The Last Daughter of Krypton - IC

[Lunaramblings]

Merick forced a grin at the returning Wraith.

"Hey. Sorry if I offended you earlier, Chief. Not my intent. Dude, nice book. Antique? I love first editons. Even i most of my collection are Warrior Angel." Merick grinned for real this time. "Rose, did you say Dragons? Like big nasty lizard of legends? Merick had clear concern on his face. It was one thing if Tall, Dark and Spooky wanted to play with dragons, but how dare he risk Rose getting hurt like that?! More than a little anger was building in Merick at the thought of her getting hurt. A slight emerald flame danced in his eyes, only briefly. He took a deep breath. Rose is a big girl. She can handle herself. But I swear, if Spooky here hurts her... well, I don't know what I'll do... but you can bet I'll do something. Merick nearly spoke this thought, nearly. But caught himself. Barely.

Merick hefted a book and waved a hand absently at one of the chairs, spinning it out from the table. He took a seat and flipped the cover of the book open.

"Well, this certainly isn't light reading eh? So where shall we begin?"

 

[Wyldfire]

"A man's world, huh?" Kara repeated.

Diana caught the difference in the words and smiled. "Not A man's world Kara. I have no doubt that women have gained more and more equality here. Man's world is the name we give to all places outside of Themyscira. There is no place else in the world really, where you can go your entire childhood without seeing a man. Well, outside of anatomy classes that is." the last was said with a bit of a blush. Diana had remembered her shock at the differences between man and woman. And the descriptions of why the differences were there! That if nothing else had been her biggest fear of going out into Man's world before her Sabbatical. That and the stories she had learned in philosophy classes. They had taught the children that men could be absolutely brutish.


"Your home sounds like a wonderful place," Kara said with a smile, "I'd like to think that there are other peaceful places too."

"And Smallville isn't exactly Pleasantville. It has its secrets..."

Diana looked at her new friend with a bit of interest. "All places have their secrets Kara. Smallville just seems to hide it's better than other places. Themyscira has it's own secrets, but that is simply the way of the world," Diana smiled and continued, "I will hope that I will have friends about me when I encounter any of your home's secrets. But even if I don't I will face those secrets like any of my sisters would."

Diana was having trouble containing herself in this feeling of freedom as they walked and she unintentionally had stepped up the pace of the walk to a Sister's march. "So, Kara, what is school like here? What is it like being in school with males? I am sorry if I sound poorly educated, but I am curious. What is the proper mode of dress? Should I be ready for training, or is it all sit down book learning?"

Diana felt a bit ignorant in asking so many questions, but she just didn't know what to expect. She had thought to ask these questions to Mister Trevor but felt more comfortable asking a sister.

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Wraith

"I doubt that it's Tengwar. The book was in Shadow. Hell, it could be Elven for all I know. I haven't opened it yet and I won't until I get back in Shadow or somewhere well away from everyone."

Magick is weird. I didn't even believe in it until not that long ago, and somehow in Shadow I can do it!

I looked over at Merick then as he sat down and flipped open a book himself.

"That was the first time I had ever taken someone into Shadow since I became Wraith, the dragon was a suprise. I won't be suprised again. Especially if someone else is with me. Now, whats the plan today?"
I took a seat by Rose, thumping the book down in front of me.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Raya and Lar

Var-Sen slept, happily enough. His wounds were bandaged, though, as with "M'onel," she could do little about the poison in his veins.

Raya knew there would be sadness and consternation when he awakened; if Var-Sen were to react otherwise to the prospect of eternity in The Phantom Zone, his would prove to be a broken mind indeed.

She knelt with a pillow in her lap and with Var-Sen's head on the pillow, and she watched over him as the sands and the winds lashed the walls of the tent.

She kept watch over a creature of nobility adrift in an ocean of night, and she kept her knife at her side.

He had laughed, and he had smiled, and they had kissed.

These were the first warm memories Raya had had since being sent to this place, this interminable place. Warmth was hard to come by, here.

...it had many names. The Ghost Zone, The Still Zone, The Stasis Zone, The Buffer Zone...

The Celestials of New Genesis called it The Howling. The Oans called it The Void. The Apini of Korll called it The Honeycomb.

The Martians had called it H'ryn H'yzir, The Black Desert.

Raya had learned many things from her father Ro-Zan. And then, when she had refused to stand by her father and the rest of The Council when they refused to acknowledge the validity of Zor-El's findings... she had learned still more from Zor-El than she had learned from her father, and she had learned even more from Var-Sen.

She had loved Var-Sen, and loved him anew. And he, it seemed, had warmth for her.

Even in the starkest of places, the darkest of pits... The Universe had a way of surprising.

The guardian-scientist had something new to fight for. Love in the face of Despair.

What a strange feeling.

"Dream well, my lonely lord," she whispered.

Outside, Lar had found a sitting rock of his own.

And he sat, with his crutch across his lap. All things come to he who waits. And now, Lar Gand had become he who waits.

Even if he had to wait a thousand years, he would wait. Because now he knew there was a way out.

If The General could get out, so could a wounded little Daxamite.

The dying alien had something to live for. Hope in the face of Despair.

Even if he had to wait a thousand years, he would wait.

"I am gonna live," he promised.

 

[camerindrake]

George

George walks onto the porch and smiles seeing his neighbors safe. He says as he walks through the door into the living area of the house, "Thanks Jonathan, I I know its late but I had to check on my neighbors, off the record of course. I know you folks like your privacy."

Then George remembers his press badge and takes it off of his blazer. Once in his pocket, he continues, "Long news day. Wish I could have made it buy earlier, but news doesn't wait for any person."

George notices Martha and responds with a nod, "Martha, I just had to see how you fine folks were doing after the freak natural disaster. The paper is calling it the event of the decade. How did Kara make out from this. I remember Christopher saying something about how Kara used to get sick around the old Mill. If these are from the same meteor belt I would watch out for her."

 

[AmenRa]

John Jones took off his hat as he stepped through the doorway of Wayne Manor. He smoothed back his graying hair, and took a look around the entry foyer. He spotted a rather interesting looking Oriental vase, no doubt an excellant copy of a Ming Vase, sitting on a pedestal. He then followed Wraith into the inner areas.

"The name's Jones," he said to Bruce, "John Jones."

As if that should have told him everything.

And when they came to where Chloe and the others were gathered, he smiled big at them. And he listened to Wraith tell about the book that he had brought. And then he turned to Rose and to Chloe, and he was full of questions and even answers.

To Rose:

"Do you have it? The crystal? The one given to you by the Kryptonian?"

To Chloe:

"Who told you Water was in Honduras?"

To all of them:

He shifted, ever-so-slightly, just a brief flash of the tall, broad-shouldered, green-skinned alien that he really was, and then he smiled again. "We have a mutual friend," he explained, "a Kryptonian scientist who has since left this world for another place. He had a mission to fulfill, one that we shall now fulfill together."

He took an Oreo cookie from the package, and offerred the rest to them.

"Please," he said, "I know you are all full of questions, as am I. Together let us find the answers."

 

[AmenRa]

The Zone

Var-Sen opened his eyes and looked up into the face of one so beautiful. He sat up, his mouth dry and throat parched, and he listened to the winds howling at the fabric of the tent.

He traced a fingertip along Raya's cheek, and he moved close until his forehead rested against hers.

"Thank you," he said to her, his voice low and whispery.

He stayed like this for some time, then he moved back and reached to brush an errant strand of hair from her face.

"It is believed that only the blood of the House of El can open the gateway from this side," he told her. "Only the blood of the House of El," he re-stated. "There was a survivor, a female, the daughter of Zor-El. I saw her on Earth. I suppose the rest of them, his brother, the others, perished with Krypton."

Then Var-Sen's brow furrowed, and his eyes became narrowed. "Where," he asked in a serious tone, "is Zod?"

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose and Chloe

Rose half-sat on the edge of the table, making herself the tiniest bit lighter with her flight power so as not to accidentally tip the whole thing over.

The Book from Shadow was riveting to her for some reason. An actual honest-to-goodness extraplanar magical artefact. With a symbol on the front, like The Auryn from The Neverending Story...

(As a result, she was all but oblivious to the snarking going on between her best friend and that boy she liked.)

But then Kyle mentioned a plan, and Rose blinked, looked at Chloe. "We have a plan?"

"Don't look at me," Chloe chuckled. "I don't think we have a mission statement yet, let alone a plan. Considering we've still got people coming in the door, I'm not positive we've even got a quorum."

Speaking of which, another gentleman rolled in right then. Looked more like a carpenter than an adventurer, looked like he'd be more at home in tweed and spectacles than leather and denim.

But there was that scar below his lower lip, and it was that which added the perfect hint of mystery.

Rose and Chloe were both silenced by his presence.

"Do you have it? The crystal? The one given to you by the Kryptonian?"

Rose gawped for an instant, and then shook her head as if to clear it.

"Crystal?" she blinked, then stood, then hauled The Key out of her back pocket, held it up. "I got this ginchy octagon thingy, is that what you mean?"

"Who told you Water was in Honduras?"

Chloe looked like she'd been stung. Who was this guy?

"Who told me?" she bleated, having no idea. "Who told you Water was in Honduras?"

She took a deep breath, though, and this gave John Jones time to continue...

Chloe didn't look like she'd been stung anymore. She looked like she'd been shot.

"Okay," she murmured-- having recognised that momentary shapeshift as the Swamp Thing lookalike that had held her as she'd healed --her voice dangerously quiet, her eyes dangerously wide, "so, what happened to John Smith?"

Rose's eyes slammed shut. "Oh, God. No-one told you?"

 

[AmenRa]

Jones smiled slightly as he took a seat on the arm of the sofa.

"You told me," he said to Chloe with a nod. "Remember?" And then, with the slightest of psychic intrusion, J'onn J'onzz flexed his Martian powers and played back the memory of him holding her on the beach of Crater Lake. And she saw this through his eyes. But he meant not to frighten her, or bring memories of pain or sorrow, so he whispered with the memory thoughts of compassion and hope.

Hope.

And then he quiet, turning to Rose. "No," he stated, "not that. The crystal. I assume it must be still in your father's hold. The task of it's deliverence was given to you by Var-Sen."

To which he added, for Chloe's benefit. "In the end, Var-Sen became a warrior for Earth. He sacrificed himself to the Phantom Zone in defense of this world and your way of life. I am only sad I was not there to fight by his side as a champion of justice and truth.

"But," he continued, "that is now our task. Here, within this group, each one's gift will serve to enhance the other's, and the powers that are possessed here, within this justice league, will serve Earth as her champions.

"Alas," he finished, "there is still one missing."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Raya

She smiled at him, gentlebright, sagemighty, and quietly luxuriated in the mere touch of his forehead, in the mere brush of his fingers.

"You are welcome," she replied. She only wished she had water to slake his thirst.

(But there was no water here. On the bright side, if this was a bright side, one could not die here of dehydration. One would only be forever thirsty.)

She nodded, pain leeching into her features. She, too, knew that Zor-El's clan carried the key to this place in their very veins. This was one of the few things Zor-El had had time to tell her before activating the portal and propelling her through.

"It would seem, Var-Sen," she replied, slowly, "that he has gained egress by some other means. He has escaped not by The Blood of El, but by some machinations on the outside.

"He has eluded us," she apologised, her blue eyes like broken glass, her voice sleeted with regret. "Our only hope may be that this Daughter of Krypton releases us as Zod himself has been released. (Or that she comes here, and frees us from this side of the barrier.)

"Has she unfettered The Fortress of Knowledge?" she brightened, clutching at the front of Var-Sen's unusual-- Earthling --attire. "This will tell her what she needs to know to free us!"

 

[AmenRa]

Var-Sen's jaw tightened. Even as Raya clung to him, his hands balled into fists and his voice became acid and fire.

"The BRAIN InterActive Construct released Zod when it opened the gateway on Earth. It was me and the soldier, Nam-Ek, that transposed Zod's passing to Earth," he explained. He began to shake with rage, that turned to sorrow, and then to despair as he returned Raya's embrace and buried his face in her hair.

"Zod now walks Earth," he stated brokenly, "and I do not know if Kara Zor-El is ready to face him. If she is not, then he will enslave Earth as he tried to do with Krypton."

He pulled back, looking into her eyes, tears forming in his. "I had collected one piece of the Crystal of Knowledge before I came here," he explained. "The others will be discovered, soon, either by those that were helping me, or by Zod and his abomination of corrupt artificial life.

"She must find it and bring the pieces together, Raya. Only then, only when she has a place where she can be alone, where she can learn, and train, and fulfill her destiny through the use of this....this...Fortress of Solitude, can she defeat the evil that is General Zod."

He pulled her to him, his lips brushing hers. "Until then," he said between kisses, "we have eternity."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose and Chloe

Rose glanced down at The Key. "Oh, yeah, duh," she muttered. "There was that... that Baseball Diamond or whatever. Yeah. My dad still has that. But that's okay. He's trustworthy. Mum told me he only lost her engagement ring twice."

(She shoved The Key back into her back pocket, so as not to lose that, either.)

Chloe stood staring...

...there had been that whisper in her mind once more, and this time, this time, the weary severed memories that she had lost during her time in blackness came back in full...

...not just the ones of The Green Man, not just the ones of Water in Honduras, but all of them.

Coffee in Soho, and a Pale Woman.

"Death," she whispered. "Death told me, out of blessed merciful kindness. But that could have been. That could have been. Any number of-- hallucinations. Brought on by oxygen deprivation. My brain randomly cross-firing as it was struggling to stay functional. Some sort of intuitive random assembly of data on the verge of brain-death? Stranger... stranger things have happened."

She struggled to accept the Hope he'd offered.

But it was hard, it was so hard... her father had abandoned her in a fit of lunacy, she didn't know where he was...

...and on top of being a Meteor Freak, now she'd been seeing things.

John Smith was gone. Long live John Smith.

She covered her face with her hands, and Rose put a comforting arm across her shoulders.

"With respect, sir?" Rose stood up a bit straighter. "We're not The Justice League, and we're not The Champions-- The Champions were more a West Coast thing anyway --Bruce decided that we should be The Outsiders."

She paused.

"But we haven't voted yet. Sir."

She paused again, and looked nervously at her feet.

"And I guess I'm just nitpicking with the name and all, doesn't really matter. God knows we're all on board for that Truth/Justice routine."

Chloe blinked, and rubbed her eyes, and gave Jones a funny look.

"Missing?" she wondered. "Who--"

Her eyes bulged. "Pete!"

She had been forgetting something.

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Wraith

I looked at the scruffy man, Mr. Jones he said.

And a few minutes earlier he had been a green skinned alien that had swooped in.

"There is also another fact. Most, if not all of us, are about sixteen!! Most of us have powers and abilities beyond mortal men, but keep in mind we are kids!! hell, my grandparents are probably worried about me, and they know what I can do."

I stood and looked at Mr. Jones.

"And respectfully sir, I think we need to know in much better detail just what the heck is going on!"

 

[camerindrake]

Damian, Dinah and Chris

As Damian and Dinah are getting to the B building, they see three pick up trucks with what looks like about 12 underage boys drinking. As they get closer they see one of the boys isn't drinking but trying to get the others to stop. The boy is wearing a Smallville High jacket. On the sleeve the name Reeves is embroidered on a patch.

Damian walks up and yells, his voice returning to the sandpaper tone that comes more naturally than his real voice, "Gentleman, isn't it kind of late for you to be out on a school night, let alone you being to young to be drinking"

Dinah whispers to Damian, "what in the hell are you doin, mate. What part of low profile didn't you understand. Causing a seen with these chumps is definitely not low profile."

The boys look over to Damian and Dinah. One very audibly says fuck off. Another gives the one fingered salute and the others just laugh at them. The Reeves boy seems to be getting nowhere with the others.

Damian smiles though it doesn't reach his eyes and continues, "Very colorful language. Though, I seriously doubt that you use it with whatever amount of parents that you have. Reeves what are you doing here with these punks."

The Reeves kid looks over to Damian and then remembers he is wearing his football coat. "It's Chris, and I am trying to get them to go home and sleep it off. "

The kid that Chris is nearest to says, 'We.s goin' nowheres" Then with the bottle of beer in his hand crushes it across Chris' jaw sending him into the side of the truck that was to his back.

Let the bodies hit the floor
Let the bodies hit the floor
Let the bodies hit the floor
Let the bodies hit the floor
Oaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh

Dinah simply states, "Don't kill anyone."

Damian nods as he walks up calmly towards the trucks.

Beaten what for
what for
Can't take much more
here we go
here we go
here we go

The drunk teenagers hop out of the trucks one with an aluminum baseball bat. Damian tilts his head, "Funny thought this was a football town" He then pulls out from behind his back a batterang and tosses it at the one with the bat. The batterang hits the aluminum baseball bat and sticks in. The punk laughs looking at it. In Damians other hand appears mysteriously a trigger switch.

One - nothing wrong with me
Two - nothing wrong with me
Three - nothing wrong with me
Four - nothing wrong with me
One - something's got to give
Two - something's got to give
Three - something's got to give

Dinah screams, "Don't"

NOW

Damian hits the trigger switch and the bat becomes electrified. The boy convulses not able to let go of the bat.

Let the bodies hit the floor
Let the bodies hit the floor
Let the bodies hit the floor
Let the bodies hit the floor
Oaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh

Enraged the boys launch themselves at the duo. Damian ducks the first punch launching one into the assailants body followed with an uppercut. Dinah side steps another and elbows him in the side. Damian grabs another and head butts him and throws him into the ground punching him in the chest. The two role until they are back to back.

Push me again
This is the end
here we go
here we go
here we go

Dinah looks behind her out of the corner of her eye, "A little extreme, don't you think, love."

Damian answers, "No, the exploding throwing bats would have been extreme."

Dinah combos with two jabs and a hard body shot after blocking a two by four that shattered over her left arm then says, "Ya' think?"

one-nothing wrong with me
two-nothing wrong with me
three-nothing wrong with me
four-nothing wrong with me
one- somethings got ot give
two- somethings got to give
three- somethings got to give

Damian ducks another punch and steps into the instep of the guy and hits him in all his chackra point with a barrage of punches followed with a head butt. Then back hands the guy coming towards him and replies, Actually, yes I do."

NOW

Damian sees Dinah set up and he covers his ears ducking down. Dinah unleashes a massive Canary Cry shattering all of the Truck windows. All of the boys left standing drop.

Let the bodies hit the floor
Let the bodies hit the floor
Let the bodies hit the floor
Let the bodies hit the floor
Oaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh

Dinah pats her hands down and looks at Damian, "Nice and clean. Just how i like it."

Damian shakes his head and removes his now uncharged electric batterang from the aluminum baseball bat and places it in his utility harness. He looks at the boy and says, "Pleasant dreams, bat boy."

Dinah walks over to Chris and checks him out. She looks at Damian and says, "He looks like he is going to be okay but we better get him away from this mess."

"Lets get him to the room."

excerpt from bodies by Drowning Pool

 

[ChasNicollette]

Raya

He pulled her to him, his lips brushing hers. "Until then," he said between kisses, "we have eternity."

"'Eternity,'" she echoed him, murmuring in the space of breathing in between warmsoft silkenvelvet kisses. "I can live with that."

It didn't matter that Zod had won for now.

Zod had nearly won on Krypton, on his very own home planet, and still there he had been bested.

Zod could tramp the Earth to dust under his boots, and burn the Sun called Sol from yellow to red to black, he still had enemies. And they had forever to plan, forever to lay in wait, forever to bide until they were sprung from this trap.

And if Zod had not been defeated already on Earth as he'd been on Krypton, they would bring him down in Fire and Water and Air.

Her hands curled into fists as they clutched at his clothing and she kissed him, she kissed him with pent-up fury and righteous passion and a hunger for warmth and a hunger for victory.

It was only a matter of Time. And they had Eternity.

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

Jonathan knew that Kara had gotten sick around the mill, though he didn't know it had been the meteor rocks that made her so sick. Though sick for Kara didn't mean the same thing as he would get sick. Kara never had the flu, never had a high temperature... never a broken bone or anything more than a headache.

But around the meteor rocks she lost her ability to function.

It was the one thing that made his daughter sick.

"Well it's alright, we appreciate you coming down here. We're fine, though. The meteors didn't strike our house at all."

Jonathan closed the door as George walked in

"Evening, George," Martha said with a smile as she saw him come into the living room.

"Kara's fine. She's actually gone off for a walk with a friend of hers. They should be back a little later," Martha added.

 

[camerindrake]

George

George smiles, "Good, Good. Has Christopher come around. I didn't see him around the city anywhere. I tried his phone and everything I could think of."

Then he laughs a short quip, "I would guess not, Kara and Chris grew apart didn't they."

George turns towards the door, "Glad the meteors didn't do any damage. I am glad that you all are safe,as well. Give Kara my regards." Then George turns back around with a startled look in his eyes. "oh I just remembered. You know the old Seigal place?"

 

[Lunaramblings]

Merick looked up at the new man. He smiled warmly. Best to put a good face forward yes?

"I like the hat." Merick says, as he takes a cookie. "I have to grudgingly agree with Tall Dark and Spooky. We are a bit on the young side. However, what ever those bastards were that attacked earlier... they had a hand in my brother's death. I think Retribution is in order. Also, from what little I understand, these beings, aren't here to have tea and crumpets. And for whatever reason, we all have these powers, we all have these abilities, and we have all been brought together, as if by Destiny. Jolly Green, for what it is worth, you have my support."

Merick looked over at Rose. He realized that she would have no idea what he was talking about, a brother... "I'll explain about Tommy later."

Merick munched the cookie thoughtfully. "If you would like sir, I can get the crystal, I have left Rose's mum and dad and my mum somewhere safe. But I can go get them if the crystal is needed.

 

[AmenRa]

John sighed and thumbed the dark brown, almost black, grosgrain band on his hat. He looked at Wraith, then to Rose, then to Chloe, and at last to Merrick and Bruce Wayne.

"Young," he said at last, "you all are, indeed. But, it's not the years, it's the mileage. You are all aware of your strengths, your weaknesses, and you all have a yearning to do what is right." He pointed at Wraith. "The very fact that you choose to reveal your dark form here proves that point.

"You must understand," he continued, "that when the gateway to the Phantom Zone was opened, not only did someone go from here to there, but someone came from there to here. Such is the way of things. All of this was planned...." he stopped and shook his head.

"Let me start at the beginning," he said, and he fixed each of them with a gaze that was beyond Earth, beyond space, beyond time itself. It was utterly alien, and yet perfectly stoic, serene, and meaningful. He told them of Mars, of betrayal, death, and genocide. He told them of the concepts of justice and law, and how he had served a Great Council of a distant world that orbited a red sun. And he told them, in much sadness and detail, how that world had died. He finished with telling them about the House of El, the noble and wise Var-Sen, and the horror of General Zod.

He explained how the Crystal of Knowledge could hold power to rule, and how the Crystal of El, the one that Rose had been given, could hold the power to destroy. He told as much as he knew about Krypton and its people. Except for one. He did not speak of the daughter of Zor-El. That would be for another time, when she was ready, when she had been met by him.

He sat, silent, his tale now ended, and listened.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose and Chloe

She could almost see it as his muscles moved. Or maybe she was just imagining it?

She could almost see his real face, his beautiful Martian face, behind the handsome mask of humanity.

Rose listened with agony to the tale of H'ronmeer's Curse, of Martians White and Martians Green, of red sands etched with pain.

She felt the fire crackling within her-- or maybe she was just imagining it --and she thought the flames leapt higher when Jones talked about the passing of his race. She felt ashamed to use such a thing as a weapon.

'I hold with those who favour Fire.'

Rose clenched her hands into fists at her sides.

She had killed with Fire, and things would never again be the same.

(But then again? Her mum had been proud of her. And Jones seemed to think that The Universe wasn't done with her yet.

Maybe she'd be okay after all. There were as many kinds of Redemption as colours in the spectrum.)

...and then there was Krypton.

Brilliant brilliant beautiful arrogant doomed Krypton.

Tears had stained Rose's cheeks when Jones had spun the tale of the death of Mars' people, a fine civilisation indeed, but more tears still rolled down her face when she heard about the death of an entire planet...

Schisms and chasms and screaming. Cataclysm.

Techno-geomancy gone horribly wrong.

And a lone prophet and his few believers were discarded for the sake of hubris, self-defeating planetary-level hubris. Like Noah and his family, shunned by their neighbours, except Noah had The Ark when The Flood rolled in...

Had there been an Ark for Krypton? Had the people of Krypton clawed at the sides of The Ark and wept at their short-sightedness?

She held her sides and she sobbed and wept at their short-sightedness and their beauty long-lost, and when Jones' voice trailed to nowhere, she covered her mouth and muffled her cries.

They had all lost so much. Jones had lost his people. Smith had lost his homeworld.

Merick had lost his brother-- he had a brother? when was this? --and Rose had lost her innocence.

They had all lost so much.

All the more reason they should step it up and win.

Chloe sat in stunned silence.

It had all been academic, before. Just another story. Just another mystery.

Despite herself, despite all the progress she'd made, she still got into that mode where it was just her and the keyboard and the printer ink, her and The Internet against the world.

Every article was another assignment, another book report, another 10-page paper on that which was wrong on The Face of The Earth.

Even meeting Var-Sen, knowing what he could do? He looked so human, it was easy to detach the extraterrestrial from him.

But she had seen the emerald skin of John Jones and touched its dusty surface. There was no escaping it now.

Worlds were dying. First Mars, then Krypton.

And unless they stepped it up a notch, Earth would be next.

"We all have people we wouldn't see hurt," she murmured, nibbling on an Oreo cookie-- candy from strangers really didn't seem so dangerous anymore --and taking comfort from its familiar presence. Comfort food, to go with the nearly-drained almond mocha. "Just as we've all got people who would see us never come to harm. And we don't promise to be wise or experienced. We're not even old enough to vote, or fight for our country."

She stood up straighter, and a fire burned brightly in her eyes, brighter even than it might have burned in Rose's eyes, or even in Merick's...

Bio-luminescence.

"So don't expect us to be Spartans," she mused, "staving off wolves right out of child-hood. But we'll do what we can. You can't expect any more of us than that, John Jones."

"'I'm on my feet, I'm on the floor, I'm good to go,'" Rose promised, nodding firmly. Resolute. Recovering. Wiping away saline. "'Now all I need is just to hear a song I know.'"

 

[AmenRa]

The Martian Manhunter

He smiled heartedly at Rose. Were he to sing, he would sing her the Song of Sands.

But J'onn J'onzz would sing no more.

He nodded to Chloe.

He turned to the others and listened.

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Wraith

I reached over and took Rose's hand in mine. I could almost feel the sadness pouring off of her. She felt.. everything. Love, Sadness, Hope, all of it she embraced with everything she had.

This was a strong woman, even without her abilities.

"I have been testing my limits for well over a year now. Gang Bangers, Mobsters, and your general psychotics I have met and bested, but today I met something that I didn't beat. I think I hurt it, but I did not stop it."
I looked the Martian in the eye and spoke, my voice deeper, rougher than it normally was.

"All that I am and all that I will be I pledge to stop this apocalypse from being brought down on my home! I will stand with you, side by side and meet the tide, unto the breach, until victory is won, for there IS no other option!"

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

OOC: I swore that I responded to this post. Sorry Wyld =(
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Kara nodded her head as Diana corrected her on what she meant by 'a man's world'. Sometimes Kara took things far too literally, but that might be due in part to having never really gotten out.

Which, considering the fact that she can run from New York to California in... well she hadn't really ever tried but she was positive it wouldn't take very long.

In any case, Kara had a lot of ground to cover if she wanted to make it to Themyscira. To most the distance between them was equivalent to traveling to Mars.

And speaking of which...

Kara glanced up towards the night sky, and she could see the stars shining brightly up in the darkness. Mars wasn't visible, but she wasn't really searching for it. She hoped... she wished that she might be able to find her home. Ever since that day she found out she wasn't human, Kara had always wondered where she came from.

Who her biological parents were. But through thick and thin she was a Kent girl.

"I'm starting to realize that Smallville has a lot of secrets," Kara said as she came back into the conversation. Diana had started moving faster, though Kara could easily pick up the pace as well. And when she started asking about school... well there were a few things Kara could remember about it. Her few experiences with High School were pretty out there.

"Well there's Smallville High, which is where I go. Only started classes a few days ago, actually. It's kind of... weird being in a school like that. There are a lot of kids. The guys are okay for the most part, but they seem to like showing off a lot," Kara said.

"There isn't any training needed to go to school or anything, just that from what I've seen you either fit in or you don't. There are quiet people, and then there are really loud and obnoxious jerks too."

By the way Kara was describing Smallville High you would think that she had been going there her whole life. But she was just a quick learner.

"And I don't think you'll need to worry about dressing to impress. You have really nice clothes," Kara said with a smile.

 

[Lunaramblings]

Merick sat listening as the Green Man told his story. His story of loss. Merick felt something shift inside him. There was a time when he would have cried at such a story. When he would have felt meek and helpless against such odds.

This was not that time. Much had been sacrificed today. He was not the same young man that had run into the wall of Chloe's office. He was harder inside. He had seen what awaited the world first hand, and he had come to understand that know was the time to fight.

"I am sorry to hear of such loss and devastation. I pledge this to you, this is where it ends. No more. I speak only for myself, but I say this... there is no other choice. It is fight or die. And even if we fight we might die. But at least we didn't just cower and let them walk over us."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Jamie

'A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.' -G.K. Chesterton.

Jamie Hamilton mulled the great mysteries of The Universe as he chewed on orange-flavoured cranberries.

He tilted The Crystal of El and whistled softly as it refracted the light, little prisms and lens flares.

'It is idle to talk always of the alternative of reason and faith. Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all.' -G.K. Chesterton.

He ran his thumb over the "S."

Jamie set The Crystal down on the picnic blanket next to his shoe and cleaned his glasses with his tie, breathing hotly on each lens before scrubbing it.

He sat with his knees up and his wrists draped over his knees and he stared down at The Crystal.

"Meditating over shiny stones, are we Jamie?" he murmured softly. "Your dad would have a conniption fit, I shouldn't wonder."

He pursed his lips. "Then again," he mused, "Newton had a bit of a fascination with smoother stones and prettier shells, and dear old Dad would be hard-pressed to argue with Sir Isaac."

Jamie caught up The Crystal again, whistled softly, peered over his glasses at it.

"And what a stone you are, eh?" he tutted. "You are lovely, that's what you are."

He held up the bottle of beer he'd sipped at, and he rapped The Crystal lightly against the mouth of the bottle...

...tiiiiing...

...tiiiiing...

He tilted his head, and he listened, he listened to the noise as it echoed out into the blue blue sky.

"Brilliant harmonics, too," he breathed, awed. "Resonance on a level way beyond sonic. Pythagoras and Kepler would have sold their souls to hear a sound like that. Number of satgurus, too, come to think, except I'm not sure they think of souls in quite the same way."

He scrunched his eyebrows and squinted hardcore at The Crystal.

"'Musica universalis,'" he identified, with a whisper, and wondered for a moment whether the quasi-triangular shape of the thing had anything to do with Pythagoras' old Tetraktys...

He glanced away from The Crystal and noticed that Ceri had accidentally left her cellphone behind. Maybe it had fallen out of her pocket without her realising?

But there it was on the picnic blanket.

He picked up the phone.

He thought for a moment, and flipped the phone open.

Screwtape was right about the orbital eyes, he pondered. (Which makes two things he was right about.) Every lens in space was probably staring at Smallville right then, tracking incoming chunks of rock.

They probably saw Rose's face.

Can't have that.

He set The Crystal down, and bit the inside of his cheek as he concentrated.

He started texting with both thumbs.

Numbers started scrolling by on the screen, blurring and stacking and forming shapes. He squinted one eye.

Can't beat extraterrestrial computers at their own game, but I can sure as Balamory box the terrestrial ones around the ears.

The text filled up with numbers, and he tagged the "send" key.

He clapped the phone shut, set the phone down.

He picked The Crystal back up, and stared out over The Pacific.

'One can sometimes do good by being the right person in the wrong place.' -G.K. Chesterton.