[06th November 2010]
[Stonehenge, Amesbury, Salisbury]
Was this a sensible thing to do?
'No it was not' a large part of my consciousness told me as the power began to build slowly but surely as the resonance began to take hold amongst the group. Repeating chants from the laptop's speakers were matching word for word from dozens of tongues like the beating of a drum as magic began to pulse all around the ritual site; from the land itself, and all those I'd assembled in a hurry.
Such things always helped to get casters into the right frame of mind for such things, along with the ritual focuses I'd managed to grab from SHIELD but...well, the real lifesaver was M'gann, the heavens bless her. A Psionic conduit to guide untrained mages in a ritual almost like an arcane gestalt?
No greater boon could one ask in such a desperate situation as minds hummed and connected, working in unison by word, my mind, and by magic. Group Mind was the reinforcement spell to that effect, and it as disturbing and yet wonderful as always as WE felt as one, moved as one, powerful growing as we were reaching towards our goal.
Willingness was the key of course, and one or two had baulked at that, though that fear had bled away in others in mere seconds as communication within the Group was at the speed of thought and sensation. How the night air felt on the skin of dozens of faces, how the cold ground ached on the feet of the barefoot girl and the lack of water around us unnerved the...
Still, the power was not quite enough, or to be more accurate I...WE...did not have the true ability or the capacity to go that extra mile for what needed to be done. I'd been born again with Knowledge but the power was my own, developed over seventeen years as a human once again...and in the end was merely human.
Mortal Minds were able to do great and wonderful things, but marshalling this power and utilising it this age...as it needed to be, well, it needed a guiding hand. Sadly the Envoy of the Green, nor the other spirits brought here could do that with us, or be trusted truly with the minds assembled here. Not with what my mentor had gather to break through on the other 'side' of the world. If I was older perhaps, more time to just grasp everything...
But I was not, and there was little point to dwell on it as WE drew deeply upon the might and magic of the lands as my direction. The lands hummed with a loud resonance as the stone circle was illuminated with blazing blue light from the top of my staff as I drew a deep breath and spoke the word of power deep, and dark, and guttural as the thunder roared for miles around in reaction. Staff raised and dozens of bodies hovering into the air as massive silver-blue runes shimmered into existence in the air all around us...then lines connecting and encircling them as the power moved to breach the planar boundaries...
Reality shifted. Time...stopped...and suddenly I, WE, were standing in and upon a rather dark abyss with what seemed like a Gate of some sort stand before us. Oh, and a towering figure cloaked in a shadowy shroud of magic that stared now upon all of my merry band of child magicians as they started back in a combination of stunned shock.
[Really? Like Really? Don't cause a fuss and learn stuff, that's what you were told...muttermuttermutter...but Nnnnnooooo, you couldn't even get past twenty summers before doing the exact opposite. And look at all the little friends you brought too...wow, weirdly diverse lot and...are those Poseidon worshippers? How the fuck did you...wait...that's mini-Merlin...Heavens above, Hells below, you've been as subtle as a bull in a china shop! We are so going to be mocked about this entire cluster-fuck by the Boss an' the others if HE finds out!]
"Eh...sorry bout that. Things just sorta...happened...really" I answered truthfully and a deep rumbling sigh filled the immense empty yet not empty halls of no-where and no-when. Around me I could feel the fear, the startled oaths that those who wished to say them want to say but could not in the enforced silence to this now temporarily linked Plane of the Mind.
[Don't they bloody always...right, right, end of the world for you, blah, blah, blah...Fucking Chaos Elemental feels like. Welp...ye lot raised enough juice at least for a brief manifestation so let's go break down that barrier and say Hi to everybody I guess. Now that I'm new to the neighbourhood an' whatnot; even if just in passing. Someone wants a war...well I can do War if need be even if just a fraction of the others on the other side looks like. Now back you lot go! Blessings of the Shrouded Lord be upon ye and all the stuff Etc, etc...Bye-bye Now!]
From out of the shroud, a sword came into hand, the shadows melted away as it ignited into astral flames and the Gate before us began to crack and smoulder suddenly. Before us the armoured and cloaked figure...
...reality reset as the world was firm and secure again as we stood within the great stone circle, our minds sharp and focused while guided through a thousand permutations. Everything was bathed in light from the blazing spell circle in the air began to pulse, writhe, and rotated to some unseen force. Panic, fear, confusion were swept away as the Words needed entered minds all at once and we spoke in unison as the air seemed to shimmer like a mirage all around our spell circle. Something shattered loud and violent, the air distorting as a prison was smashed aside as a golden Ankh of power appeared in the air...
"FATE HAS INTERVENTED!"
--
[06th November 2010]
[LexCorp Corporate Headquarters, Metropolis]
"...and as you can see Maeve there is something happening behind me on Glastonbury Tor...just like across the entirety of the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. Emergency broadcasts indicate this is all in response to the disappearance of the world's children a few hours ago and there are units of the British Territorial Army deployed behind me and keeping everyone away..."
Officially he was fully involved the efforts to combat the current crisis besetting the world; throwing the full might of LexCorp's resources towards helping everyone they could across the United States. In truth confused shock had been the immediate response to what very clearly was the Abomination's 'Distraction' for today's phase of the Great Plan.
Then concern about how he was going to mitigate the damage that this madness was going to cause to his own interests, even down to the fact many of his staff were now sub-optimal in performance thanks to losing their children in a blink of the eye. That concern had only grown as what was clearly the response of this other mysterious shadow organisation began to make itself known across the ocean.
The response was too organised, too uniform and disciplined to be anything but people following through on a prearranged strategy. Whatever insanity the Abomination had decided to embark upon had rather clearly brought about the implementation of their hidden counterparts own master plan most likely. Exploiting the chaos to gain a horde of eager recruits it appeared to his eyes as he watched the various reports and the satellite images of that region of the world.
What was more concerning to him was the fact that whoever they were had clearly allies in both the physical and supernatural worlds. Beings of immense spiritual power were seen in glimpses on the various news channels observing the sudden activities taking place at almost two dozen sites across the two islands; mages and spirits summoning power while guarded by soldiers and armoured vehicles...
Without warning the various statistical analysis provided by the LexCorp satellite began to suddenly distort, indeed the whole screen for that dataset was going rather...strange. Rippling like water on a pond while stones were been thrown in it, warnings dots flashing madly over the various ritual site as the computers failed to make any sense of the...
Rather enormous energy readings at glance...
"My God, Maeve can you see that the whole..." his eyes flicked to the screen, then all the channels upon it, as great pillars of light began to erupt towards the heavens on each of them and the satellite computer warbled on last warning before dying under the strain of trying to analyse what was happening.
Hmmm...it seems the Abomination has bitten off more than IT can chew. And perhaps my other colleagues too...hmm...now how to avoid this blowing back upon myself and my interests...
--
[06th November 2010]
[Stonehenge, Amesbury, Salisbury]
"Hera" she muttered starting at the assemblage a little off in the distance and the sheer amount of magic now permeating the very air. The Gods were walking amongst mortals once again, here and at a dozen or more other ritual sites spread across the islands of Britain and Ireland.
Gods, but also demons and spirits, including most prominently of all the Devil of the Abrahamic Faith and one of his not-Fallen brethren as well according to Giovanni. A Giovanni Zatara who was currently sitting on a rock, smoking a cigarette, and just staring forlornly at the madness before them in a truly unZatara-like way. Though Diana could understand that of course as it was completely overwhelming the level of danger that was lurking before them.
None of her own Pantheon was in attendance...beyond Eris of all Goddesses, which was not a good sign in of itself. It seemed that this mysterious new organisation called SHIELD that young Fortune's mentor Constantine seemingly served was beyond reasoning with. They were going ahead with this insanity regardless of the dangers...and there was little the Justice League could do about it. In part because there seemed to be no other options available to reverse whatever was causing this nightmarish scenario...
'And the Gods themselves are taking a hand here, with such power...' she reminded herself staring helplessly as a great pillar of light erupted from the great mystic circle. The Old Gods of these Islands, the Great Elemental of the Green, the Angels and Devils of the Faiths of Abraham, Anansi the Spider of Africa, Kali of the Hindus, the list went on and on, and...
Reality twisted around her and she staggered at the sheer force of the power that roared through her towards the great ritual going on. A loud powerful roaring filled the air as great arcane sigils began to imprint upon the night sky above her. She feel to one knee at the sheer pressure of the power that filled the world around her as the air was pressed from her lungs by it. Both Captain Marvel and Zatara were equally staggered by what they felt; the burly Marvel braced as against some great wind and Giovanni fell to the ground and stared up as he lay upon his back when the world howled...
--
[06th November 2010]
[Roanoke Island, Adult Earth]
Space distorted...
"What are you idiots doing draining so much..."
The creature in the form of a child looked around the circle at terrified faces as the magic was torn away from them and the circle as if the tide was retreating. Yet around them a great barrier had materialised around their own, bracketing it...
"Okay, Teek, time to go!" the creature snapped grabbing up its familiar and...
--
[06th November 2010]
[Roanoke Island, Children's Earth]
Space distorted...
"See Teekl, nothing here...ohhhhhh that's bad...badbadbadbadbadbadbadbadbad!" it stated as the great barrier of divine might replicated itself upon this other creation. It tried to summon a Gate, or a Planeswalk, or even a Doorway to its Home Dimension. To any Dimension...
But all doors to realities beyond were locked tight. Like a great sphere of power it stood between two glaciers of power, a fortress of chaotic might as it fought to stop the magic been torn from itself. Drawing deeply from its Home, upon its Power, swelling and growing to the might and power that this reality could sustain of its true form. Towering like a giant of burning flame and molten earth it raised its blade of chaotic power against its foes in defiance as...
--
[Time is Relative, Space is Relative]
[One Thread in the Tapestry]
To the universe, called by some a branch off of the dimension called Earth-16, by others reality, and the inhabitants of the third planet of one particular solar system Home, something very strange indeed had happened.
Where once there had been one world there were now two, united yet separated by a work of arcane crafting that creatures of many dimensions would call a wondrous feat. Especially for a being of chaos; beings known for their power, but not their subtlety and capacity for organised creation and consideration of little details that were involved.
Indeed when combined with the fact of hiding its presence, however briefly, from the pantheons of that world and temporally sealing the power of its Opposite of Order. In truth it was the finest spell-crafting that the creature known as Klarion the Witch Boy had ever achieved, or would ever achieve henceforth.
Reality, in an area surrounding the world called Earth by its inhabitants, duplicated and into one those below an arbitrary age were thrust, while in the other those above it remained. Panic was the result to this great feat of spell-casting, panic and death as the children of a world were torn away from their parents.
Fear and Anger filled the hearts of this world in answer, beings of all powers great and small seeking answers to this event. And upon this plane of reality, that response became organised, focused and filled with a terrible resolve. Wizards and Witches were summoned to sites of power, Gods and Demons invoked by whatever means available, and focused upon one great task; undoing what had happened and getting back their young...
To those looking upon the world below, or at least the World that was filled with those above an arbitrary limit defining adulthood, great arcane circles of light would form over two islands in the Northern Hemisphere. Symbols, runes and sigils of a dozen pantheons, some old, small and forgotten, others powerful and known to all, flowed together in the skies above those islands as priests prayed and mages cast spells.
Like the tide retreating before a tidal wave ever spark of 'loose' magic upon that world surged toward those beacons of power at words spoken in unison. Power swelled as those beings that had not involved themselves in such matters looked on in confusion, and no little amount of fear as the planet started to ring like a bell to each beat of the magic.
Magic long dormant, laying sclerotic in the deep recesses of regions near the ritual was ripped from its places of rest. Door to Planes beyond smash open for a brief moment and energy roared through in summons; Celestial and Infernal, of Life and of Death, with every power within reach of those in that world from the Plane of Shadows to those of Nishrek. Building and twisting and warping and then...
...and then...
...and then...
...and then it was unleashed in the thundering fires of destruction and creation as the source of the event laid naked and bare to the combined wrath of beings of Power great and small. Many pillars became One as it arched up and down upon an almost empty crossroads in a place called Roanoke Island.
Five beings stood in the way of that wrath; the beings known as Klarion the Witch Boy, Dark Druid, Felix Faust, the wizard ironically known as Wizard, and the sorceress known as Circe. A late recruit to the endeavor, and while her goal of spreading magic would be well and truly achieved by her involvement...she did not exist long enough to see that achievement.
Indeed their combined defence did last three milliseconds under the assault, a true testament to the power and skill of these five creatures in the face of the combined might set against them. Impressive...but futile, as they were destroyed utterly in the aftermath in what most would call wiped from existence in later debriefings. Which was untrue of course; rather than be destroyed it was merely the personalities and beings that ceased to be as they were converted into magic energy as the pillar of light devoured them.
...and then the world was restored. Twisting, merging, howling and in a burst of bare moments what had been divided was made whole again as two Earths became one. But it did not stop there as the sheer power of the blast, at least in arcane terms, smashed apart the layers of magic that had rested dead or dormant for centuries or even millennia. Deaths were undone, wounds were healed, planes in the air that had differing positions after the separation were merged together despite variation, a billion little details as reality was changed to undo what damage had been done.
Like some great inactive dynamo - the molten core of magic energy upon that world...and uncounted others in the days that followed, jolted at the blow...then shuddered to life once more spinning faster and faster unseen to any eyes. Where once it had been a placid and fetid swamp, it momentarily became a howling mega-tsunami that reshaped all in its path to make the world whole again...before merely calming to a roaring storm on the arcane ocean...
Not that many upon that world would notice or care at that time as children and parents hugged, and sobbed, and cried out in joy...
--