Broovian
The Patriarch of Oblivion and all it contains.
- Location
- The cesspool of New York and Loving it!
I assume it'll be like, I'm immune to Pepsi, not Coke, even if they're more or less the same thing.
Project: Gamer Ver. 2 (Young Justice/Gamer/Multicross OC)
- Thread starter Mister Ficser
- Start date
It depends on the effect Darkseid is attempting to use them for.
Though, regardless, getting hit with them would still really, really hurt.
- Location
- Brazil
True, one of the main effects of those beams seems to be suffering, everything else is just a byproduct of the sheer amount of suffering and despair that shit induces.
Lycanthromancer
The Arcane Fuzz
- Location
- USA
Alchemist: "Bitch, I've talked my own id into suicide in under a minute, and I've spent most of two lives enduring more suffering than you ever could. I mean, have you ever experienced Corporate America as a blue collar worker?" *Uses telepathy to share memories of dealing with corporate bureaucracy bullshit.*
Darkseid: "...Fuck. That's it; everyone, pack it up. We're going home."
Steppenwolf: "My lord?"
Darkseid: "There is no amount of suffering we could inflict that is comparable to what they do to themselves, and I don't want to spend eternity dealing with any of that."
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Alright so genuine question, I just got back to the story after like a year. Just saw a response from Mister Ficser about him have two romantic interest being Kary and Jinx.
Could anyone explain to me why this ok with Jinx in particular?. I understand Al is not the most mentally stable and she is one of the closest people he knows.Did he talk about this?. Shut it down or this is going with aha she is a dragon now so a few centuries down the line its fine ?.
No hatred. Just inquiring since my memory of the story is spotty
Could anyone explain to me why this ok with Jinx in particular?. I understand Al is not the most mentally stable and she is one of the closest people he knows.Did he talk about this?. Shut it down or this is going with aha she is a dragon now so a few centuries down the line its fine ?.
No hatred. Just inquiring since my memory of the story is spotty
I don't think Al has realised Jinx has those feelings for him what I can say though is both she and Kary seem to be ok with sharing and Jinx waiting until she's older before making a move since she's so young especially since her primary race is a dragon now.
Lycanthromancer
The Arcane Fuzz
- Location
- USA
Also, since Jinx is a dragon now, and dragons have a VERY long life-cycle, her dragon biology is basically still very much prepubescent, so she's no longer considered biologically adolescent, and her feelings have changed from "romantic attraction" to "seeking attention and affection from a safe parental figure."
And she has to look forward to dozens, if not a few hundred, years of dragon puberty. Yaaaaay.
You're fine.
Al hasn't been actively pursuing any romantic relationships because he's got a lot on his plate. He's never codified his relationship with Jinx, simply accepting it for whatever it is. If pressed about it now, he would not be willing to engage in a relationship of that nature with her because he's significantly older and, to his morals, that would be a form of abuse as he can leverage his greater experience and 'maturity' to remain in a position of power in the relationship.
He probably wouldn't but that's the line of thinking that's been pushed in the modern world.
Kary was very open with her interest and he's willing to put in the effort to respond to her. The demon has also told Jinx that she might be willing to include her once the girl has matured because they have a very, very long future to look forward to and that straightforward monogamy just doesn't work on that kind of time scale. Al was not present for that discussion and has not been made aware of it.
Jinx, through a combination of factors, developed feelings for Al. In part due to proximity, in part due to what he's able to offer but mostly because he makes her feel important, safe, and offers her attention with no demand of recompense. While the nature of her emotions has shifted to something closer to familial her formerly human mentality still has various desires and hangups that would make a more intimate relationship desirable.
In short, it's complicated.
Alexander Snow
Mad Artificer
What about the succubus that Al kidnapped way, way, back didn't she call dibs?
Lycanthromancer
The Arcane Fuzz
- Location
- USA
Dibs. On death.
IAmNotAlpharius
Not Omegan either
Oh yeah I forgot about her, didn't she end up with the Amazons or something? Kinda surprised we didn't see her when Alchemist visited Hephaestus
Jinx: "Kary, may I please borrow Alchemist for a non-romantic Homecoming Dance*?"
Al: "Why are you asking her and not me?"
Jinx: "Because she's the one who decides what you can and cannot do, duh!"
Kary: (nods in approval) "I see you are wise beyond your years."
Al: "I thought you hated school. Why go to homecoming?"
Jinx:
"Petty spite."Kary: (more nods of approval) "Permission granted. Go with my blessings, young dragoness."
Al: (rolls eyes)
Alright great so who is the new character apar5 of the Team ?. She almost called Tigress, mother and I think that's about all my questions.
- Location
- Poland
Shrike? Thats Artemis. Her motyer vetoed having cape name be the same as her birth one.
I think.
I remember a while back you were saying that won't be explored within this story since its essentially just a part of Al journey or life for that matter. Which I thought was really interesting letting a character just leaving vertain things for the future
- Location
- Earth, 3rd rock from the Sun
Would like to note that this is "not meant for dedicated combat against equivalent tech stellar civilizations"
The runabouts were from Star Trek: DS9, and though they were the space ship equivalent of 'Red Shirts' still came with all the iconic Federation spaceship tech, including holodecks, replicators, force fields, phasers, teleporters, and even photon torpedoes IIRC.
And that when you get into starships scale things, that almost has to mean incredibly deadly in planetary terms, merely from the power requirements alone, and even without using tricks like "launch it at a planet at relativistic velocities" that cheap runabout should be at least as powerful as the best conventional warship DC Earth has available.
Do you think the ST ship came with a full memory mcguffin of science and safety manuals or did it just come blank?
- Location
- Earth, 3rd rock from the Sun
From what I remember, the small ships just don't have the memory storage the full size ships like the Enterprise would, so a 'full' database just isn't in the cards.
But I would expect it to have all the relevant 'paperwork' for all the tech on the ship itself, as well as all the common modules (the runabouts were modular ships, holding 4 small room modules, 1 large room aft module, and a overhead 'rollbar' module that could be swapped in and out for specific mission needs.)
But a lot of the available data space would probably be to hold relevant mission data, and crew/passengers work and personal entertainment files. Which would unfilled.
So I'd say it would probably have the technical specs and troubleshooting / repair manual for the smallish sized Holodeck that fit the runabout, but not all that many holodeck programs itself, since those would mostly be part of the members personal files. But it would have some, like how even a new install of Windows XP had minesweeper, free cell, and some rather visually fetching wallpaper packaged in.
Same for the other systems.
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Considering that photon torpedoes carry antimatter warheads, and that phasers are precise enough to perform orbital riot suppression, this is likely a severe understatement.
- Pronouns
- he/him/his
I think this needs to be addressed. How could Al possibly not succeed at casting Plant Growth? Was he trying to figure it out without reading the spell scroll or something?
Lycanthromancer
The Arcane Fuzz
- Location
- USA
It's probably because he hasn't actually tried. He's very, very busy, and it's not important enough for him to take the time to focus on it.
He can always cast it via wish, after all.
Chapter 225
Project: Gamer Ver. 2 Alpha Build 2.2.5
Disclaimer Me Do: I own nothing you recognize. And most of what you don't recognize, I still don't own.
_________________________________________________________________________
-October 31, 2010
Zatanna felt incredibly nervous as she stepped through the Zeta Terminal by herself, her father remaining behind in Gotham to help deal with the seasonal upsurge in natural magics that would be going wild tonight.
There had been a multitude of reasons that Giovanni had allowed her to join the team at so fortuitous a time. Luck and coincidence, however, were not included among them.
"Hey! Zatanna!" One of the junior heroes called. The young mage recognized the girl immediately, her blond ponytail was unique among the team, meaning the vampiress had to be Shrike. "Glad we could get another normal girl here. Player One and I have been arguing with Power Girl and Miss Martian about dating team members- Totally a bad idea, right?"
"Uhh... I guess?" Zatanna really wasn't sure how to answer that, actually. And looking at the various other members of the team that were spread throughout the room, they didn't know how to answer the question themselves.
Robin just looked uncomfortable. Which, yeah, it could've been caused by the being one of the youngest people in the room. Or it could've been caused by the rumors that were spreading in the Gotham newspaper about a fox woman getting into a fight with a cat woman over a bat man.
Superboy wasn't exactly emoting. The boy was just sitting to the side, wearing a few rolls of bandages as though it were a costume.
Kid Flash, the loudmouth from what she'd seen a few times, wasn't commenting. Something Zatanna doubted had much to do with his werewolf costume.
Which was wearing a high school blazer jacket?
"Look, I'm just saying that it makes sense!" Miss Martian, wearing a bridal dress and glamoured to look like a zombie- A very realistic zombie, Zatanna noted. She even had a few meaty chunks removed from her extremities that revealed bone and muscle underneath- argued back. "You can learn how someone handles difficult situations, you can learn who they really are before you make any important choices!"
"And I'm saying that it makes that relationship into everyone else's business!" Shrike argued back, her frown marred by the plastic fangs sticking out of her mouth.
"Uh, well..." Zatanna reached up to adjust her witch hat as the two kept arguing. She didn't know what started it, she didn't know who was on which side and she really didn't know where she stood on the issue.
"Well Superboy and I have been dating for a month!" Miss Martian shouted, silencing whatever argument Shrike was in the middle of. "And it's been fine! We're not- not making out in front of everybody! Or letting it get in the way of our jobs!"
"I can't believe this!" But it seemed as though whatever point Miss Martian was trying to make didn't really go over well. "We're supposed to be training to be professionals! Not, not- I can't believe this is what I'm supposed to work with!"
That... Seemed especially harsh. At least, it did for Zatanna.
The young mage stepped to the side as Shrike stormed past, the little cape on her costume billowing dramatically.
"Come on," Shrike demanded grabbing at Zatanna's arm as she shoved her way into the Zeta terminal and began to dramatically punch in a set of coordinates. "I can't deal with this- with them right now."
Zatanna only had a brief chance to look behind her, to see Player One approaching them, 'dressed' up in an outfit that was basically just a few pieces of furry cloth, way too much green makeup, fangs and a fake pair of elf ears but the girl was cut off by the door of the terminal sealing as it activated and opened a tunnel to another location.
"So... What was that all about?" Zatanna asked as she followed Shrike to wherever the archer had decided to send them. "'Cuz that? That sounded like some history."
"...Sorry," Shrike sighed, pressing one palm up against her eyes. "It... That's how my parents met. My father is Sportsmaster, alright?"
"Oh," Zatanna didn't know what to say about that. She was finally starting to figure it out when they exited through the receiving terminal into an alley that stank of urine. The young teen nearly gagged before getting herself under control. "I guess that was pretty rough?"
"One of my final 'tests' that my father put me through involved subduing a pedophile that had paid my father to have some fun with me," Shrike admitted, not a drop of shame in her voice. "It was incredibly 'rough'."
Lacking any good answer for that incredibly candid admission, Zatanna chose to focus on something that was more immediately relevant. "Where did you bring us, anyway?"
"New York," Shrike sighed angrily, loudly venting her frustration. "I... Sorry. I need to vent, I need to do something productive. I figured, y'know, going on a patrol, getting some fresh air, it might help out."
"You wanted fresh air," Zatanna understood most of what Shrike was saying. "And you came to New York. The city that can be smelled for miles before you even see it."
But only most.
"Alright, fine," Shrike shrugged and, if Zatanna could see her face, she'd bet the older girl was rolling her eyes, too. "I wanted to do what they're training us to do. Catch some bad guys and send them packing. Make the world better, do something I can actually feel good about."
"Huh," Shrike finally said something that Zatanna could agree with. The timing was terrible, the obvious trauma that caused the blow-up definitely needed some seeing to but at least the older girl was trying to channel it somewhere productive.
Good for her.
"Noissim emit, noissim raeg!" Zatanna intoned graveley, conjuring a brilliant light that circled around Shrike and herself, changing their costumes into the gear they'd set up for missions in the field.
Shrike's outfit shifted, changing from a classic vampire into a catsuit lined with kevlar. The spell even managed to summon the girl's bow and a quiver of arrows.
Zatanna's outfit, a very practical witch costume with red and black striped leggings, shifted and remolded itself into a suit-patterned leotard with a very abrupt jacket that covered her arms and little else.
"That's... What you're going to wear?" Shrike asked once the lightshow finally faded. "Seriously?"
"Cheh, yeah," Zatanna answered, sarcasm thick in her voice. She'd already had the same argument with her father. "It's the traditional outfit for lady magicians. At least in Vegas."
And it was based off of an outfit that her mom used to wear, back when she'd been alive and assisting her dad in Vegas.
"Fine, whatever 'Wiz Kid'," Shrike shrugged and headed for the mouth of the alleyway. "Don't suppose you can magic us up a motorcycle, could you?"
"Try asking for something difficult!" Zatanna shouted, running after the taller girl.
She was determined to make the best of the night, regardless of her company or her attitude.
Unfortunately, in her haste she completely missed the shadowed figure that lingered overhead, watching and listening.
-----
For the last day before his vacation started, Alchemist had far, far too much to do.
Bilocation was getting even more of a workout as one of him, in full dragon form, was happily chaperoning Yuffie and Yorshka through Metropolis for Halloween.
His ward had decided on a costume which involved a pink wig with a blue headband that had a metal plate in the middle with a stylized leaf, a red Chinese dress with a big, hollow white circle on the back and (thankfully) a pair of shorts.
Yorshka, sweetheart that she was, didn't quite grasp the concept of dressing up as someone or something else. They eventually managed to reach compromise with something very traditional.
A white sheet with a pair of eye-holes cut out for her. Her tail was lifted out the back, arching the costume awkwardly.
Alchemist was taking pictures. A lot of them.
The second Alchemist was dealing with something far less pleasant.
"Why are you in my house!?" Such as Bruce Wayne. The second Alchemist had made sure, through Scrying, that the man was alone. Or at least that there weren't any strangers in the building that weren't already aware of his alternate identity.
"I told you that we have something important to do tonight. Something I would -only- do tonight," Alchemist calmly explained.
The duo were in a large sitting room, bookcases lined one of the walls and there was a fireplace set in between them that was currently unlit.
"That's not- I thought we'd be in the mountain- How did you even get in?!" Bruce couldn't quite seem to decide on which question was more important.
"Well, I thought about ringing the doorbell and stripping down," Alchemist explained, pausing briefly to accept a small cup of tea from Alfred.
The butler hadn't so much as flinched at the wizard's unexpected and unannounced arrival.
"But let's be honest. You and I both know I couldn't pull that off the same way Selina did," Alchemist took a sip of the steaming tea as he waited for Bruce to process that statement.
As always, the mage found the drink to be bitter and awful.
"...What are you even going to do?" Bruce placed a hand against his forehead, physically trying to reject the headache that was forming. "You know I can't just stay in tonight. The various factions throughout the city will be at their worst!"
"I can deal with that. Nobody will like it, but that's a tomorrow problem," Alchemist wouldn't even need to leave the manor. "So, where's Richard?"
"Out," Bruce answered shortly, his glare fixed firmly on Alchemist's face.
Unfortunately for Bruce, the greater portion of Alchemist's focus was currently occupied in congratulating Yorshka on finding a house that was giving out full-size candy bars.
And trying to keep Yuffie from stealing more than her fair share.
"So go get him," the wizard ordered before taking another bracing sip of his tea. "I'll be casting my spell at sundown and it'll be canceled at dawn's first light. He can either be involved or not but I doubt he'll want to miss this."
"...What even is this?" Bruce asked as he headed towards the door. "You haven't explained anything, just made some ominous statements and broke into my home!"
"Brucie, buddy, bro. If I've been keeping something a secret, there's a reason for it. It's something you need to see, something your son needs to see but, if this got out?" Alchemist finished his tea with a grimace and set the empty cup on one of the small tables situated next to the plush, straight-backed chairs. "It could be just as devastating as Meteor but for some very different reasons."
"...I see," and the dark knight's demeanor shifted in an instant. The affront he'd worn moments earlier was gone, replaced with a calculating, considering gaze. "You could have tried telling me this. You know that, right?"
"There are some things I don't trust to say on anything that could be compromised," Alchemist disagreed before stepping to the side so that Alfred could get around him to get to his empty tea cup. "This is one of them."
"Understood," Batman said before storming out the door, slamming it behind him.
Alchemist shook his head and rolled his eyes at the scene.
The man was such a drama queen.
"...So, Alfred," Alchemist probably had a good hour before Bruce returned, possibly more. "How've things been?"
"Oh, just wonderful, sir," The dapper English gentleman answered. The man hadn't so much as raised an eyebrow during the entire conversation. "Though I do find the manor to be rather empty as of late."
"Ah, Richard's getting older, huh?" Alchemist followed the man out of the parlor and towards the kitchens.
It was easy, sometimes, to forget that Alfred had been the one who primarily raised Bruce after his parents' untimely demise. Alchemist couldn't imagine how the man must have felt when Bruce departed to parts unknown, on some half-cocked training journey that had turned him into who he was.
"Indeed. The young master is growing into a fine young man."
Alchemist hummed in agreement. The boy had a strong sense of justice, one that needed to be tempered by his own experiences away from Bruce.
"I hope you don't mind, but I do think I'll need to impose on you, Alfred," Alchemist didn't exactly want to, no, but he wasn't able to be everywhere at once. And there were several potential risks with the gamble he'd be working on once the sun set.
"Provided it is within my abilities, sir, I would be delighted to assist you. Truly," Alfred delivered his line at a flat deadpan. The man was quite clear, in a polite way, of his opinion on being asked strange questions by a strange mage.
"...Fair enough," Alchemist wasn't sure if Alfred was actually willing or if the butler was just humoring him. Pressing forward, the mage chose to act as though Alfred had agreed.
Opening the Game Shop, ignoring the half-lidded gaze that belied a pair of incredibly sharp eyes, Alchemist quickly typed in what he wanted and clicked purchase, then did so again for one more, perhaps even more critical object.
"I didn't want to give this to you while Bruce was here. I know he has an issue with them," Alchemist explained as he extracted a heavy, automatic 12 gauge shotgun from his inventory.
A Pancor Jackhammer, purchased from the world of Fallout.
And following it was several boxes of shotgun shells loaded with salt.
Alfred's eyes had opened fully, taking in the details of the gun and the markings that clearly indicated the ammunition was the less-lethal rock salt variety.
"Ideally, you won't need this," Alchemist handed the weapon over to Alfred, the butler's hands working over the device as though he'd owned it for years.
Bruce might have a problem with guns. Alfred suffered no such qualms.
"But we don't live in an ideal world, do we sir?" Alfred's question was rhetorical, he clearly was not expecting an answer. Instead the man had removed the magazine from the gun and was already busying himself with filling the drum. "What, exactly, are you intending on doing tonight?"
"Technically?" Alchemist wanted things to be a surprise for Bruce, provided everything went well. Alfred, however, would be the surprise for anything that might try to tag along. "It's not necromancy... But it's close enough."
-----
Bruce couldn't quite put a pin in it but he could feel there was something in the air as night descended on Halloween.
He'd made an appearance at Mount Justice to personally get Dick. His young ward had been dressed as an old school 'Greaser', complete with a pompadour. He'd noticed a tension among the team, two people were noticeably absent but he didn't have the time to soothe the hurt egos of a bunch of teenagers.
Driving back through Gotham after retrieving his son, Bruce had time to think.
"Did Alchemist even tell you what he was doing?" And it gave him a chance to sit down and talk with Dick. "'Cuz this seems a bit much for how he normally acts. I kind of thought I had some time to spend with everyone else, not..."
"He was insistent on needing utmost secrecy," Bruce explained, his eyes on the horizon as the sun began to set. He could feel a growing sense of unease as the omnipresent clouds over the city began to break apart. "If he says something is dangerous, I've grown to trust him."
"...Really?" Dick asked. The young man didn't sound like he believed Bruce at all.
"At least enough to check out his concerns," Bruce explained as they left the city limits. "He hasn't always been right and he's certainly made some questionable decisions but he has consistently tried to do right by us."
"...I'm just more surprised that you would admit to trusting anyone." Dick leaned to the side, his eyes idly taking in the distant Hunter manor that would technically be their neighbors.
"Hah," Bruce drolled. "Hah."
The rest of the trip was made in a pleasant silence. The only odd thing to disrupt it being a quartet of shadows flying overhead.
Towards Gotham.
They were especially large shadows, even accounting for height.
Still, nothing seemed to be happening and the radio, tuned to Gotham's local news, wasn't going crazy over anything.
Getting back home, Bruce and Dick were greeted at the door by Alfred. The proper English gentleman offered them a standard greeting and nothing seemed to be amiss. A good sign, hopefully.
Alchemist had returned to the parlor, a large mug of something steaming in his hand.
And he wasn't alone.
Seated near him was a woman. She had wild black hair and a few bangles and charms on her person. Most noticeable by far was the ankh charm around her neck. She was someone that Bruce knew he'd seen before but he couldn't quite place, some small part of his mind screaming that she was Dangerous. More so than Alchemist, more than Clark but... She also didn't set off any sense of urgency or anxiety.
As though he'd seen her before.
As though he already knew her.
She was holding a mug of her own and seemed to be enjoying the contents as the two of them sat in front of the fireplace, a ghostly flame burning within that gave off a cold light and consumed no wood.
"Welcome back," Alchemist called as he set his mug down on the end table and stood up, drawing Bruce's attention.
The Wayne scion shook his head, focusing away from the strange flame and back to Alchemist. Of the three people in the room, he was the one that didn't belong, that stood out.
"We're here," Batman stated, placing one hand on Robin's shoulder. "Now, what was the point of all this?"
"Come on, I'll show you," Alchemist told him as he led the two back out of the parlor, through the halls and into the east entrance hall. The man breathed in deeply and raised one hand up, above his head before he-
Snapped his fingers.
The lights along the walls dimmed, the sunlight visible through the grand doors faded and shadows around the room grew long. Eyes gazed upon them from within the blackness-
"Begone!" Alchemist demanded, his fists clenched and fury in his voice. "I shall brook no Grudge! I shall accept no party of Madness encroaching upon this home!"
Chattering teeth gnashed and screamed wordlessly from the edges of the house, crying for something in languages that Bruce couldn't understand, from rooms filled with abandoned memories, forgotten stories.
Dick grabbed on to Bruce's arm as a thick, heavy pall fell on them. Bruce himself called upon one of the spells he'd learned from the strange Asterisk jewel around his neck, his fists glowing with Holy Light.
Something great and dark, reeking of fetid water reached out towards them from beneath the doors that led outside-
Before, with an earsplitting 'Boom!', Alfred blasted them away with a massive shotgun. A model that Bruce didn't recognize. The assault left the doors pitted, though with what Bruce couldn't say.
"Could you have waited for another moment, sir?" Alfred asked, holding the weapon at the ready as he sidled up on the opposite side of Dick. "I can only be in one place at a time."
"I've got a fairly narrow window," Alchemist countered, snapping his fingers a second time and filling the room with brilliant white light, casting out the shadows. "How about hiring an exorcist some time? Alan Wayne should not have been here."
With another deep inhale, audibly angry this time, Alchemist raised his hand once more and snapped his fingers.
Unlike last time, there were no creeping shadows trying to sneak in. No whispers of madness at the edges of Bruce's hearing.
"Here and now, I offer my own strength. Here and now, I bridge the path. Here and now, I call upon you," Alchemist chanted. A quartet of sigils formed upon the floor before opening wide. "For this night, and this night alone, I bear the burden of restoring you to form. I call upon you, parents taken before your time, you who left behind a wake of grief and loss-"
Bruce grabbed on to Dick's arm, clutching the younger boy to him with a grip that could bend iron as he saw four people begin to rise from the portals Alchemist had created. Four people that were exactly as he remembered them.
Bullet holes and broken pearls, blood staining gravel and- and- and-
"My word..." Alfred's voice was nearly silent as two men and two women were recalled from the grave, their bodies broken and twisted still in the moment of their death.
"-return once more to the land of the living, upon this night. Sup upon the life I freely offer and be restored!" There was a brief hitch in Alchemist's voice, enough so to draw Bruce's attention away from the grim, grisly spectacle to look to the man. The wizard was clutching at his chest with one hand but remained unbowed, forcing himself to continue. "From Dusk you wake until upon Dawn you shall sleep. Rejoin the living, Thomas Wayne, Martha Wayne, John Grayson and Mary Grayson!"
There was no flash of light nor any sudden shift. From one moment to the next, Bruce's parents went from a snapshot of their death to fully restored. The bullet holes, the bloodstains were gone! The broken pearls of his mother's necklace were all in place.
Bruce stumbled forward, one hand reaching out desperately towards the people that he'd dreamed about, to the people he'd remembered so vividly from that one night-
But Dick passed him, running forward to latch his arms around the woman who Bruce remembered as dying from a great fall, her neck and body twisted.
"Mom!" Dick cried, the sudden shock seemed to wake the woman up, her glassy eyes sharpening into immediate focus. Mary Grayson looked down to her child, tears building at the edges of her eyes as she wrapped her arms around him as well. "Mom..."
"Oh, Dickie Bird..." The woman's voice held an ethereal tone, echoing from someplace just a bit too far away but her arms were all too real as she held on to her crying son. "My baby boy. My brave, wonderful little bird..."
The other man, Dick's biological father joined in on the hug. On the crying.
Bruce didn't know what to feel. How to feel.
"Son." But his own father's voice jerked him out of his stupor and confusion. Thomas Wayne put a hand upon Bruce's shoulder before changing his mind and wrapping the man in a great bear hug. "Bruce. I'm sorry, Bruce. I'm so, so sorry..."
Bruce awkwardly returned the hug, his eyes burning and his vision blurring.
"Might- Might I suggest we retire to the drawing room?" Alfred asked, the first to regain his composure. "I feel that this may well be a rather long night."
"Of course! Yes, that sounds lovely!" Martha was quick to agree, placing one hand upon Bruce's shoulder as she stepped around him to stand in front of Alfred. "I don't suppose we still have my favorite tea, do we, Alfred? It's been a very long time and they simply cannot make a good cup on the other side."
"I believe we have some, ma'am. I'll bring some tea and biscuits to the drawing room shortly."
Bruce heard two pairs of feet walking away but couldn't turn to see who was leaving.
"Come along, all of you," Martha's voice cut through the overwhelming haze in Bruce's mind, drawing his focus on to her. "We're guests for the night, let's not make this too difficult for our hosts."
That... that was right. They could only linger for a single night.
Bruce felt overwhelmed at the enormity of it, as well as no small degree of panic.
How was he supposed to fit so much, tell them all so many things in the span of a single night!?
The dark knight swallowed heavily as he was led out of the room, his son and the Graysons behind him.
Still, a distant part of his mind was stuck wondering about a few different things...
Appreciation for the fact that Alchemist had not been understating the sheer risk of this ability, at all.
And what business did Alan Wayne have left upon the mortal plane?
AN/ The Pancor Jackhammer
Disclaimer Me Do: I own nothing you recognize. And most of what you don't recognize, I still don't own.
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-October 31, 2010
Zatanna felt incredibly nervous as she stepped through the Zeta Terminal by herself, her father remaining behind in Gotham to help deal with the seasonal upsurge in natural magics that would be going wild tonight.
There had been a multitude of reasons that Giovanni had allowed her to join the team at so fortuitous a time. Luck and coincidence, however, were not included among them.
"Hey! Zatanna!" One of the junior heroes called. The young mage recognized the girl immediately, her blond ponytail was unique among the team, meaning the vampiress had to be Shrike. "Glad we could get another normal girl here. Player One and I have been arguing with Power Girl and Miss Martian about dating team members- Totally a bad idea, right?"
"Uhh... I guess?" Zatanna really wasn't sure how to answer that, actually. And looking at the various other members of the team that were spread throughout the room, they didn't know how to answer the question themselves.
Robin just looked uncomfortable. Which, yeah, it could've been caused by the being one of the youngest people in the room. Or it could've been caused by the rumors that were spreading in the Gotham newspaper about a fox woman getting into a fight with a cat woman over a bat man.
Superboy wasn't exactly emoting. The boy was just sitting to the side, wearing a few rolls of bandages as though it were a costume.
Kid Flash, the loudmouth from what she'd seen a few times, wasn't commenting. Something Zatanna doubted had much to do with his werewolf costume.
Which was wearing a high school blazer jacket?
"Look, I'm just saying that it makes sense!" Miss Martian, wearing a bridal dress and glamoured to look like a zombie- A very realistic zombie, Zatanna noted. She even had a few meaty chunks removed from her extremities that revealed bone and muscle underneath- argued back. "You can learn how someone handles difficult situations, you can learn who they really are before you make any important choices!"
"And I'm saying that it makes that relationship into everyone else's business!" Shrike argued back, her frown marred by the plastic fangs sticking out of her mouth.
"Uh, well..." Zatanna reached up to adjust her witch hat as the two kept arguing. She didn't know what started it, she didn't know who was on which side and she really didn't know where she stood on the issue.
"Well Superboy and I have been dating for a month!" Miss Martian shouted, silencing whatever argument Shrike was in the middle of. "And it's been fine! We're not- not making out in front of everybody! Or letting it get in the way of our jobs!"
"I can't believe this!" But it seemed as though whatever point Miss Martian was trying to make didn't really go over well. "We're supposed to be training to be professionals! Not, not- I can't believe this is what I'm supposed to work with!"
That... Seemed especially harsh. At least, it did for Zatanna.
The young mage stepped to the side as Shrike stormed past, the little cape on her costume billowing dramatically.
"Come on," Shrike demanded grabbing at Zatanna's arm as she shoved her way into the Zeta terminal and began to dramatically punch in a set of coordinates. "I can't deal with this- with them right now."
Zatanna only had a brief chance to look behind her, to see Player One approaching them, 'dressed' up in an outfit that was basically just a few pieces of furry cloth, way too much green makeup, fangs and a fake pair of elf ears but the girl was cut off by the door of the terminal sealing as it activated and opened a tunnel to another location.
"So... What was that all about?" Zatanna asked as she followed Shrike to wherever the archer had decided to send them. "'Cuz that? That sounded like some history."
"...Sorry," Shrike sighed, pressing one palm up against her eyes. "It... That's how my parents met. My father is Sportsmaster, alright?"
"Oh," Zatanna didn't know what to say about that. She was finally starting to figure it out when they exited through the receiving terminal into an alley that stank of urine. The young teen nearly gagged before getting herself under control. "I guess that was pretty rough?"
"One of my final 'tests' that my father put me through involved subduing a pedophile that had paid my father to have some fun with me," Shrike admitted, not a drop of shame in her voice. "It was incredibly 'rough'."
Lacking any good answer for that incredibly candid admission, Zatanna chose to focus on something that was more immediately relevant. "Where did you bring us, anyway?"
"New York," Shrike sighed angrily, loudly venting her frustration. "I... Sorry. I need to vent, I need to do something productive. I figured, y'know, going on a patrol, getting some fresh air, it might help out."
"You wanted fresh air," Zatanna understood most of what Shrike was saying. "And you came to New York. The city that can be smelled for miles before you even see it."
But only most.
"Alright, fine," Shrike shrugged and, if Zatanna could see her face, she'd bet the older girl was rolling her eyes, too. "I wanted to do what they're training us to do. Catch some bad guys and send them packing. Make the world better, do something I can actually feel good about."
"Huh," Shrike finally said something that Zatanna could agree with. The timing was terrible, the obvious trauma that caused the blow-up definitely needed some seeing to but at least the older girl was trying to channel it somewhere productive.
Good for her.
"Noissim emit, noissim raeg!" Zatanna intoned graveley, conjuring a brilliant light that circled around Shrike and herself, changing their costumes into the gear they'd set up for missions in the field.
Shrike's outfit shifted, changing from a classic vampire into a catsuit lined with kevlar. The spell even managed to summon the girl's bow and a quiver of arrows.
Zatanna's outfit, a very practical witch costume with red and black striped leggings, shifted and remolded itself into a suit-patterned leotard with a very abrupt jacket that covered her arms and little else.
"That's... What you're going to wear?" Shrike asked once the lightshow finally faded. "Seriously?"
"Cheh, yeah," Zatanna answered, sarcasm thick in her voice. She'd already had the same argument with her father. "It's the traditional outfit for lady magicians. At least in Vegas."
And it was based off of an outfit that her mom used to wear, back when she'd been alive and assisting her dad in Vegas.
"Fine, whatever 'Wiz Kid'," Shrike shrugged and headed for the mouth of the alleyway. "Don't suppose you can magic us up a motorcycle, could you?"
"Try asking for something difficult!" Zatanna shouted, running after the taller girl.
She was determined to make the best of the night, regardless of her company or her attitude.
Unfortunately, in her haste she completely missed the shadowed figure that lingered overhead, watching and listening.
-----
For the last day before his vacation started, Alchemist had far, far too much to do.
Bilocation was getting even more of a workout as one of him, in full dragon form, was happily chaperoning Yuffie and Yorshka through Metropolis for Halloween.
His ward had decided on a costume which involved a pink wig with a blue headband that had a metal plate in the middle with a stylized leaf, a red Chinese dress with a big, hollow white circle on the back and (thankfully) a pair of shorts.
Yorshka, sweetheart that she was, didn't quite grasp the concept of dressing up as someone or something else. They eventually managed to reach compromise with something very traditional.
A white sheet with a pair of eye-holes cut out for her. Her tail was lifted out the back, arching the costume awkwardly.
Alchemist was taking pictures. A lot of them.
The second Alchemist was dealing with something far less pleasant.
"Why are you in my house!?" Such as Bruce Wayne. The second Alchemist had made sure, through Scrying, that the man was alone. Or at least that there weren't any strangers in the building that weren't already aware of his alternate identity.
"I told you that we have something important to do tonight. Something I would -only- do tonight," Alchemist calmly explained.
The duo were in a large sitting room, bookcases lined one of the walls and there was a fireplace set in between them that was currently unlit.
"That's not- I thought we'd be in the mountain- How did you even get in?!" Bruce couldn't quite seem to decide on which question was more important.
"Well, I thought about ringing the doorbell and stripping down," Alchemist explained, pausing briefly to accept a small cup of tea from Alfred.
The butler hadn't so much as flinched at the wizard's unexpected and unannounced arrival.
"But let's be honest. You and I both know I couldn't pull that off the same way Selina did," Alchemist took a sip of the steaming tea as he waited for Bruce to process that statement.
As always, the mage found the drink to be bitter and awful.
"...What are you even going to do?" Bruce placed a hand against his forehead, physically trying to reject the headache that was forming. "You know I can't just stay in tonight. The various factions throughout the city will be at their worst!"
"I can deal with that. Nobody will like it, but that's a tomorrow problem," Alchemist wouldn't even need to leave the manor. "So, where's Richard?"
"Out," Bruce answered shortly, his glare fixed firmly on Alchemist's face.
Unfortunately for Bruce, the greater portion of Alchemist's focus was currently occupied in congratulating Yorshka on finding a house that was giving out full-size candy bars.
And trying to keep Yuffie from stealing more than her fair share.
"So go get him," the wizard ordered before taking another bracing sip of his tea. "I'll be casting my spell at sundown and it'll be canceled at dawn's first light. He can either be involved or not but I doubt he'll want to miss this."
"...What even is this?" Bruce asked as he headed towards the door. "You haven't explained anything, just made some ominous statements and broke into my home!"
"Brucie, buddy, bro. If I've been keeping something a secret, there's a reason for it. It's something you need to see, something your son needs to see but, if this got out?" Alchemist finished his tea with a grimace and set the empty cup on one of the small tables situated next to the plush, straight-backed chairs. "It could be just as devastating as Meteor but for some very different reasons."
"...I see," and the dark knight's demeanor shifted in an instant. The affront he'd worn moments earlier was gone, replaced with a calculating, considering gaze. "You could have tried telling me this. You know that, right?"
"There are some things I don't trust to say on anything that could be compromised," Alchemist disagreed before stepping to the side so that Alfred could get around him to get to his empty tea cup. "This is one of them."
"Understood," Batman said before storming out the door, slamming it behind him.
Alchemist shook his head and rolled his eyes at the scene.
The man was such a drama queen.
"...So, Alfred," Alchemist probably had a good hour before Bruce returned, possibly more. "How've things been?"
"Oh, just wonderful, sir," The dapper English gentleman answered. The man hadn't so much as raised an eyebrow during the entire conversation. "Though I do find the manor to be rather empty as of late."
"Ah, Richard's getting older, huh?" Alchemist followed the man out of the parlor and towards the kitchens.
It was easy, sometimes, to forget that Alfred had been the one who primarily raised Bruce after his parents' untimely demise. Alchemist couldn't imagine how the man must have felt when Bruce departed to parts unknown, on some half-cocked training journey that had turned him into who he was.
"Indeed. The young master is growing into a fine young man."
Alchemist hummed in agreement. The boy had a strong sense of justice, one that needed to be tempered by his own experiences away from Bruce.
"I hope you don't mind, but I do think I'll need to impose on you, Alfred," Alchemist didn't exactly want to, no, but he wasn't able to be everywhere at once. And there were several potential risks with the gamble he'd be working on once the sun set.
"Provided it is within my abilities, sir, I would be delighted to assist you. Truly," Alfred delivered his line at a flat deadpan. The man was quite clear, in a polite way, of his opinion on being asked strange questions by a strange mage.
"...Fair enough," Alchemist wasn't sure if Alfred was actually willing or if the butler was just humoring him. Pressing forward, the mage chose to act as though Alfred had agreed.
Opening the Game Shop, ignoring the half-lidded gaze that belied a pair of incredibly sharp eyes, Alchemist quickly typed in what he wanted and clicked purchase, then did so again for one more, perhaps even more critical object.
"I didn't want to give this to you while Bruce was here. I know he has an issue with them," Alchemist explained as he extracted a heavy, automatic 12 gauge shotgun from his inventory.
A Pancor Jackhammer, purchased from the world of Fallout.
And following it was several boxes of shotgun shells loaded with salt.
Alfred's eyes had opened fully, taking in the details of the gun and the markings that clearly indicated the ammunition was the less-lethal rock salt variety.
"Ideally, you won't need this," Alchemist handed the weapon over to Alfred, the butler's hands working over the device as though he'd owned it for years.
Bruce might have a problem with guns. Alfred suffered no such qualms.
"But we don't live in an ideal world, do we sir?" Alfred's question was rhetorical, he clearly was not expecting an answer. Instead the man had removed the magazine from the gun and was already busying himself with filling the drum. "What, exactly, are you intending on doing tonight?"
"Technically?" Alchemist wanted things to be a surprise for Bruce, provided everything went well. Alfred, however, would be the surprise for anything that might try to tag along. "It's not necromancy... But it's close enough."
-----
Bruce couldn't quite put a pin in it but he could feel there was something in the air as night descended on Halloween.
He'd made an appearance at Mount Justice to personally get Dick. His young ward had been dressed as an old school 'Greaser', complete with a pompadour. He'd noticed a tension among the team, two people were noticeably absent but he didn't have the time to soothe the hurt egos of a bunch of teenagers.
Driving back through Gotham after retrieving his son, Bruce had time to think.
"Did Alchemist even tell you what he was doing?" And it gave him a chance to sit down and talk with Dick. "'Cuz this seems a bit much for how he normally acts. I kind of thought I had some time to spend with everyone else, not..."
"He was insistent on needing utmost secrecy," Bruce explained, his eyes on the horizon as the sun began to set. He could feel a growing sense of unease as the omnipresent clouds over the city began to break apart. "If he says something is dangerous, I've grown to trust him."
"...Really?" Dick asked. The young man didn't sound like he believed Bruce at all.
"At least enough to check out his concerns," Bruce explained as they left the city limits. "He hasn't always been right and he's certainly made some questionable decisions but he has consistently tried to do right by us."
"...I'm just more surprised that you would admit to trusting anyone." Dick leaned to the side, his eyes idly taking in the distant Hunter manor that would technically be their neighbors.
"Hah," Bruce drolled. "Hah."
The rest of the trip was made in a pleasant silence. The only odd thing to disrupt it being a quartet of shadows flying overhead.
Towards Gotham.
They were especially large shadows, even accounting for height.
Still, nothing seemed to be happening and the radio, tuned to Gotham's local news, wasn't going crazy over anything.
Getting back home, Bruce and Dick were greeted at the door by Alfred. The proper English gentleman offered them a standard greeting and nothing seemed to be amiss. A good sign, hopefully.
Alchemist had returned to the parlor, a large mug of something steaming in his hand.
And he wasn't alone.
Seated near him was a woman. She had wild black hair and a few bangles and charms on her person. Most noticeable by far was the ankh charm around her neck. She was someone that Bruce knew he'd seen before but he couldn't quite place, some small part of his mind screaming that she was Dangerous. More so than Alchemist, more than Clark but... She also didn't set off any sense of urgency or anxiety.
As though he'd seen her before.
As though he already knew her.
She was holding a mug of her own and seemed to be enjoying the contents as the two of them sat in front of the fireplace, a ghostly flame burning within that gave off a cold light and consumed no wood.
"Welcome back," Alchemist called as he set his mug down on the end table and stood up, drawing Bruce's attention.
The Wayne scion shook his head, focusing away from the strange flame and back to Alchemist. Of the three people in the room, he was the one that didn't belong, that stood out.
"We're here," Batman stated, placing one hand on Robin's shoulder. "Now, what was the point of all this?"
"Come on, I'll show you," Alchemist told him as he led the two back out of the parlor, through the halls and into the east entrance hall. The man breathed in deeply and raised one hand up, above his head before he-
Snapped his fingers.
The lights along the walls dimmed, the sunlight visible through the grand doors faded and shadows around the room grew long. Eyes gazed upon them from within the blackness-
"Begone!" Alchemist demanded, his fists clenched and fury in his voice. "I shall brook no Grudge! I shall accept no party of Madness encroaching upon this home!"
Chattering teeth gnashed and screamed wordlessly from the edges of the house, crying for something in languages that Bruce couldn't understand, from rooms filled with abandoned memories, forgotten stories.
Dick grabbed on to Bruce's arm as a thick, heavy pall fell on them. Bruce himself called upon one of the spells he'd learned from the strange Asterisk jewel around his neck, his fists glowing with Holy Light.
Something great and dark, reeking of fetid water reached out towards them from beneath the doors that led outside-
Before, with an earsplitting 'Boom!', Alfred blasted them away with a massive shotgun. A model that Bruce didn't recognize. The assault left the doors pitted, though with what Bruce couldn't say.
"Could you have waited for another moment, sir?" Alfred asked, holding the weapon at the ready as he sidled up on the opposite side of Dick. "I can only be in one place at a time."
"I've got a fairly narrow window," Alchemist countered, snapping his fingers a second time and filling the room with brilliant white light, casting out the shadows. "How about hiring an exorcist some time? Alan Wayne should not have been here."
With another deep inhale, audibly angry this time, Alchemist raised his hand once more and snapped his fingers.
Unlike last time, there were no creeping shadows trying to sneak in. No whispers of madness at the edges of Bruce's hearing.
"Here and now, I offer my own strength. Here and now, I bridge the path. Here and now, I call upon you," Alchemist chanted. A quartet of sigils formed upon the floor before opening wide. "For this night, and this night alone, I bear the burden of restoring you to form. I call upon you, parents taken before your time, you who left behind a wake of grief and loss-"
Bruce grabbed on to Dick's arm, clutching the younger boy to him with a grip that could bend iron as he saw four people begin to rise from the portals Alchemist had created. Four people that were exactly as he remembered them.
Bullet holes and broken pearls, blood staining gravel and- and- and-
"My word..." Alfred's voice was nearly silent as two men and two women were recalled from the grave, their bodies broken and twisted still in the moment of their death.
"-return once more to the land of the living, upon this night. Sup upon the life I freely offer and be restored!" There was a brief hitch in Alchemist's voice, enough so to draw Bruce's attention away from the grim, grisly spectacle to look to the man. The wizard was clutching at his chest with one hand but remained unbowed, forcing himself to continue. "From Dusk you wake until upon Dawn you shall sleep. Rejoin the living, Thomas Wayne, Martha Wayne, John Grayson and Mary Grayson!"
There was no flash of light nor any sudden shift. From one moment to the next, Bruce's parents went from a snapshot of their death to fully restored. The bullet holes, the bloodstains were gone! The broken pearls of his mother's necklace were all in place.
Bruce stumbled forward, one hand reaching out desperately towards the people that he'd dreamed about, to the people he'd remembered so vividly from that one night-
But Dick passed him, running forward to latch his arms around the woman who Bruce remembered as dying from a great fall, her neck and body twisted.
"Mom!" Dick cried, the sudden shock seemed to wake the woman up, her glassy eyes sharpening into immediate focus. Mary Grayson looked down to her child, tears building at the edges of her eyes as she wrapped her arms around him as well. "Mom..."
"Oh, Dickie Bird..." The woman's voice held an ethereal tone, echoing from someplace just a bit too far away but her arms were all too real as she held on to her crying son. "My baby boy. My brave, wonderful little bird..."
The other man, Dick's biological father joined in on the hug. On the crying.
Bruce didn't know what to feel. How to feel.
"Son." But his own father's voice jerked him out of his stupor and confusion. Thomas Wayne put a hand upon Bruce's shoulder before changing his mind and wrapping the man in a great bear hug. "Bruce. I'm sorry, Bruce. I'm so, so sorry..."
Bruce awkwardly returned the hug, his eyes burning and his vision blurring.
"Might- Might I suggest we retire to the drawing room?" Alfred asked, the first to regain his composure. "I feel that this may well be a rather long night."
"Of course! Yes, that sounds lovely!" Martha was quick to agree, placing one hand upon Bruce's shoulder as she stepped around him to stand in front of Alfred. "I don't suppose we still have my favorite tea, do we, Alfred? It's been a very long time and they simply cannot make a good cup on the other side."
"I believe we have some, ma'am. I'll bring some tea and biscuits to the drawing room shortly."
Bruce heard two pairs of feet walking away but couldn't turn to see who was leaving.
"Come along, all of you," Martha's voice cut through the overwhelming haze in Bruce's mind, drawing his focus on to her. "We're guests for the night, let's not make this too difficult for our hosts."
That... that was right. They could only linger for a single night.
Bruce felt overwhelmed at the enormity of it, as well as no small degree of panic.
How was he supposed to fit so much, tell them all so many things in the span of a single night!?
The dark knight swallowed heavily as he was led out of the room, his son and the Graysons behind him.
Still, a distant part of his mind was stuck wondering about a few different things...
Appreciation for the fact that Alchemist had not been understating the sheer risk of this ability, at all.
And what business did Alan Wayne have left upon the mortal plane?
AN/ The Pancor Jackhammer
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