Supergirl: Identity

[LuckyVic]

Superman

Clark didn't know if what he was telling Kara was reaching her. He was worried about her, and wanted her to fit in. Even if it did turn out that she wasn't his cousin and just a clone, or someone from an alternate reality. But he had to admit to himself that he did wish that her story was true. In fact there was a way he could find out.

He placed his thumb on the inside of his belt buckle and pressed a small button. The button was a transmitter that sent a signal on an unknown frequency back to his Fortress. The fortress that had been built for him by a kryptonian artifact, and at one point it tried to turn the Earth into a new Krypton. But he was able to stop that and now it laid hidden in the artic and he used it to find out information about his past and who his people were. The Fortress was also equipped with robots of Kryptonian design that maintained its technology. And since the device that created them and the Fortress was created by one of his ancestors, it and everything within it only responded to those of the House of El. If Kara was indeed of the House of El, the robot, that was now on its way would know and follow her commands as it did his.

It would give her a piece of home, as be a tranlation device for her while she stayed on Themiscyra, at least until she could learn Earth's langeuages. It would also give him some peace of mind. He would know who she was once and for all.

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

Though Kara knew what Kal-El told her to be true, she was still having a hard time adjusting to the concept of being "weak" on a world where she was practically invincible. Once already she had been brought down to her knees, humbled before a human.

The thought of the Dark Knight still came crashing into her mind.

Shaking off the image, Kara glanced over at those gathered around them. The Amazonian women looked strong, and perhaps Kal-El was right in that she could learn from them all.

"I suppose I can give it a try," Kara said in Kryptonian.

"But I won't stay here for forever," she added defiantly. The stubbornness she had inherited from her father was ever-present in the young girl, and it shone through her clear blue eyes like a wild flame.

Kara finally turned aside and took a few steps in Diana's direction.

"Thank you," Kara managed to say in English. She sounded a little uncertain at first, wondering if she had used the right combination of words. She had only been on Earth for a short while, but her mind was exceptionally keen on learning new information quickly.

Even so, Kara felt extremely uncomfortable talking in English, and she quickly resumed mumbling in Kryptonian.

"How you managed to last this long, Kal-El, is beyond me," Kara said with a heavy sigh.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Diana

The Girl strode away from The Icon, causing Diana to turn her amused attention from ambitious Artemis and dubious Phillipus. And then The Girl did something to render Diana all but speechless.

She spoke.

"Thank you," Kara managed to say in English.

Diana's eyes widened. Has she understood all along? Or is she simply so unbelievably astute that she has garnered this vocabulary as we've spoken around her?

Understanding was so hard to come by.

Diana remembered once, a journey into Deep Time, the far future, The League had used telepathic ear-plugs to communicate whilst doing battle with a tyrant sun. J'onn had not been there with them, and the link the plugs had provided had not been as smooth as J'onn's natural psionics, but they had certainly been better than nothing.

She wished now for a pair of these plugs, that The Girl might have one to wear and Diana one also. Then they could understand each other, and Diana would be able to express to The Girl just how impressed she was by her intelligence.

(Diana never had any trouble expressing herself to Donna, as their rapport-- far beyond the link shared by many twins --required no outside assistance nor technological facilitation. They were simply two parts of one whole, and thus when one spoke, the other understood.

She missed Donna. The vast distant gulfs of space had dulled their link, and that sense of continual understanding had faded therewith.)

...if only everyday life had understanding so easy to come by, Diana's job as a messenger of Peace and Truth would be not nearly so difficult.

But where comprehension was not instant, one's patience needed to be that much more infinite. So long as one had patience, then comprehension would come in time.

Thus, lacking telepathy or translation tech, Diana waited patiently as The Girl murmured aside in Kryptonian once more, ostensibly to Kal.

And then Diana placed her hand gently on The Girl's shoulder, and smiled at her with a heart full of hospitality. Her words were enunciated carefully, and she said, really, the only thing she could say: "You are most welcome."

 

[LuckyVic]

Clark smiled as he heard Kara say Thank you. She must have heard someone say that and remembered it. And used it in the correct context. Well soon she wouldn't have to worry about the language issue. Kelex would be arriving soon, and he would be able to provide translation, as well as instruction in English, and other Earth languages.

He stepped away from his cousin, but not to far away, as he walked over to Phillipus. If he was going to have kara stay here, he would need her permission first since she was the Chancellor of Themiscyra. He greated both her and Artemis. "Phillipus, I would like to request permission for this young woman, who appearantly is my cousin to remain among you and your people for awhile. She needs time to adjust to her new abilities as they awaken and I can think of no better place for her to do that, then among your people. I have summond a Kryptonian driod, and he will act as translator until Kara has mastered Earth's languages."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Phillipus

Phillipus craned her neck back slightly to regard The Icon and his chiseled features in the light of the newborn day. (Penelope, Paradise Island's high priestess, would be conducting prayers of greeting now somewhere, probably out on the Easternmost promontory as opposed to here on the Western reaches, for the god of light and the god of the sun.)

She was not used to looking up to talk to anyone. Amazons were naturally quite tall. But Superman was taller.

"We had heard you discuss this with The Batman," she nodded, "the possibility of her staying here. (Forgive us for eavesdropping, we were merely being... attentive.) I can assure you, Superman, we will guard your cousin here as if she were one of our own. (Your cousin? May wonders never cease.) After all, she would not be the first foster daughter of The Amazons."

Phillipus gave Superman a sidelong smile. "As for your speaking machine, I shall make sure that Io, our weaponsmith, does not disassemble him out of curiosity. That would be poor hospitality."

She gazed quietly at The Girl.

"She's beautiful, Superman," she murmured. "Pray tell me: what is her name?"

 

[LuckyVic]

She gazed quietly at The Girl.

"She's beautiful, Superman," she murmured. "Pray tell me: what is her name?"

"Her name is Kara Zor-El." He told Phillipus and then he reached out to Kara.

"This is Phillipus." he told her in Kryptonian, at least as close as he could in Kryptonian. After all not every name had a translation. "She is the Chancellor of this island. This is here is Diana, she's a very good and dear friend of mine." he said introducing the Amazon Princess as well.

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Wraith

Downtown Gotham. It was the same, and yet so different.

There was the courthouse, unchanged in the fifty years I had been gone. I chuckled as I remembered Mayor Winstead giving his speech against vigilantes in his city. I had sat on the front row and applauded at the right moments as he berated my efforts to clean up his city. The commissioner had not quite been as eloquent when he followed the mayor on the podium, but he had definitely been passionate when he called for forming a task force to clean up the city (which included me) and end the corruption in Gotham.

I never knew how that went. Not a week after that speech 'Ole buckheat showed up with a offer i couldn't refuse.

I chucked at the memory and a young woman gave me a look, then a smile and sashayed away with a swing to her hip.

Miniskirts were something else I was getting used to!


Eventually I ended up in front of Wayne Tower. Looking up at the towering edifice, I knew Charles would have been proud of his family.

It was thinking of his family. Thomas had been a handful, but he was a bright and energetic child, who grew into a good man. Charles was so proud when he went into medicine.

It was thinking about my old friend that got me to thinking about Phedra. Did she have a family left behind? My encounter with Diana showed that there was someone who would be in contact with her family if she had one. From my research I knew Amazons rarely left their homeland.

What if back at her home a mother was wondering about her daughter. Someone had given her the weapon and armor that she wore. Did I have a right to hold onto those items?

I had been struggling with that issue all morning. And I think I had my answer.

No.

Once I returned home I went upstairs to my private study. The chest was where I had placed it when I decided to come home. Bloodwood and dragonbone were the materials I chose to hold the last artifacts of my beloved. Both materials that were very strong, basically ageless and resistant to fire and the elements. Damn heavy though. A normal man would have a hard time picking up. Outside of my armored form I definitely noticed the weight.

Concentrating, I shifted to my armored form, then stepped through shadow and emerging by what I hoped was the Themysciran Embassy.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Valkyrie M

Behind her, Fifth Avenue traffic was noisy but not intrusive.

Rose had a two-litre of Mountain Dew and a carton of cigarettes and she was sitting on Diana's office balcony with her back to the railing. In one hand was her PDA and in her other hand the stylus and between her lips a Silk Cut smouldered. The rest of her face was knotted in a mask of concentration.

Taking the initiative, Rose had e-mailed Letterman's people about the armour thing and had requested that Greenpeace send Diana's office an updated itinerary for that whaling protest. Now, however, Rose was working on the second of two statements she'd worked up regarding that Olympic brouhaha. One was pro, one was con, and she'd submit both to The Boss that she might suggest word changes as necessary-- Diana's gift for language was greater far than Rose's --not to mention tell Rose which one to actually submit to the wire services as Diana's official position.

The "pro" one had been easy enough. The host country's traditions and beliefs were older far even than Ancient Greece, and it was a joy to see such old and beautiful customs intertwined with the spirit of The Olympics. But the "con" one was giving Rose a brain cramp... it was insanely difficult to give the world a stern talking-to without pissing off just about everyone.

(Like France. And Pokolistan. And that berk from Kandhaq who had gotten so snippy with Diana on The UN floor just last week...)

Rose twirled the stylus over her fingers as she scrutinised the screen with a hard-edged eye.

"'...while I have nothing but respect for your historic nation and your brave, determined people, I only wish that your government had more respect for its own people.'"

Rose sighed, grunted, shook her head. "Bloody redundant. Bollocks."

She grunted again, tucking the stylus into its sheath on the PDA, and then sitting up a bit to push the PDA into her pocket. "Right. Loo break, then I'll come back to it."

Then she heard a groaning behind her like a haunted house dealt a horrific blow, a groaning like the world was tearing open and letting all the sad sad scary memories of times gone by seep back into the present.

Her brow furrowed, and she shot to her feet, whirling to face the street.

And there on the sidewalk, shadows were moving and writhing and what the fucking Hell?

The magickal defences on The Embassy were such that few forms of teleportation could deposit a person in the place (or remove them therefrom) without permission. No-one wanted Circe or Ares "beaming in" unannounced. And what good was offering people political asylum on Embassy grounds if a properly empowered government-- like The U.S., for instance --could just switch on a military-grade teleportation pad and yank those people back off of Themysciran soil?

The sidewalk, however, was not encompassed in these protections, and it was on this sidewalk that the shadows parted and deposited whomever.

Rose had gotten changed. She wore an otherwise-white tank top with the flag of The United Kingdom across her stomach, and a fresh pair of posh blue trousers with pockets lined in red.

She vaulted off of the balcony and landed effortlessly in the middle of the front walk, halfway between the doors of the great white building and the depleted-promethium fence and gates. Just outside those gates, the shadows belched forth their occupant.

Both of Rose's hands lit up with fire, and her cigarette flared far far brighter.

"Halt!" she declared. "Who tupping goes there?"

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Wraith

I looked at the girl, her hands belching fire and the fag in her mouth glowing brighter as she challenged me.

"Who goes there? Would you like the name the papers gave me, Wraith, or the titles bestowed upon my, Lord Azrakel, Lord of the Nine Reaches, Wielder of Dirge and Overlord of the Shadow Marches, or would you prefer to refer to me by the name that Hell bestowed upon me, HelBane?"
I slung the case under my arm and looked the young woman in the eyes.

"And as for the 'tupping' part, my dear we just met and I haven't even asked you to dinner yet. Don't you think thats jumping the gun a bit?"

 

[ChasNicollette]

Valkyrie M

Rose extinguished the fire in her left hand and took another swig off of her cig before flicking the little expended thing away, silencing its fire with a spark of ice as it tumbled through the air.

"Oh," Rose grunted. "It's you."

She walked closer to the gate, eying the armoured scary bloke up and down, and when she got to the gate she laced the fingers of one hand through the intricate metalwork of its design.

"You have a lot of names," she murmured. "You've got more names than a bloody Tolkien character. I was half-expecting yeh to claim to be The Witch-King of Angmar, in which case I'd be obliged to go all Éowyn on your arse."

She paused, then, and smiled a roguish impish smile.

"Of course," she admitted, "you 'aving told me your names, this means I officially know you better than I know the first (and thus far only) lad I've ever 'tupped.' So that's as good as dinner, and yeh dun hafta pick up the bill."

Rose mellowed, then, remembering what Cassie had told her about this man's loves and losses.

"What is it I can do for you?" she enquired. "I'm afraid The Ambassador's still away on business."

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Wraith

"I've been around a long time and in several different dimensions and realities. I've collected a few titles along the way, made some friends and enemies, and buried more of both than I care to think about."
I paused a second to really look at the young woman. Over her gruff exterior and bravo, she was a very pretty young thing.

"I'm sorry to hear that the Ambassador is out, as this does concern her, but it's not necessary that she be here. I have some items that one of her nationality wielded in battle and want to return them to her native land. Phedra never knew if she had relatives back home, but I am sure Diana will be able to. I've safeguarded them for half a mellenia, it's time to send them home. If we could go inside I'll leave them with you and pen a brief explanation for Diana if that is agreeable to you?"

 

[Wyldfire]

Oracle.

The book hadn't been as helpful as she would have hoped. But information was information, and this information gave her a reason why there was so little information about this guy. Wraith. He had a name at least. It would be helpful for the hack. There were several things she was going to dig into when she made this "hit".

She knew He wouldn't like her browsing as much as she planned to, but even He doesn't know everything, and when he didn't he had to go to someone and that someone was her.

The trajectories were one of those things. Civilian satellites had been next to useless, so that meant military.

And she would repay Zee. If this Wraith was in the military database, Barbara wondered who else would be. Ans maybe just maybe, if Zee was in that system she could "lose" them for her.

She wasn't going to bother Him until she had everything she could on Wraith and the trajectories on the meteor.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Valkyrie M

Rose thought this over for a long long moment. There was that whole thing about vampires needing to be invited in... did daemonic overlords of the nine reaches and dirge, erm, Emperors of The Lone Islands...

...did they need to be invited in, too?

And then, struggling to channel Diana's message of peace, her message of the benefit of the doubt, she unlocked the gate and swung it inward, beckoning Wraith to make his ingress.

"Just be aware," she instructed him, "yeh're standing on Themysciran soil, diplomatically speaking. So if yeh start any nonsense, not only will yeh be starting an international incident, yeh'll get smartly beaten by a bunch of armed guards and a surprisingly bad-arse Minotaur."

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Wraith

"Not that surprising really. Minotaurs are a warrior race. I will conduct myself according M'Lady."
I hefted the chest over my shoulder and entered the gates, feeling the ward wash over me.

Once inside, out of the sight of the public, I decided a little trust was in order.

Shadows swirled and moaned around me, and in a moment I stood before her as a man, not as Wraith.

"Does this make you a little less wary miss? You can call me Kyle, thats the name I was given by my mother."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Valkyrie M

Rose clinked the gate shut behind him, and regarded the box he carried with a brief flicker of infrared vision.

It wasn't giving off any active heat sources that she could detect. Not a bomb.

Bendigedig.

And she looked at the lad himself. Tall, though not quite Superman tall. Beautiful, a little war-torn, long long hair like a barbarian king. Like Travis Morgan as a much younger man.

Both hands now extinguished, she shoved them into her pockets and mused that he was a lot easier on the eye in this form. Though she did not say as much aloud.

"Rose McCrimmon," she explained to him, dryly, because her identity was not a secret. "Me mum called me 'Rosy,' but you're not quite at the place where you can call me that. Me nom de guerre is 'Valkyrie M.' Pleased as Punch to make your acquaintance."

She gestured that he should walk ahead of her into the building, because for a couple of reasons she was not yet willing to take her eyes off of him, and leading him meant she would have to turn her back.

"Ferdinand's not what yeh'd generally call a warrior," she explained. "He's gone to cooking school, and is good enough at what he does that he once made a dish that had Gordon Ramsay weeping open tears of joy and Padma Lakshmi moaning in quasi-orgasmic bliss. (Busy night.) But on the other hand, he did recently help The Boss and Wonder Girl break Hermes out of the bounds of Hades, so, there's your bad-arse."

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Wraith

"Definitely sounds like a Minotaur. Warriors and artists, they do both very well."

I walked down a path and up to the front doors. A guard opened them with a nod from Rose and I walked inside and over to a decent sized table, where I laid the case down.

"I assume you want me to open this and verify that I am not up to any foul play. Let me assure you that I do mean no harm."

The catches were almost invisible to the naked eye, worked cunningly into the scrollwork of the wood. My fingers placed just so and with a gentle click the case unlocked and I opened it, revealing the contents inside.

"There you go Miss McCrimmon."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Valkyrie M

At first she had looked at the trunk he carried only as a threat. She looked at it with eyes that could see heat and probed it for the ability to destroy.

But then she looked at it with eyes that could see light and...

It was magic. Even if not literally physically magical, it evoked a place that was nowhere and a time out of Time. The wood was the murksome reddish colour of dried blood upon a battlefield, though polished and honed to a shine that rivaled fine steel. Crisscrossing the surface of the wood was... was that enamel? Blackened bone carved into the shapes of epics fought before The Dawn of Man, fought between elves and daemons and daemon-things.

(The daemon-things looked suspiciously familiar, and upon recognising them, she glanced at Wraith. The daemon-things looked like he had, before he'd taken human shape.)

Then, then the box opened at his touch, and within...

...within were things of sadness and Wonder.

Rose stood quietly for a moment, gazing at the contents of the box.

"Gordon Bennett," she softly breathed, "and all the gods and goddesses. 'Ere we go."

She strode a little closer and she sank to one knee. Gingerly but without apology, she reached into the four-foot trunk, reached a hand into the interior of the box, ten by eighteen and lined in crushed black velvet. Reached a hand in, and drew it out holding a bracelet. One of a pair.

Gleaming and reflective, it shone in the sunlight.

Gently, Rose breathed on it, condensation misting in the wake of her exhalation, and then she wiped it on the corner of her shirt. Then she held it up to The Sun.

She flicked the metal surface, and the ting that rang through the air was a kind of music that was magic in and of itself.

"They're not the same as hers," she murmured softly. "They're kith but they're not kin. Maybe they were made from a different magic mirrored armour? Maybe the shield of Neith, a 'cousin' of Athena from Egyptian myth? But Lord, if I didn't think at first..."

She set the bracelet back down, gently, oh, so reverently, and then lifted out the bow. Oh, oh, the beautiful bow.

The string hummed, and it seemed to glow with argent light, as if spun from a pallid moonbeam, and while Rose's fingers itched to pluck that string, she forbade herself with a vengeance. Instead she ran her fingers over the bow, and she luxuriated in its carving.

It looked like gold but was not gold, in that way that magical things could be entirely one thing but behave entirely like another. It felt light and warm, as though this recurve composite bow were infused with sunlight... as if it were whittled out of a branch chopped from a tree growing in the valleys of The Sun, mated with horn and sinew from beasts grazed upon the grasses of Light.

(For some reason this made sense to Rose. That the string should be moonlight and the body of the bow shaped out of Sun. Because Artemis' portfolio had come to include The Moon... and her twin brother, after all, was Apollo.)

The carving caught her eye most of all. It was an eagle, a bird of prey, and the "arms" of the bow were wings spread wide. Where the wings met in the middle, this was the body and the head of the raptor, and from the winged predator's yawing-wide beak would spring the arrows.

Still kneeling, Rose turned the bow horizontal and sighted along the eagle's back, her fingers curling around the string as if preparing to let fly with a volley. She knew how to hold it. She knew how to aim it. This was almost instinct for her. Her best Science was The Art of War.

"The Eagle is important to them, you know?" she murmured. "As a people. The Amazons of both tribes almost deify The Eagle independently of the gods and goddesses they worship. The symbol on her chest... the one that everyone thinks is a double-'W?' (The one that boys like to stare at.) This is a stylised Eagle symbol. And then there's her specialised battle-armour, like an Eagle made of magical..."

She hesitated. Because her eyes had fallen on the last piece in the box.

"...bronze."

She lowered the bow and her fingers wafted, again reverent, now almost trembling, to the proto-Amazonian armour that lay arranged in the bottom of the chest. It was magical bronze in the same way that the bow was magical gold and, at first blush, at first glance, it looked like its dimensions would accommodate someone of The Boss' approximate measurements.

And then her eyes slid lower. Zeroed in.

On the gaping, penetrative hole that marred the armour's otherwise pristine surface. At about waist-level, and judging by the angle of entry...

...the woman wearing this had perished of a stomach wound.

Gently, trying to keep a shiver born of the grave's whispering touch out of her movements, Rose again set down the bow, replaced it beside the bracelets and atop the armour.

She stood, and she gazed at Wraith, at this Kyle, with pain and sympathy etched in her eyes.

"What a terrible way to die," she murmured, all pretense of bravado abandoned, utter sincerity falling from her lips. "Wonder Girl told me that you'd. Lost a. I'm so sorry. I bet she deserved better. Grimlock, mate, Kyle. I'm really sorry. (I'm so very very sorry.)"

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Wraith

"What a terrible way to die," she murmured, all pretense of bravado abandoned, utter sincerity falling from her lips. "Wonder Girl told me that you'd. Lost a. I'm so sorry. I bet she deserved better. Grimlock, mate, Kyle. I'm really sorry. (I'm so very very sorry.)"


I closed my eyes for a minute, holding back the memories that threatened to break through.

"That blow was meant for me. She shoved me away at the last second and sacrificed herself, and our child to take him down. It was the only way to seperate him from the Spear. She figured it out when we didn't, and she acted. If she hadn't reality would probably be different now."

I paused a second, composing myself. The last day had been hard on my memories.

"She never knew where she was from really. all she had was the occasional name, and flashes of memory. Even with that we were happy for a time."

I looked over at Rose then.

"You might want to call your boss and let her know I am here. From your reaction to Phedra's artifacts, I brought them to the right place."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Valkyrie M (and Diana)

'Flashes of memory.'

For some reason that caused Rose's stomach to clench, like she was tensing her abs against an incoming punch.

She was happy with only flashes of memory. I have so much more than that, and still I can't quit me bitching.

I am not a good person.

She shook her head, and tugged her PDA out of her pocket.

"Yeah, sure," Rose nodded quietly. "She'll probably want a word. But don't you bluddy start anything while I've got me back turned, are we crystal?"

A touch of a key called up a number-pad on the PDA's touchscreen and she dialed a very very private number. Wonder Woman's earpiece.

(The thing had been designed by John Henry Irons to incorporate New Genesis' Mother Box technology as well as some of the Lansinarian liquid tech from The Invisible Plane. While it looked and acted like normal Bluetooth tech, it had amazing range and could survive impossible stresses. Irons had always intended to compress the tech into a star-shaped earring like one of those already a part of Diana's uniform, make it far less cumbersome, but he'd been riding herd on his niece of late and hadn't had the opportunity.)

The phone rang, and rang, and then with a little chirrup, the other end picked up.

'Diana,' The Boss replied, crisp and cool and clear, all business. And then she grunted, and growled, and there came what sounded like an explosion.

"Ma'am?" Rose blinked. "If you're busy, I can call back."

'That's not necessary,' Diana assured her, though the whistling noise of wind did suggest movement at godly speed. 'This won't require my full attention. What do you need?'

"There's a lad here name of Wraith," Rose replied with one eye kind of squinted as she glanced over her shoulder at Kyle. "He has some things here I think you should see. He says they belonged to this woman who died. And if they're not authentically Amazonian? They're the most brilliant and beautiful knock-offs I ever did see. (You should see this bow, looks like it could put a bodkin through tank armour at a hundred and sixty paces.)"

Another explosion sounded, and Rose flinched away from the phone.

"Erm," Rose wondered, "Ma'am?"

'I'm all right,' Diana dismissed. 'I'm all right. Tell Wraith I have tidings for him, too. I've sent a courier along with a request, should just be a few more moments. Stay alert.'

...and then, again with a chirrup, Diana ended the call.

Rose arched an eyebrow at the phone. 'Stay alert?' What in the name of The Clever Blue Box did she mean by that?

"Dunno what she's up to," Rose mused, "but it didn't sound like tea with the vicar. Anyway. She says she has 'tidings,' and she's sent a 'courier,' which probably means you should stay your arse put."

Rose glanced up at Kyle, a thoughtful expression upon her face.

"Actually," she wondered, waving the PDA about, "hate to be a bad hostess, but d'yeh mind if I place another...?"

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Wraith

"Actually,hate to be a bad hostess, but d'yeh mind if I place another...?"

"Feel free. This is a embassy, and it does have several thing for me to look at while you take care of buisness."

I wandered over yto a wall with what looked like magazine articles about Diana, and then made my way over to some pamphlets.

And out of the corner of my eye I kept watch on Rose.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Valkyrie M, John, and Zed

The wall just outside the door of The Embassy had upon it a bulletin board, covered over with glass. Initially, this had started as a wall of praise, begun by a little boy whose father worked at The Embassy... the little boy had been petrified by Medousa's gaze, and Diana had worked tirelessly to free the poor lad.

In so doing-- though Diana blamed herself for the boy being turned to stone in the first place --she had won herself a fan for life. He had insisted on putting up little drawings and stories about Diana he'd done, praising her, and this became a bulletin board upon which Diana fanmail of all stripes had been posted. This, eventually, had migrated out front.

Diana, being Diana, had insisted that a certain amount of humility and restraint be exercised, and to that end insisted that half of the articles posted on the board be anti-Diana. This would keep her balanced, remind her of her flaws, while at the same time providing some oft-needed affirmation. (Some of the articles had been editorials from during that fiasco with poor dear Rebecca Chandler, and those had been pretty scathing.)

The pamphlets, on the other hand, were little summaries of Amazon philosophy and history, little anecdotes sampled from Diana's book. The publisher had insisted on including advertising blurbs for the sequel. (Though when Diana would have time to write a sequel, Rose had no idea.)

As Kyle perused the board and the pamphlets, Rose dialed a new number.

Auntie Zed.

The phone rang several times, and she was a little bit startled when not her "Aunt" but her "Uncle" picked up.

********​

The Sun had managed to rise on The West Coast, and John was feeling pretty good about himself. He'd gotten a nap, he'd popped some Advil, and he and his lovely raven-haired lady had kissed and made up. And done other things.

(Things that had made her toes curl and re-invented John's vocabulary.)

She'd gone off to Jason Blood's house in Redmond to harangue the tosser about some newcomer git in Gotham, but she'd left her mobile behind.

And when John wandered past the bedroom with a beer and a packet of crisps, and he'd heard the phone ringing, he'd scooped it up and checked the caller ID. (Who knew, it might be an ex. He loved giving Zed's exes a hard time.)

But no, not an ex, but still a great love of both John and Zed's life.

"Wotcher, Rosy," John replied, discarding the packet of crisps and wandering on down the hallway in Shadowcrest.

'Oh!' there came a very audible blink from down the other end. 'Hulloh, John. How's things?'

John swigged his beer and arched an eyebrow. "Fair to middling. How's NY-NY?"

'Hasn't killed me yet,' Rose noted.

"Give it time," John promised, stopping in front of Lewis the Looking Glass' inexplicably blank surface and frowning, slightly confused by Lewis' lack of expressiveness.

'Yeah, it's no London,' Rose chuckled, then grew serious. 'Hey, listen. You got a sec? I got this guy here claims to be Lord of The Nine Reaches, HelBane, Overlord of The Shadow Marches, Weilder of Dirge... Lord Azrakel. These ring any bells with you? He on the level?'

John was silent for a moment. Because he was choking on his beer and was trying not to let the sputtering sounds carry over the mobile.

After a moment, he composed himself.

"Well, yeah," he affirmed, trying to sound as cavalier as possible. "He always did tend to get top billing. I know him by reputation, and he's. Well. Suffice it to say, he's a bloke what tended to try for good things in a world what wasn't predisposed to goodness. (Gen'rally the opposite really.) Midways between Upstairs and Downstairs, there's a bit of a landing. Bit of a plateau. And Earth isn't the only thing that sits on that landing, that sits on that between. Right next door, right next door, there's Shadow. And that place..."

He shrugged. "It's eh'n't scary enough to be Hell nor intimidating enough to be Heaven but it gets close either way."

Rose was deathly silent, deathly still.

'Dare I ask what you were doing there?' she eventually, dubiously demanded.

"You're familiar with the song," John replied, breezily enough, "'There Ain't Half Been Some Clever Bastards?'"

'Ian Dury and The Blockheads,' Rose supplied instantly.

"Well done," John applauded. "Right, well, Darkling Lord Azrakel didn't half have a clever bastard sword. Sword of Knowledge. I heard of this, swapping drinks in a pub in Northern Scotland with a bloke of distinctly Viking descent, and since I've ever been a man who prizes knowledge, I thought I might track this sword down. Needless to say, it didn't end well. This was that time around your seventeenth birthday when I disappeared for a week?"

'I remember,' Rose drawled, 'you stumbling in like you'd been gone for two months, bearded and smelly, reeking of dragon's breath, and Auntie Zed making you call Doctor Occult and apologise to him for "borrowing" his widget.'

"Yeah," John harrumphed ruefully. "Sorry 'bout that. Anyway, tell that blighter Azrakel I said ''Ello,' and that I've never met a better watchdog than the one 'e's got. (That was the dragon, mind.)"

'Right,' Rose mumbled. 'You never cease to amaze me.'

"I'm sure I will at some point," John chuckled morbidly. "Much love."

'Give Zed my love,' Rose requested. 'And don't do anything stupid.'

And that was that.

John turned around and saw Zatanna standing there, mouth half open, evidently having gotten home from Jason Blood's house empty-handed, but having heard plenty from the horse's mouth.

"So that's where you went for that whole damned week," she snorted.

"Mm," John nodded, as if this were perfectly obvious, she should have seen it right away. "Your magic mirror's not working. I wanted to watch the football."

Zatanna crossed her arms over her stomach and looked imperious.

John blinked, and took a swig from his beer. "Oi. What?"

********​

Rose stared at her PDA, and then pocketed it slowly.

She turned and regarded Kyle the Wraith.

"You have a pet Dragon?"

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Wraith

"Pet? Dragons don't make good pets. Completely unable to be housebroken. It's hell on the good carpets."

I turned and looked at Rose. She kinda looked like she had swallowed a bug.

"Kraznog and myself have an agreement. He leaves my subjects alone, I don't turn him into a apothecary's dream. Over the centuries we have grown to know each other better and he considers my lands his territories, which keeps other Dragonkin out and makes for one heck of a early warning system."

I walked over to Rose and looked her in the eyes. I reached up and took off my sunglasses, letting my glowing lavender orbs look into her blue ones.

"You definitely look like you could use a drink, and I need to replace some of my private stock myself. trust me enough for a short excursion?"

 

[ChasNicollette]

She gazed into those eerie lavender orbs, and found herself getting lost on the edges of them, spinning inward like a whirlpool. For a moment. Only for a moment.

And then she grinned a wry grin, and poked her finger into his chest, and she arched a sardonic eyebrow.

"Few points of interest," she replied. "First: I'm under 21, so unless your 'private stock' includes Zesti Cola, I'm out. b) one thing me mum taught me, it's to never go with a strange man onto an alternate plane of existence without at least one trusted grown-up. Gamma: Diana told me to stay alert, Lord Azrak-El Not of The House of El, and I'm going to assume that means I'm staying right here. (Not to rain on your splendidly shadowy parade, m'lord.)"

 

[Lunaramblings]

Bruce sat at a long table in The Cave. He had managed to remove several small pieces from the shuttle that had been removed from Gotham Bay.

"Note: Alloy seems to be nearly identical to sample recovered from the destruction of Henshaw. Definately appears to be Kryptonian in origin. Computer running translation on the symbols. So far there are several possible translations. Clark will have to verify results."

Bruce takes an earpiece and microphone off the side of his head.


"Sa'h? It has been several days since you last slept. The food I been leaving for you is mostly untouched. You may be a hero sa'h, but, if you don't cease this nonsense, I won't be much good to this city, or yourself. Also, if Masta Dick returns, I really must ask leave to box him right and proper about the ears. That thing he left has eaten the legs of two tables, a desk lamp, and my favorite writings from The Bard."

"Perhaps your right old friend. I have confirmed this shuttle is of Kryptonian design and making. It just makes no sense. I thought initially that perhaps this vessel had crashed long ago, that maybe Vandal Savage was behind this. But the dating puts it approximately the same age as the pieces recovered from Henshaw.

"Have you considered that, mayhaps, this pretty young lady is who she says. Not everyone is as sinister as you like to believe.

"Alfred, after everything you have seen, you really believe people can be taken at their word?"

"Faith sa'h. Faith. With out that, with out the belief that this world is worthy of saving. That their are truly good people, who can you do what you do? If people are all as bad as you think, maybe judgement is called for."

"I have faith only in the things I can see, feel, and hear. With all we have been through... The White Martians, Doomsday, Luthor's games, losing Jason... I have no faith. Not in some one that has not proven themselves. Not someone with that kind of raw destructive power."

"Well, Masta Bruce, I would say it is a good thing that others have faith in you. And this, thing" Alfred gestures at the pet carrier beside him. "This is staying with you." Alfred turns and walks away. Leaving Bruce to brood over his situation.

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Wraith

"No rain M'Lady, merely a light dusting, not unlike dew on roses."

I leaned back against the wall next to the, memorial was the best term I could think of, to Diana.

"So, since we are waiting what can you tell me about your boss and this "League" they belong to?"