Justice League: The New Wave (IC)

[TertiusHuman]

Changing into animals and creatures was not a way for Garfield to hide the truth. He remained himself as he became what he changed into. He remained true to himself and to nature. When the lasso settled over a wing and tightened, he did not change, the whispered command to help were lost as that was what he tried to do.

But the Truth of the lasso brought him clarity, it shifted his focus from DieHard to a vulnerable Ruby and a hurt Aquagirl facing Barracuda.

In a heartbeat the dragon was gone and an emerald cheetah raced across the surface, sinewy body stretching and digging in with claws for traction, bunching muscles driving the lithe form forward to reach speeds that most animals would envy, tail steady to keep the body steady.

As Barracuda neared the two women, the cheetah jumped, a green and white Orca materialized, the timing perfect as he sailed at an impact course with Barracuda at a pace of 140km/h

 

[ChasNicollette]

Diehard with a Vengeance.

"Now ya did it ya prick. Now ya made me mad," she stalked forward. "Know what else ya did Sparky? Ya showed me I don't have ta hold back. Ya showed me I can cut th hell loose with ya. Cause you can take it."

And with that she blew at him. She cut loose with her breath to freeze him. Let his sparky ass try ta pull an Ayla on her again. See if he realizes she ain't just a dumb bruiser.

The universe-- indeed, the Multiverse-- was not without its sense of humor, or of irony.

Because just as Jo was referencing the powers of one of the Ranzz twins-- Doctor Diehard responded with another blast of light. Just as he'd attacked Beast Boy with radiant heat earlier, so too did he use his photokinesis to attack Rebel with a full-on solar flare... canceling out the draught of absolute zero that Jo's breath threatened to wash over him--

--crackling into a whole cloud-bank of steam as they met each other in mid-air--

"Yes! I can take it. Compared to me, you are a girl of cardboard! It was I who felled Wundajin the Thunderer, a living god! I will bury you in the iron core of this Earth where even your Sun will forget you!"

 

[ChasNicollette]

Jumping the Shark. Uh, Orca.

In a heartbeat the dragon was gone and an emerald cheetah raced across the surface, sinewy body stretching and digging in with claws for traction, bunching muscles driving the lithe form forward to reach speeds that most animals would envy, tail steady to keep the body steady.

As Barracuda neared the two women, the cheetah jumped, a green and white Orca materialized, the timing perfect as he sailed at an impact course with Barracuda at a pace of 140km/h

At her peak strength, Barracuda could lift in excess of 100 tons-- the weight of an orca would not have made her blink. But now-- distracted-- dehydrated--

--the sudden mass of the orca moving at such terrific velocity overwhelmed her in a single shuddering instant, slamming Barracuda to the dust and immobilizing her, knocking her out cold in an instant.

"Oh, thank Christ," Aquagirl wheezed a sigh of relief. "Saved by my favorite cetacean."

And her voice spoke in Beast Boy's mind now that his brain was aquatic-- <"Es verdad, you know. Blackfish changed my life. Funny story.">

Ruby pushed up to her feet, breathing hard, and patted Gar on the snout. "Yeah, cheers, Shamu. One down, seven to go..."

And then she narrowed her eyes at where Diehard was clashing catastrophically with Rebel...

Now that her memories were all her own again, without Atmos' bombast in the mix, she had remembered something. Something from 15 years ago.

She put her Dial to her ear, calling Carin's smartwatch and trusting that her phone's advanced extradimensional tech would defy The Extremists' ability to monitor: "Velocity, on me. I've got a plan!"

 

[Wyldfire]

The universe-- indeed, the Multiverse-- was not without its sense of humor, or of irony.

Because just as Jo was referencing the powers of one of the Ranzz twins-- Doctor Diehard responded with another blast of light. Just as he'd attacked Beast Boy with radiant heat earlier, so too did he use his photokinesis to attack Rebel with a full-on solar flare... canceling out the draught of absolute zero that Jo's breath threatened to wash over him--

--crackling into a whole cloud-bank of steam as they met each other in mid-air--

"Yes! I can take it. Compared to me, you are a girl of cardboard! It was I who felled Wundajin the Thunderer, a living god! I will bury you in the iron core of this Earth where even your Sun will forget you!"

No more words. Speed. Right up to the shield and strength. The same level as the needle. Harder than before. Jo had found a new level. She hammered the shield three times. Each one leaving shockwaves behind them. Then tough.

 

[ChasNicollette]

A Good Day to Diehard.

No more words. Speed. Right up to the shield and strength. The same level as the needle. Harder than before. Jo had found a new level. She hammered the shield three times. Each one leaving shockwaves behind them. Then tough.

This... Rebel... was a respectable powerhouse indeed.

At maximum amplitude, her punches rivaled those of Hyperius. Of Wundajin's axe-blows. Of Bravo, Kellent, long-absent Consul of The Shryw'ûk Monarchic Special Star Service. Possibly even The Behemoth himself, the big blue baby.

But as an Ultimate-Grade neo-human, Diehard had the power to perceive the world as energy structures. To see the interchange of energies between different forms of matter. To see the very inner workings of the fundamental force that he wielded and embodied.

And he was starting to get the measure of these energies that ebbed and flowed in Rebel. They took so many forms... but seemingly only one form at a time?

She reminded him of Dox-Krinn, Basher of the aforementioned Special Star Service, who used his Paravisor to imbue himself with powers rivaling that of Bravo himself, but only one power at a time... and this one did not seem to have a Flight Bracer to give her flight besides whatever other single power she was wielding at any given instant.

As the sweat rolled down the back of Diehard's neck, as his heart pounded in his chest, as his face reddened from the strain, he still... somehow... grinned...

...and as one of those civilian newscopters swung by on its orbit, trying to get clear footage of the battle royale that crashed and thundered atop Moonbase Ex, defying air military orders to keep the skies clear, flying casual...

Doctor Diehard ripped both rotors off of it and sent them spinning with razor-sharp blazing speed towards Rebel, fully expecting to use her invulnerability to take the hit, or her speed to dodge...

...but as the human journalists lurched and tumbled screaming from the sky in their disabled craft, would this Rebel choose to focus on the enemy before her...

...or safeguard these alleged innocents that this Justice League were so hell-bent on defending?

No doubt this would require more finesse than simply hauling an empty structure out to sea...

 

[ChasNicollette]

The Trigger-Happiest Place on Angor.

One of the best parts of any funhouse is its hall of mirrors.

And Connor would immediately find himself in a room the size of a cathedral-- far too big to fit inside the structure he'd stepped into--

--where every wall, floor, and ceiling tile reaching on and on and in and in was a mirror, presenting an infinity of dizzying, nauseating reflections.

Many of those reflections were Connor.

And then, into dozens of those reflections stepped the image of Carny, grinning, hands in his pockets.

"D'you like it?" he giggled. "I've always been good with toys. But not so long ago, I entered into a deal with Dr. Aurichalcum for a repository of Nehiyawoc technology he'd recovered from a crash site under New York. Amongst the portion I got me were fleets and fleets of nanites... and a marvelous little box called a 'portable warzone.' It's a dimensional pocket in which I am lord and unequivocal master of its rewritten laws of physics."

"To wit: welcome to Planet Homicide, you chlorophyllic caveman! Do not attempt to adjust your set! I control the horizontal, I control the vertical! Time, gravity, heat, light, atmosphere, I'm the admin of this little forum and you're just a newb with 'Virgin' under his username. So come and get me, Verdant Virgin!"

"Thunderdome is go!"

He whooped, and whirled away, all his reflections vanishing with him-- if any of them had been real at all...

"I don't hate clowns as much as some of my predecessors," Batman intoned as he stepped into the mirrored hall beside Connor.

"Still. I feel like I should have brought a crowbar for old times' sake."

"Don't trust anything you see in here, Arrow," Batman warned his teammate. "Trust your instincts, and your reason. Not your senses. Got it?"

 

[Wyldfire]

Gorgon's webbing latched onto G.R.I.D., and he lashed the armored hero towards Wildcat...

...but in mid-air, G.R.I.D. popped out of the Morph Ball shape, Space Jumped and tucked into a flip...

...the flip activated the Screw Attack and the crackling kinetic envelope severed the webbing...

G.R.I.D. landed in a crouch next to Wildcat, firing off a missile even as moondust puffed around his boots.

"Newsflash, Admiral Ackbar. You sprung a trap on us, but now you're trapped in it with us!"

With a roar of fury, Gorgon tentacle-swatted the missile away, letting it explode out in the air over Seattle...

...and backflipped to land upside-down, clinging to the panoramic windows of the citadel from which The Extremists had emerged when all of this had first started. His tentacles writhed about him like serpents.

"Nuisances! I will not brook nuisances!"

And he fired webbing from both hands, attempting to glue both Wildcat and G.R.I.D. to the ground at their feet-- whilst simultaneously lashing out with a tentacle each, hoping to take them out if they jumped the spurt of adhesive.

Thea sprang to the side away from GRID and crouched for an almost two count before going into the air after Gorgon. Claws outstretched to get a hold of her prey.

 

[Wyldfire]

This... Rebel... was a respectable powerhouse indeed.

At maximum amplitude, her punches rivaled those of Hyperius. Of Wundajin's axe-blows. Of Bravo, Kellent, long-absent Consul of The Shryw'ûk Monarchic Special Star Service. Possibly even The Behemoth himself, the big blue baby.

But as an Ultimate-Grade neo-human, Diehard had the power to perceive the world as energy structures. To see the interchange of energies between different forms of matter. To see the very inner workings of the fundamental force that he wielded and embodied.

And he was starting to get the measure of these energies that ebbed and flowed in Rebel. They took so many forms... but seemingly only one form at a time?

She reminded him of Dox-Krinn, Basher of the aforementioned Special Star Service, who used his Paravisor to imbue himself with powers rivaling that of Bravo himself, but only one power at a time... and this one did not seem to have a Flight Bracer to give her flight besides whatever other single power she was wielding at any given instant.

As the sweat rolled down the back of Diehard's neck, as his heart pounded in his chest, as his face reddened from the strain, he still... somehow... grinned...

...and as one of those civilian newscopters swung by on its orbit, trying to get clear footage of the battle royale that crashed and thundered atop Moonbase Ex, defying air military orders to keep the skies clear, flying casual...

Doctor Diehard ripped both rotors off of it and sent them spinning with razor-sharp blazing speed towards Rebel, fully expecting to use her invulnerability to take the hit, or her speed to dodge...

...but as the human journalists lurched and tumbled screaming from the sky in their disabled craft, would this Rebel choose to focus on the enemy before her...

...or safeguard these alleged innocents that this Justice League were so hell-bent on defending?

No doubt this would require more finesse than simply hauling an empty structure out to sea...

And Rebel moved as Diehard anticipated. Speed to get clear of the rotors, strength to girl herself at the copter, to flight to quickly guide the copter down and the second she felt too exposed and the craft and crew would survive she went tough to pad the landing....

 

[Varshanka]

Renegade

"You'll do."

He pointed a fist at the man's head that was tearing at his neck with teeth that had been under-designed by unfeeling evolution for the ripping into of meat.

And popped the claws from the back of that fist, aiming to drive all four of them through the fella's skull and blow brains and blood out of the back of his head.

SNIKT.

Ren felt the blades even as he moved, the wanna be steel blades tearing into his skull like the jaws of a long fang. “Neat trick,” he burbled through a torn jaw. His eye was already reforming as muscle and sinew pulled shredded bone back into shape.

His hand snapped up pulling a weapon from holster like he’d done it in a million or so gunfights in the west. Snapping off several rounds of Teflon tipped amour piercing rounds at close range. Not at his head or heart but his hips instead. Stop killing they said. Stop giving me bad public image. Whine whine whine.

Designed to punch holes in armour plated vehicles – he’d had more than one ‘assignment’ against a rich asshole - and then to burn on the other side the rounds would be interesting inside a body.

 

[Varshanka]

Vengeance!!

"How delicious the irony, that I should be the one to lecture a supernatural being in theology. Deity-- whom you call 'God' or 'The Presence'-- is not confined to realms. Deity oversees all the Universes in Creation, 'Hear, O Israel the Lord thy Deity is One Deity.' Do you not see? The Deity that sent Their Son, Yeshua the Annointed, to die on Angor-- is the same God of Truth that sent your Jesus Christ to this 'Earth.' No heresy do I preach, foul spectre."

Hands curled into claws, crackling with that same hellish cold, he struck at The Rider with the precision of a martial arts master-- though one who had learned from books and computer simulations rather than through traditional study.

"You are fallen from but one host of countless hosts, each assigned to guard one thread in the loom of worlds. One wonders what other secrets Deity has kept from you about the nature of Creation. The nature of Hell. The nature of... Heaven."

"Perhaps the Silver City is not lost to you after all, O Avenger of The Supernatural?"

An Eternity had existed before Mortal man had been created, an Eternity walking the Silver City and hearing the Word of Golden Throne. And then Mortals. And THE FALL. Mortals twisted the Truth into what they wanted instead of just LISTENING.

It burned as IT stepped even closer to Havok. Soulfire chains writhing as it’s body burned in torment. But Danni, and The Rider, were both used to torment. They'd walked that path for a long time.

Such a very long time.

Reaching out the Rider latched onto Havok’s helmet and twisted, ripping upwards as it sought to release him of HIS burden, to give him.. Penance.

“Look into my Eyes...”

 

[Varshanka]

Wondergirl

The Truth of the lasso brought him clarity, it shifted his focus from DieHard to a vulnerable Ruby and a hurt Aquagirl facing Barracuda.

Snapping the Lasso back to herself, Wondergirl stood. She wobbled. She was weak.

But she would… not… give… up.

He wanted power? He wanted energy? She started walking, she couldn’t hit her best speeds, but she could still think with her head. Moving she started running and made her way behind the big burning bird bitch. The Shadow Suparṇa. And with that big burning monstrosity between them she took that moment to angle herself.

And she leaped, very far, very fast, and very very high. High enough to crest the shadow of the Planet. High enough that Gaia no longer blocked Helia’s gaze. And she sucked up that gaze like a daughter getting approval from her mom.

A crack shattered across the sky as what once was up, now wasn’t. Moving at speeds so fast – supercharging the batteries did that – she was close to shattering time as she aimed a punch for fuck face’s face.

 

[Varshanka]

The Dark Angel

The End of Time. And the Night that followed.

When a universe ended... so did its Endless.

So did everything except Necro-- Death.

Even the end of the universe wouldn't keep Raven with her ladylove.

And that. Thought. Gripped Dreamslayer in unending dread and flooded Raven's subconscious with it on the way way waaaaaaaaaay down...

Raven understood that. She understood that end of all things Domina and her would be no more. But that was ok. Because from Death to the End, she’d be with her.

The really bad thing was that as Dreamslayer ‘s thoughts flooded her mind she was filled with the pain of a world as it died. A horrible nightmare filled death. And to keep herself from drowning in that despair and misery she shared it….

Even her enemies had nightmares. Until she died she would be alone. The Evil Brotherhood claimed they were alone, but they weren’t. They had friends and allies to help them. They had hate to full their quest for destruction. Even if they didn’t full trust each other they did know each others secrets. Mostly.

Time for the Evil powers to stop lying to each other, and to feel REAL PAIN!

She opened her mind to them, and made them look at their own NIGHTMARES.

Nice thing about being the Daughter of an Evil God Demon.. power was something you were born with. And tricks were part of the trade. Assholes liked to use helmets to prevent telepathy, but they never realized ever cell talked to it’s neighbors. Nerves were simply a straight conduit from finger and toe straight up the spine to the motherboard brain box.

Wanna keep out a telepath? Were a self enclosed spacesuit. Wrap yourself in psyker shielding from head to toe, and then triple it for your cells. Cause if you need to breathe? You leave an opening. Oh, and when you do all this, make sure you don’t have a mage that is kinda hurt and a little angry, and a whole helluva a lot depressed. Cause she’ll cheat and lie and do whatever it takes, cast whatever spell needed to turn your brain to FUCKING PUDDING!!!

 

[ChasNicollette]

Bringing a Mirror to a Swordfight.

Gorgon's webbing latched onto G.R.I.D., and he lashed the armored hero towards Wildcat...

...but in mid-air, G.R.I.D. popped out of the Morph Ball shape, Space Jumped and tucked into a flip...

...the flip activated the Screw Attack and the crackling kinetic envelope severed the webbing...

G.R.I.D. landed in a crouch next to Wildcat, firing off a missile even as moondust puffed around his boots.

"Newsflash, Admiral Ackbar. You sprung a trap on us, but now you're trapped in it with us!"

With a roar of fury, Gorgon tentacle-swatted the missile away, letting it explode out in the air over Seattle...

...and backflipped to land upside-down, clinging to the panoramic windows of the citadel from which The Extremists had emerged when all of this had first started. His tentacles writhed about him like serpents.

"Nuisances! I will not brook nuisances!"

And he fired webbing from both hands, attempting to glue both Wildcat and G.R.I.D. to the ground at their feet-- whilst simultaneously lashing out with a tentacle each, hoping to take them out if they jumped the spurt of adhesive.

Thea sprang to the side away from GRID and crouched for an almost two count before going into the air after Gorgon. Claws outstretched to get a hold of her prey.

Gorgon reared back against the wall, roaring furiously, and whipping all four of his tentacles to converge on Wildcat in midair, aiming to rip her limb from limb like a human-felinoid wishbone...

...but GRID had tucked into a Morph Ball, rolling hard to the side to dodge the web and the tentacle, and immediately popped up with his cannon at the ready...

...launching a spread of four Super Missiles that intercepted the tentacles and blew them off-course, letting Wildcat slip through Gorgon's defenses and get within claw range.

Even with his superlative reflexes, Wildcat's speed was such that Gorgon only had time to get an arm in the way to block the slash of the claws...

...Wildcat ripped his arm right open, and he roared in pain and fury...

...firing a webline with the other arm and hauling himself further up the wall to get himself out of Wildcat's reach and away from any follow-up attacks.

"Fools! Imbeciles! Cretins!" he snarled, webbing his bloodied arm to bandage himself. "It matters not that you move and fight like American CrUSAder, I will harvest your genetic codes in my lab and mass produce you as soldiers in my new army!"

"Big talk, Doctor Gorgonstein!" G.R.I.D. taunted him-- not only did making jokes help keep him from thinking about how far over his head this all was, but it seemed to be keeping Gorgon off-balance!

"GorgonZOLA!" Gorgon roared back at him.

"Your name is cheese?" G.R.I.D. replied, gleeful and incredulous. "Oh, that opens up so many more options!"

"It's a place," Gorgon sputtered. "It's a place in Italy! My family is descended from emperors! Direct descendants of Caesar Augustus, Gaius Octavius himself!"

"He doesn't like to be called 'cheese,'" G.R.I.D. informed Wildcat mock-seriously. "I diagnose lactose intolerance."

"HRRRRAAAAAHHHH!" Gorgon lost his temper, blasting web at G.R.I.D. with both wrists.

I trust you're having fun? Lysl wondered, bemused.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Dieharder.

And Rebel moved as Diehard anticipated. Speed to get clear of the rotors, strength to girl herself at the copter, to flight to quickly guide the copter down and the second she felt too exposed and the craft and crew would survive she went tough to pad the landing....

Diehard grinned.

Oh, these heroes were always so easy.

Like puppets on strings. More easily manipulated than metal.

As she shifted to invulnerability to absorb the impact of the crash, he reached out with his power, ready to crush the copter like a grape, to crush the pilot and the journalists inside, to snuff out their lives to show Rebel how useless her rebellion was. Just as he'd crushed those jet-jockeys earlier.

But Diehard had a weakness too. His arrogance.

Because while he was making ready to crush the spirit of one supremely strong woman, he had neglected to completely destroy the flesh of another supremely strong woman...

...who was about to snap his link to her energy reservoir like an overstretched elastic band.

And she leaped, very far, very fast, and very very high. High enough to crest the shadow of the Planet. High enough that Gaia no longer blocked Helia’s gaze. And she sucked up that gaze like a daughter getting approval from her mom.

A crack shattered across the sky as what once was up, now wasn’t. Moving at speeds so fast – supercharging the batteries did that – she was close to shattering time as she aimed a punch for fuck face’s face.

Karan slammed into the distracted Diehard with all the force of reentry-- and while she didn't break his shield...

...she pinballed him screaming away from her, knocking him clear off of Moonbase Ex and down towards Seattle.

...gritting his teeth with strangled fury, Diehard threw on the brakes, both hands out to either side, panting as he hovered above the rooftops.

And then he curled those hands into fists, ripping steel beams out of buildings all around him, shattering storefronts and brownstones and construction sites... swirling girders around himself like electrons orbiting a nucleus... and then launched the whole array of them at Rebel and Wonder Girl...

...faster than speeding bullets.

 

[ChasNicollette]

The Obsidian Octagon.

Ren felt the blades even as he moved, the wanna be steel blades tearing into his skull like the jaws of a long fang. “Neat trick,” he burbled through a torn jaw. His eye was already reforming as muscle and sinew pulled shredded bone back into shape.

His hand snapped up pulling a weapon from holster like he’d done it in a million or so gunfights in the west. Snapping off several rounds of Teflon tipped amour piercing rounds at close range. Not at his head or heart but his hips instead. Stop killing they said. Stop giving me bad public image. Whine whine whine.

Designed to punch holes in armour plated vehicles – he’d had more than one ‘assignment’ against a rich asshole - and then to burn on the other side the rounds would be interesting inside a body.

Tracer took all of a hot second to be impressed by how resilient this fella was. Healing almost as fast as he did. That was a rare trick.

But then Ren slapped leather, and the game changed.

The biologically-adapted Foremost Indeliblium bonded to Tracer's skeleton was a lot more resilient than the armor plating of heavy military vehicles... and those rounds simply ricocheted off of his pelvic bones, igniting as they struck the ground after exiting his flesh-- except for one, catching the inside rim of his obturator foramen, bouncing around inside that gap, and igniting inside his hip...

"GRRRROAAAAHHHHH!" Tracer exploded with rage, snapping out the claws of his other hand and lunging to rip Ren asunder...

...only then a gleaming, glowing, obsidian hand launched out and locked around Tracer's wrist.

And a fist crashed into Tracer's face, ringing his metal skull like a churchbell.

"That's enough," Braggock declared firmly.

He had taken his time picking his target. Deliberated the pros and cons of each foe. But now he acted.

He reached for Tracer to pin him to the dust, planning to dislocate the man's shoulders if he had to.

But Tracer reacted with the speed of a rattlesnake, raking the claws of his free hand across Braggock's clutching wrist, carving fissures in the rock and the obsidian, welling up blood like magmic fire...

...Braggock frowned, unused to such sharp and sudden pain since he had become this craggy beast of a creature, and he reflexively let Tracer go--

--but smacked him with a crushing backhand, knocking Tracer skidding away--

--Tracer was back up in a second, hurling himself back at Braggock with claws pointed for the obsidian man's eyes, in his bestial fury making the mistake of ignoring Renegade...

 

[ChasNicollette]

The Doom that Came to Seattle.

It burned as IT stepped even closer to Havok. Soulfire chains writhing as it’s body burned in torment. But Danni, and The Rider, were both used to torment. They'd walked that path for a long time.

Such a very long time.

Reaching out the Rider latched onto Havok’s helmet and twisted, ripping upwards as it sought to release him of HIS burden, to give him.. Penance.

“Look into my Eyes...”

As the Rider reached for Havok, the armored mastermind sneered, unleashing blasts of that crackling hellice energy to deflect the spectre's grasp...

"How can you extract penance from someone whose intellect transcends morality?"

"But you, have you learned nothing?"

And he reignited his forcefield at maximum intensity and at point-blank range, aiming to repulse The Rider's physical form with the same protective energies that had deflected a world-breaking telekinetic blast... adding to the runic and sacred forces that repulsed The Rider's spirit...

"None may touch HAVOK!"

 

[Wyldfire]

Gorgon reared back against the wall, roaring furiously, and whipping all four of his tentacles to converge on Wildcat in midair, aiming to rip her limb from limb like a human-felinoid wishbone...

...but GRID had tucked into a Morph Ball, rolling hard to the side to dodge the web and the tentacle, and immediately popped up with his cannon at the ready...

...launching a spread of four Super Missiles that intercepted the tentacles and blew them off-course, letting Wildcat slip through Gorgon's defenses and get within claw range.

Even with his superlative reflexes, Wildcat's speed was such that Gorgon only had time to get an arm in the way to block the slash of the claws...

...Wildcat ripped his arm right open, and he roared in pain and fury...

...firing a webline with the other arm and hauling himself further up the wall to get himself out of Wildcat's reach and away from any follow-up attacks.

"Fools! Imbeciles! Cretins!" he snarled, webbing his bloodied arm to bandage himself. "It matters not that you move and fight like American CrUSAder, I will harvest your genetic codes in my lab and mass produce you as soldiers in my new army!"

"Big talk, Doctor Gorgonstein!" G.R.I.D. taunted him-- not only did making jokes help keep him from thinking about how far over his head this all was, but it seemed to be keeping Gorgon off-balance!

"GorgonZOLA!" Gorgon roared back at him.

"Your name is cheese?" G.R.I.D. replied, gleeful and incredulous. "Oh, that opens up so many more options!"

"It's a place," Gorgon sputtered. "It's a place in Italy! My family is descended from emperors! Direct descendants of Caesar Augustus, Gaius Octavius himself!"

"He doesn't like to be called 'cheese,'" G.R.I.D. informed Wildcat mock-seriously. "I diagnose lactose intolerance."

"HRRRRAAAAAHHHH!" Gorgon lost his temper, blasting web at G.R.I.D. with both wrists.

I trust you're having fun? Lysl wondered, bemused.

In any other instance Thea might have joined in on the smack talk but at this moment she was in a zone. The bug was bleeding and Wildcat could smell it. She was after Gorgon with a singleminded focus.

She lept and climbed after him with intent. She had bled him and now it was playtime. Time to claw and bat the bug about like a house cat with a mouse.....

 

[Wyldfire]

Diehard grinned.

Oh, these heroes were always so easy.

Like puppets on strings. More easily manipulated than metal.

As she shifted to invulnerability to absorb the impact of the crash, he reached out with his power, ready to crush the copter like a grape, to crush the pilot and the journalists inside, to snuff out their lives to show Rebel how useless her rebellion was. Just as he'd crushed those jet-jockeys earlier.

But Diehard had a weakness too. His arrogance.

Because while he was making ready to crush the spirit of one supremely strong woman, he had neglected to completely destroy the flesh of another supremely strong woman...

...who was about to snap his link to her energy reservoir like an overstretched elastic band.



Karan slammed into the distracted Diehard with all the force of reentry-- and while she didn't break his shield...

...she pinballed him screaming away from her, knocking him clear off of Moonbase Ex and down towards Seattle.

...gritting his teeth with strangled fury, Diehard threw on the brakes, both hands out to either side, panting as he hovered above the rooftops.

And then he curled those hands into fists, ripping steel beams out of buildings all around him, shattering storefronts and brownstones and construction sites... swirling girders around himself like electrons orbiting a nucleus... and then launched the whole array of them at Rebel and Wonder Girl...

...faster than speeding bullets.

Jo crawled free from the copter in time to see the girders coming and hit those aimed at her with flash vision, first turning them to slag them vaporizing the slag.

She then tightened the beams and turn her gaze on Diehard.

 

[Aussie_Wolf]

One of the best parts of any funhouse is its hall of mirrors.

And Connor would immediately find himself in a room the size of a cathedral-- far too big to fit inside the structure he'd stepped into--

--where every wall, floor, and ceiling tile reaching on and on and in and in was a mirror, presenting an infinity of dizzying, nauseating reflections.

Many of those reflections were Connor.

And then, into dozens of those reflections stepped the image of Carny, grinning, hands in his pockets.

"D'you like it?" he giggled. "I've always been good with toys. But not so long ago, I entered into a deal with Dr. Aurichalcum for a repository of Nehiyawoc technology he'd recovered from a crash site under New York. Amongst the portion I got me were fleets and fleets of nanites... and a marvelous little box called a 'portable warzone.' It's a dimensional pocket in which I am lord and unequivocal master of its rewritten laws of physics."

"To wit: welcome to Planet Homicide, you chlorophyllic caveman! Do not attempt to adjust your set! I control the horizontal, I control the vertical! Time, gravity, heat, light, atmosphere, I'm the admin of this little forum and you're just a newb with 'Virgin' under his username. So come and get me, Verdant Virgin!"

"Thunderdome is go!"

He whooped, and whirled away, all his reflections vanishing with him-- if any of them had been real at all...

Connor sighed as the crazy visage of Carny disappeared from the mirrors. It wasn't enough that he had to fight this guy alone in what was essentially a fun house death trap, but now the guy had to go and quote old TV shows. Was nothing sacred anymore?

Still all joking aside this was going to be very tricky. If what he had said was true, he was going to be walking into a place that was completely controlled by that guys mind, or what was left of it. Not a great idea.

He had slowly begun to advance when Batman landed beside him. He was rather glad of the backup actually and as he walked towards the mirrors he began to think of all the ways his dad had taught him to defeat villains like this.

When you look at the mirrors look for inconsistencies. Things that were back to front, hands on the wrong side, different colors, anything that was just wrong. Of course this might not help him in this instance but it couldn't hurt.

 

[Aussie_Wolf]

At her peak strength, Barracuda could lift in excess of 100 tons-- the weight of an orca would not have made her blink. But now-- distracted-- dehydrated--

--the sudden mass of the orca moving at such terrific velocity overwhelmed her in a single shuddering instant, slamming Barracuda to the dust and immobilizing her, knocking her out cold in an instant.

"Oh, thank Christ," Aquagirl wheezed a sigh of relief. "Saved by my favorite cetacean."

And her voice spoke in Beast Boy's mind now that his brain was aquatic-- <"Es verdad, you know. Blackfish changed my life. Funny story.">

Ruby pushed up to her feet, breathing hard, and patted Gar on the snout. "Yeah, cheers, Shamu. One down, seven to go..."

And then she narrowed her eyes at where Diehard was clashing catastrophically with Rebel...

Now that her memories were all her own again, without Atmos' bombast in the mix, she had remembered something. Something from 15 years ago.

She put her Dial to her ear, calling Carin's smartwatch and trusting that her phone's advanced extradimensional tech would defy The Extremists' ability to monitor: "Velocity, on me. I've got a plan!"

Carin heard Ruby's voice from her watch and her head snapped up looking around the battlefield for her. She caught sight of her next to Aquagirl and a large green killer whale she could only assume was beast Boy.

Within half a second she was standing beside her and smiling. "Looks like you three had some fun. Okay what's the plan and who's the target? From the looks of things we may be holding our own but it's mighty close. We have to take out these guys and fast or we are really going to be in a world of hurt."

 

[ChasNicollette]

The Rundown.

Within half a second she was standing beside her and smiling. "Looks like you three had some fun. Okay what's the plan and who's the target? From the looks of things we may be holding our own but it's mighty close. We have to take out these guys and fast or we are really going to be in a world of hurt."

"Yeah, barrel of laughs, world of hurt, why can't we ever have the one without the other?" Ruby snorted.

"Look, I'll make this is as quick as I can. Diehard seems to be able to take anything we throw at him. Like an electromagnetic god. Now get this, hey? One time, decade and a half back, I Dialed an EM-kine while I was teamed up with Kid Flash, and I was able to tap into his speed lightning for a few seconds of hyperspeed strategizing. But here's the real kicker. While I was using speed lightning, I-- The Conductor --couldn't use regular electromagnetism. So if you hit him with your speed lightning, he'll get a massive burst of superspeed but until he burns through it he won't have shields, lightning, metalbending-- any of it."

"Barry Allen had a trick-- he could run in a tight circle and build up his power-- gather a bolt of speed lightning-- and throw it." She pantomimed throwing a baseball fastball.

"Can you do that? ...do you think you can?"

 

[ChasNicollette]

Nothing Lasts Forever.

Jo crawled free from the copter in time to see the girders coming and hit those aimed at her with flash vision, first turning them to slag them vaporizing the slag.

She then tightened the beams and turn her gaze on Diehard.

The heat poured into Diehard's shields with pinpoint precision and nova intensity.

And-- just as he had with Gar's dragon-flame, just as he had with Karan's solar energy...

...he converted that heat into power.

Fed it into himself, restoring his strength...

...and turning it against the two women powerhouses, lashing out at both of them with massive bolts of lightning specifically tuned to their respective invulnerabilities--

--specifically calculated to disrupt and pierce the bioelectric fields that made their hides so damnably impenetrable, turning that very invulnerability against them.

"Sun Goddesses. Children of the stars. All your power is futile in the face of human evolution! I am a neo-human, Progeny of The Helix-- what are Women of Steel against The Elder of Electromagnetism?"

 

[ChasNicollette]

Octo vs. Puss.

Web poured down at G.R.I.D., threatening to immobilize him--

ICE! Lysl cried!

Milton reacted with instant instinct-- unleashing a torrent of Ice Beam directly into the oncoming web-- freezing it solid and causing it to shatter in the air, tumbling around him in icicle shards.

--he switched immediately to his Wave Beam, firing!

Gorgon's gorgon-sense blared in his brain and he swung up a tentacle to block the blast with blinding speed... but the Wave Beam phased through the materials in the arm, streaking in a zig-zag for Gorgon unabated--

--hitting him, sending spastic shocks all through him--

"K-k-k-khhhhh--" Gorgon sputtered.

"...k-k-kh-queso?" G.R.I.D. grinned.

Milton!

And then one of Gorgon's tentacles smashed into him from the left-- and he was unable to react nearly so quickly-- everything went black and red inside his helmet, he rolled, tried to stay conscious--

The bug was bleeding and Wildcat could smell it. She was after Gorgon with a singleminded focus.

She lept and climbed after him with intent. She had bled him and now it was playtime. Time to claw and bat the bug about like a house cat with a mouse.....

Gorgon scuttled and bounded away from Wildcat up the surface of the wall with frenzied desperation, nerves and muscles still twitching from the Wave Beam hit. "No, no, not like American CrUSAder-- like Neko Noir, like PerditionPuss, like Jade Jaguar-- Lynxette! But I am a scientist, little feline-- and I shall use you to find yet another way to skin a cat!"

The pincers on the ends of two of his tentacles clacked viciously as they then lunged for Wildcat, aiming to flay her alive...

 

[ChasNicollette]

Pause to Reflect.

He had slowly begun to advance when Batman landed beside him. He was rather glad of the backup actually and as he walked towards the mirrors he began to think of all the ways his dad had taught him to defeat villains like this.

When you look at the mirrors look for inconsistencies. Things that were back to front, hands on the wrong side, different colors, anything that was just wrong. Of course this might not help him in this instance but it couldn't hurt.

As the two masked heroes stepped forward into the mirrored hall...

...the panes in the glass started moving, shifting, twisting around them...

...it was quickly like being inside a giant hollow disco ball, hundreds of panels of glass reflecting things at every angle, flashing lights almost to the point of epilepsy, dizzying and disorienting...

...and then some of the panes in the floor started shifting, oozing, figures forming out of viscous liquid glass, shapeshifting like glassy T-1000s into tall, bulky faceless figures, translucent and reflective...

A batarang snapped into Batman's hand and he hurled it without hesitation, with precision, his helmet automatically buffering his senses to prevent them from getting distorted...

...the batarang stuck quivering in the chest of one of the reflective gargantuas, the glass cracking around the entry wound, and Batman swung up his sonic emitter, unleashing a blast of high-decibel noise that exacerbated those jagged cracks-- forcing the figure to shatter in a catastrophic crash, fragments and splinters scattering over the swirling room's ever-moving floor.

One down, seven to go.

"Hope you're as good a shot as you were bragging you were earlier," Batman growled to Green Arrow.

 

[Lunaramblings]

That blackness reached for The Sandman's mind... to turn that living desert into a wasteland.

The Sandman was surprised by the blackness that raced toward his mind. He wasn't sure what to expect trying to force the bond like he did, but it wasn't this.

As the blackness breached into his mind he focused more intently. Countering the assault of bleak images that flooded his perception.

A black raptor, flesh devouring, carrion feeding....

Lioness, sharp of tooth, quick of claw...

Serpent, venomous and lithe...

Mongoose, snake devouring, quick of foot...

Mosquito, plague bearing...

"Dragonfly, bug munching, luck bringer...

"Pestilence, life choking, death calling...

Earth, life nurtuing...

Solar Flare, world destroying...

HOPE, World-rebuilding, life sustaining...

The blackness falters as The Sandman repels the last of it's assaults. His mind racing. Barely clinging to his senses, The Sandman takes in the fallout, completely unaware of how long he was in the mental battle with the darkness within Suparna.