Justice League: The New Wave (IC)

[ChasNicollette]

Whale Oil Beef Hooked.

Flexing it’s will the Deamon called upon the fire. Commanding it to burn. Burn hotter. Hotter. HOTTER!!! “BURN WITH ME!!!” It demanded.

Demonic legs flexed, arms straining against the sunken chains, and it.. pulled.

Metal screamed in agony over the Titanic stresses the bridge was being forced to endure. The ground quaked, trembling and rumbling. The chains refused to let go. The Daemon refused to let go or stop. Steel girders began to glow from heat.

And the bridge shifted.

Between the apocalyptic wrenching torque and withering heat of The Hellrider's daikaiju rampage-- Midwestern Rim, a sight that no-one here would ever forget --and the missile bombardment unleashed by the two G.R.I.D.s--

--stress fractures began to fissure through the bridge, compounding and compounding--

--cricks and jags and zigs and zags--

--the energy coursing through the bridge flickered like a dying bulb but did not go out--

With a shriek the Peregrine took off, flapping madly for height, it sensed the roof of the dome and turned into a steep turn, diving for the bridge and suddenly realized that this move might actually kill him...but a death which does good is better than a death in futility...or something like that. At the top of the infrastructure, a massive adult Blue Whale materialized, going at a speed which would flatten it against the bridge. Aquatic mind reached out to find Aquaman's, "Sorry if this fails."

Joining forces with Static to support Wondergirl against Planet-Master, Aquaman heard whalesong in his mind's ear, and he clenched his eyes shut for an instant as he beamed a thought back.

<"Never apologize for courage, brother. Father Neptune be with you.">

The shadow of the massive cetacean projectile loomed like the end of the world.

Strange how something that Douglas Adams had once played for tragicomic existential laughs looked so gloriously terrifying and triumphant when seen in person.

Lady Eve hissed in fury and dismay and without waiting for her Lord's by-your-leave, she whirled, grabbed his arm, and fired off a grapnel, desperately attempting to swing her Lord Naja-Naja to safety even as a marine mammal the seeming size of a Majoran Moon plummeted into the conduit of her master's glory.

Garfield cried out in pain as he crashed into struts and cables, the metal slicing into him, but most of it snapping and buckling under the impact.

Between the Hellrider and The G.R.I.D.s, the Keystone-Central Bridge had become a bubble fit to bursting.

When Beast Boy came careening down with all the power of inexorable gravity, that was more than needle enough to pop that bubble.

Zebra-Man's dying eyes went wide for the last second of his life--

--Syonide threw her gashed arm up across her face and uttered one last curse word--

--Fauna welcomed the end, as it meant respite from her agony--

--momentarily crippled by G.R.I.D.'s Wave Beam, The Lieutenant had no defense against this and could only blurt a prayer to an unforgiving snake deity--

"No-- God-- but--"

--Garfield Logan the Green Blue Whale crumpled the bridge like it was so much papier-mâché--

--the impact felt like it would punch a hole in the Earth already weakened by the geothermal seismic exertions of The Hellrider--

--the whole world seemed to lurch to the left--

--the power coursing through the bridge sputtered and went out and the dome immediately began to shudder and fade and peel away from the sky, collapsing into ribbons that burned out as they fell.

 

[Wyldfire]

Heyy Gar.....

Thea saw the shadow of doom and bolted springing and moving at speed she managed to get clear. Then after the impact she saw the wreck that was Gar Logan. She sprang back to him put her hands close to one of his eyes.

"Kid, I don't know how your power works, but try," she said and realized she was trying to keep back tears, "Use that shifting power and try to become me.... I can heal naturally. Shift damn it!"

Then the bridge went and Thea was going with Gar to the water.

 

[TertiusHuman]

Pain...

Red hot pain...

Difficult to breathe...

Can't move...

Garfield's mind was that of the whale, the two meshed together as the crumbled body lay on the collapsing bridge. Any mind reaching for Garfield in that moment would find only the agonizing pain of a whale out of water and damaged externally and internally. A creature who was only dangerous to plankton, who had given up his spark, his life to help his king, his king who had spoken to him.

The whale cried out it's pain and that mourning whale song woke Garfield's brain from the shock. He saw Thea and heard her words, distorted, but he heard her. Brink of death and all that.

Become her?

Well... He could try...

He focused as hard as he could, focused through the pain and the slow march of a failing body...

For some reason, the only thing he could envision was a jellyfish and as the bridge collapsed, the whale disappeared as it entered the water and a green Turritopsis dohrnii sank into the water with Thea, as it sank it slowly started to turn into it's polyp form.

Then the weird shit started to happen, the Turritopsis dohrnii polyp disappeared to be replaced by an emerald version of Thea. Thrashing around, trying to reach the surface, but not sure which way it was. Finally finding equilibrium and striking out for the surface, only to be forced to dodge debris as the bridge came down.

Then the green version of Thea was gone as well and a silver fish with a green hue, slid through the debris. The Baracuda trailing ribbons of blood behind it as it swam for the bank, it beached itself downstream and after a gasp for breath, changed into an emerald salamander and lay still.

 

[Wyldfire]

Thea almost tumbled as Gar shifted and her ride to the water went away, but she managed to make a controlled fall as she hit a large piece of the wreckage and clung to it staying on top of it till it hit the water. She let it take the worst of the impact before abandoning it. She swam furiously to get clear. She had thought she'd seen a flash of a green version of herself, but she could just be hoping. At least the kid had changed once. She had to hope he'd survived. She was furious and worried at the same time. He'd saved the day at the risk of his own life.

As she dragged herself onto the shore she saw the lizard not too far away and rolled over to look at the sky. "I'm gonna kick his ass for this once he heals up." Thea said to the universe. 'Wave had her interest in the sack, but the green guy had her in a strange strange place for Thea. If she didn't know better she'd think family. Hell, with her curse he might be the one she could relate the best to.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Percussions and Repercussions.

Daily Planet Building.
Metropolis.
Moments Ago.
*********​

Infused with energy from solar lamps, Superboy soared across the Metropolis skyline once more, gritting his teeth with the effort to will himself aloft and at speed.

Swooping low, he found Traci 13 waiting below the iconic globe, still spinning, damaged and wobbling but still revolving.

"Superboy!" she called up to The Boy of Steel as Guardian, MetroPD SCU, and Team Luthor fought tooth and nail to maintain a perimeter around the building and around her.

"Hey, Trace," he winced as he landed roughly beside her. "You ready?"

Touching her forehead beside the "13" tattooed there, Traci half-closed her eyes. "All points, we good to go?"

Traci's power wove itself through the infrastructure of cities, both physical and spiritual, and The Three Sisters of New York, Metropolis, and Gotham were so closely linked they might as well be one big megacity spread out up and down this patch of the Northeastern Seaboard.

Thus, when Traci spoke into the air, they could hear her at--

9/11 Memorial Plaza.
New York City, New York.
********​

Chase and Helligan worked with DEO Agents, local emergency services, local superheroes, and National Guardsmen to keep back the encroaching forces of Blackadders and Ajagar...

...as Zatanna and Constantine stood waiting to receive word.

"Five by five," Zatanna scrunched her eyes shut, standing there as Constantine stood beside her with fingers on her chakric points, attempting to help the urban shamanism by attuning himself temporarily to New York the way that he had attuned himself to London over many years.

"Dunno 'ow long we can 'old out, Traci love," John gritted his teeth.

"Long enough," Billie Batson smiled wearily, gamely, still shaken from the battle to get here but still braver than she had any right to be.

"Indeed," Hope Taya thundered, taking sniper-accurate potshots at encroaching Kobra forces with her cyberpunk flintlock.

"Anyway, sooner's better than later," Zatanna agreed.

Wayne Tower.
Gotham City.
********​

"Can't argue with that," Ragman grimaced-- Gotham PD was spread way too thin to support him, but a handful of The Ugly Stepsister's vigilantes were drawing the fire of Kobra's goons. "It helps that Gotham has the most occult-inspired architecture this side of Vanity, Oregon, and I've got enough black-magickers in these rags that I'm able to tap into their knowledge, but none of us have your ability to merge with cityscapes on a mystical level... our links are way tenuous!"

Metropolis.
********​

"Message received," Traci nodded, conversing with the most powerful magic users she could line up in The Three Sisters, all of them standing atop the spiritual centers of their respective cities-- the greatest focal points for unity in each Sister City. "Let's do this."

Superboy handed Traci a vial containing a bright green liquid, and Traci emptied it out into her hand...

...then held the palm up to the sky, purple energy crackling around her, conducting through her nerves, her veins, her aura...

"Commutatio!" she bellowed at the top of her lungs.

And a shockwave exploded out from her, coursing and singing through the steel beams and powerlines, reverberating in the glass, streaming through the sewer pipes... swarming down from Metropolis...

...through New York...

"Oitatummoc!" Zatanna commanded...

...down into Gotham...

"חילופי!" Ragman prayed...

...and when the power was at its peak, when all the cities were billowing with neon indigo...

...Billie set the brick that was Danny the Street down onto the pavement of New York City, and then planted a foot upon that brick, using Danny's properties to maximize her conductivity into the spiritual bedrock of The Big Apple...

...and, hoping against all hope that someday she would be able to forgive herself, she turned her face to the sky and invoked: "SHAZAM!"

Blue-white lightning stabbed down from the atmosphere and wreathed around the waiting woman.

And in an instant-- she transformed.

6'3", 260lbs, burying the needle on the Palmer Metahuman Scale...

...but more to the point, linked as she was by Traci's magic to The Three Sisters, The Lightning of SHAZAM she had summoned catalyzed the spell that Traci had begun and conducted it beyond The Tri-City Area into cellphone towers, hardlines, the web of information and utility that traced its way like data-node gossamer and linked all the cities across the nation, the continent.

And as the transformative energies washed across North America, glowing from city to city to city...

...every single Ajagar suddenly found itself forcibly reverted to a Blackadder in a tattered, ruined uniform, unarmed and hundreds of times weaker than they had been seconds before...

Zenith City.
********​

"Everyone stay behind me!" Alix panted, gleaming metal fists at her sides, the convention center in shambles, her uniform ripped to pieces around her smartskin...

...the floor around her boots littered with shattered katanas from Blackadders who had tried to slice her open and failed.

"Mind-Grabber Man!" Big Thunder roared. "Grab his mind, already!"

"There's no mind to grab!" the hero wannabe protested in terror, hands on his helmet. "He's just this frothing rage-monster--!"

...but then the power of Traci's spell rolled through in a wave, the mammoth-man constricted into a normal human, shocked and bewildered...

...and for a moment, the convention-goers hesitated...

...but then Alix surged forward and her right cross fractured the ninja's skull and dropped him to the floor.

"This is the life you wanted for me, Lance," she muttered. "Someday I might actually get used to that."

Jump City, San Francisco, California.
********​

"THAT'S RIGHT, BRING IT!" Captain Marvel bellowed, as he belted a mammoth-man hard across San Francisco Bay...

...but then he felt a shimmer out on the horizon to the East, a whisper in his ghost, like something dancing in the back of his brain, and even The Wisdom of Solomon hesitated...

...another Ajagar rrrroaaaaared as it bounded off of a rooftop and came crashing down towards him, but utterly distracted, Captain Marvel didn't even glance up...

...except right then an argent cannonbolt speared out of nowhere and blasted the Ajagar square amidships with a supersonic punch that knocked it out to sea somewhere near Alcatraz.

"Cap, you still in it?" Silver Bullet flexed his knuckles as he skidded to a halt. "Don't go all PTSD on me now!"

"I'm here, I'm here, it's just-- I thought I felt something," Marvel shook his head...

...but then a half-dozen more Ajagar thudded down around them...

...and then the magic reached The West Coast, and those Ajagar dropped down to human size like they'd been deflated.

Cap and Silver grinned at each other, fistbumped, and in a red-gold-silver whirlwind the six perfectly normal human ninja found themselves utterly dispatched.

But the light show wasn't over yet.

Because out in The Midwest, The New Justice League and their arrayed allies had just crushed the bridge and cut off the source of Kobra's teleportational energies...

...and the catalytic surge of feedback splintered across the shattered spacetime of North America, the afterimages of the teleport effects, crashing into the teleport circuitry woven into the uniforms of the Blackadders...

...even the ruined portions of the uniforms left over on the Ajagar as they reverted to human form...

...and in the destructive backdraft of the teleportation disruption, all of Kobra's cloned soldiers found themselves microwaved to ash...

...for all the murders they had committed, they themselves were laid to waste in conflagrational, panicked instants. The Ajagar and Blackadders were as dead as The Bestowed.

Not only had Kobra's power been severed, but his army had been eradicated.

Fear in a handful of dust.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Out of Service.

Keystone-Central.
********​

Even as the power went out on the bridge, and the fuses blew in Kobra's forces across the face of North America...

...half-slagged and half-broken, The Servitor lay left behind by The Hellrider.

And the light in its optics faded and went out.

Thousands of miles away...

Santa Prisca.
********​

...the army of robots that clashed with The Titans shuddered, and twitched, and fell silent, the light going out of their eyes too.

Starfire, Batman, Kid Flash, battered and bruised, barely standing...

...stood astonished, disbelieving at the sight of the cluttered metal battalion sprawled before them.

Little knowing, as yet, that the defeat of the original Servitor had cascaded into all the smaller robots that had spawned from it.

All they knew for now was that the battle was as good as over.

 

[WiredIn]

Zeus Got Nothing On Me

Static continued to move towards Planet-Master, condensing the energy collected. "When I give the word, put a shield up around planet boy. Make sure it's good. you don't want to be caught by the backlash." Static flew in as close as he dared before raising his hand towards Planet-Master and released his attack.

Statics usual energy attacks were more energy blasts than anything else, rarely refined and quick. This on the other hand was like a bolt of lighting taken from the strongest of storms pointed at the power house. Static kept intense focus, trying to keep the blast on target as the energy whipped and spiraled around desperately trying to escape his control.

 

[Aussie_Wolf]

Looking at the collapsing Dervish Renegade shook her head. "That will be fine. I can run by myself, not as fast as you, I am just human after all." Renegade replied. "Unless you want to carry me. After I cut off her head. I hate superhuman regeneration."

Velocity was grinning as Renegade stepped forward to carry out her threat when a shadow fell over them. Whipping her head up she saw a green whale falling from the sky directly on top of them. The sight was so bizarre it actually took her a whole second to process it.

Just what the hell was Garfield doing? It had to be him falling from the sky, after all where else would a green whale come from? However what purpose did it serve?He was only going to injure himself badly best case scenario, at worst kill himself.

However first things first. Turning she grabbed Renegade and got the hell out of Dodge. She was off the bridge and beside Green arrow before Garfield had fallen another inch.

On her way there she saw what she assumed was the Rider was also destroying the bridge from this end.Ripping it's foundations out and causing the structure to buckle. Luckily she was going so fast it didn't matter to her.

She stopped and put Renegade down facing the bridge and watched as Garfield fell through the wires and metal of the supports, injuring himself as blood splattered everywhere. She also saw the demise of several of the Villains but she didn't shed a tear for them.

As she watched the Rider finished the job and the bridge buckled and heaved then fell apart and she lost sight of Garfield as his whale form disappeared. Above them the dome also collapsed and she looked upwards seeing Static and Wondergirl still battling Planet Master.

"Did anybody see where Kobra slithered off to? We can't let him escape or what's to stop him doing this again?"

 

[Aussie_Wolf]

Green Arrow was at a loss again. At the moment he had no targets. Of course he kept an arrow on his string and was ready to fire in an instant, but he could see no one. The bridge collapse had taken everyone he had seen, and the big boss had escaped with a women and he had lost sight of them in the chaos. Maybe one of the flyers would be able to pick up their location but until then he was again useless.

Still he did have one job, trying to talk down the Rider. How exactly he was supposed to do that he had no idea but he had to try. He suspected the longer she was allowed to stay like this, the harder it was going to be to get her back.

Okay Conner time to use that brain of yours you keep saying you have, he mumbled to himself. Just what might calm a rampaging Daemon down?

He wracked his brain and then he smiled. It was time to stop treating her like a Daemon and start treating her like a woman. Remind her of who she was and maybe he could drag her back from the brink and back to being herself.

Looking around he smiled as he saw exactly what he needed close by. Jogging off the road and down the embankment he started to pick a large bunch of wild flowers. It might seem surreal to be doing what he was in the middle of a battle but it was needed.

He soon had a large bouquet and placed it in his quiver and made his way back up to the road. Now he just needed some way to get the large Daemons attention.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Bound for The Floor.

Seattle, Washington.
********​

One moment Jessica Cruz had been fighting mammoth monsters while the smaller pale woman beside her busted out some ridiculous ninja skills.

Then a wave of purple energy poured over the city from the East, and the mammoth monsters had become human again...

...and all of their enemies seemed to spontaneously combust as their teleport tech backfired on them like whoa.

"Oh, thank God," Jessica slumped, clutching her knees with both hands, shoving her hair back out of her face in case she puked. "Dios goddamn mio."

She managed to keep her guts together, and glanced over at the pale lady-- Liv? --who had helped her fight all those baddies.

Liv was sitting on the ground, two stolen katanas on either side of her, she had a pair of her fingers against her neck and she was staring at her watch, breathing slowly.

"Are you... oh my God," Jessica managed, "are you okay?"

"I just burned a Hell of a lot of calories," Liv shook her head, "and I'm trying to keep my heart rate down. I... I have a condition. But I think I'll be okay."

She glanced around rapidly, and brightened with relief as Ravi staggered up to her, looking pale and exhausted, then sat down hard beside her, breathing into a paper bag... offering her another paper bag of her own to breathe into if she wanted.

Liv smirked at the silent thoughtfulness of him, and accepted the bag.

Then she glanced back at Jessica. "Yeah, we're gonna be all good," she confirmed. "Go look for survivors, they're gonna need you more than us."

"Good call," Jessica agreed, and in a rush of bright green light she soared up off of the ground to sweep the skyline, scanning with her ring.

Only after a moment did she find a man standing alone on a rooftop-- a black man, slender almost to the point of being bony, with greyed temples on his dark hair, and wearing a nice suit, and half-moon spectacles. He held out his phone, and he seemed to be squinting up at the sky and glancing down at the phone again in alternate measure.

"Sir?" she wondered. "Can I help you in any way?"

"Mm?" he glanced lazily up at her as though it were absolutely no mystery to him at all why a teenaged woman would be swooping down on a billow of verdant force to inquire as to his well-being, he spoke with a voice like Keith David. "Oh, no, I'm quite all set. Just... taking in the sights. I'd more be inclined to ask you if you're in need of help. Colorful costumes and altruism and fetishism and all that, superheroic vigilantes are a psychiatrist's dream client."

"I, uh," Jessica hesitated, "already have a counselor."

"Ah," he tutted. "I suppose that's a good thing, then. No, carry on with your business, go about your... life. I'm sure there are plenty of people buried under rubble and so forth."

"Yeah," Jessica frowned, lifting off again and turning to fly onward. "Be safe, uh, citizen."

He absent-mindedly waved her away, glancing back down to check on his phone.

"Creepy-ass old guy," Jessica muttered to herself as she swooped towards a derailed monorail train to scan for victims. "'Fetishism?' Who talks to people like that?"

Behind her down on the rooftop, the man in the suit tapped an icon on the screen of his phone, it blinked at him, and then displayed the words SEQUENCE COMPLETE. He nodded to himself, glanced once more at the sky, then turned away, pocketing the phone in the inside pocket of his suit coat.

As he went to descend back into the building by the roof access door, his tongue flickered out-- forked, like a snake's-- and was gone again.

The door clicked shut behind him.

 

[ChasNicollette]

We'll paint it red, to fit right in.

Screaming in pain as the darekning ripped through her arms and body, Wondergirl managed to get out one single word through muscled locked teeth. “Stop.”

Static continued to move towards Planet-Master, condensing the energy collected. "When I give the word, put a shield up around planet boy. Make sure it's good. you don't want to be caught by the backlash."

"I will be ready!" Aquaman nodded firmly. "Go!"

Static flew in as close as he dared before raising his hand towards Planet-Master and released his attack.

Statics usual energy attacks were more energy blasts than anything else, rarely refined and quick. This on the other hand was like a bolt of lighting taken from the strongest of storms pointed at the power house. Static kept intense focus, trying to keep the blast on target as the energy whipped and spiraled around desperately trying to escape his control.

Static's energy thunderbolted at Planet-Master like the hammerblow of a god.

And as it rammed into the black-armored supervillain, Aquaman swept up the golden-glowing Champion's Trident, and with a cry of effort encased the whole senses-shattering lightshow in a photonic bubble-- containing and converting the gamma rays and other errant particles unleashed by an electron-positron annihilation of these proportions-- turning killer radiation into harmless visible light-- so much light that it glowed bright and blinding.

As Aquaman wrestled to contain the sheer raw destruction of particles and antiparticles, the forcefield's light emanated across the Keystone-Central sky, scrubbing any residual gamma left behind by Planet-Master's previous discharges...

...and when the spheroidal energy-bottle finally popped, when Static's electricity finally overwhelmed The Planet-Master's positricity, Planet-Master stood there, barely standing, staggered, uniform torn to ribbons, helmet spidered all over with cracks, ozone-scented smoke pouring up from the buckle of his belt.

"NOW, WONDERGIRL!" Aquaman called to Karan, "TAKE HIM DOWN!"

But before any of them could react-- The Planet-Master flung out his hand, gritted his teeth in a growl. "SANDS. OF. MARS."

And with a last-ditch surge of geokinetic power, he reached out and took psychokinetic hold of the innumerable minuscule shards of obsidian from the arrow that Dervish had thrown earlier-- volcanic glass-- and hauled them with horrifying speed towards Aquaman's waiting back.

The sound of all those microscopic razor-darts hitting Aquaman at once was-- a sickening, deflating sound, and Kaldur let out a low, wheezing, astonished groan.

Pinpricks of red blossomed from his skin, blood seeped from his nostrils, his gills-- he dropped to his knees on the ground, The Champion's Trident tumbling from limp fingers. He breathed a single word: "...Tula..."

...then he coughed up more blood, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he fell to pass out.

...Ruby!G.R.I.D. was there to catch him, his eyes wide behind his Visor, cradling Aquaman with both arms, awkward though that was with one of them a cannon. "Kaldur! Oh my God! Kal!"

Ruby!G.R.I.D. snapped his head around, a thousand emotions coursing through him all at once. "Medic! SOMEBODY GET A MEDIC!"

Planet-Master let out a long, low, laugh, lowering his hand, though he staggered barely standing. "POWER. OF... JUPITER..."

 

[ChasNicollette]

And the Silken, Sad, Uncertain Rustling of Each Purple Curtain.

‘Interesting, Death likes girls.’ Raven thought.

If Death knew what Raven was thinking right now, she didn't respond aloud. But she did kind of smirk to herself, knowingly, mysteriously.

“You should get a cat, or a Raven..” Raven replied, “Claim you inspired Poe, which you probably did. If you’ve ever used the name Lenore.”

"Oh, Poe was more one of Delirium's, poor guy," Death mused. "Desire and Despair had a little too much fun with him, and over he went. But he and I did have a sobering little chat about 'respite' and 'nepenthe' when I picked up from that hospital in Baltimore. As for pets... ravens are actually more of Dream's bit, and I worry a cat would eat Slim or Wandsworth-- those are my goldfish. Sometimes I use an umbrella with a talking parrot head, like Mary Poppins? (Love that film.) He and I have good talks."

“My culture? No, I was using the American Human interpretation. In My Culture, Deaths name is Trigon. He’s my father.”

"Your mother was human," Death pointed out. "And as for Trigon..." she trailed off, and she frowned, and a glower smouldered in her depthless eyes. "...no. He's not affiliated with me."

“I don’t have friends, and well, I’d rather have the Grim Reaper escort me than some Creeper.” Raven commented softly.

"You have more friends than you prefer to think," she countered gently.

Sighing, Raven moved forwards, slowing lowering to floor, again. Taking the last few steps by bare foot padding on bare ‘floor’. “So.. what ‘Dream/Nightmare’ is she having? She gonna come out natural, or am I going in to drag her out?”

"It's not Dream, or Nightmare," Death murmured gently. "It's Despair. She's... despairing. She doesn't realize it yet, but her physical state is dependent upon her state of mind-- she's so weighted down by the burden of her despair that she's become solid. Once you get her home, she should come back to herself, and her disentangled quantum structure will reassert itself."

 

[ChasNicollette]

For the Young, the Lost, and The Underdogs.

Dakota City, Michigan.
********​

The city was in ashes and tatters behind her-- the scattered, dusty remnants of the forces of Kobra still settling like the frost that had layered upon Neptune Park this morning.

But as tears rolled down the cheeks caked with the soot of a wounded city, Rocket sank to her knees, peeling off her mask, before the crater that had been made of Amistad's preschool.

"...oh my God. My baby, my baby boy..."

But then, behind her, as her heart thudded tear-soaked in her throat...

"Momma!" she heard, and her head whipped around so fast only Collective technology kept her from straining something--

--and there he was, Amistad, running towards her, grinning with arms outstretched...

...and behind him, Blitzen of The Shadow Cabinet, beautiful blue-eyed Japanese woman, stood grinning softly. "Hey, Rocket. Dharma put me on evacuation detail as soon as he could-- told me to clear this place out first. For... some reason."

Raquel smiled as wobbly a grin as she could manage without completely falling apart into tears. "Oh my God, Valerie, thank you--"

She threw her arms around Amistad and buried her face in his shoulder as she hugged him so so so tight.

"Momma, I have a new favorite superhero!" Amistad proclaimed triumphantly.

Rocket stroked her son's hair gently, and kissed his forehead repeatedly. "Yeah. I'll just bet you do."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Well you can burn it again. 'Cause we will not go quietly.

Between the Gem Cities.
********​

"Did anybody see where Kobra slithered off to? We can't let him escape or what's to stop him doing this again?"

Kobra had spent twenty years working up to this gambit.

He had enlisted local supervillain help to set up the power grid that leeched off the electricity he needed to power the dome and store it for those two decades.

He had begged, bought, and stolen cloning technology and genetic grafting systems to create his armies and inner circles.

He had made deals with devils literal and figurative in order to get his bloodmages the power they had needed.

To say nothing of what he'd done to get Spectrumonster and Planet-Master into his thrall.

He had planted red herrings to make sure The Titans would be out of the country and too late to stop him.

And this New Justice League... and their friends... had torn all of it down in hours.

No, he would not be able to easily do this again.

Yes, he was very, very angry.

No, this was not all the way over yet.

Out there on what was left of the bridge, a pile of rubble shifted, and gasping, covered in dust, Lady Eve shoved that rubble aside. She emerged, growling with pain and inconvenience, but still turned to help her master out into the open air again.

Sneering, Kobra dusted himself off, curling his lip.

Oozing, slithering, twitching, globules of Lady Clayface crawled up the shattered embankment formed by the destructed bridge, pillaring up to stand beside Lady Eve and Kobra. Some of her mass was still missing-- but she had enough to keep fighting.

And then, beside them, a bubble of helium rose to the surface of the river and popped... instantly condensing into Elemental Woman. She then limped to join Kobra and the other two women atop the rubble.

A last stand.

 

[LuckyVic]

Vantage Point

After helping Lady C go to pieces Nightwing glided up to the hightest point he could. From there he watched as the members of the League and the others took down more and more of Kobra's people. He also saw when Kobra and his lieutenants, for the lack of a better name for them, gathered up for their last stand.

As he watched he began to formulate a plan, or at least he hoped so.

 

[Aussie_Wolf]

But before any of them could react-- The Planet-Master flung out his hand, gritted his teeth in a growl. "SANDS. OF. MARS."

And with a last-ditch surge of geokinetic power, he reached out and took psychokinetic hold of the innumerable minuscule shards of obsidian from the arrow that Dervish had thrown earlier-- volcanic glass-- and hauled them with horrifying speed towards Aquaman's waiting back.

The sound of all those microscopic razor-darts hitting Aquaman at once was-- a sickening, deflating sound, and Kaldur let out a low, wheezing, astonished groan.

Pinpricks of red blossomed from his skin, blood seeped from his nostrils, his gills-- he dropped to his knees on the ground, The Champion's Trident tumbling from limp fingers. He breathed a single word: "...Tula..."

...then he coughed up more blood, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he fell to pass out.

...Ruby!G.R.I.D. was there to catch him, his eyes wide behind his Visor, cradling Aquaman with both arms, awkward though that was with one of them a cannon. "Kaldur! Oh my God! Kal!"

Ruby!G.R.I.D. snapped his head around, a thousand emotions coursing through him all at once. "Medic! SOMEBODY GET A MEDIC!"

Even standing so far away and near the crackling of the Daemons flames, Velocity still heard the frantic calls of help ringing out into the air. Someone was calling for a Medic and that was never a good sign.

Kicking into high gear again she began to search the area and within a second found the form of G.R.I.D. hunched over the body of Aquaman who was bleeding from everywhere that she could see. Damn what had happened to him? Whatever it was it looked bad. They weren't going to be able to treat it here, it looked like he needed proper medical attention.

"G.R.I.D. you have to tell me where to go. I can have him anywhere in a couple of minutes but you have to tell me where to go," she implored him.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Tripping the Grid.

Kicking into high gear again she began to search the area and within a second found the form of G.R.I.D. hunched over the body of Aquaman who was bleeding from everywhere that she could see. Damn what had happened to him? Whatever it was it looked bad. They weren't going to be able to treat it here, it looked like he needed proper medical attention.

"G.R.I.D. you have to tell me where to go. I can have him anywhere in a couple of minutes but you have to tell me where to go," she implored him.

"I'm diagnosing massive internal and external hemmorhaging," Ruby!G.R.I.D. replied, astonished by the amount of knowledge that G.R.I.D.'s Tenth-Level Intellect could provide. "What he really needs is Atlantean medicine, healing magic, but without a way to get him there--"

Ruby. Without the signal interdiction created by the dome's obstruction I am once more able to commune with your planet's Internet, including The Luthor Dataspine.

I am detecting multiple citywide outages in metropolitan areas in every direction. Nearby franchises of S.T.A.R.Labs may be compromised. Civilian hospitals will be insufficiently advanced. The only location sufficiently equipped, staffed, accessible, and self-defensible enough to provide emergency medical support to Kaldur'ahm's hybridized physiology is--

Between Ruby!Lysl's extraterrestrial processing speeds and the enhanced cognition of Ruby!G.R.I.D.'s brain, this conversation took all of a second in Ruby!G.R.I.D.'s head. The lag was brief enough that maybe only Velocity would notice any interrupt.

"--the corner of Bessolo and Sullivan in Metropolis. New Justice League Headquarters. I've technopathically uploaded GPS coordinates to Kaldur's T-Comm in case you get lost. Ask for Dr. Serling Roquette-- I'm going to call ahead to let them know you're coming. Go! As fast as you can! Just be... careful with him."

He lifted Aquaman to Velocity for her to take, and gave Kaldur a quick, agonized look. There was enough of Ruby present in this cohabitated consciousness that he could realize that the only reason she was in The Justice League was because Kaldur had asked her there. Asked her there to watch his back and help him get to the bottom of Luthor's diabolical plot, whatever it was.

How could he... she... do this without him?

He embodied the sea, but he was as stalwart as the shore.

"Go!" he pleaded again. "...thank you."

 

[Aussie_Wolf]

"--the corner of Bessolo and Sullivan in Metropolis. New Justice League Headquarters. I've technopathically uploaded GPS coordinates to Kaldur's T-Comm in case you get lost. Ask for Dr. Serling Roquette-- I'm going to call ahead to let them know you're coming. Go! As fast as you can! Just be... careful with him."

Velocity nodded as she memorized the address. One thing about being a speedster was that you got a good memory as well. In fact you could process information and retain it at a vast rate for a little while if needed. Memorizing a street address was no problem and she had already memorized the layouts of all the major cities.

"Don't worry I can have him there before you finish that call," she promised.

He lifted Aquaman to Velocity for her to take, and gave Kaldur a quick, agonized look.

"Go!" he pleaded again. "...thank you."

Even before the last sound of the 'O' had faded from hearing, Velocity was already 100's of miles away and rushing towards Metropolis. She knew every second counted and she was determined not to waste any of them.

Pushing herself to her absolute maximum she was going faster than she had ever gone before. Time almost seemed to stand still for her as she sped along, taking the most direct route to her destination. If there was water, she ran over it, buildings she vibrated through them without noticing what she was doing, until finally she was in Metropolis and then outside the building at the corner of Bessolo and Sullivan.

It looked like a war zone except with very few bodies. Debris littered the area and wounded personnel were being treated. This could be good for her. Coming to a halt it was as if she had appeared in their midst and she began to call out at the top of her lungs.

"I need Dr. Serling Roquette. My name is Velocity and I have Aquaman who is badly injured and will die if he is not treated very soon. Get me Dr. Serling Roquette now."

She just prayed that G.R.I.D. had already made the phone call or she might be in trouble.

 

[ChasNicollette]

0118 999 881 999 119 7253.

Even before the last sound of the 'O' had faded from hearing, Velocity was already 100's of miles away and rushing towards Metropolis. She knew every second counted and she was determined not to waste any of them.

Even as Velocity vanished across into Central City and across the Midwestern plains, Ruby!G.R.I.D. felt her H-Dial timing out. This time, he had no way to fight it, and this time he knew better than to try.

But as the ectype bled away in a crackle of hypertachyons--

Ruby.

You were an excellent Interactive Designate. Please continue to assist Milton.

...he takes so much looking after.

Ruby!G.R.I.D. smirked faintly. "My pleasure."

Then--

SssshhCLICK!

Ruby was Ruby again and her phone was already at her ear and she had a hand in her hair-- "Doc Roquette, it's Hotline. You've got wounded inbound at like Mach 10, it's Kaldur, it's-- bad-- he looks like he got caught between a windstorm and a plate glass window--"

Metropolis.
********​

It looked like a war zone except with very few bodies. Debris littered the area and wounded personnel were being treated. This could be good for her. Coming to a halt it was as if she had appeared in their midst and she began to call out at the top of her lungs.

"I need Dr. Serling Roquette. My name is Velocity and I have Aquaman who is badly injured and will die if he is not treated very soon. Get me Dr. Serling Roquette now."

As soon as Kobra's forces had been wiped out by magic and technic alike, NJLHQ had become a rallying point for nearby wounded military and police and civilians-- one of the only places in The City of Tomorrow with stable power--

--and a girl-genius medical doctor so skilled she specialized in metahumans.

Bursting through the crowd, tapping her earpiece, the retro-clad Serling Roquette shoved between a couple of uniformed MetroPD officers-- "Hotline. They're here, I'm hanging up."

She touched her earpiece-- "Multidroids, prep the medlab for surgery, oceanic amphibious humanoid, major blood loss, stat! Synthetic blood on DNA template A1, saline solution-- a lot of saline solution--"

A pair of the multidroids hurried through the crowd with a stretcher for Velocity to put Aquaman onto.

"Velocity. It's marvy to meet you-- thank you for helping him! We've got this from here, if you're needed elsewhere--?"

Keystone-Central.
********​

Ruby lowered her phone from her ear. Took a breath.

And her slender, tightly-muscled frame bunched with tension born of fury that demanded retribution.

"...Kobra."

And she Dialed.

4. 3. 7. 6.

H-E-R-O.

SssshhCLICK!

 

[ChasNicollette]

G.R.I.D.unlocked.

G.R.I.D.'s last Space Jump took him to land in a crouch on the Central City side of the river, and Rose nodded gratefully to him as she pushed off of him to touch down beside him.

"Thank you. I think I'm okay now. Man, that fire weakness is getting old-- do all supervillains use incendiaries now?"

But as she spoke--

--so did Lysl.

Milton.

The initiative, skill, and teamwork you have demonstrated over the preceding combat has been sufficient to unlock a new function of The Genetrix Retrieval Interactive Designate Armor.

You now have access to The Morph Ball, which utilizes mass-displacement reconfiguration technology to allow you to assume a gyroscopically-guided rolling spherical shape 0.8 meters in diameter. This allows you unconventional modes of movement and escape, as well as the ability to fit through small gaps.

It is also a prerequisite to later upgrades.

...I believe the vernacular is "Ding." Grats.

Lysl paused.

Additionally, the "evil mastermind" has extricated himself from the bridge detritus and seems bent on a final confrontation.

Recommend we oblige him.

 

[Varshanka]

Raven, Lisa, and Death

"It's not Dream, or Nightmare," Death murmured gently. "It's Despair. She's... despairing. She doesn't realize it yet, but her physical state is dependent upon her state of mind-- she's so weighted down by the burden of her despair that she's become solid. Once you get her home, she should come back to herself, and her disentangled quantum structure will reassert itself."

“Well, that’s gotta suck.” Raven replied as she reached out a hand, over Lisa distraught form, black and purple drifted down, enveloping the Glider in a cocoon that was more like solid mist than anything else. Mist that hinted at Chrysanthemum, Roses, Marigolds, and Lilies.

A tug of thought and Lisa rose from the floor. Looking over at the girl that claimed the Name of Death, not that she’d be a bad fit for it. And certainly not as creepy as some of those that claimed that title, "If you ever get lonely and want someone to talk to... I understand loneliness.”

Casting her eyes around, she arched an eyebrow. Everything looked pretty much the same, and she was still reluctant to scry. “Door?” she asked politely.

 

[Varshanka]

KAran and Xarathos vs Planet Master

Planet-Master let out a long, low, laugh, lowering his hand, though he staggered barely standing. "POWER. OF... JUPITER..."

Tugging on the rope that encircled him, Kara commanded. “Stand down. Be Silent. Do nothing.”

With steel girders as thigh as a human glowing red in it’s hands the rider flung them aside and into the river, where they flash steamed thousands of gallons of water in the blink of an eye. And it leapt upwards, each sweep of it’s wings carrying it further and further.

A chain six inches thick speared downwards to were Planet Master stood. “Vengeance.” The daemon said, as it continued it’s flight. Kobra was still alive, and it’s lieutenants stank of vile bloodletting. Kobra Himself glowed like a pillar of dark light. His soul screaming for pacts he had made.

Soon enough the rage filled beast of Fire and Vengeance slowed, hovering, and waiting for the others. Something.. something out there made it wait.

 

[Varshanka]

Renegade

"Did anybody see where Kobra slithered off to? We can't let him escape or what's to stop him doing this again?"

“Maybe he fell under a rock, and got crushed.” Renegade replied, her voice slimy with sarcasm. Reaching back she found empty air, and using a word that sound BAD, she scanned the ground. “Great, now I need to replace a rifle.” Pointing at the sky she screamed, “You’re buying me another one asshole.”

Climbing some nearby rubble she closed her eyes, and when she opened them she acted like she didn’t see anyone around her, or hear them. “Fuck!!”

After giving herself a vicious shake she looked at where Velocity was. “Follow the Demon. It’s making a beeline for the fucker! Um, you can run across water right?” Looking around she sighed. “Fucking speedsters. Always in such a god damned hurry.”

 

[Zet_Cross]

G.R.I.D.'s last Space Jump took him to land in a crouch on the Central City side of the river, and Rose nodded gratefully to him as she pushed off of him to touch down beside him.

"Thank you. I think I'm okay now. Man, that fire weakness is getting old-- do all supervillains use incendiaries now?"

But as she spoke--

--so did Lysl.

Milton.

The initiative, skill, and teamwork you have demonstrated over the preceding combat has been sufficient to unlock a new function of The Genetrix Retrieval Interactive Designate Armor.

You now have access to The Morph Ball, which utilizes mass-displacement reconfiguration technology to allow you to assume a gyroscopically-guided rolling spherical shape 0.8 meters in diameter. This allows you unconventional modes of movement and escape, as well as the ability to fit through small gaps.

It is also a prerequisite to later upgrades.

...I believe the vernacular is "Ding." Grats.

Lysl paused.

Additionally, the "evil mastermind" has extricated himself from the bridge detritus and seems bent on a final confrontation.

Recommend we oblige him.

"Well then lets oblige. Turning back to Rose, "Only the villains that hate evidence. Also it seems the villainous mastermind is inviting us in for a showdown. Shall we?" GRID extends his hand in invitation.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Retrospective.

“Well, that’s gotta suck.” Raven replied as she reached out a hand, over Lisa distraught form, black and purple drifted down, enveloping the Glider in a cocoon that was more like solid mist than anything else. Mist that hinted at Chrysanthemum, Roses, Marigolds, and Lilies.

"It's not awesome," Death agreed.

A tug of thought and Lisa rose from the floor. Looking over at the girl that claimed the Name of Death, not that she’d be a bad fit for it. And certainly not as creepy as some of those that claimed that title, "If you ever get lonely and want someone to talk to... I understand loneliness.”

Lisa mumbled softly, incoherently, achingly as she moved, but was too overcome with despondency to put up a struggle.

Death smiled faintly, distantly for a moment. "Actually, I'd say you do. I might just take you up on that. Sooner rather than later. It's a pretty new century, after all." She hesitated. "I'm... not supposed to give spoilers. Ever. But 2016 is... going to be... rough. I'm sorry. Bowie and Rickman were just the beginning."

Casting her eyes around, she arched an eyebrow. Everything looked pretty much the same, and she was still reluctant to scry. “Door?” she asked politely.

"You know what they say about closed doors and open windows," Death noted. And stepped over to one of those floating panes, the other side of a looking glass... and poked at it with the tip of her umbrella.

It rippled like translucent quicksilver, and the scene in it changed from an empty dressing room in an abandoned department store...

...to a sheet of ice that Captain Cold had blasted down when trying to take out Mirror Master's holographic decoy, perfectly smooth and reflective.

"I know I said we don't redecorate each others' realms, but I promise I'll put it back when we're done here."