebody because you don't like them. You just shot him in the head!" His voice was high, almost panicked, but my own expression remained calm.
I didn't yell or scream or push him away, I just gave a calm smile. "Did I? How can you be sure he's dead? Scarabs are tough, a gunshot wouldn't have finished someone like him. He was probably playing dead. You can go check." My comment was followed almost immediately by a massive explosion of red flame. I'd taken Nightwing at his word. No body, no crime. I left behind an insanely densely packed orb of unstable ectoplasm infused with an explosive demonic energy spell. I wrapped the whole thing in shadows and dropped it under the Beetle's body to make sure it got the job done.
His eyes widened as he turned to stare in horror at the remains of the building. We'd captured all The Reach soldiers and carted them out here with scarabs, all that was left down there were the bodies. I'd killed the Beetle but he and the other scarabs had offer more than a few of their own people as collateral damage. Those guys gave no fucks about friendly fire. I shrugged casually. "Oops, guess not. I'm sure he got up and ran off though. Probably blew the place to cover his tracks."
Superboy looked like he was about to slug me, but shockingly Nightwing stepped in. "Enough Conner. We have no proof that he killed anyone, we can't do anything about it now." The clone seethed, but Nightwing wasn't done. He turned to me. "If you had done it, not that you did, would you have had a choice?" His voice was serious. He wanted the others to hear this, even if they weren't interested.
I shook my head. "I didn't kill him, that shot wasn't fatal. But if I had killed him, which I didn't. It would have been unaviodable. He would have been too strong for me to deal with, he would have been a dangerous psychopath who planned to hurt a great many innocent people, and I would have been acting entirely in self defense." I paused. "That's what I would say if I had actually killed him."
Superboy looked...not mollified, but less angry. To my surprise Impulse spoke up. "Superboy, my dude, Morgan just crashed the mode in a major way. It's not spoilers anymore so I can tell you, Black Beetle was one bad hombre. He was a sadist who killed tens of thousands of people and enjoyed it, including some of the people on this very team. He did terrible things to good people, and the world is a better place without him in it. I'm not condoning murder." He looked at me wryly. "Not that one took place. But someone like Black Beetle being killed in self defense isn't murder in any situation. It's karma."
He didn't look happy about it, his teeth were gritted and his eyes were blazing as he turned and stalked away. The confrontation hadn't mollified all the others, but it had calmed down most of them. Hearing Impulse talk about Black Beetle like that had given some context, and knowing that I hadn't had a choice helped a bit. I personally couldn't have been less upset about it. I didn't want to be a murdering psycho and fall off the deep end but killing a psychopathic people eating alien mass murderer wasn't going to disturb my sleep at all.
Zee didn't seem troubled by it either, nor did Dreamer, though I'd expected that. Wally looked...confused. I think he understood why I needed to do what I did and wasn't angry and he was beginning to question why that was. Our time in the OZ had opened his eyes to the fact that the world wasn't black or white, it was shades of grey. That thought made me snicker internally as I remembered that creepy monochrome tomb DG had gone into, but I kept the laughter off my face because it seemed inappropriate.
I headed over to check on Zee and Dreamer after everything was said and done. The two spare clones were dismissed and I verified they had been safe the whole time. Zee was cuddling and praising Solomon, which was fair because the little magic using summon had saved my entire ass. I put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, are you ok? That was a rough fight." I was less worried about Dreamer, being a New God adventurer I was betting her hands weren't blood free. That planet WAS at war.
She gave me a bright smile, though I noted a bit of strain in her eyes. "I'm fine baby, no worries at all. You were the one who had the hard job. We just took on the cannon fodder. They're all present and accounted for, and hopefully with Blue and Green to disable the scarabs and Miss Martian to read their minds we can learn something about The Reach. Seems like this war is just getting started if what that guy said is true." She grimaced at my very damaged and still regenerating Knights. "We're going to need a LOT more of those things Morgan."
I nodded. "Yes, yes we are. Stronger ones too if I can manage. I'm going to be going into seclusion to study and build up points after this. I need higher void spells to use for Soulless templates, and void magic is much too complex for me to half ass it. I don't know why The Reach want Earth, maybe metahumans really are that special, but I absolutely won't let them enslave my planet without a fight, not when my little sister has powers of her own."
She smiled and took my hand in hers. "We'll be fine. We have friends and family with us who can help. We aren't alone. Hell, we have the entire planet on our side, minus a few assholes. I don't know about you, but I'd be terrified if I were the reach. So what if they have an invincible galaxy consuming army of cyborg beetle warriors? We have the Joker, and Poison Ivy, and Black Adam. Every terrifying villain that ever set the League on their heels lives on this planet, and they are not big fans of sharing. Even minus the ones with Savage and Luthor...that's some scary shit."
She wasn't wrong. I thought about the Oblivion Bar, about the Shadowpact, and The Shade, and Morgana. About my cousin who was running around somewhere with her new demon boyfriend and an army from hell most likely. About Mary Queen of Blood, and Acheron, and every other terrifying bastard I'd come up against. Honestly, I did feel so much better imagining the reach having to deal with all of them at once. That was just the villains too. There were some damn scary heroes, and The Reach was picking a fight with all of them.
But that left another problem to be dealt with before the actual battle went down. I gestured for Zee to follow me over to where the other had gathered. I turned to Nightwing. "You know what our biggest problem is now? What we need to deal with at all costs? Because this war IS coming, even if they have to keep it small on their scale. The century of scarabs is on world, and those bastards need to be dealt with for sure, but we both know they won't make the first move. The biggest threat isn't from space."
He grimaced, but nodded. "The Light. If we're fighting an all out offensive we can't leave them scurrying around in the background to take pot shots at us and exploit our weak moments. When this was a three way duel in the shadows it was tenable, but fighting a war we need to be stable, and watching our backs all the time for a backstab from our own forces will split our focus." He made frustrated sound. "But how the hell do we put the brakes on the Light." He glared at me. "And DON'T suggest killing any of them. Self defense is one thing, but we aren't murderers."
I had absolutely been about suggest killing at least three of them. I was pretty sure my gun would put down Savage, and Luthor was only human, but that was fine. I could work around no killing. After all. I had a base, and that base had a dungeon, and that dungeon...could be upgraded. I grinned at him. "I actually have something for them if we can take them down. Nothing lethal, I promise. I'll even take you to see them once we have them locked up."
He looked dubious about that, but it seemed to give him a bit of hope. He knew more than anyone the kind of places I could get in and out of. I had a pretty unique grasp on security systems and keeping things in a locked box. He frowned. "Well, if we do this we need to take cane of the biggest threats first. They won't be together, but they are in contact. Savage is the one we need to worry about most. Tracking him down is going to be a pain, but with all the resources we can bring to bear if we have somewhere to hold him I bet it can be done."
I grinned. "Oh we will. I'll need some time to get it ready. Say a month to be safe." That would be a lower tier dungeon upgrade for sure, but it wasn't like it should matter. The current tier of my defenses was like five, and even I would have some trouble leaving a dent. Vandal Savage, as far as I knew, was just a really old guy. Though I wanted to fight him at some point. I was better in terms of raw technique even I was far behind. If I could add him to my Outer Body Training regimen I would definitely learn quite a bit.
Nightwing didn't look like he liked the idea exactly, but he did glance around to where the others were watching. "We've been fighting The Light for a long time. The whole League has. What makes you think you can take them down where we can't? Savage and Luthor may not be physically unstoppable, but both of them have their own defenses, and they're always prepared. If we can even find them I guarantee they'll have forces in place to give them time to escape. What makes this different than every other time we've tried."
That one drew a chuckle from me. "Because I have an army." I pointed at the Knights. "A team of magic users." I gestured to the girls and Solomon. And then I gestured to me. "And I'm one of the best infiltration specialists in the world. Not to mention I was trained by THE best, and he'd be willing to help out. Whatever nonsense bunker or super security they have won't be enough. The Reach are enough of a problem, we can't afford distractions." I grinned viciously. "In one month we turn out The Light."
April 13th 2016 Doomhallow Hall 8:00 PM EDT
The upgrade for the dungeons was insanely expensive. I'd known some of the higher ranked rooms could be pricy, especially without the discount I already had with the rebuild from all those high tier stones, but that dungeon upgrade to a point where I was confident they could hold Savage and co with no hope of escape cost me a full two hundred and fifty thousand points. Even at ten thousand per day I needed plenty of tantric sessions to top me up enough to afford that in the twenty three days and still have enough left over for summons when I finished my research on the new Soulless I was working on.
Between both sources of income I'd managed to scrounge up another fifty thousand points to play with, though I wasn't sure how far that would go with my new summon, considering how absolutely insane the cost for Solomon had been at a full ten grand. Despite that I wasn't actually finished with the research anyway, even after nearly a month of time furiously studying, with only short breaks. I'd taken time off for family gatherings, including the weekly family dinners, which was exactly where we were heading now.
Dreamer was fussing with her hair. She'd managed to wiggle her way out of the last few dinners for seemingly valid reasons, but Zee had put her foot down this time and now she was panicking. I felt bad for her, I didn't like dealing with strangers either, I'd have let her take her time with introductions, but Zee didn't like waiting much, and she felt the few weeks of leeway she'd already given our girlfriend were sufficient. So now our busty goddess was adjusting her dress fitfully and staring in the mirror, scowling at herself like she'd just climbed out of a pigsty.
I rolled my eyes. "You look beautiful Dreamer. As always. I understand why you're nervous, but don't be. Lian and Hana always take up everyone's attention anyway. Their constant efforts to out cute each other is like the main source of conversation the whole night. No one is going to be interrogating you or anything. It's a nice family meal with my mom, her husband, Artemis, Wally, Reggie, Claire, Bette, Artemis's mom, and the kids. These are all people you've met before and who like you perfectly fine, no reason to fret."
She spun on me with a scowl. "They do NOT all like me perfectly fine. Your mother is cold to me at best. She treats Zatanna like the daughter she always wanted and me like a homewrecking slut." That...wasn't exactly true, but the result was the same. She wasn't hostile or mean of course, but mom pretty much acted like Dreamer didn't exist when she was over. She responded to direct questions without any eye contact and otherwise didn't acknowledge her existence at all. It was actually part of the reason Zee had been pushing so hard for our girlfriend to come with us.
Reaching out to put my arms around her waist, I drew a sulking Dreamer against me. "Listen. My mom is just...getting used to things. She doesn't hate you, trust me, I can see her aura. She just doesn't know how to act around you. She barely knows you. She just got me back after all that time and now she has a new person to try to fit into a life that's already in chaos. She doesn't want to say something awkward or rude so she doesn't say anything. Her family was pretty conservative growing up so the whole idea is strange to her and she's dealing with it as best she can."
I tipped her chin up to look at me, staring into her pretty violet eyes as I kept talking. "That said, she wants to get to know you. She knows you're important to me and feels like she owes that to me because I was so cool about Gojo. Which I don't necessarily think means I deserve special treatment, but I'm hardly going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Which means we need to get you two together so you can get past the initial awkwardness and she can learn to love you like I do."
The happy blush across her tanned cheeks was adorable, and I couldn't resist leaning down for a long kiss, which sadly I had to break away from far too soon. That got a giggle from my girlfriend. "Well, we better go, Zee is downstairs and she's as nervous about this as I am. You know how much of a hurry she'll be in when she's feeling uneasy." It made me smile that we both knew her well enough to know that worry made her rush things. Zee wasn't controlling, as much as I sometimes joked about it, but she was incredibly anxious and could sometimes backseat drive as a result.
So I offered Dreamer my elbow formally, a gesture of solidarity against our adorable oppressor despite neither of us wanting to change a thing about our girl. We both knew that we could call this off right now if it made us genuinely uncomfortable and Zee would understand, and that was what made Dreamer willing to go through with it. We both wanted Zee to feel the family love she needed, because Dr. Fate still refused to see her and it was breaking her heart not to have her dad around.
I desperately wanted to track the bastard down and drag him in front of her, but she was insistent that he be allowed his own time. She was terrified something might happen to her father if we tried to force the issue, and as overpowered as I was at times, I absolutely did not want to have a possession fight with a primordial force of creation from the dawn of time. The scarab had been bad enough, I seriously doubted I had a shot in hell at kicking a Lord of Order out of his host, especially a consenting one who actively hated my guts.
Zee was in a pretty purple sun dress that matched her eyes, and she squealed with glee when she saw us, clapping excitedly. "You both look so cute together! Hold on, let me get a picture!" She fished around in the small bag hanging off her shoulder until she revealed her phone, snapping a picture and then snagging my other elbow, taking a place opposite Dreamer. "Alright then, lets go!" She tugged us forward towards the teleporter, the three of us emerging in the clock tower where Reggie and Bette were waiting with Claire, who had insisted on coming early to do Bette's hair, something the fashion oriented blonde allowed with fond exasperation, mostly because she actually did a pretty good job.
She was currently fixing her son's collar as he tried to swat her hands away like buzzing flier, and he let out a sigh of relief when he saw us. Artemis had left early to pick up Lian and Paula. Jade and Roy didn't like coming to dinner so they let their daughter come with her grandmother. The trip to the penthouse was pretty uneventful, we all just chatted about nothing as we made our way over, I held Dreamer's left hand and Zee held her right, trying to help calm her down as she fretted over the coming dinner.
When we arrived Artemis and Wally were already there with Paula and Lian, and Zee dropped Dreamer's hand and bolted to the kids to scoop them up and coo nonsense at the two little girls. Hana was wearing her hilariously cute little pink sunglasses and Lian just looked bored until Zee got there, but the absurd charisma my girlfriend brought to bare made even small children melt, and within minutes the two of them were squealing and giggling as Patches circled around them all, yipping happily.
I'd left the cornerpup with my sister as a pet and guardian, despite knowing Gojo was a total helicopter parent. Rolling my eyes at her attention span I squeezed Dreamer's hand and dragged her over to where Paula, mom, Gojo, and now Claire were sitting, talking animatedly. I leaned down to give my mom a hug and a kiss. "Mom, sorry we're late, my hair just wouldn't lie down today." Which was true, it never did, but I hadn't tried either. "You remember my girlfriend, Dreamer."
Her face was neutral as she gave a strained smile and nodded to Dreamer. "Of course, nice to see you again dear." She turned back to eye me critically. "You look pale Morgan, have you been skipping meals? I swear you're skin is practically paper white. And you're so thin." She fussed with my sport coat, smoothing it down as she stared at my face like she could read my diet for the last three months in the pallor of my skin.
Paula was trying not to smirk, and Gojo wasn't even bothering to try. Claire was the only one not obviously mocking me with her face. I sighed. "I'm half ghost mother, I'm always pale. I promise I've been eating fine, though I do miss your cooking." I shot her a winning smile. "Speaking of which Dreamer was just telling me on the way over she wants to learn to cook. I told her you could help, since you're the best cook I know." That last bit was categorically untrue on both counts. I was the best cook I knew, but I cheated with my power, and Dreamer needed some time with my mom.
She looked at my girlfriend suspiciously, chewing her lip. Her aura was conflicted. She felt like Zee should be mad about Dreamer, and wanted to be mad on her behalf, but since she wasn't she didn't have the right. I'd left that out when I told my girlfriend how my mom felt about her because it was mom's issue to deal with not Dreamer's, and it would have made her feel bad for no reason.
Still, she knew I wanted her to try, and my mother loved me, so she looked away and nodded, standing up. She turned to Claire and Paula. "I'm going to go check on dinner, you two relax and we can talk more once I get back." She turned to Dreamer, her smile less stiff but still a bit hesitant. "Come along dear. I can teach you the recipe I'm using. I'm making Jambalaya, it's Morgan's favorite." I lit up, both because she was opening up to Dreamer, and because it WAS my favorite and I was psyched now.
Once she left I sighed in relief and headed over to where Zee was crawling around growling ferociously with Lian on her back as Hana rode Patches like a horse, the now pretty much full sized corner pup being as gentle and careful as possible with my sister. I sat down to watch them with a smile, not interrupting, just looking around at my family. I loved dinners like this, big crazy affairs full of people I cared about. I always felt like just another face in the crowd. I looked at Zee playing with the girls, Artemis and Wally talking to Reggie and Bette, Claire and Paula catching up as Gojo watched my sister like an overprotective hawk, and my mom and Dreamer in the kitchen, and I was...at peace.
This was perfect. I hoped mom and Dreamer would get closer. Mom didn't buy into the suzy homemaker thing, but she had always prioritized putting meals on the table for me when I was a kid, so she would consider Dreamer doing the same thing as a way for them to bond. My mother had been my rock when I was younger, and she was important to me, it meant a lot to me that she was trying to get to know my new girlfriend, and Dreamer was a pretty charismatic person too, even without the stat for it. I was sure they would be getting alone like a house on fire at the end of the night, so I just sat back to watch my family live their lives. Times like this might be few and far between soon enough.
April 13th 2016 Gojo Penthouse 9:00 PM EDT
It was pretty damn late when we actually started eating. Jambalaya takes hours to finish cooking when done properly. Since it was also kind of heavy for kids, mom made sandwiches for the girls and put them to bed at 8:30. She had the spare rooms for Lian and Paula ready and Hana loved having her friend over so no one minded. Once they went to bed we all sat down to eat, and since it was family only, the whole thing invariably came back to what I'd been doing the last month or so.
Reggie seemed the most excited for the new summon, with Wally close behind. The two of them were actually getting along pretty well, which I attributed to no one telling Wally the man was a master thief, but this was a family dinner so that didn't matter. Still my old friend was practically salivating for some reason. "So you have another one of those things coming? I've seen the Knights and that magic user is pretty cool. What are you gonna do next? Some kind of ninja?"
I rolled my eyes at his one track mind. "No. The Knights are pure tanks with some heavy damage. I considered fast dps but that's my role, so I've been researching a void paladin. Sort of an elite warrior unity. Better damage than the Knight but tankier than me, and with some void magic thrown in though not as strong as the little guy. Sort of a queen piece kind of thing if you're using chess as a reference. I've been saving up for the points, but honestly even with my keyblade making them cheaper this one is a doozy. It's going to take the full fifty thousand so I'm waiting until I re-up."
The last thing I wanted was my reserves bottomed out again. The headache wasn't debilitating but it still fucking sucked. Artemis couldn't have cared less about any of that though. "What about the dungeon. What kind of place is it? How does it work? If it can hold Savage and Luthor reliablyit must be pretty amazing. Despite how weak they are they're both brilliant and Savage is old as dirt."
That had definitely factored into my upgrade choice, as had the existence of Klarion the Bitch Boy. I needed something that could trap a Lord of Chaos, since I was pretty sure he wouldn't agree to me taking his toys away. From all reports the little bastard lived for entertainment and had probably joined The Light for exactly the kind of nonsense that led them to invite hostile aliens to earth in some sort of weird Machiavellian plot to use them for a reputation boost.
Honestly I wasn't entirely clear on what The Light's plan WAS. Like...was it just to get attacked and resist so that everyone knew how tough humans were? Because that was like...legendarily stupid. I didn't even think that counted as a plan, more a series of loosely connected events they were hoping would play out in a certain order. I had to assume anyone who could beat Superman consistently for years had the IQ of a field mouse at least, so there was probably some melodramatic and overcomplicated reveal that would make it all make sense, but honestly I didn't care enough to bother letting them tell me even after I tossed them in my superjail.
Speaking of which. "The jail is a Tier Four prison aspected to hold demons and spiritual entities called a Hellfire Oubliette. Which is a really stupid name for a really amazing prison I was only able to afford because being a devil gave me a fifty percent discount. I didn't even know that was possible, but apparently the base has certain conditions that can grant extra perks. The new prison i impressive as hell, no pun intended, considering I could have upgraded the entire hall to a Tier Four material for the same cost."
Zee, who was obviously excited to research a powerful magical prison, made the logical leap. "You're planning to stuff Klarion in there with them. You said it's Tier Four, will it even hold him? Klarion is a Chaos Lord, one of the great primordial powers of disorder. Sure, he's also an irritating brat who never shuts up, but I don't know if something that low level will even work."
I could understand that sentiment, but she was wrong. "You're underestimating the island. I don't knew where the hell it came from, but the tier system it uses doesn't work additivelly. It's exponential. It's why the cost for a Tier Two material is ten times the cost of a Tier One. I tried having Sigfried take a chunk out of the walls of the Hall, and he couldn't leave more than a slight scratch. Considering he's strong enough to go blow for blow with a Black Scarab warrior he has muscle to spare."
She nodded in understanding. "Combined with the fact that the place is specifically designed for things like Klarion it should be even more effective. That might actually work. If that power differential holds up that's a monstrously effective prison."
Dreamer piped up. "If that doesn't work we do have other options. We might be able to convince Highfather to let us put them in the singularity stockade. If anything would hold a Chaos Lord aside from Morgan's insane power it would be that place. "You can take them back to New Genesis through your corridors right?"
That was a bit iffy, but honestly not impossible. "I mean, they'll probably go insane from exposure to the primordial darkness, or at least Luthor and Savage will, but that's not really a deal breaker for me. Them being crazy in an inescapable prison isn't much different than them being sane. I agreed not to kill the bastards, not to take it easy on them."
We must have gotten too into the conversation because my mother finally had enough and cleared her throat. "That's quite enough of that kind of talk at dinner thank you very much. Let's switch to a more pleasant topic." She turned to Dreamer. "Now why don't you tell us a bit more about the things you've tried since you came to visit dear. I want to make sure my son has been a proper host."
Dreamer blushed, but looked pleased. "He's been an absolute gentleman. We went to the carnival together, and the movies, and to the park once or twice." I'd taken Dreamer on a few more dates on the rare downtime I allowed myself, they had been really nice, and it was wonderful to get to know her better. Her smile when she looked at me was adoring. "I can't think of anyone better to introduce me to earth than those two." She included Zee in the expression, and expected mom to react but she mostly didn't.
That more than anything convinced me my girlfriend was a miracle worker, but I supposed that came with the territory of being a goddess. I cleared my throat to show I was changing the subject and turned to Wally. "So I don't think I've asked, what have you been upto since you got back?" I hadn't heard much from Wally since our return, aside from him showing up to these, he'd mostly just been enjoying spending time with his now civilian girlfriend, as well as her mother and niece, whose father was actually a friend of his.
There had been plenty of responses I had expected but the one he gave wasn't one of them. "I've been going for my PhD in molecular physics." We all turned to stare at him in shock. Wally had been in high school like the rest of us last I checked. Speaking of which I made a mental note to get a degree or something with my power. I was sure there was some kind of quick certification spam from Harvard or something, and my power would put me in a position to actually get all those benefits.
Our shock must have been pretty obvious because Wally laughed. "The Speed Force doesn't just make me move faster it makes me think faster. I also haven't been forgetting things. The ability to read and remember whole libraries made finishing high school a snap and I've been working on my doctorate." He hesitated a bit. "As much as I loved hero work...I just haven't felt the same about being Kid Flash since the OZ. I'm taking a step back to focus on the science. It just feels right."
Artemis put a supportive hand on his shoulder. "And that's all that matters. I already told you how proud of you I am. Honestly I get it. I don't think anyone would begrudge either of us a bit of normal for a while." She paused, her lips quirking up sardonically. "Or as normal as a sixteen year old trying for a doctorate is anyway. But really, you've always been brilliant. I just know you're going to do amazing things with all that knowledge."
My mom raised an eyebrow at me, but didn't actually ask me when I was going to graduate. I had to hold back a snicker at the stereotypical vibe of 'what are you doing with your life' considering I was sixteen and literally one of the ten richest people on the entire planet, as well as having literal superpowers. Still, it was almost nice. Having my mom look at me and wonder what I was going to do in the future. After that mess on New Genesis and then our time in the OZ I felt like this kind of thing was something I could have easily missed out on.
It was also a damn good question. I'd been through so much in the last year, and I was still pretty damn young. I had years in me still, and so much to learn about my power and the way the world worked. I'd been trying to work with my power more between research, and I'd managed some small things. Slightly changing the flavor of a stick of gum (cinnamon to spearmint) and the color of my shoes. Even tiny things like that were absolutely exhausting to me, so I had a long way to go before I could come close to doing the kinds of things my points could do with an email to funnel themselves through.
But in the end I didn't need an answer. As pleasant as it was to have that normal pressure as a sort of token nod to who I might have been, I'd accomplished plenty. I wasn't done by a long shot, but I didn't feel that same rush to prove myself that most people my age did. I'd made my bones, now I was free to just learn and grow. To spend time with my girls and my family, and to really enjoy my life, without pressure to steal or fight or protect us from supervillains or evil gods that wanted to destroy my city.
But in order to get there I had to handle this one last thing. The Reach and The Light were a threat that I couldn't ignore. My little sister was in danger, my PLANET was in danger, and while I might not be a hero, I was plenty selfish, and I didn't share my things. This was my world, and if the reach wanted it, they were going to have to pry it from my cold half dead hands, and I had a pretty tight grip.
I looked around again, at my friends and family, and captured the moment. Because this would be the fuel I used. This would be what drove me when I was back in battle, matching myself again alien conquerors and world ending supervillains. This was what I was fighting for, and it was worth it. But hey, I supposed I wasn't that unusual after all, because much like teenagers throughout history, in only a short while, I was going off to war.
April 14th 2016 Doomhallow Hall 10:00 AM EDT
I was finished. My final preparations for creation my Void Paladin Soulless was officially complete. I was up to sixty thousand points now, which based on my calculations should be enough to summon the Paladin, as long as I used Tartarus. The process however, was MUCH more involved than creating a Knight or Mage. In fact part of what had taken so long was that I couldn't just point and cast. The Paladin's weren't just meat suits like my other Soulless, they were complicated beings with real thoughts and emotions.
Because of that, I needed an actual ritual to define the parameters of their consciousness. Outside of just casting the spell it was going to take a ton of setup, but luckily we had Zee's ritual chamber, and it was finally time to put it to use. Zee for her part was ecstatic about finally getting the chance to help, and especially in such an ambitious undertaking. The third member of my little group was off to one side, waiting patiently as my girlfriend was fluttering around double checking everything.
She had been working with this room for a while, apparently using Outer Body to replay her magic lessons with Madame Xanadu in an attempt to get better, and now that I needed her on this she couldn't be happier. "So you're sure the structure is right here? Because I'm pretty sure that the dimensional anchor point in that hemisphere of the superstructure is melded to the wrong dimensional sublayer."
I closed my eyes and exhaled. I l0ved Zatanna. She was the light of my life. I did NOT want to drop her on a deserted island until I was done with this to get her out of my hair. Honest. What I DID want was for her to let me work in peace for five goddamn minutes, because my bewitching girlfriend "Look baby, I appreciate the assist, and you're a brilliant sorceress, but I am connected to the void in deep and intricate ways you can't possibly understand. Combined with my perfect memory there's no way I would...oh wait, shit you're right. My bad."
I shifted the anchor point of the spell through three quarters of a dimensional sublayer as my girlfriend smirked at me smugly. I rolled my eyes and leaned in to kiss her on the cheek. "Yeah, yeah, I know, I shouldn't let myself get all smug just because I've been doing so well. You see any other mistakes?" That magical genius was why I was letting her help me with this despite the constant annoying notes. She HAD caught one or two ways I could improve the spell. Just little tweaks to improve the throughput and smooth out the personality matrix but they added up.
She bit her lip, scrutinizing the construct slowly. "Nothing pops out." I snorted and she threw her arms around me consolingly. "Don't sulk. Design is a hundred times harder than revision. It would have taken me a year to make this circle. Your grasp on overlapping dimensions is leagues ahead of mine. I still haven't managed to get past page two of that damn book. You have ten times the talent for void magic that I do. I just happen to be a pro at ritual construction. It IS half of what I do."
That was fair. Plus she had this room and was much more familiar with using it. "Alright, well since we don't have any more gaps to fix I think it's almost time to start. For now the personality matrix is stable, but we need something to use as a base." This was complex. It was loosely based on the creation of a greater heartless. By removing the heart of a being before it could completely surrender to darkness you could create a heartless that retained selfhood. One that could think and reason.
Obviously removing my entire heart, or Zee's or anyone elses was going to be a no go here, because that would just kill
them. Or at least kill their body...probably. I wasn't entirely sure what would happen but I was almost positive it was bad. I couldn't use the darkness for the gun because I had destroyed the witch and she had no selfhood to maintain. The hardest part of the creation process was figured out how to make a psuedo heart of darkness to inhabit the void paladin.
After a bunch of research though I'd managed to figure it out. The heart in this case wasn't just a lump of meat. It was your essence. Your structure and self. The heart went beyond the physical, which was why the heartless did the same. To lose your heart was to become an empty husk, but all or nothing weren't the only options. I'd done a bunch of research in the Outer Body trance to get it right, but I'd managed to figure out a way to remove PART of a heart without killing someone.
A third was the most you could manage before a person's spirit started to unravel. severing the connection between heart and body and killing the host. It wouldn't even be possible at all if not for my Hole bloodline and it's ability to warp the void. That said, a third meant we needed one more person, because I was going to remove the portions of heart and create a new one to animate the construct. The new being should be a massively powerful beast of an entity, assuming we managed it properly.
Which brought me to the obvious third choice. Dreamer stood off to one side, fretting as she watched us make the preparations for the ritual. When I'd told her about this I had given her the option to bow out. She wasn't required to help with our project, we could have asked Artemis, or Reggie, or hell even Jim. But Dreamer had been adamant. She insisted she wanted to do more to help, to be a bigger part of our lives, and I couldn't turn her down when I saw how determined she was to be involved.
Still, I was definitely concerned. "You feeling up for this Drea? Because we can still get someone else. This is a dangerous experimental procedure that I suspect might have long term side effects. By no means do you have to participate." I had sort of managed to duplicate the basic premise in outer body, but the actual ritual had requirements I couldn't meet in there short term, so while I was sure enough of the basic procedure to be pretty sure I wasn't killing anyone, I was NOT entirely certain what would happen after that.
What I did know was that the void paladin should be absurdly powerful, dwarfing literally everything else I had summoned. It should theoretically have powers and traits from all three of us and all at once, which was a pretty decent spread. It would still be a void paladin, but it should inherit parts of our abilities to strengthen it's own. My durability, Dreamer's New God physique, Zee's insane magical talent. It wouldn't get our powers or anything, but each of these things should strengthen the powers it did have.
It MIGHT pick up my bloodline, and possibly some devil traits with it. I'd put a lot of thought into this one actually. I had been considering if this was even necessary. If I should go with quantity over quality, but then I realized I HAD quantity, or at least had it available. The void paladin was supposed to be an elite, and even if I could only make one, it had potential to be ten times the warrior the rest of them did. A warrior I could teach and help grow, who could become a champion for me far beyond my current power.
Even once I eventually got strong enough that I surpassed it, I would have a loyal and powerful right hand that could act when I was occupied. Combined with the ability to travel through darkness that it should share, that gave me the power to deploy it to place others couldn't. I took a deep breath. I knew what I wanted to do, it was time. "Zee, start the ritual." My voice was tense with nervousness, but focused, and my girlfriend began without hesitation.
The circle began to light. The ritual chamber augmented and refined rituals, allowing them to be adapted on the fly if needed and creating a flexible and streamlined work environment that make it possible to use much more complex rituals than would normally be possible. Which was good, because the personality matrix would hold the heart I was about to make, and if it wasn't up to the task that would be...bad.
Once the ritual circle was humming along, I started preparing. The receptacle wasn't permanent, it was sort of like a mold. We would pour in the pieces of heart and the ritual would hold them together while they solidified. Normally that wouldn't be possible. When you took a piece from a heart and kept it away the piece dissolved if the heart didn't. hearts weren't really capable of division.
That said I'd figured out a workaround. While hearts didn't split properly they did naturally mend if they were damaged. I reached out with my Hole bloodline after getting nods from the girls and opened a hole in each of our spirits. Through this hole, I reached in with my ghost powers, and slowly carved out one third of each heart. The Hole's connected to a final Hole in the center of the receptacle and by instantly pulling the pieces through into the receptacle it put them in a position to mend if they'd all been part of the same heart.
Then I LIED to the heart. I told it it was all one piece, that the shards of our hearts belonged together, and with the receptacle keeping them from dispersing and them thinking they were all part of one hole, they did as I expected. They joined together and mended. I almost blacked out from the strain. This was a small lie in the grand scheme of things, only possible because of a month of prep work, but it was still massively difficult to manage.
I expected pain or sorrow from the missing piece of my heart, but I didn't feel that. I felt...connection. That had been one of my theoretical options, granted. The grafted heart pieces were still part of us, and merging them had connected the rest of our hearts together by strings I wasn't sure could ever be broken. I felt my bond with Zee solidify and another click into place, and where they met was something...new. A new piece of me, but not of me.
The receptacle shattered, and as it did I performed the spell with Tartarus, funneling that new heart into the creation of a Soulless that wasn't soulless at all. The creation of a new thinking being. Void spilled through the cracks in the world I hadn't even been able to see until they opened, pouring into the spell form and binding with the heart. Ectoplasm flowed through limbs of liquid darkness like blood as space wrapped around them, binding them into solid form, creating a permanent and self sustaining being.
The dark drained away and in it's place was...a girl. She looked about fourteen or fifteen, a few years younger than us. She was short and slim with hair and cheekbones like Zee, and lips like Dreamer, and a face like mine. She was wearing the armor of a void knight and her golden eyes, which I knew without knowing how were a holdover from the heartless creation process pinned us all as she knelt before us. "Mothers, Father, I am Morana. I bid you thanks for my creation. I hope my existence pleases you." Wait...what?
As always pat-reon has the advance chapters at that site /malcolmtent.