Life Ore Death
* Final Stage
"Now… alwaqt lilaikhtiar, aibnatu alghul," Bane purred, bathed in the light of the Bat-cave's computer monitors.
Despite his insistence on remaining in Gotham with Batman, Plastic Man had been one of the easier takedowns: at Bane's instruction, Talia had fed him a tip about a sighting and the fool had walked right into his shower of liquid nitrogen. Bane's men had taken to him with hammers – it was not mentioned in Batman's protocols, but they did mention that Plastic Man could recover from the freezing in time, and Bane wished to be certain there would be no interference – and shoved the pieces into an ice cooler for transport to the Light's laboratories.
That was one member of the Justice League whose death was assured, which no other member of the Light had yet accomplished. Bane felt it should be enough to ensure his place… but Plastic Man was a new member, and not one to be taken seriously.
Breaking the Bat… removing his rival from consideration, while still keeping him alive to be turned, that the Light could better access Bruce Wayne's vast resources… that would assure his position remained stable as he assumed Ra's al Ghul's throne.
There was only one thing which could more securely cement his position, and that was a wedding with the Daughter of the Demon.
He had courted her before, and she had scorned him, which was what began this entire plan in the first place. She needed to see that he was superior in every way to her 'Beloved,' to see Bane victorious, and Batman reduced to shell, rather than made a martyr of.
"…
You. How did you-?" Talia cut off mid-confrontation as everything came back to her, and she hesitated, her mind swimming.
"You let me in, Talia. You've let me in and out again all month," he rumbled. "I have outsmarted and outmaneuvered your Batman at every turn. Even now, he awaits only defeat at my hands, and the rest of the Justice League is fallen. I win, Talia, because you helped me. It is who we are. Take my hand, and come rule alongside the Demon, rather than under him."
He spread his arms in a welcoming gesture, waiting despite the scorn and wounded ego that simmered inside of him.
Talia remained still, eyes wide as she tried to understand everything that had occurred in her recent life. Bane waited.
But he would not wait long.
Perhaps her hand twitched toward her sword. Perhaps a sneer slid across her face.
Perhaps she sighed or bowed her head ever so slightly in submission.
Perhaps he only imagined it.
Whatever occurred between them, the matter was brought to a boil by the sound of Alfred's approaching footsteps from the stairs.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
* Final Stage
"You've been up there almost half an hour, man. Do you want to swoop down and bring up some backup? I bet Wren would love a chance to talk down this girl; I can give her a call if she's free instead of stamping out more fires."
Jimmy Olsen's whispered words were still loud enough to reach Superman's ears, and a faint smile touched his lips. The recently disowned Amy Zell hadn't expressed interest in meeting Ferris, and the Terriswoman was preoccupied elsewhere according to Snapper, but it was a thought.
"You… do you really think it can get better," she asked, voiced stilted oddly by her recent transformation.
An idle part of Superman's mind noted that newly triggered meta-human might be empowered similarly to Captain Atom, with her metallic skin interfering with his x-ray vision and super-hearing, but the rest of him only hoped that he was breaking through to the despairing young woman.
"Yes. You're still here now, aren't you? It hurts, I know," he empathized, noting the gun slowly leaving her temple, "but you're not alone. I lost my family too, but I found new ones. There are people… we'll help you pick yourself back up and make a life for yourself.
"After this kind of betrayal? Are you really telling me it's okay to trust again?"
"Yes," Superman assured her warmly, drifting closer. She closed her eyes and finally lowered the gun to her side.
"Right…" There was a bang, and a sharp numbness rippled from his solar plexus. "You'll have to tell me how long you keep feeling that way," the girl said mechanically. As Superman slowly fell from the sky he saw her skin ripple as she shifted and lifted into the air.
Below him, the shocked screams of the crowd rose to reach his ears.
… … …
Lantern Stewart lay curled up under the debris, waiting to die.
He had not been fast enough, nor intelligent enough, nor possessed of sufficient will.
His scans had missed a bomb, his structural supports had been misplaced, and will was insufficient.
People were dead and it was all his fault.
With those thoughts on his mind, John Stewart let the dim ring drop from his fingers and waited to die under the rubble.
He was unaware of the fear toxin he had been exposed to when one 'grateful woman' hugged him while concealing a small yellow needle.
He had willed his defenses a touch weaker so that she wouldn't be hurt throwing herself at him, and he missed the sting of it entirely.
Then, when the stadium had collapsed a minute later, he survived under his shield, but so many must have died….
John Stewart had given up, and so he waited to die in the darkness, as he believed would be just, for he had failed his home.
… … …
His mind bombarded with memories of his falling parents, Robin's shaking hands barely assembled and triggered the makeshift electromagnetic pulse before Amazing Android R (Icon & Martian Manhunter) was on him again, a sloppy but super-strong backhand smashing him across the room. Robin wheezed, but he rolled with the landing, his skin tingling from the shockwave of energy that had-
-that had
not rendered Amazing Android R inert. Instead, still wearing Tony Zucco's smarmy face, the robot approached with a faint interplay of distorted light glowing across his exoderm.
The android's speakers buzzed, and the Shadows agent remote controlling it explained, <Mutual annihilation occurs when electrons and positrons meet, kid, meaning Icon's power to manipulate positrons allows for electromagnetic shielding. Looks like it's the end for you. >
The pressure on his mind doubled down, and now it was all Robin could do to keep his mental shields up, but that wouldn't mean anything if he couldn't move before the robot beat him unconscious anyway.
"Fuck that!" yelled a young voice from the ceiling, and something small fell, and Robin began to cry, because he'd
told Jason to run get
help.
Images of blood and squished bodies filled his head, and Robin's voice died in his throat before he could scream for his brother to flee.
Robin
knew this had to be a trap, set up by someone who knew his identity, and the League needed to
know. But now….
Amazing Android R turned to face Jason's hiding spot, no doubt bringing telekinesis to bear as a thrown projectile hit it, and with a *
whumph* the robot erupted into flames.
… … …
It was not the first time Martian Manhunter had been set on fire.
Earth hosted a wider variety of combustible materials, a higher oxygen content in its atmosphere than Ma'al, and many more people willing to turn his inherited fear and weakness against him.
Martian Manhunter was also, along with Superman, the keeper of one copy of this set of Batman's emergency protocols.
He had seen Batman's plans, and discussed them with the man, and warned Batman that he had undergone some training to resist this fear.
Additionally, the Manhunter uniform he wore was designed to be flame resistant for exactly these types of emergencies.
J'onn had discussed possible containment methods and helped Batman refine them; he knew what to do in this situation.
As soon as the gloating super-villain explained what was occurring, Martian Manhunter began shape-shifting.
He took the form of a simple hemisphere, as his flat bottom would not be exposed to the air and could not catch fire, while the spherical skin that did burn would expose the smallest amount of surface area possible for his mass, and directing the material of his uniform to stretch over his exposed top would minimize the damage.
By focusing on his meditative exercises, J'onn knew he could ignore his fear of burning and keep calm.
Unfortunately, the focus required would prevent him from doing much else.
When testing it with Batman, that had been a boon, as he could not harm anyone and was incapacitated.
Now, though, he could not reach out with his telepathy or defend himself with his telekinesis. He would have to wait it out.
He would not be able to wait out more than two hours before he suffered exhaustion and his uniform eroded; in his state it would likely come sooner.
He needed help, or he would die.
… … …
All Hawkwoman had done was stick her hands and head in a large crate while unloading the alien life forms – while some of them were reminiscent, the vast majority of them were obviously not from Thanagar, and some were flat out fakes, but she'd also been finding disassembled tech smuggled into various hiding spots, hence her deeper search – and something had unbalanced her.
Some mechanisms had latched onto her wrists, dragged her in, and shut the box lid on top of her.
Shut.
She was stuck stuck trapped stuck stifled-
No. She could handle this. She could breathe, she could keep calm, and she could break free just as soon as she slipped off these-
Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.
She smelled a sickly scent in the air, and it felt as though the walls were closing in on her.
With all her might, she screamed a war cry of savagery and tried to link to the energy discharge abilities of her mace (her warrior's weapon, her pride, hand made for her with a personalized arrangement of alloys in the placement of the spikes and the inside of the head).
It was no use. Batman's plans had crafted these restraints with the same anti-telepathy materials used on Martian Manhunter.
She could not contact her weapon to react to her.
She was trapped.
… … …
"Whoa
shoot!" Kid Flash yelped as he was racing down an aisle in the stockyard and hit a slick spot. He slid, and he slid, and he slid over a trap door that dropped him down into something… gooey. "What the-? Ewww! What the hell is this?"
"You're currently floating in almost two meters of oxygenated, shock-absorbent gel," purred Cheshire, dropping down from the ceiling to secure the buried containment device. "Hello, Artemis. It looks like the end of the Justice League. Care to join the winning team?"
"Jade!" the blonde hissed furiously from further up the aisle. "What the
fuck are you-? Of course this is a trap." She strung one arrow.
"Uh-uh-
uhh," Jade tutted, displaying the trigger switch in her left hand. "Your boy-toy won't drown or suffocate in here, but oxygenating it to ensure that fact means it's flammable. I twitch wrong, and you're left with a barbecued boyfriend."
"That's sick," Artemis spat.
"That's life," Jade retaliated. "Look, Artemis, I've been nice, but this is the
last chance I can to give you! Shut up and swear fealty to the Shadows, and I ensure your boyfriend lives. Or you can fight, I can kick your ass, and you get imprisoned with him. I'm fresh, and you're exhausted because you've been giving everything you have to others and got nothing back from them!" She grimaced. "I don't have enough pull to cover for you after today, with Sportsmaster out of the picture; this is your last chance to get off the sinking ship before you drown, Artemis.
Think."
Artemis stared her unmasked sister down.
"It's a trap, isn't it? This whole thing has been a trap, to tire us out and wear us down. You really think they'll take down the Justice League?" Artemis challenged as her mind worked it out. "The Injustice League lost, the Disappearance Disaster fell apart, their New Year's Eve mind-control plot got stopped, Markovia was just a mess… You noticing a pattern here, Jade?"
"The best battles are those won without fighting. The Justice League hasn't even realized all the places where it's lost up to now because we won those battles before there was any fighting to notice. The Justice League wasn't hard enough, and couldn't hack it. Those arrests over the past few months, 'taking down' the League of Shadows? Those were all planned for, and our ranks will swell with the jailbreaks that have succeeded. I swung the takedown of you and your boyfriend, but the other Justice League members' handlers aren't going to be so nice.
"This is the only chance I can give you now, sis. Swear loyalty to the Shadows, and you'll be working with me as your… parole officer, lets say. Kid Flash will be brought in alive, held captive with a containment collar, and after you've earned enough favor they'll let him out to join you on your missions, and we'll all be on the same side again as one big, happy family. If I have to take you in the hard way, I can't guarantee his safety."
"You can't guarantee anything; I've seen what the Light does to its own people," Artemis countered.
"Only if you fail, and fail badly. I got off fine before," Jade claimed, "I just had to make a few compromises and promises. …I need an answer, Artemis. Yes or no? Do you bring in Kid Flash under my supervision, or do I bring you both in?"
"Or do I take you down and break him out?" Artemis challenged, though as her adrenaline wore off she found it harder to stand.
Her hands were shaking.
"Don't be stupid," Jade scoffed, "you can't back that up, even without me torching your boyfriend."
"Wally dies, and you're dead to me Jade," Artemis threatened, but she lowered her bow and arrow to the ground.
"It'll be on
you to keep the higher-ups happy, but I'll help a touch," Jade offered, "and if he cooperates, he'll only see a few months in a cage."
"…What happens now, then? After the Justice League gets taken down," Artemis challenged, now unarmed, "who'll take care of any alien invasions, or criminal activities not under Light control? Disaster relief?"
"Better tech'll be used to build cities, and anyone not with the times enough to use the best available, well, that's survival of the fittest. Petty crime, like shop-lifting, I doubt that'll change too much," Jade reasoned, lowering her trigger as well. "Bigger crimes? You and me, and the other agents at our level will be sent to end them, no costly legal dodges necessary, and prison costs'll drop, I bet. Alien invasions will be met with the same tech and weaponry we're using against the Justice League now. The
point is proving that they aren't enough, and that's
why they'll lose. After we commandeer a few space ships or build our own, I imagine Earth will start expanding out, until
we're the ones no one else is stupid enough to pick a fight with. Welcome to the future, without all the problems of now."
"Other than being ordered around by kidnappers, human traffickers, murderers, and other scumbags who only really care about benefitting themselves. That tech? What happens when killer robot drones are advanced enough to replace assassins?" Artemis challenged.
"Like those are our only skill-sets," Jade dismissed. "Besides, you always need the…
human touch for more delicate operations."
"Oh joy." Artemis flicked her wrist and produced a knife from one pocket. "You know what I think, Jade? I think it's you who isn't hard enough."
The assassin's eyebrow rose. "Oh? You're cutting your boyfriend loose to go your own way? I can't say I disapprove; that ruthlessness will help you survive if you don't sign on," Jade dismissed, waving the trigger again.
"Again: if he dies, you're dead to me," Artemis reiterated, hefting her knife experimentally. "You don't want that. You don't want to lose me, Jade. That's what this is all about. Neither of us have enough family left to toss it away; I won't kill you to keep that trigger from going off, and if you're bluffing about killing him you still wouldn't kill me to bring him in. You don't believe in the Shadows that deeply."
"You really willing to risk his life on that?" Jade teased. Artemis fingered her knife, and took a tight grip as she came to a decision.
"No. I wouldn't risk a stranger's life on it either, or Mom's, or any of my friends' lives, or yours. That's sort of the point, Jade. I'm not going to threaten anyone because I believe killing other people is wrong. Maybe there are times when you have to, in self-defense or in emergencies, but it's still a
bad thing when that happens. I'm not going to risk Wally's life to stop you. I don't need to."
… … …
He couldn't feel his wings.
It had quickly become apparent to Hawkman that the shape-shifter in Midway was
not Byth Rok, but before his suspicions could be roused as to how Shayera could have made that mistake—or how she could have been taken captive and made to seem so helpless, as it was ridiculous to think of her begging the way that her imposter had—a torrent of water thicker than a school bus had swatted him from the sky.
The shape-shifter was on him in seconds, melting around him and constricting, hissing its foul-but-sweet breath in his face-
He could not feel his wings.
They were numb. Or worse, they were gone, but he was being bound by metallic, shape-shifting sludge, and he
could not feel his wings.
It took all of his focus to keep from panicking; he didn't realize that his mace had been stolen from him.
… … …
Aquaman pushed himself furiously as he swam in pursuit of the fleeing figure with his kidnapped son.
He had long since outstripped the few guards fast enough to join the chase, and he felt almost as though he were being swept along by some other force. Even the fastest swimming speed he'd ever achieved still wasn't enough to let him catch the abductor, though.
He grit his teeth and pushed himself harder.
Unbeknownst to him, it was the telekinesis from Amazing Android V's copy of Martian Manhunter's powers that swept them both away so quickly, as the android and its imitation baby sought to reach the designated location.
They were in the shallows of a carefully chosen, seaweed-strewn sandbar, and that was the time for it to activate its plans.
At an electronic command, Amazing Android V tapped the store of Poison Ivy chemicals it had synthesized, releasing them even as it also prompted local seaweed to release other chemicals.
Then it dropped the 'baby'.
A flash of natural terror shot through Aquaman at the thought of his child being harmed when the abductor abandoned Artur. The chemicals his physiology was drinking in only exacerbated that, and he swept into his arms the bundle of machinery and Starro cells that was designed to look vaguely like a child. It began broadcasting, locking Aquaman's thought patterns in place, and he realized-
He realized-
In a surge of screaming terror Aquaman tore himself from the water and clambered onto a tall stone spire to cower.
The sun beat down mercilessly, and the king of Atlantis curled around his supposed son protectively, daring not expose either of them to the horrific liquid in their surroundings. He even, one-armed, began scraping off the droplets on his skin against the boulder, to better dry them in the intense heat of the equatorial sunlight.
That this might cause him to eventually dehydrate or expire… part of Aquaman remained aware, but the rest was too terrified of the ocean around him to realize what it meant. He curled protectively around the rags and cowered, beginning to weep as he waited.
When he remembered his ear bud, no one answered, and instead he did his best to hum a lullaby and keep his 'child' calm.
… … …
In a burning building, Superboy had been ambushed by an unexpected enemy.
"Hey, Mister Carr!" he shouted, trying to get through on his comm in the brief reprieve-
Mechanical hands burst through the wooden floor and dragged him down.
"Sorry, kid," called the guy in the power-suit that had Mr. Twister's abilities and Red Inferno's fire manipulation. "End of the line."
There was nothing burning in the stone basement, and with the constant roaring flames further away, Superboy could hear….
"Those people calling for help, it's just a recording," he realized.
"Yup. Trust a stupid kid to run into a burning building because someone told him to," the man mocked as the room lit up.
"Trust a… stupid… What's happening," Superboy mumbled blearily as he started sweating, "to… me?"
There was an open panel on the front of the machine, in the middle of its chest, emitting light almost like Earth's sun, but not quite.
"You're being exposed to Gold Kryptonite," the man bragged as he walked closer. "Only twenty-four grams of it in the entire world, and I've got them attached to my suit. It shuts down Kryptonian powers without killing you; you're lucky the boss wants you kids alive."
"I'm only half Kryptonian," Superboy reminded him, though the heat was now taking its toll and he realized how sore he was. He stepped back.
"It don't exactly help humans, either. You going to come quietly, or do I beat you? No super-strength or invulnerability," the Shadow warned.
Superboy grimaced and reached slowly for the knuckle-dusters his pocket. One way or another, if he went down, he'd go down fighting.
… … …
He'd forced himself to watch through the entirety of the foul, mocking video clip about airplane crashes, but Green Lantern Hal Jordan hadn't found any of the hints about where the kidnapper had stashed Carol and James.
"I should've known better," he grit out, mentally preparing to escalate as the screen whited out. He turned to the eight cowed underlings who had given him the video that would 'lead you to them'. "Alright, that was bust, so you're going to-,"
He blinked.
"What the…? Where is-?" He waved his hands in front of his face, but all he could see was blackness. "Light!" he commanded.
Nothing.
"I'm… I'm blind," he whispered, patting his face to check whether his eyes were open.
He heard a metallic clink as one thug got to his feet. Then another, and another.
"Heh. Sucks to be you," the gang-banger declared smugly as they slowly circled around him.
Hal grit his teeth, put up his dukes, and started fighting.
… … …
Jericho had just parked Bela as directed and hopped out to communicate with the supervisor when it happened.
Lines of flame – in a manner suspiciously similar to the time Red Inferno had caged Aqualad and Miss Martian in Mt. Justice – shot up and around from the ground, surrounding the boy and the bio-ship. Jericho spun to face the supervisor, and the hologram faded away.
Stone shrieked and Jericho tried to dodge, but his footing fell away and he ended up buried to his shoulders in rocky dirt.
The figure in power armor stayed far away from his range as it called up more spikes of stone to pin down Bela.
The bio-ship shuddered and shrunk down, giving off an almost audible whine of discomfort from the fire and the stones.
Jericho struggled, but even with his mouth uncovered he could barely cry out, much less break free.
… … …
"You've done good to rescue Rachel Rathaway," Turtle Man congratulated, "but I'm afraid Osgood is the one who owes me."
"Owes you a kick in the pants," Flash quipped, his head spinning at everything he got done and had to do still.
"Owes me money, I'm afraid. Here's the deal, Flash," Turtle Man lectured. "As you can see, I triggered this containment cube to start filling with gel as soon as you rescued Rachel. In about two minutes, Osgood will begin to suffocate, and it's far too heavy for you to lift. Your only chance is to stick your arm in here-," He tapped the dark hole about a foot deep in one opaque wall of the otherwise transparent cube. "-input the lock combination, and pry the cube open before that happens. I'll be interested to see if you can try all the possibilities in time."
Flash grit his teeth, blurred into motion, and by the time Turtle Man realized he'd been hog-tied with his own silk tie Flash was already kneeling by the cube, running through possibilities.
"First number is… sixteen!" Flash declared, sparing a grin for the bound and gagged Osgood. "Don't worry, it's a tight fit, and this pinches a bit, but I'll have you- forty-two! I'm two-thirds of the way
yeow!" The lock clicked open and Flash pulled his arm out.
Literally bolted through his wrist via metal spike was a device with a blinking light.
"Hah! You have sixty seconds until that bomb explodes, and takes out several city blocks with it," Turtle Man gloated. "The countdown stops if you reach Mach Three, but once that happens you can't slow down, or else
boom. Let's see how long you last, minuteman."
Flash grit his teeth, delivered Osgood and a bound Turtle Man to the police in two seconds, and started running.
… … …
At Yellowstone, Atom had just snuck into the inner workings of the machine, and he was trying to make sense of what was happening, because none of the pieces he could see seemed to be responsible for the disturbance occurring around it.
Outside, the woman in the power armor with Red Volcano's technology ceased her disruption of the nearby geology and triggered the container mechanism of the machine. Atom realized he had sealed in an airtight container inside an airtight container inside an airtight container, all transparent, only after the assembly of cubes ejected into the waiting woman's hands.
He glanced at his surroundings, poked the walls of his cage despairingly, and shrunk a little smaller to better conserve his oxygen.
… … …
"Switch!"
At Cheetah's command, two of the four bodies that Amazing Android W (Wildcat & Seven Deadly Brothers) had split into – current programming couldn't manage seven, but they were working on it – jumped Wonder Woman while Cheetah rolled away to lick her wounds.
"That was fast," Psimon mocked quietly from the corner where he hid.
"She snarled," Cheetah panted, her limbs shaking. "Only once before has Wonder Woman started
snarling in a fight with me, and-,"
*
SCREECH!*
"I'm sorry that it's come to this," the Princess of Themyscira apologized coldly, discarding the torn-off arm of the Tiger Kung Fu android.
"That," Cheetah finished, giving Psimon a sharp look as he directed a third android to enter the fray.
"Point taken," Psimon said quietly. He worked quietly as Cheetah caught her breath, keeping his focus on providing sufficiently evasive illusions that Wonder Woman wouldn't realize she was fighting three enemies (with only five arms between them) instead of six.
It took a few seconds to happen, but Cheetah's fur vanished with her feline features, leaving Barbara Minerva on the floor.
He strength and speed were gone, but they hadn't disappeared; the residual links of energy to wherever her powers came from had been focused on healing her wounded flesh instead as she waited.
That power – more specifically, that
control over her powers – was what she had gained in exchange for her service to the Light, and in exchange for trading Circe the Lasso of Truth. Circe had unexpectedly gone off the rails not long after, but the Light deemed it not her fault after the fact, and Barbara Minerva's scientific knowledge was enough that they would've retained her even without her powers.
With them, she had quickly risen up the ranks of, oddly, Ocean Master's operational division. She wasn't Inner Circle yet, but….
"It occurs to me," Psimon said with a touch of nervousness as the androids battled Wonder Woman among telepathic illusions.
Metallic sounds of impact bit into their ears as Wonder Woman repeatedly proved her fists stronger than forged steel, despite taking wounds as well.
"Problem?" Cheetah panted.
Psimon exhaled slowly. "Wildcat supposedly possessed some regenerative ability described as having extra lives. I have not personally witnessed it."
"I… was not a part of those tests either," Cheetah acknowledged, her gaze straying to the one-armed android as it flailed and was thrown back.
"Even assuming it is not a myth, and that his lives were not previously exhausted before Amazo analyzed him, it does not mention wounds."
The two thought that fact over as the battle continued, Wonder Woman being battered but dealing out damage when she connected.
"Shit," Cheetah spat. "Pull out? Call in backup? Gah!" She released a pained whine as her broken floating rib repaired itself.
"Not yet, but you may wish to alert our superiors," Psimon advised, preoccupied with handling Wonder Woman himself. "Soon."
"Right… Right," Cheetah muttered. "Where's the fucking phone?" She cringed as Wonder Woman half-smashed a second android.
… … …
*
CRZZAP!*
"Right, that shoulda shorted it out," Rocket declared, when Amazing Android J (Superman & Red Inferno) went limp after Aqualad soaked its feet and administered an electric shock. She left her force bubble lapse and descended. "Ready ta
disarm this sucker?" She grinned.
Aqualad replied with something in Atlantean and a smile. Rocket gave him a look.
"That was a similar pun in my language. My only other options for humoring involved 'unhanding'," Aqualad apologized.
Rocket barked a brief laughed at his smile as they got into position. "I'll try to stop stealing all the funny. Ready?"
"On three," Aqualad agreed. They each got a grip on one arm of the robot. "One. Two."
<Fire. >
Both paused at the unexpected chime, and a ring of fire rose up around them, boiling the water puddle to steam with a hiss.
Then, with a mechanical whir and a metallic crunch, the super-strong robot ripped off Rocket's belt and tossed it away.
"Shoot," Rocket gasped as it grabbed each of them with one hand.
… … …
Dr. Fate had arrived at the location where Ferris had supposedly found a workshop with Hemalurgy and prohibitive wards within minutes.
He had almost immediately been assaulted by an attacker armed with a mace that shattered his mystic shields, and Fate was too busy dodging physically to raise any advanced spells. He could have teleported with a contingency, but he was looking for an opening.
He had not fought Hawkman or Hawkwoman, but he had some experience with Nth metal, and while he recognized the weapon (though not its wielder) he felt he could get around it.
Fate {
That Which Should Be} just needed an opening….
On the roof of a nearby building, Deadshot aimed carefully. His instructions were to make it non-lethal, at a set of specific points.
In his sternum, the tin spike that sharpened his eyesight even further slowly throbbed in time with his heartbeat.
There were four bullets made of iron in his weapon, though he should only need two of them, according to his instructions.
He just needed to wait for a break when Fate's cape wouldn't interfere…
Deadshot pulled the trigger, once, twice.
Dr. Fate staggered with a shout, his golden raiment flickering, then dissolving almost entirely as the mace clipped his chest.
The Lord of Order tumbled backwards before disappearing in the outline of a cracked and broken ankh.
"…Fuck," Deadshot muttered, double-checking his sights. He had
not known the guy could do that.
On the flipside, at least it wasn't his fault.
The Shadows agent with Hawkman's stolen mace shouted something inaudible at the sniper, and Deadshot could only shrug his shoulders.
… … …
Package delivered, Captain Marvel invoked the Wizard's name and reverted back to being Billy Batson with a yawn.
Magelet hugged him goodbye, eyes tired, as Mary and Freddy and Uncle Dudley wished her luck with everything.
"Before you go," Billy said, "do you want to catch a nap on our couch or a guest bed? I heard you've been overworking a bit."
"I just finished my break three hours ago, but a bottle of water and an apple or chips would-,"
*WHOOOZ WHOOOOZ WHOOOOZ*
The case emitted a horribly familiar sound-effect as its energy wave swept out, wiping away all noise in the Dudley-Batson apartment.
Uncle Dudley opened his mouth and tried to ask what had happened, but nothing emerged. Mary yelped. Freddy clapped, unheard.
The living room windows silently shattered as four figures burst into the building.
Zatanna tried to sweep Billy behind her protectively as Dudley stepped in front of both of them, mouth moving for them to run.
Freddy and Mary had the sense to scamper, shouting for Billy to follow them, but they were still silenced. Billy tried his word again.
Magelet fumbled for a weapon, for
anything, as they all realized what was happening.
Billy's Uncle Dudley got a knife in his ribs for his trouble, and then the Shadows were upon them.
… … …
Red Arrow dropped to his knees, choking, as the two police officers – both with star-shaped patch marks under their uniforms, not that he knew that fact – who had triggered the smoke bomb in the interrogation room tackled him, while the 'turncoat scientist' slipped her cuffs and joined in.
Outside, an agent in power armor that incorporated Red Volcano's and Blue Boom's technology prepared to break the penitentiary wide open, freeing a number of imprisoned Shadows agents and all the new members they had recruited while behind bars.
… … …
Black Canary still hadn't found Wildcat, but someone in that coal mine appeared to be a magic user, having conjured up a glowing stone golem from the ground. The bad news was that it massed more than ten of her and would be impervious to martial arts.
The good news was, it was solid stone, and she'd had run-ins with robots and a golem before, so she knew her Cry would have an effect. On top of that, she'd found a part of the mine that was reinforced, and heavily engineered.
She judged it would be enough that her Cry wouldn't collapse anything, so no cave-ins.
Black Canary opened her mouth, inhaled, and shrieked.
She didn't realize – because it was slow and lumbering, while she wasn't nearly exhausted enough to even get clipped by ten tons of rock waving its arms – that the golem was just a hologram, nor that she'd been herded into this area deliberately.
She didn't realize the significance of her own footsteps booming in her ears until it was too late.
The 'supports' of the acoustics chamber caught her sound waves and threw them back at her with no chance to brace.
Black Canary collapsed, blood streaming from her ears and eyes, as the hologram flickered out, and the Shadows agents stepped into view.
… … …
Cerulean and Tempest found the device easily enough, and they were in the process of disarming it – while trying to not choke on the pollen in the arboretum – when the sprinkler system triggered.
Either it was washing more pollen out of the air, or the water wasn't entirely pure (or both), but a funny feeling was coming over the both of them: a warmth and a squirminess and heavy breathing of air despite the water on their skin.
Heads spinning, he looked at her, and she looked at him, and they leaned into each other for support as the world
surged sickeningly.
… … …
Captain Atom staggered to one knee as he desperately redirected the energy blasted at him by Amazing Android M (Captain Atom & Icon) to the Quantum Field rather than let it pass and incinerate the captive soldiers tied behind him.
Yes, he knew he was being pinned down like a piece in chess.
Yes, he knew that he could not maintain this energy absorption much longer, and the stress of trying to fire back….
Yes, he knew that he was likely going to fall here, if the rising heat cooked his insides or his lungs failed him too soon.
The fact was, his brothers in arms would die if he failed them here, and he only had to… he only had to….
The League of Shadows agent in Mister Twister power armor continued sucking the air and oxygen away from Captain Atom, because his durability did not negate his need to breathe, as Batman's plans had noted. The Shadow smiled, unseen, as-
"Int- Integrity first!" Captain Atom shouted surging briefly forward as he retaliated against the energy beam with his own, though he felt his flesh begin to sizzle under his dilusteel skin. "Service," he grit out as he reached through the pain for power. "Before. Self!"
The hero thrust both hands forward as Amazing Android M (Captain Atom & Icon) whined audibly in an attempt to increase its energy output, and the Shadows agent took half a step back as the light from the dueling blasts became bright, painfully bright, more brilliant than he could-
There was a sound like an echoing shriek as the air itself tore asunder. The captured US soldiers behind Captain Atom did their best to duck and cover as they desperately worked at removing their bonds, and several people cried out in agony as their exposed skin began to sizzle.
There was a deafening crash, like the crack of lightning, a
thwoomph like implosion or a collapse into dust, and then it ceased.
The Mister Twister power-armor had overheated, sending error messages as it discharged its dazed wearer, who was quickly swarmed under after one soldier had broken her bonds and quickly freed several others.
The Amazing Android was nothing more than a pile of slag and a silhouette, now.
Even so… though his face still stung from where it was seared, and one of his eyes had gone blind, Lieutenant Carson was the first to step away from the captured Shadow and his fellows. Cringing, his ears ringing, he crouched down and removed his jacket to drape it over what remained where Captain Atom had been standing.
Two red boots, smoke rising from the charred insides, were all that remained; the left boot and the foot inside remained intact up to the calf, while the right boot had been burnt down to the ankle.
A few of the others joined Carson momentarily. With all the respect they could muster, they offered last rites and collected the feet for burial.
… … …
"No! Roy,
no!" Green Arrow screamed as he saw his son being mauled by lions.
He and Merlyn had found Speedy, but the boy had been staggering around with an empty look in his eyes, and then immediately began shooting at the two of them, spewing incoherent hate as quickly as he had strung his arrows.
Green Arrow was taken off-guard so badly that Merlyn had needed to tackle him out of the line of fire, and GA still got shot in the shoulder.
That was when the mercenary had dosed the Emerald Archer with fear toxin, but Green Arrow was rather preoccupied by then.
The resultant running fight had
somehow ended up at the lion enclosure of the zoo, which Speedy had toppled into.
In hindsight, Green Arrow would put together everything that had happened as symptoms of the fear toxin, but at the time he'd had good reason to be afraid, reliving his harshest childhood trauma as the great cats padded closer to his injured, immobile ward.
Green Arrow leaped into the enclosure, fired two arrows to scare the cats off as he fell, and broke his leg with a sickening crack when he landed badly. He still tried to hobble and crawl over to Roy, shouting at Merlyn to get the hell down there with him.
It was at this point that Merlyn input a computerized command. Amazing Android S (Green Arrow & Martian Manhunter) duly shed its disguise and began brain-blasting the stunned Green Arrow into unconsciousness with a pre-programmed telepathic routine.
… … …
Icon had entered the warehouse, only for sixteen pylons to shoot up from his surroundings and begin discharging electricity; it was a larger-scale replication of the electrical trap that had successfully taken out Captain Marvel months before, in India.
Icon's abilities made him resilient, and he was able to neutralize some of the energy; he may have been able to handle six or eight or even ten pylons, but more than a dozen? He was overwhelmed shortly and collapsed, insensate as his nervous system attempted to cope.
The Shadows in the observation room shocked him a little longer, just to be certain.
… … …
Miss Martian had entered the room, whereupon a man had reached out and grabbed her. That was really all it took.
Not that this was due to any weakness on her part, but when the man in question was a vengeful Parasite, and she had few things to fight with except her powers, there were not many other outcomes.
She struggled, but by the time she thought to stab for his eyes (which wouldn't have worked because his arms were longer than hers) he had acquired enough Martian telekinesis to hold her still.
This time, Parasite didn't release her early; he held on the entire time, until her shape-shifting was completely gone and she had reverted to her White Martian appearance. Only then did he drop her, put the boot in, and click an inhibitor collar around the insane alien's neck.
Queen Bee had been very specific in her request, and the Martian was to be Bane's token of esteem to his new co-worker.
It was as he lifted her up with his telekinesis for transport that Parasite felt the force of great anger approaching him.
It felt familiar.
… … …
Ferris felt that the trip to the medical center took too long, given the situation at hand; she'd have preferred to teleport directly.
That said, much of Earth had an obsession with secrecy over small things, and they were unlikely to change their obsession easily.
In addition, it was not the soldier's fault, thus taking it out on him, while satisfying, would benefit no one.
As such, she tapped a trickle from an electrum-mind to hold her tongue and used the drive to assess her stores.
Ferris still had no gold-mind stores, as she wanted her body to remain in good health for some time before she stored again.
She had a pewter-mind of 6 Rush—her chosen term for a metal-mind large enough to be tapped to a +100% draw for an hour straight, in honor of Rushez—remaining after she had spent 4 Rush or so increasing her strength to ease clearing of debris or subdue looters over the past days.
Having needed no speed save for evacuating a few burning buildings, her steel-minds held 12 Rush in total.
As there had been even less of a reason to tap iron-minds for weight, she had 27 Rush in the iron-minds on her person.
Her senses had been of far more importance in the search for survivors under rubble, and while she had 3 Rush in a vision tin-mind, her hearing tin-mind held less than 1 Rush.
She wore one
tiny copper-mind into which she had stored her memories of a few confusing things for later, but that was it.
Her bronze-minds, on the other hand, still held 16 Rush, which she could extend across 30 hours or more with caffeine's assistance.
Her zinc-minds had been tapped for other things of late, and held 3 Rush, which was still a significant amount.
Her brass-minds… she had tapped warmth while helping with relief in colder areas, but she still had large stores left. Enough to boil ice if need be.
Her electrum-mind only held about 2 Rush, as she hadn't liked storing into it since her injuries, and had scantly done so.
Thanks to the trick with the oxygen tank, her cadmium-mind remained full with about 32 Rush stored within.
Her food bendalloy-mind had over a week's worth of stored nutrition, and while her hydration bendalloy-mind had been heavily depleted by her large amount of teleportation earlier, she had emptied several pitchers in her last storage session and much of it still remained.
Her aluminum, duralumin, and nicrosil all held several hours' worth of storage, and she had two hours of fortune stored in her chromium-mind.
For the time being, she had forgone atium-minds and any alloys thereof; they were finicky and she still needed stable footing with mundane metals.
Ferris thought herself well prepared for whatever havocs the Light would inflict next, though the medical facility was supposedly safe.
"We have arrived," her escort said. She followed him into the building and down into a basement hallway, where there was something....
Ferris kept her wits about her, but she was slightly tired, and couldn't justify anything she noticed as wrong. She still hesitated in the hall.
"If I may go through the decontamination chamber first?" the soldier volunteered. She hummed and nodded her appreciation that he would demonstrate the proper protocol and assuage her paranoia.
Ferris had never seen one, but the decontamination chamber looked like the airport chemical scanners: an upright plastic tube about large enough for most adults to fully extend their arms, with two doorways.
The soldier stepped in the center with his arms out.
The doors closed.
A white mist was puffed into the chamber with him.
After about twenty seconds, it dissipated or was sucked away by a vacuum, the doors opened, and he stepped out the other side.
He gestured Ferris through.
She stepped inside and extended her arms.
She tapped her cadmium-mind just to be thorough, though she thought she would ask if it was supposed to decontaminate any germs in her lungs as well… except the chamber doors were open by default, and airborne germs could get in that way, thus probably not, she thought.
The doors closed.
The white mist, clammy and tingling on her skin, puffed into the room, and Ferris continued to tap her cadmium-mind rather than inhale.
She slowly counted down the seconds, examining the nozzles and odd devices in the wall.
After twenty-four seconds, she decided that there was probably not a specific problem with her or she would have been informed.
She tapped a touch of acuity and a touch of chromium, and stared out the transparent door panel while tapping tin to better see the solider.
She planned to break out of the doors by force at the forty-second mark if it came to that and accept responsibility, because she felt-
Those other devices on the chamber walls turned out to be restraining bars, and cords.
They whipped out and Ferris ended up quickly restrained, suspended inches above the floor of the chamber by her bound arms.
She had
at most an inch of give in any direction, but if she tapped strength and weight-
Ferris couldn't feel her metal-minds.
She felt the metal jewelry on her skin, but
she couldn't feel her metal-minds.
"Twa-?" she gasped in shock.
The taps had slipped away from her in a way that- It had almost felt like tapping a metal-mind as it was removed from skin contact.
"Motherbox!" she yelped despite the gas, because without a cadmium-mind she could not hold her breath indefi-
*
crzzzzaaapp!*
<Protection and Preservation of Companion! Priority! Unit is redirecting electrical energy and prohibiting nanite interference. >
"Mm?" Ferris hummed, unwilling to spend much more breath. She was just, almost, beginning to absolutely panic as her limbs tingled.
She knew that
things were falling apart, that this was the worst sort of trouble, and now
it didn't matter all the precautions she-
She had to stay calm. Panic was the mind-killer. She was
going to die eventually, but she wasn't dead yet.
A beep informed her that the air was safe to breathe, and she slowly exhaled before refilling her lungs.
Her limbs tingled from
something, and her bonds were tight.
With several more sets of distracted beeps, Motherbox spelled out the situation:
Motherbox could still generate the pre-prepared, one-shot emergency Boom Tube to New Genesis that ate much of her processing power, but Ferris couldn't even fall through it due to gravity while she was suspended this way, much less walk through with the restrictive bindings in place.
Motherbox would ordinarily be able to deactivate or deteriorate these bindings, but not only was each coil attempting to send an electrical discharge of differing and changing severity through her body, there were also nanites swarming the chamber, attempting to enter her body.
Motherbox was thus using most of her available processing to keep Ferris alive and unmanned despite the electricity and the invasion, and Ferris would be unlikely to remain functional long enough to escape if Motherbox ceased those processes for the attempt to remove the bindings.
Motherbox could still maintain some communications, and was sending out an emergency distress signal, but all they could do was wait.
"Rusts, rusts, rusts!" Ferris almost told Motherbox to
let the damn trap kill her and finish it, but if she was needed to help her friends… "Is this-?"
Motherbox assured her that this did not bear the signs of Apokolips in its technology, so Ferris should be safe on that end.
All thing considered, the device being of Earth origin was not enough to comfort her.
Ferris grit her teeth, struggled the bit that she could manage, and finally dared to breathe in.
Whatever the mist had been, it wasn't knockout gas, so she could keep functioning for the moment.
Motherbox advised to wait and trust for rescue from her friends unless the situation changed. Advised her to trust, and have faith.
Ferris, feeling the tingling that would have been borderline lethal electrical charges flowing through her, knew there was another option.
With all the world out of control around her, and all the destruction she had seen, Anti-Life pulsed again inside her soul.
Calling.
Things Fall Apart, The Center Cannot Hold
Crooning.
Everyone Dies Eventually
Offering.
In Time, We All Fall To Ruin
Tempting.
It knew her, and it was her, and it was not alone. In the small, dark chamber, there was no other world but her self.
Ferris stared back at herself through a dark mirror, and knew not which was the reflection. Which was Renka? Was it safe to blink?
She let her eyes close. She focused. She tried to think.
{Failure > Judgment}
That was how it would manifest, Ferris knew. The more solid a stone, the smaller a chink needed to shatter it, at the right angle.
Mere mortals could neither know nor control the world around them, in the end. All existence continued on without their awareness, but it did so without each other piece being aware of them, either.
She tried to
think.
{Failure > Judgment}
Beings had fought and died, bled and pled, suffered and hoped and laughed and raged, and none knew their names any longer.
If she slid her thinking around, she might have even more of it; her feelings on the essence of love had almost slipped out, once or twice. That, however, had supposedly been because it was an idea she had not fully comprehended, though she conceived of it.
But to use it… That would have
consequences.
{Failure > Judgment}
What they would be, she did not yet know. Even Motherbox could not perfectly predict the effects of invoking Anti-Life deliberately.
Perhaps she would be unchanged. Perhaps she would be insane.
Perhaps it would simply get easier.
Perhaps the only consequences would be those she wanted: convincing matter that it had spent much of its existence apart, and that it would spend the rest of its existence thusly, and as such its present state was an illusion, so it should reassume its separation.
She would be free, then.
{Failure > Judgment}
It wouldn't even really hurt anything, Ferris reasoned desperately, and it would be safer for her as well. Using it on a person was one thing: if you swung a baseball bat at someone's skull, they could put their arms up and brace for it.
Even though it would hit, the blow wouldn't be what it could have been.
If you swung a baseball bat at a vase, however, it would shatter. It couldn't defend itself; it wasn't even alive to be an 'itself' or express any opinions about whether it preferred to be broken or whole. It wouldn't suffer.
{Failure > Judgment}
Unless it had some cognitive aspect in its existence, of course. Ferris felt, in the corner of her head, that she shouldn't ignore that.
{Failure > Judgment}
Ultimately, she probably couldn't know until she tried. Perhaps without any identity to tap, she wouldn't be able to fuel the effect.
Perhaps she would destroy herself as well, being not in control of her own body while at the center of the affected area.
Perhaps it would work perfectly, and she would have another, easier tool to use in the future.
{Failure > Judgment}
Ferrs grit her teeth, held her tongue, and waited for rescue.
But she would not wait forever, because after a point her captivity could only mean that they were waiting on her as well.
{Failure > Judgment}
She would count carefully, in her head, Ferris decided; if she reached 2^10 without rescue she would be freed, one way or another.
She hoped that this middle path would not see her too late to save them, and that it was wrong to fear for them that way.
Then, based on how her day had thus far progressed, she began to plan what she would do if her fears came true.
