Justice League: The New Wave (IC)

Damian’s focus had gone back to the fires. It seemed that the female with Wonder Woman’s insignia had begun to put out some of the fires with her little trick. They might be able to pull this off after all he thought to himself as he flipped switches. On the outside of the Bat, nozzles opened and soon the air was being filled with a foam, that as it began to make contact with the fire began to die.

What Damian wasn’t expecting was for the seismic alarms to begin going off as he was busy trying to put out a fire. He looked over and couldn’t see the Amazon anymore, what he did see was the mountain that seemed to have crushed the girl. He looked to where Aquaman and the naked man had been fighting. He didn’t see the two fighting, instead he saw the naked man seemingly just standing there and he seemed to be angry. But Aquaman didn’t seem to be there, he wondered what had happened to the walking fish. Things needed to get coordinated quickly or else this city was doomed.

When he looked at another direction he saw what seemed to be either a very pale or litterally white skinned red head. He activated the PA system on the Bat. “Red, see if you can help out the blonde or even see if she is still alive. If she is still alive see if she is up to fighting the naked man that is destroying everything in sight, since Aquaman is now missing in action.”

As he maneuvered the Bat to see if he could see any sign of Aquaman or any other meta human trying to help out. That’s when he saw the whirl wind sucking the fire out of one of the buildings. He looked at his monitors to see if he could determine who was in there, but he couldn’t see anyone just something that looked like sparks of electricity. He reversed the feed and then slowed it down and saw someone running around. “Speedy Gonzalez I’m releasing fire retardant, let it take care of the flames. You get to as many people as you can and get them to safety. And while you’re at it see if you see Aquaman anywhere around.”

When the stars are falling, and worlds collide. (Rose/M'gann)

Chicken Little had missed his moment, the sky was falling.

Even from as far away as Centennial Park, even as rattled as she was, Rose could see that mountain's inexorable plunge onto the warehouse district, and she hoped to whatever gods scuttled around in the crawlspace beneath the floorboards of reality, whatever deuses ran this ramshackle machina, that that area had been evacuated...

...but as the stone fell, she felt an imploding point in her mind, the crushing weight of fatigue and failure, and Rose realized--

--with a sharp sharp start--

--that she was feeling the mind of the ridiculously gorgeous blonde woman who'd wondered why she should help the fragile lost.

It was her that had been holding up that icy mountain-cap, and it was her that was tumbling under it.

She had helped put out the fires! She had helped after all! Fucking Hell was she powerful, like Superman himself?

...oh, and now she was losing altitude, losing her fight to remain conscious even as she was losing her fight to remain aloft...

Rose's red red eyes widened, and she went, if it were possible, even paler than normal. "No..."

She flung her hand out, tried to stop the mountain from crushing the blonde woman-- didn't even know her name --but she'd never ever tried to move anything that size before, not even remotely that big, and her mind couldn't get traction on its mass. Its inertia, its gravity-- it was like trying to drag a planet out of orbit-- couldn't-- couldn't--

--she felt the throoooom of its impact through the bedrock of The City of Tomorrow, felt the ripple of the reservoir around her.

Rose closed her eyes, and let her hand droop back into the water.

"...no."

LuckyVic said:

When he looked at another direction he saw what seemed to be either a very pale or litterally white skinned red head. He activated the PA system on the Bat. “Red, see if you can help out the blonde or even see if she is still alive. If she is still alive see if she is up to fighting the naked man that is destroying everything in sight, since Aquaman is now missing in action.”

Click to expand...

Rose's eyes snapped open when she realized this voice from the dark UFO thing was calling to her. She narrowed them almost immediately, yelled up at the nighted wing-- "Listen, asshole, I didn't--"

She paused. No. No, as much as she hated that this complete stranger was telling her what to do like some peon or peasant, he was right. He was-- she should try and help. They had to stop this.

She didn't know anything about any Aquaman or any naked man destroying everything, but she knew that the only reason the blonde woman was buried under tons of frozen rock was because Rose herself had encouraged her to help. This wasn't her fault, but it was her responsibility.

And so help her aforementioned scuttling gods, she was going to do something about all this.

The fire was practically gone now. Between the rainfall and the flyer's fire-extinguisher crap...

Rose could feel a steadiness returning to her, feel a reserve of power pooling inside her not unlike the reservoir that sloshed around her.

The might of her mind buoyed her up and she darted from the water and into the sky as though she had been flung, and she alighted almost instants later beside the towering chunk of ice and stone that rested atop warehouses. She stood atop a ring of rubble and a broken sign that once perhaps read "Ferris Air."

Biting her lip, Rose reached out again with her mind...

...tried to find the mind that she had felt quailing and failing beneath the weight of the world...

...and there it was.

Just a whisper. Darkness near to death.

But impossibly, mind-bogglingly alive.

And-- in that darkness-- in that sparkness that defied the darkness--

--there was an aching cry--

--a longing deep to the bones, a pang on a cellular level--

Need. Sun.

Need. Apolla.

Need. Helia.

Sun...

The woman's mind and body cried out for sunlight like she'd never seen the sun before, and it reminded Rose... reminded her of the tremble and quiet sadness, the-- saudade for a place she had never seen and might never see again, the red sand place with the two moons--

Almost before she realized she was doing it, Rose was lunging for the rock face.

She had walked through walls before.

Once, when all this had started, she had locked herself out of her apartment and had very accidentally stepped right through the closed door to find her keys still hanging on the coat-hook where she'd left them. Since then she'd been able to repeat the process here and there but it had taken such... force of will. Such ferocious willing herself to not... be... to fade... to ghost...

...but it had always just been through walls. Through bathroom tile and drywall and wires and into the kitchen on the other side. Negligible thickness compared to this damn Gibraltar.

This...

...this was like swimming through solid rock.

This was almost harder, in its way, than trying to lift the thing with her mind. Making herself so not-quite-there that she slipped between the molecules of solid rock... on and on and deeper and deeper, closing in on that mind that had given up and been crushed along with the body.

And she found her. There in the darkness under the stone.

And while she could not use her powers to make the beautiful blonde's body as evanescently immaterial as Rose's own, Rose gingerly gathered Karan up in her arms and--

--gritted her teeth--

--and shoved with her mind--

--not trying to lift, but trying to punch--

--trying to drill--

--trying to tunnel--

--trying to carve through solid rock--

--and moments later, gasping, billowing with dust, Rose exploded out through the side of the glacial asteroid with Karan cradled in her grasp.

She wheezed for a moment more, managed to wipe most of the dust and shards of broken stone away from her face with another push of telekinesis.

And glanced over at Karan, sprawled beside her.

Okay. Sun.

And, still half-blind with weariness and bleariness, Rose picked up Karan again and flew wildly East, East towards the sunrise.

She'd never flown internationally before and had no concept of her own flightspeed-- she didn't realize how far she was flying, or how fast--

--but a few clockticks later they landed not far from The Story Bridge in Queensland, Australia. Brisbane.

It wasn't Fiji, or The Bahamas, or-- any number of bright and sunny places--

--but the sun was shining here. Summer sun. Sunset wouldn't be for another few minutes.

Trembling from exertion-- her transitioning body not having yet fully developed the implacable, inexorable, indefatigable Martian metabolism --mind reeling at all these feats she had to accomplish--

--Rose begged the blonde woman to feel the sun.

"C'mon," she mumbled. "C'mon. Come back. Wake up. I need you. I need someone as strong as you."

"There's a man who's destroying Metropolis and I don't know how to do this but you seem like you can kick a continent's ass."

"Please wake up."

"The sun is shining."

Speedy Gonzalez…

Had someone been talking to him? The voice had barely penetrated the howling churn of swiftly moving air molecules. Hiro slowed down and the tornado broke, tearing apart and expanding outwards. As the speedster stopped, he clenched his eyes closed briefly, expecting the world to be spinning but as he cracked open one eye he noticed that he wasn’t facing any vertigo.

“Whew, that’s awesome,” he said with a smile, straightening and noticing the four-foot deep ring-like depression he had created running around as fast as he did. “Oh wow, wait, I’m not gonna get fined am I?”

He then remembered that someone was talking to him and glanced up to see that it wasn’t a bird or a plane—though it was definitely an aircraft. Was it the Army?

You get to as many people as you can and get them to safety. And while you’re at it see if you see Aquaman anywhere around.

Aquaman was missing? Wow, he was actually doing it. He was a hero. Raising a hand up to his brow, Hiro gave the mysterious pilot a salute and said, “Roger!”

All right; let’s see how many people I can run out of here. Chances of me running into Aquaman couldn’t be as slim as if anyone else were looking for him. I did find Barry Allen and that Fast Forward punk in California.

Hiro sank into a sprinter’s stance and in a gleaming silver streak he was gone. While airborne, Damian would be able to see silver lines darting about the polygonal constructs of the city. They went up buildings, down buildings, around the buildings, and pedestrians were just winking out of existence when it sped passed them.

Darkness.

The darkness was like a warm fluffy blanket on a chilly winter morning with the hounds howling outside as the snows fell on Asgard. Enveloping like the arms of the daughters of Oceanus, pulling her ever deeper into the comfort.

“Always in such a hurry.” A bitter hateful voice.

Sounds.

“Stay calm Karan.” A youthful and cheerful voice.

Murmuring.

Voices.

“She’s impatient that one is.” A calm, but haughty motherly tone.

“She’s not impatient, she’s reckless.” A sneering voice.

No.

Voice.

Darkness.

Soft and enveloping. Comfortable. Calm.

"Come back.”

Where did I go?

“Wake up.”

Not sleeping. Just resting my eyes. So tired. Just a little nap.

“I need you.”

No one needs me. I just make a mess of things.

“I need someone as strong as you."

Pulled.

Just need to rest for another minute. So tired.

A light gazed down on her from the highest point of Olympus. Helia, Titan Goddess of the Sun. She of the hair of flame that lite the world and gave life to all that it touched. Her daughter Eos brought the Dawn with a breathe and a whisper. Silent and steady.

Higher she rose. Closer to the light.

The darkness didn’t want to let go. But neither did the light.

Higher and closer to the bright light.

“She’ll do what must be done. She’s strong enough.” Strong. Powerful. Commanding.

“I need you." Reverberated through her skull. An echo that refused to stop. Stronger and stronger with each passing moment.

She blinked and Helia was speaking. “Please wake up."

Ever impulsive.

Forever reckless.

"The sun is shining."

Heart pounding in her ears, Kara slipped her fingers into the Goddesses flaming tresses and kissed her.

The gritty sand ground into the heal of her palm. It was creeping into the back of her low slung jeans, making her butt itch and scratch.

Jerking back, her face turning the color of a well burnt lobster, or the girls hair. “I.. oh .. fuck me..” she moaned, falling back onto the sand. “I’m sorry. I didn’t.. “

Sighing she resolved herself to a life of shame for kissing a girl she’d barely spoken to. Much less exchanged greetings with. Where had she spoken to her before? Flames.. a fire. Yeah a burning city. “How bad did I make things?”

Off in the distance, there is resistance. (Rose/M'gann)

Rose could feel the blonde archangel's mind billowing up, rising to the surface.

Like drowning in reverse.

And there on a sandy beach in eyeshot of The Story Bridge in Brisbane, that archangel woke up coughing up darkness and breathing in light.

And then she--

Varshanka said:

Heart pounding in her ears, Kara slipped her fingers into the Goddesses flaming tresses and kissed her.

Click to expand...

Rose's red red eyes went wide wide wide and her pallid-bust-of-Pallas cheeks lit up with fiery blush like someone had taken a match to them.

She was warm and she was-- strong--

--uninvited, uninvited, uninvited, unexpected--

--there was copious amounts of sand involved, why was that poetically appropriate, red and sand and--

--it took Rose perhaps way longer than it should have for her to make a muffled-mumble noise of protest and startlement--

(but "longer" is relative when everyone's senses were dilated from near-death experiences and everyone involved had some quantity of superspeed)

--"mmmph!"

Varshanka said:

Jerking back, her face turning the color of a well burnt lobster, or the girls hair. “I.. oh .. fuck me..” she moaned, falling back onto the sand. “I’m sorry. I didn’t.. “

Sighing she resolved herself to a life of shame for kissing a girl she’d barely spoken to. Much less exchanged greetings with.

Click to expand...

"It's okay," Rose sputtered, getting her breath back, getting the color back out of her cheeks.

"I mean, it's not-- it's not okay for you to just-- you should have asked first-- all my life people just keep-- tromping all over my personal space--"

"--but I'm glad you're alive, you're glad you're alive, as kisses go it wasn't awful--"

"--one of these days I'm going to have to figure out where I'm at on The Kinsey Scale--"

"--I just. I'm not mad. Specifically. About this."

"But next time. Future reference. If you want to kiss someone you should sound it out with them first."

Varshanka said:

Where had she spoken to her before? Flames.. a fire. Yeah a burning city. “How bad did I make things?”

Click to expand...

Right.

Priorities.

"You squished some warehouses. I don't know if there was anyone inside. But the Ferris one looked abandoned, so there's that. And it's not like you took out a block of Hob's Bay tenements, okay?"

"And you put out the fire, you helped-- I don't do great with fire, apparently."

"But-- but it's not over. The man in the big black Alien Replica Vehicle said there was a guy wrecking the city. A naked guy-- doing all of that damage. And he said Aquaman was missing and this guy was destroying everything and that you might be able to fight him."

She hesitated. Searched Karan's face for a moment.

"Do you think you're up for that? You just had a chunk of The Jungfrau sitting on your face."

And then Rose winced. "Also, I think we're in Australia now. I saw that bridge on a postcard once."

ChasNicollette said:

Rose could feel the blonde archangel's mind billowing up, rising to the surface.

Like drowning in reverse.

And there on a sandy beach in eyeshot of The Story Bridge in Brisbane, that archangel woke up coughing up darkness and breathing in light.

And then she--

Rose's red red eyes went wide wide wide and her pallid-bust-of-Pallas cheeks lit up with fiery blush like someone had taken a match to them.

She was warm and she was-- strong--

--uninvited, uninvited, uninvited, unexpected--

--there was copious amounts of sand involved, why was that poetically appropriate, red and sand and--

--it took Rose perhaps way longer than it should have for her to make a muffled-mumble noise of protest and startlement--

(but "longer" is relative when everyone's senses were dilated from near-death experiences and everyone involved had some quantity of superspeed)

--"mmmph!"

"It's okay," Rose sputtered, getting her breath back, getting the color back out of her cheeks.

"I mean, it's not-- it's not okay for you to just-- you should have asked first-- all my life people just keep-- tromping all over my personal space--"."

Click to expand...

“Yeah sorry.. I wasn’t think..”

ChasNicollette said:

"--but I'm glad you're alive, you're glad you're alive, as kisses go it wasn't awful--"

Click to expand...

Blushing again, Karan looked up at those red red red eyes. Like the eyes of Helia, but her skin was paler than the palest marble of Olympus. “Yeah, I have a little exper..”

ChasNicollette said:

"--one of these days I'm going to have to figure out where I'm at on The Kinsey Scale--"

"--I just. I'm not mad. Specifically. About this."

"But next time. Future reference. If you want to kiss someone you should sound it out with them first."[/COLOR]

Right.

Priorities.

"You squished some warehouses. I don't know if there was anyone inside. But the Ferris one looked abandoned, so there's that. And it's not like you took out a block of Hob's Bay tenements, okay?"

"And you put out the fire, you helped-- I don't do great with fire, apparently."

"But-- but it's not over. The man in the big black Alien Replica Vehicle said there was a guy wrecking the city. A naked guy-- doing all of that damage. And he said Aquaman was missing and this guy was destroying everything and that you might be able to fight him."

She hesitated. Searched Karan's face for a moment.

"Do you think you're up for that? You just had a chunk of The Jungfrau sitting on your face."

And then Rose winced. "Also, I think we're in Australia now. I saw that bridge on a postcard once."

Click to expand...

“Kinsey scale? Alien Replica? Jungfrau? Australia?” Karan finally asked when the alabaster skinned girl indicated the bridge. Trying again to sit up, Karan moved slowly as she watched the sun. “Queen Hippolyta always said the Gaze of Helia was my strength.”

Moving to her feet rather slowly she looked up. “Air is thinner the higher you go, but the Gaze of Helia is stronger.” For a moment it looked like she might start floating , but it didn’t happen and she looked at the red haired girl. “Um, sorry to ask after I already kissed you and all, but um..” she felt her face turning as red as the girls hair. “What’s your name?”

Sighing she looked around. “I have a feeling I.. we don’t have enough time for me to get my strength back normally, so could you.. um.. give me a lift?” she asked gesturing upwards. “At the moment I don’t think I could win an argument with a moth. Much less a fight with one.”

“Sorry about the big buildings by the way. Didn’t mean to drop a mountain on them.” Karan said, looking down at the sand and digging a boot in, ashamed of her stupid maneuver. “Should have just exhaled on the fire itself instead of underwater.”

New Player in town

The bike rumbled, a cloud of dirt lifting into the air behind as it thundered across the countryside. The Rider had no home. No place to settle down to for long.

Always searching.

Always waiting.

Looking up the The Rider watched as lightening split the sky, lightening that should not be. Tilting it’s head the rider continued to watch, and once more lightening snapped and cracked. But it wasn’t lightening. Not true lightening that just anyone could see, or feel.

A word was spoken. A name. But it was just spoken so much as.. snarled.. “Cassiel.”

Tires smoked and squealed as The Rider accelerated in the direction of the lightening storm.

And then it happened.

Something moved past the Rider at a speed unforeseen on Earth in a very long time. Not since..

The beginning.

Since it had all started….

… and the Fall.

Mortal eyes had not seen that event, but the eyes that gazed after the speedster were not mortal. Not in a very long long time. Snarling the Rider spun around and gave chase. Each shift of foot and wrist sped the bike to higher and high speeds. A police cruiser tried to give chase, and failed as it’s tires struck molten tar and melted.

Twitching and swerving through cities that rose and fell in moments the Rider slowly fell behind, but never lost track of it’s target.

No matter how many deaths that I die I will never forget. (Rose/M'gann)

Rose Walker did not have a reputation as a motormouth.

But she could talk a lot when she got going. Belatedly, she winced at the thought that she'd trod all over this woman's attempts to get a word in edgewise.

Varshanka said:

“Kinsey scale? Alien Replica? Jungfrau? Australia?” Karan finally asked when the alabaster skinned girl indicated the bridge.

Click to expand...

If one could roll one's eyes when one's eyes were red orbs without pupils or irises, Rose then rolled her eyes at herself for bewildering this new person, and then did her best to answer the rapid-fire questions.

"It measures how gay or straight you are. Fake UFO. A pretty mountain in Switzerland. ...um, a Land Downunder?"

Varshanka said:

Trying again to sit up, Karan moved slowly as she watched the sun. “Queen Hippolyta always said the Gaze of Helia was my strength.”

Click to expand...

"I don't know anything about the gays of helium," Rose admitted. "But I had a friend named Hippolyta once. 'Lyta.' Babysitted for her. Cranky lady, lovely hair, strong as Hell, cute kid."

Varshanka said:

Moving to her feet rather slowly she looked up. “Air is thinner the higher you go, but the Gaze of Helia is stronger.”

Click to expand...

Rose blinked. Okay, something was getting lost in translation.

Varshanka said:

For a moment it looked like she might start floating , but it didn’t happen and she looked at the red haired girl. “Um, sorry to ask after I already kissed you and all, but um..” she felt her face turning as red as the girls hair. “What’s your name?”

Click to expand...

Rose's eyes widened, and she turned a bit pink again herself. "Oh, uh."

And then even that answer got complicated.

She opened her mouth to reply and two answers tried to happen at once and they tripped over each other like--

Rose Walker.

M'gann M'orzz.

Megan Walker?

R'ozz M'orzz?

She shook her head to clear it. And repeated her name twice as though she had to emphasize it-- especially to herself.

"Rose. I'm Rose."

"I, uh, don't know what my superhero name is yet."

Varshanka said:

Sighing she looked around. “I have a feeling I.. we don’t have enough time for me to get my strength back normally, so could you.. um.. give me a lift?” she asked gesturing upwards. “At the moment I don’t think I could win an argument with a moth. Much less a fight with one.”

Click to expand...

A yellow-sunlamp light bulb went on in Rose's brain.

Was Helia her word for The Sun? Was that what that had meant?

'Gaze of Helia.' Oh. Right.

Like that Icarus story. She needs to get closer to the sun.

Well. Rose was pretty exhausted herself. But.

Her power was all in her mind, right? So long as she was awake, so long as she could think and focus...

Varshanka said:

“Sorry about the big buildings by the way. Didn’t mean to drop a mountain on them.” Karan said, looking down at the sand and digging a boot in, ashamed of her stupid maneuver. “Should have just exhaled on the fire itself instead of underwater.”

Click to expand...

"I'm still impressed and grateful you could help put the fire out at at all," Rose promised, pushing up off of the ground, levitating. "And hopefully those warehouses'll have insurance, they'll get more money back than they lost from the damage."

"But let's see what we can do here."

"I'm not sure how high I can go. Or how high you need to be for this to work. But I'll go as high as I can, and then send you up further if I need to."

And she held out her hand, her eyes glowing bright bright red as she wrapped her mind around the powerful, lithe-- concentrate-- watch the hands-- mystery woman with the powers that could shake the sky.

And into the sky they soared, flying upwards side by side, up towards The Sun, further West as they went to stay ahead of the sunset.

It may be foolish to keep foreshadowing things that may never come to pass... but if Rose Walker were to grow enough into M'gann M'orzz... if M'gann's heart were to keep changing Rose enough... there would come a time that Rose could sit in the Lotus position in the middle of The Sea of Tranquility and never feel the need to take a breath or feel the slightest chill... or stand in the heart of Jupiter's Big Red Spot and never be toppled by the winds or the crushing gravity.

She was not yet grown into that power, and thus she flew as high as she could before she felt the air gasping from her, felt frost numbing her fingertips, caking on the white of her cheeks...

...and if she needed to, she would beam her thoughts to the top of the sky and propel this beauty with them, that she might get as close to Helia's gaze as superhumanly possible...

“Just get me as high as you can. The closer I get to Helia, the better I feel.” Kara told her as she rotated to face Rose. “I like your name. Rose, like a flower. I think you smell better. Prettier too. Never kissed a Girl named Rose before.”

Looking around as Gaia slowly released her grip on the Blonde and the Red head, neither born of her soul, but daughters to her heart just the same, Kara closed her eyes and basked in the Glow of Helia’s Gaze.

“I’ve got you..” she whispered, pulling Rose closer to her own warm body and beating heart. She wouldn’t let this girl fall, instead she pulled her higher and higher. “There is still time to breathe, and live, and love. And maybe stop being quite to reckless.” Some was for her companion, some – but not all.

Touching the Alabaster cheeks she lay her palm against it. “I am Kara El, Last Daughter of Krypton and a Daughter of Themyscira. Away from the Island I am called Karan Prince.” And then she smiled, “But you can call me whatever you want..”

Taking a deep breathe, she gave Rose a soft lifting push and then went even higher alone. Beams of sunlight danced along her body as she rotated in Helia’s Gaze. Letting the giver of life gaze upon her daughter, and if she chose, to strike her down for recklessness.

Maybe one day it would happen. But today was not that day.

Dropping back down to Rose, Karan pulled the girl close to her once more, as they began descending at an alarming rate. "The faster we get everything set to right, the faster I can invite you to a sip of tea and maybe another kiss."

I don't believe I'll fall from grace won't let the past decide my fate. (Rose/M'gann)

Varshanka said:

“Just get me as high as you can. The closer I get to Helia, the better I feel.” Kara told her as she rotated to face Rose. “I like your name. Rose, like a flower. I think you smell better. Prettier too. Never kissed a Girl named Rose before.”

Click to expand...

"Big, uh," she stammered, "day for firsts, I guess."

Some time ago, Rose had had a... transformative experience.

She'd helped to save her brother Jed from a serial killer convention. It was a long story, one that almost defied telling it was so complicated. But it was on the heels of these events that Rose had had the dream (nightmare?) that had started all of this. Started her slow change into something from another world that was also somehow still herself.

For a time, the horror of these events had given Rose a form of post-traumatic agoraphobia, and she'd barely left her apartment except to babysit for Lyta's baby son Daniel. It had been a long enough while that she'd been able to write a book on 1950's TV shows. And her dreams had only made things worse.

Then Zelda had gotten sick, and Rose had managed to draw herself back out into the world to take care of her old housemate. She'd reunited with Barbie, and then she'd met Alix and (shudder) Lance. And she'd come mostly all the way back to herself.

But boundaries had been an issue for her her whole life.

She knew. Instinctively. That this woman-- abrasive as she'd been at first and touchy-feely as she was now-- didn't mean any harm.

But it was still a difficult transition.

Rose's powers, oddly enough, were all about evasion and intrusion.

Her mind meant she didn't have to touch things in order to manipulate them-- she could keep her distance.

Her ability to change shape meant she could hide behind any other face she wanted. (She might even be able to turn invisible someday, but she didn't know that yet.)

And if something tried to touch her and she didn't want it, her ability to will herself intangible meant it would pass right through her.

But on the other side of the coin was her telepathy. The ability to read thoughts-- to charge right in and ride roughshod over others' brainpans-- but this also meant, if she wasn't ready for it-- others' thoughts could crash into hers like a wave and she'd be privy to private things that she could never unknow.

What a clusterfuck of a powerset for a recovering agoraphobe to get.

But this woman kept talking to her and touching her and being all unexpectedly affectionate and Rose didn't not like it, but Jesus fuck that was a lot of contact a lot soon--

--her head was swimming from the confusion and the anxiety and it was all she could do to not lose her telekinetic grasp on the photosynthetic beauty as she recharged whatever photovoltaic cells lived under her skin--

--first rule of Psychic Club is "Don't psych-out the psychic"--

Varshanka said:

Touching the Alabaster cheeks she lay her palm against it. “I am Kara El, Last Daughter of Krypton and a Daughter of Themyscira. Away from the Island I am called Karan Prince.” And then she smiled, “But you can call me whatever you want..”

Click to expand...

"'Karan,'" Rose mumbled. "Pleased, uh, pleased to meet you."

She was well-read. An omnivorous reader, Stephen King might call her. He might even perhaps call her "a treasure-house of story."

Despite this, she'd never heard of Themyscira. Didn't make the connection with the Amazons of Greek Myth.

But it still managed to occur to her that there might be some sort of cultural disconnect happening here, that maybe the concepts of "personal space" were a little bore mutable where Karan came from? Or was this just how Karan rolled? Hot and cold running emotions?

Varshanka said:

Dropping back down to Rose, Karan pulled the girl close to her once more, as they began descending at an alarming rate. "The faster we get everything set to right, the faster I can invite you to a sip of tea and maybe another kiss."

Click to expand...

Yep, not so much with the boundaries.

Rose laughed a strangled, nervous, anxious laugh.

"Okay. Yeah."

Boy, that Earth was rising fast to meet them. Like it had missed them or something.

"Remember that thing I said about firsts?"

"Well, I've had crushes on girls before but I've never kissed one, so, first."

"Never done a tea ceremony with a girl, either. So that would be another first, if we did that."

"I've also never almost burned to death before. (I don't... think?)"

"I've definitely never fought an honest-to-goddess supervillain before, not on this level. And this guy sounded like a Charlie Foxtrot with extra Foxtrot."

"So if we could. Just. Try not to panic me more than I am already."

"Let's survive this. Then we can think about victory dances."

Yep, not so much with the boundaries.

Rose laughed a strangled, nervous, anxious laugh.

"Okay. Yeah."

Click to expand...

Boy, that Earth was rising fast to meet them. Like it had missed them or something.

"Remember that thing I said about firsts?"

Click to expand...

Blushing Karan thought about several firsts she’d had in her life.

"Well, I've had crushes on girls before but I've never kissed one, so, first."

Click to expand...

Goddess! She felt her face going even redder.

"Never done a tea ceremony with a girl, either. So that would be another first, if we did that."

Click to expand...

Tea Ceremony? Was that the same as having a sip of hot apple spiced tea while curled up on a cozy wolf rug? Maybe it was a more formal version. Or maybe it would be a first date thing?

"I've also never almost burned to death before. (I don't... think?)"

Click to expand...

She wasn’t sure? Seemed kind of obvious if Hades gazed upon you or not.

"I've definitely never fought an honest-to-goddess supervillain before, not on this level. And this guy sounded like a Charlie Foxtrot with extra Foxtrot."

Click to expand...

Charlene Fox Trot? Why would you name a Fox? Is it a pet? I wasn’t aware a Fox’s stride was called a trot. Isn’t that for horses?

"So if we could. Just. Try not to panic me more than I am already."

Click to expand...

Helia gave strength to Karan in many ways, one to her muscles and bones allowing her to lift mountains, to move fast enough to catch the Arrows of Athena, to hear a butterfly fart and see the matting dance of fleas. And right now she could hear the heartbeat of her companion, Rose, beating faster than a tick getting chased by a frog. She could feel the stuttering breathe of panic and fear.

A thought. A pause of conscious direction and they stopped in mid air. Not even the Breathe of the Anemoi gave her guidance at the moment.

"Let's survive this. Then we can think about victory dances."

Click to expand...

“Are you afraid of me?” she asked worried that she had intimidated this Dual blessed beauty. “You are a daughter of Aphrodite and Helia, for me to cause you fear..” she stammered.

The Rider

Standing on the edge, the Angel of Justice listened as the Morningstar spoke. Neither of them was male nor female, corporeal or ethereal. What they were was beyond the comprehension of the hairless apes, the Humans, as The Archangel of Wisdom had called them.

Now the Angel of Justice wasn’t powerful, it served it’s Archangel with duty and obedience for this was the will of GOD. But when another Archangel chose to speak with you, they spoke with you…

*****

Slowing as it approached a car accident that blocked the road, the Rider glared and snarled. It could feel the pain of the victims, but they hadn’t been killed or murdered.

It was happenstance.

Accident.

The Will of God.

Eyes locked on the burning car, the flames that licked across it’s hood spoke volumes about the explosion to come. Revving the engine the biker accelerated, homing in like a moth on the flaming vehicle. Tires smoked as tar boiled leaving a line like an arrow.

Impacting with the burning car the bike exploded, igniting that boiling tar with a spark from hell.

Half a country away a bike exploded from a burning building flaming tires leaving a trail that could be seen from the Heavens themselves, or from space.

Slamming into a wall of stone and ice the Rider grunted and stepped sideways away from the falling bike.

A snarling growl filled it’s throat as it strode forwards, the flames shrouding the building diminishing with each step.

No Church in The Wild. (Aquaman)

HotCider said:

Hiro sank into a sprinter’s stance and in a gleaming silver streak he was gone. While airborne, Damian would be able to see silver lines darting about the polygonal constructs of the city. They went up buildings, down buildings, around the buildings, and pedestrians were just winking out of existence when it sped passed them.

Click to expand...

Reality had been knocked out of joint.

Time kept skipping like a scratched DVD. Was he blacking out?

The world was spinning. How could that be bothering him? He had swum in whirlpools and waterspouts, in tides whipped into a frenzy by hurricane forces.

He tried to stand. Tried to use the white hot pain in his shoulder as a focal point to stay awake. Tried to force his webbed hands under him, to push off of the-- gravel? --and rise.

But muscles, sinew, tendon, bone that could withstand the fiercest ocean pressures were now too exhausted to move-- too leaden heavy to do more than twitch at his command.

There were voices near him.

He tried to listen.

But even as he tried to concentrate on the blurry mishmash of their words, he slipped into darkness again-- and it did not immediately relinquish him.


"...swear to God, Constantine," the dark-shrouded figure snarled, wreathed head to toe in a suit made of tattered, bedraggled, mismatched bits of cloth, "one of these days I'm going to have your soul in this rag-suit, and then maybe you'll finally start to atone for all the havoc you wreak."

They were on a rooftop in "Suicide Slum," officially known as Hob's Bay, the darkest part of the shining city of Metropolis, and they overlooked the place where the river ran out into The Atlantic.

John Constantine smirked wryly, crushing out a cigarette under his shoe in the gravel that lined the roof. "Me guitar gently weeps, Regan. You're 'elping save the world, and you're welcome for the opportunity. Besides, the last time a member of me sainted bloodline was a part of that Technicolor Dreamcoat of yours, the wearer got sold into bloody slavery by his brothers. Sure we don't want 'istory to repeat itself, yeah?"

Rory "Ragman" Regan snorted, The Suit of Souls billowing around him. "Whatever. I'm going back to Gotham. It's a mess there with The Bat AWOL. If you need me again... call someone else."

And then he sort of popped like a bubble, exploded into a billow of rags, and the rags blew off south towards Jersey and Gotham.

Constantine's coat rippled in the breeze of Regan's teleport effect, and then he glanced down at the sprawled form of Kaldur'ahm, Aquaman.

"D'you know, waterboy," Constantine drawled, fishing in his mackintosh pocket for a fistful of lined looseleaf note pages, crumpled and scribbled, "that Poseidon created 'orses out of dolphins? Of course you do, fancy magic schooling like yours."

He nudged the insensate Aquaman with his toe. "You'd fhink, for a lad who's spent so much time around dolphins, you'd 'ave a fucking ounce of 'orse-sense about you."

He grunted, consulted the pages in his grip. "Right. Always did prefer Latin incantations to this proto-Greek Atlantean 'orseshite, but when in Rome-- erm-- Shayeris--"

--he held his left hand aloft, out towards the ocean, and began to intone in a language older than civilizations--

--reading the words on the pages held in his right fist, a long, complicated invocation--

"--Καλώ την πεσμένα Χάριτος του Αγγέλου Islington--"

Time is on my side, oh yes it is....

Wednesday, May 30, 1431

Standing amongst the crowd the Knight watched. It hadn’t spoke to anyone since it had arrived in town. Most people weren’t even sure the Knight could speak, but most likely it couldn’t speak the local dialect.

Either it could or couldn’t, it didn’t matter really. He was here, watching.

Silently watching as the witch burned and screamed.

"I beg each priest here to say a mass for me."

The crowd listened to the heretics pitiful pleas for mercy. And it roared with laughter as it begged GOD for release, for peace.

"I pray you, go to the nearest church, and bring me the cross, and hold it up level with my eyes until I am dead. I would have the cross on which God hung ever before my eyes while life lasts in me."

Metal slid across metal, the sound silencing the crowd faster than a spoken word. Stepping back the heckling mob away from the Knight in a circular wave. No one wanted to be near the bared steel of the silent Knight.
Holding up the inverted blade, The armoured figure stepped closer, the blade held higher, The flames licked at the armoured boots, casting Knight and blade in shadow. The hilt looked so like a Cross, that boiling eyes could not tell the difference.

"Jhesus, Jhesus!"

Stepping into the flames the figure reached out with a metal shod hand and placed a silver coin on the witches tongue. For she was no ordinary witch.

What these simple hate filled people didn’t understand was that she wasn’t a witch. She was a knight of GOD. One of HIS chosen servants, and she’d been betrayed with falsehood.

“Innocent, your passage is paid.” It whispered as her body crumbled to ash.

Turning it faced the crowd, it’s rage overflowing as it was filled with the guilty thoughts and deeds of those before it. Stepping from the Funeral Pyre, flames coating it’s armour it walked towards the crowd, a single word roaring from it’s throat as great burning wings of red rage erupted from it’s back, “GUILTY!”

Hiro to Constantine.

While John was reading off his notes, the darkened streets would flash like lightning as a silver streak first darted left down the street of the building in which he and Kaldur were positioned. It then darted right; north; south; and then with a thunderous boom that resonated throughout the air, Hiro winked out of his sprint, appearing to be balanced on one foot before Kaldur’s body and frantically whirling his arms as he tried to regain his balance.

“Woah!” he cried before he tumbled over the Atlantean to the floor. Sitting up, Hiro looked back over his shoulder with a proud smile. “Found him!”

That was when he noticed the shady and scruffy, trenchcoat-wearing...the guy looked suspicious! Hiro quickly rose to his booted feet with a threatening scowl on his face and threw a few blurry punches into the air, hoping to intimidate the stranger with his impressive karate skills!

“Aiya! You want some of this?” Hiro shouted. “I know so much more. I’ve been waiting for the chance to use these techniques for real, so come on!”

A meeting.. A revelation.

Roaring at the sky, the rain, and the bits of falling rock the dark skinned man with the strength of a god jumped backwards as the meteorite impacted the ground sending a shockwave beneath him.

Why were they attacking him, was a question they would answer. As soon as he got them to stop! Each flash of lightening revealed the world around him, and it’s huge vast.. openness.

Turning, he glared at the two pale skinned people that had started this, beams lancing from his eyes. The metal travel craft split into a billion fragments as it exploded, adding more debris to what was already falling from the sky.

He felt the rock shift as a new figure entered the battle arena, a figure ensconced in some sort of simple armor, the thick skin of an animal and some sort of helmet of dark glass and steel. Fingers curled and muscles clenched as Val awaited this new opponent to strike, to show him it’s strength.

Standing there the Rider watched the Alien, for it wasn’t Human. Part of Gods creation in one of his many aspects yes, but not of Earth and hense outside of the Riders authority. Unless HE changed the rules, again.

But as of now, The Rider saw no Guilt in this creature, no evil taint of SIN. But there was another.. close by. With a roll of his neck it searched, smelling the taint in the air, a taint that screamed for JUSTICE. Turning the black clad Biker walked away from the dark skinned, and very naked, man of steel. أين أنت مذنب واحد؟ أستطيع أن أشمك. يمكنني سماع الضحايا اللعينة من ذنوبكم يصرخون طلبا للعدالة. يجب ان تكون فعل التوبة لجرائمكم، قبل الساقطة واحد يأخذك. فقط من خلال التوبة يمكنك أن يغفر لجرائمكم. تأتي لي الآثم، ومواجهة العدالة!

It could smell the taint of this Mortal, the scent of the magic it was using even now, plus the lingering scent of sulfur and ashe, the scent of cinnamon, clove, allspice…. That blend of scents was more familiar to the Rider than its own face. Roaring the biker took off at a hard run. This sinner was Evil, for it had dealing with The Fallen Lord of Morning. He or she, they wouldn’t be redeemed. They would be.. BURNED!!

Relaxing it’s hand slowly the chocolate skinned Kryptonian watched as the black clad figure walked away, it had another destination. But maybe it had answers as well. Taking off after the figure it slammed into a wall, brick and mortar turning to dust.

The ringing in it’s ears was disorienting, the sights and sounds, the flashs across it’s eyes. The deafening thunder in it’s ears. A simple step was enough to propel him hundreds of feet, with air screaming past his ears. Gagging he felt the burning heat of sulfur cloying in his throat and nose. Like burning flesh, but worse. A scent/taste that he’d never experience, something that begged to be identified. He knew what it was, but refused to accept it. It could not be. Therefore it was not.

Gods did not exist. Heaven did not exist. Hell Did not exist. Rao was the Sun of Krypton, not it’s divine creator. Science was fact, religion was immaterial. Worship of non-existent entities was for the weak.

But if that was true, how did he know what a soul burning in torment and ethereal fire smelled like?

This is for long-forgotten light at the end of the world. (Aquaman/Constantine)

As Hiro almost literally exploded onto the scene, the wash of his super-speed silver-bullet passage rippled out from his arrival with gale force.

And even though Constantine had already been clutching his notes tightly against the rooftop winds, the spray of gravel made him flinch and the extra storming rush of air tore the pages from his grasp and he swore a livid lurid blue streak as they billowed out over the skyline and gone.

--from Atlantean proto-Greek to Liverpudlian/Cockney in no seconds flat--

"Bluddy fucking pissing twatting arseshit--"

--he whirled to face the speedster, glowering, clenching his teeth, apparently utterly unimpressed by the Super Sentai fisticuffs being demonstrated.

"I needed that! 'E's knackered, I was using The Divine Grace of Atlantis' failed guardian angel to keep waterboy from drowning on dry land--"

"--bunch of smegging fucking amateurs dressed in your shiny bright colors," he snarled. "No idea what's coming, Crisis with a capital C-- and if this little kipper isn't around to 'elp, you lot are going to be dead in the water!"

He stopped, then, took a breath, flexed his fingers. There was something calling for him out there, way worse than Ragman, Hell it was way worse than even The Angel Islington... all his years smoking Silk Cut fags had about ruined his sense of smell, but he knew the whiff of that particular flavor of brimstone like he knew the hairs standing up on the back of his own hand.

The Rider.

This day could always find a new way to get worse, couldn't it?

But he had come here to do a job. Except that job was all the way off both rails, now.

Only... maybe it wasn't.

And he squinted at Hiro.

"'Ang on a tick."

"You're one of Crandall's lot, ehn't you?"

"I can work with this."

Hiro to Constantine.

Hiro’s frown hardened and he lowered his fists.

“Hey buddy, how about you speak English?” said the American to the Englishman.

His frown was now more of a strain of comprehension. He was trying to decipher what the hobo was saying. Dry land… That was right. Aquaman was a fish--at least that was the simple logic he used to better understand. Hiro turned and knelt next to Kaldur’s body. Resting two fingers against his neck, he told Constantine facts he more than likely already knew, “He has no pulse!”

Hiro whirled to face John again and spoke to him on a tone of frustration: “Look, no offense, but I can barely understand the words that are coming out of your mouth. His heart has stopped. If we don't do something, then Aquaman is gonna die!”

Lets get this thing shaking like a disco ball. (Aquaman/Constantine)

HotCider said:

“Hey buddy, how about you speak English?” said the American to the Englishman.

Click to expand...

America and England, it has been said, are two nations divided by a common tongue.

Constantine rolled his eyes and flipped Hiro a two-fingered salute.

HotCider said:

Resting two fingers against his neck, he told Constantine facts he more than likely already knew, “He has no pulse!”

Hiro whirled to face John again and spoke to him on a tone of frustration: “Look, no offense, but I can barely understand the words that are coming out of your mouth. His heart has stopped. If we don't do something, then Aquaman is gonna die!”

Click to expand...

Constantine didn't reply immediately, he was hauling off his coat and rolling up his shirtsleeves, looking grim and determined.

"Oh, 'e's still ticking over. Just barely. 'Is skin's fhicker than most humans, 'is metabolism's adapted to chillier fathoms, you might not feel it."

"'Ere's another bit of gobbledygook for you. I can adapt the ancient magic of The Blackfoot Tribe to run a spark of your power source through this lad's mystic tattoos and accelerate 'is 'ealing process."

He clapped a hand on Hiro's shoulder, and put the other palm on Kaldur's chest, over his heart.

"Just-- don't-- move."

"This'll sting a bit."

John closed his eyes.

Took a breath.

And murmured: "Ahwehota."

And a flare of quicksilver lightning arced from Hiro through John into Kaldur--

--there came the stench of ozone and burning armhair and John roared with the momentary agony--

--Kaldur's tattoos lit up like he was going into The Avatar State and when his eyes snapped open they shone with the same light--

--and when the elongated instant passed, Kaldur slumped again, groaning back into unconsciousness, but visibly breathing--

--and John stumbled away, his palms smoldering, cussing all over again--

"--cunting gobshite bastard bellend--"

Hiro to Constantine.

Hiro tensed when Constantine rested his heavy hand on his shoulder but listened to the stranger even when he felt uncertain about the whole thing. Suddenly, Hiro’s hair stiffened with static, a spasm shook his body, and his face contorted in agony with the sting the bum had warned him of. It felt more like taking a bad shot and feeling it rape his insides falling up a staircase instead of down. He was surprised that he didn't shit his pants from the jolt. If he didn't shit then, then he was certainly going to be shitting once all this mumbo-jumbo with Aquaman and Harry Potter was done.

He hung his head, his hair smoking, and his brows twisted upwards in his woozy state. When Constantine staggered away from him, Hiro rested a hand on the gravelly rooftop and breathed out a sigh. He then said irritably, “Dude, I’m never letting you touch me again. Next time, we just throw his ass into the ocean.”

Time is on my side, but not on yours..

Screaming in rage the Rider ran. It didn’t have the bike, or a horse. But it did have the rage of a Fallen one. An outcast. And it had it’s own AUTHORITY. It was HIS VENGEANCE. HIS JUSTICE!

It didn’t bother with alleys, or doors. It just ran, the heat of Hell and Rage melting walls to nothingness. Chains slithered forth from sleeve, boot, and vest. Wrapping it in the armour of the damned. A warped version of the armour it war during the first Revolution. Armour bestowed by he whom was unnamable.

Staggering The Rider spasmed as unspeakable forces were.. subverted for a dark purpose. “CONSTANTINE!!!” It bellowed in rage as it slammed sideways into a molten wall. With a lurch it righted itself and began moving again. It would make that foul speaking thrice damned forsaken by God hairless monkey pay for using the Divine will for it’s vile purposes.

Nemo my name forevermore. (Aquaman/Constantine)

HotCider said:

He hung his head, his hair smoking, and his brows twisted upwards in his woozy state. When Constantine staggered away from him, Hiro rested a hand on the gravelly rooftop and breathed out a sigh. He then said irritably, “Dude, I’m never letting you touch me again. Next time, we just throw his ass into the ocean.”

Click to expand...

"Ahahaha," Constantine laughed with a voice almost as gravelly as the rooftop, dropping to his own knees and digging in his pocket for a fresh cigarette and a lighter that, when he snapped it open, smelled a little bit like sulfur, before taking a soothing drag. "Good fhought, mate. But this time a baptism wouldn't quite 'ave done the trick. Burial at sea, more like."

He cleared his throat and gestured to Aquaman with the cigarette, its chiaroscuro trail ringing his hand and wafting off in the roof-level winds. "Besides. All's well that ends swell, ennit?"

Indeed, the heat vision burnhole in Aquaman's shoulder was already sealing shut, leaving just a welt behind, and Kaldur coughed noisily, groaning again, and started to sit up. "That was... unpleasant."

He glanced around, sussed out his surroundings, spied Constantine.

"Hellblazer," he nodded to John solemnly, though... warily.

"Waterboy," Constantine smirked right back, devil may care.

And then Kaldur turned his gaze to Hiro, offered a handshake of greeting. "I am Aquaman. I do not believe I have made your acquaintance. Is this man a friend of yours? You are lucky to be alive."

Jacob's ghost for the girl in white. (Rose/M'gann)

Varshanka said:

“Are you afraid of me?” she asked worried that she had intimidated this Dual blessed beauty. “You are a daughter of Aphrodite and Helia, for me to cause you fear..” she stammered.

Click to expand...

Her mythological parentage was complicated.

Because, fuck, everything in her life had to be complicated, didn't it?

Surely she was certainly a daughter of Helia. After all, Earth and Mars orbited the same sun. But that was the only constant.

Her body and brain were born of Gaia, Earth. By blood, she was descended from they who were known to The Greeks as Eros, they who were Desire of The Endless, not that she knew that.

But her heart was from Ma'aleca'andra, called Mars, so did that mean she was a child of Ares? Except Martians didn't hold to human gods, so perhaps she was a child of H'ronmeer.

And she had survived after death in flames by becoming a ward of Lord L'Zoril, known to The Greeks as Morpheus, father of Orpheus, he who was Dream of The Endless.

Not that she knew any of this.

Her world was a deep deep ocean filled with sharks grim beyond reckoning but she had only paddled in the shallows.

But here it came, calling for her, looming ahead, the drop-off of the continental shelf that led to the fathoms in which flowed the undercurrents of her deeper nature.

"You scare the shit out of me," Rose admitted.

But there on the edge of her mind's reach was another mind.

One that was a red-white-blue froth of confusion and fury and disorientation and umbrage--

--and on an instinctive level that jangled like alarm bells along every nerve in her two-in-one body--

--she knew that this was who the man in the black craft had warned them about.

This was their goal their target their threat their aggressor.

And with that selfsame instinct Rose shoved with her mind, directed their dropping flight (falling with style!) towards that mind that man.

Varshanka said:

Taking off after the figure it slammed into a wall, brick and mortar turning to dust.

Click to expand...

And the two women would land with a thwooming cratering crunching crouch, side-by-side superhero landing, they faced the beautiful black powerhouse as the dust of his own crashlanding wafted down around him.

"...but not as much as he does," Rose mumbled, lurching to her feet, and curling her white white hands into even whiter-knuckled fists.

They were here.

Now what?

House of Zod vs House of El

"You scare the shit out of me," Rose admitted.

He felt the pressure wave building, heard the screaming of wind, smelled the sickly sweet scent that was them a mile away. But as flooded as he was with everything else, it didn’t make sense. Grabbing his head as the pressure built, solidifying into a bang as the landed he turned with lightning speed.. and glared.

"...but not as much as he does,"

Beams of red energy ripped from his eyes on streamers of anger. “ОСТАВЬТЕ МЕНЯ В ПОКОЕ! ПОЧЕМУ ВАС АТАКУЮТ МЕНЯ?!” he roared at them. Muscles bulged and rippled as he took a step closer to the two slender females.

Karan felt time slowing as she moved without thought. Stepping between death and maiden she stood her ground, her bracers crossed before her she took the initial rage fueled blast head to head. And fired back with her own rage and pain.

If everyone died, then she would die here and now. But the butcher bill would be high indeed.

Dual beam met dual beam, the heat from the crisscrossing and impacting blasts generated melting stone and concrete several meters away. “We won’t leave you alone, Μαλάκα. You attacked that ένα. You нападение us without προβοκάτσια. Вы находитесь το злодей Εδώ, и вы будете платить за это.”

Once he was down, she’d leave. Maybe take him to the authorities, but she’d go away. Stop scaring people. She was supposed to help in the World of Man. But she was failing…

..miserably.

Stepping closer she felt tears running down her face, so much failure. Perhaps she should just let him end her life. Close her own eyes forever, let his rage burn her to ash. Could she die that way? Or would it just hurt for a very very long time as she healed. And even if she did die, what would happen to the daughter of Aphrodite?