Infinite Justice: Beyond (Marvel,DC,DBZ X/Over, IC, Open)

[The Fallen Jedi]

Earth

From behind the All-Mother, Alastir emerged from a darkened portal, with a legion of Demonic Warriors following closely behind their new overlord, standing at attention as Alastir approached the All-Mother of Asgard "All-Mother Valka" Alastir began as he prepared to offer his services to the ruler of Asgard "I have seen the events occurring over Asgard, and have arrived to offer my services in defeating the Void..." Alastir stared at the Void as he began to slowly transform into his primordial state "Although I feel that I will be unable to defeat it alone, I should buy enough time so that you can find the items necessary to defeat him."

[The Templar High Council]

"Oh, that's OK! I'm super energized right now!" Using her green ring, Kylie constructed something on a giant's scale. It looked to be... an enormous hammer?

"Lady Lantern about to lay the Smash down!" From overhead, Kylie brought the massive mallet down on Super Adaptoid's head. Whether he noticed it or not depended on how much he wanted to fight Phyla. But if it hit him, he was probably going to be a Super 'Stain on the Ground'.

Super Adaptoid constructed a circular shield that protected him from the blow of the hammer long enough for him to fly out of the way. "[Accessing: Green Lantern.]" A replica of a Green Lantern ring appeared on his ring finger and green tendril constructs slithered out of it and attacked Kylie. Once they reached her, they transformed into chains -- Super Adaptoid aiming to subdue Kylie. However, just in case that failed, he immediately also created a hammer construct identical to the one Kylie used against him and dropped it down at her.

Super Adaptoid felt something hit his back and he was momentarily stunned for a moment. "A Green Lantern ring? Seriously!? How come it took you such a short time to replicate it compared to my Quantum Bands?" Phyla said as she fired another blast of energy at him, growing frustrated as she saw that her attacks weren't doing much damage anymore.

"[Accessing: Quasar.]" Super Adaptoid formed a hammer construct and swung at the blasts from Phyla, deflecting them away. "[I have already observed K'Ragnar using his ring. Once I experienced a Lantern's energy firsthand, replicating it was a much easier feat.]" He swung the hammer at Phyla, who barely managed to put up a bubble construct around herself in time. She was protected from the brunt of the attack, but her bubble burst and she was sent flying.

Phyla recovered just before she hit the ground below Kylie. "D'ast it! How do we-" Suddenly something flew out of the sky and landed next to her. The smoke cleared to reveal Ronan lying in a small crater, unconscious. Then, something else landed next to Ronan. "Ruby?" Phyla asked as she watched Ruby pick up Ronan.

Ruby turned to her and waved. "Hey."

"Um.... hi? Can you lend us a hand?"

Ruby looked at Super Adaptoid and then back at Phyla. "Nah. I won't be much help." Ruby crouched down, prepared to jump.

"Wait! At least give us some advice on how we might be able to beat him! Anything!"

Ruby scratched her head and paused for a few seconds. "Use your imagination." With that, she jumped into the air, back to the main battlefield.

"What the heck does that me- Wait. Of course!" Phyla looked up at Kylie. "Kylie, make as many different types of constructs as you can and throw them at him!" Phyla created a wide assortment of constructs, from animals such as bats, lions, tigers, to things like human foot-solders with weapons and commanded them to attack Super Adaptoid.

Kylie bust the green chains Super Adaptoid made no-problem with an aura of yellow energy, then matched the hammer with a giant yellow claw, crushing it in the process. "That all you got? I'm amped, bro! You're not gonna beat me by being me, cuz I'm too awesome for ya!"

Phyla was knocked down behind her, but got back up after she and Ruby talked for a moment. Then she told Kylie to start making things, just random things. "Oh, I can do random. But I don't know how much help my crazy brain will be!"

Stretching out both her hands, Kylie began to create a storm of constructs that quickly turned to nonsense. They started like Phlya, mainly with animals, but that went out the window when Kylie made half a dozen pillows. Then a bicycle, a train rollercoaster carts, three suburban houses, and a giant toaster.

... No one ever questioned Kylie's imagination before now, but now might be a good time to do so. Or perhaps after Super Adaptoid tried to deal with the dozens of random items made of light flying at him.

[Bentus]

The first officer, the runner who arrived there in the first place, stuttered out a response. "S-Sorry, Lady- I've got no idea who your friends are."
The others, wary of the Marionette, raised their guns aiming them at the stranger.
"This is Boxer, where the hell are you guys?" The radio on the runner suddenly came alive. "Reinforcements needed at Fifth and Adams- Reclaimer is on the receiving end of one of the worst beatdowns I've ever heard."

Mia Aveline – Joker’s Funhouse

---

As the radio blared to life, Mia’s friendly smile was starting to waver – the innocent façade beginning to crack. Trying to take deep breaths, Mia desperately fought to prevent panic from overwhelming her; but it was a losing battle. Her eyes possessed a wild glint perhaps just noticeable in their corners – brought out by the fatigue she felt in her weary battle-worn state. The GCD officers, picking up on her deteriorating state, nervously lifted their weapons as some started taking a few uneasy steps back. The woman before them – not much more than a girl – would have normally passed on by rather unassumingly, but they had seen what she’d done to the Jester: they knew that she was dangerous.

Mia felt a wave of dread pouring over her, memories of CeeCee’s screams and an intense fear of letting her Hero down consumed her immediate thoughts, driving her actions. Her eyes narrowed at the leader of the group before her, the man now talking on his radio. He had said that he didn’t know CeeCee or Nightblade. In her wound-up and on edge state, Mia’s mind quickly jumped to conclusions, connecting random and stray dots together: everybody knew CeeCee, it was simply inconceivable that they could not.

He was lying.

Mia reacted immediately, impulsively, and with a ruthless precision befitting one increasingly overcome with desperation. To their credit, some of the GCD officers managed to get off a shot or two before the Threads tore the guns from their hands, or severed the appendages in their entirety. More still managed to get out the beginning of a scream of shock, pain, or horror before the parasol ran clean through their necks. One, luckier or faster than the rest, even succeeded in making a few steps in an attempted escape – but it was only a second or two before another Thread wrapped around his neck, breaking it with a sharp crack.

Angered at having been to clearly lied to, and now surrounded by more lifeless forms, Mia turned her attention back to the Funhouse: time was not on her side.

[New Neros]

The Darkstar Crisis
Starhaven

"And you are?"

The question seemed rather loaded to Mad Max, who glanced awkwardly at Fatherstar for a moment, then back to the woman who poised the question. "Erm, I'm Maxwell Morningstar." He said plainly, "God-King of- "

"Ah, Morningstar, yes, we've heard of you. Follow me." The woman said, turning around and quickly walking down the metallic hallway. Max and Fatherstar had come to Starhaven's surface after their discussion above it, "I'm Motherstar." The girl quickly informed Max, turning back around and looking at him with fierce, commanding eyes. Her supple figure and pinkish hair gave off an initial look of carefree attitudes, but her voice and the manner Motherstar carried herself seemed to imply a more serious, no-nonsense demeanor. "I'm sure Fatherstar has briefed you somewhat on what our mission is."

"I'll be honest," Maxwell said, "It's still a bit shocking and confusion to me."

"You killed your fiance in an alternate universe, and now that version of you is out to kill you." Motherstar said bluntly, "And will destroy every universe separating you two in order to do it. It's not that hard to understand." Maxwell began to follow Motherstar out of the small metallic base of the Star Clan and into the wooded, natural environment outside. He still had many questions to ask, and apparently, not a lot of time. "It's a major crisis and we're the only ones left to stop his rampage."

"Wait, but what about the Monitors? They govern all inter-universal travel. How is this Darkstar able to hop from universe to universe without triggering their warnings and sending out their Eternal Guardians?" Max asked, genuinely surprised this sort of threat hasn't been taken of by larger forces.

"If only it were so easy, Morningstar." Motherstar sneered, "Darkstar began this crisis by destroying the home of the Monitors, taking them and their Guardians with it. Tragic, but foreseen."

"My God...And you expect me to fair any better?"

"In your current state, no. But we have been hard at work crafting and perfecting a training regimen and system to bring you up to speed with Darkstar and his abilities, as well as craft you into a being capable of defeating him in detail." Motherstar said, "We've been developing this idea for decades now."

"Decades?!" Max shouted, "Impossible." He further declared.

"Oh it's very possible. We have a prophecy, passed down through the Star Clan for generations, foretelling of the great cataclysm to befall all realities as Darkstar approaches - it even mentions him by name. A warrior of incredible will and power will rise to duel him across a universe, and will bring a morning's light to his darkness. Thus, Morningstar. He will redeem the universe, save it from damnation and destruction, he is the Celestial Messiah." Motherstar said matter-of-factly, Max chuckling under his breath. "Something funny?"

"Oh yeah..." Max said, "Morningstar is a surname, not some great tie in to a prophecy. It comes from my dad and his dad, all the way back to John Morningstar and even further beyond. Any one of them could be the great savior you desire - your fated Celestial Messiah." He said flatly, calling their superstitions out in the open, Motherstar turning to face him with a sour look.

"Did any of them sell their soul to Entropy like you did?" She asked, Max's face turning into a tight frown. "As if we wouldn't know about that...Yeah." She spat, "Besides, you fit all too well into it. Darkstar is you, a different version of you, sure, but he was Maxwell Morningstar until he became Darkstar." She glanced down at her gauntlet, a bright light flashing, Motherstar sighing loudly. "We're running late - you have other members to meet."

"Right..." Max said, following her and Fatherstar, "Tell me, then, are those your actual names? Fatherstar and Motherstar?"

"We used to have names, but they fell out of favor long ago. Those are our names now." Fatherstar said, sticking close and alongside Maxwell, "For ease, we'll most likely all you Morningstar."

"Original, I'm genuinely surprised." Max sarcastically replied, going with the two clansmen to a small gathering of other people - ones he correctly assumed to be named some variation of star. They chatted and talked among themselves, some approaching Maxwell and talking to him as well. "Nice to meet you all," He said, "But can you repeat your names for me one more time?"

"Wildstar." One would say, "Polestar." Another would claim, "Star Rider", "Strangestar", and "Seeing Star" three would say back to back, followed by "Red Star" and "Star Conqueror". Max nodded as each name was processed and tied to a face - the God-King actually growing interested in their Clan and the entire prophecy they're fighting. He rubbed his chin slightly, the beginnings of a five o'clock shadow forming on his face.

"Excellent...I'm Max, but you lot would probably know me better as Morningstar." He said casually, "And I suppose that I'm here to train in order to fight Darkstar?" A hush fell over the gathered members as they all stared at Max, causing him some discomfort initially. "Er...Was it something I said?" He asked, looking for support from Fatherstar or Motherstar. Fatherstar grasped his shoulder and leaned into his ear to explain his misstep.

"To them, Darkstar's name is taboo. We call him the Dark One."

"Oh come on...Dark is still in that name, and everyone has Star in theirs. It's bound to happen." Max hissed back.

"We've managed to get by." Fatherstar moved away from Max, nodding slightly. "It's time for you to meet the Star Child."

[Zarkenis Ultima]

---

Still on her knees, but no longer pounding at the ground in despair, the World-Dragon's mind raced in order to find something, to see something. A glimmer of hope, a possible weakness, an exploitable loophole, perhaps. Anything that she could use against the Time Demon. Hadrimmelis knew that she would not be able to stand up against Ku by herself, and she briefly wondered if it would be a good idea to gather the World-Dragons in order to fight against him, but quickly decided against it. To awaken herself, let alone doing the same with all of her brothers and sisters, would take far too long, and time was not on their side. On top of that, to rush the battle and fight against the Time Demon unprepared could spell doom for not only the World-Dragons but the universe at large. And on the other hand, Ku was a threat that could not be left to its own devices. If she did not do something quickly, then the ammount of damage done to the universe would swiftly become catastrophic. If its power was the same as it was during the Time Demon War, then in the time it took for the World-Dragons to assemble, the beast could easily destroy countless superclusters, if not more.

As she pondered the solution to this grim dilemma, however, Hadrimmelis noticed something. For starters, she noticed for the first time that she was not alone. Aside from the Time Demon, there had been someone else present from the start, but the World-Dragon, in her frenzy and despair, had not noticed this figure until Ku had left through the hole in space and time, had not noticed her until she spoke those two words that sought vengeance for the fallen one. At that moment, Hadrimmelis stood up immediately and looked in the direction of the alien woman. Had she been any more focused, any less stricken, then the World-Dragon would likely have realized that this was a Rantu, but at the moment, such details, insignificant in the grand scope of things, escaped her completely. All she saw was a woman with advanced weapons getting ready to go through the black gate and hunt the beast that had opened it, likely to die in the process. Now, the scarlet dragon likely would have paid no attention to a mortal who had by chance found herself swept up in these events, but there was something else. Her words. "For Chrono." She had said, as if she sought vengeance for someone. It was not too difficult to connect the dots, then, and figure out something that was very important to the World-Dragon right now: the woman knew Gilbert.

"Wait!" Hadrimmelis commanded, rushing over to the woman and seizing her by the shoulders. "You knew him, didn't you?" She inquired forcefully, but gave the blue woman no opportunity to answer the question. "Yes, yes you did. You knew Addraku! You knew the vessel!" She said cryptically, before deciding that this method of gathering information was far too slow for the precarious position that she was in along with everything else. Thus, she settled for something a tad more invasive, but far more efficient. The Rantu would undoubtedly feel as an alien presence probed her mind, searching, reading, learning, taking away information from it. Now, of course, it would be a very simple matter to connect this to the strange blonde woman who was currently still holding her by the shoulders, but Hadrimmelis didn't particularly care about that. There were more important things at stake than the privacy of a Rantu, after all. Focusing on the facts and ignoring any feelings that she may have found amusing in a different situation, Hadrimmelis pieced together everything that had happened to Gilbert before the revival of the Time Demon.

And as she released the woman's shoulders, there was an air of triumph around her. The blonde avatar's soft and regal features, marred by the expression of despair that she had held moments earlier, was further twisted by the sudden change to a smile, causing her to come across as a bit of a maniac, to say the least.

"It is weak!" She said triumphantly, clearly referring to the Time Demon with that statement. "It gathered much power when Gilbert drained the world to defeat the destroyer, but all of that was spent in the very same endeavor! He has no energy!" She continued, pacing rapidly around the cracked ground of a dead world, her footsteps taking her around the crater that she herself had created in her frustration not too long ago. Suddenly, her gaze shot upwards once again, and then towards the two beings who had arrived through the portal, the fellow World-Dragon and the Returned Vokornian.

"Yamira! Ash! We have to follow him! Ku is weakened by his awakening, so now is the perfect moment to stop him from becoming as strong as he was a long time ago. If we stop him here, then he will be unable to cause the same havoc and destruction as he did aeons ago. And I don't think I need to warn you of what will happen if we fail to stop him." She said solemnly, before turning towards the blue woman, looking at her straight in the eye. "You. Aru'va Kell. You wish to avenge the human that died here, don't you? Then please, lend us your strength. I don't know how powerful you may be but any asistance we can get is welcome against the creature we are about to face. If we succeed, then I will make sure that my gratitude is well shown." She stated. "I can not force you to fight alongside us, but you seemed eager to hunt down the beast by yourself. Surely if we join forces, we will have a greater chance." She continued, pausing for a moment before finishing. "There are billions of lives at stake. We need your help."

[Mavorpen]

snip

"[W...what are you doing?]" Super Adaptoid said as he was bombarded with the assortment of random constructs. He attempted to form a shield construct but it immediately shattered, even though nothing had even touched it. Then he attempted to make swords, and those also shattered. In a last ditch effort, he made chains that inevitably shattered as well.

"What's wrong? Can't handle it? Of course you can't. The Quantum Bands and Green Lantern rings run on a little something called imagination -- something you don't have." Phyla bombarded him with even more constructs, getting a little more exotic and mixing mythical animals such as unicorns, hydras, griffins, with objects including a giant rocket and an anvil with the word "ACME" inscribed on them. "Don't you get it? Your computer mind is inferior to our organic minds."

"[Illogical. This unit -- the Phalanx, is superior to all organic life. This unit adapts the attributes of any target. Target has the attribute of imagination. Conclusion: this unit has imagination. Accessing: imagination.]" Super Adaptoid became overwhelmed at the constructs at this point and his attempts to retaliate became even less effective. "[Attempt failed. Repeat. Accessing: Imagination...]"

"You seriously still don't get it? You can't apply logic to this. That's why your attempts to produce an imagination are flawed. It isn't about logic. It's about our experiences as living, feeling beings -- our emotions."

"[...Error...Error...]" Super Adaptoid started going wild at this point, his body changing shape between all of the different Avengers.

"Now, Kylie! Hit him with everything you've got!" Phyla shouted. She would have loved to have done it herself, but unfortunately she was running on fumes thanks to being cut off from her power source.

---

Jamal wasn't entirely sure whether Ultron being forced out of Adam Warlock's body had progressed their situation in the right direction or not. Sure, him controlling Adam Warlock's body was definitely a negative thing, but at least at that time he was still trying to capture them. Now, he had simply escalated to the "kill them all" stage.

The Phalanx soldiers reacted accordingly and became far more aggressive. Jamal dispatched of a few of them with gravimetric pulses, however he knew that the only way to prevent anyone else from dying was to beat Ultron. "Everyone, take him do-" He began to shout, but then Ruby landed next to him.

"I wouldn't do that." Ruby said. "He'll just jump ship to another body."

"I know that. But what choice do we have? Do you have a solution?"

"I've already told you that we have one." Ruby pointed at Adam Warlock's body on the ground.

"'It's the solution...'" Jamal muttered, repeating what Ruby had told him earlier. "But, he's de-" Ruby cocked her head to the side slightly. "He...he's not dead, is he?" Ruby stood in silence, neither confirming nor denying his statement. "Yeah, I'll just take that as a yes. Peter, we need to hold Ultron off!"

"Until?" Star-Lord replied.

"Fuck if I know." Jamal responded.

"...Ah, what the hell." Star-Lord said, not even bothering to question it. "Groot, Rocket!"

"Already on it! Time for payback you hunk o' junk!" Rocket bellowed as he rode on the shoulder of Groot, who had now grown to equal size to Ultron and began striking him while Rocket fired his blasters at him.

[The Republic of Atria]

"Take him down!" Superman shouted.

"Avengers, Assemble!" Captain America shouted. Both the groups that had the ability to fly, or some form of ranged attack all converged on the Void.

"No." The Void said flatly and blasted the entire group aside seemingly without any true effort on his part.

Loki watched everything. Father... I'm sorry... He said falling to his knees at the destruction that had been caused by the Void. I... I never wanted this to happen. He said and looked at the Norn Stones. "MONSTER!" He shouted gaining the Void's attention. Not that it was a good thing. "You shall know the wrath of-" He was cut off by the Void swatting him with enough force to embed him into the ground.

"You and your magic rocks. This is your fault Loki. You and Osborn killed my wife. And now I'm going to kill everyone. Great job. You brought this on yourselves." The Void said and was about to smash the rocks into powder, but Flash grabbed them before he got the chance and force them into Alex's hands.

"Loki'stoastfigurethemoutbeforewealldie!" Barry said almost too fast for Alex to comprehend and went right back to helping fight the Void.

Alex looked at the rocks and really didn't know what he was doing. They certainly were powerful. He could feel it radiating from within the stones. He had to figure them out before the Void noticed him and did what he did to Loki. Asgardians were a lot tougher than humans. That didn't really make him confident about his chances if the Void did see him.

[The Fallen Jedi]

- Snip -

Alastir was quick to erect a barrier around him that prevented Void's energy blast from pushing him back, but it did cause him to lose some ground. "This creature, he's like nightmare, but he has the potential to become something more..." Alastir was first to send multiple spiked appendages made out of a black, viscous fluid. As expected, the Void responded in kind, except that the appendage he created wrapped around Alastir's spiked appendages and shattered them with relative ease "Shit..." Alastir muttered as he stared at the Void intensely "Exactly as much as I feared, his power is great, he could even cause mortal damage to myself in my normal form..." Alastir closed his eyes and allowed all that was darkness to enter his body and empower it to it's absolute limit "I don't know if this will backfire, but I have to try!"

By this point, Void had his attention poised towards Alastir, sensing darkness within the Celestial, but it wasn't as strong whatsoever. Letting out a low chuckle, Nightmare's Infini-Tendrils shot forward in seemingly every direction "Foolish Celestial, I've killed many gods, and now you will be no exclusion!" The Void gurgled, watching on with boredom as Alastir desperately attempted to weave and dodge out of the way of the Infini-Tendrils, but they kept coming at him with speeds that not even he could calculate, causing the Infini-Tendrils to land several hits that caused flesh wounds to manifest along multiple areas of Alastir's body, but he remained defiant "How many gods will I have to kill today?" The Void pondered.

Alastir let out a low growl as the flesh wounds began to quickly heal "I've underestimated your power greatly, to land these many hits on me..." A thick plume of black smoke began to slowly envelop Alastir's body "You must be itching for a Death Wish!" Alastir growled angrily, the plume of smoke quickly compressing all around Alastir's body, revealing his Primordial State "I'm going to enjoy ripping you to shreds." Primal Alastir growled, his voice laced with sadistic joy, numerous tendrils forming all around his body, all of them firing a barrage of energy beams in rapid succession all around the Void, the energy beams causing dust to rise all around the epicenter of the blast.

To Alastir's shock, a tendril emerged from the ground and wrapped itself around his neck, The Void emerging from the smoke relatively unharmed "Your so-called attacks will not work on me." The Void said flatly, moving his Infini-Tendril in the direction of the rubble of Asgard, sending Alastir crashing into the debris of Asgard, Void continuing to throw Alastir around like a ragdoll, apparently taking joy in the pain he was causing Alastir "You, like your species shall meet it's end, but before I kill yo-" The Void was quickly sent flying in the opposite direction by one of Alastir's timed tendrils that waited underneath the ground for the precise moment to strike.

This moment was followed by a blood curdling screech that came from Alastir, who was quickly falling to the far more dominant personality of his Primal personality "You insignificant worm of darkness, do you know who I am?!" Screeched Primal Alastir, tendrils emerging from almost every portion of his darkened body and crashing down into the epicenter of where the Void had been sent crashing into "I am the Celestial God of Darkness, a power so potent that even an entire galaxy can be wiped out with only a mere gesture of my hand, I am the power of darkness incarnate, AND I WON'T BE BEATEN BY A-" Primal Alastir's blood red eyes widened as an Unholy Screech entered his subconscious, causing him to grasp his head in utter pain, his Primordial Form instantly expiring, thus making him vulnerable once more.

"You Insignificant Worm, you wretch that dies in the wind, you will meet your end here and now!" The Void yelled, obviously being annoyed by Alastir's trivial attempts to harm him "I will give you pain beyond which you've ever seen!" A massive Infini-Tendril rose out of the ground and struck Alastir's now mortal body and effectively severing the lower half from the upper half "I will make you suffer, I will make your body suffer, and I shall bestow pain that not even supernatural beings such as yourself can comprehend." The Void growled in annoyance, preferring to watch the so called 'God of Darkness' suffer a pain that not even he had felt before.

Alastir's eyes widened as he could no longer feel anything beyond his waistline, which was followed by an immense pain so great that he let out the loudest and most unholy yell that anyone would shudder to "AHHHH!!!!!!" Alastir screamed in both undying rage and agony, black fluid beginning to steadily pour out of the severed ends of his body, followed by an endless mass of tendrils that rose twenty feet into the air and began to slam themselves into the ground at every direction, his body reacting in the worst way possible to such a mortal injury "You piece of shit!!!!" Alastir screeched in agony, numerous tendrils emerging from either end of Alastir's severed body, beginning to interact with each other and tangle together, this process causing Alastir pain on such a level that he was rendered unconscious as the process of regenerating his body began to take place.

[New Neros]

The Darkstar Crisis
The Celestial Messiah and the Star Child

He was young, impossibly so, but with a name like Star Child, Max didn't quite know what to expect to begin with. He sat with his legs crossed and glowing with an ambient, natural light flowing from him that even Max's energy detection couldn't read accurately. It was so other worldly and alien that it simply confused his senses, humbled him even, and made the Mad God curious as to who this being was. The Star Child had soft black hair and deep, crystal-like blue eyes with a band of freckles dotted across the ridge of his nose and arcing across his cheeks. Max casually glanced to both sides of himself, noticing that he was now alone in the child's presence. Max didn't feel threatened, but he did feel a sense of obligation and respect for the young man. He walked forward, looking around the natural scenery as he laid his eyes to rest on the Star Child. "A long way you've came to see me - but let me ask, is it a child that you see?" Star Child asked, Max shivering as a cold air washed over him.

The words sounded different when Max said them, as if an echo preceded them. "No," He said, "I see an aspect of energy in the shape of a child. An old being attempting to look young once more." The respond elicited a smile from the Star Child, but Max continued. "But...an old being wanting to pass on it's knowledge and experiences through this vessel. As if the child was paper and ink and your true self is the artist - but I cannot see your true self." Max admitted, lowering his head to accept the humility, "I can only see your physical imprint on this world."

"I see." The Star Child said, "That is because you are seeing but my shadow in three dimensions. Just a cube casts a two dimensional shadow, my true self exists in a fourth dimensional state. I am but a, as you lower energy beings call, tesseract. It's not my hubris or arrogance, or your own limits, that makes me say that you cannot comprehend my true form, but an understanding of physics. Of which, I know you have much knowledge of, Morningstar." The Star Child explained, offering Max an outstretched hand. "I am to teach you all that I know - that is my purpose. This may surprise you, but you are going to re-learn martial arts from me. Despite my young appearance, I am but the greatest combat expert and teacher in this universe, and dimension."

Mad Max smiled, nodding as he did so, thinking to make a quip at the instance. "I mean no disrespect, but I thought Batman was the greatest combat expert to exist in our universe?" Max said, the Star Child not missing a beat in responding to him.

"Who do you think taught him to fight?"

---

The two beings entered a chamber not too much unlike the one Max had erected in his previous stewardship in the Kingdom of Ur - but this seemed like a perfected version. An area where time and space had no material value other than things to be watched from afar as distant observers, where one could train indefinitely and allow time to go around them as they pleased. "It's a place in between our dimensions." The Star Child explained, "You managed to recreate an imperfect version with the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and it's derivatives, but this is the natural state. Here, time in the third dimension grinds to a halt - and can be speed up at will. It is my place of solitude and comfort, a reminder of home."

Max looked out across the endless white expanse of the area, it's undefined limits playing with his mind a bit, but he was adjusting well enough. "You physically shall not age either, Morningstar." The Star Child explained, "Your muscles will remember their experiences, but the catastrophic breakdown of cellular tissue is nonexistent. You will grow stronger, remember things in here, but physically, will be at your same age." The Star Child walked to the side of Max, their size difference apparent, and looked up to the Mad God. "We can begin whenever you're ready."

Mad Max nodded, "I'm ready. Please, bring Val, Mir, and Otto to Starhaven in the meantime. We all need to get stronger if we're facing Darkstar." Max said, tightening his fists, "And we definitely need to if he decides to bring friends." The Star Child smiled at the thought, realizing that this was indeed the Morningstar the legends spoke of, and perhaps the only chance at saving this universe and the multiverse as a whole.

"War rages elsewhere, on other planes of existence, Morningstar, but we will be fighting the real conflict." Star Child explained, "Let us begin."

[The Templar High Council]

Again, pursuing the most obvious thing about Ralph's speech, Ashley said the most straightforward thing in response: "You talk too much." Smiling, she hopped on her board and sat down, dangling her legs off the side. "I'm Ashley, and before I ask any more questions, I'm going to ask one thing."

She rolled over on her board, positioning herself on her stomach with her head over the front of the board. "Tell me what happened to bring us here! You said you witnessed it, and I was just preparing for practice when we were told to leave. I need to know what went down!"

Ralph the Rat-16 Yrs-Emerald Island, New Mobius

This girl, seems almost strangely nonchalant for someone who was just warped to a new world with no explanation. As her head peered over the edge of her board I locked eyes with her, and sighed with a small smile. "Well, there is much to talk about." I conceded as my features became more serious at the mention of her question. "What happened?" I asked rhetorically. I then approached her floating board, where we are about eye level. "I am assuming you desire the short version. In that case, I will tell you."

My eyes seemed to look past her, as I remembered the events of earlier. The battle with Scourge the Hedgehog, his sacrifice against Chaos. The arrival of Max, and the final battle against Maelstrom Claus.

"To answer simply, our world was rendered uninhabitable because of a battle against two forces of nature. The first, Chaos, or Perfect Chaos I know much about. His soul corrupted by the malevolent negative power of the Chaos Emeralds. He commanded the oceans and seas and flooded much of the land on Mobius. Wiping out islands and forever changing the landscape of continents. I battled him just outside of Station Square. Using the positive energy of the Chaos Emeralds, I was able to calm his spirit. Had that been it, then we could have perhaps survived and stayed on Mobius. But then, a new demonic force, I dont know where he came from. His very presence poisoned our world, I..." My thoughts then went back to Solar the Hedgehog, Max and Mir. "We could not defeat him fast enough to reverse the damage he had caused." As I finished the story, I locked eyes with the Hedgehog and unfolded my arms.

"It was then, that Max used the powers of Chaos Control to warp our people here. To a new and unspoiled world, where we can rebuild and live. As in time, all of us would have died if left on Mobius." I explained, the not very exciting or pleasant story this Hedgehog may have wanted.

"So, what else could I tell you?"

"Well, I asked you a question, so now I'm going to answer something you said." Ashley pushed away from the ground, the air current visible and audible as her board floated higher. "You said you have psychic powers. That's pretty cool. My power is to control the wind. It makes me really good at Extreme Gear racing, not having to refuel and all.

"Anyway, my next question for you... you say you're the protector of the Master Emerald, right? But you want to go out and explore the new... universe we were put in. How do you think that's going to work out? Is it so easy that you can just bring it with you?" Ashley pushed herself up on her elbows, looking back at the Master Emerald. She'd heard stories about it, but never seen it. So powerful, so secret, only really brought for those really bad things like Mobius dying and stuff. And Ralph said it was his job to protect it? That's pretty heavy...

Wait, how old is he?

"Wait! Quick follow-up question: how old are you?" If he was hundreds of years old and stuff... well, there would just be hundreds of more questions to ask. And maybe some necessary exchanging of contact information, since her curiosity at that would definitely not be sated in one day.

---

snip

"[W...what are you doing?]" Super Adaptoid said as he was bombarded with the assortment of random constructs. He attempted to form a shield construct but it immediately shattered, even though nothing had even touched it. Then he attempted to make swords, and those also shattered. In a last ditch effort, he made chains that inevitably shattered as well.

"What's wrong? Can't handle it? Of course you can't. The Quantum Bands and Green Lantern rings run on a little something called imagination -- something you don't have." Phyla bombarded him with even more constructs, getting a little more exotic and mixing mythical animals such as unicorns, hydras, griffins, with objects including a giant rocket and an anvil with the word "ACME" inscribed on them. "Don't you get it? Your computer mind is inferior to our organic minds."

"[Illogical. This unit -- the Phalanx, is superior to all organic life. This unit adapts the attributes of any target. Target has the attribute of imagination. Conclusion: this unit has imagination. Accessing: imagination.]" Super Adaptoid became overwhelmed at the constructs at this point and his attempts to retaliate became even less effective. "[Attempt failed. Repeat. Accessing: Imagination...]"

"You seriously still don't get it? You can't apply logic to this. That's why your attempts to produce an imagination are flawed. It isn't about logic. It's about our experiences as living, feeling beings -- our emotions."

"[...Error...Error...]" Super Adaptoid started going wild at this point, his body changing shape between all of the different Avengers.

"Now, Kylie! Hit him with everything you've got!" Phyla shouted. She would have loved to have done it herself, but unfortunately she was running on fumes thanks to being cut off from her power source.

"Do you really want everything? Because I still need to get home..." Instead of using EVERYTHING she had, Kylie only used half. Specifically: the yellow half. Swarms of golden constructs flew from Kylie's left hand, from a horde of wasps to a modern American tank. Everything that could inspire fear, as well as Super Adaptoid's fear: something he cannot adapt to.

Converging on the shifting green mass, the constructs held nothing back as they let loose with Kylie's imagined assault. The tanks fired shells rapidly, amber-like water drowned him, and more than a few clowns battered him with balloon animals and pie. If he couldn't combat imagination, then Super Adaptoid was powerless at this moment.

"Don't get too scared." Kylie said as the attacks ended. "It's all in your head. Or, well, in my head. But that's even worse for you, isn't it?" Kylie snickered, putting Phyla's arm over her shoulder in order to support her after all the energy she put out. "This means we're done, right?"

[Charmera]

---

Still on her knees, but no longer pounding at the ground in despair, the World-Dragon's mind raced in order to find something, to see something. A glimmer of hope, a possible weakness, an exploitable loophole, perhaps. Anything that she could use against the Time Demon. Hadrimmelis knew that she would not be able to stand up against Ku by herself, and she briefly wondered if it would be a good idea to gather the World-Dragons in order to fight against him, but quickly decided against it. To awaken herself, let alone doing the same with all of her brothers and sisters, would take far too long, and time was not on their side. On top of that, to rush the battle and fight against the Time Demon unprepared could spell doom for not only the World-Dragons but the universe at large. And on the other hand, Ku was a threat that could not be left to its own devices. If she did not do something quickly, then the ammount of damage done to the universe would swiftly become catastrophic. If its power was the same as it was during the Time Demon War, then in the time it took for the World-Dragons to assemble, the beast could easily destroy countless superclusters, if not more.

As she pondered the solution to this grim dilemma, however, Hadrimmelis noticed something. For starters, she noticed for the first time that she was not alone. Aside from the Time Demon, there had been someone else present from the start, but the World-Dragon, in her frenzy and despair, had not noticed this figure until Ku had left through the hole in space and time, had not noticed her until she spoke those two words that sought vengeance for the fallen one. At that moment, Hadrimmelis stood up immediately and looked in the direction of the alien woman. Had she been any more focused, any less stricken, then the World-Dragon would likely have realized that this was a Rantu, but at the moment, such details, insignificant in the grand scope of things, escaped her completely. All she saw was a woman with advanced weapons getting ready to go through the black gate and hunt the beast that had opened it, likely to die in the process. Now, the scarlet dragon likely would have paid no attention to a mortal who had by chance found herself swept up in these events, but there was something else. Her words. "For Chrono." She had said, as if she sought vengeance for someone. It was not too difficult to connect the dots, then, and figure out something that was very important to the World-Dragon right now: the woman knew Gilbert.

"Wait!" Hadrimmelis commanded, rushing over to the woman and seizing her by the shoulders. "You knew him, didn't you?" She inquired forcefully, but gave the blue woman no opportunity to answer the question. "Yes, yes you did. You knew Addraku! You knew the vessel!" She said cryptically, before deciding that this method of gathering information was far too slow for the precarious position that she was in along with everything else. Thus, she settled for something a tad more invasive, but far more efficient. The Rantu would undoubtedly feel as an alien presence probed her mind, searching, reading, learning, taking away information from it. Now, of course, it would be a very simple matter to connect this to the strange blonde woman who was currently still holding her by the shoulders, but Hadrimmelis didn't particularly care about that. There were more important things at stake than the privacy of a Rantu, after all. Focusing on the facts and ignoring any feelings that she may have found amusing in a different situation, Hadrimmelis pieced together everything that had happened to Gilbert before the revival of the Time Demon.

And as she released the woman's shoulders, there was an air of triumph around her. The blonde avatar's soft and regal features, marred by the expression of despair that she had held moments earlier, was further twisted by the sudden change to a smile, causing her to come across as a bit of a maniac, to say the least.

"It is weak!" She said triumphantly, clearly referring to the Time Demon with that statement. "It gathered much power when Gilbert drained the world to defeat the destroyer, but all of that was spent in the very same endeavor! He has no energy!" She continued, pacing rapidly around the cracked ground of a dead world, her footsteps taking her around the crater that she herself had created in her frustration not too long ago. Suddenly, her gaze shot upwards once again, and then towards the two beings who had arrived through the portal, the fellow World-Dragon and the Returned Vokornian.

"Yamira! Ash! We have to follow him! Ku is weakened by his awakening, so now is the perfect moment to stop him from becoming as strong as he was a long time ago. If we stop him here, then he will be unable to cause the same havoc and destruction as he did aeons ago. And I don't think I need to warn you of what will happen if we fail to stop him." She said solemnly, before turning towards the blue woman, looking at her straight in the eye. "You. Aru'va Kell. You wish to avenge the human that died here, don't you? Then please, lend us your strength. I don't know how powerful you may be but any asistance we can get is welcome against the creature we are about to face. If we succeed, then I will make sure that my gratitude is well shown." She stated. "I can not force you to fight alongside us, but you seemed eager to hunt down the beast by yourself. Surely if we join forces, we will have a greater chance." She continued, pausing for a moment before finishing. "There are billions of lives at stake. We need your help."

Aru'va gritted her teeth when her quarry had escaped her. The blue individual summoned her drones back, ready to move out and annihilated the monster she had seen before her, but she was suddenly interrupted by not only by the humanoid who had came out of a portal, but this one seemed to have telepathic powers too. The brute force of the invasion of her mind gave her delicate neural systems a mild headache. She heard only incomprehensible gibberish, and was half tempted to destroy the being before her for assaulting her mind. But then she heard the request for strength and suddenly understood.

"My duty is to hunt and destroy things like that. Though I have to admit I have not encountered anything quite like this... Ku." She spoke. "I will assist you. But I will need to learn more about the being itself. Namely why it was inside a human."

Yami frowned. "That is something I too would like to know sister." She spoke. "After all we're going to need to know as much about the time demon if we're going to defeat him, considering what had happened last time."

---

Garnet nodded at Masami. If nothing else, she appreciated that the kitsune didn't mind the shift in mood and didn't feel like prying much further; after all, she could only elaborate so much before delving into things that she judged were best left forgotten. Now, the truth was that she was quite curious about Masami's story herself; what had truly led her to this monster hunting life? What was that unfortunate incident she was talking about? Indeed, she was quite curious, but did not ask. It would not do to reward the woman's discretion by asking her about her past, after all. Even if she was more open about it, the blonde woman still didn't feel like it would be the fair thing to do, and heaven knew life by itself was unfair enough already.

Hearing the fox lady say that they had company, however, Garnet immediately put the mask on and drew the nameless sword and the arcane pistol, holding them at the ready in anticipation for whatever was to come. When she found herself surrounded by several black-clad figures, she had to resist the impulse to just start shooting at once, though, as Masami didn't seem to react immediately either, and so far the enemy hadn't made any move. As she observed, though, she couldn't help but notice that the warriors surrounding her appeared to be... catgirls. Garnet blinked twice beneath the mask.

Then, of course, appeared three of these so-called 'bakaneko' in particular who were not clad in black like the rest. Garnet didn't exactly have the senses required to detect teh great magical presence within them, but even then, she could tell they were special, especially the one at the lead, but then, that was hardly unexpected, considering she was at the lead. Hearing Azami call Masami her niece, though, the blonde woman blinked again.

"So." She interrupted, with little regard for etiquette. "The first thing that happens when I come to Japan is that I end up meeting a foxgirl and get swept up in a family feud that involves fighting catgirls, one of whom is said foxgirl's aunt." She summarized, nodding to herself.

"This is, like, exactly what I expected Japan to be like."

Masami had to stop herself from giggling slightly at that. "Garnet! This is serious!" She said. Using all of her willpower to stop herself from laughing. But then blushed at Azami's gaze of amusement and frowned deeper. Refocusing herself. "Why are you here Azami?"

"You will address her with respect Dog! She is lady Azami of house Nekotan, Head Nekomata of the Japan Region!" Shouted the little Nekomata.

"You haven't changed a bit cousin Uyami." Masami muttered under her breath. The one called Uyami gritted her catlike teeth. "So your lady has been promoted then?"

Azami shrugged. "What can I say? I'm ambitious. A trait I'm glad to see you've picked up in recent years." She spoke, then lazily turned her head to Garnet. "Family fued would be right, yes. Though this is a tad more complicated than just a series of grudges." She snuck a quick gaze at Masami. "Perhaps you should ask her why a group of Nekomata call her kin. But then I wouldn't expect a human to understand any of this, much less care about anything other than yourselves." She said these words casually, but there was venom behind them.

"Stop stalling! Why are you here? Why did you send those undead after us?"

Azami smiled wider. "I didn't send them to fight you." She spoke. "In fact, I had nothing to do with them at all." She sighed. "As for why I'm here... hm. I suppose I thought I'd lay a trap for the person who's been hunting me for so long. Though when I saw the Goryo I was quite surprised. Though I was impressed that you managed to kill a Gashadokuro. Even with a human's assistance..."

"But I think I've dealt with just about enough of your pursuit. Your attempts to challenge me have gone from pathetic to insulting. And I do not tolerate insults." She spoke, her expression going dark. "Kill them." She spoke to the black clad cats. She turned to notice the other Kitsune, suddenly smiling. "And him too. Can't have anyone reporting back to Kitsune elders..." She spoke. Suddenly the number of ninjas doubled. And the two other Nekomata who were with Azami stepped forward, ready to attack. A third of the ninjas attacked Masami, a third went for Garnet and a third attacked the new Kitunse. The two other Nekomata were about to attack when something held them. Azami smirked at them.

"No need to dirty your hands with weak opponents just yet. Let the Bakeneko do their jobs."

And they did. They were all trained assasins, three of them even being a level above the rest, denoted by a different coloured belt and tail. All of them had the equivelent strength of a one tail Kitsune, while the three elites were equivilent in strength to Masami.

Masami knew this already, and slammed her hand down, suddenly sending up a plume of foxfire which would imolate three of the lesser Neko and horribly burn three others, leaving the elite to challenge her. "get rid of the grunts first, or we'll be overwhelmed!" She spoke, suddenly having to parry a strike from the elite Neko.

[Pyrade]

Taro
Taro listened quietly to Azami and Masami's exchange, glad that he had avoided detection so far.
Family feuds, it would appear that some thing's will always exist when emotions and greed are involved.
He reminded himself of the family conflicts he had witnessed over a millennium ago. The lineage of leaders that had been tainted by a lust for power. He dismissed the idle reminiscing rapidly, there was no time for such wasteful concentration. The exchange of words had drawn to a close, leading to combat, and Taro had lost his concealment. He growled savagely as his hackles rose in response to the oncoming bakeneko.
The blade Kiba-Tsume practically flew from the holster in Taro's enraged grip, immediately swinging out at the nearest Bakeneko that attacked Taro.
"Just had to be cats."
He muttered as his claws followed the slice of his sword, digging into the Bakeneko as he stepped in closer, flinging the cat into another one. Two of his large black tails began to radiate shadows. His jaws opened and released scorching black flames onto the pair of downed bakeneko. He turned away from the pair covered in all-consuming flames only to be forced to block a strike from another bakeneko which was soon joined by another. Taro grimaced under the onslaught of blows that came hard and fast. For a while all he could do was deflect as many blows as he could, focusing on those targeting his more vital areas and simply weathering the other strikes and slashes, knowing his tough hide and thick fur would lessen the damage if not protecting him entirely. There were more Bakeneko approaching though, and they would surround him if he didn't make a plan soon. He jumped backwards from his two assailants, sweeping his blade in a semi-circle as he rounded on the approaching Bakeneko, driving them back slightly, creating the space he needed for his plan. He leapt with his powerful hind legs onto the wall and dashed a short distance on the vertical plane until he was out of the circle of entrapping bakeneko. With a savage grin he raised his left hand. Shadows filled his eyes and his hand radiated shadows similar to two of his tails. One of the Bakeneko's shadows reached out with its shadowy hands and dragged the cat-ninja to the floor while further shadows wrapped around her throat, crushing her larynx before slipping back to the normal shadow. Another ninja's shadow erupted in a sea of shadowy tendrils that lashed out at nearby bakeneko, leaving stinging lacerations or ensnaring the ninja and dragging them towards the shadow which now resembled something out of a nightmare. Taro laughed wickedly and reached out his swordarm. Causing his own shadow to extend, the shadow's claws wrapping around a bakeneko and yanking it towards him and impaling it upon his sword.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

---

The solemnity of the expression that Hadrimmelis wore on her face died down quickly after she had heard Aru's inquiry. Instead, it was replaced by something akin to sadness, as though the information requested had made the scarlet dragon think of something terrible, something that was buried in the past. It was not the despair of having to face such a dreadful war once again, no, nor was it the pain of the losses caused by the fearsome Time Demons, which included many of her dear siblings. No, it was something else. Something that seemed to bring her not only sadness, but also, strangely, shame. The scarlet-clad avatar took a step back, and then looked at her younger sister after she reinforced Aru's request for information, likely showing the younger World-Dragon the distress written all over her face. Yamirakkelis had been created by the Dragon Force to replace one of the five dragons that fell before the assault of the Time Demons, after all; as such, she had not been alive during the war or the aftermath, and was not privy to the myriad safety protocols and countermeasures that had been put in place to prevent Ku from escaping his prison in the Dragon Force Dimension, much less the one stratagem she herself had cooked in order to stop the demon's rampage should he ever break free; a stratagem that had evidently failed, she noted with dismay. She wondered what her sister would think of her when she heard the story she was being forced to tell... but then, she realized sourly, she had no choice. To refuse to tell would imply to risk losing potential support, and that was not something she could afford at the moment.

With a sigh, she nodded, and sat down on the shattered earth, taking a moment to collect her thoughts.

"Very well." She said with an air of defeat. "I will tell you."

The World-Dragon had briefly considered just pouring the information into the heads of Aru and Yamira with her psionic powers in order to save some time and go after the Time Demon already, but in the end, she considered that such a course of action could be potentially adverse, filling the alien's mind with too much information to be processed all at once. At the same time, she could only hope that by telling the tale, her actions and the actions of her siblings would be better understood, and thus, not condemned as she feared they would be.

"First things first. Since you don't seem to recognize that creature, I will tell you of his kind, and of the Time Demon War." The dragon began. "It happened aeons ago, long before this solar system was made. Long, long before. Three creatures from beyond the veil of existence invaded this universe, bringing havoc everywhere; these monsters, we dubbed 'Time Demons'. In truth, they are not of a race called the 'Time Demons', and we know very little about their kind, if there are any beyond the three that I mention to begin with, but these three appeared to assimilate the concept of 'time' in order to manifest within our universe, and used it to raise chaos everywhere. We, the World-Dragons, were called to arms in order to halt this invasion, and so, we awakened from our slumber and waged war against these Time Demons alongside our armies. We were not alone in our struggle, for there were allies we were able to call upon: there were the Vokornians, the race that Ashyandra here belongs to," At this point Hadrimmelis paused for just a moment in order to gesture towards Ashyandra. "and there were others, such as one creature, a... Rainborn, I believe. They helped us, and of course, there were all of the creatures born from our power. However, even then, the war was brutal, and though we were able to win in the end, the universe was left in a state of devastation. In total, five of us were lost in the struggle, along with countless armies and worlds." Here, Hadrimmelis made a longer pause, not because she needed to breathe as such things were alien to an avatar, but rather because she was well aware of the magnitude of the tale she was telling, and wished to allow Aru some time to digest everything before continuing.

"Of these Time Demons, the strongest was Ku, the creature you saw being born from Gilbert's body. He was leagues above his own brethren in terms of might, with immeasurable power at his command. While the two other Time Demons were able to fend off armies on their own, it was by the hand of Ku that five of my brothers and sisters died during the war. And while the other Time Demons we were able to slay, Ku was so powerful that he evaded death, even when all of our efforts were concentrated on him alone. We did not seem to be able to kill him, no matter how hard we tried, but we did manage to weaken him, and at that point, we took a decision. Knowing that we could not fight him forever, or leave him to his own devices, we decided to seal him. A special prison was made in our home, and the surviving Time Demon was brought to this prison and sealed there in order to prevent him from bringing ruin to the universe once more. And then, the seven remaining World-Dragons, myself included, held a meeting to decide what else was to be done." She stated.

"Many things were discussed then. A myriad of safety measures were put in place, to ensure that the Time Demon would never break free from its bonds and remain locked up, with no chance of escape. But despite these measures, even the most idealistic among us knew that 'never' was a long time, and so, they sought other solutions. Methods to kill him. Rituals through which they could suppress their power. None of it worked, as you can tell, but that is not the point. The point is that I..." At that point, Hadrimmelis trailed off, taking her gaze off of her interlocutors and pointing it to the side, that expression of sadness and shame returning. "I came up with something that was, in theory, more effective... and more sinister." She admitted at last. "After the devastation of the Time Demon War, we were scared of the idea of having to face such a conflict once again, and the lengths we were willing to reach to prevent such a thing from happening were quite great. I am not proud to admit it, but it is the truth." She said.

"So I concocted a plan. We would create a weapon to fight the Time Demon if it ever broke free, tailored specifically to annihilate him. However, as we knew of no power capable of truly vanquishing Ku, we settled for exploiting a power as strong as his. That is to say, we opted to harness the power of the Time Demon himself in order to fight against him. As you can likely guess, this was far easier said than done, and our experiments on the matter were unsuccessful at first, but I did not give up on the pursuit of this miracle weapon, and eventually, I was able to make a breakthrough, one that to this day still haunts me." She paused for a moment, this time for seemingly no reason other than to consider her words carefully. "We needed a child." She said at last. "We needed a child to be a vessel for the power of the Time Demon, for children are by far the most malleable creatures. We needed to perform a complex ritual with this child in order to prepare him to house the power of the Time Demon so that he would be able to stand up to him when the time was right." Another pause. "As I said, we were willing to do anything to prevent the Time Demon from causing such widespread destruction again, and so, I constantly told myself that everything I did was to protect the universe. To protect the universe, I took a child from among the creatures I myself had created. To protect the universe, I ripped off his eye, I tethered his soul to our essence, and to the prison in which the demon was held. To protect the universe, I mutated his body, and I robbed him of his life." She said, as though the action even now caused her much regret, despite the justification she had for it.

"We did not know when the Time Demon would awaken, but we had to be prepared for it, and so, we sealed away the child, placing him in stasis. As I had created the weapon, I was in charge of it, and it was up to me to make sure he would be ready to fight. We made him older so that he would be able to carry out his duty, and as he was a living weapon, we knew that we would have to bestow upon him the will to fight. Thus, every so often, I would craft false memories to generate within him the will to fight, to be implanted when the weapon manifested, which was to happen only when the Time Demon broke free. With the passing of time, I kept changing the location of the weapon to places where I believed he would be able to enjoy his time after awakening, before he was called to fight against Ku, as a reward of sorts for everything that I did. And eventually, this behavior, coupled with the unmistakable signals that the Time Demon was slowly breaking free of his chains, led me to place the weapon in stasis here, on Earth." She said, before looking meaningfully at the Rantu woman. "My older brother and elder of the World-Dragons, Kazayannú, named the vessel Addraku, 'Demon Slayer', but me, I felt that he needed a different name. A more human name. And so, I decided to give him the name Gilbert, and I gave him memories that would lead him to love and defend this planet, despite understanding the darkness within." She stated, now averting her gaze from Aru, looking at the ground.

"Aru'va Kell, that man you met, he was called Gilbert Graham, and he was the child, the weapon, the vessel. Addraku, the Demon Slayer." She continued. "He was destined to be the host to a part of the Time Demon's consciousness when he inevitably found a crack in its prison and escaped through it, drawn towards the one person whose soul was tethered to the dimension where said prison belonged. He was destined to bear Ku and siphon his power as the Time Demon attempted to gather strength to fully escape. He was destined to use the Time Demon's own power against him and destroy him, ridding the universe of such a massive threat." She explained. "But... something went wrong. The Time Demon became too strong, too soon, and I believe Gilbert was unable to adapt, and was torn apart by the power, instead of absorbing it and using it against him. Everything that we did, everything that I did, it seems it was for naught." The World-Dragon concluded her tale, heaving a tired sigh before standing up.

"I killed a child in vain, and now, we have to fight the one creature that we dragons fear, or see the universe be destroyed."

[Finland SSR]

Itaku

Deja Vu

---

The entire Nihil Novi team, about thirty of Hera's most vicious an powerful warriors, flew up to the sky and stood in an orderly line, turned into the presumed position of the attacking forces and waited. I was between them, one of the shorter fighters of the group, and still in my Full Power form. After about half a minute, the first enemies showed up across the horizon. They came from all directions in a really wide flank. I prepared for battle, and so did everyone around me.

"Soldiers! Full Power!" With Shaytan's command, every single one of the team members started powering up, shouting and, much like I did before, transformed into their goliath forms with a blast. I don't think I've ever seen this many people in the Super Heran form at once - it's supposed to be a really rare transformation. And even then, we didn't get to fight in our full power that often - we were just that strong. The space between and around us was completely green,and filled with powerful auras. So did mine. I felt like I'm not alone - like I'm a part of a united body. Like a member of a group, rather than an individual. An interesting feeling.

Meanwhile, the Celestial Androids stopped in their tracks. Something was happening over there. Maybe they're afraid- wait, there's people flying out of their ranks right towards us! Around a hundred or something... and they're fast! I should get ready to- WHACK! One of them already hit me! A strong blow right at my nose. He was about to continue with a kick to neck, but I quickly intercepted it with my elbow. Not so fast, tin-head!

The fight was off to a rough start, but I didn't lose focus and went on a counter-attack with a barrage of punches. He started blocking them by crossing his arms. Oh, that's just great. I made him drop his guard with a strategic strike to his abdomen, then blasted him as hard as possible with an energy blast. That's when I noticed that this android, and all the other ones, were covered by the same aura that the first one had. It's some kind of strange... transformation... The Celestial Android took the blast and survived, albeit with damage, and sent a few strong punched at my chest. I responded with a kick to blow him away, then a few energy blasts to his direction.

Hehe. Got him. Now, to the next oppo- Wait, what is that-

AGH!

This... sword... thing... It came out of nowhere... and right through my left lung... The pain, oh the pain! Thank god the heart is untouched... My whole left side feels like burning, withering away... I tried touching the wound, but it was burning hot... I didn't even feel that I already de-transformed from the damage. Just coughed up some blood and fell on my knees, holding onto my left side. At least I can breathe for a while...

The android walked up to me, picked up his weapon that fell on the ground after piercing through me, and already moved it back, ready to slice through what's left of me. I didn't close my eys. I want to see whahappens. If I close my eyes, I might miss through Heaven. I waited for the strike. Ah, the wound's pain burns...

Then, suddenly, a blizzard of energy shards pulverized through the Android. Where it came from, who did it - it saved me, I don't care. The thousands of shards punched through the robot's body like bullets, and when it ended, an another Celestial Android arrived. This one was much different, and I could still that even though I was on the verge of passing out. He definitely looked like a male, and was also using that strange Celestial transformation, but his clothing aas different. As in, he actually had clothing. A green Earthling gi, reminiscent of the one I use in training, black belt, white spiky hair and two weird black spike things on his cheeks.

What an odd combination. Meanwhile, he was speaking.

"Your friends are calling for you." I did hear some voices behind my back, but it was all getting blurry, I was falling on my back already. "Hey! Do you hear me-

...

[Lavan Tiri]

Aaron grinned. Even in the face of a death so certain it was as if a great, cosmic being or two had ordained it, Vannis was brave. Aaron had killed before, just a couple times, but neither of those men had stared death in the face and spat in her eye.

He respected Vannis, killer to killer.

And then some stupid girl went and started talking. Aaron ignored her.

"Well, Kyle, I've some words for you too."

Aaron's eyes glowed brighter.

"Goodbye, motherfucker."

The smell of sizzling flesh and the sound of screaming invaded the street below.

---

Sonja Delacroix pulled up in her dark Lamborghini, parking on the curb near one of the dark vans. Several large, heavily armed men climbed out of the car with her.

"Round up whoever's still alive, and let the police know that Vannis won't be a problem anymore.", she barked, and the men nodded, spreading out to comb the area for survivors.

Sonja herself walked over to the group of people on the street. One man, holding two cleavers, was talking to himself. Weird. Still, no reason to be rude. Sonja strode over, extending her hand for a shake. "Why, hello. Busy night, isn't it?"

Something heavy thumped onto the sidewalk, with a wet squish sound as well.

Lazarus looks to his left to see a well dressed woman barking orders. While he was pleased with Vannis' cruel fate, he also agreed with the Batgirl's sentiments. Killing Vannis out in the open like that would only lead to frenzied henchmen sacking Gotham. As unnatural as it was, he agreed with the Bat for once. Lazarus sheathed one of his cleavers as he shook the woman's hand. He was still holding onto his other blade, however; not fully knowing the lady's intentions. "Who are you, and who is this man who killed Vannis?" asked Lazarus.

Sonja firmly shook the young man's hand, smiling slightly.

"Who am I? Surely you recognize me, Sonja Delacroix, CEO of Knightstone Corporations, criminal genius? Have I really stayed that far out of the public eye?" she said, half talking to herself. After a moment to compose herself Sonja continued, "I'm Sonja Delacroix, like I said, and the young man who fried Vannis is my head of Security, Ironheart." As she said that, Aaron-who was wearing his grey and black costume-swooped down to hover next to Sonja. "He's dead, Miss."

Sonja smiled, a quick, predatory grin. "Good. And his men?"

"Carl and his guys are helping the GCPD round 'em up."

"Very good, very good. Let's head back to the tower, it's easier to coordinate from there." Sonja said, walking back over to her car.

[New Rob Halfordia]

As the two attacks slammed into Okarot, he was shrouded by the ensuing explosion, an explosion which only shortened the already doomed planet's lifespan. But, as the smoke cleared, it became quickly apparent that Okarot was not going to be taken down so easily. Despite his armor being torn up and damaged, he was still well intact. The Saiyan smiled at his android adversary, "So, you think you can defeat a pure blooded Saiyan?", he said, with a laugh, "You're simply scrap metal that needs to be melted down and destroyed. And, I've got an attack that will do just the trick."

Suddenly, Okarot stuck out his hands, connecting the bottoms of his palms, as a small bright orange ball of energy appeared in his hands. It began to grow larger, it's energy increasing exponentially, and causing the planet to shake even more than it did when the transformation occurred. In a matter of nearly no time, the attack had gained enough energy to match or even surpass a supernova. Every fiber of Okarot's being focused on maintaining his energy, and not letting it destroy him, causing incredible strain.

Okarot all of a sudden yelled out at the top of his lungs, "HYPERNOVA CANNON!", and an immense beam fired from his hands, over half a kilometer tall and wide. The beam could easily wipe out most of the solar system if concentrated into explosive energy, but, it was not an explosive attack. This attack was meant to simply vaporize everything it came across.

Paras stood in his combat stance, ready to face whatever challenge Okarot decided to throw his way. Despite the minimal success and valiant loss of his arm, Paras still felt the need to either turn the battle in his favor or end it as quickly as possible. He crouched lower as Okarot formed another attack, but widened his eyes as the readings of power flooded his sensory nodes. Like a loaded spring, Paras shot out to the side as the Hypernova Cannon fired, knowing the Saiyan wouldn't see beyond the blast for some time - just enough to form a plan.

"Upgrade." He said, the sound of it driven out by the roar of the attack - the very heat sucking away whatever atmosphere remained on the planet in a massive, kilometer-wide hole as the surrounding landscape warped and melted from the energy output. Paras understood his parameters and limits, but his opponents were far different from what he was programmed to do. He had to rely on his own biological experience and power in addition to his machinery, upgrading himself once more. "Upgrade!" He glanced down, locking eyes with his arm's nub, and found a set of wires and parts shooting out from it and forming a rudimentary, makeshift skeletal hand, wires wrapping themselves around it until it resembled an actual component of his body. A few more seconds, and it was like his hand was never destroyed - down to it's original powers and abilities.

As the dust kicked up by the Hypernova Cannon began to settle, Paras activated one of his major attack protocols, his arm transforming into a cannon and glowing brightly, his eyes shining the same color, and blasting an impossibly fast spiral of concentrated ki at Okarot's body - but it was merely a distraction. Paras was faster than his attack, and managed to blitz on ahead of it and slam into Okarot's body, sending both the pure blood and the cyborg Saiyans into the rock wall behind them - Paras raining down fists the entire time - each one landing with intense impact and force - breaking Paras' other hand and reforming it, only to be smashed instantly apart once more.

As the punches struck Okarot, the toll of the Super Saiyan 3 transformation began to take a noticeable toll on his body, making it difficult to escape the barrage of punches. With his base power being so high, an unnatural and highly unstable level of energy was travelling through his body. Okarot had to end the fight before things got too out of hand, or this cyborg, despite being lesser in power, would be able to break him like glass. Not only that, but the atmosphere of the planet was nearly entirely gone, and soon, nothing would stand between them, and the vacuum of space. It was time to use one of the more unorthodox techniques Okarot had learned while training in the time chambers.

As Paras prepared to throw another punch with what used to resemble a fist, Okarot recoiled his head backwards, a massive amount of energy building up in his lungs. Suddenly, he belted out an enormous scream, generating massive amounts of wind like force through sound alone. The power from this scream would blow Paras away from the cliff side, but, this was not the main goal of the attack, as it's true purpose became apparent quickly. Behind the cyborg, the scream seemingly opened up a pure white portal, a tear in the fabric of reality that led to an entirely different dimension.

But, the scream alone wouldn't push Paras in, and Okarot knew that. Putting his feet against the rock wall behind him, he launched himself towards the cyborg, tackling him through the portal just before it disappeared. As the two landed on the rocky, desert like ground, Okarot lost his grip on the cyborg, and continued to roll several meters past him. But, the Saiyan chuckled as he climbed to his feet. What surrounded he and Paras was an plateau filled wasteland with a solid white sky, seemingly endless in it's vastness. The air was thin, and the the temperature somewhat cool compared to the planet they were just on, around 70°F. The gravity was heavy, nearly 50x that of Earth's. They had landed in one of the many time chambers which Okarot trained in.

"Incredible, isn't it?", he asked, his aura flaring around him, "In this dimension, we won't have any fragile planet holding us back. This place is endless, and can never be fully destroyed. A true playground of destruction. I can come at you with my all now."

The Saiyan's body suddenly broke down into small multicolored squares, which disappeared quickly after breaking down. It was no time at all before he completely disappeared. He attacked not from the back or the front, but from the left side of the cyborg, as his arm materialized before the rest of his body, throwing a punch at Paras powerful enough to phyically destroy an object with the mass of a red hypergiant.

[The Silhouette of Adventure]

Lazarus looks to his left to see a well dressed woman barking orders. While he was pleased with Vannis' cruel fate, he also agreed with the Batgirl's sentiments. Killing Vannis out in the open like that would only lead to frenzied henchmen sacking Gotham. As unnatural as it was, he agreed with the Bat for once. Lazarus sheathed one of his cleavers as he shook the woman's hand. He was still holding onto his other blade, however; not fully knowing the lady's intentions. "Who are you, and who is this man who killed Vannis?" asked Lazarus.

Sonja smiled, a quick, predatory grin. "Good. And his men?"

"Carl and his guys are helping the GCPD round 'em up."

"Very good, very good. Let's head back to the tower, it's easier to coordinate from there." Sonja said, walking back over to her car.

"The GCPD?" John, the runner, laughed. "They're in shambles. The GCD took back the entire North Gotham, while the GCPD remnants just did damage control. Miss Delacroix, if you want to see Vannis' men at Blackgate, I'd say you should turn them over to the GCD's Commissioner. He's organizing a ferry there for our prisoners as we speak. For that matter..." He trailed off, taking out his radio.
"Boxer, you there?"
"I'm here. It's about damn time you called in- Is Vannis still alive?"
"Third party took him out. Knightstone Corporation and their private Mask, Ironheart. Repeat, Vannis is dead."
"Thank God. Reclaimer finished taking back Vannis territories, and the ferry to Blackgate is already being set up. Let the Bat know that whenever she's anywhere in North Gotham, the GCD will be ready to support her. As for Knightstone, find out what they're doing in Gotham. Last time a benevolent company funneled money into the city, it was LexCorp- And we all know how that went."
John put down his radio and looked up at Sonja, knowing she heard that last part.

[Charmera]

August Carter/Ranger-13 Yrs-Devil's Den

So, I can go with her? Thats awesome. I tried to contain my excitement as I looked around nervously, not even sure if I am allowed to be here now that I look like a kid. But then a couple of her responses struck me, and my eyebrows dropped slightly at the mention of her protecting me. "I dont need your protection, I am going to protect you after all! I mean, all celebrities have to have super cool body guards. And I accept the job. We can talk about payment later. I like strawberry milk, and video games." I then stopped myself. Realizing how childish I was sounding right now.

So uncool.

It was then that I thought about the other thing she said. I may not like some things she does? I dont get it. Why would I not like what she does? She makes an awesome show. It was then that a girl who seemed to match the description walked into the club, I noticed rather quickly. Dad always taught me to be aware of my surroundings. Thats hard to do sometimes though, but someone Alissa needs to find? I tend to keep an eye out.

I then obliviously pointed the person out in the crowd to Alissa.

"Hey Chorus, that lady seems to resemble the one you are looking for...is that her?"

I never really had a body guard. Never really needed one.

She wrote, before suddenly his voice was heard and Chorus frowed, turning to the red haired Janice. She recognised the woman. She was one of the four she had seen. Chorus got up.

"Chorus... fancy meeting you here." Spoke the woman in a rough british accent. Her pink hoodie clashing with the other parts of her bad arse persona that was evident in everything else she did. It was weird. When Chorus heard Jack describing it, she had almost not believed it. "Don't bother responding. I know why you're here. Though I didn't expect to find you."

She sighed. " I suppose you'll be wanting your voice back too." She spoke. She also got up, walking towards August and Allisa. "How about we take this outside? This bar is suppose to have state of the art systems to block our powers. Not exactly a fair fight if you don't do that."

"Or does a pretty pop princess like you need to cheat to win?"

[New Rnclave]

Hiroshi:

Committed.

That was what he was right now. When he'd stood on the remains of a broken building, staring into this monsters eyes as he chuckled and grinned at the destruction he'd wrought, Hiroshi knew he'd taken the right action. It wouldn't let him get away and he didn't want too. There was no running from fate, for him or Broly. Even if Broly was a million times stronger then him, he wouldn't run, because even if he lost, Broly would never forget this day. The key to winning was fighting in a way the monster didn't expect.

" Honor in fighting? No. There's honor in winning.

As soon as he moved in for the attck, Hiroshi knew his targets. The nose, eyes and groin, would be his primary target until he could bleed some energy off this titan.

Pressing into his enemy all the same, Hiroshi threw his boot out, aiming directly for the groin. With a startled growl, Broly lifted his knee to block. When the two strikes connected, a massive shock wave burst out, store fronts shattering as the wave washed over the burning city. Screams of terror and the cries of metal warping and breaking filled the air as the Earth rumbled around them. Above them, tons of glass, metal and concrete rained down, impacting the city streets.

Despite the nauseatingly loud noise bombarding them from all sides, Hiroshi could clearly hear Broly speak, a sneer written across his features.

" You think you can cheat to beat m-" Hiroshi had no interest in letting Broly finish, throwing his other fist forward as the exposed side of Broly's neck.

Catching the fist out of the air, Broly's face warped into a furious scowl, even more angry that he was interrupted.

Immediately, bones in his left hand began to grind together, the change noticeable in his facial expression as he tensed and grit his teeth in discomfort. Finally, his left arm began to tremble, muscles in his forearm pulling forward as they popped and over extended. Clouds of debris floated around them as Hiroshi locked eyes with Broly, steeling his gaze he reared his head back.

" I wasn't done." The Beast roared. "I-"

Hiroshi responded not with words or a another attempted strike, but instead by spitting in the face of his enemy. With no arms free, Broly had no hope of blocking the wad of saliva and mucus.

What escaped Broly was nothing short of a cry of pure, unhindered fury. It was an overly violent response. His left arm was painfully ripped form it's socket a moment later, before Broly pulled back, lifting Hiroshi into the air above his head. Looking down at the monster, Hiroshi flung himself down, both legs impacting Broly's face and sending him reeling backwards, the force of the attack enough to free his arms. Flipping away, Hiroshi landed in a crouch, snarling in pain as he popped his arm back into place. Sadly, he'd developed a good practice for it.

Before he could manage a proper defense, the Giant appeared out of nowhere to his side, a huge fist sailing towards him. Raising his arms in a X before him, Hiroshi winced as green energy burst in the air around him, the proximity burning his forearms.

Finally, it connected. Vibrations racked his frame as he felt himself almost come apart. The ground around them burned away and fissured in every direction. What had once been a highway, turned into vapor as he sailed away. Dozens of meters of asphalt simply disappeared in a startling display of force. Buildings on the edge of the roads simply vanished and the concrete all around them caught fire. Hiroshi's arms didn't just sting, they burned. The air around him burst into flames as his frame seemingly followed suit. When his body hit the first building, he simply tumbled through floor after floor.

The green and black Dogi Korin made for him tore and ripped in several places as he went through the building. And that was the first one.

[Charmera]

---

The solemnity of the expression that Hadrimmelis wore on her face died down quickly after she had heard Aru's inquiry. Instead, it was replaced by something akin to sadness, as though the information requested had made the scarlet dragon think of something terrible, something that was buried in the past. It was not the despair of having to face such a dreadful war once again, no, nor was it the pain of the losses caused by the fearsome Time Demons, which included many of her dear siblings. No, it was something else. Something that seemed to bring her not only sadness, but also, strangely, shame. The scarlet-clad avatar took a step back, and then looked at her younger sister after she reinforced Aru's request for information, likely showing the younger World-Dragon the distress written all over her face. Yamirakkelis had been created by the Dragon Force to replace one of the five dragons that fell before the assault of the Time Demons, after all; as such, she had not been alive during the war or the aftermath, and was not privy to the myriad safety protocols and countermeasures that had been put in place to prevent Ku from escaping his prison in the Dragon Force Dimension, much less the one stratagem she herself had cooked in order to stop the demon's rampage should he ever break free; a stratagem that had evidently failed, she noted with dismay. She wondered what her sister would think of her when she heard the story she was being forced to tell... but then, she realized sourly, she had no choice. To refuse to tell would imply to risk losing potential support, and that was not something she could afford at the moment.

With a sigh, she nodded, and sat down on the shattered earth, taking a moment to collect her thoughts.

"Very well." She said with an air of defeat. "I will tell you."

The World-Dragon had briefly considered just pouring the information into the heads of Aru and Yamira with her psionic powers in order to save some time and go after the Time Demon already, but in the end, she considered that such a course of action could be potentially adverse, filling the alien's mind with too much information to be processed all at once. At the same time, she could only hope that by telling the tale, her actions and the actions of her siblings would be better understood, and thus, not condemned as she feared they would be.

"First things first. Since you don't seem to recognize that creature, I will tell you of his kind, and of the Time Demon War." The dragon began. "It happened aeons ago, long before this solar system was made. Long, long before. Three creatures from beyond the veil of existence invaded this universe, bringing havoc everywhere; these monsters, we dubbed 'Time Demons'. In truth, they are not of a race called the 'Time Demons', and we know very little about their kind, if there are any beyond the three that I mention to begin with, but these three appeared to assimilate the concept of 'time' in order to manifest within our universe, and used it to raise chaos everywhere. We, the World-Dragons, were called to arms in order to halt this invasion, and so, we awakened from our slumber and waged war against these Time Demons alongside our armies. We were not alone in our struggle, for there were allies we were able to call upon: there were the Vokornians, the race that Ashyandra here belongs to," At this point Hadrimmelis paused for just a moment in order to gesture towards Ashyandra. "and there were others, such as one creature, a... Rainborn, I believe. They helped us, and of course, there were all of the creatures born from our power. However, even then, the war was brutal, and though we were able to win in the end, the universe was left in a state of devastation. In total, five of us were lost in the struggle, along with countless armies and worlds." Here, Hadrimmelis made a longer pause, not because she needed to breathe as such things were alien to an avatar, but rather because she was well aware of the magnitude of the tale she was telling, and wished to allow Aru some time to digest everything before continuing.

"Of these Time Demons, the strongest was Ku, the creature you saw being born from Gilbert's body. He was leagues above his own brethren in terms of might, with immeasurable power at his command. While the two other Time Demons were able to fend off armies on their own, it was by the hand of Ku that five of my brothers and sisters died during the war. And while the other Time Demons we were able to slay, Ku was so powerful that he evaded death, even when all of our efforts were concentrated on him alone. We did not seem to be able to kill him, no matter how hard we tried, but we did manage to weaken him, and at that point, we took a decision. Knowing that we could not fight him forever, or leave him to his own devices, we decided to seal him. A special prison was made in our home, and the surviving Time Demon was brought to this prison and sealed there in order to prevent him from bringing ruin to the universe once more. And then, the seven remaining World-Dragons, myself included, held a meeting to decide what else was to be done." She stated.

"Many things were discussed then. A myriad of safety measures were put in place, to ensure that the Time Demon would never break free from its bonds and remain locked up, with no chance of escape. But despite these measures, even the most idealistic among us knew that 'never' was a long time, and so, they sought other solutions. Methods to kill him. Rituals through which they could suppress their power. None of it worked, as you can tell, but that is not the point. The point is that I..." At that point, Hadrimmelis trailed off, taking her gaze off of her interlocutors and pointing it to the side, that expression of sadness and shame returning. "I came up with something that was, in theory, more effective... and more sinister." She admitted at last. "After the devastation of the Time Demon War, we were scared of the idea of having to face such a conflict once again, and the lengths we were willing to reach to prevent such a thing from happening were quite great. I am not proud to admit it, but it is the truth." She said.

"So I concocted a plan. We would create a weapon to fight the Time Demon if it ever broke free, tailored specifically to annihilate him. However, as we knew of no power capable of truly vanquishing Ku, we settled for exploiting a power as strong as his. That is to say, we opted to harness the power of the Time Demon himself in order to fight against him. As you can likely guess, this was far easier said than done, and our experiments on the matter were unsuccessful at first, but I did not give up on the pursuit of this miracle weapon, and eventually, I was able to make a breakthrough, one that to this day still haunts me." She paused for a moment, this time for seemingly no reason other than to consider her words carefully. "We needed a child." She said at last. "We needed a child to be a vessel for the power of the Time Demon, for children are by far the most malleable creatures. We needed to perform a complex ritual with this child in order to prepare him to house the power of the Time Demon so that he would be able to stand up to him when the time was right." Another pause. "As I said, we were willing to do anything to prevent the Time Demon from causing such widespread destruction again, and so, I constantly told myself that everything I did was to protect the universe. To protect the universe, I took a child from among the creatures I myself had created. To protect the universe, I ripped off his eye, I tethered his soul to our essence, and to the prison in which the demon was held. To protect the universe, I mutated his body, and I robbed him of his life." She said, as though the action even now caused her much regret, despite the justification she had for it.

"We did not know when the Time Demon would awaken, but we had to be prepared for it, and so, we sealed away the child, placing him in stasis. As I had created the weapon, I was in charge of it, and it was up to me to make sure he would be ready to fight. We made him older so that he would be able to carry out his duty, and as he was a living weapon, we knew that we would have to bestow upon him the will to fight. Thus, every so often, I would craft false memories to generate within him the will to fight, to be implanted when the weapon manifested, which was to happen only when the Time Demon broke free. With the passing of time, I kept changing the location of the weapon to places where I believed he would be able to enjoy his time after awakening, before he was called to fight against Ku, as a reward of sorts for everything that I did. And eventually, this behavior, coupled with the unmistakable signals that the Time Demon was slowly breaking free of his chains, led me to place the weapon in stasis here, on Earth." She said, before looking meaningfully at the Rantu woman. "My older brother and elder of the World-Dragons, Kazayannú, named the vessel Addraku, 'Demon Slayer', but me, I felt that he needed a different name. A more human name. And so, I decided to give him the name Gilbert, and I gave him memories that would lead him to love and defend this planet, despite understanding the darkness within." She stated, now averting her gaze from Aru, looking at the ground.

"Aru'va Kell, that man you met, he was called Gilbert Graham, and he was the child, the weapon, the vessel. Addraku, the Demon Slayer." She continued. "He was destined to be the host to a part of the Time Demon's consciousness when he inevitably found a crack in its prison and escaped through it, drawn towards the one person whose soul was tethered to the dimension where said prison belonged. He was destined to bear Ku and siphon his power as the Time Demon attempted to gather strength to fully escape. He was destined to use the Time Demon's own power against him and destroy him, ridding the universe of such a massive threat." She explained. "But... something went wrong. The Time Demon became too strong, too soon, and I believe Gilbert was unable to adapt, and was torn apart by the power, instead of absorbing it and using it against him. Everything that we did, everything that I did, it seems it was for naught." The World-Dragon concluded her tale, heaving a tired sigh before standing up.

"I killed a child in vain, and now, we have to fight the one creature that we dragons fear, or see the universe be destroyed."

Aru frowned. So that was why he was so eager to defend earth against impossible odds. She thought back to Gilbert. He hadn't lied to her. He had merely lost control of his abilities, or more accurately he had lost control of the monster within. It was an unfortunate fate for such an individual. Even if he did resort to less than honorable combat. It was forgivable given the circumstances. A shame she would not be able to educate him on his error... Avenging him becoming more important to her.

"So that's what happened after the final battle." Remarked Ashy. She walked over and put a hand on Hadri's avatar. "You had the lives of many others in mind. You could not have predicted this." She spoke, ironic from someone who had precognative abilities, though to be fair they were being... overwhelmed, blocked even. "I have done far worse in the persuit for my body. Things I am not proud of. And that was in aid of... admittedly a much more selfish goal." Ash admitted.

Yami tried to process all of this. She frowned. She took off her glasses and rubbed her face. She couldn't have imagined this had been what had been kept from her. "You shouldn't have kept this from me." She said simply. "From us. Considering how the threat was connected to us." She sighed. "But that is not the problem now. It would not have changed the outcome. We need to stop this. We still have time if what you said about him being weaker is true." She spoke. She placed her glasses back on her eyes. She flashed a smile. "I... This might not be the best time. But I suppose I will get to know what it felt like for you during those times after all." Her smile faded. "It... is worse than I had imagined it would be."

[Lavan Tiri]

Sonja smiled, a quick, predatory grin. "Good. And his men?"

"Carl and his guys are helping the GCPD round 'em up."

"Very good, very good. Let's head back to the tower, it's easier to coordinate from there." Sonja said, walking back over to her car.

"The GCPD?" John, the runner, laughed. "They're in shambles. The GCD took back the entire North Gotham, while the GCPD remnants just did damage control. Miss Delacroix, if you want to see Vannis' men at Blackgate, I'd say you should turn them over to the GCD's Commissioner. He's organizing a ferry there for our prisoners as we speak. For that matter..." He trailed off, taking out his radio.
"Boxer, you there?"
"I'm here. It's about damn time you called in- Is Vannis still alive?"
"Third party took him out. Knightstone Corporation and their private Mask, Ironheart. Repeat, Vannis is dead."
"Thank God. Reclaimer finished taking back Vannis territories, and the ferry to Blackgate is already being set up. Let the Bat know that whenever she's anywhere in North Gotham, the GCD will be ready to support her. As for Knightstone, find out what they're doing in Gotham. Last time a benevolent company funneled money into the city, it was LexCorp- And we all know how that went."
John put down his radio and looked up at Sonja, knowing she heard that last part.

Sonja did, in fact, hear that last part. She frowned briefly, but turned her expression into a little, self-satisfied smile as it normally was.

"Well, sir, I don't know what you're worried about. Knightstone isn't anything like LexCorp. We simply provide security to those who pay for it, including the federal government." And ARGUS, she thought.

"Oh, that reminds me," Sonja said, remembering something, "I've a meeting in about…ooh, maybe half an hour. So if we could make this quick?", she said, making a little hurry up motion with her hand.

[Pygmalionia]

"The GCPD?" John, the runner, laughed. "They're in shambles. The GCD took back the entire North Gotham, while the GCPD remnants just did damage control. Miss Delacroix, if you want to see Vannis' men at Blackgate, I'd say you should turn them over to the GCD's Commissioner. He's organizing a ferry there for our prisoners as we speak. For that matter..." He trailed off, taking out his radio.
"Boxer, you there?"
"I'm here. It's about damn time you called in- Is Vannis still alive?"
"Third party took him out. Knightstone Corporation and their private Mask, Ironheart. Repeat, Vannis is dead."
"Thank God. Reclaimer finished taking back Vannis territories, and the ferry to Blackgate is already being set up. Let the Bat know that whenever she's anywhere in North Gotham, the GCD will be ready to support her. As for Knightstone, find out what they're doing in Gotham. Last time a benevolent company funneled money into the city, it was LexCorp- And we all know how that went."
John put down his radio and looked up at Sonja, knowing she heard that last part.

Sonja did, in fact, hear that last part. She frowned briefly, but turned her expression into a little, self-satisfied smile as it normally was.

"Well, sir, I don't know what you're worried about. Knightstone isn't anything like LexCorp. We simply provide security to those who pay for it, including the federal government." And ARGUS, she thought.

"Oh, that reminds me," Sonja said, remembering something, "I've a meeting in about…ooh, maybe half an hour. So if we could make this quick?", she said, making a little hurry up motion with her hand.

Lazarus breaks his silence as he suddenly barks with enthralled fanaticism. "I don't usually agree with the Bat, but she's right. Do you fools.." the Butcher unsheathes his other cleaver "not realize it's going to enrage more of his goons!?" says the masked man as he snaps, throwing one cleaver straight at Sonja and charging at the CEO and her Defender.

[The Silhouette of Adventure]

"The GCPD?" John, the runner, laughed. "They're in shambles. The GCD took back the entire North Gotham, while the GCPD remnants just did damage control. Miss Delacroix, if you want to see Vannis' men at Blackgate, I'd say you should turn them over to the GCD's Commissioner. He's organizing a ferry there for our prisoners as we speak. For that matter..." He trailed off, taking out his radio.
"Boxer, you there?"
"I'm here. It's about damn time you called in- Is Vannis still alive?"
"Third party took him out. Knightstone Corporation and their private Mask, Ironheart. Repeat, Vannis is dead."
"Thank God. Reclaimer finished taking back Vannis territories, and the ferry to Blackgate is already being set up. Let the Bat know that whenever she's anywhere in North Gotham, the GCD will be ready to support her. As for Knightstone, find out what they're doing in Gotham. Last time a benevolent company funneled money into the city, it was LexCorp- And we all know how that went."
John put down his radio and looked up at Sonja, knowing she heard that last part.

Sonja did, in fact, hear that last part. She frowned briefly, but turned her expression into a little, self-satisfied smile as it normally was.

"Well, sir, I don't know what you're worried about. Knightstone isn't anything like LexCorp. We simply provide security to those who pay for it, including the federal government." And ARGUS, she thought.

"Oh, that reminds me," Sonja said, remembering something, "I've a meeting in about…ooh, maybe half an hour. So if we could make this quick?", she said, making a little hurry up motion with her hand.

John shrugged. "Good enough for me. One last thing though- You said you were working with the GCPD remnants. Does that mean you're in contact with Gordon? The Commissioner's been trying to track him down, but we've had no luck."
Suddenly, Lazarus attacked the CEO. "Lazarus, calm the hell down- The GCD has the situation under control. Most of Vannis' men are already dead or in our custody." John exclaimed.

---

"This is Reclaimer, small group of Vannis' men barricaded themselves in the old Botanical Gardens. Those idiots are lucky Poison Ivy isn't in there. I'm pinned down outside, need a bit of-" A small explosion came through Boxer's radio, followed by the Reclaimer screaming bloody murder.
"Uh.. This is one of Reclaimer's men. Vannis' men have-" An explosion. "-nades. Repeat, the Vannis' men in the Gardens have grenades. We have to retreat, and we're pulling Reclaimer back with us. His.. Damn, his entire arm is gone, but it's already growing back."
Boxer stared for a moment at his radio. Just how powerful is that man's healing? "Try and cover his mouth, at least. I'll try and get Batgirl to come down to you, if not, I'll send the Commissioner's team, now that he's just dealing with the ferry."
"Aff-" An explosion. "-ve."

---

"...And now that we control all of North Gotham, we can finally get to you and ferry our prisoners to Blackgate." The Commissioner finished explaining what the GCD was and why it needed a ferry to the Harbormaster.
The Harbormaster sighed. This won't end well. "Fine. None of my employees are going on any of those ferries, though."
"That's fine."

[Lavan Tiri]

Sonja did, in fact, hear that last part. She frowned briefly, but turned her expression into a little, self-satisfied smile as it normally was.

"Well, sir, I don't know what you're worried about. Knightstone isn't anything like LexCorp. We simply provide security to those who pay for it, including the federal government." And ARGUS, she thought.

"Oh, that reminds me," Sonja said, remembering something, "I've a meeting in about…ooh, maybe half an hour. So if we could make this quick?", she said, making a little hurry up motion with her hand.

Lazarus breaks his silence as he suddenly barks with enthralled fanaticism. "I don't usually agree with the Bat, but she's right. Do you fools.." the Butcher unsheathes his other cleaver "not realize it's going to enrage more of his goons!?" says the masked man as he snaps, throwing one cleaver straight at Sonja and charging at the CEO and her Defender.

The cleaver stopped moving in midair, as Aaron's power over iron exerted itself. Meanwhile, the half-Kryptonian lashed out with his stump, the blow hurling Laz through a nearby window. Glass shattered, and the cleaver clattered to the ground. Sonja's smile vanished, replaced by a cold expressionlessness that had reduced grown men to tears. "Well then. Let's go, Ironheart. We've nothing more to do here." she hissed, whirling and striding back to the car. Aaron looked at John and shrugged, before getting in on the driver's side.

The drive back to Knightstone Tower was painfully awkward for Aaron, who simply sat there while Sonja ranted about how Laz had dared to try and hurt her, and how she would make him pay. Aaron just tuned it out.

Finally, after a painful half-hour of a drive, they arrived at Knightstone Tower. Aaron parked the car, and the two of them made their way into Sonja's private elevator, which rushed them to the top floor, blasting Flyleaf the whole way up.

But when they stepped out of the elevator, Sonja and Aaron were greeted with shock. For in the room, pouring herself some Scotch from the bar, was Sonja's appointment. She looked over at them and poured two more Scotches, before saying, "Ah. Miss Delacroix. I was wandering when you'd arrive, so I let myself up. I hope you don't mind."

Sonja took a moment to regain her composure, before replying "No, no I don't mind. Have a seat, will you?" she asked, gesturing at her desk. The visitor nodded before the two sat themselves on opposite sides of the desk.

"So, Sonja. Let's talk business." Amanda Waller said, draining her Scotch.

"Certainly. About the incident in Beijing…"

[Pygmalionia]

Lazarus breaks his silence as he suddenly barks with enthralled fanaticism. "I don't usually agree with the Bat, but she's right. Do you fools.." the Butcher unsheathes his other cleaver "not realize it's going to enrage more of his goons!?" says the masked man as he snaps, throwing one cleaver straight at Sonja and charging at the CEO and her Defender.

The cleaver stopped moving in midair, as Aaron's power over iron exerted itself. Meanwhile, the half-Kryptonian lashed out with his stump, the blow hurling Laz through a nearby window. Glass shattered, and the cleaver clattered to the ground. Sonja's smile vanished, replaced by a cold expressionlessness that had reduced grown men to tears. "Well then. Let's go, Ironheart. We've nothing more to do here." she hissed, whirling and striding back to the car. Aaron looked at John and shrugged, before getting in on the driver's side.

The drive back to Knightstone Tower was painfully awkward for Aaron, who simply sat there while Sonja ranted about how Laz had dared to try and hurt her, and how she would make him pay. Aaron just tuned it out.

Lazarus was out, he couldn't move; yet he was ecstatic in his own little world. He needed to get stronger. This would not stand. He began cackling in a very unsettling manner; mostly because a normal human wouldn't be able to do such a thing after getting hit by a Kryptonian. He didn't care, however. He felt his bruised gut burn in pain, he suspected a few broken bones. The scene kept replaying in his head. How useless he was, he thought; if he couldn't even take down someone who could just further the chaos. His body burnt with rage and pain.

Suddenly, a car quickly parked in front of the broken window. Two men in white masks walked over to Lazarus and cuffed his arms and legs. They dragged him into the back seat and drove off with such speed. Lazarus was confused, but he didn't really have anything in him to act.