CLXV
Happy Endings Part Five:
Brainiac Vs. The Blue Lantern Corps
As Raven stood alone in the Hall of Justice of the orbiting Watchtower, she gazed upon the statue of her mother Arella, communing with the spirits of Azarath. All of Azarath resided in Abraxas, which would have been overwhelming presence for most souls, but for her divine half-sister, even one thousand lives spread across one thousand years were but a small glimpse of what she could see and feel.
As a Goddess of Secrets, her sister Abraxas had also known of the secret that Raven kept from everyone. Raven had decided that her mother's spirit should be the first to know, so she had summoned Arella through Abraxas to reveal it.
She assured her mother that she would tell Bruce soon… perhaps on Thanksgiving.
The sudden telepathic call of distress from a Blue Lantern near the Magellanic Clouds just outside of the Milky Way galaxy actually caught her off guard. Since becoming the Champion of Magic, Raven had been acutely aware of those around her and her Blue Lanterns. She apologized and took leave of her mother's soul…
Boodikka needed backup and she needed it now!
Raven immediately teleported Barbara who suddenly materialized in a blue flash of light wearing cat pajamas, only half-awake. Barbara gazed wearily around at the Hall of Justice while Raven sent out the call to the rest of the Blue Lantern Corps, giving them access to Boodikka's emotions. Barbara yawned.
"Raven?..." Barbara rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "What's going on?"
"We are needed. I see your Ring is charged, transform and let us depart."
"Uh-huh... Where?"
"Just outside the milky way. Hurry Barbara, Boodikka needs us. I sense that this foe is like no other we have faced."
Summoning the power of Hope, Barbara transformed.
"… Shouldn't we gather the League, Raven?"
"Only Clark would be able to fight in space, and we can retrieve him if necessary. Stand back."
Barbara obediently stepped back while stretching and watched as Raven shouted to the ceiling above…
"Shazam!"
In truth, Barbara had never seen the twin-dragon lightning transformation before, and she had to admit - it was pretty awesome. She had seen the crimson Goddess and she knew that for Raven to transform like this… that the situation must have been dire.
Raven was the white-robed Champion of Magic once more.
"Haven't seen that look for while, sis."
"It is necessary. Let's go."
When they teleported just outside the Milky Way, Barbara recognized a few of her fellow Blue Lanterns… red-skinned Sinestro, beaked Tomar Re, fierce Boodikka, the warrior-Lantern Laira Omoto, burly Kilowog and a also handful of others she did not yet recognize.
Looking at the foe that awaited them, Barbara repressed a shudder.
It was like something from a bad science-fiction movie… A giant skull-shaped ship with glowing red eyes, with a dozen metallic tentacles hanging menacingly from below its hull. The top of the skull could best be described as an illuminated geodesic dome.
Ominous was the best word she could use to describe it.
The lilac-coloured hair of Boodikka wildly flowed from momentum without the effects of gravity here in space. She flew in front of them and projected her thoughts to Raven and Barbara.
"Thank the Goddess, you're here! I've been investigating the disappearance of Crassus-V and finally found out that this thing was responsible. It attacked me!"
Raven filled in Barbara and the rest of the Blue Lantern Corps using her powers of telepathy.
Crassus-V had been a civilized world that had been under Boodikka's sector during the time of the Green Lantern Corps... until it simply disappeared. Originally, the Guardians had written it off as another of Trigon's many conquests, but Boodikka had been intent on finding the true reason for its disappearance, refusing to simply blame the Crimson Scourge for the mystery of Crassus-V. The facts didn't add up.
Firstly, Trigon rarely made entire worlds disappear... completely. Usually he left them intact.
Secondly, Trigon had always called out the Green Lanterns to try and stop him.
Boodikka's investigation had taken her far across the Galaxy, to finally locate this mechanical engine of death that now hovered grimly in space before them. Moments ago, as she probed its interior with a blue light, she had been attacked by its tentacles… using her Ring to escape.
It was when the green, humanoid guy had suddenly materialized before her and mentally projected thoughts into her brain…
"I am Brainiac. Resistance is futile. Prepare to be archived…"
… that Boodikka had put up the blue shield that had saved her life. This thing called Brainiac had shot her with some sort of laser which would have reduced her into pure information, had not the power of Hope saved her.
She sent the distress call a second later.
The green-skinned guy had disappeared and Blue Lanterns had been popping in since.
Raven sent out her own consciousness to investigate this deadly temple of technological annihilation floating before them, feeling the ship's own beams probe her back. With the assistance of the Goddesses of the Seen and Unseen, Raven prevented that information from reaching Brainiac.
Even Metron had never encountered anything like this.
Raven sensed a semblance of life… but it had long-ago been supplanted by artificial intelligence and mechanization. There were no emotions, only a ruthless process of logic with one unalienable goal… the solution to the equation of the Universe.
In her religious studies, Raven was familiar of the concept of creation ex nihilo where God had created the Universe from nothingness. Science and religion both acknowledged that before existence, there was simply nothing. And then there was.
But theoretical physicists had also speculated on the possibility of destruction ab toto or the reverse of that process. That the Universe could be reduced from 'something' back to 'nothing'. The entire Universe was merely nothing more than information in which matter and energy were only incidental.
This was the process that Brainiac employed.
Raven repressed a shudder of horror as she realized that Crassus-V and hundreds of other worlds now existed as nothing more than analyzed data files in his massive ship. Every atom, living or not, had been encoded into an event horizon, removed from their shared Universe and encoded as nothing more than complex equations.
Existence itself was being reduced to mere formula.
Like a recording from the past, the green-skinned humanoid once more appeared before them.
"I am Brainiac. Resistance is futile. Prepare to be archived…"
Twenty-one Blue rings suddenly fired in unison as the emotionless humanoid projected a force field around itself, deflecting all of their beams unscathed.
It seemed that Brainiac had learned from Boodikka's first attack and adjusted.
Using the power of Selene, Raven had to push the advancing Laira Omoto out of the way before Brainiac's digitizing ray struck her. Without a second thought, the Champion of Magic quickly called upon the power of Hecate to freeze the humanoid before it could fire again… when it instantly crumbled into thousands of specks of black dust.
Raven quickly saw that this black dust was a nanite swarm, a collection of microscopic machines assembled to create the humanoid form. Using her telekinetic powers, she flattened each nanite into actual dust before they could re-assemble.
And that's when the true horror of the realization struck…
They were surrounded by billions and billions of these damned nanites. Even the ship itself was a nanite conclave. Raven pushed out with all the considerable magic she could, eliminating all nanites around them… only to have new ones reappear a second later.
In response, the ship's tentacles stretched out to incredible lengths, grasping twelve unsuspecting Blue Lanterns in their deadly grip… including Barbara. The Lanterns struggled vainly to free themselves, vainly using their Rings which no longer had any effect upon this alien technology.
When Barbara tried something else.
On Earth, he was known as Superman, but to Barbara he would always remain Clark. And she needed him desperately now. The last son of Krypton suddenly appeared in a flash of blue light, curiously regarding the scene before him… until he spied Barbara Gordon in peril.
With speed beyond comprehension, Clark ripped the metallic tentacles into shreds, freeing Barbara and the rest of the Lanterns from their deadly clutches. Barbara smiled and enveloped the hero in her blue atmospheric sphere, planting a quick kiss on her lover's mouth before affectionately scolding him.
"If I don't get to sleep in, neither do you, lover."
"Wouldn't miss it for the world, sweetheart. So… what is that thing that had its mitts all over my girl?"
"Something called Brainiac. It seems to have developed a resistance to our Rings."
"So you had to call in the big guns, huh?"
Clark winked at her as he suddenly flew off like a bolt of lightning, slamming into the skull-shaped ship like hurling asteroid, punching an enormous hole through its hull. Green energy spewed from the gap created by the Man of Steel. Barbara rejoiced…
Until she saw the hole suddenly disappear.
The ship of Brainiac had reconstituted itself as though nothing had happened. Even the tentacles that Clark had just ripped apart had reformed and were once again seeking blue-glowing prey.
Undaunted, Superman lined up once more, deciding that he had not hit this thing hard enough the first time, and then slammed through the ship three more times in the span of a single gasp, wrecking terrible damage upon the metal monstrosity, until it was finally disintegrated.
Barbara watched in growing horror as there seemed to be a black sheen enveloping her lover, increasing in mass exponentially, something he could not shake. It stuck to him like black, metallic glue, shaping itself into a large glistening sphere despite the Kryptonian's best efforts to get rid of it.
Worse still, the ship had reformed itself.
From the hideous black sphere, Barbara saw massive bolts of lightning suddenly shoot outwards - connecting with her fellow Blue Lanterns and rendering them incapacitated. It took her a second to figure it out what was happening… This damned thing was using Clark's own energy as a weapon against them!
From within her bubble, Barbara screamed…
"Raven! Get him out of there!"
Even more than Barbara realized, Raven actually saw what was happening. The ruthless nanites had surrounded Clark and were drawing off his inherent living energy as a weapon against them, and also killing the Kryptonian in the process.
Reaching out with her own Omega Effect, Raven was able to teleport a staggered Clark away from the sphere's center and mercifully back into Barbara's awaiting arms. He was shaken, but not defeated.
This monster was the nemesis of Hope. Brainiac was the Lernaean Hydra of technology, returning twice as deadly each time it was defeated, with one sole objective… to encode their Universe. And she had the sinking sensation that Brainiac had done exactly that.
… In the future.
Brainiac wasn't just replacing itself with its multitudinous surrounding nanites. It was replacing itself with nanites from the future that were transporting themselves back in time to their present!
Glowing with the blue light of Hope, Trigon's daughter focused every last ounce of Omega Energy available to her… and then lashed out, transported the entire Brainiac ship into the heart of the closest sun… incinerating it completely.
A puff of gases eighty-million miles away… and then no more.
The other Blue Lanterns could only stare in amazement at their exhausted Goddess, shaking with the effort of transporting so many countless nanites so very far. She prayed to her fellow Gods that her theory of the future had been incorrect. That the nanites had been appearing from elsewhere.
That this thing would now be gone forever from time.
Barbara Gordon wrapped loving arms around her while Clark held Raven steady with his own shaking hand placed upon her heaving shoulder.
"Raven, you did it."
"Let us hope so… even if I did not."
"You did. My super-vision isn't picking up any more nanites… It's really gone, Raven. You've defeated it."
"I may have defeated it, Clark… but I may have only defeated a single moment of it. Those nanites may have been appearing from the future."
"But… How is that even possible?"
"It is."
Raven recalled when she herself had transported backwards in time, to the very instant where Richard Grayson would meet Death, quickly teleporting him back to Urd as the laser torch fatefully cut through the trip-wire, detonating Luthor's deadly trap.
But could this thing do the same? Could Brainiac transport future versions of itself from its future to their present?
Her worst nightmare was confirmed when Brainiac did exactly that.
The entire skull-ship and green-skinned humanoid appeared before them once more, extinguishing their hopes of victory. The humanoid stared coldly at Kal-El and projected thoughts into Clark's mind.
"I am Brainiac. My analysis is complete. You are the Anachronism. Resistance is futile."
Raven could easily tap into the thoughts now directed at Clark. And more than that, she could also scan Brainiac's collection of synthetic archives to learn more of the opponent they faced.
And what she saw terrified her…
Brainiac had won.
The Universe had been reduced to nothingness. In their future, Brainiac had completed its equation of 'solving' the Universe and reducing existence to nothing more then pure data. But something in the past had changed a variable, the timeline had become disrupted, rendering Brainiac's solution meaningless and inconsequential. It had to return.
Of course!
Bruce had altered the future with the Tachyon Cannon to save Clark's life!
She had witnessed Superman die by Trigon's own hand. But the future had been re-written by Bruce's quick reaction and Barbara's desperate act to save her love.
And somehow… Superman's future presence in the Universe had disrupted Brainiac's ultimate victory. That was why the lethal machine had called him an 'Anachronism'. Brainiac had traveled to the past to ensure that his bleak future would prevail... and to eliminate the variable.
Raven watched as the sixteen million nanites that made up Brainiac's head were suddenly vaporized by Clark's heat vision.
"If you think I'm going down without a fight Brainiac, you're sadly mistaken."
The remaining headless body of Brainiac simply disappeared, while a dozen more green-skinned humanoids instantly materialized, each an exact replica of the other. One Brainiac had been replaced by twelve.
And then the twelve suddenly became one hundred and forty-four. They were surrounded by the unyielding terror of the future.
"We are Brainiac. Resistance is futile."
Raven watched as her Blue Lanterns and Clark fought bravely, but in her heart she understood that they were faced with an impossible battle. Their enemy could draw an infinite number of versions of itself from a future where nothing else existed.
A strange thought struck Raven… that in the grand wheel of Fate, the God of Tyranny had been reborn as a damned machine.
Except that this thing had evidently succeeded where Darkseid had failed.
Only weeks ago, their battle would have continued until all possible hope had been annihilated by this monster. They would have fought until unfeeling Brainiac had reduced them to nothing more than data, eliminating all incongruous variables of its final equation, returning to an existence of absolute order.
It would never stop until its mission was complete.
But neither would Raven… not anymore.
The Hope that grew in her womb suddenly gave her the power to alter the Universe.
If the laws of the Universe prevented them from surviving, she would find the power to change them. Nothing in existence - past, present or future - would prevent the son she carried for Bruce from being born.
The Hope of a mother, the Hopes of all mothers… mothers from all of history combined within her and gave her the strength for what she had to do next.
With the knowledge of Metron and the combined sights of Zareah and Abraxas, Raven was able to isolate an incredibly rare isotope that Brainiac used to power its countless swarm nanotechnological units.
Glowing like a blue star, Raven channeled the entirety of all maternal Hope into her soul and then used it summon all the power of Hecate to eliminate the very existence of the element astatine-219 from the physical Universe.
With the obliteration of the ultra-rare isotope from reality, a new timeline in Fate had to be created, clumping all future Brainiac units into an alternate reality where the isotope still existed. Raven had created a paradox, an alternate reality which no longer could possibly include Brainiac.
The battle was over and the Universe went on without an incredibly rare and unstable element. How many future scientific advances or planetary events may have rested on this one isotope, Raven could not say. More regrettably, could the worlds that Brainiac had stolen have ever been reformed? Raven would never know, but at least all other worlds in the Universe had a future to call their own.
And her son would be born.
The Champion of Magic had displayed power beyond comprehension to do the impossible. Re-writing the Laws of the Universe with magic was an incredibly dangerous feat, and she could not have done it without the greatest Hope she had ever known.
The power of Hope for the child that she now carried within her. Had she not been an expecting mother, Raven was unsure if she could have succeeded in rewriting the Universe like that, even if her own life were at stake. But for the child now growing in her womb, she would have gladly rearranged the stars themselves.
Her Blue Lantern Corps gathered around her, adding their own blue light to her own blinding radiance as they embraced their victorious Goddess. They shone like a blue star, each of them understanding what Raven had done and why. They glowed like a new sun, basking Clark in a power that lifted his heart.
Look to the stars, for Hope burns bright…
A short time later, projecting their farewells, the Blue Lantern Corps breathed a sigh of relief and returned to their own loved ones, to stand guard against those who would bring despair. Each of them knowing the tragedy that had been averted.
Astronomers would later call the newly discovered blue star 'the Star of Hope'. At the site of the Blue Lantern Corps greatest victory, a new star was born, composed of nothing more than the blue light of Hope, shining across the heavens. A burning beacon to those in time of need.
When they returned to Earth, Barbara, Clark and Raven reappeared in the middle of Barbara's condo, relieved. The red-headed woman suddenly threw her excited arms around Raven - after the realization of where it had been that the Goddess had drawn her greatest power from.
"Oh Raven, I'm so happy for you! Does Bruce know?"
"… Not yet. I was thinking about telling him at Thanksgiving."
"Then you just have to invite us! I would give anything to see his face when you tell him!"
As the only non-Blue Lantern present when Raven had eliminated astatine-219 from existence, Clark was still unaware of exactly what Raven's big news was.
"Tell him what?"
Barbara cut him off immediately.
"Never you mind, Clark. This is sister business."
Overwhelmed with joy, Raven turned to hug them both.
"Of course you're both invited for Thanksgiving. Everyone is. Alfred's put me in charge of the dessert."
After their hug, Clark stood uncomfortably, silently staring at Raven for a moment… a question slowly forming on his lips. Raven knew what it was of course, but she would let him ask it. It was only polite.
"Raven… What exactly did you do back there?"
"I created an alternate reality. Brainiac's nanites powered themselves on the nuclear decay of astatine-219. I simply eliminated it from the Universe, which made Brainiac's existence impossible. He called you an Anachronism because your existence caused a variance in his own future time stream. You were supposed to be dead after all - thanks to my late Father."
"Alright, just so I follow you… You eliminated astatine-219? Completely? So that it does not exist?"
"Yes."
Raven couldn't help but grin as she watched the Kryptonian's mind spin in circles, attempting to grasp the enormity of the impossible thing she had just done.
"But doesn't that affect… everything?"
"Of course… to varying degrees. It's an incredibly rare element with a short half-life. There were only three grams of it present on Earth at the time. All other isotopes of astatine still exist, just not 219… I really think we'll be fine though. All in all, it was the best choice."
"But… You can do that? Just eliminate an element from existence?"
"When I have to… yes."
Clark could only stare at the beautiful deity as his jaw hung wide open. A million scenarios looped through his frantic mind about what Raven could do. Like Bruce, it was in his nature to worry.
The Champion of Magic reached across and kissed the Kryptonian on the cheek, smiling.
"Clark… I am the embodiment of Hope. My power could never be used for destruction. Even Brainiac was not truly destroyed, I simply made it so that he could not co-exist in this timeline. And about the other thing on your mind… you need not worry. So long as you're nice to my sister, I promise I won't rewrite you from existence, sweetie."
"Raven… I … would never…"
Raven laughed out loud.
"I'm kidding, Clark!"
However, Barbara seized the opportunity, folding her arms across her chest and giving Clark a serious glare.
"No, she's not kidding. If you break my heart, my sister will make sure very bad things happen to you. There's not a dark corner in the entire Universe that you'll be safe from my loving and loyal sister. Got that, mister?"
"Yes, Ma'am!"
Raven peered at her adopted sister, raising her own eyebrows.
"And if you are to break his heart… shall I return the favor then, Barbara?"
"What? No… I mean, we're sisters! There's a sisterly code…"
Raven smiled and hugged Barbara tightly, laughing.
"Yes, there is… But I know you'll both be very happy. And I am not Clark's sister..."
She then turned to Clark, and embraced him tightly once more, privately projecting her own thoughts into his mind.
"… Not yet, at least."
With Abraxas's powers of the Unseen, Raven could sense the two-carat blue diamond solitaire that was concealed beneath the floor. The engagement ring Barbara was so desperately waiting for… She knew the Kryptonian was struggling to create the right moment… something unforgettably romantic.
Raven projected into Clark's mind once more.
"Barbara has always wanted to visit Paris. I'll have Bruce arrange something when you're ready."
A giddy Raven released a stunned Clark as the large man suddenly flushed… a little embarrassed that his secrets were so easily revealed... and that Bruce Wayne would be funding them.
Graciously, Raven reminded the pair about Thanksgiving dinner and then took her sudden leave, disappearing into a cloud of black smoke, leaving Barbara glancing accusingly at a red-faced Clark.
"What's with those crimson cheeks, buster? Did Raven rub up against you a little too closely?"
"Ahhh…No. It's just that your sister is… how should I put this…kind of scary."
"Heh… Just kind of scary?"
In a moment of frankness, Clark confessed.
"OK… She's downright terrifying. I mean, did that really just happen? She actually readjusted a part of the Periodic Table and then invited us for Thanksgiving dinner?"
"Yep. And we created a new blue star too!"
"Really?!"
Barbara suddenly leaped into the broad and ready arms of her Man of Steel, playfully placing her index finger on the tip of his nose once he had caught her, grinning like a woman in love.
"C'mon, you've got to admit… She's pretty damned cool."
Her handsome man smiled back down at her as Barbara reached up and kissed him hard and long on the mouth, grasping his thick black hair in her long fingers. When she released their kiss, she had left her own wide grin on Clark's lips.
"…OK, she's pretty damned cool."
"I knew you'd see it my way, darling… Now, about that very large debt of gratitude I owe you. You saved me from the awful clutches of that awful fiend Brainiac. You have saved me from certain death, Sir. However shall I repay you?..."
"Well… The kissing was a good start."
"Oh? You like… this?"
Barbara drew herself up to his lips once more, planting a long and sensuous kiss upon Clark's waiting lips while he slowly carried her to their bed, still affixed in their loving caress. That woman could take his breath away! Clark had loved Lois, but no woman had ever lit the fires of passion in him like Barbara Gordon could.
He needed to be with her forever.
He would have to brush up on his French…