The Last Daughter of Krypton - IC

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Wraith

Time slowed. Zod's fist pulled back, then it was caught in a green skinned arm of flesh like steel.

And Zod screamed.

I looked down upon Zod, then looked over at Rose, leaning on Merick with her nose dripping blood and fire in her eyes.
I looked at the broken bodies around me, those caused by Zod, and those caused by us.
I looked at the horror that had been unleashed, and looked down at the man that had unleashed such death and destruction, all in the name of power.

And around me the shadows rose like a miasma rising from a fetid lake.

I looked upon the face of J'onn J'onzz, and looked at the ravages of a eternity of fighting and stopping madmen in his alien features.

Claws faded back to fingers, and I looked down at Zod.

"I could kill you," I said. "I could take this hand", (I slowly formed my fingers into diamond-sharp blades) "and drive it into your chest and pull out your heart. I could do that. I might still do that, but that would not bring back the people you have killed. The PLANET you destroyed! You should die for your crimes Zod, You. Should. Die!"

I drew my hand back for the killing stroke, and let loose a darkblast with my other hand straight into Zod's face, snapping his head back and knocking him unconscious. He sagged in the Manhunters arms, blood dripping freely from his smashed and broken face.

"Send him back to Hell, I am not killing anyone today." I said in a low, dangerous voice. Then I walked over to check on Rose.

 

[Wyldfire]

Diana had no idea how long she had been fighting. It could have been moments, even though it felt like hours or days. The only thing that was allowing her any conscious thought was that she was having to try harder and harder to find anyone to lash out at.

That was when all of the pain came to her rushing in to fill the void of the rage and horror. She screamed an animalistic scream, pulling her severely damaged arms and hands close to her body. She saw a cluster of people and began to stagger towards them. There were still foes on the field after all.

As she staggered closer one of the group came to her attention. But it couldn't be him, it had to be a trick of Aries'. She seen Ted on the ground dead. "Aries you bastard, I will kill your imitation, then I will die attempting your death," she said as she continued to stagger towards this group that looked like her friends, who must all surely be dead by now, "But first these deceptions will die."

She staggered closer and closer to them, almost to this mockery of Uncle Ted. "You will be first to die." she barely managed to croak out. Then she collapsed at his feet. Not enough left in her to continue, she collapsed unconscious at Ted Grant's feet.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Ted "Wildcat" Grant

Ted sank to his knees, dread sleeting through his features.

He gathered Diana in his arms. Cradling her gently, like a niece. Like a daughter.

Goddamnit, girl. Too headstrong for your own good. Damn near destroyed yourself.

He lifted her softly, bearing her up in arms far too strong for his age, and he did not even let out a grunt with her weight. And he carried her from that place, ignoring the battle of gods behind him, ignoring that titanic green creature, trusting them with actual power to save the day whilst he saved that which was most important.

He trusted John would live. John was too arrogant and lucky a cuss to die.

And dear dear Ceri McCrimmon had called that red-haired gal "Rose," which meant that the number of family members he had here was considerable.

But Rose was still standing. And she had power. (Betcha Jimmy Hamilton's t' blame for that one.)

He had to help Diana first. Battlefield priority. Then he'd go back and check on the others.

"It's me, y'know," he murmured softly, as he carried her, not knowing whether she could hear him or not. "It's still me. Ain't no duplicatin' the original, right? It's just that I -- I got nine lives, see. Like a cat. Didn't always have 'em. There was this thing... back in 1945. Kinda a long story, which is why I don't hardly ever tell it. Your momma knew."

He carried her and he powered on, legs like pistons on the ground.

There was a slim stream, and he bounded across it, sure-footed, never jostling her.

"I don't got many left," he murmured. "If my countin's right, I'm on number eight right now. Just one life left after this one. But I'd give all nine lives to make sure you were okay, had I all nine left to give. Y'know that, right? Your Uncle Ted's not gonna let ya shuffle off this mortal coil so easy."

He stumbled into that field, the field in which he'd seen that superjet land and turn invisible. And he squinted with sharp sharp seagreen eyes, casting about for the thing.

...the army'd had to abandon the positions they'd taken up 'round this spot, but he'd not seen nor heard a vehicle fly away from the middle of the field.

"Hello!" he roared. "I suspect you brought this here gal out to this place, and I suspect you're still here. But she needs medical attention, pronto, and I ain't waltzin' off 'till she gets it!"

 

[ChasNicollette]

Raya and Lar

Blue suns are cold suns, even when they shine.

But there in that place a new star rose, a pulse of white light that bowled Phantoms both substantial and insubstantial, and cleared a path for a moment, just for a moment, for three Kryptonians and a Daxamite.

Kara ran...

...Raya followed, batting Phantoms away left and right with the sharps and the flats of her blade, but a troublesome thought nagged her...

...she loved Var-Sen. She did not want to lose him again. She turned to make sure he was close enough behind her, she wanted to clutch his hand...

Wounded and furious, a rage that knew no bounds, Aldar dove out of the storming sands and tackled her, panting, bleeding, blaming her for his mortal injury.

His tongue licked her cheek and her face curled up in fury but her knife had gone skittering away...

Aldar stiffened.

Aldar screamed, and that scream gurgled into a little groan and his eyes rolled back as he died.

Something was sticking out of his chest.

Lar's crutch. Lar's crutch, broken in half, sharp, and Lar had stabbed Aldar through the heart with it from behind.

With a roar of fury all his own, Lar "M'onel" Gand rolled Aldar off of Raya. Without a word, he hauled Raya to her feet, his face near enough to kiss her.

...he didn't say anything. He didn't kiss her.

But he whirled and sent her spinning away to the arms of Var-Sen of Krypton, Var-Sen of The House of Sen, giving the woman he loved to the man she loved.

White light flashed again, flashed like a storm within the storm, but he didn't turn to look at it.

Didn't turn to make sure they'd made it through.

He believed in them, far more than he'd ever believed in himself.

He believed in Raya Ro-Zan of The House of Zan. In Var-Sen of The House of Sen. And Kara Zor-El of The House of El.

He believed in them far more than he'd ever believed in The Family Gand.

But if he'd gone through that Gateway, he'd have been dead before his next heartbeat. Here, at least... here at least, he had a fighting chance.

I am gonna live. I am gonna live.

The Phantoms screamed, screamed at their last lost chance to escape.

Had any of them made it to that Gateway's radius? Lar couldn't tell. He could only smile at the fury of those left behind.

He picked up Raya's knife, and turned slowly to regard his enemies. They were... innumerable.

There were many there of a species he didn't recognise. ...pale, ghostly, they looked like a cross between a humanoid and a crustacean, with a scorpion-esque tail and two mouths -- one in their face and one in their belly.

There was a ball of bodiless dark-orchid light, and this he'd never seen before either.

And there were The Phantoms, darkly supernatural. And there were others, countless others. And they all cried out for his blood.

He stood alone in The Black Desert.

And he remembered the red sun of his cradleworld, and even as he coughed up lead-tainted blood, he chuckled.

He remembered Valor.

He stood straight and tall, busted crutch in one hand and mystic knife in the other.

"Okay," he beckoned. "C'mere."

As one, The Phantoms screamed, and rushed towards him.

Lar Gand smiled.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose

J'onn dropped down from the sky like an emerald meteorite. He bent Zod's arm and Zod's hand snapped open and Rose was free.

She couldn't believe it.

Was that it?

I didn't... I didn't die.

I'm alive?

Is that it? Is it over?

...and then with a trembly smile, she realised Merick was there, and she threw her arms around his neck and sobbed.

He was offering to get them out of here, her and "Uncle" John, but all she could do was weep. She was so very very tired.

She drew back and she smiled her trembly smile at Merick.

"Di-Di," she breathed, Mandarin for "little brother." "Xie4xie5. You okay? He kicked you like one-eighth of a mile."

But then Kyle came up behind them, came up as Wraith, and she turned to grin at him instead.

He was dark and scary and beautiful, the opposite side of Zod's coin. Zod was dark and scary and horrific, but Kyle The Wraith trumped Zod The General on all counts.

One last quick grateful grin at Merick, and she pushed away to hug Kyle, press her face to the plates of his chest.

Breathing hard through her mouth because her nostrils still reeked of drying blood, Rose grinned up at Kyle. "Where did you take your bad-ass lessons? Because you need to sign me up for those. I was such a chicken-shit out there but... did you catch a tank?"

But then cold realisation dawned, and in a momentary panic, Rose glanced back and forth between Merick and Kyle.

"Guys," she mumbled, "that spaceship got blown to bits with The Crystal on it. We gotta find it in amongst the rubble... 'fore someone else does!"

 

[ChasNicollette]

Ceri and Bruce

Zod drew his fist back and time screeched to a halt.

Panicked, Ceri tried to throw herself across the intervening space, tried to throw herself from point to point like Merick did with his fabulous abilities but she was just so far away and there was nothing she could do.

"ROOOOSE!" she bayed, and she tripped, and staggered to one knee, and tried to rise again...

But then The Martian was there. And Ceri knew he had power to spare.

The Martian and Merick Tennylson and Wraith.

Ceri sagged with relief, tried not to vomit. (Dry heaves anyway, it had been too long since she'd eaten.)

It didn't matter how hard a warrior ever you became, motherhood would ever hold sway over your instincts and your sensibilities. She was tough as tungsten but still her stomach tightened and she tried not to throw up.

But then the warrior girl who had been making such mincemeat of the armed forces approached, and Ceri suddenly had something new to think about.

The poor girl looked insane.

She had fought like a madwoman and Ceri had been nothing but impressed.

But then she came towards them like they had become her enemy, and a trill raced up Ceri's spine as though... as though the poor dear girl truly had gone mad.

She collapsed at Ted's feet, ready to kill him but betrayed by her body, by her will.

And Ted gathered her in his arms like a little lost child.

Ceri opened her mouth to ask him who she was, what he was doing, but Ted didn't look like he was in the mood for conversation. He just bore the girl off, and Ceri stood there, bewildered.

Bruce touched Ceri's arm gently. "Your friend in the trench-coat is down. See to him."

Ceri nodded quietly. "Yeah. Good thinking."

She jogged over to where John had fallen, and she knelt by his side.

Head injury. Don't move a head injury. D'yeh have any healing magic in you, John?

Glancing at Deathstroke, a stiff nod, mingled warning and respect, Bruce then approached the crumpled General. Stood there holding up a fist with the ring plainly displayed on it. Kryptonite.

Bruce, too, rather like Lex, had read Sun Tzu.

And with a voice like jagged iron and gravel chunks, he lectured The General: "'Know your enemy and know yourself, find naught in fear for one hundred battles. Know yourself but not your enemy, find level of loss and victory. Know thy enemy but not yourself, wallow in defeat every time.'"

Inside his mask, Bruce arched an eyebrow.

"It seems, General," he growled, "that you knew neither yourself, nor your enemy. Because your own limits have been your downfall, and you have underestimated us by far. Of course you lost. You will always lose. You're up against the people of Earth, and we have no limits."

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Rebekka Greystone & Crew

"Ma'am, there is a man holding on of the girls outside the plane. He is pretty bloody, and she looks hurt. What are your orders?"

Rebekka looked up from her laptop and at the copilot. "Drop cloak and send out the med team we brought. Priority goes out to the team we brought in, any civilian casualties, then the Chinese Military casualties. Also have my security detail meet me at the ramp. I am going down."
The man startled a bit. "Ma'am, thats is NOT going to make Gordon happy!"

"Staying on Gordons Christmas card list is not one of my priorities. You have your orders."

The copilot nodded and headed back to the rear of the plane, behind the secured passenger compartment where the girls had traveled. Behind the door none of the girls had thought about was a high-tech medical station. Four women and a tall man were crowded in it getting equipment ready and checking supplies.

"Your a go. Grab your team and head out. Locator's are set for the girls beacons. One is down, the blonde's, but the others are up and running. You have one of the team outside the plane being carried by a man, she looks bad."

"WHAT!!!" said a pretty blond woman, the team leader. "Why the Hell weren't we informed a team member was down. Open the damn door!! Dane, grab the S1. Janice, grab a mobile crash kit. Let's go! Move it people!!"

As the team readied themselves the hologram around the plane flickered, and before a stunned Teddy Grand a jet appeared. Too big to be a fighter, too sleek to be a bomber. It did not match any plane he had ever seen.


A ramp lowered at the back of the craft and a group of people in black jumpsuits with a large white patch with red crosses on it exploded out of the plane. Teddy was soon surrounded by the medical response team, and immediately a perky blue eyed blonde woman, about five feet tall was standing in front of him.

"OK mister, We will take care of our girl here, but this is what I need you to do. i don't know what kind of injuries she has, so you are going to gently hand her over to Dane here, the tall drink of water to my left, and Carol, the woman on my right. They are going to put her on a backboard and then we are all going to go inside. Karen and Janice, you guys go check the rest of the team. Use your locator's, and keep your heads down. Min, go with them. Translate if you need to. Boss has us on level two, so use non-lethals unless absolutely necessary. You got that Min, no going all Matrix on the Chinese army!"

She stopped talking then and looked up at Teddy Grant.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Lets go."

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Wraith

I made my way over to Rose and Merick, and stopped by them. Merick was looking a bit disheveled, but he still had plenty of fight in him.

Rose, however, was.. Rose.

My heart leaped in my throat when I saw her, battered, a little bloody, and so damn beautiful it almost hurt to look at her. She was a beautiful Valkyrie wielding fire and ice instead of steel.

Then she was in my arms, and everything else in the world stopped as I stood there with her, my world calming with her in my arms.

"Where did you take your bad-ass lessons? Because you need to sign me up for those. I was such a chicken-shit out there but... did you catch a tank?"

I chuckled. "No sweetheart, I just deflected it. It was pure terror and adrenalin and lots of good old luck. And you were beautiful, and valiant. Like a Valkyrie out of a epic poem come in fire and ice to take out the bad guys."

I pulled her in closer to me and looked over at Merick. I gave him a nod, the universal guy symbol of "You got my back. Thanks bro."


Then Rose startled and looked around.

"Guys," she said in a quiet voice, "that spaceship got blown to bits with The Crystal on it. We gotta find it in among the rubble... 'fore someone else does!"

I looked over at the rubbles spanning a huge area. OK, this was gonna take a while.

"OK lets get to it. It looks like the Chinese are on the run, but they will be back pretty quick, with lots more. Hey, how did you guys get here anyway?"

And that was when the Pegasus uncloaked, and I got a look at the plane. The PROTOTYPE that Bekka was so damn secretive about.

Oh Hell No!

"Umm, Rose, was a woman in a fancy wheel chair with dark blue eyes and black hair on that plane? Because if she is, I might just kill someone today anyway."

 

[Lunaramblings]

Merick hugged tightly to Rose. As he did his mind was filled with memories. Days at Crater Lake, pizzas eaten arguing over who would win, Voldemort or Saruman, not to mention much arguing over various bands and which was better vinyl or disc.

Merick hugged Rose and in that moment his heart was more pure than ever before. In times ahead it would be the feeling that Merick had in that moment that would push him on.

Merick looked at Zod. "Your not worth the trouble to kill. Besides, something tells me Mr. Lean and Green here has plenty more in store for you than Death."

Merick looked about the field. He saw his grandpa, he saw Bruce and Ceri.

All accounted for. All coming home alive.

"Let's find us a crystal." Merick reluctantly handed Rose to her boyfriend and started teleporting at such a rate it sounded like a machine gun. He had no idea what he was looking for, but figured he would know it if he saw it.

 

[Lunaramblings]

Deathstroke snapped the necks of two soldiers as they tried to push him back. Then crushed the skull of another with a sharp swinging axe kick.

Then battle seemed to end all at once.

"Damn. Just when I was getting warmed up." Deathstroke looked over at Bruce and under the mask he was grinning... "You know son. I would be glad to teach you some time. Just say the word. You have promise. A lot of it. The mask is a little odd... but hey, to each their own." Deathstroke slapped Bruce on the shoulder as he collapsed the staff and looked to Ceri. "One of these days, we are gonna have to sit down, your kin and mine. Have a nice picnic. Been too long since I had the company of a McCrimmon. Maybe your sister could be persuaded to join us."

Deathstroke began to move toward Merick but he was flashing around the field to fast for Deathstroke to follow each movement.

Edmund removed his mask and brushed his hair back from his face. There was such promise here. A whole new generation...

 

[ChasNicollette]

Bruce, Ceri, John, and Rose

Bruce grimaced at Deathstroke's suggestion of teaching. This was the second time he'd mentioned it, and the idea of learning from such a killer turned his stomach.

But then again.

"I was thinking about starting up an apprenticeship," Bruce murmured, "with a man named Henri Ducard. Haven't made a decision on the matter yet. I get the feeling you and he move in similar circles?"

Ceri turned purple, just about, at Deathstroke so casually dropping her sister's mention. Like a blade he was twisting casually in her side.

And she would have gone for him, would have tried to kill him, she was positively certain, had she not been kneeling with the wounded Constantine's head in her lap.

And had John Constantine not blinked his eyes right then, and smiled a woozy smile up Ceri's body.

"Here's," he mumbled, "a familiar sight. Didn't expect to be seeing you from this angle ever again."

Ceri's gaze snapped down at him, her rage instantly fortunately forgotten in her surprise and amazement and incredulity: "Belt up, will you? I don't think you're supposed to be talking, much less flirting shamelessly."

John's smile was crooked, his voice lopsided. "What? S'not like yeh're married, what?"

Immediately, Ceri changed from purple with rage to red with embarrassment.

Rose was grinning softly as she watched Merick flicker about with impossible speed, like an emerald light set to strobe. She wanted to go and help him, but she didn't think she could walk much at this point, much less fly.

She glanced up at the look on Wraith's face, and she shook her head with a soft grin, teasing, eyes dancing.

The irony of a person being able to bounce a Main Battle Tank around like a ping-pong ball and yet still being scared of their sibling... this was a roguish delight to her.

"Yeah, there was a personage matching that description," she grinned softly. "Why, is she related to you? You afraid she's going to show me pictures of you in diapers or old Hallowe'en costumes?"

"Oi," John called, croaky-voice and trembling, "Darkling. A word wiv yeh."

Ceri frowned. "Don't talk, don't move, you silly stupid stubborn git."

John harrumphed, and ignored her. "Oi. Ugly Darkling!"

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Wraith

I looked down into Rose's clear blue eyes.
"I am not afraid of my sister!" I said, taking on a insulted tone. "I just have a healthy respect for the past experiences I have had when she has ripped me a new one a few times."

I bent down a little and lifted Rose up into my arms. She gave a little squeak, then settled in nicely as I carried her over to her mom and the guy who was laying with his head in her lap.

"Hello Mrs. McCrimmon. I brought you someone who is probably real happy to see you."

I looked down at the man on the ground. "I assume you were referring to me. And who you calling ugly?"

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose, Ceri, and John

Rose grinned at him, finding his protestations of courage even more entertaining than his appearance of fright...

But then she was in his arms and her eyes were wide with surprise and... just a little wordless noise escaped her lips. He lifted her like she didn't weigh a thing and God, that wasn't gallant at all, now, was it?

So it was with a blush on her cheeks that she clambered down beside her mother, a little sheepish, sitting down on the rocks beside where Ceri was kneeling.

"Hey, mum," Rose smiled sheepishly. "I'm okay. Really. Based on how I recovered from when I fell off the top of the house, this should only take me about a day, day and a half to heal. (Stupid flight training.)"

"Mm," Ceri nodded, but she still looked worried. "(God, don't remind me. Your dad was in hysterics! 'I've killed her again, I've killed her again!') Could have been worse, I s'pose. Still, it tears me up to see you like this."

"I'm okay," Rose smiled faintly. "I'm okay. Hurts like crap. But I'm okay. I'm a tough old broad, like me mum."

Ceri laughed, and reached out and squeezed her hand. "Quite right, too."

John, meanwhile, was grinning softly. "Well, you're ugly all right. I've met low-level rhyming demons prettier than you. But upon closer scrutiny, you're not a Darkling after all. Too much space in your braincase to be a Darkling. And your aura's all fooked. You're..."

He hesitated. And blinked.

"Cor fucking blimey," he breathed, "Entelechia like yours... I've read about you. Scrolls and the like, found in a valley near Alexandretta. There hasn't been one of your like running around the planes since the year London was born."

He rubbed his forehead with one hand and closed his eyes. "Fuck me running. Maybe I got knocked on me 'ead harder than I thought..."

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Wraith

I looked down at the strange man in Ceri's lap. Then looked at Ceri herself.

"Is he always this confusing? Or does the head wound have anything to do with it?"

 

[Lunaramblings]

Edmund Tennylson looked at Bruce. Looked long and hard.

"Ducard is a pompous jackass. You tell him Slade said so. I see the way you would look at me kiddo, like something to be reviled. Well, you ain't half wrong. S'matter o' fact, I can't imagine why you would trust me. But, let me tell you boy, if you think signing on with Ducard and his lot is a better option, maybe I should enlighten you as to who has hired some of my best work." If there was one man on the face of God's Earth that Edmund didn't trust it was Ducard. "Just don't think the old bastards gonna welcome you with open arms and train ya, then let you walk. Not how it works. If you insist on going with him then maybe you could use someone to watch your back. I might be old, but I can hold my own. Besides, Dale is gonna run the company for a bit. And an old man could use some time away." Edmund looked Bruce over. Examining him. Studying the young man before him. "Besides... I owe a debt I intend to pay."

With that Deathstroke looked to Ceri once more.

"Darlin' don't hate me. If not for people like me, people like you would be overzealous soccer moms." Edmund smiled as he sat on a rock and started to light a cigarette.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose, Ceri, John, and Bruce

"Actually, he sounds kind of like Dad," Rose blinked with an odd realisation. "Does Dad have a head wound?"

Ceri smiled thinly, supremely uncomfortable with her love life coming to light like this. Oh, if only the past would stay the past...

"You should hear them when they're together," she grunted softly. "James and John, The Sons of Thunder. Not to say that they're powerful, or that their tempers are anything to worry about. It's just they make your head explode with their nattering and their prattling, and the boom eh'n't unlike a thunderclap."

"Used ter like," John mumbled, eyes half-open, "me nattering and me prattling."

"I liked your singing," Ceri remarked, wry and rueful, "your talking always galled me a bit."

"Eh," John replied. "The truth hurts."

"Who's to judge, 'Slade,'" Bruce replied, playing his proverbial cards close to his proverbial vest, far far away from the sting of truth, "who's better or who's worse in this life? I'll have a look for myself at Ducard, a good close look. And when I'm done with him, done shaking his fangs out of my flesh, maybe I'll come looking for you."

With a gesture, a flick of his wrist, he tossed the Kryptonite ring to Deathstroke.

"Here. Keep an eye on the P.O.W. while we decide what to do with him."

And then he moved to help Merick search. No way could he cover more ground than the teleporter, but a sharp pair of eyes was always a useful thing. And Bruce's eyes were sharper than most.

Ceri, meanwhile, scowled anew at The Terminator.

"I long for the day when I can hang up me cleats and be rid of threats like you," she spat. "What kind of world would that be? Me daughter would be safer, for one. And she still might hate sports, but we could at least catch a match or two down at the pitch. I could be one thing, and just one thing, and not hide m'self or divide m'self."

"Don't you listen to him," Rose shook her head fiercely. "Don't you dare. I'm proud of you, Mum. Of both of you. He's the same kind of bully that mocked me every day of grade school: he knows he's the lesser party, and he's trying to build himself some modicum of ego by dragging you down. Don't you listen to him; don't you dare."

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Wraith & other supporting cast members

"Your daughter is safer. She can hold her own against a Chinese battalion, and anyone who tries to harm her or her family will have me to contend with, and everything I can bring, I will!" I said in a low, deadly voice.

I looked over at the old man that wore death like an old sweater.

"I don't know who you are, but you definitely don't know me. Please refrain from the veiled threats and jabs at people I care for."

About that time a young asian woman with a REALLY big pistol showed up, with a brunette woman and a blond in tow.

"OK, this is one of them. I'll stand watch, you two get to work. Oh, hello Wraith. Been a while since I have seen you around."

"Hey Min, is that a huge bubblegum gun or are you just happy to see me?" I teased. Min was the youngest member of Bekka's security team. We always did get along well.

"Yep. Latest model. Finally got it down to a pistol size. I have the real deal too, but the boss said to go non-lethal."

Meanwhile the other two were on John Constantine. The blond in charge.

"OK, ma'am, let me and Janice here help. This boy looks pretty beat up. Janice, i need 35cc's of serum and 200 cc's of nighttime"

"You got it Karen." She slung a pack down off her back and pulled out two injector guns, loading a slightly luminescent lavender liquid in one and a clear one in the other. "Here you go."

She looked over at Rose then. "Your next hon. But lets get this guy stabilized first."

 

[AmenRa]

Martian Manhunter

As Zod slumped back into his arms, J'onn let him fall unceremoniously to the ground. The Martian Manhunter saw Bruce toss the Kryptonite ring to Deathstroke.

This gave him an idea.

He flew from where they all stood with unimagineable speed to Crater Lake located on the outskirts of Smallville, and he retrieved a fair-sized piece of the green crystal that had fused with nickel and iron ore when it split from its mother world. He tucked this under his arm and flew back to the group of Outsiders gathered in China.

Here the Martian Manhunter set to work. Using his incredible strength and Martian vision, he molded and shaped the glowing green crystal and metal into a long, thin rod. He then twisted it into a spiral, and then he used the spring-like object to bind Zod's wrists together while the General was still unconscious.

"Iron bars do not a prison make," J'onn said, "but for a Kryptonian, those laced with Kryptonite do indeed."

And then another great thunderclap caught his attention, and he looked to the Southern sky, where he saw a swirling light that he knew was the opening of the Gateway to the Phantom Zone.

 

[AmenRa]

Var-Sen

As his beloved Raya fell into his arms, Var-Sen of Krypton could only stare in awe as Lar moved to take on the Phantoms.

All of them.

Var-Sen, caught in the swirling vortex of the Gate's opening, was being pulled behind Kara like the tail of a comet. He would stay and fight, but it was too late. They had all had spilled the Phantom's netherworld blood, and now Lar was about to give himself to a last stand so they could escape.

Var-Sen's eyes closed tightly as he held Raya to him, his hand against her cheek, pressing her face to his chest so she would not see the last sights of the Phantom Zone.

Valor and honor, my friend, Var-Sen thought for Lar Gand. May the might of your strength strike justly and true.

And then came the darkness and pain.

And suddenly, the bright light of Earth.

 

[Lunaramblings]

Deathstroke caught the ring and nodded at Bruce. "Just be careful 'bout makin' deals with the devil. He always collects."
Deathstroke grinned at Wraith.

"All this youthful exuberance. Makes me think of the old days. Really Ceri, I am not a bad man. We all have our lot in life. Destiny is a real bitch. And she wants her alimony. I meant no disrespect to you Ceri. I really did enjoy the time I spent with little sister. She was... intense. I must say, I am more than a little impressed with you too. And your daughter." Edmund grinned that Tennylson Grin at Rose and Ceri. "All I meant was, every yin needs a yang. Every story worth telling has a good antagonist. If that is what my role is, then so be it."

As the Martian locked Zod up Deathstroke fingered the little green ring. How easy a mark this monster would be. One quick swing. Just one. And it could be taken care of. Permanently.

"Sometimes a dirty job just needs to be done. I don't take any personal pleasure in that fact. 'Smatter o' fact, sometimes I wish it wasn't so. But that is life."

With that Merick appeared behind Edmund. "We make our own Destiny around here Grandpa. You can keep being a jerk or you can switch teams. Try playin for the good guys for once. I mean seriously, we could be like three generations of superheroes. Or, you can stay bad, and I kick your ass. Sucks, but that's life." The energy ebbing and flowing from Merick was palpable. "This woman, the "overzealous soccermom" is more my family than you are. If you want that to change, than it starts with you. And keep your claws out of my father." Merick was off in a flash once more scouring the area, when the blast of swirling light flashed and there was a boom in the sky. Merick braced himself for combat...

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

Kara ran as fast as she could towards the gateway, her mind and heart racing as she neared closer and closer to the pedestal jetting out of the ground. Her eyes locked down on its surface, and she saw her family crest emblazoned on it. Her blood was the key to unlocking the gateway, a fact that all the inhabitants of the Zone knew.

And they knew it well...

Phantoms began swarming the area around the gateway, hoping for that one chance at revenge and escape...

Looking back to her friends, Kara hoped that they would make it in time. Placing her hand upon the seal, she saw it light up and react to her touch...

The gateway was opening.

"Hurry up!" Kara shouted, though her voice was drowned out by the sound of the portal opening. Wind howled in her ears, and her golden hair billowed in front of her face, obscuring her view.

She saw masses rushing towards the gateway, and she couldn't make out if they were friend or foe. All she knew was that she would not be the only one leaving the Phantom Zone.

A great pillar of light shot up from the archway, bursting into the heavens, and Kara was tugged forcefully into its violent current. For a few brief moments the daughter of Zor-El lost consciousness. Her mind, body and spirit were being transported far away to another place...

Back on Earth the ground began to rumble as the portal from the Phantom Zone opened up again. High in the sky the portal seemed to shine like a brilliant star during the day, and it proceeded to break off into at least a half-dozen pieces, each one being scattered to the far ends of the earth.

Kara Zor-El came crashing down in a blazing form of twisted blue energy, her impact leaving a rather large crater in the ground. The mystical energies surrounding her twisted and crackled along the ground, finally dissipating after a few moments.

It took Kara a few seconds to realize she was back home...

Back on Earth.

Looking up towards the sky, Kara closed her eyes as the Sun bathed her youthful body in its warmth, and she felt all her wounds healing up instantly. She was rejuvenated and relaxed, and her muscles finally started to remember the power they once held.

It was good to be home.

Looking around, Kara noticed she was by herself. She couldn't see Raya or Var-Sen anywhere.

In her heart she hoped that they had made it to the gateway in time.

She didn't want to be alone anymore...

Using her super speed, Kara ran as far away from her landing spot as possible. She had no doubt that someone had to have noticed the bright lights up in the sky, and they would certainly follow the trails to where she came crashing down.

And as much as Kara liked to consider herself a friendly and "open" person, she really didn't feel like sticking around to answer their questions.

Some things were just better left a mystery.

Once Kara had moved far enough away, she stopped running to gather her bearings. She was in a large field surrounded by trees, and there didn't seem to be any signs of civilization anywhere.

Couldn't her father have designed a better landing spot?

"Okay..."

Kara began looking around, hoping that her ears might be able to pick up something. She began running again out of frustration, passing over streams and rivers until she upon a paved road.

Pavement was a good sign.

Running a bit further she came across a very familiar sight, and her eyes lit up and a smile spread across her face.

She was standing before a large billboard that read: "Welcome to Smallville - Kansas (pop 45,001) The Meteor Capital of the World!"

 

[camerindrake]

Damian

Damian sat his eyes closed through most of the things that had happened. He then thought it was time. He looked up and hit the button. and he spoke, "Boomtube in route."

With a crackle and and a boom the tube dropped into the warehouse. He then let the doors open. He looked to the others. "GRab the girl and bring her in," speaking of Chloe. He then walked into the doorway which stood very ubscured to reflective metal of the box. Though when he walked in it seamed that there was a bend of space and the inside was much larger than the outside. New God technology from New Genisis. What Damian called the boomtube was nothing but the holding tube to a portable boomtube generator. Instead of walking forward through the tube the generator opened the tube below the room and the room fell through to the next location. Made it to where being stranded in an alternate universe was a thing of the past. The tube itself wasn't much larger than a telephone booth. However inside it was the size of the upper reaches of the Bat-Cave of Wayne Tower. He walked over and pulled down the med table. And waited. He new they needed a moment.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Alfred, Pete, Jamie, and Gabe (with Chloe)

It's always the quiet ones.

You've always got to watch the quiet ones.

But perhaps more frightening are the ones that are quiet on the inside and bombastic on the outside.

And no-one was watching Damian, when he was quietest of all.

Perhaps it was strange that he didn't join the battle-party.

Perhaps he trusted the others to do enough damage without him. Or perhaps he decided that he could do more damage here.

Regardless.

The modified Boom Tube thundered to life in the confined area of the bunker storage room and Alfred fell backwards, eyes wide as he recognised the thing that had detonated out onto his lawn from thin air.

"Stone the crows," he breathed.

Equally wide-eyed, Pete shot a glance at Alfred, irritated by his own frightened reaction and trying to maintain his traditional grace under pressure. "You got somethin' against Crows, 'Fred?"

Alfred blinked. Shot a glance at Pete. "Not at all, Peter. My mistake. Crows are a beautiful and integral part of Earth's ecosystem."

"Damn right," Pete nodded fiercely.

"Knew a Magpie, once," Jamie murmured, adjusting his glasses as he straightened, tall, and gazed quietly at the artefact in question. "Hell of an electrician."

Makes me central nervous system twitch, that thing does. Not bad necessarily, now that I look at it. Just... beyond.

Gabe clutched his dead daughter's hand all the tighter, his voice a hiss, unwilling to take anything at face value with the seemingly-righteous madman who'd found him not far from Crater Lake.. "Doctor Hamilton. What is that? Is it really safe to take my daughter in there?"

Jamie ran his tongue over his teeth, didn't answer at first.

Hands in his pockets, he walked past Damian into the Boom Room.

"Permission to come aboard?" he asked ironically, without waiting for permission.

As he crossed the threshold, he closed his eyes, felt a goosebumpy prickle over his skin and down his spine-- tesseract, I'd bet me father's watch --and then he opened them again.

Had a look around.

He didn't touch any buttons, kind of let his fingers flow across surfaces one-handed as the other hand stayed in his pocket.

"Is this stuff common where you come from?" he wondered. "'Available at every corner drugstore?' Noisy enough. I still wonder if it's traceable, the vibrations it causes in the universal harmonic. (Makes me toes curl, this thing going off, and no, not in the good way.)"

He stood in the middle of the room, eyes closed and head bowed and hands outstretched, fingers splayed. Very much like he'd done in The Kawatche Caves earlier on.

He twitched a little bit.

Then he lowered his hands and raised his head and shot Damian a quiet, quiet gaze, removing his glasses as he did so. "This is very impressive. Sustained electrogravitic chronospacial moulding? The sonic effect is still troubling, Pythagorean. Makes me wonder. Sort of power output required here would be off the charts for current Earth technology. (Generator the size of Taunton.) But it is safe, isn't it? Gave me the willies, first I heard that noise, but that sort of sonic disruption... well, it'd be enough to give a stalwart Cockney man a heart attack."

He walked to the doorway, and gestured to the others. "Come on. It's safe."

"How can you know that?" Gabe arched an eyebrow, though he and Pete were already lifting Chloe, Pete at her legs, Gabe at her shoulders. "How can you know such impossible things?"

"Saw this before," Pete shook his head as they stepped through the threshold, that bend of space. "Man's like a walking talking tricorder."

"Mm," Jamie nodded quietly, smoothing an eyebrow with the backs of his knuckles. "I have a low-level metagene. It's how me brother discovered the things in the first place. Extremely low-level, mind. Can't do anything spectacular, can't rebuild Great Walls by staring hard, can't turn back time by spinning The Earth backwards, can't outrun a speeding tachyon. I'm just... sensitive. Used to be I had the standard five. Could hear a pin drop in a crowded room, see like a hawk, whiff like a bloodhound. (Gave me these terrible headaches.) But I've been practising, see. For my work. Comes in handy. There's fundamental forces to The Universe, electromagnetism and gravity and the two nuclear forces and, erm, few others, don't have names yet. And I have a knack for picking up fluctuations in those forces, things that don't belong. (Like a Kryptonian force-aura, f'rinstance.)"

He smiled faintly. "It's more qualitative than quantitative. Intuitive. Constructivist epistemology rather than positivist. Generally considered useless for actual scientific verification. But it gets me on the right track, seven times out of ten."

Alfred whistled softly as he stepped through, looking this way and that as he rolled his sleeves back down. "Bigger on the inside."

Gently, Pete and Gabe stretched Chloe out on the medical bed.

Alfred turned slowly around, and shook his head. "Oh, my stars and garters. (This is all quite beyond my ability to understand.)"

Gabe frowned at Damian. "This is my only daughter. If you do anything to hurt her--"

Pete cracked his knuckles for emphasis. "--I don't care how strong your Kung Fu is, Grasshopper, we'll hop all over your grass."

"He can't hurt Chloe," Jamie blinked, as if surprised. "She's dead."

Gabe's mouth dropped open. Pete paled.

Alfred cocked an eyebrow at Jamie. "Then what are you accomplishing with all this show?"

"You heard her," Jamie murmured. "She'll be back. And there might be a spark in her... a spark so faint that human medical science and the five senses can't detect it, not even mine. But maybe this stuff, all of this stuff, maybe it can find that spark."

"Barring that," Alfred mused faintly, "that med-bed's a sight more comfortable than a cold bunker floor. Or a kitchen table."

Quietly, Pete smoothed Chloe's hair back from her forehead. "Don't be long, baby. Don't be long."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Threshold Station

The world was in a little bit of chaos.

Lights were out. Phones were down.

But there were some things that still worked. Internal generators, for instance.

Threshold Station, the bunker beneath the sands of Nevada, was on a skeleton crew, and almost everything was out save the backup lights.

The backup lights and the seismics.

"Sir?" one of the techs murmured to his supervisor. "We've got. Um. We've had a small epicentric event in one of the subbasement storage facilities."

"A what?" the supervisor blinked, wearily and blearily staring at the phone, wishing it would ring.

"We have company sir," the tech replied, wide-eyed and pale. "Of what manner I can't begin to imagine. But something big just went off down there."

The supervisor stared at the tech in horror. "We need to contact The Pentagon."

"The phones are out," one of the other techs meeped meekly, "and The Internet is... is gone. We're alone out here."

"I don't care," the supervisor growled, teeth gritted, "if you have to get on goddamn Morse Code like in that ridiculous movie with the aliens, get word to General Eiling. If you can't get a hold of him, someone with four stars... stat."

The supervisor whirled to stare at the duty roster. "Who do we have on for security right now?"

 

[ChasNicollette]

On 30 June, 1908, just about almost a hundred years ago, a gigantic explosion ripped through the skies over Siberia. Near Tunguska, to be more specific.

It was a detonation of ungodly proportions, anywhere from 5 to 15 to 30 megatons, roughly equal to certain varieties of thermonuclear device. An explosion like this could take out a large city and everyone in it.

To this day, no-one knows what caused it.

But there are theories.

One gentleman theorised that this was an inter-dimensional cross-rip. This gentleman, perhaps oddly, also suggested that the event actually took place a full year later, in 1909, even though the explosion shattered the sky, firmly established, in June of 1908.

(The exact date is only in dispute because the Julian calendar was still in use on scene at the time, causing some to say that it took place on 17 June. But for the purposes of this discussion, the Gregorian calendar places the event on 30 June. The year is not in question.)

This particular gentleman never did explain why he claimed the cross-rip occurred a full year later. But you never can take anything for granted with inter-dimensional phenomena. Physics can be unpredictable. Cause does not necessarily follow effect. Particularly if Time itself, in one of these dimensions, functions alternately from the other.

Meanwhile, about half a century later...

Starting in 1952, the British government began conducting nuclear tests on Australian soil. The first of these was confined to the Montebello Islands off of Australia's western coast, but from 1953 through 1963, these tests were performed on the Australian mainland. Most of these were performed at a place called Maralinga.

Cleanup took the better part of the rest of the century, and the local Aboriginal tribes have only relatively recently been permitted to return to rebuild their lives. Radiation levels are now considered safe.

Present Day...

Searing white light tore open the skies over Maralinga, Australia, and in horror, a number of Tjarutja tribesmen stopped what they were doing and stared...

...their jaws went slack and their faces paled.

"Oh dear God," one of them breathed. "Again. They're doing it again."

The man next to him shook his head. "No. Different this time. Like Tunguska."

Something fell from the sky, fell from that searing white cross-rip, and pounded into The Earth so fiercely that a crater formed, soil and rock flying high into the sky.

A number of the Tjarutjas looked at each other, and ran towards the impact, perhaps in defiance of common sense.

When they reached the edge of the impact crater's radius, they peered down through the falling soil.

And what they saw there took their breath away.

A beautiful blonde creature. A woman. Slender and tightly muscled, honed like a weapon. She had a number of injuries, a number of bloody patches, but by the time one of the more Good Samaritan-minded tribesmen skidded down the inner surface of the crater to reach her, these wounds had healed.

Raya, torn from the grasp of Var-Sen by insurmountable forces, lay unmoving beneath the light of a yellow Sun.

"Somebody should get a doctor," the tribesman breathed. "Somebody should call... someone."