Disclaimer: I don't own DC or Marvel
Universal Collision: Secret Crisis
Chapter 8: Hereditary Sins
"Good, then there will be someone to raise them!"
Wanda's body shook in his arms. He laid her down and brushed her hair out of her face. She always reminded him of someone, because of course she would. But she wasn't like Magda, she was like him. Looking over his shoulder, he could see the agents watching. They had been following her, maybe she didn't realise, Romanoff's pointers on tails probably didn't work for someone as depressed as her, or maybe she did use the dead Widow's tricks to elude them, or she just didn't care. He didn't care either, if they got in the way they he would see them suffer. Even the Wakandan agents had no business getting in his way. They thought they were being subtle, but they had something he could sense coming from miles away, they made their communicators, their weapons, they wove the substance into their clothes for god's sake. Wanda stirred, haunted by her dreams, like him. He felt the guns load, felt the bioelectricity in their superhuman mercenary bubble.
'Fine,' he huffed.
It was time to deliver a message, and through all the destruction and pain they would learn one thing. That was him, being reasonable!
Valentina Allegra De Fontaine was not a woman easily shaken. One moment everything was going as planned, she would catch her second witch and add her to the program. The agents she put in charge were some of the best dark operatives the American governments liked to pretend didn't exist. Plus they had some convicts to use, Porcupine, El Aguila and Blizzard. Porcupine was doing some self improving, he finally showered, and was set for parole in a couple of weeks, if he did a few favours for Val. El Aguila, the dashing rogue swordsman fancied himself a Robin Hood kind of man, so long as he redistributed some of the wealth of the drug lords he took down to the US government. Then there was Donnie Gill, one of Hydra's old weapons, the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. would have killed him if not for an intervention from that armoured boy Aeon (and he was really a boy back then).
But then all hell broke loose, none of the mercenaries weapons worked, communications turned to static and El Aguila, after his usual bravado began to scream. When the static settled Valentina saw the damages to the town through Mike Peterson's optical camera. His vitals indicated that the old Deathlok test subject was alive, though much of his cybernetics had been ripped off. She was able to play back a few things briefly, Porcupine's armour had been broken apart, Blizzard was knocked out of the fight quickly by debris but the most damage had been done by El Aguila. The man dressed like Zorro and had a sword he pretended was a gimmick, but his body actually electricity.
That bio-electricity had been ripped from his body, turning him into an electrical wrecking ball.
"That looks bad!"
Val yelped slightly when Ghost appeared behind her.
"Ava dear, you have leeway to explore, but don't use it to scare me to death," Valentina said.
Ava Starr shrugged her shoulders; she was wearing a white track suit as opposed to her suit.
"I hope Mike's okay," she said, looking up at the screen.
"People liked Mike when he was a single dad, but his little boy isn't a little boy anymore, and he's still a cyborg with a super soldier serum pumping through his veins. There are assets all across the world waiting to be utilised, and I'm not going to make the mistake of not using them," Valentina explained.
"You want to use Wanda Maximoff?" Ava asked.
"Well when you say it like that it sounds ridiculous," Valentina said.
"And insane, like, like…" Ava struggled to find an appropriate analogy.
"Like using a rocket launcher at close range," a voice said from the command centre doorway.
Captain John Walker gave Val a brief salute as he entered with Antonia.
"Whilst wearing a bomb vest," she added and he chuckled slightly.
"If she isn't an asset then she's a threat, someone for the Thunderbolts to take down," Valentina said.
"Even if we die trying," Yelena muttered, standing at the doorway with her arms crossed.
"You said we were going to be the new Avengers, that we would save lives not take them," Ava said, rubbing her arms nervously as she spoke.
"Sometimes the most heroic thing you can do is kill a dangerous person," Valentina retorted.
"That was the line S.H.I.E.L.D. sold me for years, you'd have to do better than that," Ava said as she turned to walk away.
"Try to remember whose in the basement Ava, you're stable, and will continue to be for a long time, but the same can't be said for your friend," Valentina explained.
Ava suddenly turned around, her body flickering like her name sake as she put her hand through Valentina's chest.
"DON'T YOU DARE THREATEN HIM!" she screamed.
"STAND DOWN!" John yelled, drawing his pistol like every other armed operative in the room did.
Seven panicked office staff, and six guns pointed at a wrathful Ghost and their boss who was still standing with her hands behind her back.
"Put them all down, they're not actually going to do anything to her, and Ava honey, we're not S.H.I.E.L.D. (or are we) or Hydra (although we could be, maybe) heck as we've established everyone in this room could be a green alien, yep looking at you over there Morris, don't think we haven't noticed you not playing Galaga anymore when you think no one's looking (I beat your high score by the way)," Valentina explained, as always cool, collected, with her disturbing sense of humour.
"Do you trust the Pyms to not be infiltrated, do you trust that he could survive the trip or the no doubt bad ass escape you have planning in that head of yours?" she continued, looking over her shoulder at Ava. "He will not last long in your care, especially considering you're still a wanted criminal, and will be until I say so."
Ava slowly withdrew her arm and phase through the floor, leaving Valentina smiling. She pretended to wipe sweat from her head and sighed in relief.
"That was close," she said.
Yelena quickly broke off into a run out of the command centre, down the stairwell to the gym level Ava would be going to. She got to the door and leant against the wall, crossing her arms together. Ava landed beside her, looking at her for a moment.
"You just legged it all the way down here so you could meet me here standing like that didn't you?" she asked.
"No," Yelena said nonchalantly, but she wasn't fooling Ava.
"Poser," she said and both women walked into the gym.
Part of Widow training involved manipulation. Yelena could spot manipulation, Valentina offered her the 'man responsible' for her sister's death. She offered John Walker an opportunity when his career was at an all time low. Ava's manipulation though was much crueller. As Yelena and Ava 'danced' on the mat, trading punches and kicks, Yelena used the opportunity to get to know one of her team mates beyond what she had read in a file.
"They say your dad was a bad guy," she said.
"He worked with bad people but he was still my father," Ava said, blocking Yelena's punch and getting her into a lock.
"Don't worry, I was bad guy once too, it's something we all have in common," Yelena swept her leg around, knocking Ava to the mat.
"And you kept on being a bad guy didn't you?" Ava asked.
"I don't know what you mean," Yelena shrugged.
"I know your sister was the Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff, I know she became a big super hero, died to save the world…" Ava paused as she spoke, and Yelena offered her a hand.
"What point are you trying to make?" Yelena asked.
"Your sister did all that, and your best way to honour her was to try and kill her best friend, I'm here under duress, Walker's a government yes man, Antonia is damaged but you, I know he isn't your real father, but it seems like you and Shostakov are both idiots," Ava explained.
"Wait a second, Shostakov, you don't mean Alexei Shostakov?"
"He arrived when you were on the Harkness mission, have you not been to the cafeteria at all, he's been bullshitting everyone there with stories about how the Red Guardian once fought Captain America on Air Force One," Ava explained.
She wiped the sweat off of her face with a towel and walked to the door.
"You and me Belova, we aren't alike," she said before she left.
"Suka," Yelena cursed.
She was nearly fuming as she made her way to the cafeteria. A small crowd of people were gathered around the bulky figure of her once temporary father. He'd lost some weight since she last saw him and wore a version of his Red Guardian suit with black areas replacing the white. His face lit up as she approached his table.
A smile he dropped as she launched a fist at his face.
Alex Winters had terrible parents on two Earths. On an Earth where he stood with Paragons, his parents had taken one of his patents to make money, and had furthered much of their fortune by supporting the villainous career of one Lex Luthor. On another Earth, Alex Winters had been emotionally abused by his parents, themselves allies of Lionel Luthor. It was bad enough when he was put into the same educational program as a bunch of other rich kids, but they never had his side in anything. He was glad he didn't speak to them anymore. Flying over the city of Metropolis, he scanned for any traces of Superman. Sometimes he would do a fly by, giving people something to wave and smile about.
Paladin landed on the Daily Planet building and used his gauntlet to create a signal watch. It released a Morse coded message at a sound frequency that Superman would hear. He waited several minutes giving an SOS before putting it away. Usually people were online saying where Superman might be, but there hadn't been any activity for hours. Alex flew upwards and into Earth's atmosphere, maybe Superman had gone to other worlds, it was certainly possible with his power levels.
"Perhaps you should approach Batman in Gotham city, or the Flash in Central," Rikai suggested.
"Maybe I should just keep my distance," Alex said.
"You will feel bad about it later," Rikai said.
On the planet below, JT Nelson walked the streets of Metropolis, he had a meeting to get to but not a deadline. Even though the mission was a success, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched. There was an itch at the back of his skull, though when he tried to physically scratch it he couldn't get it off. Every person he walked past on the street looked at him straight in the eyes. Then he saw her, her judgemental face, her brown curls.
"You've never loved anything in your life," Daisy Johnson said.
"What, hey," he grabbed the woman's shoulder.
"Can I help you?" she asked.
Her face looked nothing like Daisy's.
"It is a sad thing to hate yourself," a random man said as he walked past.
JT raised his head, looking around, trying to spot any obvious attacker.
"For better or worse Inhumans exist," said a small child walking with his parents.
"Despite their powers they have the right to live," an old man said.
"That includes you too Nelson," said a cop.
Someone barged past him, making him stumbled slightly. He looked into the alleyway and saw glowing red eyes looking towards him, before the man skulked into one of the abandoned buildings. Nelson gave chase, grabbing a chain from a trash bin, it seemed like fate. The Inhuman walked into the building awaiting demolition, running a flame across the metal of the chain. He looked up at the other floors, their walls broken down, some bricks crumbling above him. Footsteps echoed above him and he used the chain to rappel himself onto the next floor. There was a chair with its back to him, one Nelson quickly cut in half with a swing from the chain.
"Try better," he heard a voice in his head.
"Try better," then a voice in his ear.
He swung, punching at air, he heard the voice, he felt the air escaping from a person's mouth, sensed the weight of something big behind him. An arm suddenly burst out of the ground, grabbing Nelson's foot and pulling his leg through the hole. Nelson pulled back, causing him to stumble back straight into a window. The glass shattered, cutting his hand and forehead. He looked at the wounds, they bled superficially, no veins had been broken. Coils like a snake's tail suddenly wrapped around his chest. He screamed as he was pulled through the window and into a trash bin outside. The lid was slammed shut with him inside. He yelled, banging against the door, hearing the sound of something being bent, a makeshift lock for his prison. Nelson felt the gravity shift and his prison hover. Then, it moved like a supersonic jet. He felt G's on his ribs, pressure on his lungs, and there was the disgusting things splattering on his body, things people threw out.
The ride stopped and the bin crashed into the ground, Nelson flailing as his cell was moved left to right like a child abusing a toy. He vomited, coughing as he pushed his hand against the hull. There were some applications to his abilities, super heating the bin itself, but then he might cook himself, or melting a hole through it. He of course chose the latter, not willing to die until he had done something to eliminate the scourge of Inhuman lives. That was what he had been promised, an end to what he was, a world where the Inhumans didn't exist. All he had to do was kill one Martian, the last survivor on his universe.
"You're right, I am Mars's Last Survivor," the voice echoed in his mind.
He was pulled out of the trash bin, hitting his head on the floor when he landed. Nelson stood, surrounding his chain with flames as the muscular and cloaked, green skinned thing hovered towards him. Fire was his weakness, one flame and he would freeze.
"There is a reason for that!" the Martian's voice echoed in his mind.
Suddenly Nelson was in the air, the speeds that the Martian flew snuffed out his fire and hit him with more G forces.
"You didn't have it wrong, fire is my weakness, but it is only relative to the flame, a camp fire gives me pause, but I can still use my hand to suffocate a candle," the Martian stated.
'But my head, my head should be…'
"Protected, they are good mental defences, but not perfect, not useful against someone of my level of telepathy."
'No, no, Kang said that these chips would block out telepathy from Miss Martian, a telepath more powerful than the male Martian,' Nelson panicked.
"Clearly that is the case on her Earth, not mine!"
The Martian Manhunter floated in the clouds, holding the murdered by the collar of his shirt, forcing Nelson to hold onto him.
"I have only read surface thoughts, only made suggestions to a person's mind to make them say things I knew would bother you. There's no greater violation of a person's mind than to make them do something that goes completely against who they are, or to change them. You killed innocent people, even you do not deserve what I could really do to you," J'onn explained.
"So you won't rip the information from my head? What are you going to do, drop me until I tell you?" Nelson asked with a hint of amusement in his voice.
"No, if I dropped you you'd only be thinking 'oh god, this is so high', no, I've got a different suggestion," J'onn said, bringing Nelson closer.
"Don't think about who hired you!" he said.
"Don't think about what he looks like, where you met, who he was with, what he promised you, what else he might plan, don't think about these things JT Nelson, don't think about Kang or Zemo, or their base especially don't think about their base, or their Earth, don't think of these things Nelson."
J'onn always felt that Inception got it a little wrong, forget elaborate mind heists, sometimes the best way to get someone to think something, was to tell them not to think it.
And so without even having to really push into JT Nelson's mind, J'onn came to experience the day he met with Kang in a shrunken city.
Complex, runic rings rotated in a wide arc from the ceiling of the metallic looking room. Those rings forged a round table. Nelson impatiently tapped his finger against the arm of his chair, looking at the people also sitting at the table. There was a man sitting across from Nelson, he had blue combat gear and a large white hood he wore over his skull like mask.
"Who are you supposed to be?" he asked the man.
"That would be Taskmaster Mr Nelson," the man who hired Nelson walked out of the shadows, the extended robes of his purple outfit dragging against the floor.
Taskmaster cleared his throat, tapping his finger in exactly the same fashion Nelson had done.
"Oh I am sorry, that would be the Real Taskmaster Mr Nelson," Kang said.
"That's better," Taskmaster said.
"I still think it is somewhat petty don't you?" a man in a grey suit said.
His suit included a vest with battery like protrusions sticking out of his back. A brace on his neck and shoulders kept his head up, a head that had increased in size so much that it looked like a brain.
"I understand wanting to protect a trademark Sterns," a chair seemed to float up to the table.
The chair itself was part of the armour one of the members wore. His armour was yellow and his gauntlets purple, parts on his chair rotated to form boosters and mechanical arms, but what truly disturbed Nelson was the man's helmet. It was simple yellow side helm with a purple ringed crown, wrapped around what Nelson could only describe as the gigantic head of Darren Cross.
"Dreykov dressing up his little girl and calling her Taskmaster? Fucking insulting, I'm the one who created that legacy, who mastered multiple styles, whom took them to their natural improved states," Taskmaster tightened his hand into a fists and slammed it into the table when someone began to laugh.
"Pathetic, truly pathetic, you saved my life for this Kang?" asked Minn-Erva.
She wore her mask, having added white parts to her Star-Force uniform.
"You and Taskmaster already dealt with Terry Sloan, the next target is J'onn J'onzz, last survivor of Mars, shape shifter, flyer, super strength, concussive vision, and the most dangerous of his abilities, telepathy," Kang explained.
"But I can beat him right? Fire is his weakness," Nelson said.
"That is why you were hired, so go on Nelson, prove you deserve a seat at the table," Kang said.
"What will the rest of us be doing?" Sterns asked.
"The Marks of Destiny, we must make leeway on that, Minn-Erva has found the cosmic tuning tower, and we may have found the identity of one of the Paragons," Kang explained.
"Well don't keep us in suspense, who is he?" Cross asked.
"The position of the Paragon of magic, or the Paragon of Marvels, belongs to any one individual whom claims the power of Shazam," a voice spoke from the shadows.
Her heels clicked against the floor as she walked, her face and blonde hair was framed by a green cloth crown. As well as wearing a dark green outfit with a corset style vest on it, she also wore thigh high boots with green circles running up them.
"Don't worry, the information is good, we need a member of the Shazam family," Enchantress, AKA Sylvie said as Kang smiled at her.
J'onn pulled away from Nelson's mind, narrowing his eyes at him. The man was grinning, having let go of his arm.
"You aren't the only J'onn J'onzz in the Multiverse right?" he asked and laughed as J'onn widened his eyes.
J'onn let the man go, seeing the shock in his face as he began to fall. Nelson screamed and screamed, flailing in the air, wailing like a child confronted with their first worst fear. In truth though he was writhing on the ground, appearing as a madman to the general public as Calv…no, J'onn put on his fedora hat and left him for the authorities. He reached out with his telepathy to everyone he knew through his old military contacts.
"Justice League, other heroes, in particular the Shazam family…" J'onn began.
"What the fuck?" Peacemaker looked around his trailer, finding no intruder.
"I'm addressing you all through telepathy, Philadelphia will be targeted soon by villains seeking to capture any member of the Shazam family."
"Oh man, it's the classic comic scenario, the villains put the city in danger but if the hero intervenes he's playing into their evil plan," Freddy Freeman said, looking to his foster brother Billy Batson.
"We aren't going to just stand by if the bad guys show up are we?" Darla Dudley, the youngest of the five youths to receive Shazam's power asked.
"Of course not Darla, but if these people are actually after us then it's dangerous," said Mary Bromfield, oldest of the foster children.
She rubbed her foster sister's back as Billy himself looked at his family with an uneasiness in his gaze.
"But that isn't all, these villains are moving through the Multiverse as well, seeking to target other worlds, I have stood by in the past, but not anymore…"
"About fucking time dickhead," Peacemaker said as he put on his helmet.
"If we can truly call ourselves heroes then our responsibility doesn't end with one world…"
Carter Hall walked into his Vibranium jet, already in his Hawkman armour.
Elsewhere people ignored Jaime Reyes, he often did talk to himself. Even though in the depths of his mind, another voice other than the Martian's spoke to him.
"We must go to the other Earths, find answers, and protect the people being threatened!"
"When you have a problem, sometimes you have to think small," S.T.A.R. labs director of Nano-tech, Ryan Choi smiled as he looked over the blueprints of his new suit.
"We must stop this Crisis before it reaches our Earth!"
"You heard him," Bruce put his cowl over his head and looked at the other Justice League members.
Arthur, Diana, Victor and an uneasy Barry all nodded their heads.
'I hope you're already right in the middle of this Clark,' Bruce thought.
The Avengers looked towards the Retaliators, Kate Bishop was in wide eyed shock, Bucky was still poking fun at Sam for Crusader's appearance and the Retaliators themselves were looking at Superman and Batman.
"I thought that this world was closer to ours," Ladybug said.
"Yeah, how exactly do they have a Superman and Batman?" Machinehead asked.
"We aren't native to this Earth," Superman said.
"That would explain it; dimensional tears are spreading across the Multiverses," Purple Rain said.
"You said you had a body to add to our case file," Batman said.
"Yes, our greatest villain Lord Havok was attacked in his castle, evidence confirmed he was ambushed by a group, none of whom alone would have been able to beat him," Crusader explained.
"So I'm guessing that's an evil genius we can add to the victim list," Dr Strange said.
"Indeed, the murderer is trying to eradicate people who threaten his plan," Red Dragon said.
"Which is why for the sake of the Multiverse, we cannot allow you to interfere," Crusader said.
"Say what now?" Sven blinked in confusion.
"This is not the first time multiple universes have been threatened because of the issues of a single Earth, we of Earth 8 swore never again to allow that to happen. So we did the only thing we could to protect our world, we made a deal," Crusader explained.
"I don't like where this is going Pep," Rhodey whispered to Pepper, who nodded.
"What does that mean, made a deal?" Superman asked.
"Exactly what they're implying Kal-El," a voice spoke from the Retaliator's portal.
Clark grit his teeth together as Lex Luthor walked out of the portal. He was soon followed by Sinestro, Mr Mind, Deathstroke, Ravager, Grodd and Reverse-Flash.
"That you can't trust the kindness of monsters," the billionaire grinned.
Paragon's Earth
Frost remembered her first kiss, it was one she fully intended on being Barry Allen's last one. It had been during the first Crisis, when they had found the Flash of Earth 90, running to power the Anti-Monitor's anti-matter cannon. Their Barry decided that the best way to stop it was to sacrifice himself, the moment he had been preparing for, for months, trying to teach Frost how to be a better a hero, settling his affairs. Except, Frost knew she wasn't the hero he wanted her to be, she wasn't even the person he and Caity expected her to be. She wasn't full villain, Killer Frost, I need to kill people because…(she had counterparts with actual legitimate reasons, she thought the sexy heat vampire look would have been good on her). She had saved lives, maimed instead of killed, but she didn't consider herself as good as Caity, but cold like their mother and calculated like their father.
So after Caity hugged her best friend goodbye, Frost took over, put her hands through Barry's hair and pulled him into the most passionate kiss of his life.
Only he didn't die, the Flash of Earth 90 did, which left the awkwardness of the moment to deal with when the universe was reborn. They played it off as Frost's usual flirtatious demeanour; it wasn't the first time she had made eyes at Barry. She moved on, dated Mark, got to know what a relationship was like but then Deathstorm happened. Bodies showed up, Team Flash was haunted and Caity rushed through, thinking she'd bring back Ronnie. Frost had no idea if Deathstorm was some kind of corrupted form of Ronnie Raymond, or just an entity born of his mental remnant from the firestorm matrix. Like Dracula before him, he wanted a bride, and Frost's sister was his candidate. Caitlin lured him out, and Frost enhanced herself through a Transmogrification of the Firestorm matrix. She became Hell Frost.
Darker hair and fiery eyes weren't her only new abilities. She could draw on certain aspects of the Firestorm matrix. So when Caitlin was killed by Deathstorm, Frost showed him no mercy, it went against the hero's code of killing, but it was her sister. Instead of absorbing Deathstorm, Frost converted his corpse into charcoal and crumbled him to pieces. Frost and the rest of Team Flash mourned for Caitlin's death. Frost herself however couldn't let Mark in anymore, she just threw herself onto the streets, taking down bad guys whenever she could. Weeks later everything would go to hell when Thawne came back, empowered by the Negative forces, using Iris as a sacrifice.
Barry's future kids told him not the worry, that they could save Iris. But Thawne was stopped and Iris didn't come back. It led them to a new discovery alongside the Legends. The future was an open book, a collection of splitting timelines that existed within one universe. They called this concept Hyper-Time.
Barry mourned, yet held onto a slim hope that one day his wife would return from the dead. Like Frost he poured himself into work as the Flash, which meant they spent more time together. More life and death situations, more flirting, more soft, sappy moments that Frost enjoyed because she felt better at the end of them, and she knew she made Barry feel better too. They came close to kissing a few times.
She stood behind Barry as he splashed water over his face and rubbed his chest. Minutes ago, he and Sara had blacked out, when they awoke they told the others they were dead. The Multiverse was quickly becoming stranger, madder even than it was the last time. Frost rubbed his back, not flirtatiously, there was genuine worry in her eyes, but as she expected Barry put one a smile.
"I'm fine," he said.
"Good mate, because we've got a little bit of progress on the investigating parts," the Constantines said as they entered the room.
Frost knew she wasn't one to talk, but the ghostly images of the other two Constantines hovering over John always put her off.
"We called in a favour from Earth 666, turns out the Marks of Destiny are a new thing even the presence doesn't know a thing about," John said.
"I only understood one bit of that dialogue," Frost said.
"Earth 666 is a place where angels and the presence, god himself if you will, live amongst the general populace getting involved in their day to day lives…sometimes, these are ancient Multiversal beings who still pay taxes and do nine to five jobs, we even went to Joanna's Earth with the flashier version of hell where the classier version of the Devil lived and found f all. Which leads us to worry really about where dear old Oliver is getting his information from," John explained.
"You don't trust Oliver?" Barry asked.
"Oliver is possessed by the Spectre, despite its appearance it is an angelic being, bound by the same omnipotence, limits and knowledge as the angels that live on Earth 666 and yet it has knowledge of these Marks of Destiny," John stated.
"But Oliver was the one to rebirth our Multiverse, maybe that's the key to his knowledge, not the Spectre," Barry retorted.
"Maybe he's just an unreliable narrator," Frost shrugged.
She was taken aback when both men (and two ghosts) looked at her.
"What do you mean by that?" Barry asked.
"Well what if Oliver is only telling us what he knows based on his interpretation of what he has seen, these Marks of Destiny might not even be objects of people," Frost explained.
"That, that actually makes a lot of sense, because despite all the power he's been given, Oliver is still just a man," John said. "Plus all visions are frustratingly vague!"
"I'll go and find out what Team Supergirl was able to find out from Felicity," Barry said before running off.
"Could have just picked up a phone," Frost sighed, leaning against the operating table.
"Damn, you've got it bad love," John said.
"Am I that transparent, and don't say like Ice!" she sneered.
"Yeah he's got the boy next door kind of look, and I'm betting he's more mischievous than he lets on, the best kind of good boys are the ones that are bad boys that are underneath it all. Which leads me to believe love that it isn't Barry Allen you're in love with is it? Its his darker half," John said with utter confidence and steam rose from the spot Frost was touching on the gurney, her eyes glowing briefly with fire.
"Don't even go there with me Constantine," she said.
"Hey guys," Allegra suddenly came around the corner, the brunette girl looked uneasy at the Constantine afterimages before she spoke again, "Chester and Cisco just managed to track a breach in the city, right where Nash found the Anti-Monitor's lair in the original crisis," she explained.
"Call Barry," Frost said.
"He's already on his way," Allegra said.
She yelped, feeling the heat on her arm as Frost flew past her. Three things were liberating to Frost, the joy of karaoke and the rushes of running at super speed and flying. She injected herself with a speed force formula once, and she felt like an equal to Barry. At the time he had been consumed by the cold logic of having enhanced his processing speed, when Frost briefly caught him, to embrace him, it didn't bother him in the slightest. Flying was the next best thing, feeling the wind through her hair, moving at a speed and seeing people below her. Joe was clearing the streets, Ralph was enroute and Frost saw the brief flicker of Barry as he went into the sewers.
Again it was against the code, but she took the fast route and melted through the concrete, landing in the sewers behind Flash.
"Hey red," she winked at him.
"I wanted you to stay back," he said.
"Then it's a good thing I've never been good at following your orders," she grinned.
He tried to hide his smile.
Earth 616
Wanda felt wood against her cheek. She groaned as she stood up, her head ached and she had a numb feeling in her wrists. Bandages had been wrapped tightly around them, the numbness faded for an itch she had come to recognise as stitches. There was a gulp beside her, a man was sitting at a table with two chairs, his fedora hat resting on his head as he drank from a tin cup. He pushed a coin against the surface of the table and then began to spin it.
"Why couldn't you let me die?" she asked, lowering her head and letting the messy bangs of her hair cover her tears.
"It would have been too easy for you Wanda," the stranger said.
"You know who I am, so you should know that I deserve to die," she said.
"For Sokovia, Westview, or everything you did with the Darkhold?" he asked.
"Take your pick," she bitterly spat.
"What do you want Wanda?" the man leant forward on his chair, rubbing his hands together.
He was within his sixties, or he at least appeared to be. When he removed his hat he revealed that he had a bald head, save for some specks of white hair in a balding style. His white beard stuck slightly out from his chin. He lifted his fingers slightly and the unoccupied chair slid out for Wanda to support herself on.
"I don't want to hurt anyone," she said.
"It is a start," he said, twitching one finger and making another tin cup slide to Wanda's end of the table.
They had a window to their right, and through that window Wanda could see the European countryside, Wundagore was just a distant sight now. Thirst overcame her and she drank from the cup, simple water, warm too, she coughed slightly at how it tickled her dry throat. Slumping onto the chair in defeat she looked at the stranger across from her, saw the look of recognition in his eyes, the slight shine they had to him as he took a sharp breath.
"It astounds me how much you look like her," he said.
"Like who?" Wanda asked.
"Did you know Magda Maximoff?" he asked.
"She was my aunt, my father spoke of her but we never met her or saw so much as a recent picture," Wanda said.
He reached into his coat pocket, removing a small photo. It wasn't a digital one, but a really old photo that showed some cracks and fade marks on it. But it was clear and looked after enough for Wanda to make out a brown haired woman holding a baby. Wanda could recognise the woman enough from the old family photos her parents kept.
"She really was beautiful, who is the baby?" Wanda asked.
"Her name was Anya, she was her first child," the man said.
"I have cousins?"
"No Wanda, you don't have cousins!"
"Who are you?" she asked.
"Who do you think I am Wanda?"
"Why do you have a picture of my aunt?"
"She wasn't your aunt Wanda!"
"No, you're wrong, my parents."
"Couldn't conceive, but they always wanted children, Magda was so happy when she found out that she would have twins, but she was afraid, afraid of her husband, of what…who he was," the man explained.
"No, you're lying, you must be lying, you have to be lying," Wanda shook her head, gripping the arm rests tightly.
"Many people mistake your mind manipulation abilities as a form of control or telepathy, but the truth is that you've never bought fears to life, you don't have telekinesis, and it isn't energy generation. What you're doing is shifting a mind into a dream, and dreams can be the window of which another reality is seen, you project the consciousness of others into different realities because you are a nexus being, someone capable of manipulating reality," the man explained.
"Who are you?"
"I've gone by many names in my life, Magnus is one I was commonly known by, your mother called me Erik, your sister called me papa," he said.
Wanda's eyes rolled into the back of her head, her whole world was spinning, her heart beating rapidly as she let out heavy breaths. She shook her head in denial, the chair tumbling back behind her. The red mist began to form around her and she put her hands to her head, no, she whispered.
"It is a lie," she fell back.
Magnus gently took hold of the Scarlet Witch, softly crouching in order to put her into a recovery position. He pinched the bridge of his nose and brushed aside Wanda's bangs. His once frustrated expression softened when he saw how vulnerable she was, the dark rings around her eyes, the dryness of her lips and the marks on her cheeks her tears had stained.
"I'm so sorry my child," he said.
He lowered his head and closed his eyes, thinking of a young man with silver hair, peppered with bullets. All pellet sized, rudimentary projectiles he would have laughed at in the past. But now he only felt sorrow, and as was common that sorrow gave way to anger. The tin cups had been squashed into balls and nails groaned and lights flickered in the small hut. He stood and turned to the doorway, his face set like stone into a hard gaze before he walked outside. Two women stood outside in a clear show of force, both wearing advanced blue and gold armour with dreadlocks on the back, the armour of the Wakandan Midnight angels, deadliest warriors of the nation. The older man had nothing, yet still he looked down on the Angels.
"You have caught me at a very bad time," he seethed.
Next Chapter 9: Force
Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter, J'onn's moment was a favourite of mine, even before the DCAU's Justice League I liked him as a character.
I'm a Caitlin and Barry shipper, but even I concede he belongs with Iris. How do I justify the change of pairing, the part of time travel I'm surprised the CW's Arrowverse hasn't (and most likely never will) adapted, Hypertime, Titans Tomorrow, Kingdom Come, these all existed as possible futures of the Prime DC Universe, so my versions of Impulse and XS exist as possible future children but not definitive future children of the Flash.
You guys probably guessed in early chapters, but yeah, one of the mysterious strangers with Wanda is Magneto.
Fancasting: For Magneto I initially thought Jason Isaacs, he's got that presence and voice, but then I shifted to Graham McTavish after rewatching some of Castlevania on Netflix. He's a good actor, still has quite a physically imposing presence and a voice I'm surprised hasn't been associated with Magneto in the past.
Next time Retaliators and the Legion of Doom vs the Avengers and World's finest, and...well, should the master of magnetism be reasonable or not? :)