April 14th 2016 Doomhallow Hall 11:00 AM EDT

I blinked in shock at the small girl kneeling in front of me and my girlfriends. She was...pretty, I guessed, she looked like a mix of the three of us and we were all good looking. But I didn't feel any actual attraction to her. She felt strange. Like she was a part of me. An impression further impressed on me by the aura around her, which looked like a mix of mine, Dreamer's, and Zee's.

She WAS us. But not. She was new, and I was getting a headache looking at her in aura sight so I stopped. "Morana. Welcome. What do you...remember? Know? I'm not sure how to phrase that. What are your goals I guess?" Talking to someone sentient who hadn't existed five minutes ago was confusing. Not to mention my head still hurt from my little trick with the new heart.

Soulless, unlike heartless, DID have a heart. Most didn't have souls, though Morana did I was pretty sure, but regardless the creation of a new being was taxing as hell, and a necessary part of the process. Now that she had it though I wasn't sure what it ENTAILED. She was strong as hell, that much I could see when I had looked at her aura. Stronger than I was, than Zee or Dreamer. Morana had a monstrous amount of power, though I wasn't sure how it would manifest. The issue wasn't her strength it was her personality.

When Sig came into being he got my memories of battle, but he had no actual personality, he was just...empty. Morana had bits of all of us, but we hadn't lost anything really. She had enough in her to make a person but that meant it had come from nowhere. I had no clue what kind of person she actually was, so the only thing I could do was ask. Hopefully she could fill me in on some things.

She stood, beaming at the three of us before hurling herself towards us. Not our of hostility but out of genuine enthusiasm. She grabbed the three of us and yanked us into a tight squeeze. Apparently she got Zee's love for hugs. That was nice to know at least. She pulled back, flushing. "I'm sorry. It's just...I'm so happy to meet you all! I know I didn't exist before but I feel my connection to each of you being around you is just so...nice."

I got that, I felt it from my side too. I could sense her near me and she felt connected like I'd noticed earlier. There was a warm welcoming vibe from her and I really enjoyed it, as did the girls from what I could tell. She shook off her giddiness, trying to get serious, putting out a solemn face that reminded me of Dreamer when she was saying something important. "Sorry. You asked what I know, that's a good question, but also a confusing one."

She put a finger to her lips in thought. "I know...who I am. I know who my relatives are. Grandma Marie, Grandpa Mario, Grandpa Jim, everyone important." I blinked at that last one. I kind of thought of Jim as a second father, but hearing that verbalized was...strange. Still, I didn't interrupt and she continued. "I know how to do magic, and how to fight. I know how to make illusions and read minds though not well." She nodded to Dreamer who was still pretty shocked from just randomly getting a new daughter out of nowhere.

That was certainly interesting. I wondered if the not well thing was because she hadn't gotten the experience Dreamer had from using her powers for her whole life. Unlike my training Dreamer's abilities were a part of her. To really have all her skills someone would need all her memories. Zee's magic was the same mostly. Learned more than being part of her. Zee did magic, but Dreamer WAS a god. It made sense in that context. Seemed like she got technical abilities and basic stuff like speech and movement, as well as general information about our lives, but not specifics.

Zee couldn't hold it in anymore and bolted forward to give Morana a hug of her own. "You're so pretty! Look at you! I've never seen anyone so beautiful! I have so many things to teach you! We can do magic together and go on trips and go to the amusement park like Dreamer loves and this is going to be so amazing!" Her eyes were wet as she chattered on about all the plans she was making and how she would spoil our new daughter.

Daughter. Holy shit. That was...big. Heavy. I'd never even imagined having kids at my age, never mind having a kid that was AT my age. Because she did feel like that. Like part of me. Part of US. I knew this would be even rougher for Zee, who had lost pretty much every family member she had now. It occurred to me that I might have underestimated the ramifications of this ritual slightly. I knew Morana would be strong enough to help, but when I had decided to create her I hadn't expected...this.

My eyes widened in panic. My mother was going to KILL me. Already a grandmother at her age was one thing, especially with the five year gap, but having a granddaughter in her teens? How the hell did I even begin to explain that. I shook my head. That could be dealt with later. For now I just decided to focus on what I could actually effect. "So Morana. We'll need to show you around, help you make some memories, but you mentioned that you have our combat skills. Would you be willing to show me some of those?"

She lit up. "Of course! I love sparring! It's going to be so much fun!" She was practically bouncing on her heels as she answered, and it was hard not to smile as I saw the same kind of glee Zee had when she talked about magic. I gestured at her to follow me and she bounced happily after us as we headed to the training room. Morana clearly got her nature from her mothers, who were both happy and upbeat people...and wow was that a weird thought for me to have at sixteen years old.

When we got to the training room the girls stepped to the side, deciding to let me go first given my insane durability. We didn't know what Morana could do, but it was safe to say whatever it was it would be pretty insane. "Ok Morana. I'm going to come at you directly, I want you to fight defensively." The monster level power I could see from her in my aura sight was disturbing enough that I absolutely did not want to play defense while she attacked me. Her powers should be void based but that meant all my dark abilities should be on the table.

I stared hard at her, both of us getting ready before I shadow ported behind her, summoning Tartarus. Her hand flicked out, calling...a fucking keyblade to meet my blow. I cursed, spinning on my heel to flick out a series of vicious cuts, just to test her defenses. It made sense she would have a keyblade. She had a portion of my heart in here and that's what the blade was tied to. Still, it made things much more difficult to gauge considering how absurdly the things worked. Who knew what it even did, since it was obviously different than mine.

It looked cool, I'd give her that. A long black key with ornate black teeth and a chain down it's length. The guard was a pair of bat wings and there was a purple stone set in the base of the grip that seemed to pulse with void power. She met every blow easily, swatting them aside with no issue. "That's a nice keyblade. What does it do?And for that matter what's it called?" I knew it had a name, they all did. I'd known mine just by holding it.

She grinned at me happily. "It's called Oblivion. It gives me a massive boost to physical power, though it decreases my regeneration a bit. That's fine though because I got my strength and regen from you and moms, so my physical durability was pretty crazy." She seemed confident, which I actually understood because there was no possible way for me to beat her. That was literally the point, she was made to be much stronger than I was. However, I still had some other tricks up my sleeve.

I reached out with the dark, opening corridors, and my thirteen Soulless appeared. Solomon, Sig and my eleven Knights were surrounding us. I grinned at Morana. "Now I start really putting you through your paces? You ready?" I needed some kind of baseline of what she could do, which meant I needed to push her. I conjured a series of clones for a fraction of a point, slipping them into the Knights. Sig and Solomon I left to their own devices. They were...more, than the others. In ways I couldn't identify.

With that done they all conjured Abyssal Alloy broadswords and we attacked. Morana, as before, played defense, and I absolutely didn't hold back. Twelve versions of me came in at her, most of them propelled by monstrous Soulless strength, and guided by an absurd level of skill and finesse. The Warlord's unnatural skill, Myrina's absurd bodily control, Blood's long experience, all the teachers and enemies I'd ever had, blended together into a flawless tapestry of brutal violence propelled by inhuman strength and stamina from all sides.

Solomon's green eyes blazed up, and I felt the temporal energy of a time slow settle over my new daughter as we attacked, and even with all her advantages I was sure she wouldn't be able to keep up. I was wrong. The slow worked, but she was so fucking fast it barely seemed to matter to the rest of us. She opened a Hole in the world, keyblade flicking out as a dozen others opened around her at different points, allowing her scything blade to deflect EVERY fucking attack. Then she withdrew and a pair of bat wings opened on her back, granting her three dimensional mobility as she zipped forward.

She created ten clones, which based on their aura seemed be a diluted version of her own power rather than some kind of external source like my points, but nevertheless posed a huge threat even at a tenth of her strength, and then we attacked. We lost. All of us. She fucking crushed us. She used my shadow manipulation effortlessly, like she was breathing, Zee's control and finesse mixed with Dreamer's skill and delicacy, and threw in some demonic magic just to keep it interesting. I didn't give up or anything, we fought for an hour but I just couldn't take her.

Every move I made she knew how to counter, every ability she had an answer for. She could phase through attacks like I could, and make Abyssal Alloy with the same ingredients I could. But despite that, I was ecstatic. Not only was she strong as hell and exactly what I had wanted, she was also TEACHING me. I wring every little trick out of her, every twist she had managed by combining out battle skills, and I committed them all to memory for use with Outer Body later.

By the time we finished I was heaving and coated in sweat, even my vitality unable to keep up with the physical output. I hadn't wanted to waste too many points so I'd mostly been fighting hand to hand, and I'd had to work for it. I walked up to Morana, putting a hand on her head. "You did amazing sweetheart. You're everything I hoped for." I turned to grin at the girls. "Why don't you take Morana to get something to eat and do something fun. I'm going to get in touch with Nightwang. I think we're officially ready to turn out the Light."

April 15th 2016 Infinity Island 4:00 PM EDT

First stop, the League of Shadows. Savage and Luthor were tough to pin down, at least in their lairs. Luthor was usually in public, but we couldn't exactly lay siege to downtown Metropolis. Luckily for us, we knew some ex members of the League of Shadows. And based on the recon I HAD done this time, those cocky motherfuckers were perfectly fine sitting on their island daring anyone to come for them.

Of course, not being an idiot I was bringing every bit of firepower I had available to the party. Morana, all thirteen Soulless, the whole Team, Jim, and everyone else we could muster. If this was overkill it would be the fastest raid in history and if it wasn't we were going to tear The Reach or whoever tried to spring a trap a new and much bigger asshole. Despite having seen the inside of this place personally, I turned to our source. "You're absolutely certain this is the main base? There's no secondary location where they slip off to when no one is looking? We get one shot to lock them all down."

Cheshire huffed under her mask. "YES! For the tenth time, I'm sure. The League is...involved. Leadership maintains a constant presence among the rank and file. It's how they keep morale and devotion up. Ra'as is almost always in his throne room. This isn't just some random island. Infinity Island has been the main base of the Shadows since before advent of the Roman Empire. It's not a shill or a decoy, it couldn't possibly be. There's too much history. It IS heavily fortified with incredibly nasty protections and magics from about a dozen magical traditions."

I could see that for myself. The whole island was humming with wards and defensive magic. I passed that view along my link to Zee and Dreamer, the capabilities expanded considerably since we made Morana. "We know. I have a plan for that. Assuming the shields work like I'm expecting them to. How's the breakdown going baby? Any nasty surprises for me? And Drea, what about the tech, anything that's going to be a problem?" I had a better idea about taking down the magic, but luckily Dreamer came from a super advanced technological society and she could get a decent read on what was what.

I once again thanked my younger self for getting that damn aura sight ability. It was probably solely responsible for my continued survival. Zee studied the wards intensely for a few minutes, passing notes to Blood, Jim, and Madame Xanadu. "It...should work, but I'd be expecting a party once we get in. They have the wards set up to facilitate aura cloaking. I'm guessing you noticed something fishy during your recon, because we pretty much came armed for the god of bears."

I chuckled. "Yeah. A few figures under cloaking I noticed. Klarion is in there. Little bastard snuck in, but he's anything but subtle at the best of times. Pretty sure they got Teth-Adam on the payroll somehow, which is pretty unfortunate because I was kind of expecting he would side with us based on what I'd heard about him. I also recognized some traces of an old friend. Looks like Circe is back from wherever the fuck she ended up. No clue how or why they ended up bringing her here, but she didn't even bother cloaking herself, and she's...stronger."

I turned to my new daughter. "Morana, we'll be leaving you to her. Blood, Madame X, Jim, you'll handle Klarion if you think you can? He shrugged off my gun last time so I don't want to count on it to work, upgrade or not. Zee, Dreamer, Blue, and I will deal with Adam while you all take care of the Shadows." I turned to look at Paula, Roy, Reggie, Bette, Artemis, Nightwing, and all the other team members. "You guys should be good for the ground forces while we deal with the heavies right?"

Jim's hat tipped in a nod. "I've long wished to paddle that insipid brat. It's just never been worth the effort when he can just slip away by detaching from his anchor. With the new prison in play I look forward to educating the little beast." Madame Xanadu and Blood looked to be in wholehearted agreement. Jim hesitated before turning to Paula. "I realize I'm the last person you want to hear this from, but be careful? I know how you get about Lawrence. I don't doubt you can take him apart handily, but he's usually with Shiva, and she is beyond you as you are."

She looked ready to spit fire, but closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. "I'm angry at you. I don't know when I'll stop being angry. But I don't want to see you destroyed. Don't play with Klarion, he's dangerous. You like to show off. If you can keep from doing so I can keep from challenging Shiva without sufficient backup." She smiled wryly. "I'm a grandmother now, I need to make sure I don't set a bad example. I'll have my girls with me, and my son in law, and probably that preening peacock in the body suit with the smackable ass."

She glanced at Nightwing when she said that, ignoring Artemis's horrified yelp of embarrassment And Jim's full throated belly laugh. I smiled to myself, Paula never had a filter, I was glad to see she hadn't changed. I turned to Morana. "The Soulless will be with you. Deploy them as you see fit. Teth-Adam is a monster but we have plenty of bodies on him, but don't underestimate Circe. Her aura is...bigger. She gained something from her trip to the Sphere of the Gods, and I really don't like how convenient it is that she happened to end up here in time to meet us. She's involved in all this somehow and I plan to question her as to how thoroughly once we throw her ass in the new prison."

Dreamer in particular looked...troubled, and I could feel why. If we'd ended up in New Genesis it was possible Circe had too, or possibly on Apokalips. That might mean her people's enemy was involved in all this, which was even more of a reason to take Circe alive for questioning. Luckily Morana was much stronger than the rest of us. Even if they were aware of strength after the fight with Black Beetle, they literally couldn't be aware of hers. I checked my points, twenty thousand plus, plenty for what I needed to do.

I called Tartarus, grinned at this next part, and summoned a close. Rather than have it vanish or go insubstantial I sent it flying straight ahead and directly into the wards at top speed. It hit the shield and popped in a shower of shadows. Then I summoned another and did the same thing. The shields pulsed. The others looked confused, but only Nightwing questioned it. "Ok, what the hell are you doing?"

I sent another three clones, then another ten, continuing to summon as I responded, paying almost nothing with the modifier. "Simple. I'm overheating them. They want us in there, but they set the wards to a hair trigger to make it necessary for us to punch through them and weaken ourselves before we get in, hopefully losing some to the shields offensive response when we do it. We exhaust ourselves infiltrating the island and then we're too tired to put up a fight. Unfortunately for them, a hair trigger is TOO sensitive, and this barely takes energy for me anymore."

Zee cut in matter of factly. "Despite having an ample power source, the magical structure of the spells isn't designed for constant ramping throughput. Spells aren't all made for one thing. This one is designed to take a ton of firepower, but it's designed to take it in bursts. They sacrificed magical conductivity for defensive strength and reactivity." I summoned another hundred or so clones, paper thin defensively but still enough to trigger the offensive response when they ran into the wards.

I sent them in waves, staggering them to make sure there was always one hitting the shield. I continued Zee's thought to Nightwing without even turning around. "Since I use barely any energy, and the shield is set to instadeath anyone who hits it at full blast, if we run enough clones into the thing the constant throughput will be too much for the structure of the spell and it'll collapse. The best part is that it'll do it without tiring out or killing a single one of us. The shield is lit up like a Christmas tree non stop, which means any magical senses will be unable to see through it."

Zee picked it up for me again while I sent out another thousand clones, the whole assault had cost me about a hundred points. Clones we useless in a fight but this kind of work was perfect for the things. "They have no idea what's going on out here, and when this goes down they're going to pop out and attack what they're expecting to be a completely depleted enemy who just got done with a full powered assault. Needless to say it isn't going to go well for them." I stared hard at the aura of the shield, ignoring the blinding light to focus on mechanics. "Zee, how long do we have left here?"

I glanced to my girlfriend, squinting up at the shield. "A few minutes at best. The framework is already melting down. Dreamer, what are we looking at for tech defenses. Wouldn't be ideal to get blown out of the sky by some kind of super guns before we get a chance to even fight." I'd been waiting on our girlfriend's report myself, once I knew what was there I could send some people to deal with it. I hadn't handed out that assignment yet for that exact reason.

She was staring up at the place, tracing the lines if circuitry with my aura sight, having combined it with her own enhanced senses. Dreamer had perception beyond most mortals, it was how she reached out for minds and to shape illusions. With my aura sight as a carrier she could see specifics even I couldn't. "Positron cannons, a couple of matter disintegrators, nothing huge but lots of small stuff. They prepped for an army." She sent the images back along our link the way I had with the aura vision.

Luckily I had someone in mind for this now that I knew what we were dealing with. "Superboy, Wonder Girl, you two will take out the big cannons." I conjured an ectoplasmic construct in the shape of the island, using a tinge of demonic power to make the spots needed glow red. Since it was a conjuration it cost basically nothing. "You two hit here and here. Impulse, the smaller stuff will be on you and Wally. You're science geniuses and your speed lets you hit the widest spread. Those are here." I lit up about a hundred spots for them to focus on. "Can you hit those when the shields come down? We need them down fast so they don't trip us up during out fights."

Impulse gave me that same big cheesy grin, but despite his wholesome everyone's buddy image, this one was tinged with bloodlust. I didn't know where this kid came from, but I was pretty sure it wasn't as warm and fuzzy as this timeline. I approved. "Sure thing amigo, their mode is about to crash. The chance to work with Cousin Wally is pretty Schway, you can count on us." He turned his grin on Wally, who looked plenty happy about the chance to fuck shit up.

I took a deep breath. "Alright ladies and gents, it's about to go down. Everyone get your game faces on, because this is going to be a shitshow." I summoned my last hundred clones, but this time I left behind one where I was standing and followed the others in towards the shield. I used the sending stones and link to tell Dreamer, Zee and Artemis what was going on and when the shield was about to go down, I flew right at it and went invisible as I pulsed shadows with my ability, appearing to have vanished with the others. As the shield crashed down I noticed the three massive power signatures flying out, and grinned as they flew right past me. Perfect. Time to start the operation.

April 15th 2016 Infinity Island 5:00 PM EDT

Zee, Dreamer, Blue and my clone broke off from the others, flight giving us the mobility to meet Adam in the air. The three of them had emerged from different places, most likely too independent to agree to attack as a group, but that played to our benefit. Teth-Adam was the closest, having stepped flown directly at the group while Klarion and Circe had tried to circle around, so we met up with him fairly quickly and without much wait time.

He was just as terrifying as I remembered. Huge and imposing and with an overhwelming aura of power and intimidation. Black Adam wasn't just a man with the powers of a god. He was a man with the powers of SEVEN gods. He was looking right at the other version of me as he came out, and I knew that if this fight was going to last more than a few minutes I needed some serious juice behind my first sucker punch. I positioned myself behind him as he stopped midair, staring down my clone and my girls, along with the armored kid who was playing tank for us tonight.

I couldn't see his face from behind him, but his voice was cold when he addressed them. "Leave this place. I do not wish to destroy children. Flee, and return to your hiding places, this battle is beyond you. I will allow your retreat, I can offer this kindness. You have no place meddling in the affairs of your betters. A little girl with magic powers, a baby goddess, a lost child in stolen armor, and a little half breed monster. You're all out of your depth. Just turn around and leave before I do something we will all regret."

As he spoke I started casting a spell. I silently summoned Tartarus to act as a focus and I started creating a construct. I based it on the aura I'd seen from my gun, but it lacked the lethality, the life snuffing coldness of death. This was just a structure for delivering a spiritual attack, with none of that death flavor. It had taken me time to get to the point where I could do this, where I would be able to make something on this scale, even with the points for it. I had twenty thousand to use for this fight, and I was going to need to make the first punch count, so I was using half.

I reached into the void, into the space between worlds, and I began to create. I used Abyssal Alloy for the construct, forging it from dark and void and ectoplasm all rolled into one, but I used ectoplasm as a base. The Alloy was conjured in the incorporeal, inside the void itself, and I used the knowledge from my void rituals and summoning to create the spell form outside of the real world. Silent, invisible, undetectable, I slowly layered the power into the shapes and concepts necessary as I made my weapon.

It was a gun. Well, a barrel, a huge invisible intangible barrel with an exit the size of a fucking beach ball. There was no pin, it didn't need gunpowder or propellant, I didn't include any of that. It wasn't a physical gun, it was the concept of a gun, the concept of a weapon of conceptual destruction, flavored with void instead of death, my own unique version of the gun I carried around.

I couldn't have done this before I created Morana. Couldn't have made a construct in the place where aura lay, created shapes based on ideas and understanding with no physical form using the ghostly state to reach beyond what lay in this dimension, but I did it now. It took the better part of two minutes to make it, and I packed all ten thousand points into it, a whopping ninety percent going to the bullet while only ten was used to shape the structure itself. As I worked, my clone and the girls responded to Adam, clearly trying to draw this out so I could line up my shot.

It was strange seeing me mouth of to someone else from another angle like this, but mouth off I did. "I have to admit." Said the other me. "I didn't expect you to be here Teth-Adam. I thought better of you. Khandaq is part of earth. Your people live here, their children live here, children who are in danger from the partners of the very people you're trying to protect. I knew you were a supervillain, but I know plenty of those, I didn't know you were also a monster. But I can't think of another word for anyone so callous as to turn their back on their own people like that."

Despite his usual stoicism Adam's aura flared with rage. I blinked, as did the clone. We hadn't expected that to get a rise out of him. His voice was tight as he responded, clearly trying to reign in his temper. "You know not of what you speak child. I do this FOR Khandaq. You have no concept of whom you face, of who pulls the strings upon which you dance even now. You think I fear the insects? Fear their guns and ships? You are a fool. Greater hands steer the ship boy, hands that wind themselves around all of our necks even now."

That was...disturbing to hear. Because Adam sounded afraid. Adam was pretty much the definition of unflappable from all reports. The man was arrogant to a nearly pathological level. He respected no one. Feared no one. And his pride was sufficient that he would gladly face down anyone I could care to name without blinking, because he really thought he was just that good. Whether it was true or not was another matter entirely, but he believed it, which made this cowed attitude deeply unsettling to see.

My clone clearly agreed, because he tried to draw more of the information the man was holding back out while he was feeling talkative. "Who would possibly cause YOU fear. Who could be behind the scenes here that even the great Teth-Adam doesn't believe he can defeat them?" The Reach was a fucking universe spanning conquest civilization, if he wasn't scared of them who the fuck was he afraid of?

But even as he said it, it clicked into place. "Darkseid. The Anti-God, God of Evil, God of Tyranny, Father of the Dark Gods of Apokolips. He comes for this world, allowing the insects their flight of fancy as amusement, and to soften up this planet for his rule. He sends one of his furies to aid them. I do not wish to bow, but even I know when I am bested. I am not his match, and this is the only way I can protect my people. I am sorry, child, but what I do now, I do in the name of the greater good."

His aura shifted, clearly readying to attack, but it didn't matter. I'd had enough time, and my big shot was ready. So I took my swing. A conceptual bullet of a mixture of ghostly, demonic, and void energies smashed into Teth-Adam's spiritual self, and collided with...something. Something old and scary and electric, something much more powerful than I had been expecting, and there was a fucking explosion of force and power across the spiritual spectrum as my void bullet tried to EAT the force inside him, and didn't really manage.

It DID manage to consume some of the power though, and I saw Adam waver in the air, aura flickering with shock and distress as he felt himself diminish. Not entirely, not nearly, whatever was fueling him was way fucking stronger than I was, but it got his attention. He spun on me, eyes blazing as he searched for my invisible form, and unfortunately the "Wisdom of Zehuti" told him exactly where I was. He was on my in seconds, flashing across the intervening space faster than I could think.

Luckily he was NOT faster than I could react. Accelerated reaction time had kept up with all those stacking dexterity boosts and I was able to react even faster than I could form the thought to do so. I vanished into a corridor of darkness and appeared behind Blue, who was barely able to prepare before Adam was on him, smashing fists empowered by some kind of golden lightning into armored flesh at speeds that broke the damn sound barrier.

Zee and Dreamer reacted, Zee beginning to chant spells, layering them onto him one at a time. He shrugged off the first, and the tenth, but by the time she got to fifty I saw the combined weight of the magic begin to drag on him just a bit. Dreamer cast nightmares and visions into his mind, trying to chip away at hid sense of self, but sadly the "Courage of Mehen" made her attacks mostly ineffective. It didn't however, allow him to pay attention to everything at once, and he slowed even more as he began to lose focus.

Blue piled on, attacking nonstop with blasts of energy as he tanked Adam's hits. The villain wasn't even thinking right now, I'd injured him in some way he didn't know how to deal with and he was furious. Too angry to think or plan, he was just coming at me as hard as he could manage and trying to crush what was in the way. It was terrifying, seeing him lash out like a wounded animal, knowing how fucking powerful he was. His aura seemed smaller true, but not THAT much smaller.

I started casting again, conjuring a set of Abyssal Alloy knives to float around me, then projecting them forward at absurd speeds to attack Adam from behind. Even obsessed with killing me and tied up with magic and psychic attacks and fighting Blue, he managed to dodge every single blow. I sent them back in, the blades dipping through the air dizzily as he danced between them. It was like watching a piece of fabric dodge a fucking sewing machine.

I needed him to sit still, needed to give them time to work. I considered my options, and came to a conclusion that may or may not have been incredibly fucking stupid. I stepped into the darkness, and emerged behind Adam. Before he could even register my presence I reached out and snagged him in a full nelson. I used the adaptability of my half ghost body to stretch my limbs around him and locked my hands together tight behind his neck. I clamped down on him tightly doing my best to hold him still as I poured demonic magic into my body to reinforce and strengthen it.

It wouldn't have lasted long, not with this consumption. I had about ten seconds of hold time tops in me, but I didn't need more. I could sit him still long enough for Zee or Dreamer or even Blue to wind up a big punch, and they could take him down long enough for me to drop him in the prison. Honestly I didn't even care if he went nuts going through the darkness, but I was a bit worried he might get loose halfway and fuck something up, so I was waiting for him to be down before I dragged him through. I was sure he would be fine.

Unfortunately I didn't HAVE ten seconds. With a bellow like a wounded buffalo Adam began to rage and thrash, desperate to get away and hurt me. I wouldn't let him go, and with my enhanced strength and superior leverage I barely managed to hang on. Then he went still as a statue, and I had a very bad feeling. Adam's aura surged with hate and anger and he throw back his head. I realized what was coming before it happened, just barely in time to shift into void form and hope it would be enough as the enraged supervillain howled. "SHAZAAM!" And the whole world was filled with lightning.

April 15th 2016 Infinity Island 5:30 PM EDT

The rush of energy flooding into me was beyond anything I had ever experienced. The Monkey Prince's little beam spit was nothing compared to the massive, unadulterated SURGE of pure undiluted power being dumped into my soul through my void form. It funneled through the void that I was, into my spirit, and I felt myself shift slightly, stretch to try to accommodate the sheer mass of the new strength.

I'd been empty before, more than once. It wasn't nice, headaches, fatigue, just general unpleasantness, but I'd never been FULL of points before. Not like I couldn't take any more, but like I was swallowing something way too big and my body had to stretch to try to to get it down. It wouldn't fill my stomach, but it was still a challenge to absorb that much power at one time. It reminded me a bit of the strain when I tried to use my power without a focus, but deeper, and much more intimidating to experience.

Because of how I'd been holding Adam he didn't fall into the void form, he just dropped into the open air. Blue dashed forward and caught him, signaling the end of the fight, and I groaned as I shifted back to my corporeal form. I hung there, suspended in the air and rubbed my eyes, trying to get rid of the headache. Despite that though, the pain wasn't the main focus of my attention. There was something else keeping me distracted. A big blazing number behind my lids. Over one million points.

I was flabbergasted. I'd never had that much power before. Ever. Two hundred and fifty thousand had been my max, and I needed almost a month of scrimping and saving, not to mention daily tantric rituals to juice me up, but Adam using his little battle cry once had quadrupled that number in a single second. Not to mention I still had a few thousand left of my original twenty thousand points to use in this fight. Demonic reinforcement was expensive, but Adam had slipped my hold pretty fucking fast.

I shook off the head pain, adjusting to the new tolerance limit. I could feel that I would be able to manage a bit more with my power, and it reinforced my interpretation of points being like training wheels. I was getting myself ready to use my power differently, though I had no clue how exactly that would manifest. I turned to Blue and the girls. "Get him back to the boats. Without his enhancements keeping him unconscious and bound should be easy enough, but don't take chances."

Blue nodded and he and Zee took off. Dreamer lagged behind though, floating in the air on her own pink energy. "You're going to join one of the other fights." It wasn't a question. She knew me well enough by now to understand that I couldn't just sit around and stare. She glanced at the other battles. "Morana's fight seems to be going pretty well. She' s a powerhouse. So I'm guessing you're going to help your mentors with the witch boy. I expected them to be doing better with this fight."

I grunted. "Yeah me too. A big open space like this suits his magic better than theirs though. And he left behind that shitty cat on the island, so they can't aim for the anchor. I wasn't aware he could separate from it. Some annoying trick of Circe or Darkseid probably. They need someone to slow him down. Chaos is a bitch to contain, someone is going to need to injure him before we can catch him, and since the cat is out of the picture...well, that's just me." I reached into my jacket and drew my gun, showing her the dark metal.

I was pretty sure it wouldn't end him. It was stronger now, but based on what it had done to him before it probably wasn't possible. Klarion wasn't really a kid. This body was the equivalent of the toe he was dipping into this world. A very small part of a very large being. Regardless, while I wasn't going to kill him shooting up his toe, the gun would give him a hell of an infection. And the prison would basically slap a cuff around his ankle with the toe as leverage. Once I fucked him up enough with the gun we could shove him in there before he managed to purge the malignant energy.

Dreamer nodded, obviously trusting I knew what I was doing. I mentally reached out to Morana, asking to borrow Solomon. My daughter was currently slapping Circe up and down the length of the island, but the annoying goddess wouldn't stay down. Luckily she had all of Zee's magical knowledge, and the power to really go to town with it, so she was more than holding her own. I was pretty sure she was learning a lot too, and I looked forward to seeing her try the Outer Body trance with all these magical attacks Circe was using to try and get away.

So I took off towards the battle with Klarion. As I'd mentioned to Dreamer, this was a bad situation for my mentors. Granted they pretty much matched if not outdid him in terms of magical muscle, but Klarion's mobility was top notch. Most of them were land bound, Jim being the exception, and it was hard for Madame X and Blood, now in his demon form, to even put hands on the slippery little bastard. It was mainly Jim against Klarion with support from the other two, and not having his anchor to protect meant the bitch boy was NOT holding back.

Still, Jim was doing better than most would. He was blowing the shit out of the kid when he did manage to hit, blasting holes in him and tearing off limbs that Klarion healed and regrew much too quickly. Stupid higher dimensional entities, I hated their bullshit. I slipped into my incorporeal state as I flew towards their battle, doing my best to line up a decent shot. I was pretty sure Jim could see me in ghost form, but if he could he didn't let on at all. My boss was a consummate professional after all.

I would have liked to use my giant construct cannon trick, but unlike Adam Klarion was too slippery for it to land, and even if I managed, it wouldn't pack the same punch. Where I had to worry about the death concept in the twenty two killing Adam, that very energy was the only real show we had at slowing down Klarion. I needed all that darkness and evil. My knock off killing blow wouldn't be toxic enough to infect that toe.

I lined up my shot, taking my time, and when I had a solid bead on him, then I reached out to Solomon to have him cast stop and then emptied my gun into the little bastard. I saw him try to move, but in the slowed time I was easily able to react and adjust, bullets punched through him center mass and there was a wave of red energy as he let loose a torrent of chaos magic and tore the spell to shreds.

He spun on me, and I let the invisibility and intangibility drop, because there was no real point. His too wide mouth pulled into a snarl, beady little eyes narrowed in rage. "OUCH! That really hurts! What a mean trick! Where did you get a nasty weapon like that?" He paused. "Wait. I recognize you. That gun too. You're that mean boy with the shadow powers from a few years ago. You shot me in the head and then threw me off a roof. What did you do to that gun? It feels...different."

His tone shifted as he spoke, from childish antics to cold, arrogant interrogation. He wasn't bothering with the flighty child charade. He was a lord of chaos and he was genuinely recognizing the gun as a...well not a threat, but something of interest. I knew for sure I absolutely didn't want this little bastard getting his hands on my gun. Luckily I didn't need to worry about that. Because while Klarion was now taking me seriously, he was NOT taking the other people nearby seriously anymore. Or at least not as seriously as he should have been.

Jim's conjured giant skeleton hand lashed out from a massive set of floating doors to the chime of graveyard bells, wrapping around the distracted chaos lord with an iron grip. Rather than throw a fit, Klarion turned his fucking head a full one hundred eighty degrees and glared at Jim. "I was busy with something, you obnoxious spook. Wait your turn." He flexed his red energy again and it tore the hand apart, dissolving the thing into a cloud of graveyard mist. Jim grunted and flinched back as if struck, which wasn't a great sign.

Klarion looked...wrong. His chalk white skin, distended features, long thin body, and shark like teeth made him seem like some kind of nightmare creature. Like he was what a serial killer who had never seen a child before would draw based on a vague description. It was even more pronounced now than it had been a minute ago too, like tapping into his chaos energy had stripped away some of his facade, showing even more of the monster beneath.

Or rather, tapping into his chaos energy while so severely wounded. Because I could see tears in his aura where the bullets had struck him. Not big tears, especially not in comparison to the the aura itself (which reminded me of nothing so much as the outline of a fucking Megalodon under dark water, or some other horrible monster in the depths) but tears all the same. I could see his power bleeding out, and small amounts of sickening dark corruption beginning to spiderweb through his aura.

Klarion was acting tough, but he was truly and genuinely wounded. We had him on the ropes, but this wasn't over. A cornered animal was the most dangerous, and Klarion was so much worse than an animal. I wracked my brain for some easy finishing move. Some perfectly suited spell or ability I could bust out. But I couldn't think of anything, couldn't come up with a way to bind him until we could get him go the prison. I needed to lock him down...then I froze. I looked down at my hand, and had a brilliant idea.

I reached for Tartarus. Not with my hand, I was already holding it, but with my soul, reached out with the same part of me that had heard its name when we met, and I asked it a question. Its response was gleeful, overjoyed, and I grinned as I raised the weapon. I'd forgotten one of the first things Jim ever taught me as a thief. There is a proper tool for every job. Thugs force the world to submit though muscle or power, but thieves are more elegant. We accomplish our tasks through the most efficient means possible.

Klarion was, despite it not being on hand somehow, anchored to that form. He had purposefully bound himself to the mortal plane tightly enough that only killing that cat could really get rid of him. The key word there being bound. I raised my key, envisioning that binding as a chain, and on that chain I envisioned a lock. I saw Klarion's head jerk my way unnaturally quickly as a small keyhole materialized on his chest. I saw genuine horror on his face as I pointed my keyblade at the hole, and with a mighty heave, turned it.

There was a resounding click that seemed to echo through the entire hemisphere as that binding that Klarion had made purposefully tight, but not too tight, was locked in place, and his entire aura was condensed, yanked inwards. Every ounce of power was stuffed into his childlike body trapped there as that whole monstrous entity was locked inside. He fell from the air horror and confusion plain on his unnatural face, and I opened up a corridor of darkness, letting him plummet right into the hole, too disoriented to even think of avoiding it as he dropped right into the prison I'd made for him. I stared down at my keyblade in awe. Ok, that was REALLY cool.

April 15th 2016 Infinity Island 6:00 PM EDT

I met up with Morana last, to check if she needed me, but as had been obvious from the beginning, she HADN'T. She'd kicked Circe around like a soccer ball until the goddess was so beaten and insensate that I barely even needed to think about shoving her through the corridors before she dropped into the prison. I considered locking her like I had Klarion, but I suspected it wouldn't work the same without the self imposed binding to anchor. I'd have to do more research on how the thing worked, it had been damn useful.

I grinned at my daughter after we deposited the last heavy hitter into a cell. "Well, you certainly don't mess around. I'm impressed. We'll have to have a more dedicated sparring match some time." I was planning to put this million points into a new power up, and I didn't think she was going to get the upgrade. Having someone as strong as Morana to train against would be a huge advantage going forward. Outer Body was great, but sometimes matching steel in real time gave you a bit more bang for your buck.

Zee, for her part, appeared out of nowhere and tackled out daughter, talking about exactly how proud she was of her for curb stomping a literal goddess. I had to admit it was damn impressive work. Circe was much stronger now, and she'd been a tough fight before. With everyone in the sky sorted we touched down on the beach to wait for the others. Wally and Impulse showed up first, having already taken out the guns, with Wonder Girl and Superboy on their tail.

Wonder Girl was carrying Superboy and dropped him into the sound with a thump before she landed, nodding to us. "Impressive work. I can't believe you took down Black Adam. He's a straight up nightmare to fight. I know Nightwing wants to see where you're keeping them to make sure they're alive, but other than that I think everything went great. This is a huge blow to The Light. At least as long as we managed to get the Shadows leadership."

Superboy grunted. "Yeah. Not bad." Despite the lackluster reaction his aura was impressed. I'd expected him to still be pissed about Black Beetle, but it seemed like he'd taken some of what Impulse had said to heart. "Now we just wait for the others. Shouldn't take too long." Jim, Madame C, and Blood approached, the latter two having been on the beach firing up during the fight with Klarion, and everyone gathered together to make sure we were all safe. I doubted there would be another attack, but it still helped us all relax a bit.

I stepped up next to Jim. "So, what the fuck was going on with Klarion? He didn't have his cat with him, which I didn't think he could do. How did he manage to ditch the anchor?" I was figuring Circe or Darkseid, but I didn't have any more specific ideas, and it seemed like the kind of thing that would be useful to know.

He growled in frustration. "I haven't the faintest idea, my boy. Whatever it was it certainly did us no favors. Without he anchor he was a nightmare to pin down. Whatever you did there at the end was exactly what we needed. It was a frustrating battle to say the least. I just hope the others are doing well."

A voice cut in from off to one side of us. "Well, wishes just happen to be horses today." Paula stepped out of the trees, dragging a large blonde form in a mask behind her by the ankle. He was tied up securely, but he looked heavily beaten, not least of which from the obstacles on the ground Paula had clearly dragged him through. I was pretty sure I saw ants scurry under the mask. She dropped him unceremoniously on the ground, kicking him in the ribs for good measure.

Jim chuckled at the display. "Clearly you had some things to work out. Feeling better love?" She glanced sharply at him when he used the term of endearment, but instead of getting angry she just stared pensively for a minute or two before marching up to him, staring him in the monocle. Jim seemed flustered. "I...I didn't mean-" He was cut off when she yanked him in for a kiss.

I cursed and reached into my pocket, pulling out a hundred and passing it to my smugly smiling sorceress. Everyone stared, first at them, then at us in equal confusion. Zee pocketed the money and I rolled my eyes. " I bet they would talk things out first, have a heart to heart about what happened. Zee said they weren't the type, and that they would just kiss and make up and try to put it behind them."

My girlfriend smirked smugly. "Suckers bet. There was no way those two were going to have an honest emotional dialogue. That whole family is as emotionally mature as a six week old hyena. I love them to bits, but it'll be a cold day in hell before honest discourse is a first resort for any of them." I snickered at that and she arched an eyebrow. "What are you laughing at Mr. avoid-my-problems-until-they-go-away?" Her lips were quirked to take the sting out of it, but I was still offended.

"I'll have you know I've gotten much better about discussing my feelings. I've matured a ton over the last few months. Just ask Dreamer." My beautiful, not at all scathing goddess, nodded solemnly at my plea for help, and I arched my eyebrow right back at Zee smugly. "Besides, I'm not the one who uses sex to avoid uncomfortable conversations, oh, didn't think I noticed that huh? Just because I let you get away with it doesn't mean it slipped by me. The amount of time you spend braless is directly proportionate to how annoyed I am at you at that moment."

We stared at each other archly for a minute before we burst out laughing at exactly the same time. She hopped into my arms and I pulled her into a deep kiss. She pulled back, resting her forehead on mine. "You really scared me there for a minute. Dreamer too, not that she'll admit it." She looked over at our goddess who was avoiding out gazes. "Get over here you."

The new god smiled almost shyly and walked over close enough for us to pull her against us, and she snuggled up to our side. She kissed my cheek. "That was an impressive battle, my love. Not many warriors could equal you in combat." Her eyes were warm and happy and adoring and I saw in her aura how much she was starting to idolize me. How she was starting to believe I really could end the war her people had been in since time immemorial. The idolization wasn't really my thing, but I enjoyed the faith and trust. I leaned down and captured her lips in a kiss. Softer than the desperate one I'd shared with Zee.

A loud throat clearing cut us off. "Can you guys please not?" It was so...normal, it took me a minute to realize it was Morana, who was staring at us with a grimace of distaste. "Newly made or not you're still my mothers and father. It is...disquieting." I noticed her purposefully slip back into her previous formal cadence and narrowed my eyes suspiciously. Was she playing up the stranger in a strange land thing so we wouldn't expect anything from her? Because I would totally have done that.

I decided to let it go for the moment because we had bigger fish. But I would be coming back to that little outburst later. Thinking back her stiff formality hadn't been present in our sparring match either. I'd chalked it up to battle frenzy, but maybe it was something else. Shaking that thought off I looked at Paula. "Where are the others?" I couldn't imagine her leaving her daughters if Shiva was still at large, much less Ra'as al Ghul himself. Sure enough, when she pulled back from Jim she look smug, clearly having helped take down the big fish.

She chucked her chin at the forest. "They're coming behind me. Artemis was invaluable. That crazy lightning bow of hers dropped most of them one shot. I'm pretty sure she was holding back too." She had been, but it was actually a benefit to her, faster shots were weaker, less time to charge, so a blitz let her essentially spam tazer arrows. Paula grinned proudly. "She hasn't been slacking hand to hand though. She and Jade teamed up with the bat brat and managed to take Shiva before I even got to her. Uppity bitch was losing it getting her ass kicked by a bunch of teens."

Having fought her myself I could see her being irritated at the loss, especially with Cheshire helping. It made me smile to think of Artemis ganging up on her like she'd done to me. Sure enough, after another minute Shiva was carried out of the trees. Unlike Sportsmaster, Shiva was tied down to a length of wood to make sure every limb was completely immobile, she looked just as beat up, and just as unconscious, but her aura told me she was awake and waiting for a chance to escape.

I strolled up to Artemis and Jade, very nice, careful with that one, she's slippery. I fought her once. Also she's faking being unconscious, so don't give her any openings." Shiva's eyes snapped open, flicking up to glare at me angrily. "Yeah fuck you too lady. Where's Nightwang, he carrying the big boss down here?" As satisfying as it was seeing Artemis's dad and his horrible boss get theirs, the main purpose of this was to capture an active member of The Light. With Klarion out of the picture we could either use Ra'as to get information or magically track the others through him.

Artemis's smug smile dropped. "We got him. Me and Jade jumped in to help Roy and Nightwing put him down. That old man was a beast. But we had to lock him up for a bit, you'll need to go retrieve him personally. We're worried about moving him through his own compound. He's been on this island for hundreds of years and there's a solid chance that he might have some sort of secret traps set up that he could try to escape into. We figured it was safer if you just transport him directly to the prison.

I could see the logic there. "Yeah I could see that. Here, I'll free you guys up to help." Rather than the corridors, I used actual shadow porting to drop the two of them into the prison, each on the own cells. I spent a few minutes, setting up the teleports to avoid as much expenditure as I could, but it still cost me a hundred points or so a piece. That was a drop in the bucket, but I also didn't want to go below a million. I was excited to see what kind of upgrade I could afford for that kind of point value.

Once that was done I made my way up through the island,taking Dreamer's hand and flying incorporeal to skip all the woods and traps and things, and finally arrived where Nightwing was guarding the door to our VIP. We nodded to him when we got up there. "Wow, you look like shit. Did you get your nose broken by a two thousand year old eco terrorist?" Despite his aura indicating he was glad to see I survived, Nightwing was also genuinely annoyed by my comment, so I twisted the knife a bit. "Remind me to leave you out if we ever have to raid on old folks home. The elderly are clearly a weakness of yours."

I sword I saw his lips twitch a bit at that, but he just flipped me off and stalked away, muttering about insufferable criminal spawn. Rude. Once he was gone I turned to Dreamer. "Well love, this old bastard is known for being tricky, so the interrogation is on you." I opened to door, the light splashing across the bound and beater form of the Demon's Head. "But remember to get everything you can from him. We need the locations of his partners." Ra'as' eyes widened in horror as Dreamers began to glow. Then the interrogation began.

Alright folks, as I mentioned last time this story isn't ending or anything like that. It's just updating every ten days instead of every five. Slightly longer wait, but I was burning out so I had to switch to alternating days for chapters. Still, I think the story has seen a marked improvement from the change and I'm incredibly excited for both the current and future arcs. As always, there's another ten thousand words of advance story content on pat-reon at that site /malcolmtent, and the story updates a two thousand word chapter every other day. There's also a free every other day updating version on questionable question five chapters behind the pat-reon.