The Justice League's satellite was, for once, heavily crowded. The various heroes that had helped out when Atlantis invaded and even some of the members of the 'Justice League International' were milling around.

Goldrush was chatting with the Flash. "So I got my powers from the divorce. He got the dogs."

The Flash looked just a bit stunned. "What type of dogs?" he asked.

The robot Platinum was introducing herself, using her full designation. Shelinaria was pretty sure that she was not quite ready for live combat.

"Evaluating the others?" Wonder Woman asked curiously.

"A bit. They are potential team mates. The Element Woman is a new face to me," the Goddess of Battle and Excellence said to the slightly older woman. "I'm keeping an eye on Platinum, just in case."

She caught snippets of Batman talking to Cyborg and Black Lightning, Superman with Firestorm and Ice, Vixen was chatting up Aquaman and Blue Devil, Zatanna chatting with Black Canary and Steel. Nightwing was standing alone for the moment, while Element Woman was trying to start a conversation with Fire.

"Oh?" Diana asked.

"I suspect that we might need to restrain her from hurting someone. Like herself." Shelinaria gave her a little shrug.

"Hello, Shelinaria. I am Platinum, I am the property of the United States Army-" the robot started to say.

"I heard your designation already, thank you Platinum." She stretched out her mind to connect to the confused robot. It had been hacked. 'Batman, Platinum has been hacked. Be ready for an attack.' Her mind then sharded, splitting into thirteen selves. She was focusing on everything possible.

Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly at what she found.

'Don't make any overt reaction. We need to identify the mole,' he replied back mentally as he did not appear to move at all.

It was as Platinum was shaking hands with Firestorm that the poor robot lashed out, trying to strangle him to put out the fire on his head.

"What? Hey!" the dual person merged into one hero yelled in confusion.

"She's stronger than a normal person! Luckily, so am I," Vixen shouted out as she called up the strength of a bear. She started to pull and fight against the semi-liquid platinum that the robot was made from.

The fight went back and forth as the Justice League (and visitors) attempted to contain the robot, even as Cyborg, his father and Doctor Magnus tried to stop them from destroying Platinum's responsometer.

Finally Firestorm was convinced to transmute all of the robot's platinum sheath into air.

"The responsometer! It's going to-"

"Be caught by one of the two speedsters in the room?" Shelinaria asked as she plucked out of the air easily. She gave a wink to the Flash. "Maybe I should call myself the fastest woman alive?"

"Hey, that's my tag line!" the speedster rejoined in good humor.

A woman suddenly grew from microscopic size, shooting up to full size where she had been right below the responsometer. "Man, I missed my big entrance. So, um, is it too late for tryouts?"

"Who is she?"

"An unsung hero," Cyborg said. "Glad you could make it."

"But we need to clean up this mess," Batman said. "We'll contact people later."

Everyone trooped to the teleporters. After the last person had left, it flashed again revealing that Shelinaria had returned. She then checked to make sure the Atom hadn't faked leaving.

Superman and Wonder Woman both turned to her.

"We said we would-" the Amazon started to say.

"She came back because she spotted that we were about to be attacked," Batman interrupted his teammate. "Platinum was forced into her erratic behavior by an outside force."

The rest of the league was now frowning and unhappy looking.

"Why didn't you say anything to us?" Aquaman demanded angrily. He hated it when Batman did this.

"He told me to just observe so that we could act, not just react. Cyborg, your systems were hacked. All of your systems were hacked," the goddess explained.

"What?" The Cyborg said in surprise.

"Your secure servers were hacked and copied down to Earth and some malicious code was left in your systems that look to be the groundwork to take over your body. Catastrophically," she explained with a little nod of her head.

"My systems are showing all clear. And no one knows my systems better than me," Victor said as he narrowed his one eye angrily. His cybernetic eye flashed red.

"What about that Brother Eye?" the Flash said carefully.

Shelinaria frowned right back at him, quelling the urge to try and shut him off. "Let me show you where I found it." She put her hand on his chest and then linked her mind to his computers, showing him the ingeniously hidden code. If she hadn't seen it actually being put in, she would likely not have be able to spot it either.

"Shit. How? That didn't come through any of my data feeds," he shouted angrily.

"This is an attack on the League then," Superman said. "How do we know you did not-"

"Clark, don't go there. We can prove this easily," Wonder Woman said as she pulled off her lasso.

The young goddess let them wrap the lasso around her hands.

"Were you the one that hacked Cyborg?" she demanded.

"Technically, yes. Because I was watching the hacker. I was also connected to Platinum and the computers, while telepathically communicating with Batman to ferret out who was most likely the hacker. But I bet he's already deduced it just from the situation and inference," she replied as she nodded to the Dark Knight.

"The Atom. She was here longer than she let on and was about to 'save the day' I believe before Shelinaria caught the Responsometer. Neatly ingratiating herself into our midst as a spy." Batman's voice was gravelly and low, a dangerous sign. "I told you allowing more people to join the League was a bad idea."

The rest of the League was slowly nodding at that.

"Actually, except for myself, the female Atom, Element Woman and Goldrush, they had all been members of the old reality's Justice League," Shelinaria explained to them. "Booster Gold even was a long time member."

"Vixen? Booster Gold? You have to be kidding us?" the Flash exclaimed.

"I trusted Booster Gold to lead a version of the Justice League," Batman informed Flash. "What does that tell you about him?"

"I thought you were putting him into a position to prove that he's not League material, actually." The scarlet speedster was really frowning now.

"We need the assistance now more than ever, Batman. So we need to make a decision. Who are we going to accept into the League?" Superman said.

"Shelinaria. She can easily help and she already spotted our attacker," Wonder Woman immediately noted, getting all of them to agree with nods of their heads.

"Hey, is someone going to get the Atom?" Cyborg butted in. He had enough problems not being sure if he was some ghost or echo of Victor Stone, but finding out the Atom intended to have a new program take his place was even worse.

"We are, by allowing her to join so we can watch her," Batman said as he somehow managed to loom in the shadows, his eyes narrowed in intense concentration.

Aquaman nodded. "Ah, that makes sense. Her powers aren't much of a threat directly and we can watch her."

Shelinaria had a feeling Aquaman had no idea what Atom's powers could do.

"Firestorm is ready to commit to the Justice League full time, as was Element Woman," Superman said, getting another round of nods.

"I would suggest Zatanna. While Diana and I are very mystical, we aren't spell casters per se." Shelinaria nodded to the other Olympian.

"She's on the Justice League Dark with Constantine. I'm not even sure why we invited her," Batman said as he worked with Cyborg at a computer console.

"Which means she can be the contact between our two teams. That gives the impression that we are working together, rather than they are just stealing our name," Wonder Woman said as she clenched her fists.

"When they did start calling themselves the Justice League?" Flash asked in curiosity, his brows furrowed as he thought.

"Since they adopted the name from A.R.G.U.S. and decided to use it," Batman informed him. "Months ago."

They all looked at each other for a long moment, looking up from their work.

"So exactly how much are we telling the new members about the Atom?" Cyborg asked.

"Nothing," Batman ordered. "Only us. We need to make contingencies and check backgrounds. I have a suspicion that this all leads back to A.R.G.U.S. Don't trust anything to the computers."

"I'm part computer, Batman," Cyborg noted coldly.

"I can help with that, Cyborg. A system outside the system and building an immune response to the infection that should be invisible to our super hacker," Shelinaria said quickly as she patted his silver arm. "I have some experience in putting you back together."

"You do? Well, at least that's something."

"We have work to do," the dark knight said as he headed to the teleporters.

Artemis, goddess of the moon, smashed through the window at the Wayne bungalow late at night. She had bloody murder on her mind.

"I am here for the youngest child of Zeus," the goddess of the hunt declared. She was glowing a white-blue and had antlers on her head, but otherwise had only the vague features of a naked woman.

Zola screamed in fear even as she tried to protect her son by interposing her body. She had not expected an attack here in her own base.

The young Chris Kent stepped in the way in a blur, shattering through the door. "I won't let you take my cousin," he said with a very stubborn look on his face. He had already clicked a button on his watch, but at night he would not charge up quickly.

"Mortal, you dare stand up to a goddess?" Artemis asked in derision.

He answered with a burst of heat vision to her face. "Leave my family alone!"

"You brat!" the goddess spat, only to have a fist slam into her face before she could turn him into a tree or animal. She sailed from the house and across the yard and into the trees with a crash.

"Get out of my house," a glowing haired goddess demanded of her. "Or do you only fight mortals, aunt?"

"The fake daughter of Athena dares claim to be a goddess? You are nothing more than an usurper!" The goddess of the hunt lashed out with slashes of moonlight that flew through the air like waves of cutting air. "Show me your might, goddess!" It was obvious from her expression she did not believe the glowing-haired goddess's claim.

Each of them that would have hit Shelinaria or the bungalow were blocked or deflected by the sword in her hand. "If you insist," the younger goddess said, her armor shining under the moonlight. She reached into a shadow in the air next to her with her free hand and pulled out a large, ten foot long rifle. It made a high pitched hum and then spat out something that cracked through the air.

Artemis had leaped into the air, so it was only five thousand feet of trees and hillside behind her that was shredded in a twenty foot path. "You use a gun? How gauche!" She reached up and removed her moon necklace.

"I made this relic singularity rifle myself, so it's hardly just a normal gun, auntie. And a goddess of war uses weapons of war and this definitely is one of them." She dropped the gun, letting it dissipate back into shadows as Artemis charged into melee.

"Fool! That child will destroy us all!" the moon goddess shouted as she lashed out with her power.

"Because we were evil? Because he will be evil?" Shelinaria asked as she flicker-dodged bursts of moon light energy.

"You sound like Athena! Smug! Superior! Thinking you are so smart!" Artemis snapped out.

"As opposed to just jumping to conclusions that he's going to kill you by looking at you funny? Killing someone due to some vague prophecy is almost self-fulfilling! Of course he's going to want to kill you when he finds out you tried to murder him in the crib!" The younger goddess was infuriated at her elder's actions. She slammed lightning enhanced fists into Artemis's jaw; left, right, left and then an uppercut. "Asking questions sounds like not being an idiot!"

"Why should I care? We are gods! Mortal morality is for mortals! You are in my domain!" Artemis shouted, holding up her hands to control the woods on the edge of Wayne Manor to try and entrap the interloping goddess.

It was like trying to catch a fly with a string, much to her frustration.

"So it's perfectly fine as long as the one hounding the mother continually to kill her child is a god? I guess Hera was perfectly in the right wanting to kill you and your brother. Because she was a goddess!" Shelinaria narrowed her eyes as she danced between the grasping branches and vines. Come on, become more angry and sloppy.

Artemis actually paused at that. Her body of moonlight suddenly dimmed for a moment. "Die, you bitch!" she screamed out, blasting with a huge measure of energy that exploded a hundred foot wide crater into the ground.

The whole mountain shook and part of the cliff broke off to fall into the Atlantic Ocean below.

Down in the Batcave, Alfred Pennyworth trotted across the shaking floor carefully. On the screens there were different views of Shelinaria and Artemis in combat near the mansion.

"Oh, dear," he said. "I had better call Master Wayne."

The ground quaked again as Shelinaria punched Artemis through a stand of trees and into the mountain side.

Hera was watching from the broken window of the bungalow. She pulled out a cigarette, only for Zola to take it away.

"No smoking around the babies," the mortal mother of the young demigod stated.

That got a belly laugh from the last adult present, Lennox the demigod that was made of 'organic stone' and had a head that was literally rock hard.

"So how long will it be for that mortal and his friends to show up?" Hera asked with a sigh. She had felt her power returning ever so slowly. She wanted to be at her full power to fight Artemis herself. And wreak ruin upon that uppity Apollo. He had weakened her greatly, but just proclaiming yourself lord of Olympus does not grant any power. You are king of Olympus because you have the power. It was frustrating that Shelinaria had seen through her loss of 'immortality' and pretending to be just mortal while also noticing that she was weakened. The worst of both worlds on that gambit, lost to the interloper.

Lennox leaned out to watch the two glowing figures battle along the coast (and moving away from the mansion and Gotham City, he noted). "She claimed to be a goddess of battle or war. Doubt she needs a bit of help. Probably just piss her off."

The voice from behind them surprised them all. "That doesn't mean you should wait for Artemis to come back if she actually wins. We should move the children to a different location for at least a while. Shelinaria will contact us when the coast is clear." Batman stepped out of the shadows behind them. "We are going into Gotham to a safe house. I have an armored vehicle outside."

"How the bleeding hell did you know what was going on?" Lennox asked suspiciously.

"You are in Gotham. That makes it my business to know." Batman then turned and walked back outside.

With a bit of grumbling, they followed suite.

Back in the air, both goddesses were showing a bit of wear and tear in themselves. "You aren't so impressive," Artemis said, panting slightly.

"I've been a goddess for two and a half years. What's your excuse?" Shelinaria shot back, then unleashed a lightning bolt from the heavens.

The moon goddess cried out in pain, even after using the forest to try and block some of the damage. "Lightning? I thought you said you were the daughter of Athena, not Zeus!"

"I am the adopted daughter of Athena. I'm not nearly as strong as Cassandra was nor capable of creating storms. Yet." Lightning crackled from her fists.

"Another sister! Hera must hate you! But don't worry about her, I'll leaving you bleeding to death while I deal with our young half-sibling." Artemis tried to back her words with her actions, but they were stalemated for the second.

So the new fist to the face was a total surprise, as Wonder Woman appeared and punched her down into the ground.

"Are you alright, Shelinaria?" Diana asked even as she landed on the ground next to Artemis. Her luminescent body's glow was dimmed now.

"I will be." She landed right next the taller brunette. Her bruises were fading away rapidly.

The slurred voice from the shadows surprised them both. "I can't believe you needed help to defeat Artemis."

Shelinaria just shook her head at Ares. He looked ancient. His bald head had a hat and his pant legs were soaked in blood. "That assumes that defeating her outright and with overwhelming force was my intention."

Ares frowned at that. "Damnation, you are just like Athena."

"Thank you for the kind compliment!"

"I'll take her back to her brother now. It's the least I can do." Ares picked up his younger sibling, hefting her carefully.

Batman's heavy assault vehicle was full of people, making it quite cramped. But Lennox and Hera had refused to leave Zola alone. And the poor woman had needed the assistance of Christopher to help with Diane and Zeke. Poor Clara really hated what was going on and had to be held by Lennox.

And even then the demigod son of Zeus found his organic stone flesh barely holding the toddler back. "What sort of bacon rashers did you raise this girl on? She's definitely the grand daughter of Zeus."

"Ani Shee! Ani sheeeeeee!" Clara shouted as Batman drove down the highway towards Gotham, just a few minutes away.

So the huge, eight foot tall figure that stepped in the way caused him to slam on the brakes. "Who is that?" he demanded as he started to back up the Bat ATV with a squeal of tires. (It was really more a tank than anything else.)

"I don't know, but he looks super. And mean. Really mean." Zola was very pale as she clutched Zeke to her bosom.

"You're going to have to be more specific," Batman remarked, then hit a switch on the controls. "Nevermind. Superman, I've got a situation."

The red-blue blur that appeared in between the Bat ATV and the giant man had a small grin. "I think it's more than a situation," he said aloud. "Who are you?"

The brutish man, easily topping eight feet just glared as his black scale armor made a quiet sh-shinking sound. "I am the First Born. There are demigods in that device that I will control... or kill."

"Not happening-" Superman started to say, only to be interrupted with a massive punch to his face. He felt himself hit something, but by the time the spots cleared from his eyes he was thousands of feet away and arcing back to the ground. He rubbed his jaw and touched his lip, coming away with blood. "Okay, he's more than a bit dangerous."

With a woosh, he headed back to slam his own punch into the First Born's face and sending him skidding into a huge groove into the ground.

The First Born got to his feet quickly, an insane smile on his face. "This will be a good warm up before I kill Apollo and take the throne of Olympus."

"Superman," Christopher called out even as he started to push the wreckage off his back. Cousin Zoe and her son Zeke had nearly been crushed, but the young boy had been just fast enough. "I think Batman is hurt."

"Get the children out of here," Batman called out as he managed to pull himself out of the wreckage of his Bat ATV. His right arm appeared to be broken. "I'll distract the First Born."

Superman disappeared with Zola and the two youngest children. He had his cape wrapped around them and the young mother, flying to a place that he knew that Batman would trust to keep them safe. Chris landed right behind him, fast enough that no one likely noticed them appearing in the office.

"Who is the old guy with a mustache?" the young Kryptonian asked.

"Commissioner Gordon? This woman and the children need protective custody," Superman said simply as he put down Zola.

Chris was holding Diane still while Zola was carefully holding Zeke and Clara.

"Superman? What is going on?" the commissioner demanded.

"No time, Batman is currently fighting a monster that can hurt me," Superman said, then disappeared in a blur.

Batman threw a stun grenade at the First Born's face even as he staggered backwards.

"You are just mortal? Just a man with weapons?" the First Born said, his craggy face twisting in a smile.

"Mortal men have come a long way since ancient Greece," Batman said, triggering the self destruct on his transport. The thermite ignited the metal and caught the god in its fiery embrace.

Yet Bruce had a feeling he was going to need something far stronger to keep that godling down.

He was proven right a second later as the First Born reappeared, ignoring the fires that burned his flesh. This was bad-

A blast of super breath put out the fires and froze the First Born in a huge block of ice. "Are you all right, Batman?"

"I've been better," he admitted.

The ice shattered like cheap glass. "A true warrior. I will enjoy crushing your bones to dust," the First Born said.

Superman narrowed his eyes, preparing to charge in and punch when someone beat him to that punch.

Wonder Woman's blow to the side the First Born's head knocked him for a loop and smashed him into the dark hillside outside of Gotham. "No further, monster! You face the Justice League this night."

"What do I care of mortals? I will crush that child of Zeus, smashing the prophecy that threatens me. No one shall rule Olympus but me," the giant god said as he stood back up. He had a wild, insane smile on his craggy features.

Superman stopped holding back as he was sure this being could take it. For the first time in an incredibly long time Superman put everything into his attack. Batman clasped his ear with his one good hand as the shock wave from the punch knocked him off of his feet.

The First Born flew through the top of a hill, Superman and Wonder Woman in pursuit. Superman blasted the First Born with a burst of heat vision at full power.

The First Born was on fire again, but just ran forward through the blasts of thermal energy.

"What is it going to take to drop him?" Superman called out.

"Magic," Wonder Woman replied as she willed a sword to appear in each hand. "For Olympus!"

She met his charge head on, ducking his first punches and then slicing into this bare chest.

"You do not have the power! None of you do! I was born and prophesied to be the one to take Olympus as my own! That is the birthright of the First Born of Zeus!"

Superman punched him in the face again, feeling the skin on his knuckles splitting. "This is like facing Doomsday all over again."

The crazed son of Zeus returned the punch of Superman with his arm-blade with punishing force, sending him flying. His other hand caught Wonder Woman by the neck and slammed her three feet into the granite ground below him.

"Superman's a good distraction," Shelinaria said as she appeared in a blur of speed. Her rifle was pointed at the First Born's face. The click of the trigger was swallowed up by the singularity shot. It atomized most of the skin on his face and scoured his eyes. That actually got the First Born to scream in pain.

Wonder Woman kicked his ankle as hard as possible, sending him staggering. Shelinaria pulled out a sword even as she sent back her rifle into its own pocket dimension.

Then the two attacked in unison as Superman flew back to the fight. They danced, spun and wove their swords in a ferocious blur of steel and blood. The Man of Steel flashed his heat vision in between them, charring the wounds.

He refused to go down, starting to heal even these wounds.

'Superman, Wonder Woman; both of you get ready to punch his face,' Shelinaria sent to them telepathically. 'Now!'

As they put everything into their punches, Shelinaria telekinetically held the back of his head steady against the punches that shattered the ground for hundreds of meters around.

The First Born stood for a long moment, then collapsed onto his face unconscious.

Superman was wary that even that onslaught would not keep the First Born down for long.

"Ouch," Shelinaria said as she pulled herself out of rubble of the crater. "You guys didn't even hit me and I hurt all over."

Wonder Woman smiled at her cousin as she helped her up. "We shall have to work on toughening you up a bit."

Night turned to day as the god of the sun appeared. Apollo floated over them, blinding them with his sunlight.

Superman felt his wounds healing and felt invigorated, feeling stronger by the moment.

"Diana." Apollo's lips twisted in a sneer. "Superman. And the alien goddess that claims to be of Olympus."

"Lord Apollo," Diana said as politely as she could manage. "Who is this being?"

"Perhaps you should ask Hera of that. The stories of the First Born are ancient. Some claim him to be even older than Ares," Apollo said. "You have defeated a threat to Olympus. For that... task... I will reward you by not attacking you and yours as long as they are no threat to my throne."

"You are gracious, Lord Apollo. Perhaps I may visit Olympus so that we might no longer be strangers. I wish no ill will from Olympus," Shelinaria said to the black-skinned god.

Apollo tilted his head, as if studying an insect. "Perhaps. You have a polite tongue, at least."

With another flash of sunlight, he and the First Born disappeared.

Superman rubbed his jaw. "This is not exactly what I thought I would run into here in Gotham. Is Batman healed?"

"Yes, I stopped by after making sure that Zola and the children were all right," Shelinaria explained. "What a mess."

The mess was the hillside outside of Gotham that looked like a tornado had passed over, tearing everything apart.

"It will recover," Superman promised.

"Um, who are you talking to, Firestorm?" the Atom said at the feet of that hero. Said feet happened to be on the Justice League's conference table in the satellite a few days later. She was still annoyed at having to cut her video game short.

"Uh, no one important, Atom," he replied while sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. In reality he had been talking to the other half of Firestorm.

Within the Firestorm Matrix Jason gave Ronnie an annoyed look. 'See, now we're going to be laughingstocks.'

"So where is everyone?" she asked.

"I dunno. I mean, isn't one of Superman's powers the ability to remember everything?" Firestorm asked.

"No, actually. That's my power. Hello, guys," Shelinaria said as she walked into the conference room from the Justice League's teleporters. At her side was the magician Zatanna in her trademark showgirl tuxedo.

"You guys made it, too?" the Atom said excitedly.

"Oh course. I see we are finally balancing the testosterone level here a bit," Zatanna said with a smile on her face.

"I'm... actually feeling pretty outnumbered. Hey, is there a kitchen here?" Firestorm asked as he stood up. "I'm hungry enough for two people."

'We are two people!'

"We shouldn't, but I guess it's not really a big issue," the Atom said with concern.

"Hey is it true that Aquaman eats aquatic life?" Firestorm asked. "So if I eat shrimp in front of him he won't introduce me to his trident?"

"Fish eat other fish all the time. Remember sharks?" Shelinaria replied with raised eyebrows. That was a very inane question. Though she realized what Firestorm intended was to avoid offending Aquaman.

"Oh, right."

Down in the Batcave, the rest of the Justice League were just discovering that Batman's ring of Kryptonite had been stolen.

Cyborg was scanning the scene of the crime with his sensors while he read the computers. "Our intruder was 180 lbs., so was likely human."

Superman nodded, tabulating that as just another fact. Wonder Woman was at his side, listening intently. Aquaman was brushing off some of the brackish cave water after his quick trip to verify that they had not been used for the intrusion.

Alfred was walking up with a tray that had a teapot and several cups. "Some tea, Master Todd?"

The red masked hero nodded. "Certainly, Alfred. I guess you are tougher than I thought."

"There are perks with having guests. I daresay I haven't felt this good in years," the old butler said.

Shelinaria suppressed a laugh. "Happy to help, Alfred. Zola appreciates your assistance at times. Alfred, how often do you go into the hidden room there?"

"Once a month, ma'am," he replied adroitly.

"I'm pretty sure that him being kicked through a glass tube means he's not a suspect," Red Hood said in a tight, angry tone.

"And he doesn't weigh that much either," Cyborg said even as Batman just narrowed his eyes at his side.

"All true. But an Alfred Pennyworth that has a slightly less refined diet, wearing a myomer muscle suit does appear to have walked in there only an hour ago-" Shelinaria explained as she looked at them with glowing sea-green eyes, then looked away.

All of them stared at her in a bit of surprise.

"A clone? No, Cyborg's genetic analyzer would have spotted that. So some other form of duplicate-"

"We'll have to deal with that later. The satellite is under attack by Despero. I could use the back up," she suddenly interrupted.

Red Hood looked at her in confusion. This was weirder than what he dealt with in his life and he worked with an alien princess.

"Teleporters are down," Cyborg said as he checked his systems.

"I'm heading out," Superman said, then disappeared in a zoom of red and blue.

Bedlam had erupted as the new Justice League members were being attacked with lethal malice. Metal, armored walls were being smashed and shredded.

"Despero faced off against the entire League and Martian Manhunter," the Atom complained.

"Hey guys, I brought milk shakes!" Element Woman called out as she materialized on the teleporter pad even as it was shutting down.

The giant maroon, three-eyed alien was smashing through walls as he punched Sheilnaria through a metal wall. "You are not Superman!"

"No duh," Shelinaria shouted right back at the psychotic alien. The right side of her face was starting to swell and her eye was almost closed from the damage.

"Sdnim ruo dliehs!" Zatanna shouted out quickly.

"What's going on? You guys are messing things up!" the multi-colored woman called out. One of her bags of fast food ripped and splatted on the ground.

"Busy! Evil warlord trying to kill us," the goddess of battle shouted out, barely ducking under a blow from Despero. She was now shielding all of her thoughts from her mind so Despero was no longer able to read her moves and counter before she could dodge.

"Titanium is the strongest metal I know. And he keeps ripping it apart like tinfoil," Firestorm complained. And Despero kept coming!

"Alloys are stronger," the young demigoddess called out. She lashed out with a lightning bolt that just scorched his shoulder.

"That actually hurt me!" the despotic super villain shouted out in surprise. "I'll make you feel that pain a hundred-fold!"

"I was not holding back on that," the goddess noted. Most people would be ash in the wind and it annoys the alien. Great.

"Titanium steel? Right, I'll try that!" Firestorm said to someone. He transformed the air into heavy metal bands. These actually started to slow Despero down slightly as he had to work to bend the metal.

"Zatanna! Atom! The space station is de-orbiting! I'm going outside to try and do something about it!" Shelinaria shouted out and then leaped out the massive hole in the space station that was leaking fire and smoke.

"Tuo og erif!" the magician said, putting out the blazes at least. "Elemental Girl, turn into something heavy and just hit Despero as hard as possible!"

"I think I can do that," the slightly addled heroine said as her fists turned into dull gray heavy bludgeons and started to hammer home on Despero's face.

"You think your witch's magic can protect your mind? It's just slowing me down! You aren't the Justice League! Bring me Superman! Wonder Woman! Green Lantern! I'll break them and make them beg for the release of death!" Despero's eyes were glowing brightly, but he was not yet able to break through.

"Hey, we're the new guys!" Firestorm called out. "Plus the Green Lantern hasn't been on the team in months!"

Outside the space station, the teen goddess was putting her back into the armored bulkhead in the middle of blinding smoke and choking fires.

But it was still atmosphere, so she could fly.

Something had managed to build up a tight trajectory and they were headed towards the East Coast. There was too much momentum, too much mass to stop. But that was the brute force method. Even though she was exerting thousands of tons of force, she was accelerating the Justice League's tower to skim right over the atmosphere.

"What are you doing?" Superman shouted as he came up to her in the inky stream of smoke.

"Corrective trajectory to get this back into a stable orbit. Despero has a ring with a glowing green stone which is green kryptonite. So let me go back in first."

The metal creaked under their combined force had them skimming over the Earth as the nearly nonexistent atmosphere hit the metal hard and hot enough to turn to plasma. And finally the Earth was falling away behind them.

Shelinaria disappeared in a burst of speed, appearing back at the fight as Element Woman was rushing back into battle, swinging her heavy metal fists to little effect. On the ground lay two teens as Zatanna tried to force close Despero's third eye with her magic.

"Hey, Despero! I'm back!" Shelinaria shouted as she appeared with a sword in her hand, stabbing deep into the alien despot's back.

He spun around, his massive maroon fist swishing above her head, her hand flickering in unbelievable speed. "You're secrets will be mine!" He frowned in frustration. "You're mind is not human!" Too many minds, but all perfectly still her. One entity, but thirteen mentalities.

"Duh! Goddess here!" She then tossed something small, green and glowing at Element Woman. "Protect that in lead! Superman! Now!"

Despero actually looked down at his ring to see the little band of metal missing its gemstone. "I'll melt your brains! When I'm done not even you will remember where you came from!"

Superman's fist shook Despero's jaw, rattling his teeth. "That's enough. You are going down!"

The teleporters came back online, revealing the rest of the Justice League, minus the Flash. Wonder Woman led the charge with her sword, Aquaman on her left wielding his trident with Cyborg on her right, sonic cannon at the ready. Batman disappeared into a shadow, carefully watching for what everyone was doing.

"That good enough for you?" Zatanna asked Desparo with a cocky grin on her face. "Niap htiw sgof dnim S'Oerpsed!"

Despero's face had two fists hit both sides, even as Wonder Woman put her full weight on her magical sword into his ribs. Aquaman stabbed down upon his back with his trident, eliciting another scream of pain.

"Impossible! You were not this powerful before!" their enemy shouted into their faces.

"We have new, strong allies," Aquaman declared a bit smugly.

Shelinaria imbued her sword with terrible, inimical energy and then slammed the sword across Despero's face, bisecting his third eye.

Superman then slammed a double-fist punch down upon his head, finally knocking Despero out.

"Wake up," Batman ordered the two teens that he was waving smelling salts under their noses. "We need Firestorm to fix the walls."

They shared a quick glance, then reformed into Firestorm, setting to work at making crude patches out of available materials.

The Atom surged back to full size. "Man, I was just about useless except as momentary distractions. I'm not sure that I'm cut out for this business."

Aquaman put his hand on her shoulder. "You'll do fine. One hero can't do everything. That's why we're a team."

Shelinaria wondered what Ray Palmer was up to as she listened to Aquaman lie. They might need him to battle this Atom sooner than later. If he even existed. This might be his 'rewritten' version in this reality.

And that reminded her to figure what version if any this reality's Hawkman was.

"We need to secure Despero and check things out," Batman ordered.

All they found was more mysteries that did not make sense. What would anyone want with a microscopic sliver of kryptonite?

The only thing that Shelinaria could think of (and did not mention) is that the Atom would implant it inside Superman with her shrinking powers. She needed to go over those medical files of Superman and figure out where the worst place it could be put.

And plan a counter.

The Justice League Satellite was almost in working operation again. Even as she lived different lives (including a very secret one that no one else knew of in Gotham) Shelinaria was helping to secure their base.

"The Justice League," she muttered to herself. "And here I thought I was going to be without a home or team." She smiled to herself as Clara gurgled happily as she ate her lunch. Christopher was visiting Clark Kent's apartment as his 'younger cousin' while Diane (the young half-Kryptonian baby) was being tended by Zola.

The newly reactivated computers and monitors suddenly pulled up an alert. All of the League showed that there response would be at least five minutes, if not longer.

"I've got it," Shelinaria stated across the communication systems. She narrowed her glowing blue-green eyes in thought.

The teleporters deposited her right in the middle of Washington D.C. where three men in low grade powersuits were wreaking havoc during a protest.

"There's the harlot of sin!" a man shouted as she appeared, ignoring the blue armor over loose jumpsuits that was blasting a car not twenty feet from him. "The girl who claims to be a goddess!"

"Pardon me, lives to save," she called out as she zipped over to the first villain and ripped the harness off his back. Her off hand threw a diamond shaped throwing knife that ripped through the backpack on a second one. That left just the flying one. "Ready to surrender?"

"Eat plasma, bitch!" the goon in an Intergang enforcer suit shouted as he shot blue beams of energy at her and the crowd behind her. He just smiled as she moved to intercept the hit that could melt an Abrams M1-A6 tank. "Da hell?"

"I've been working out a bit, so I'm a bit stronger and tougher than I look," she explained even as she zipped behind him to rip off the last backpack. "And that's that-"

Her monologue was interrupted as a depleted uranium .50 caliber slug hit her head, knocking her spinning.

"Head shot, but she's still moving. Giganta, move in and finish her off," Deathstroke the Terminator called out over his teams communicator.

"She's not even moving. Too easy," the giant woman boasted as she grew to her full one hundred feet in height. He picked up the armored goddess, preparing to crush her when she slipped out of her hands as lithely as any super-soldier. "What!?"

"Just needed to heal up the head wound. Sorry, have someone else far more important to defeat than you, Giganta," Shelinaria said as she glared in hate at Deathstroke. In a blur, she appeared next to him.

He was already smoothly slipping out a sword and blocking an attack from behind. "Let me guess, I killed someone close to you, like your parents?" he said in a cold snide humor.

"The Deathstroke I knew drugged his daughter, brainwashed her and turned her into an assassin. From what I've learned, you did that here too. So I'm going to break you into very small, little living pieces that is going to suffer in agony for the rest of your life. A very, very long life," Shelinaria explained in a cold, harsh tone.

"Well that's a new threat," Deathstroke remarked nonchalantly.

Her fist lashed out in what appeared to be a punch, Deathstroke's sword swiping up to deflect it, only for her small armored hand to catch it and the shatter it like cheap sugar candy.

"I liked that sword," he replied as he flipped backwards to avoid a kick at his head. His flippant tone hiding his worry. Much like his former team mate Cash Cole aka Grifter would have done in this sort of situation.

"I've got her," Copperhead shouted as he looped about the new Justice Leaguer. "I can crush steel. You're in trouble!"

Shelinaria just answered by putting the palm of her hand on one of the coils holding her and channeled a lightning bolt into him. He landed on the rooftop with a scream, smoke trailing out of his mouth. "Keeping me is a harder problem."

Deathstroke rushed back in, firing two uzi's full clip into her face. He thinks he has annoyed her. Enough for her to grab both guns and shatter them and his right hand in one super-fast blur. "Huh, you really do hate me, don't you?" he gasped out in pain. He hated speedsters.

She was just opening her mouth when Blockbuster landed on her head from the building next door and blasted her six floors down into the building.

"Not so big now, huh?" the brutish Blockbuster said with a grin as he wiped the small dab of her blood from his his knuckle.

"I'm just the right size," she replied as she kicked him in the nuts hard enough to cave in tank armor.

His eyes crossed comically as she flipped him off of her and flipped to her feet. The shadows behind her suddenly speared through her armor like it didn't exist, cutting her.

Shadow Thief looked at Shelinaria with pity as she leaned over her shoulder. "If only you weren't working with that alien and his followers, we could have kept all the aliens off this planet."

"That's quite the xenophobic attitude to have," Shelinaria remarked. "Personal experience or just speciesism? Besides, I'm from another alternate universe. I'm just as alien as anyone else."

"Bad choice, 'goddess'. Man, and I thought some villains had delusions," she said in a mocking voice with a wide smile on her face. "In the darkness, I rule supreme!"

"That just means we need some light," Shelinaria replied as bright white electricity crackled over her body even as she back-headbutted the surprised shadow being. Her nose smashed flat with a thundering boom and Shadow Thief smashed through three walls. Shelinaria then leaped back up through the hole to land on the roof. "Oh? You didn't run away, Deathstroke."

"I've been paid to kill you. And I always make my mark." And he was thinking that he had not been paid nearly enough for this job. He readied his energy blade in his unbroken hand.

A large shadow sudden filled the rooftop as Giganta tried to punch the annoying girl in armor. She was as effective as most people are of slapping flies in the air.

"I'll be right back so you can keep trying to kill me, Slade," Shelinaria said, then ran along Giganta's outstretched arm.

Giganta only had a moment to react before the goddess landed a thunder enhanced punch to her jaw. Then her nose. And finally the jaw again, sending the one hundred foot tall giantess spinning through the air in six spins to land face first in an open field of a park.

Deathstroke had started running at the first punch. He'd come back later with much bigger, nastier weapons. He actually made it a block and into the sewers before she caught up to him.

"Are you ready, Deathstroke?" she asked, her blue-green eyes blazing in the dark under his sunlight hair.

He dropped two smoke grenades and a flash bang as he kept running. The sewers filled with smoke and strobing bangs and flashes. He felt something grab his harness and then smashed his body into the end of the tunnel that had been a hundred feet away. He was actually conscious thanks to the Nth metal in his armor, so that just meant he could struggle and stab her with his knife three times as she smashed him three more time into the walls with enough force to cave them in.

"So someone decided I needed to die, hmm?" the battered goddess asked as she started to heal her wounds.

And far off in the Secret Society's mansion lair, the Outsider watched the last moment with cold, calculating eyes on monitors. "Yes, we did. It appears we need to try harder. Don't you think so, dear?"

The Atom nodded from the other side of his oak desk. "She took on four heavy hitters like one of the real Justice League dweebs. Should I just plant a bomb in her head and pop her?"

"It would leave a distinctive trace, as you well know. And they would twig onto your duplicitous position in both teams. And we are nearing the end game as all the pieces are in place. Pandora has found her box and believes it needs to be opened." The Outsider just smiled at that.

"And all while A.R.G.U.S. and all those other losers have no idea they were watching the wrong people," the young, female Atom said with a smirk.

Captain Marvel stood in the desert, looking at the canopic jar with the remains of Black Adam in his hands. Even villains deserved to be buried in their homelands.

Then bullets started to hit him, startling him greatly.

"Hey! Stop that!" Captain Marvel shouted out. "Stop shooting at me!"

If anything, that spurred them on to shooting him more. And that gunfire shattered the clay jar that carried Black Adam's ashes.

"NO!" he shouted. Captain Marvel felt an anger that was as fierce as anything before. He charged forward to attack the soldiers of protecting their homeland, Khandaq.

The blur of blue and red that interrupted his attack smashed him high into the sky, only to crash into the desert sands. The supernatural master of magic got to his knees, anger making the lightning crackled from his eyes.

"Who's asking for a fight?" Captain Marvel demanded.

Superman grabbed him by his white and gold cape. "No one wants one," he replied.

The young hero lashed out with a lightning and magically enhanced punch. "Then you shouldn't have started it!"

Captain Marvel blinked as he realized that he just punched Superman. "Superman? I just knocked down Superman?"

Before he could repeat that, he was interrupted by Wonder Woman showing up and Superman slamming into him, flying across the ground.

"What are you doing in Kahndaq?" the demigoddess Amazon called out.

"I'd answer the the lady," Superman said as he controlled the flight.

"Or what? You'll hit me some more?" Captain Marvel replied snidely. He then punched Superman to knock him back twenty feet. "You aren't-"

Another blur appeared, cutting him off with the appearance of Shelinaria in her armored superhero outfit. "You've illegally crossed national borders, were about to assault soldiers, and punched Superman," Shelinaria noted aloud. "Do you even have the Wisdom of Solomon?"

The rest of the Justice League had finally caught up. Flash, Aquaman, Batman, Elemental Woman, the Atom, Cyborg, Firestorm and Zatanna all stood behind Superman and Wonder Woman.

"The what? They started it! I was just bringing the ashes of Black Adam to be interred here in his homeland!" the youngest hero shouted back at them as he rubbed his stinging jaw. He then pointed his finger at Superman. "And he's the one that punched me first!"

Shelinaria frowned at that. Why had Superman started by punching Captain Marvel?

"This is a real mess," the Atom lied with perfectly fake remorse.

"He's kind of cute," the Element Woman said inanely. "Who is he?"

Zatanna had her eyes narrowed at him. "Why does his magic feel familiar? Like something I've seen before?"

"That doesn't matter here and now, because the Justice League of America is here to escort you all out of Kahndaq," a new voice stated.

And only thirty feet away stood another team of colorful heroes. A new Green Lantern, the Martian Manhunter, Catwoman, Hawkman, Vibe, Katana, Stargirl, Green Arrow, the new hero Doctor Light and the Olympian. At their front stood a soldier in very high tech armor, Steve Trevor with pistols at the ready.

"That's what we came to do," Wonder Woman staring at her ex-boyfriend in surprise.

Steve explained about Kahndaq thinking they were being invaded. Captain Marvel again angrily denounced them and Superman because they attacked him!

"We all need to stop this! Please!" Doctor Light called out.

"Stand your ground, Doctor Light!" Trevor ordered harshly.

The scientist tried to get them all to agree that they wanted the same thing, a peaceful resolution to the fight. As he was talking, Shelinaria was looking around. Her eyes narrowed as she spotted soldiers and reporters hiding in the nearby ruins. Why were they there?

"Aaaaah!"

"Doctor Light?" Trevor shouted in worry as the metahuman started glowing as bright as spotlights.

"Superman... He's a solar battery. I c-can't-" Doctor Light cried out, losing control of his powers. He blasted the first thing in front of him, which happened to be at Batman.

Only the blink in reality as Shelinaria appearing in front of him saved the dark knight from being seriously injured.

Batman shot Steve Trevor a look that screamed, 'Can A.R.G.U.S. ever do anything right?'

"Batman!" Superman had shot forward in a blur of super-speed, grabbing Doctor Light to put himself in the way as his normally invulnerable self to protect the other. "Stay away from my friends!"

Doctor Light tried to apologize.

"Superman!" Shelinaria started to shout out in warning.

The Man of Steel started to look away, so his heat vision only burned the side of Doctor Light's head. He was dying, the flicker of his life force fading away. Then he felt something saving him even as he fell to the ground.

"No, I didn't mean to do that!" Superman shouted, worried that he had killed the black and white garbed hero. "What have I done?" His tone was horrified even as the Justice League of America surged into battle against the original Justice League. Superman was rushed by the Martian Manhunter and the new Green Lantern.

Batman attacked Steve Trevor with a harsh scowl even for him. They would have words about this after they finished subduing his team. The Olympian surged forward to attack Shelinaria, Katana rushing Wonderwoman, Hawkman yelling in fury as he swung at Aquaman, Stargirl starting to move against Cyborg and Catwoman headed to help Trevor with Batman.

It had instantly had become a massive superhero brawl. And in the middle of it, the Atom cried out for people to stop in feigned horror.

In the middle of this stood Superman, holding his hand over his eyes.

"Superman can't have nearly burned Doctor Light to death," Stargirl said to Catwoman.

"It sure looked like it!" the thief turned heroine stated even as she readied herself to dive back into the fight.

"Green Lantern! Medical evac for Doctor Light! And someone keep Zatanna's mouth shut!" Trevor shouted out even as he fired at the dodging form of Batman. His guns then turned to charcoal due to Firestorm.

As Element Girl was fighting Vibe, Batman that was trying to subdue Catwoman without hurting her, but with that maniac Hawkman swinging that mace everywhere that was harder than it looked.

"Selina," Batman growled aloud angrily. "Drop it. This isn't the place for you."

"Don't you know a cat goes where it wants?" she shot right back at him in a sarcastic tone.

"I've betrayed the Justice League and nearly got someone killed!" the Atom decried of herself. "I shouldn't have agreed with Waller!"

The Olympian was trying to tag the smaller, faster goddess in front of him. "I have the power of all of the Argonauts. Including Hercules!" he boasted.

"Yet you are not my uncle," she retorted. This was too confusing of a situation to try and take out the Atom before she could try and kill someone else. Her foot kicked out, taking out the Olympian's left ankle from under him and twisted into a headlock. "He wouldn't have fallen for such a basic wrestling move."

"Did someone poison your mind?" the Martian Manhunter demanded of the staggering Superman. His fingers were phased into Superman's head, allowing greater contact with his telepathy.

The Flash was suddenly there, vibrating his hand through the martian, staggering him from the unexpected attack through his heart.

"Stop!" The battle raged around him, becoming more vicious by the second. Superman had kept trying to stop the fight. Finally he resorted to hitting the ground hard enough to make an eighty foot wide crater. "Stop and lock me up!" he shouted angrily.

Everyone finally stopped as boulders landed around them.

"I'm a threat to those around me. I nearly killed a man!" Superman's voice was filled with anguish.

Wonder Woman landed next to him, putting her hand on his shoulder.

Finally it was decided that Superman would be brought in as a possible menace.

Shelinaria weaved through two teams as everyone started to get sorted out at the A.R.G.U.S. medical center of the headquarters. Superman was starting to be led off as she finally walked besides Element Woman. She gave the strange woman a smile and then hit the Atom with a hard enough wounding effect of her healing powers. She caught the unconscious villain before she could hit the ground.

"Superman! I caught the traitor to both of our teams! And I think she was behind your loss of control!" the young goddess called out.

"Bullshit," Green Arrow shouted. "You let her go this instant!"

Superman was looking a bit pale, but notably perked up at this news. "What?" He stopped to listen.

At his side, the lead executive of A.R.G.U.S. looked fit to be tied. "You had better explain what you mean by that," Waller demanded as she pointed a finger.

"Of course. Atom was behind the attack on Cyborg's secure data servers, but did not give you those files. And she can actually go into computers. I couldn't follow her everywhere, but I did see her tele-mechanically controlling her computer to play a game."

"There is no way you could hack A.R.G.U.S.'s data to prove that," Waller retorted.

"No, your dead tree approach to security would stop that. It was really annoying to read all those folders manually. I'm a little insulted you thought a hero using one relic would actually equal a goddess," Shelinaria said. "So I know she didn't give you those files she stole when she set Platinum to go rogue. She was on Superman just before he rushed up to Doctor Light and lost control. And now Superman is exhibiting signs of kryptonite poisoning." She actually stared at Superman harder, trying to find the source of the poisoning. There was literally not enough radiation around to cause the amount of pain and weakness. There was only-

"How did she do that?" Batman demanded as he stared at the knocked out villain.

"She jabbed a visual control cluster of nerves in his head with a microscopic shard of green kryptonite. So she's working with the one that sent Despero to trash the satellite." That was hard even with her impossibly fine senses.

"We're going to need to scan Superman's brain to confirm that. But if that is the case, who is she working for?" Trevor asked as he nodded to Superman.

"The Secret Society, duh," Catwoman called out snidely. "I mean they already tried to kill us before."

"Which leads me to wonder if we were the only thing you were looking at," Batman growled. "Or is N.O.W.H.E.R.E.'s actions among others too hard for you to look into?"

"Focus, Batman. We need to deal with the enemy that is attacking us now," Wonder Woman said as she put her hand on his shoulder.

Firestorm looked impressed at that. She actually talked down the intimidating hero.

"I'm confused. I liked her, but she was the enemy?" Element Woman asked.

"I will get to the bottom of this. Her small thoughts might have hidden herself from me, but I know how to get around that-" Martian Manhunter was saying when yellow circles of light appeared throughout the room.

Each one sprouted grenades, sending the Flash into a blur of motion to get them away from the merely human members of both teams. Shelinaria deflected one towards Captain Marvel and then held a second to stomach as she crouched low.

The Green Lantern, Simon Baz, put up an emerald bubble around several of the grenades. It wasn't fancy but it would get the job done.

As the grenades were going off another portal opened right next to the young goddess's left hand that was holding the Atom. Two hands reached through, one with a glove that gripped her forearm and unleashed a nerve disruptor while the second one grabbed the unconscious villainess from suddenly limp fingers.

Shelinaria's other hand shot into the warp to grab the Atom. The portal closing on her arm and amputating it came as a great shock. "My gauntlet! That took weeks to make!" she stated inanely.

Firestorm stared at the stump Shelinaria had. "I think I might be sick…"

"Ewww…" Element Girl put it.

The young goddess frowned at the stump as she focused on it hard. "I'm a lot tougher than when I first came to this world." Black, all-color ichor spurted out from the stump and then reformed into her forearm and hand. She clenched it and then wiggled all the fingers to make sure they all worked.

"We just lost our prisoner to interrogate, so now we are back to square one," Amanda Waller complained.

"And with their freaky mansion that can teleport anywhere, it's not like we can just track them down on a whim," Catwoman said in complaint as she relaxed and leaned up against the metal walls of the infirmary. Zatanna wondered how many buildings able to teleport she was to find out about as that was the third one so far.

Batman's eyes narrowed in sudden thought. "Did you get an ID on all of them?"

"Just the ones we caught. Their leader was this old guy that was way too smug and British," the thief-heroine said with a distasteful sniff.

"Martian Manhunter, I need to see who that is. Now," the sleuth demanded.

"That is easy, as he was the one that shot me in the head." He suddenly shapeshifted into a pale, evil looking Alfred Pennyworth.

"Our kryptonite thief. So this is an attack by the Secret Society," Cyborg said as he looked at the face.

"Who is he?" Green Arrow asked.

"An impossibility," Batman said intently. "A mysterious, evil duplicate or clone. From the future? Or some other universe? We don't know."

Shelinaria looked around. She walked past Hawkman on her way to the badly maimed man in the corner. Hawkman grunted as he felt all of his scars and wounds suddenly heal. "Please, let me help Doctor Light," she asked.

The doctors looked upset. "What can you do?"

"I can help." She placed her hand on his burned side, then suddenly it regrew itself back. A long moment of concentration and even his hair grew back.

Doctor Light opened his eyes with a gasp. "I thought I was going to die."

"You almost did, in an attempt to frame Superman for murder."

That got the dark skinned scientist to gape in shock. "Really?"

The Outsider frowned as he awaited for the Atom to awaken as she laid on his desk like a small doll. She looked like she had been beaten severely, all purple bruises on her face. "It appears we will have to go with Plan D."

Deathstroke narrowed his eye behind his mask. "And what is that?" He was standing on the other side of the desk, studying the leader of the Secret Society. He had been sprung in record time and healed up. Along with the other members of the Secret Society.

"I want you to contact the Rogues and hire them. You are going to be looking for a woman who is carrying an item of incredible power. Her name is Pandora and she hold Pandora's box that she wishes to use to contain evil." The Outsider's face had a wide, evil grin on it all of a sudden. "And Deathstroke? I want the heroes to know about it."

"Why?" the mercenary demanded. He hated these types of damn operations.

"Because I want them to believe that it can defeat them. Oh, don't worry your head. It's incredibly dangerous... to them. That's why I want them to try and stop you. They won't be able to stop themselves from fighting over it. After all, it leads to evil."

"I want to be paid up front. Ten million dollars," Deathstroke demanded.

"Gold, diamonds or a Swiss account?"

"Diamonds, clean and clear." Deathstroke nodded as he showed how serious he was about this mission.

The Outsider didn't even quibble a little bit. "I'll get Warp to drop you off in Central City and he'll deliver clues to help track down this woman." He opened a drawer and pulled out several bags of diamonds, handing them to the mercenary. "I would be wary of Shelinaria, she doesn't seem to like you much."

"I want to know why, but I need the right weapon. Something that will cripple her magic," Slade stated with a hard look on his face.

The Outsider laughed uncontrollably for a moment before regaining control of himself. "Of course you do. Your ten million might even cover costs."

"All business then." Deathstroke pondered it. "Find it for me and I'll take care of buying it."

Constantine was lighting up a cigarette. "So we need to-." He was suddenly looking behind the rest of the Justice League Dark. "Bullocks. Bloody hell. Why do people keep interrupting-"

"Constantine, I need your help. You and your Justice League Dark," a cloaked up woman said. "I am hunted by evil. And they must not succeed."

"Pandora," Deadman said as he narrowed his eyes. The scarlet garbed ghost did not look happy.

All of them could feel something from the three eyed gold skull in her hands. Something... evil.

Adam, the Frankenstein monster, had pulled out his large sword from his back. His green skin and stitching made him look like a super-muscular version of the classic horror monster. "We should-"

"Just die?" Deathstroke the Terminator said even as he fired a pistol while he rounded the corner of a house. "Kill them all, but we need her... and the box." He landed in a forward roll, pulling out a broadsword and charging at Constantine.

"Not the smartest bloke at the pub, are you?" the mage said as he took a drag on his cigarette. "Trying to mess with me right in front of my own house."

"Come on, guys! Time to tussle with the B-rate horror Justice League," Mirror Master said as he stepped out of the windows of the house.

Captain Cold fired ice out of his hands at Black Orchid to freeze her in a block of ice. His smile dipped as she flexed and actually broke the ice. "Super strength. Well, that's easier to deal with than ludicrous speed."

Heatwave sent out a blast of fire and heat at the whole group, causing the JL Dark to scatter.

Trickster bounded along on his pogo legs. "Time to have a blast!" he shouted as he threw little cherry bombs that popped and banged in a very disorienting way. He started to laugh hysterically at his own joke.

Constantine puffed out a cloud from his cigarette, snuffing the fire from Heatwave's attack. "Really damn stupid. Let's show this idiots the road."

Pandora had a pistol out, shooting over at the Weather Wizard before he disappeared into a fog. "You will not take the Pandora Box from me."

"Love, it's what we do," Mirror Master said. "We're thieves. But don't worry, we won't hurt you too bad." He ducked through a puddle that was reflecting the sky, disappearing before he could be seriously hurt or killed. He hated to do that, as the Mirror World was seriously messed up. Or was it himself that was broken, he wondered?

Adam had charged towards Heatwave, swinging his sword even as it started to glow red hot from a new blast of fire and heat. "We are the darkness that hunts evil, thieves."

The clang of a sword hitting sword surprised Adam as Deathstroke came out of the smoke and fog. "And mercenary killer. Can't forget that," he said, even as he kicked the Frankenstein monster in the jugular. "Would someone keep that woman from running? We can't let anyone else get a hold of that right now."

Lightning flashed to blast a tree to kindling.

"I'd hate to have to hurt you," the Weather Wizard said somberly. "But we need this job to fix us."

Pandora narrowed her eyes, her red painted chakra dot and jagged cheek marks making her look odd and exotic with her eternal white hair. She flipped over the puddle below as Mirror Master tried to grab her legs, shooting at him again.

Deathstroke then suddenly stopped fighting Adam and back-kicked Heatwave in the face. "Damn ghost! Get out of my head!"

Deadman struggled, but the mercenary was remarkably strong willed. And seemed to have some sort of ward written on paper under his costume. The former acrobat had no idea what to make of someone prepared for something like him. "What the hell, man?" he asked as he was forced out.

"Why would a ghost scare me when a goddess doesn't?" Deathstroke asked in a cold tone.

"Okay. That's a new one," the ghost noted as he flitted across the battlefield.

Black Orchid dodged into the fog even as hail started to clatter to the ground. It appeared this Weather Wizard was not too accurate with his powers yet. Once she was out of sight she started to morph her appearance. She staggered out of the fog, looking like Deathstroke as she held her hand over her 'wounded' stomach. "Trickster..."

Trickster blinked. "Whoa! Boss, what happened." He almost reacted fast enough to avoid the gut shot by the supernaturally strong female. Almost, but not quite. His breath was forcibly ejected and he curled over the blow to rob some of its force. Super strong hands clutched at his throat. He started triggering several of his 'trickster devices to try to get her off him. However it didn't do anything and Black Orchid's grip held.

Adam rose back up and walked through the flames that Heatwave was emitting. The villain got the hilt of Frankenstein's sword to the face.

"You all are fighting very hard for merely hope," Adam remarked.

"No, hope is not locked in this box," Pandora stated before opening fire on Captain Cold. "Nor will I let a mercenary and his hired thugs have it!"

"At least we're more honest than Constantine," Cold retorted. "Who knows what he'll do with that box."

Constantine gave the Captain a rude hand gesture.

Deathstroke stumbled at Heatwave blasted the ground in front of him to try and take out the mage for his temerity and attitude. "Watch it-" he started to shout, only to be cut off as several of Pandora's bullets hit his chest. The blood packets splattered perfectly. "Emergency recall," he pretended to gasp out.

All of the Rogues except the Trickster faded out. Axel tried to laugh nervously as the heroes seemed to loom over him, but the chokehold was making everything blurry. In his pocket, the Secret Society amulet sizzled and melted.

"Well, boyo, I think it's time to find out what you know about a certain box," Constantine said as he noted Pandora disappearing into the shadows. He tapped Black Orchid on her shoulder to let him breath.

"Do you think they'd trust me with anything? I just know its valuable!" the Central City villain said with a smirk as he rubbed his throat.

"He lies," Adam said in a deep rumbling voice.

"Everyone lies. This stinks of the shite," the English mage grumbled. He put his fingers on Trickster's forehead.

A shadowy demon burst out from the center of the forehead, trying to bite and claw at Constantine's face and neck. He got cut on his forehead as he fended it off, but Adam and Black Orchid caught it quickly. Between the two they crushed it in a spray of ectoplasm.

"A Lidnoinite demon?" Deadman said. "That's some fairly serious power."

"No finesse. Amateurs," Constantine sighed. They definitely didn't get Nick to help them with this. Necro won't use something like this. Even Faust would use something better.

And for some reason, that worried him. He hated dealing with non professionals. Mostly because even they didn't know what they were going to do next.

"I believe you turned his brain to mush," Black Orchid remarked as Trickster had a glazed over look in his eye and was drooling. She shook him gently.

"Not me, luv. That's all that demon's fault. That's why you don't let a demon into your head." He suddenly frowned. "Oh, that's sneaky. They put the lidnoinite demon there on purpose, so that he would scramble his oatmeal. Bastards."

"Doubt they even informed him of that," Adam commented. "How... typical."

"That box... it had a lot of magical power. Constantine, I think we need to know why those guys are after it. Let me step inside and try to find out," Deadman said, jumping in to posses the villain.

"Wait!" Constantine shouted, only to breath a sigh of relief as he jumped back out.

"Relax, Constantine. I'm no rookie. They really did mess him up good. We'd need to fix his noggin or find a telepath," the ghost said.

Black Orchid frowned. "I might actually know one. He's part of A.R.G.U.S., I think."

That was awfully lucky, in the mage's mind. Too lucky. But they were already attacked. "Doesn't matter, we should drop this idiot off-"

"No, I think we should check this out quick to make sure that we aren't going to have a powerful magic item unleashed in our backs," Black Orchid retorted. Their leader was far too obsessed on his personal problems and the ghosts of his past come to hurt him. And the team by extension.

They really needed to deal with the Cult of the Cold Flame. But at the determined expressions on the other three members of the Justice League Dark, Constantine just sighed. Bloody hell.

"You are totally exonerated for the loss of control, Superman. But that doesn't excuse you for invading the sovereign territory of a country that doesn't want you and the Justice League in it," Amanda Waller said as she looked over at the recovering Kryptonian.

It had taken a few hours to get things sorted out and the alien virus (and the incredibly small sliver of Kryptonite) cured. All of the heroes were asked to stay at readiness, just in case.

"Hey, I just wanted to take back someone's ashes," Captain Marvel said and then sighed. "I thought I'd be in and out, and not need to tell half the planet what I'm doing."

"Hold that thought for when we have more time. More trouble has shown up with the third team of the Justice League," Superman said.

"Another one?" Firestorm asked. "How many Justice League teams are there?"

"Only three," Shelinaria stated. "And this team was from before, cutting their ties with A.R.G.U.S. long before we all got betrayed by The Atom."

"Constantine! What the hell are you doing here?" Zatanna demanded angrily at the lead figure as they stood in front the assembled heroes and A.R.G.U.S. leadership.

Hawkman and Frankenstein's Monster sized each other up.

Vibe slowly backed away from the pair. "Not again," he whimpered.

"Is that any way to greet friends?" Constantine said with a smile on his face.

"Well given I never heard of you guys before… we're not friends" Green Arrow commented.

"He gets that from people he knows as well," Zatanna sighed.

"Wonderful," the new Green Lantern, Simon Baz, muttered.

"Why do you have the Trickster?" the Flash asked as he spotted one of his Rogues.

"We need the big green guy to look into his head," Green Arrow said in a strange way. It suddenly did not sound like the cocky bowman at all, even though it was the same voice saying the words.

"So you're Deadman," Shelinaria remarked as she narrowed her eyes. A heroic ghost that possesses people in his adventures.

"Yep," Deadman, aka Boston Brand, said with a grin and enjoying the feeling of being alive. And male.

"You sure that's a good idea?" Flash asked remembering how letting the Martian Manhunter onto the Justice League went.

"We were just attacked by a group of villains trying to steal Pandora's box. Knowing why-" Black Orchid was saying, only to be interrupted.

"-will allow us to be only one step behind, not a dozen," Constantine said, lighting up another cigarette.

"What did you do to his mind," the Martian Manhunter demanded as he started to feel the damaged villain in front of him.

"Not me. Someone stuck a demon in his head to nibble off my face," Constantine said with a shrug. "That trick gets kind of old after awhile."

"Someone please tell me he's joking," Captain Marvel called out to all three teams. Zatanna, Shelinaria, Wonder Woman, Katana and the Olympian all shook their heads. The rest of the Justice League Dark just smiled and chuckled at his naivety. "Oh, boy." That, to the young master of magic, was not a good sign at all.

Quite a few of the Justice Leaguers of all stripes looked a little green at that idea.

"You must be really new at this," Constantine said as he raised an eyebrow at the red and white garbed hero. And that felt like the powerful magic of the reclusive wizard, Shazam. Old coot finally bit the big one?

"His mind is chaotic, on a good day. But still, at the heart, human." Martian Manhunter put his hands on Trickster's head. "I can almost sense what he was told about Pandora's box. Yes, Deathstroke is explaining that an anonymous group wishes to procure the relic as it is believed to have a power that can destroy any mortal. Heatwave jokes, mentioning that Superman is mortal, right? Deathstroke just tells him to stop thinking too hard."

"Another attack on Superman? This is worrisome," Wonder Woman said. "Only two or three of us are effectively not mortal."

Batman actually looked disturbed at that. "You and Shelinaria? And Deadman. A ghost, a demigoddess and a goddess."

Diana refused to mention she had been asked to be a new god of War. And no one knew if Frankenstein's monster counted as on "mortal" or not. Even Adam himself would be hard pressed to answer that question as he had no idea what he or his former Bride were exactly.

Aquaman frowned and then stepped forward. "So we need to investigate this Secret Society from multiple angles."

That got a return nod from Catwoman, Hawkman, Green Arrow and the Martian Manhunter.

"So the rest of us need to find some golden apples?" jokes Green Arrow with a grin on his face, getting a weird look from the new Green Lantern.

"Well, we have done our good boyscout thing. Need to get back to grown up matters. I'll see you guys later. Coming, guys?" Constantine asked as he headed to the closet door.

"We should track down the box," Adam said seriously. "This is very dangerous. And not even you are immortal, Constantine."

"Oh, come on! The big heroes with underwear on the outside can handle this. We've got some important stuff we can't put off," the mage complained.

"Such as?" Shelinaria asked sharply.

"None of your godly business, tart," he shot back.

Most of the heroes bristled at the dismissive attitude. Which included Adam.

"So are you going tell us then?" Frankenstein's Monster asked in a quiet and dangerous tone.

"Not in front of the children," Constantine drawled out.

"Constantine, you'll always be a total jackass, won't you?" Zatanna asked, looking more than just a little annoyed.

"It's who I am!" he replied with a smile.

"No wonder no one wanted to invite these people," Green Arrow muttered.

Shelinaria tilted her head to look at the drooling Trickster. A featherlight touch of healing as he was on his way to recovery. Internally, she had to chuckle as he immediately pretended to be still drooling and unconscious. The young goddess was sure that Batman had noticed.

"I am going to go to Hephaestus and demand the truth," Wonder Woman decided. "He was the one that originally built it, after all."

Shelinaria zeroed in on that. "I should probably introduce myself to him, shouldn't I? I still can't believe Apollo became the new king of Olympus."

"The Greek gods are real?!" Firestorm gasped. "I mean, really real?"

Wonder Woman and Shelinaria just gave him an annoyed look at that pronouncement.

"What?" Firestorm said seeing that look. "I've been dealing with sci fi stuff. The magic stuff is brand new to me."

Pandora ran, twisting magics behind her to confuse her trail. She had to find the pure one, that could hold the box without being corrupted by it like Superman was. She had really thought that he was the best, but he acted like he was just a normal person.

Was there anyone who could open the box? Could the Justice League help her like she believed? And why were the villains after her? She didn't even want to know what her box would do to them.

"I think that's far enough, Pandora," a male voice said as he stepped out of the shadows in the forest ahead of her. Deathstroke the Terminator had his broadsword out already

"You seem to enjoy being shot. I can accommodate that," Pandora noted with her guns already out.

"Well, I didn't bring the B-list villain bunch this time. Giganta, keep a watch out from anyone that is going to interfere. I'm going to make her suffer," Deathstroke promise, playing up his part like he was in some action movie.

Cheetah then growled. Why were they after this stupid woman and her skull 'box'. It didn't look like any box she had seen. And given the themes many villains and heroes took it was very possibly she was just some nutcase taking the name Pandora and lugging around a box.

Pandora let loose with a barrage of gunfire on Parasite as he tried to grab her.

"Did someone call for a fast rescue?" a red and yellow lightning streak called out as it started to spin around the purple skinned monster, making a tornado.

Captain Marvel announced his presence by landing a double-fist to Giganta's chin. She actually lifted off the ground by fifty feet, smashing trees in her landing.

Superman entered the fight by slamming into Cheetah hard and sending both of them flying through a few trees of his own. "Cheetah is down," Superman announced as he stood back up.

A massive emerald ball plowed through anything it struck.

"You again," Deathstroke remarked as he dodged Hawkman's mace.

And found it was a feint as Katana attacked him from behind with the Soultaker. He just barely ducked in time.

"Hawkman!" Blockbuster yelled as he charged for the flying alien.

Hawkman ducked under a punch went for the the beefed up man's knees. He wasn't going to underestimate the strength of Blockbuster this time. Not that he had to, as Simon put an emerald bubble around Blockbuster's head. The giant of a man used up air at at an extreme rate trying to get rid the green obstruction.

Tar Pit then found himself getting cold very fast as Superman exhaled his icy breath on the psionically held together man.

Hyena tried to sneak up on Hawkman and found himself slashed by the massive claws that Hawkman had strapped over one hand, then knocked out by his large metal mace.

"Who's next?" Hawkman bellowed.

A massive brown hammer struck Hawkman upside the head. Clayface wondered if the loudmouth had any superpowers he could use.

The fight continued up the side of Mount Etna and closer to the ancient Temple of Hephaestus.

Wonder Woman was stalking in the shadows of Hephaestus's forge in the god realms, loosening her lasso of truth in preparation to force him to tell them about his Pandora's box.

'Exactly why are you about to assault a god in his own home?' Shelinaria asked telepathically, grabbing a hold of her forearm.

'I'm going to demand that he tell us about the box. We may be sometime allies, but after what I found my people did and he allowed-' Diana thought aloud in her own mind. She leaked the impression and image of the 'Amazonian' sons that worked and toiled in his forges.

'Assaulting him is an insult, especially when a small touch of flattery will get everything.' Shelinaria rolled her eyes. 'You can always attack and tie him up later.'

The Amazon frowned, but realized that the daughter of Athena might just have a point. She looped up her lasso and then stepped out. "Brother, I need a moment of your time."

Hephaestus looked up from his forge, putting aside his latest work. One of his powers would allow it to keep ready until he went back to it. "Diana. What brings you here?"

"Pandora's Box and a dimensionally lost relative. It is time for truths," Wonder Woman said.

"Hello, I am Shelinaria, goddess of Excellence and Battle. I am the scion of Athena from a far off and alternate Earth." The glowing haired goddess gave him a nod of acknowledgement.

"She's a virgin goddess," the Smith of the Gods noted with a nasty smile.

"And mighty Zeus was known to have many progeny. I was adopted to be raised as her implement of war against the Titans when they freed themselves," Shelinaria stated simply and flatly. She was not going to dredge up his own attack on Athena that created a child.

For a moment there was an odd look on Hephaestus's face. "That would have to be a very dire time."

"I was only one of several demigods that were gathered together. Two cousins, the son of Hel of the Aesir and the son of Susano-O. And we were only one band of demigods gathered. But that's my lost past. Let us speak of what is known as one of your great creations, the Box of Pandora."

The smith frowned. "What of it?"

"We have learned that some of the villains plan to use it to kill the mortal heroes," Wonder Woman said sharply. "And what it did to Superman when he held it..."

Hephaestus frowned. He thought deeply on the matter for a second. "I wish I could tell you of Pandora's Box, but I didn't actually make it. It just appeared at Zeus's temple. I tried to decipher it's secrets, but it was beyond me."

"It's older than the Dodekatheon?"

"And strange. Hera was unable to magically discern its power and its craftsmanship was beyond my own," he admitted.

"Times have changed though. Is it still totally beyond you? Or do you have a better idea of what it is?" Shelinaria asked curiously.

"What an odd thought." Hephaestus closed his eyes behind his goggles, thinking back. "Some of it could have been microscopic power conduits. So perhaps it was alien technology, not just magic."

"Still something that needs to be kept out of the hands of those that wish to do harm to others," Diana stated firmly.

"Well, it was nice meeting you uncle," Shelinaria said politely.

"Just glad you two were able to deal with that First Born idiot," Hephaestus said.

Shelinaria just snorted at that. "I'm not sure why anyone was worried about the first born child of Zeus's second marriage."

The smith frowned, then his eyes widened behind his goggles. "You're smarter than most of our siblings, aren't you?"

"Just a little bit."

Diana was thinking about it. "Ah, Metis."

"Exactly," Shelinaria noted.

"But she was born after even I, Ares's younger brother," the deformed, dwarfish god countered.

"She was obviously born within Zeus and raised by Metis." Shelinaria frowned in deep thought. Something never sounded correct of that story. She closed her glowing sea-sapphire eyes, reaching deep within her soul to impress herself on reality itself. She had all the clues, she just needed to intelligently put it all together.

"What are you doing?" Hephaestus demanded. This felt primordial, elemental in breadth and power. Something that had not trod the mortal world in aeons.

The young goddess felt more than a fifth of her energy pushed into the task as she drew upon an ultimate aspect of her intelligence. The ground rumbled and even the gods further up the mountain of Olympus felt something shake the foundations of the Universe.

The First Born narrowed his eyes in thought and anger in Olympus as he felt the power.

"We are fools," Shelinaria stated. "Athena came out ready to do war. Garbed and armed the moment she emerged from attacking him from inside.

"And what does this have to do with the issue at hand?" Diana asked.

"A thought that I had to examine while it was at hand. But Athena is older than the first born 'son', even if it was within Zeus. Raised by Metis who was swallowed whole and put aside for his own sister. It's all subjective and based on where you are looking from." She turned back to the smith. "Hephaestus, could Pandora's Box be used as a weapon to slay mortals?"

"I'm sure it could, but other than being used to trap the Seven Sins, I don't think we ever got it to do much. If you don't mind, I have my own wonders to create."

"Oh, right. Do you have any unbreakable bracers that don't limit a person's strength?" Shelinaria asked the older god.

"She's still wearing those?"

"They are needed to control my strength," Diana said in a stern tone.

"When you were a kid. You know, I bet your mother forgot you even had them on." The smith had turned to a cabinet and came back with two more bracers. "Here you go."

"I do not need to replace these," she argued.

"Diana, do you actually need them any more to control your strength? Why are you letting your past shackle your strength and make you weaker?" the blonde goddess asked. "Superman doesn't require manacles of weakness. Why should you?"

"I- I had not thought of it that way." Wonder Woman removed her old bracers and replaced them with the new ones that were slightly more fancy. "Will these block Darkseid's Omega Beams? And still summon my swords?"

"Of course." Hephaestus grinned at that.

Shelinaria frowned as she thought over the need to talk to Orion again. The New Gods of New Genesis did not really like her much. Of course they also were massive jerks that were driven to defeating Darkseid at the exclusion of any and all manners.

"And now Pandora's Box is charged just enough from your selfish, evil actions," the Outsider, Alfred Pennyworth's evil doppelganger, stated as he held up the golder, three-eyed skull. "The plan is complete."

A massive roar thundered as a glowing portal appeared. Figures stepped out, bizarre and twisted

"You know when one of them comes out dead it really cuts down how scary they are," John Constantine remarked as the Sea King hit the ground.

The 'dead' counterpart of Aquaman then gasped for breath before staggered back to his feet. Though he looked like he might have wished he were dead with how unsteady he was.

Behind him stepped out a warped copy of the Justice League. Batman looked at the one dressed like an owl and wondered if the Court of Owls had a stronger hold on that world.

There was a noticeable thuggishness about their Superman version with a U on his chest. The alternate Wonder Woman wore an all black outfit and carried a magical rope with thorns. Floating above her was a dead Firestorm. And finally a mostly identical analog of the Flash. The fake Atom popped in and landed in the palm of his hand at just six inches tall.

"Hey, babe! Ready to kick these cheap knock-offs down a peg or two hundreds?" Johnny Quick asked his girlfriend.

Behind all of the twisted villains was a tied up man with a bag over his head.

"Yeah, especially that bitch that almost ruined everything, Johnny," she demanded as she pointed at Shelinaria.

"Crime Syndicate, take them down," Ultraman ordered.

Johnny Quick rushed forward in a blur to punch Shelinaria as fast and as hard as he could. So her gauntlet to his face was a rather large surprise as for a single minute fraction of a second, she matched his speed. He had hit her ten times already, but her three punches broke his nose and jaw.

To everyone (but the Flash) it was a blur that ended up with both of them flying backwards from each other.

Deathstorm hit them all with his power, locking away all of the Justice Leagues present into a dimensional prison with Firestorm power.

"Johnny!" Atomika shouted as she landed next to his head. "He's been hurt hard, but he's alive."

"It doesn't matter, they are all trapped. Now we can take over this world and remake it in our image. This is the new age of the Crime Syndicate," Ultraman proclaimed to everyone.

The burning sunshine appeared through the openings in Hephaestus's Temple. Ultraman put a hand up to block the sunlight.

"I forgot about the sun." In a blur, he took off back into the shadow and then to the Moon.

It was time for a permanent eclipse of his most hated foe.