Justice League: The New Wave (IC)

[ChasNicollette]

Reckless Abaddon.

>>M'gann M'orzz, Ward of High House Dream of Lord L'Zoril called Morpheus Dream of The Endless, post-incarnate Last Pale Daughter of Ma'aleca'andra, The Red and Silent Planet. I humbly request the following. Allow Rose to remember how to construct a Mindscape from the dreaming. Lure Kobra into a dream of reality that moves through his successful occupation of the world. Kobra is the fulcrum which the entire enemy moves, and his greatest weakness is his faith. <<

<Kiz, Left Hand of The Void and Dominus of High House Void,> M'gann replied from inside Rose's physical brain and her spiritual heart, <I shall do my best. Conversations are not as free between myself and my human counterpart now that Raven has erected this... well... 'firewall.' But she retains in her subconscious the memories of being The Dream Vortex, I think she can be prompted to do what must be done. What else?>

>>Second, convey this to the heroes.<<

<Bring it on.>

And so she did, M'gann's mind transmitting through Rose's and out to the rest of The New League and their entourage:

It's a rapid succession of images.

Connor raises his bow and fires an obsidian arrow towards the Kobra. Carin races towards Kobra at the same time the arrow strikes, drawing attention away from the major attack. Milton and Ruby's technic suits unleash a barrage of projectiles at the support structures of the bridge. The Rider hurtles herself at Kobra, reckless of the onslaught approaching.

Kaldur raises his trident and a vast stampede of water bursts from upriver, swelling with each stride towards the bridge. Karan turns and her eyes ignite with the superheated, multiplicative radiance of the sun pouring from here eyes, vaporizing the air. Virgil's hands raise heaven ward coaxing the positive ions from the ground to align and race towards the onslaught of water.

In the confusion, Lisa sweeps up the Rogues, Nightwing, Renegade, Garfield. They disappear, phase out and drop below to where all the mechatronics are hidden. Gears, pulleys, steam engines, all sorts of steampunk devices are smashed and destroyed. They destroy the machinery and the shield goes down.

The rushing montage of mental imagery held its breath.

One final image, Kaldur raising his trident Qayin appears behind Kaldur. The Jötunn is two feet taller and wider, casting a shadow over Kaldur. In Qayin's hand is Elivágar. As Elivágar touches the Champion's Trident, the two come into resonance and Kaldur feels not just the waters of this world but those the oldest rivers of Ginnungagap. Where true cold and death were breed and ripped from the realm of the gods and hurdled down to earth as an Ice Age. But before the heart of a new Ice Age can take hold and consume the warmth from the world, Kobra and the new glacier disappear into a black, endless maw.

That was it.

That was a good plan, at the risk of damning Kiz yet again with faint praise-- though it was hard not to damn someone with faint praise when words seldom encapsulated the full length and breadth of their scope and value. But it was a good plan.

And yet.

Karan's Amazons would be the first to opine that no battle plan survives contact with the enemy, and not only had their foes sprung upon them unexpected reserves, well, a group this big and unwieldy and full of misfits was its own worst enemy in their own right.

From the moment Connor had fired the arrow, from the moment Velocity had sprung into motion to keep pace with that gleaming razor-tipped midnight bolt, things had gone madly off-script.

And yet: and yet: there was much wisdom in this approach. If they could reunite, get together, overcome their disparities and execute half of the notions in Kiz' operational proposal, they would do untold damage to their foes.

If only they could.

********​

He managed to see the blur and hear the wind through the fletching, but it was moving the wrong way. Using an all too human hip thrust to the side, he managed to shove hard against Rose and since thought traveled faster...

'Arrow!'

The thought flashed into Rose's brain from Garfield's and without even a flicker of hesitation Rose flung that thought out towards Carin's... Velocity was fast, so fast, her neurokinetics were way above normal, her mind could dart through the fingers of Rose's mind like tapdancing between raindrops... Rose wasn't sure Velocity had even heard the message she'd relayed from Beast Boy...

...but whether she'd heard it or not, the speedstress defeated and evaded the attack with style and skidded to a stop to behold the new threats...

Landing beside Rose she raised an eyebrow and looked at Rose petting the green furred hulking housecat.

A whisper of something caressed the edges of thought, it sounded like Rose but she wasn’t moving her lips, and it wasn’t really words. Or loud. It was more of a ghost of a whisper from across a room. “When this is over we need to work on suntans. And sleep.”

"I can tan just by thinking about it," Rose pointed out, but allowed herself a tiny, soft smile amidst the pounding adrenaline of the moment. "But sleep. That sounds nice. Better with two."

As it was, the clothing she had managed to scavenge when the storm of death and teleportation had started was beginning to show signs of battle and speed.

She didn’t care really, training on Themyscira had been without clothing. But she was getting the feeling that Fire and Freeze were starting to look at her more. And not in a nice way either.

"Freeze," as she'd called him, Captain Cold, might object to being nicknamed after another cryogenic villain-- and, in fact, Mister Freeze might object to being likened to Cold. Their professional rivalry was a classic one-- Cold thought Freeze to be a self-defeating arrogant ass, so dismissive of collateral damage in his wake that he brought the heat on himself. Freeze, meanwhile, would point out that he had embarked on his career of cryonic crime out of a sense of tragic love and injustice despite his arctic heart, and that Captain Cold's far more provincial goals of rep and coin were distantly beneath him.

In any case, Captain Cold wasn't immune to the charms of a beautiful blonde, but right now his mind was on the job, and it would take an avalanche of Himalayan proportions to take his mind off of it.

And Heatwave-- much more susceptible to a hard bodied female scantily-clad-- already his attentions divided between Wildcat, gorgeous woman who spoke his language and played on his level, and The Ghost Rider, the object of his pyromaniacal obsession.

In any case, The Rogues were about to be really, really distracted, so Wonder Girl's attire (or lack thereof) was going to be leastmost on their mind.

As Lisa held him, her tentacles wrapped around him, Kiz watched the obsidian arrow change in mid-flight. The light turned green near Kobra and vomited forth a motley crew of foes. He continued to feign decrepitude, leaning on Lisa but it wasn't idle as his plan was set into motion.

Kiz watched Renegade's bullets ripple and scatter into the river. Raven called upon the Anti-Circle, weaving necromantic energies designed to rip the soul out of Kobra. The enemy countered by sending one of the never living, a technic monstrosity at her. The new enemy host was still just considering what they would do in response to what the heroes were executing.

Kiz planted the Lasher Staff upon the Earth and bound himself to his present location as sure as a mountain was bound to the place of its birth. "Take care Lisa." It was all the time he had to spare for their budding feelings. It was an asshole way to send some off, but neither could they afford deep romantic gestures.

Perhaps demonstrating just how unexpectedly simpatico The Void-Binder was with The Ebon Glider, Lisa watched him drop and lock, and she nodded to him with a faint little smirk.

"Don't worry about me. What are they gonna do, kill a ghost? You just don't get dead, then we'll talk," she quipped, and swirled off in a rush, leaving Kiz in his anchored position.

A storm of crimson laser bolts from cannons flashed towards Raven at speeds of light itself. And splashed across a magical barrier that glowed faintly from the light it absorbed.

And from the burning street and flashing Lasers stepped Vengeance.

And she smiled as chains flowed reforming her Unholy Armor. The blade in her hand grew, become a spear. A very.. Roman looking spear.. but a spear none the less. And Vengeance became the immoveable object, as that blade twisted and turned, deflecting blast and bolt, defusing energy beams. Defending the Dark Witch and her vile spell. Raven would face her Judgment soon enough.

As Ghost Rider parried The Servitor's laser-strikes with a weapon that resembled, of all things, The Spear of Longinus, Lisa swirled to hover next to her.

"Yeah, draw his fire, Inhuman Torch, I got this," Glider nodded. "I'll phase through him and rip out his arc reactor or whatever the fuck, just watch this."

Meters away, her brother raised his cold gun to run interference for Lisa, and then--

--something caught the corner of his eye--

--broken glass on the road, what was left of someone's wing mirror--

--it had grinned at him--

Cold's eyes widened. "Leese. Wait!"

But the Ebon Glider had already shot for The Servitor's chestplate with all her speedster-rivaling acceleration...

...she stormed at it, tendrils lashing the air...

...and it was way way way too late for her to slam on the brakes when she saw that same grinning face leering at her from the gleaming silvery metal of The Servitor's finish.

She plunged into the surface of the robot and did not come out the other side.

She was... elsewhere.

Kaldur had watched the odds mount against them with mounting frustration-- for every caution and proposal he wanted to shout, everything fell apart that much faster-- he wanted to act more surgically, more tactically, less wholesale destruction than Kiz proposed, divide up these newcomer villains, force them to reveal their powers and their weaknesses as individuals-- but instead it was The New League's hands that were being forced.

"Very well," Kaldur stepped forward, planting the pommel of the trident into the roadbed and leveling it at the river. "Let us finish this."

The Champion's Trident shone with searing golden light and the mighty Missouri billowed and surged and became not just a rushing river but a crushing torrent, washing up towards the bridge with force that would not just wipe it clean of enemies, but shatter it off of its columns and reduce it to so much rubble.

And yet.

And yet.

The Planet Master tilted his head. Flexed his hands. The magical equivalent of a terrestrial gamma-ray flash-- the antimatter equivalent of lightning-- rippled through his suit once more, and he intoned imperiously: "OCEANS OF EARTH!"

--and, horrifyingly, devastatingly, exerted hydrokinetic powers like unto a god in his own right, and Kaldur's aquatic cataclysm slammed to a halt and rolled back over into the river-bed with such force that all the hundreds of thousands of gallons of water ran backwards, and it was all Kaldur could do to keep that backwash contained.

Aquaman's eyes widened-- his knuckles clenched around the haft of the Trident, and with sheer force of gritted-teeth will-- managed to keep the tsunamic aikido from wiping half of two cities off of the map.

Herself assaulted with all the Old Testament-level power getting flung around, Rose was understandably distracted from the sweetly beautiful Jiminy Cricket in her head-- but when M'gann managed to get Rose's attention, Rose put her hands to her head.

"Cover me!" she called out. "I'm making like Ellen Page in Inception!"

And her mind reached out for Kobra's in a rush, searching out his utmost desires, his plans and his purpose and his promise, the chaotic vision of utopia that ticked away in his mad mad mad mad brain.

At the very same time, observing that The Servitor's attack on Raven had been momentarily stymied, Lady Eve looked to the crackling creature exuding and extruding all the colors of the cardinal rainbow. And commanded, simply: "Spectrumonster. FEAR."

With that, the creature raised its hands above its head and unleashed a coruscating rush of molten golden light... a light that would probe the minds of all the heroes in its wavelength and reveal their deepest, darkest terrors to the Spectrumonster. "HRRaaRRGHHHH!"

 

[ChasNicollette]

Armageddon Outta Here. (tags G.R.I.D.)

The Romanaclef snarled and roared as it traversed the streets, and up buildings, and across the river itself as the Rider raged inside. Returning at last to the solid ground of road and street it’s hair aflame the driver looked over at G.R.I.D.!RUBY. “Drive,” She/it commanded, vanishing into the flames that swirled around the car and it’s environs.

"Fuck!" Ruby!G.R.I.D. snapped in dismay as Ghost Rider ejected in a pyroportation flash, and lunged with super-soldier quickness to grab the wheel and haul himself across into the driver's seat.

Shaking his head, he got his boots onto the pedals-- but he was definitely a fish out of water here. "I've only got one hand, one hand and a forearm bazooka, how am I supposed to drive a stick-shift one-handed? ...I should be able to handle this, I'm a lesbian, but gahhh!"

Ruby!G.R.I.D. shot a grimace over his shoulder at Milton!G.R.I.D. in the back seat as, bereft of The Rider, the Romanaclef turned back into just a normal, destructible sports car with tires that weren't on fire. "I've got memories of you growing up in a farm town, I don't suppose you practiced driving daddy's tractor or something?"

 

[Zet_Cross]

Ruby!G.R.I.D. shot a grimace over his shoulder at Milton!G.R.I.D. in the back seat as, bereft of The Rider, the Romanaclef turned back into just a normal, destructible sports car with tires that weren't on fire. "I've got memories of you growing up in a farm town, I don't suppose you practiced driving daddy's tractor or something?"

GRID climbed over the seat to the passengers seat, keeping his cannon trained on any approaching villains. "Unfortunately not. It was all automatics for me growing up." He looks at the imposing stick-shift. "Can't be too hard though. You drive, I'll handle the shift."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Through a Glass Darkly.

Elsewhere.
********​

Lisa landed hard, and rolled when she hit the ground.

She felt the impact in her bones-- and that was the first alarm that not only had she been displaced-- but--

--she had bones.

She had a shoulder that was tangible enough to feel shuddering collision all up through her collarbone and up into her skull. She had a skull!

She lay on her belly on the cold dank floor of somewhere and got her hands under her, managing with a grunt of pain-- actual pain! it had been so long since she'd felt haptic tangible physical pain! --to push herself up a bit and look around.

To Lisa's bewilderment, she lay on a floor thickly layered with a low-lying layer of foggy mist, and somewhere down in that mist there scuttled by the silhouettes of rats of various sizes, most usual, some not.

Nearby floated shimmery, otherworldly windows to... somewhere? She couldn't focus well enough to figure out where at the moment.

And she-- she had a physical body.

Not selectively tangible, not one where she had to will herself to make contact with objects like Patrick Swayze in Ghost.

But an actual all-on-all-the-time tangibility.

A body a lover could touch.

And yet... here in this strange realm beneath the floorboards of reality...

...she had never felt so alone.

All the bravado she displayed as a Rogue seeped away from her and she lowered her black-haired head and wept and despaired.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Living on The Grid.

GRID climbed over the seat to the passengers seat, keeping his cannon trained on any approaching villains. "Unfortunately not. It was all automatics for me growing up." He looks at the imposing stick-shift. "Can't be too hard though. You drive, I'll handle the shift."

The two versions of Lysl opened a channel between the two versions of the Genetrix Retrieval Interactive Designate Armor, so that they could share thoughts simultaneously without having to repeat themselves.

If we may, Ruby!Lysl broke in. While your teamwork is commendable, there is a more efficient option.

Using the Scan Visor to analyze the workings and capacities of this vehicle will implant them in the armor's cognitive matrix, Milton!Lysl continued.

Not unlike studying a martial artist and formulating a defense, Ruby!Lysl pointed out, or locating a weak stress-point in a combative lifeform, this will enable you to near-instantly integrate this vehicle's operation into your skillset via neurofeedback muscle-memory.

Honestly, Milton!Lysl chided, you're both Tenth-Level Intellects, you should really learn to use your heads!

 

[Wyldfire]

The whole fight had gone to hell it seemed. Glider gone. Cold was going to be a serious ball of pissed. Kobra had played his cards. The team was so screwed. The Rider's crew were scrambling to make the best of things and were doing okay. Gar was doing okay, but she and he hadn't been part of the plan so they were free to be their own wild cards. The sprang from her mounted position to springboard herself from Gar's back.

As she tumbled and flipped in a distraction tactic, she threw herself towards the main man. She knew from the records she was given that Ko-ko was a bad bad man, but she was Thea fucking Hellcat Grant and she was intent on messing up a cult leading pussy. Her tumble was met and stopped by the yellow wave. Her brain was figuratively ripped open exposing her fears. Her fear of failing. Her fear of living without her grand. Her fear of her curse.

She managed to get her feet under her, but it left her right in front of the big bad Ko-Ko. Open and exposed.

 

[ChasNicollette]

She managed to get her feet under her, but it left her right in front of the big bad Ko-Ko. Open and exposed.

In launching across that distance, Thea had displayed post-human felinoid agility beyond anything she'd shown so far... almost on the order of The Cheetah, a foe who rivaled Wonder Woman herself! Which made it all the more tragic when The Yellow Light of Fear cut the wind from her sails.

She found herself face to face with Kobra himself, and he twitched an imperious eyebrow-- she wasn't worth the effort of a sneer. There were times that even a god must stoop to conquer, but this was not one of those times. As Thea had put herself within reach of Kobra, so too was she in the reach of his StrikeForce.

Almost lazily, he glanced from his Lieutenant to Lady Eve, as if idly curious which one would rid him of this gnat that plagued him.

Lady Eve jutted her head at the sorceress in the hippie garb, Fauna Faust.

And Fauna stepped forward. "There's almost more of cat than of woman about you."

Fauna was no slouch in general magic, but her true power lay in the manipulation of The Red-- she could control animals, and those with animalistic powers. The deeper Thea sank into Ixchel's curse, the more catlike she became, the more wild...

"Kitty-cat doesn't like the water, does she?" Fauna snarked, her voice rippling with power as she exerted her hypnotic will on Thea Grant. "Go for a swim, kitty-cat. Jump off this bridge."

 

[kizkiz]

Before the Word, the earth was formless and void, and Mother Night ruled all.

Kiz was not in fact a human. Not any more. Once he'd been a hunter's child playing in dirt and hunting squirrels in the back woods of Emerald. He'd wandered along the wrong path. Weary and alone he'd fallen asleep within a fairy's ring. A stupid child's mistake, but in his defense he'd been a child.

Malfeasance, one of the Outside Realms aligned with the plane of Hell had been made by turning the infinite depths of a demons soul inside out. This was in the Age of Legends, when such acts were common place and the Solars ruled all of Creation.

So a few haphazard opening moves had been traded. Often these moves were slapdash and cursory. It was important to play with a light hand. Pieces had to be sacrificed when opponents were negotiating along which joseki they would play. These patterns weren't fixed but they were guides, statistical paths along which optimal plays could emerge upon which victory could be wrought.

Kiz incorporated what had played out already, but what lead his decision was the strength of the Rider's defense of Raven. He didn't like either of them, but that also meant that his decision to base the entire battle around them wasn't tainted.

Herself assaulted with all the Old Testament-level power getting flung around, Rose was understandably distracted from the sweetly beautiful Jiminy Cricket in her head-- but when M'gann managed to get Rose's attention, Rose put her hands to her head.

"Cover me!" she called out. "I'm making like Ellen Page in Inception!"

And her mind reached out for Kobra's in a rush, searching out his utmost desires, his plans and his purpose and his promise, the chaotic vision of utopia that ticked away in his mad mad mad mad brain.

At the very same time, observing that The Servitor's attack on Raven had been momentarily stymied, Lady Eve looked to the crackling creature exuding and extruding all the colors of the cardinal rainbow. And commanded, simply: "Spectrumonster. FEAR."

With that, the creature raised its hands above its head and unleashed a coruscating rush of molten golden light... a light that would probe the minds of all the heroes in its wavelength and reveal their deepest, darkest terrors to the Spectrumonster. "HRRaaRRGHHHH!"

There were four planar anchors in close proximity. They distorted the resonance of Creation and bent the dimensional lines along which Kiz walked like an elephant on a tight rope. It took several moments for Kiz to fix the place between where Rose and Karan were and where the Rider and Raven were.

>>Lord Morpheus, Dream of the Endless, Son of Night borne from Time. As Lease Lord of my Demense upon which my Heart Grace was born, I formally request permission for a full unveiling of my Demense upon the shores of Creation. I ask not for my own aims nor those of High House Time or High House Void. I ask to be granted such leave to ease the burden of your Ward's waking mind. What is asked of her is yet too much, but I will shoulder such burdens if you permit and allow the Sleeper to Wake so Rose may yet walk her Path. I ask in the name of our standing alliance and to further those of your House, it's duties and responsibilities.

>>There are none whom are fully Asleep that would be touched, only Walkers already set upon their Paths.

Kobra had been very kind to effect these eye of the storm and only call in Metahumans, who were exempt from almost all of the strictures that Dream had laid out at the founding of Creation. All of this was done in the moment when Kiz moved between where he had been to where he would be. While Kiz waited to see if his entreatment would be acknowledged and permission granted, he appeared at the Lagrange point between four massive extra-dimensional beings: Rose, the Rider, Karan, and Raven.

The Rider still parried the light emitted by the technic monstrosity. Raven called upon the Anti-Circle in a ritual as dark as any Kiz knew. The yellow light of the Spectrum monster washed over Rose, Karan, the Rider, Raven, and Kiz.

Kiz's right hand shot out and a nuclear explosion of raw, unfiltered arcane energy burst in all directions. The mushroom cloud of power was an untapped wellspring of possibility, a relaxing of the laws of Creation and enablement of chaos and potential. It was the first step in unveiling his Demense within the bounds of Creation.

While most of the power burst around him like the fallout of a nuclear explosion, radiating (for good or ill) everything nearby -- with what the Lords of Chaos, Time, or the Dark Tower would call the Prim -- the majority of it was focused at the wave of yellow light.

As the first seal upon Creation was shattered, his Anima Banner unfurled. Creation oozed illegible sigils of the Void. The script slithered through and around Creation both alive and nonexistent. Cracks that had always existed in the seemingly seamless fabric of creation gushed the null absence of nothingness. Once more out to about the same distance as he'd done in the stadium (around 500 yards), the Void manifested. The tendrils of inky black nothingness rewrote the laws of Creation. This time though, instead of cutting and banishing a section of Creation, Kiz set about commingling Creation with that of the major portion of himself, his Demense.

For thirteen feet in every direction from Kiz, the script whipped around in a cyclonic twister of the Void, its script, and nothingness. Somewhere in the space between the ground and the apex of Kobra's "Eye of the Hurricane", the script compressed into a black sun throwing off tendrils of squiggly words detailing every contract, binding, and agreement Kiz had amassed in his life. It was the mouth of the Well of the Void or the heart of a Black Hole. The Event Horizon.

Although he'd hoped to avoid drawing attention to himself until a little later, there could no longer be any mistaking who now stood there between Rose and Karan on one side and the Rider, Raven, and the Servitor.

He was Kiz, The Left Hand of the Void and Dominus of High House Void.

And his right hand held the coruscating rush of molten golden light projected from the Spectrumonster in a sticky, tar baby web of Void Script. "By my name, I bind thee Spectrumonster, child of the First Word of Creation. All was pure, formless, and of the Void. The Word cleaved from nothing the Light. I acknowledge the intimacy and primacy of our bond, you as a scion of the Light and I of the Void."

Kiz's left hand shot forward, wrapping more of the yellow light around so that it looked like Kiz had bunched up the end of a vast, yellow sheet in both of his hands. Kiz's body turned and his legs bunched, coiling and digging into the ground. He wrapped the yellow sheet around the body of the Lasher and fixed them all, Spectrumonster, the Yellow Light, Kiz, and the Lasher as permanent fixtures in an endless, eternal point of nowness.

"And I formally invite you to be Bound to the Void."

And then Kiz pulled and started feeding the Light of the Spectrumonster to the Well of the Void, beyond the Event Horizon not even light could escape.

 

[Wyldfire]

In launching across that distance, Thea had displayed post-human felinoid agility beyond anything she'd shown so far... almost on the order of The Cheetah, a foe who rivaled Wonder Woman herself! Which made it all the more tragic when The Yellow Light of Fear cut the wind from her sails.

She found herself face to face with Kobra himself, and he twitched an imperious eyebrow-- she wasn't worth the effort of a sneer. There were times that even a god must stoop to conquer, but this was not one of those times. As Thea had put herself within reach of Kobra, so too was she in the reach of his StrikeForce.

Almost lazily, he glanced from his Lieutenant to Lady Eve, as if idly curious which one would rid him of this gnat that plagued him.

Lady Eve jutted her head at the sorceress in the hippie garb, Fauna Faust.

And Fauna stepped forward. "There's almost more of cat than of woman about you."

Fauna was no slouch in general magic, but her true power lay in the manipulation of The Red-- she could control animals, and those with animalistic powers. The deeper Thea sank into Ixchel's curse, the more catlike she became, the more wild...

"Kitty-cat doesn't like the water, does she?" Fauna snarked, her voice rippling with power as she exerted her hypnotic will on Thea Grant. "Go for a swim, kitty-cat. Jump off this bridge."

"Well shit," Thea thought as her will was usurped, "Add a new fear to life." She turned and ran to the edge of the bridge and threw herself off of it. At this height the water was going to be like concrete. She toppled with almost no control. As she plummeted an instinct she had never needed to use until now came into play. Thea twisted and contorted so that at the last second she hit feet first instead of a belly flop. It still hurt like hell as she impacted. Hurt enough for her to unconsciously scream. Her scream tore the air out of her lungs, and she just as instinctively tried to get that air back in. Pity there wasn't any air in her immediate area. Instead she inhaled water. Water bad. Real bad. And she just kept going down. Fuck everything, Thea had a new fear. And she was getting to live it all the way to panic. Her lungs burned. Her heart pounded and betrayed her and gave up. As she slowed and came to a stop in her decent she was gone. Before she started to rise again she twitched back to life. Of all the times for her curse to be quick. Her cats eyes snapped open and a new set of fangs flashed as she screamed again. The other alterations were less physical. Panic and fear mixed through her and instead of clawing her way upwards she instead tore herself deeper with her thrashing.

Nothing to breath. Weak from just coming back. She lost another life. As she began floating to the surface her skin twitched and shifted. Fur sprouted over her entire body, an almost tiger striping in it's patterning. Near her ass her costume ripped as a tail sprouted. As she continued her ascent to the surface the toes of her costume shredded as her feet grew claws. Her mask came free as her ears altered and shifted to a more catlike appearance. Just as she was nearing the surface the current had carried her into contact with one of the bridge supports. She bumped into it an her body convulsed. throwing her head out of the water as she returned. New instincts cut in and she grabbed the cement of the support with her claws and dragged herself out of the water.

She growled. Feral and deep in her throat. Thea threw herself up the bridge support. Back up the bridge like a cat up a tree, her thoughts a haze of rage and cruelty. Someone was going to pay for this. Someone was going to suffer for this.

 

[TertiusHuman]

Thea attacked and Garfield believed that she would land on the Leader and rip his ears off. Instead she landed awkwardly and seemed dazed as the yellow sail of light hit her, he waited a moment longer, not sure why. The light enveloped him, leaving his biggest fears open for those who wished to see. The fear of being the cause of a death, to cause a death or just plainly to become the narcissistic killer his uncle had proved to be. Then one of the attack force spoke to Thea and she jumped off of the bridge.

"NO!!!"

Garfield's cry were oddly not a roar, but actually a word as he jumped into action, but as fast and as powerful as the sabretooth was, he wasn't able to stop Thea. He watched as she landed in the water and went under. He looked up at the people who clearly stood against them and then glanced at his own side. Decisions decisions... Thea had been nice to him, perhaps the Rider in her/it's own way, Aquaman had given him help through the watch... He grinned a catty grin and just as he were about to follow Thea he could smell wet cat and a feline growling. Well that settled that.

He focused on the woman who had sent Thea over the side and charged, turning into a Silverback Gorilla as he neared her position.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Containing Multitudes.

She growled. Feral and deep in her throat. Thea threw herself up the bridge support. Back up the bridge like a cat up a tree, her thoughts a haze of rage and cruelty. Someone was going to pay for this. Someone was going to suffer for this.

"Nine lives, huh? Someone really went all in with this one."

The Wild Hellcat's death-- or was it deaths? --perhaps predictably severed the psychic link that Fauna had forged with Thea. But no matter... as soon as Thea came within earshot, Fauna could just puppet her again. Maybe this time she'd have Thea gut herself with her own claws and bleed out on the bridge, that could be fun!

"NO!!!"

He focused on the woman who had sent Thea over the side and charged, turning into a Silverback Gorilla as he neared her position.

Before Thea could climb back into within the sound of Fauna's voice, however, the green-hued skinchanger attacked with vengeance aforethought.

Fauna smirked as she watched him take ape-form and rampage closer.

Zebra-Man half-glanced at her. "You want me to take this one?"

"Oh, no," Fauna tutted. "The Animal Kingdom is my playground and-- why, this one is The Animal Kingdom. The whole Red flows through him like The Missouri flows under this bridge, that is just... fascinating."

Stepping forward to meet Garfield's on-like-Donkey-Kong assault, Fauna considered him for a moment and then commanded, her voice thrumming with the power of her mesmerism: "Stop."

"Turn into a flock of ravens. Let's say... 420. I've always liked that number, and it's appropriate to that nursery rhyme... 4-and-20 blackbirds... turn into four hundred and twenty blackbirds and attack your friends. Half of you fly down there and peck at the kitty-cat that's climbing up here, go all Tippi Hedren on her. The other 210 of you... fly down and attack the Raven girl, distract her from completing her spell. That's a good boy."

No doubt Raven could use her empathic powers to filter out Fauna's control over Garfield as he attacked, but she would have to stop casting her soul-binding in order to do so. And in the meantime, no-one could physically attack the flock out of the risk of killing Beast Boy... or killing part of him?

Fauna grinned madly to herself, the leer of a true sadist.

 

[Varshanka]

Xarathos!

The gleaming metal monstrosity blasted the Rider, and the Rider stood there, taking it. The ground turned red from the heat and energy output that both of them were exuding in their stalemate battle.

Until the yellow blast washed over the Rider.

And everything changed.

For the worse.

Oh so much worse.

*****

“The Truth has Forsaken you Xarathos.”

“NO. I am XARATHIEL! Divine Vengeance of TRUTH!”

“YOU are Xarathos. Spirit of Vengeance, Judge of the Damned. Daemon cast from the light of Truth. You do not Serve Truth. You serve ME. I send you to bring me the ones that might get free. To bring souls on the edge. Before they can be redeemed.” The figure whispered as it slid from the shadows.

“If you were a divine child of Truth, you’d hear the song.. wouldn’t you?” That dark dark shape whispered stepping ever closer. “Can you hear the SONG?”

“No..” Xarathiel/Xarathos replied, shaking it’s head.

“Just accept me, and I will give you the power to be Vengeance. To deliver Vengeance upon the Silver Gates. To bring Vengeance upon מִיכָאֵל. To Punish him for what he has done. Serve me, and all you need is yours.”

Tears of fire fell to the smoking ash as the Words of הֵילֵל, finally struck home. Millennia of Listening to the words and the Rider was tired of fighting a lost battle. She/it had been forsaken. Cast out. She/it had severed the Darkness, and as such deserved to be Damned.

*****

Armor melted away as the Rider grew. Unshackled by the strength of Morality and The Word of Light. Unfettered by Oath or Pledge. Raven barrier flared and failed as the Unholy power of true Vengeance was brought forth. Neither Divine or Unholy it just was Wrath.

The Rider was gone.

The Spirit of Vengeance was Gone.

It was just Xarathos now.

Demon Prince of Hell. Duke of the Murderous Damned.

Stepping forward it grew, looking down at the simple machine of mortal creation Xarathos grabbed the offending construct. The homunculus was insignificant, a distraction, a gnat.

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff260/Varshanka/Xarathos/fire-demon_00449563.jpg

And it WAS IN THE WAY!

Flames of unholy evil washed over them both as Xarathos bellowed in Rage.

 

[Aussie_Wolf]

Green Arrow had watched his arrow streak towards his target straight and true, and then suddenly it was gone. The only thing he had registered was two Blur's, one yellow and one Purple. The yellow had probably been Velocity but the Purple was something unknown.

As he was readying another arrow, beings appeared on the bridge and he sighed as he didn't recognize a single one. His Father had never fought them and he had not seen them on any news programs. The problem with that of course was that he had no idea what he was up against. Well one of them was probably a speedster considering that blur though.

Suddenly there was a burst of Golden Light and he felt something inside his head, probing his mind for fears. He smiled. Oh he had fears but he had faced them long ago and thanks to the monks training in Zen philosophy he had overcome them. The probe would be very disappointed by what it found in his mind.

Looking at the people arrayed at the other end of the bridge he saw the grinning woman staring at both Wild cat and then Beast Boy. If he had seen one psychotic look on a person then...Well actually hers was pretty bad. Drawing and firing off a bone arrow, he hoped to distract her from whatever she was doing to his teammates, and if he happened to put her out of the fight so be it. One less psychopath in the world couldn't be a bad thing...right?

 

[Varshanka]

Raven!

Casting the spell was bad enough, and then the living machine added to the shit. Thankfully The Rider intervened. And then the Yellow wave hit and the crap storm got deep indeed.

*****

She watched as The Rider exploded into rage. An Unholy rage she’d never heard of it manifesting before. She felt the psi-shield detonate inside her skull and blood didn’t just drip from her nose. It flowed.

She was losing control, and she knew Trigon could feel it. He was pushing harder against the bonds that bound him, harder than ever before. She was losing control on him. She was failing. The only things she’d ever feared was her father, and not being strong enough to hold him back and stop him.

And she wasn’t. She wasn’t strong enough to do all of this. Stop Kobra. Stop The Rider. Stop Trigon. Not without.. doing a very very bad thing. IF she did that, then she failed again. And she was afraid she wouldn’t come back.

*****

Blood ran from her eyes, a psychic bleed from a dark place as necromantic energy that should never be tapped was opened like a dam breaking.

Dark silk bled it’s color until it became paler than rose. Paler than Raven. Paler than snow. And the jem opened.

 

[Aussie_Wolf]

Velocity was glaring at the other speedster when the yellow blast washed over her and she felt light headed. Shaking her head she turned back to make sure the woman was still where she had last seen her when she saw her legs.

Metal was starting to encase them, replacing her uniform and turning them a nice shiny chrome. Staring at them in horror she tried to move them and was surprised when they still obeyed her, but she still could not believe what was happening to her.

She had always been afraid that her cybernetics would one day run amok and take over her body and here was the proof that she had not been paranoid. Even as she watched the metal crawled up her whole leg and her arms started to change.

Crying out she sunk to her knees as she started to hear a little voice in her head. "Stage two now active. Complete takeover of the host organism proceeding, full integration in two minutes."

 

[Varshanka]

Renegade!

Hitting the ground in a roll, Renegade came up weapons barking and bucking in her hands, hot lead homing in on bone. Skull, knee, elbow. Super easy to hit even on the run. And as fast as she was firing she was gonna hit targets. Luck and skill would save some, but not all or even most.

And when that yellow light rolled over her she frowned. Kinda weird but obviously it had failed as a weapon. Whatever it was.

 

[Wyldfire]

"Nine lives, huh? Someone really went all in with this one."

The Wild Hellcat's death-- or was it deaths? --perhaps predictably severed the psychic link that Fauna had forged with Thea. But no matter... as soon as Thea came within earshot, Fauna could just puppet her again. Maybe this time she'd have Thea gut herself with her own claws and bleed out on the bridge, that could be fun!



Before Thea could climb back into within the sound of Fauna's voice, however, the green-hued skinchanger attacked with vengeance aforethought.

Fauna smirked as she watched him take ape-form and rampage closer.

Zebra-Man half-glanced at her. "You want me to take this one?"

"Oh, no," Fauna tutted. "The Animal Kingdom is my playground and-- why, this one is The Animal Kingdom. The whole Red flows through him like The Missouri flows under this bridge, that is just... fascinating."

Stepping forward to meet Garfield's on-like-Donkey-Kong assault, Fauna considered him for a moment and then commanded, her voice thrumming with the power of her mesmerism: "Stop."

"Turn into a flock of ravens. Let's say... 420. I've always liked that number, and it's appropriate to that nursery rhyme... 4-and-20 blackbirds... turn into four hundred and twenty blackbirds and attack your friends. Half of you fly down there and peck at the kitty-cat that's climbing up here, go all Tippi Hedren on her. The other 210 of you... fly down and attack the Raven girl, distract her from completing her spell. That's a good boy."

No doubt Raven could use her empathic powers to filter out Fauna's control over Garfield as he attacked, but she would have to stop casting her soul-binding in order to do so. And in the meantime, no-one could physically attack the flock out of the risk of killing Beast Boy... or killing part of him?

Fauna grinned madly to herself, the leer of a true sadist.

Bitch has killed her twice. That's okay. Bitch has tried to hurt one of the good ones in this? Oh fuck no. Yeah she was in a bestial rage. She was going to do bad bad things to this one. But first and foremost she was going to get Justice. She focused on Gar. Hard. Then she thought of her Grand. Another good one. One she failed. She would NOT fail Gar. She leaped upwards springing up the column, clawing and tearing. Each leap drew more focus into her actions. This wasn't a cat fight. This was just another octagon. Just another fight. This was just one more bitch that thought she was better. No one was better than Thea Grant. Thea was the best there is at hurting a bitch. This was pure ghetto. Cats be damned this chick was going to get her ass beat.

 

[Varshanka]

Karan!

When they landed Karan felt Roses’ hand slip from her own, and seconds later the yellow light surrounded them. The light didn’t hurt, but she knew Rose didn’t want her. The soft whispering in her mind had to be Rose talking to someone else. Probably talking about Karan, how brutal and pushy she was.

Karan had never really fit in on Themyscira. Stronger, her fists shattered stone without effort. Faster, she kept running across the water around the island until she learned to slow down. Angrier, the anger beams from her eyes had terrified everyone at first. Especially herself. A blond amongst brunettes.

She’d always been a little rougher, not intentionally, but it is what is. And then she met Rose. She tried so very hard to be more careful. To move a little slower, touch softer. But it wasn’t enough. She was just a heavy handed brute. Maybe it was best that Rose didn’t want her around. Safer. Rose would be safer away from her.

She’d stay and fight, but she’d stay away from Rose so she didn’t hurt the most beautiful girl in the world. She could give Rose happiness, so she’d do what she could so Rose could be happy, with whomever it was she was talking to.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Apollyon Wanna Cracker.

Hitting the ground in a roll, Renegade came up weapons barking and bucking in her hands, hot lead homing in on bone. Skull, knee, elbow. Super easy to hit even on the run. And as fast as she was firing she was gonna hit targets. Luck and skill would save some, but not all or even most.

And when that yellow light rolled over her she frowned. Kinda weird but obviously it had failed as a weapon. Whatever it was.

Luck and skill were important, but sometimes the lack of either could be counterbalanced with an excess of power.

The Spectrumonster would have been easily able to erect a forcefield of whatever color, but it was... occupied.

Still, no-one had troubled Planet-Master enough yet that he'd needed to break a sweat.

Bullets drilled through the air towards them and again he crackled with the "darkning" that seemed to accompany a display of his abilities: "HEAT OF VENUS!"

He waved his hand and red-gold energies spilled from his fingertips like molten magmic light and he vaporized the tungsten projectiles out of the air as easily as a Kryptonian might with their heat vision.

As valiant as Renegade's efforts were, it was quickly becoming self-evident that ranged attacks would fall short unless someone engaged Planet-Master and drew him away from Kobra and his cadre.

 

[ChasNicollette]

What's Black and White and Red All Over?

Drawing and firing off a bone arrow, he hoped to distract her from whatever she was doing to his teammates, and if he happened to put her out of the fight so be it. One less psychopath in the world couldn't be a bad thing...right?

Aaaand, while Planet-Master was busy roasting bullets over an open Venusian fire, Connor sent a Zen-aimed arrow spinning across the distance to try and take out Fauna Faust.

Zebra-Man stepped into its path, snorted, and lifted his own hand...

...using his power of diamagnetism to generate a field that would repel the bone of the arrow. He couldn't do this with metals, of course, but any other substance or object was fair game-- attraction, repulsion, he was almost as dangerous as a full-on telekinetic.

And thus the bone arrow slowed to a stop in mid-air and fell away towards the river.

But, as Kiz explained, the arrow would return to an archer fired by a holy figure of Navajo spirituality blessed by The Corn Maidens. For all his multi-racial background, Connor Hawke was not descended from Native Americans, least of all The Navajo Nation, but the Navajo had long had kinship with the Kawatche tribes that resided in this area of Kansas and Missouri. Perhaps even now The Corn Maidens and Coyote looked down upon the way Kobra's forces had desecrated the lands and magics of their allies, and came to the defense of their opponents.

In any event, instead of plunging ineffectually into The Missouri River, the arrow boomeranged back to Connor and thudded back into his quiver, ready to be fired again when he had need.

As skilled and intent as The League's rangers were, they needed more ground support from their infantry fighters in order to make a dent in Kobra's defenses.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Lifeguarding.

The Yellow Light of Fear bathed Kaldur as it did his peers, and he stumbled back for a moment, clenching his eyes, and his memory transported him--

Weeks Ago.
Just Out to Sea from Happy Harbor, Rhode Island.
Aboard The U.S.S. Ravager.
********​

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-a95VAXQHH0Y/VRYV-Yp2lPI/AAAAAAAAAsA/jJ8UJy7aeFA/w384-h256/tumblr_mr6jztQaGd1qalb61o1_500.gif​

Having fought three supervillainesses with grace, fury, aplomb, and all the skill he had become legendary for, he nevertheless had found himself taken down by Deathstroke's Daughter... as seductive as she was deadly, and she was viciously deadly.

https://41.media.tumblr.com/755af7a0169414e49fa93e24e4ad45c3/tumblr_nuafliQ72K1qg9n11o1_r1_500.png

Rose Wilson - Ravager
Ninja. Cyclops. Mercenary. President of Basilisk Military Company.​

The lethal meta-mercenary managed to pin blades to Kaldur's sides, seizing on the brief lapses in his defenses following the exchange with the elemental fury sisters. So smooth and muted she was in her actions. Almost like she could read his movements ahead of time and react with uncanny timing and precision. "It looks like I caught a big one this time, and a yummy one he is. Mmmmh. " She allowed one of her ninja blades to trail the length of his spine, expelling cold breath into his shoulder as her breathing seemed to suggest a "rush" of adrenaline activity, she made superficial cuts along the grain of his mesh wet wear. She was if anything a consummate professional."The names Ravager and you my friend are somewhere you ought not to be. You're on a private liner causing problems for these fine young lady friends of mine, I could filet you right about now...if that were my thing. Seeing as that's not what I'm paid for... " She sheathed her swords, but swept him with her heel. "Doesn't mean I can't have a little fun." They were locked in a grappling match of sorts, with her eventually gaining the top position and saddling him. "Is it morning already? Look at all that blood not going to your head, your blood pressure must be through the roof right now." She laughed while relaxing herself.

"You know I heard about you before, but I never thought I'd see Manta's boys for myself. The name's Rose loverboy. " She leaned forward placing a peck on his cheek. After some time, the two were approached by one other. An outline and voice Kaldur he recognized all too well. David Ray. Black Manta, his biological father.

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h35/Danger-a-doom/0ccea439-957d-411f-bea2-ab692bce1f0a_zps46rqaiuc.jpg~original​

Rose soon stood, retiring to Black Manta's side. They seemed like they had an understanding. Things were starting to make some sense. The entire thing was just a setup to get him there.

"It's been a long time son..."

"For all the weight you place on blood inheritance, Black Manta," Aquaman had grimaced, pushing up to his feet and tilting his head to pop his neck, "you have no right to call me 'son.' My adoptive parents-- and King Orin-- have more than established themselves as my true paternal figures."

"Nonsense," Manta had snorted, drawing closer, narrowing his gaze. "Your so-called 'found family' has my thanks for being your caretakers for a time, and Orin's training has given you strength to a degree, but you still shy from your true calling, the true dominance that sings in your very DNA. You enslave yourself to the honor-code of these 'heroes' and their 'Justice,' but no institution on this Earth deserves your enslavement-- you were born to rule, and by my side!"

"True virtue, true leadership lies in service to others," Kaldur had dismissed with a low wave of his hand. "I will give my life for that belief, 'Father,' no matter what machinations you conjure to sway me."

"Ignorant boy!" Manta had roared, bunching his hands into fists. "This is not a world, a universe, where a free man can afford to be soft! I will teach you to be ruthless, Kaldur'ahm, even if I must beat it into your skull!"

Kaldur had squared his shoulders, leveling his gaze at both Black Manta and his mercenary henchwoman. "Your rage betrays you, 'Father.' If you had the courage of your convictions, you would not lose reason and discipline in the face of opposition."

Manta's lip had curled, and for an instant Kaldur had truly thought that this would be their final battle, their final showdown.

But then Manta had grimaced, and had turned away, signalling to Ravager.

Ravager had squinted her eye at Kaldur'ahm, then blown him a kiss, and turned away, vaulting over the side of the ship.

Black Manta had gazed out over The Atlantic, out to The East, to the horizon. "A new order is coming, Kaldur. One as alien as to your concepts of law and order and 'mercy' as the night is to the sun. I am only trying to save you from being ground under its heel. Either you will become hard enough to survive, to be worthy of being my true heir, or you will perish. There is no third option, no plucky optimism paying off in the last act. There is no light at the end. There is only Darkness."

Manta's sub had burst from the waters besides The U.S.S. Ravager, and the canopy had opened, revealing Rose Wilson at the helm.

"I want nothing more for you than to have the life that you richly deserve, Aqua'man,'" Manta had glowered, donning his helmet and clamping it into place. "To choose otherwise... will leave you with no life at all. No Life."

"Black Manta--" Kaldur had begun to reply, but Manta had ignored him, bounding over the railing and dropping effortlessly into the open canopy of his sub. The canopy hissed shut and the sub submerged, the depths closing over it and hiding it from sight.

Kaldur had stood there, alone on the deck of the ship with the three defeated elemental villainesses. And despite his great courage, a sense of foreboding had thudded in his heart such as he had never known.

As sadistic and brutal and-- ruthless-- as Black Manta could be-- David Ray was no coward. What manner of threat could chill the warlord so? What manner of... Darkness?

The mere thought of it had seeped cold into Kaldur's bones in a way even Killer Frost and the winds of December in New England coastal waters had failed to do. And in that moment... just for that moment... Kaldur had regretted dismissing his father's teachings... and he had been primally, primevally Afraid--

Here.
Now.
********​

--"NO!" Kaldur roared, in the moment, his hands clenching around The Champion's Trident, and slapped his bare feet down into the road bed-- firming up his stance, putting his feet down. "Whatever Darkness falls across the Earth and The Seven Seas, I will be ready, we will all be ready! I AM NOT MY FATHER'S SON! WE ARE NOT AFRAID!"

...but his people were afraid, they had not all been able to exert their Will and Courage to defeat this unholy terror.

And then his eyes fell upon Raven, and those eyes went wide indeed.

Blood ran from her eyes, a psychic bleed from a dark place as necromantic energy that should never be tapped was opened like a dam breaking.

Dark silk bled it’s color until it became paler than rose. Paler than Raven. Paler than snow. And the jem opened.

Kaldur cleared the distance between them in a sprint and a leap that could take an Olympian's breath away, landing before Raven with his heart in his throat.

He clapped a hand upon her face, little caring of the blood, positioning fingers to katra points just as Rae had done when mind-melding with Rose moments ago. And with his other hand he leveled The Champion's Trident at her chakric gem, at her third eye, and its golden light flared to a white hot point-- encasing that gem in a forcefield as dense and tight as he could manage, combining with his own comparatively minuscule mystic schooling, struggling with all his effort to keep that gem shut, to keep Trigon contained, to save his fellow Titan from the prophecies that echoed in deep Azerath about her.

He did not know if his will, if even The Trident's power, were sufficient. But he would try.

And all the while, his limited telepathy reached out to Raven through the contact points of his fingers upon her face and he begged her:

<"RAVEN! I KNOW YOU ARE AFRAID! BUT YOU ARE STRONGER THAN YOUR FEAR! YOU ARE STRONGER THAN TRIGON! YOU CAN DEFEAT THIS, HOLD IT BACK! FOR ALL OF KOBRA'S POSTURING HE IS NOTHING COMPARED TO THE WRATH OF TRIGON BUT YOU CAN PREVAIL OVER BOTH OF THEM! OVER ANYTHING! YOU MUST!">

 

[Varshanka]

The Sorrow of a Raven

She’s heard the prophesy. Trigon would be free and he’d destroy the world. She’d seen it happen in foretelling’s. A world of smoke and ash, corpses lying everywhere. So many dead. Heroes and villains alike had fallen to him. His hunger for power and death. What he didn’t control he destroyed.

Mindlessly.

Only she could hold it back, but she hadn’t. Just as she feared she didn’t have the strength to stop her own father from killing everyone.

<"RAVEN! I KNOW YOU ARE AFRAID! BUT YOU ARE STRONGER THAN YOUR FEAR! YOU ARE STRONGER THAN TRIGON! YOU CAN DEFEAT THIS, HOLD IT BACK! FOR ALL OF KOBRA'S POSTURING HE IS NOTHING COMPARED TO THE WRATH OF TRIGON BUT YOU CAN PREVAIL OVER BOTH OF THEM! OVER ANYTHING! YOU MUST!">

She could hear a voice, distant, like a memory long past. A lifetime ago? A past life maybe? She could see it happening again. Over and over. People dying because she was weak. But she wasn’t weak.

She knew she wasn’t weak.

Then how could everyone be dying?

“Azarath Metrion Zinthos.”

A simple spell really. More of a cantrip. Like brushing cobwebs off an old dusty cloak. So many uses, it just depended on inflection.

And she saw the Truth of what was before her. She hadn’t failed. Yes, she had a fear. A fear of being weak. But that wasn’t the truth. Her fear was failing.. the people she worked with. She didn’t have friends. Not real friends. Not people she could trust.

A fear of falling to her fathers power. A fear of not being strong enough to stop her father. But she was strong enough. And more important.

She was angry at being lied to. To many people were playing at magic. Playing with powers they didn’t understand. No she wasn’t angry. She was down right raging mad. Pissed off at the bullshit lies. Furious at the fucktards that were playing with shit they didn’t understand.

The jem closed as white eyes gazed across the field of battle, she could feel Kal’s fingers on her face. Strong fingers. Seeing between his fingers as she stopped looking at the battle and looked at him. “I am fine..” she whispered.

“Maecenas rutrum sapien quis efficitur molestie. Nam dolor lacus, feugiat quis neque in, ullamcorper ultrices velit. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Fusce dignissim purus ipsum, imperdiet auctor sapien vestibulum eu. Nam accumsan ultrices odio, et commodo quam pretium ornare. Nulla vehicula placerat dolor vel convallis. Praesent lectus neque, hendrerit et blandit posuere, lobortis at ex. Suspendisse potenti. Integer et libero sit amet tortor tincidunt aliquam. Aliquam ex nunc, auctor vitae pulvinar a, dictum et risus. Cras fringilla dolor vitae imperdiet egestas. Phasellus varius turpis et fermentum lobortis. Aenean vel massa metus. Phasellus felis nulla, porttitor at purus ac, mollis condimentum eros.

Aliquam est purus, pharetra vel condimentum sed, tristique ut purus. Mauris vitae molestie lorem. Nulla mauris neque, tempor a est id, ornare rhoncus sem. Mauris sollicitudin hendrerit dui ut pellentesque. Fusce sed arcu a mauris ultrices accumsan in at mi. Aliquam tempus orci in aliquam elementum. Etiam vitae justo eu lacus elementum bibendum nec vitae turpis. Nulla blandit tellus arcu, nec pharetra mi vehicula eget.

Morbi porttitor vel magna id accumsan. Sed quam felis, semper ut tincidunt nec, feugiat in magna. Duis quis nisl id risus auctor maximus. Proin nulla lacus, mollis eu tempus non, scelerisque vitae dui. Donec dictum a augue a sagittis. Pellentesque vitae commodo leo, ut venenatis libero. Proin convallis turpis a tellus molestie aliquam. Fusce purus tellus, porta pharetra nibh vel, vehicula finibus est. Fusce vel lacus at ligula rhoncus rhoncus. Suspendisse interdum purus lobortis diam cursus, ac consequat orci pulvinar. Donec in ornare velit. Integer egestas, augue at condimentum tristique, ligula erat dignissim velit, eu auctor arcu risus eget ante. Integer dui eros, ullamcorper vel condimentum quis, convallis a nisi. Mauris facilisis fringilla dui, at posuere mauris mattis eu. Nullam blandit hendrerit enim sed faucibus. Morbi in odio sed felis tincidunt ullamcorper ac at metus.
Nullam eu magna quis ipsum bibendum sodales eu sit amet purus. Nam fringilla mattis luctus. Morbi ultrices scelerisque nulla, sed tempor nibh dictum id.

Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Vivamus ultricies euismod vulputate. Nullam mauris sapien, malesuada vel feugiat sit amet, dictum et ex. Aenean id tortor maximus, suscipit mi in, commodo magna. Mauris id egestas urna. Fusce posuere gravida rutrum.
Fusce id nulla imperdiet, ultricies velit in, mattis eros. Fusce ipsum est, elementum quis molestie id, bibendum quis nulla. In lacinia, orci at pharetra fermentum, mauris magna hendrerit lectus, sit amet rutrum augue urna eu ante. Quisque malesuada, nisl quis pulvinar tempor, metus nisl suscipit arcu, ac egestas justo diam vel justo. Nam feugiat nunc at magna lacinia porta vitae vel nulla. Proin id magna rutrum erat vehicula ornare. Mauris sit amet ultricies velit. In arcu sem, pellentesque sit amet rhoncus vel, luctus ut lectus. Donec in massa mattis, fermentum elit id, gravida justo. Curabitur ante est, vehicula vitae ligula at, tincidunt vestibulum enim. Cras aliquet euismod consequat. Duis sagittis nisl ut tincidunt posuere. Integer ipsum leo, varius eu velit nec, pretium luctus leo.
Vestibulum viverra sagittis tellus ac sagittis. Nam laoreet a nisl eu congue. Etiam faucibus erat enim, ut auctor sapien aliquam nec. Curabitur vel sagittis quam. Sed in ex ut mi malesuada interdum. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Proin volutpat nulla sit amet magna aliquam, ut mattis felis porta. Sed condimentum purus in urna laoreet lacinia. Fusce vel ullamcorper orci, nec bibendum mauris.”

She felt sorry for the souls she was ripping from the mortal coil. Sorry for the things they had committed, and what she was doing was an abomination against nature. But you didn’t fight a nuclear bomb with a glass of water. You burned out it’s power faster than it could grow.

Rising up, she felt fingers slipping from her face. A compassionate touch she’d never felt before. “Fear is a powerful weapon. But when you have friends around.. you need more than fear.” She hoped she wasn’t overstepping her comprehension of friend. Friend, ally, companion, compatriot.

Eyes as white as the sun focused on the thing that had sent the yellow beam of fear at her and those she fought alongside. She didn’t even speak this time as white light poured forth, washing over the field of battle for an eternally long moment, and then concentrated on that vile.. multicolored thing.

“I’m sorry for you.” She whispered.

 

[ChasNicollette]

The Lake of Fire. The Pale Blue Dot.

Crying out she sunk to her knees as she started to hear a little voice in her head. "Stage two now active. Complete takeover of the host organism proceeding, full integration in two minutes."

Dervish rolled her eyes when, apropos of nothing, Velocity sank to her knees in front of her-- and not in the fun way.

"Well, at least you'll leave a pretty corpse. Hell, you're already as pale as Death."

She stepped forward, holding up her left hand as though she were about to deliver a karate chop-- and the stiffened fingers started to vibrate, to hum with speed... she would shear through Velocity's molecules like a hot knife through butter, carving Carin to superheated ribbons.

"Maybe I'll go in through the spine from behind, at least that way you can have an open casket. Give the rubberneckers one last look at you for their spank-banks."

The Light of Fear washed over The New Justice League and their allies, and chaos reigned.

Raven's resolve crumpled in terror.

Karan, redoubtable, suddenly doubted her worthiness to be loved and love in return.

Ghost Rider erupted into a necrocosmic nethertitan of demonic nobility, brandishing The Servitor like a Buzz Lightyear toy.

And as Rose reached out with her mind to touch Kobra's, to read his dreams to find out his perfect endgame and pre-enact it inside his brain, to make him believe in the make-believe that he had won and that Kali Yuga had come at last... the Yellow Light took her too.

She saw two fears at once. Two Fears.

Rose's fear was Fun Land. A fat, hairy, basement-dwelling scuzzball who visited theme parks and preyed on little girls when no-one was looking.

She was in a motel looking for her brother.

At the same time she was in that motel, most of the rooms in the place were taken up by a convention. The guy at the front desk told her and Gilbert to stay in their room and out of the convention's way, they agreed.

Except Rose found out they had a disco room and wanted to go dancing, and wandered out. She always had been stubborn.

Except the convention was a gathering of serial killers and she caught Fun Land's eye-- and she was juuuuust close enough to his preferred demographic that he decided to shit where he slept.

She didn't remember how she escaped him.

Just reading a name aloud that started with "M" and-- then nothing.

But she remembered him looming over her and his sweaty, meaty hands tearing at her clothes from behind as she lay on her face on the floor struggling to get away-- she remembered him calling her names, slut-shaming her--

--he was going to hurt her and he was going to do things to her that she would never ever be able to stop waking up screaming about--

--and then Nathan "Fun Land" Diskin burst into flame, standing over her like that, he was wreathed in fire, eyes burning with radiant heat. Fire billowed in his skin, rolled off of him in waves, and everywhere the fire touched it scorched the landscape into red sand.

Soon, soon, Fun Land stood tall over her like a giantic fiery demon in his own right, a bipedal furnace, and all around Fun Land and Rose for horizons around were the landscapes of Mars, just south of The Gusev Crater...

...there were skeletal bodies of Green and Pale Martians, smouldering, but Rose was still burning, the fire was still pouring off of Fernus Fun Land and engulfing her and she could see her parents dying and The Martian Manhunter's wife and daughter--

...her heart was pounding in her chest and her brain was threatening to melt out her ears and it hurt it hurt it hurt it hurt, and she clutched pale hands around her pale Pale Martian head and she dropped to her pale Pale Martian knees--

Somewhere outside Raven's psychic firewall she could hear her paracortical "conscience" screaming...

...and inside the firewall her eyes were bleeding tears, the dread and the horror...

..**** Land and his stupid hat with the pointy Big Bad Wolf ears...

..**** Land was burning...

And somewhere only a few yards far, far away, Kiz said a prayer.

Was it still a prayer when you really, really knew the being you were petitioning truly existed and could and would probably answer?

...probably.

Kiz prayed to Morpheus, Dream of The Endless.

>>Lord Morpheus, Dream of the Endless, Son of Night borne from Time. As Lease Lord of my Demense upon which my Heart Grace was born, I formally request permission for a full unveiling of my Demense upon the shores of Creation. I ask not for my own aims nor those of High House Time or High House Void. I ask to be granted such leave to ease the burden of your Ward's waking mind. What is asked of her is yet too much, but I will shoulder such burdens if you permit and allow the Sleeper to Wake so Rose may yet walk her Path. I ask in the name of our standing alliance and to further those of your House, it's duties and responsibilities.

>>There are none whom are fully Asleep that would be touched, only Walkers already set upon their Paths.

Incalculable distances away and right in the next heartbeat A.D., Morpheus, Dream of The Endless, sat in his throne room gazing into a mirror watching a baby named Daniel Hall asleep in a crib in a New York apartment, and then the mirror rippled like someone had touched the surface of a pond with a fingertip, and the image changed to the tableau of battle that raged before and around Kiz the Summoner, Void Walker.

Morpheus arched a darksome eyebrow over a starfield eye.

"It has been a long time, Kiz of Emerald, since a formal entreaty has cited my Father and Mother by their very names, not since The Fae departed your Earth in Will Shaxberd's day. I find it oddly intimate and perhaps a quantum impertinent. Nevertheless, I have made great sacrifices and taken great risks that Rose and M'gann be given opportunity to Walk their Path together. I would not see that come to aught."

"It is as you say. The metahumans were written into the fabric of Earth's biology long before they evolved, but like a dream forgotten upon waking they have scarcely yet come to be, a mere fraction of humanity-- and yet that fraction possesses almost as much potential to deform the waking world as I or one of my siblings."

"The bolt of cloth that is Space and Time is already tested fit to rending in that place by the machinations of Jason Burr. The intrusion of your leased corner of my Realm, your place amongst The Skerries, will not overmuch unravel the cosmology of your locus more than it be already. But know this, Kiz, Warded Man, your Void Walker kith live amidst the skins of your very teeth, existing solely upon your need to bite off more than you can chew and hold it in your mouth."

"I trust that this bite will not be more than you can chew. I have much to attend to in coming days, and I would much mislike having set to work undoing the torrential rifts a misstep would threaten upon the fabric of this Universe. To say nothing of the two women who Walk their Path in Dreaming and Waking as one."

"Proceed with caution, Kiz of Emerald, Left Hand of The Void and Dominus of High House Void. But... proceed."

He waved his hand and the mirror rippled back to young Daniel Hall.

Morpheus looked incalculably sad for a long moment, and then waved his hand once more, and the mirror went dark, and he sat alone, hands steepled, thoughts deep as a gravity sink between galaxies and almost as dark.

And Kiz' power went off like a thirteen-foot version of Three-Mile Island, except instead of vast and terrible atomic rads, what emitted were even more vast and terrible handwritings upon the structure of The Universe and the neuropsychic nets of creatures-- words of creation and of re-creation--

--a gaping maw of eloquent cosmic programming--

--like unto the Source Code found in the once-living machines of the lightbringer heaven upon The Pinnacle of The Multiverse--

And his right hand held the coruscating rush of molten golden light projected from the Spectrumonster in a sticky, tar baby web of Void Script. "By my name, I bind thee Spectrumonster, child of the First Word of Creation. All was pure, formless, and of the Void. The Word cleaved from nothing the Light. I acknowledge the intimacy and primacy of our bond, you as a scion of the Light and I of the Void."

Kiz's left hand shot forward, wrapping more of the yellow light around so that it looked like Kiz had bunched up the end of a vast, yellow sheet in both of his hands. Kiz's body turned and his legs bunched, coiling and digging into the ground. He wrapped the yellow sheet around the body of the Lasher and fixed them all, Spectrumonster, the Yellow Light, Kiz, and the Lasher as permanent fixtures in an endless, eternal point of nowness.

"And I formally invite you to be Bound to the Void."

And then Kiz pulled and started feeding the Light of the Spectrumonster to the Well of the Void, beyond the Event Horizon not even light could escape.

The Spectrumonster shuddered.

Astonished.

Its primordial mind could not comprehend the power of one that would cause its rays to curve and bend in something so much more terribly inexorable than gravity.

But even as its fractured psyche's eloquence failed to trace the scope of Kiz' grip, even as Kiz took a hold of the Yellow Light of Fear like a satin sash, even as other Colors started to bleed out of its White, White photodermis and streamed long, scraggly, straggly spectra across the sky and into the vortices of Kiz' domain...

...two things happened.

...one, The League and their allies felt their Fears fluctuate and lessen, if not abate completely.

...two, The Spectrumonster railed against this attempted capture, fought for freedom, thrashed and gnashed and boiled and roiled, exploding with blood-Red plasmic Rage-Light, throwing down Red-construct anchors, plunging them into the bridge-bed around it in order to keep from getting dragged into the prison of Kiz' Binding.

Those Red-construct anchor-chains, too, were not immune to the gravitic exertions of Kiz' cyclonic Void-script, and glowing droplets of Rage-Light-Blood beaded off of those constructs and were swept like grains of sand into the growing prismatic knot in Kiz' grasp. But still The Spectrumonster fought, reinforcing its anchors even as they melted, its Rage fueling its resistance...

"HRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHNNNNH!"

Kiz was bent on Binding the beast. But the beast was not going quietly.

And yet.

In drawing off that Yellow Light, Kiz had bought certain Leaguers a fighting chance.

Velocity might see the techno-organic viral tech that swallowed her pale skin start to slow its encroach, start to falter.

Perhaps Raven, with Kaldur'ahm come to her aid, would find some sparking vestige surge of reserve to assert herself over that chakric prison once more.

And perhaps The Rider...

...well...

...in Rose's own mindscape, the sands of Mars rolled back away from the Cities of Central and Keystone, the fires of Fun Land Diskin flickered and started to fade.

And a beautiful green woman with red hair and freckles stood over her, offering her a hand up. 'Come with me if you want to live.'

Rose looked at her in astonishment, uncomprehending and then recognizing, her Pale hand in the girl's Green one. 'I know you.'

The girl grinned back at her, hauled her to her feet. 'I walked with you Once Upon a Dream.'

But then her face grew serious: 'Look, I can't stay long, and you'll forget me when I'm gone like you would a dream, that's not something I can help right now but I trust you to forgive me later. I'm going to help you do something you're not ready to do yet. And I'm going to tell you a story.'

'A story?' Rose blinked.

'Once, not so very long ago, Lord Morpheus of Dream traveled to Hell to retrieve a lost artifact from a demon who had accepted it, stolen goods though it had been. And in order to bargain back the artifact from the demon's, uh, possession, Morpheus dueled there in Hell for the right to take it. And it was a duel of ideas, of concepts, of imagineered shapeshifting, one duelist would describe themselves as a notion and then the next duelist would have to describe themselves as a notion that could defeat the one before, on and on until one duelist could no longer name a thing that could defeat the one before. And do you know how Morpheus won?'

'How?' Rose wondered, her mind still reeling, her brain still struggling to keep up, still struggling to think through the scattering sparkler smouldering embers that were Fun Land Diskin.

The girl smiled softly. 'He said: "I am Hope."'

Then the girl stepped back and away and faded and was gone.

And Rose blinked, and she saw the world as it was again, the madness and cacophonous chaos of it all-- but not the Fearsome hallucination she had seen--

--instead, she saw the stories-tall Hellfiery creature that was Ghost Rider unchained, and she knew in a heartbeat that as much as it was amazing that that power was on their side, if The Rider ran rampant in this form it would destroy the very Creation that she/it and they had come here to save.

Rose saw Velocity on her knees on the bridge.

Rose saw Karan's heart breaking.

And she poured out her own heart to them.

<"Velocity: you can outrun this! You can outrun anything! What would Barry Allen do?">

<"Karan. Hey. I don't know who we are or what we are or who I even am. But I know one thing. I think I love you and I want to find out what that means.">

And then she locked her mind and her gaze on The Rider.

<"Ghost Rider! I know you can hear me! I know I can reach my mind through that fire of yours, I know you can hear me! I know there's some kind of humanity in there, I've seen it, I've talked to your mind before, if you give yourself over to this-- I just learned something, and I have to share it with you. I know that even in Hell, Hope has meaning, Hope is the one thing that Hell can never burn down! I know that Hope can conquer Fear! I believe it to the bottom of my stubborn heart! This is everything you're scared of but you can come back from this-- I know you can still Hope for a better world! I know you already burn but I need you to shine! Come on!">

 

[TertiusHuman]

"Oh, no," Fauna tutted. "The Animal Kingdom is my playground and-- why, this one is The Animal Kingdom. The whole Red flows through him like The Missouri flows under this bridge, that is just... fascinating."

'Wait, what? He is the Animal Kingdom? The Red? What ever did she mean by that?'

But being in gorilla form and still on the charge, he didn't actually get the time to stop and ask about those comments.

Stepping forward to meet Garfield's on-like-Donkey-Kong assault, Fauna considered him for a moment and then commanded, her voice thrumming with the power of her mesmerism: "Stop."

Garfield came to a halt so abruptly he almost tore muscles and ligaments from enforcing the sudden inertia on himself.

'Okay, this is not good.'

"Turn into a flock of ravens. Let's say... 420. I've always liked that number, and it's appropriate to that nursery rhyme... 4-and-20 blackbirds... turn into four hundred and twenty blackbirds and attack your friends. Half of you fly down there and peck at the kitty-cat that's climbing up here, go all Tippi Hedren on her. The other 210 of you... fly down and attack the Raven girl, distract her from completing her spell. That's a good boy."

Garfield tried to not listen to the woman, tried even harder to not do what she told him. But unfortunately he was already four hundred and twenty ravens. As commanded 210 ravens took to the air and dove over the side of the bridge, heading straight for Thea.

'Thea! Look out!'

He knew she would only hear a cawing, knew she could not hear his mind, but still he tried. Inside he was still him, which was strange and kind of disorientating as the remaining ravens took off and headed straight for Raven. They whirled around the figure of the Rider and headed for Raven, going for her eyes.

'No. Please. Not this. Not this!'

But it was happening and seemingly there was nothing Garfield could do. He could not even close his eyes, he looked on in shock and horror as he speared towards Raven on numerous emerald wings.

 

[Varshanka]

Karan and The Rider

And then she locked her mind and her gaze on The Rider.

<"Ghost Rider! I know you can hear me! I know I can reach my mind through that fire of yours, I know you can hear me! I know there's some kind of humanity in there, I've seen it, I've talked to your mind before, if you give yourself over to this-- I just learned something, and I have to share it with you. I know that even in Hell, Hope has meaning, Hope is the one thing that Hell can never burn down! I know that Hope can conquer Fear! I believe it to the bottom of my stubborn heart! This is everything you're scared of but you can come back from this-- I know you can still Hope for a better world! I know you already burn but I need you to shine! Come on!">

With eyes of Fire The Demon Xarathos replied, Mind to Mind. ‘There is no Hope for the Damned. I have been judged by GOD! Betrayer. Deceiver. Outcast. Defiler. Xarathiel is no more. I AM XARATHOS, Spirit of VENGEANCE. I.. understand and accept that now. There is no Hope for me. I am damned for all eternity.’ Turning it’s gaze upon the gnat in it’s hand the demon began to get hotter, the ground beneath it becoming a puddle of molten stone, tar, concrete, and metal. The demon didn’t sink as abandoned vehicles burst into flames and melted.

The only thing that had saved everyone so far was it’s binding. Still bound by THE WORD. But once innocent blood touched the ground. Once innocent blood was spilled. Well, all bets were off, and it was going to be HELL on Earth.