APOKOLIPS
September 19, 05:30 UTC
The pit was dark, warm and fetid, like the womb. She remembered nothing of the world beyond its darkness, not even her own name. Not that any of that mattered anymore.
She no longer needed any identity, no longer needed anything but to constantly gorge upon the rich protein slurry her caretakers provided. The thick nutrient stew fed the new life burrowing within her, new life that would soon burst forth like maggots from a ripened corpse.
Still, some small part of her wished she could remember her name.
[-]
Glimmer wished she could remember how she let herself get talked into this.
Only a few short hours had passed since she, Bow, Adora and the Kryptonian Kara Zor-El had arrived on the hellish fortress world of Apokolips. Their mission: to infiltrate the notorious 'Section Zero' – a labyrinthine complex run by Desaad, God-Scientist and Chief Torturer to Darkseid himself – and 'liberate' an enigmatic artefact known as the Black Diamond. All part of a dubious bargain with the immortal Earth warlord known as Vandal Savage.
Now, the four of them - clad in stolen Apokoliptan robes - were hiding from patrolling Parademon in one of Desaad's own torture chambers. Which would have been bad enough… if the chamber wasn't already occupied.
"So, the prodigal daughter finally returns?" Granny Goodness – former mistress of Darkseid's 'Orphanage' - chuckled dryly, suspended in some bizarre futurist torture device. "Welcome home, my sweet Despara."
"That's not my name!" Adora practically growled.
"My, what a rude child? Why, if I wasn't hanging here, I'd give you such AAARRGH!"
Goodness spasmed in mid-air. The thin wires boring into her bare flesh burned bright red before finally dimming, giving her some temporary relief.
"What is this thing?" Bow asked, horrified yet morbidly curious about the device.
"It's called the Agony Matrix," Goodness answered. "One of Desaad's favorite toys."
Adora's eyes narrowed. "Why are you in it?"
"Alas, poor Granny has fallen out of favor with the current regime… Ugggh!"
Goodness shuddered again as the Agony Matrix sent another randomized bolt of pain though her nervous system. As the torment finally subsided, her bleary bloodshot eyes fell upon the purple bundle under Adora's arm.
"And what do you have there, my pet?"
Adora turned to confer with the others, blocking Goodness' view of the artefact they were currently attempting to 'liberate'.
"We need to take her with us," Adora whispered low.
"With all due respect, 'Dora; are you damaged!?" Kara hissed. "That's Granny freaking Goodness! She twisted our minds, treated us like wind-up toy soldiers! She's like… the third most evil being on this planet!"
"That is saying a lot," Bow conceded.
"I know, I know, but we can't just leave her like this." Adora answered. "Kara, you know the things Desaad is capable of. No one deserves that, not even her."
Kara looked tempted to debate that point. "We can't trust her!"
Glimmer was silent as Adora and Kara argued back and forth. She didn't need this. The Sorceress-Queen had felt 'off' ever since the four of them broke into Section Zero. Maybe it was the pervading oppressiveness of Apokolips, or the low buzz in her ears - like some whispering insect - but she was in no mood for her friends' typical bickering.
"Enough!"
Glimmer brushed past Adora and Kara, until she stood before Goodness. The Sorceress-Queen's gaze was unflinching as it met the New God's.
"We bust you out, you lead us out, deal?"
Granny Goodness smile angelically. "Deal."
"Adora, cut her down."
Summoning her energy blade, Adora wordlessly severed the bonds restraining the New God. Goodness landed on her feet, shaking herself of like a grey she-bear. Chords of thick muscle rippled beneath her leathery skin despite her countless years.
"Thank you, dearie," Goodness cooed, uncoiling her limbs. "You always were such a conscientious child. Not like Gilotina or Barda or..." Her hard eyes momentarily paused on Kara. "Others I could mention."
Kara glared back daggers.
"Whatever happened to Gilotina?" Adora asked absently.
The name clicked in Glimmer's mind. She recalled the Fury with ice-blue eyes Granny had originally sent to capture Adora months ago. Though Gilotina had failed, that setback hadn't been enough to abate Goodness' determined malice.
Granny merely grinned cryptically in response.
"Fine, keep your secrets," Adora spoke sharply. "Just don't make us regret this."
The five slipped quietly into the shadowed corridors, Glimmer trailing slightly behind.
She wished she could clear her head of the buzzing.
[-]
"Now, moving along to item one-hundred-and-sixteen…" Double Trouble scrolled through their pad, reclining upon the plush divan in their private chambers within the Divine Palace. They were attended by the court dandy Kanto and the God-Scientist Desaad, who listened with respective amusement and disgust. The God of Torment's patience was just about to expire when…
Ting!
Desaad drew his Fatherbox, face contorting in shocked rage. "What!?"
Ting!
Desaad spun on Kanto. "Section Zero has been compromised! With me!"
The God of Torment stormed from the chambers without so much as a backward glance. Kanto paused to bow courteously before Double Trouble, kissing their slender hand.
"My grace."
Double Trouble blew him a kiss as he took his leave. Once both New Gods were out of earshot, Double Trouble pulled out an old Earth-style pocket watch, consulting its face.
"Hmm… It'll have to do." They snapped the timepiece shut. "Break a leg, kiddies."
[-]
Security klaxons blared through Section Zero. Four young mortals and one aged New God raced through the red-lit corridors in mounting panic, their purple robes cast aside.
"Oh, that can't be good," Bow muttered.
Goodness waved down an adjacent corridor. "Quick, this way!"
The four heroes ducked down the shadowed passage. A fetid charnel stench wafted from further down and deeper in.
"Where does this lead?" Glimmer asked.
"The Hatchery," Goodness answered glibly, before striking a panel embedded in the wall.
Before the four could react, a wall of crackling crimson energy sliced across the corridor, cutting them off from Goodness – and all escape.
Kara lunged at the energy-screen, only to be sent reeling back by a surge of fiery agony arcing through her flesh. She fell back into Adora's arms.
"But… we saved you!" Adora cried.
Goodness grinned wickedly from the other side of the energy-screen, tinting her toadish features a garish red. "And Granny rewards your compassion as it deserves."
Adora turned away in disgust. "Kara, can you…?"
"I can try."
The Krypteen shook off her daze. Her fists pounded the soot-grey metal walls again and again until they disappeared into a whirling blur, sending a metallic staccato reverberating along the hall until finally dying away.
"Ughh," Kara groaned, nursing her bruised knuckles. The pure adamantine walls were barely scuffed. "Sorry, 'Dora."
"What's the matter, dear," Granny drawled. "Not getting enough sun?"
Kara looked about ready to lunge again before Adora laid a hand on her shoulder.
"Ignore her, Kara. We'll just have to find a way out the other side."
Granny clucked. "Good luck with that, dearie."
Adora shot back a last lingering glare before she and her friends left the grinning Goodness behind, descending deeper into the pit.
[-]
Having to Boom-Tube outside Section Zero's grounds and brush past its indeterminable security checkpoints had done nothing to improve Desaad's already foul mood. Now marching though the shadowed corridors of his private domain - flanked by Kanto and a squad of Parademons - he found himself edging ever closer to the brink of apoplectics.
So, he nearly blew his top when he saw the smugly grinning figure standing before a shimmering crimson energy-screen.
"Goodness, I should have known. Give me one good reason not to have the flesh peeled from your bones one tendon at a time."
"Because, my dear Desaad," Goodness replied. "While you were off placating your pet changeling, I took care of your little intruder problem."
"And where exactly are these intruders, dear Granny?" Kanto asked respectfully.
Goodness smirked, nodding over her shoulders at the shadowed corridor leading into the deepest sub-levels of Section Zero.
Understanding dawned in Desaad's hooded eyes as a wicked leer crept across his thin lips.
[-]
The Stygian black grew ever darker, the rank air ever more fetid and clammy. The buzzing whispers in Glimmer's mind rose in proportion to the darkness, threatening to drown out her thoughts with-
"Light?"
"Wha-?" Glimmer asked.
"Can we get a little light?" Adora repeated.
"Oh yeah… sorry, just gimme a minute."
Glimmer drew her mage-staff, trying to focus her thoughts. A warm familiar hand squeezed her arm.
"Hey, you okay?" Bow whispered in the dark.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Glimmer whispered back. "Well… except for being trapped in a torture dungeon on an evil hell-planet anyway."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sure." Glimmer smiled, giving his hand a firm squeeze back. "But thanks for asking, Beau."
Not for the first time, Glimmer wondered what she'd ever done to deserve him. She was certain it couldn't have been any real merit on her part. For as long as she could remember, Bow had been her best friend. They'd been through so much together, both good and bad.
Their relationship had evolved and matured into something far more intimate, more passionate in recent years. Neither of them could promise that this particular phase would last forever. But Glimmer was certain about one thing; Bow would always be, first and foremost, her very best friend so long as she had anything to say about it.
Her foot came suddenly down on something soft, wet and warm; soaking almost up to her ankles.
"Uggh," Kara hissed. "What in Rao's..?"
Glimmer charged her mage-staff, filling the dank humid chamber with light. The adamantine walls had given way to corridors of redly pulsing flesh, like the arteries of some titan beast. All across the fleshy walls were embedded vaguely translucent pustules about the size of an average humanoid.
"What the…?"
Bow cautiously approached one of the quivering pustules. Something eyeless turned towards him, writhing in the greenish pus. Lipless mandibles masticated reflexively to reveal pointed half-formed fangs.
"Gaaah!" Bow recoiled. "What are these things?"
Adora surveyed the countless translucent sacs embedded in the fleshy walls. The winged gangreen creatures within were in various stages of development, bereft of the cybernetic augmentation that would later enhances their innate bio-engineered savagery.
"Parademon larva."
A silent pall fell upon the four heroes for a long moment, until Glimmer finally spoke.
"Let's keep moving."
They descended deeper into the Hatchery, every step soft and tentative until they came to a vaulting fleshy cavity. The abyssal darkness seemed about ready to swallow even the light of Glimmer's mage-staff when something began rumbling from deep below.
"What the heck is that?!" Bow braced himself against a bony protrusion as the entire chamber began to shake, growing in intensity.
Kara squinted, glaring downwards.
"INCOMING!"
Something like a titanic maggot burst through the membranous floor. Its swollen gangreen bulk dwarfed the four humanoids, ant-like by comparison. It glared down at them balefully through faceted ice-blue eyes, veiled behind thin wisps of yellowed hair, set in an almost comically undersized head.
"THE HECK IS THAT!?" Bow shrieked shrilly.
"Parademon Queen!" Adora cried, summoning her energy sword. "Scatter!"
Glimmer, Bow and Kara complied as the brood mother brought down a mammoth three-clawed paw. Adora herself barely had time to roll out of the way, stashing her bundle in an oozing wall abscess before raising her blade to the roof.
"FOR THE HONOR OF GRAYSKULL!"
The Stygian chamber suddenly burst with prismatic light, shining and glorious as a newborn star. A new figure stepped from the blazing light; where once had stood the mortal Adora now stood She-Ra, Princess of Power.
"Hey, ugly!" She-Ra smirked, holding her sword high. "Come get some!"
The blazing light caused the Paraqueen to recoil with terror for a moment, but only for a moment. The maggot-thing came barreling down on the Princess of Power with a vengeance.
She-Ra raised her blazing sword, ready to morph it into a mighty war-hammer, only to freeze as she caught full sight of the Paraqueen's disturbingly human visage in the shimmering light.
"ADORA!?"
Glimmer only narrowly managed to shove her friend out of the Paraqueen's path before the monster crushed them both to paste. The Paraqueen clumsily turned its quivering bulk, about to resume its attack when Kara sent it momentarily reeling with a steel-hard fist.
Glimmer took advantage of the momentary reprieve to check on She-Ra. The Princess of Power's face was ashen, eyes harrowed.
"Adora, what's wrong?!"
"The Parademon Queen, it… she…" She-Ra whispered. "She's Gilotina."
Kara continued to harass the Paraqueen like some overly persistent gnat. Now that Glimmer looked more closely, she could make out the same shade of ice-blue in the Paraqueen's blank insectile eyes, the strands of withered yellow hair that had once been silky and rich, the unmistakably human facial structure warped by Apokoliptan gene twisting.
From Glimmer's brief memory, the Fury called Gilotina had been cruel, vain and sadistic, but she had also been vibrantly and undeniably self-willed. Now that will had been hollowed out, leaving only an empty vessel; mere flesh to breed ever more flesh to feed Apokolips' bottomless hunger.
The Paraqueen swatted Kara away with a giant claw, sending the stunned Krypteen slamming into bare stone. The creature that had once been the Fury Gilotina pressed its attack, only for a golden arrowhead to explode in its face, temporarily blinding it.
"Hey, over here!"
Bow waved his namesake weapon in the air, desperately trying to distract the Paraqueen from the helpless Kara. His gambit proved a little too successful as the titan turned, bringing a mammoth paw down on the miniscule archer.
"BOOOOW!" Glimmer screamed.
The world froze.
[-]
Bow hadn't planned any further than this, which was rather unlike him.
Usually he was the cautious, meticulous one of the 'Best Friend Squad'. Now there was no more time to plan, no time to roll out of the path of the titan claw, no time to do anything but scrunch his eyes close and brace himself for the end.
The end never came.
The cavern shook with a monstrous wail of piteous agony as Bow unscrunched his eyes. The Paraqueen was trashing like a wounded animal, a smoking stump where her forelimb had just been. Across the cavern floated a figure wreathed in violet flame with eyes blazing like cold pitiless stars.
"Glimmer?" Bow whispered.
The enraged Paraqueen turned, swiping at Glimmer with its remaining claw. The Sorceress-Queen raised a hand, halting the titan paw in mid-air with contemptuous ease. Her voice was cold and hard when she spoke…
"Enough."
Shards of purple-crystal sprouted from the Paraqueen's remaining claw, rapidly spreading up her limb like some fungal infection. The monster recoiled again, shrieking in uncomprehending terror as its titanic bulk was inexorably transmuted into pure crystal, until it shrieked no more.
Bow stared as Glimmer alighted wordlessly next to him, her violet flame dissipating, and her expression hard as stone. She looked like a complete stranger.
"Glimmer," Bow whispered. "What did you do?"
"Saved our butts is what she did." Kara nursed her head as she staggered forward.
She-Ra paused to gaze up into the Paraqueen's face, now forever frozen in a silent crystal scream. "Maybe I can heal her?"
"There's no time," Glimmer spoke curtly. "We need to keep moving."
"But…"
"Now, Adora!"
She-Ra's lips curled as though to spit back a response, but she apparently thought better of it before retrieving the bundled Black Diamond.
"How are we supposed to get out of here?" Bow asked.
"Take my hands," intoned Glimmer.
[-]
The four young heroes blinked back into existence on the rooftop of Section Zero, under the ochre smog-choked skies of Armagetto. A surprised Bow took in the jagged Apokoliptan skyline.
"Glimmer, how did you do that? You've never been able to teleport outside Etheria before."
Before Glimmer could reply, a blast of scarlet energy seared just over her head. Up above, upon a crimson energy platform stood Desaad with a second Apokoliptan clad in gold trimmed black.
"You missed, Kanto!" Desaad shrieked.
"Hardly, dear Desaad. That was merely a warning shot." Kanto smiled, eying down the golden barrel of his mega-rod. "One must be sporting after all."
"RUN!" She-Ra cried, shifting her energy blade into a shield for the others as they raced to the roof's edge.
An industrial canyon opened up before them, dropping off into an abyssal chasm as Kanto's shots continued to pepper their position.
"Bow," She-Ra cried, deflecting the blasts. "Extraction, now!"
Bow drew the Fatherbox provided by Vandal Savage from his satchel. "Buddy, we really need to be somewhere else right now!"
[-]
ISLA DIABLO
September 18, 19:52 UTC-10
BOOOOOM!
Klarion grinned, eyeing the Apokoliptan Boom-Tube with all the avarice of a child on Christmas morning. "Finally!"
Four figures came tumbling out of the hellish maw before it snapped closed behind them; a teen clad in a white bodysuit with blue gloves and boots, a dark-skinned archer, a pink-haired mage, and an eight-foot-tall golden space-Valkyrie wielding a sword of pure light in one hand while holding something bundled in a purple robe under the other.
Kara, Bow, Glimmer and She-Ra rolled to a halt at the foot of the Kobra throne.
"Oh, goodie," Klarion rubbed his hands greedily. "Presents."