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

[Tomia]

Serene heard Etla's questioning of her decision that they needed to enter the strange cave and wasn't surprised, after all it wasn't like she could hear the voice in Serene's head telling her to push forward. "I know it's weird it's just... I have a feeling this is right." Serene said before pushing on ahead. How was she supposed to explain that a voice in her head told her to go inside? The otherwise would think she had lost her mind. Darian raised an eyebrow but merely followed Serene, having gotten used to her being guided by Angel without actually understanding the decisions themselves.

As Serene headed inside she noticed a strange light coming from deep inside the tunnel, it was larger and wider than she had expected. Soon she came upon a large clearing in the cave and couldn't help but let out an audible gasp. The walls of the cave were covered with cryptic symbols that Serene didn't recognize and there were large book cases and tables filled with what seemed like ancient alchemy equipment all around.

Serene took a step passed the entranceway, only to see some of the symbols on the walls glow bright red and suddenly two golem like creatures appeared from the ground, welding hammers and shields molded from the Earth. "Die intruders!" They shouted as they charged the group.

[Finland SSR]

REQUIEM AETERNAM

Part 6: Quickie

---

With the battle won and the enemy forces retreating, our troops started collecting back together. Me and Lucien descended down from the skies and walked up to a gathering spot next to a small abandoned village. There were already a few hundred of us, most of them barely even scratched, only a bit tired. New arrivals were joining up from the entire battlefield. Military officers would call this a "decisive victory", as in, it turned the tides of the war. I could already hear a general rambling in the background about how we completely wrecked their positions and shattered their ranks, turning a massive enemy army corps into nothing short of mush. TV reporters were already coming out of nowhere and walking around, despite this still being a warzone. Other officers were using every single means of communication to inform the Capital of the event.

And, obviously, speak of how a highly-trained specialized superhuman military corps can easily turn the tides of a battle.

I finally sheathed the Heat Blade and sat down to take a rest, but soon I noticed an odd group of people mixed into the mass. They didn't wear our uniforms, but instead dawned the enemy's clothing. They might have been just enemies, but they were unarmed, chained up, but guarded by our soldiers. Are they civilians? I don't think so. After all, I don't think we'd chain our own people, right?

Throughout the time, Lucien stood right next to me, and I didn't even notice that until General Maiko started running up to us. I wonder, what's his deal? He's not an Earthling, that's for sure, but so far all sources tried to deny it. Unless something really, really weird happened to this race while I was gone on Hera.

"Prince Lucien!" the officer exclaimed as he stopped right in front of us. "Do not do that again! You're putting yourself in grave danger by joining our soldiers!"

"General Maiko, I see no danger in this fight."

"Do not overestimate yourself! You are too important to be in combat."

"But, Maiko, didn't you tell me to say that I will fight alongside the others in all those speeches?"

Clever move, Lucien. The general stopped arguing, just nodded with visible disappointment in his eyes, then turned to everyone here, gently tapped on his right cheek and spoke, as if having a microphone:

"Brothers and sisters! My comrades! I have to say, I was not disappointed by you all today! No, "not disappointed" is far too mild of a word for your performance! If I had to pick a word, it would be "delightfully shocked"! I watched you fight. You battled like your ancestors - like heroes, like titans. And the result is easily visible - we have crushed and pushed the enemy back! No more will the Westerners threaten our lands! In fact, this day is the day when the tide has finally turned - with this powerful of a blow, the attack on Vistula can now be leveled down - and with their forces shattered, the Enemy will not be able to defend his own territory from our brace forces - and they are what set this to stone! You all helped us win! All of your efforts accumulated into this victory!

When all of you return to your homes, back to your families, all you'll need to say is "I fought in Štutovo" and they will all speak "That's a true hero!". Report to your officers for your missions, and may the Emperor's guidance be with you."

Huh. Everyone cheered, raised their weapons and screamed "UŽ LIETUVĄ". What fervor, what bloodlust!

"Uh, excuse me," I asked the General while I had the chance. "What are those chained up people there for?"

"Oh, those are just the few captured Americans. Prisoners of war, you know?"

Prisoners of war? That's a thing? Maiko turned around and walked away, while I turned my head at Prince Lucien. He was looking at me, too, and as I looked at him, he muttered out:

"You know, I've been hearing odd voices lately. They offer me power for serving this "Babidi" figure. Have you noticed them?"

Creepy...

[Krytonus]

Empire State Building
New York
02:46

Marcus really hated having to work in New York. The city that never sleeps, the city that never gives him a fucking break. Still, pay was good, and Marcus never turned down a job.

Currently, he was perched near the top of the Empire State building. It was stupidly dramatic, but Marcus did like to show off. Even if nobody was there to see but him. He also knew the building well, so it was an easier teleport than just jumping randomly to somewhere close to the SHIELD building. Marcus stretched and stood to full height as he finished his cigarette, flicking the embers off the edge of the building. He glanced around at the city below him, trying to pinpoint whereabouts the SHIELD building even was. Was Marcus even facing West? He hoped so.

Ah, there it is.

The SHIELD headquarters were a shining sliver of silver in the skyline, almost bladelike in the way it cut into the night sky. Kind of ironic how the SHIELD headquarters looked like a sword. The building would be under high alert, as always, but at least it'd be mostly empty. Even the late nighters would be home by now, making Marcus's job that much simpler. He stepped forwards off the building but then the world spun and he was on another building directly across from SHIELD HQ. He peered up at the building towering above him, silently mouthing the number of the floors until he reached floor sixty-two. Biological Weapon Containment and Development. He narrowed his eyes and focused on what he could see through the window, trying to guess the location of the furniture. When he was satisfied, he teleported into the building, next to a water cooler. He poured himself a drink and moved on. He wandered through the hallway, ignoring office after office before he came to a large, heavily reinforced door marked "STORAGE". Lucky for Marcus, the door had a small window through which Marcus could see the perfect spot to teleport to. He jumped into the room and pulled on a hazmat suit, whistling to himself as he fitted the suit. He glanced at the post-it note he'd stuck inside his satchel: "BP-7868". He blinked through into the cooled storage room and quickly sorted through the various vials and cases until he came to a rather unimposing yellow-green vial marked BP-7868. He swept it up and stuck it into a cooler box he'd filled with foam peanuts and blinked back out of the room. He quickly pulled off the Hazmat suit and turned to grab the cooler box when he heard a gun click.

"Freeze!" hissed a bulky security guard from behind the barrel of a large handgun. "I-I have the intruder." he whispered into his sleeve. "He has the vial."

Marcus smiled at the security guard and teleported behind him. The man screamed, and twisted to try and find where Marcus had gone. By this point Marcus had already picked up a steel ball from his satchel and tossed it, teleporting it as it slipped out of his fingers directly into the security guard's skull. The guard convulsed for a moment before falling to the ground, the left side of his face bisecting a small steel ball. If he was lucky the ball would have taken a sizable enough chunk out of the man's brain to kill him. If not...

Marcus picked up the cooler box and teleported away.

[New Rnclave]

Hiroshi: East City and his Apartment

Staring at the door, Hiroshi felt himself tense up with nervousness. His lifestyle was hardly glamorous. He wasn't any well known professor, or a protector of the weak. He was just sort of here, and besides physical labor jobs, he mostly just stuck to himself and trained.

Slowly, Hiroshi pulled open the door, a rush of cold air meeting him as he stepped to the side, letting Claudia, Tomia and the Cyborgs he brought along with him into his humble apartment.

" You can set her back in the spare room in you want." Hiroshi commented, addressing Black Sun. " Tomia, you know where you stay when you come here, and Claudia... Um, you can have my room, I can sleep on the couch if... If you want me too."

[Finland SSR]

REQUIEM AETERNAM

Part 7

---

I calmly stood at the top of the guard post, looking into the distance. Thinking... Oh, why did they have to leave me here instead of send me to battle? Come on! I might despise aimless murder, but the only thing I can't stand more is waiting around and doing absolutely nothing. 'Guard duty'. What is there to guard? I turned around and set sights on the grim, dark structures behind the tower. Composed of bricks, even they looked like they were in complete agony from boredom. As in, they looked boring.

I don't even know what me and a dozen other guards are even supposed to watch over here. They told us this is a warehouse or a camp of some sorts - they were pretty vague about it. It's been a week since this hastily built structure was completed, and I still haven't checked those things out. I mean, it's not like I can't enter, - I'm authorized and I have the keys, they're in my right pocket - I just didn't get around to doing it. I stood up from my seat and took a brief scan of the surroundings. Most of the guards were in their positions, some were walking around the area, in the corridors and in the near outside. The unchecked warehouse things were full of dim heat signatures, though.

Odd.

So, what's the plan? Move in there, tell all guards I meet that I'm just doing an authorized check, enter the warehouses and boom. Back to spot, with curiosity alleviated for the time being.

Three, two, one. Mission start.

I took the key bundle out of my pants pocket and jumped off the ladder hole, landing in a dim corridor, then moved forward. The windows at the sides showed a beautiful winter paradise - the land around the structure was barely touched by Earthlings. Wildlife and plants sprawling. Unfortunately, as I took a turn to the left, the scenery was left behind by back. Instead, I started approaching the target. What greeted me were faint... screams. Not in this country's language, either. And there was far more than one voice coming from behind those locked doors. It's like it was a chorus. A chorus of pain.

This is very suspicious. The warehouse was just behind this door, this massive steel door that looked more like a huge safe. There was a poster above it - it said "QUARTERS". And there was a guard with a gun in front of the door.

Oh.

"Uh, what is your business here?" he asked.

I was quick to reply. "Just a checkup."

"Who sent you here?"

"The chief guard. Look, I had the authorization, but I lost it. I'll tell him to confirm it to you."

He just shrugged and moved to the side, away from the door. Perhaps he is just as bored as I am. I looked at the key bundle in my hand. Dozens of keys with markers telling me what they're for. Cafeteria, front gate, back gate, my tower, the quarters... Okay, that's the one. I shoved the key into the hole, turned it, heard the crack and pushed on the door, finally opening it.

And...

If my receptors could react to obscene shock, I would be lying on the ground right now.

What I saw was the worst that the human race has ever conducted. For the entirety of the kilometre-long warehouse, all I saw was stalls to the ceiling, like ones in shopping centres, just a bit bigger and filled with people. Prisoners, it seems. They were separated from me by a thick layer of barbed wire and steel nets, resembling jail cells. And the situation... They only wore thin striped linen clothes, despite it being winter both outside and inside. They could barely talk - only grumble, groan, scream and mutter incoherent sentences. The only food source was a tiny bowl placed in every cell - as if they were animals. And that is the best comparison I had - they were held like cattle, or even worse.

But the beings here are Earthlings! Imprisoned by Earthlings! Brothers imprisoned by brothers, and held as low as possible, to the point of... Some prisoners were chewing something that resembled meat. I'm not even going to tell you where I think that comes from. And to be fair, most of the bodies here were already either dead or dying. Like on the battlefield, sure, but there you can at least influence your fate! There, you can try to avoid the things that kill you, or fight back. Here, you are still killing your enemies - these appear to be the same prisoners of war I saw earlier - but it's not... honorable. You put enemies in a cell and say "Have good luck trying to not die. And not getting eaten."

Is this what this race is doing these days? Shoving themselves into concentration camps and killing each other? I've seen brutal genocidal faces - from Arcosians to my own - but even they don't commit such acts towards THEIR OWN PEOPLE! And yes, sure, Earth is not united, unlike most of the Universe's sentients, but that is no excuse.

There were a few... other people standing around. Not in the cells that surrounded us, but in the path between them. Black uniforms. One of them with slightly gilded shoulder pieces. Oh, is that the chief guard that I mumbled about back there, trying to get in?

"What are you doing here, soldier?" he exclaimed.

The following was one of the most brash and impulsive decisions I've ever done in my life. I responded with:

"I'm here to save these people."

I still can't really tell why I thought of it. Maybe it was the shock that got me. Maybe I felt like it was the right thing to do.

Anyway, immediately as I finished the sentence, I fired a narrow energy beam at the group. Vaporization followed. It's murder, I know, but unlike this whole ordeal, it's justifiable. Soon, the alarm random, and the bleak lights changed to red. That guard! I forgot to take care of him, and now he set the entire camp on their feet. But no matter. I'm strong enough.

I felt a slight tap on the back of my neck. As I turned around, I saw that it was just bullets, shot by the door guard's rifle. No problem - I zapped right in front of him, lightly chopped on the neck and watched as he fell on the ground, unconscious. The massive iron gate started to close, and I threw the body back to the corridor, followed by myself. I could've picked a prisoner or two with me, but it wasn't worth it. There must be a way how to level down the wire from the cells, and a control room might have answers.

With this thought, I moved forward, through the corrido- BOOM! Not for long. An explosion rocketed it, and along with the winter cold and the blizzard that was raining upon us, I saw a boy.

THE boy. Lucien.

"Prince Lucien, you-"

"I was told enough." he cut me short. God dammit. "They told me you betrayed us, and you are trying to break the Enemy's soldiers free."

"Is it just me, or is this whole nation just a huge cult focused against a vague enemy that could be replaced with anyone?"

He didn't get it, of course, and before my eyes, he clenched his fists, amped up his aura and powered up. Massively. A few seconds later, his body emitted a huge flash of light and energy, and finally, he stood in a battle position. Transformed. With golden flaming hair.

Golden flaming hair. Hold on... He's a Saiyan! This is a Super Saiyan! I'm fighting a Super Saiyan!

"Hey, I can do that too!" I too clenched my fists and turned the Influx module on. Gears and wires rearranged inside of me as I was cloaked in a pure white screeching aura, until it finished. My hair was white, once again, and much like Lucien, I prepared for battle.

Battle! The Prince charged at me and extended his fist forward, which I blocked and grabbed quite nicely, retaliating with a barrage of kicks. A double axe handle finisher, and he's lying on the ground. Energy blast, ready? Yes! Charge!.. wah, he leaped up and dodged it. Lucien was quick to do his own combo, sending a dozen well-placed, but shallow strikes to the abdomen.

I cancelled it with a clean kick shot, and he crashed into a pillar. Now! I gathered up a bit of energy in my right hand and threw it forward to fire an energy beam right at the Super Saiyan.

...Wait. Why did nothing happen? Just poof - and gone. Lucien was quick to stand up, and zipped in front of me. Well, round 2. I jumped back and charged forward. He put up his had, and I suddenly started moving slower. Slower, slower. My Influx energy was depleting rapidly. I stopped completely just a few feet away from the boy's face, and started moving up. I hate it when that happens.

"You're a robot. I have complete control over your inorganic kind."

"Y'know, you speak like you're way older than what you actually are." This is not good. Really, really not good.

Come on, move! I started twitching. Fly, you fool! My position was fixed, but slowly, I started to break out. Come on...

Hold on. It's a child.

The quarters are right behind me. They shocked me - they'll certainly do the same thing to him.

With all of my effort, I moved my hand just a bit to the left, so it faced the door. He seems content with holding me in place until the security arrives, and isn't keen on disassembling me. Which he could do, easily. I barely managed to open up my arm, and fired a weak energy blast at it.

BOOM! He lost focus and dropped me. Good. Influx was already all drained, I was back in my base form. Not good. Meanwhile, Lucien looked through the hole that I made, seeing the familiar sight. The starved, famished POWs, the cells, the animal-like conditions.

"You see, Lucien?" I slowly stood up. Don't destroy me out of pure anger, Prince... "This is what your daddy's empire does on it's free time."

He said nothing. Just gazed at the scenery.

"I witnessed what they are doing. Take off the rose glasses and think about what is going on."

He looked at me for a moment. His demeanor was indescribable, but certainly not the happy-go-lucky face I used to see. I rippled off the Iron Wolf badge from my uniform and threw it on the ground. I took off my cap and dropped it too, showing my old wild brown "hair".

He stood there, speechless. I leaped up and flew off. God knows where, but definitely not there.

[Charmera]

"Andy! Take out the trash!"

...

"Is he asleep?"

...

"Oh fine... I suppose I can give him a break for once."

A few seconds later and a door opened, shining a light in the dark of the suburban street, revealing a middle aged mother in a blue cloth shirt and her white pants. She pulled back her blonde hair to rub her cold nipped ears and groaned as the garbage bag weighed down on her slender frame. Her green eyes searched for the curb as she walked. She was careful as she walked in the darkness, not wanting to trip and end up introducing her face to the ground, especially not with these new glasses...

"That kid is so lucky he has a mother like me." She spoke, half jokingly. She groaned as she held the trash. "What's in here, a cinderblock?" She asked as she spotted the bin. She walked up to it. She then frowned slightly. She didn't remember the lid being off the bin last she checked.

"Damn Racoons." She spoke as she suddenly lifted the black garbage bag.

Then she could have sworn she saw the bin move.

Then she realized it was not the can moving, rather something in it.

Then darkness was all she could see.

---

"I don't care how you do it! Just do your jobs!" Shouted Armash Farar as he told his warlords to do their job. The stress of taking over the country from his father was showing. As they nodded and left, Armash's face became less red. He sighed as he turned to the window. He surveyed his city, still recovering from the attack from the anti mutant radicals and their corperate supporters. He had tried his best to make Ashmarhan a safe nation for mutants, but his countries conservative element was geared to fight him at every turn.

Father, I know you said I needed to find my own way to rule, but I wish I had your guidance...

Suddenly he felt that someone else was in the room. He turned.

"Did I not tell you not to come back until-" Then his eyes widened.

He did not have time to do much else before his arm was wrapped with something. Then he felt something on his face.

Then he felt as if he was being drained. Like water through an open plug.

---

"Sir. Are you alright?"

The Dictators Secretary came into his office, only to see him standing there, looking out into the glass.

"You sounded-"

"I am fine.... Mr Kadesh." He spoke, as if trying to remember his name. "I need all the files you can on the... special programs we talked about."

---

"Holy shit!" A voice cried out, but was not heard by anyone in the Hydra installation. He was cornered in a room with no cameras and no witnesses.
The infiltrator had been careful.

The Hydra goon looked up to see his commandant coming towards him. Only it wasn't. That thing was wearing her skin.

"C-Cut off one head and two more will grow... Cut off one head and two more will grow..." He muttered witlessly in an measly attempt at last words. He repeated them over and over as if it was going to save him.
He felt her hand on his head, and then his mantra was silenced.

"Heil Xyrix..."

---

Hawkman flew into a bank after hearing reports of there being a robbery as part of his usually JL patrols. Seeing that the teller and most of the staff were gone and the theif was nowhere in sight, he assumed that he had gone into the vault, and so gave chase.

There he found a single individual bank robber, male, with the stereotypical black mask.

"Surrender goon!"

He did not. Things were going to have to get rough.

As he swung his mace, it seemed as though he wasn't hitting a person, but some sort of jello. Bits of the robber went everywhere, but he was not dead. In fact, he seemed to reform into a female shape. One with more... slimelike features.

Hawkman would not have time to look a this creature though, as he found himself being converted into slime himself.

The creature paused, smiled, and took the shape of the hero. She turned to her new league communicator.

"Beam me up John."

---

Three forever knights sat on chairs in a large storeroom. Two initiate and one squires, concerned with the above battle but they had been given express orders to keep an eye on the room. At least, those were their last orders. Oddly enough they hadn't heard anything from their communicators for some time.

"Don't you think it's odd? We should probably do something..."

"You want to be the one who pisses off Genver. Be my guest."

Suddenly they heard a rattling and silenced themselves.

"Do they have... rats down here?" An initiate offered.

"I wouldn't think-" The squire paused. He turned to the other. "Go check it out."

He sighed, tossing his cards onto the table and walked down the alley between two rows of crates. Food he was fairly sure. He noticed a crate no longer had it's lid on. Frowning, he walked towards the crate. He walked towards the crate, looking inside. Empty.

"You sure about the rats?"

The Initiate was about to place the lid back on the box when he felt something around his neck. The last thing he heard was a snap before darkness came to his vision.

---

"Jan?" Asked the Squire as he heard the snap. He quickly put his helmet on. Then he looked to the initiate.

He was surprised to see instead a slime being in the initiate's armor. He blinked from surprise, getting up.

"Shit. Xyrixma." He muttered, getting up from his seat. The slime moved to attack him, but he moved faster, slamming his fist into her armor and sending her flying back. He used his coms system to contact his superiors, but all he heard was a deafening silence. He grunted and then moved forward to try and finish off the slime.

He suddenly felt a blow to the head which made him stagger and drop. He turned to face his new attacker, but found she was suddenly on top of him. He struggled, but her grip was strong. After a pause, he suddenly
felt a blow to the head, as his helmet cracked open. Another blow and his skull caved in.

---

"We have our spies in several major organisations on earth, as well as the Forever Knights, as you requested."

"Good. Commence phase two. With any luck we can break them down before we even get there."

[The Republic of Atria]

"Hold still..." Naja muttered as she grabbed a hair tie to keep Xander's hair from going over his face as it often did. It didn't bother him, but it was annoying enough to her that she was finally willing to do something about it. "Alright. There. That looks nice. I can see your face now. Now go change your clothes. Nothing much. Just a shirt and and some pants. Have you ever washed that costume since you made it?" She asked in a teasing manner, much to further annoy her husband. "Don't give me that look. You've been working non stop for like the past month. I am your wife. I deserve at least a few days with you. That doesn't involve us having to save the world from God knows what. And when we're done, I have a surprise for you. Now go change." She said pushing Xander into his room, sealing the wall behind him to allow for privacy. "I love him to pieces. But he's being so stubborn..."

"Maybe he has a fun allergy." Otis suggested comically. "Like how people get peanut allergies. It makes his throat swell up and we'll have to take him to hospital." Snickering to himself. "He can't hear us can he? I swear if looks could kill... By the way, what's the big surprise? Is it a party?"

"He probably can. And he's harmless. He'll scowl here and there, but he'll get used to it and maybe even crack a smile." Naja replied and shook her head. "It's something I've been waiting on for awhile. I figured tonight, what with everything that's been going on, he needs some time off with something new that I just know he's going to love. Speaking of which... How're you doing? Feeling better?"

"Yeah... I am feeling better. Thanks."

"You ever need someone to talk to, I'm here." She offered and pat his back as Xander came out dressed quite casually: a white T-shirt and a pair of jeans. She wasn't wearing more than a tank-top and a pair of modified leggings, since finding clothes with a tail hole was quite difficult. "See? You're presentable now. Let's go get some food."

The Source.

"Lemme get this straight." Wyatt asked taking a long drag on his cigarette. "You're basically God. And your little mini gods have fucked up so royally that you don't want them around anymore?" He asked the floating orb the representing The Source. "And to top it all off. You want me to go in there and mop them up, and in exchange I get to use the entire multiverse as my own personal whorehouse?" He smirked. "When can I start?"

"As soon as you wish." The Source replied, transporting Wyatt to Apokolips. The old man took a long drag on his cigarette before flicking it into a firepit.

"Time to do some redecorating. Someone's compensating." He muttered to himself as the firepits of Apokolips died down quite a bit, as was his command. He quickly gathered the attention of Apokolips' current ruler: Yuga Khan. Wyatt responded to Khan's arrival with a very sarcastic tone. "You ain't a fan of pants, are you?"

"Mortal, you will soon learn-"

"Shut your goddamned cockholster. Something called the Source, from what I've gather is basically God, told me to tell you that you're fucking fired and I'm your boss now." Wyatt said firmly, summoning another cigarette. Floating up to Khan at eye level. "Since you and the rest of your ilk are a bunch of fuck ups, I gotta clean up after you. Got it? You do what I say, or I'm gonna turn you into a frog and beat you with a hammer."

"You dare speak to me in such a tone- RAAAAGH!" Khan grabbed his eye as Wyatt gave him a cigarette burn in it.

"Next time, I'll do it to your balls. What the fuck passes for a woman here... Find me something to fuck here in the next five minutes, or I'll just use you. Don't matter to me. I've got redecorating to do. What the fuck is with you people and these big ass fire pits?"

[The Silhouette of Adventure]

Lucky Break, part 4 - A New Game

Previously, on Lucky Break-
Accidents Happen
Fisticuffs
Tinseltown

I guess you're not going to answer any of my questions until I finish my story, huh? What's the problem, still don't believe me? I'm sure you've already tested me for the X-gene, so you know I have some sort of power. Look, using my powers, it'd take me half a second to break out of these bonds and escape. It's impossible to hold me- But I'm not using my powers right now, because I don't know what it does anymore. You may be holding me, but I hold the cards- I could kill you in a second on purpose, or I might kill you on accident in a week and a half.

Either way, you should thank me- I'm holding back. It's your Lucky Break.

---

One Week Ago

"Ladies and Gents, welcome to the championship bout of the semi-annual Hollywood Fighting Tournament. Before we move on to today's match, let's have a moment of silence for those who died since the beginning of the semi-finals. After the death of seven audience members, three fighters, and one referee, it's been asked if the Tournament was cursed, or whether or not it would be cancelled. Independent occult, insurance, and government investigators have concluded that each of the deaths has been due to either extrinsic circumstances or sheer chance, and the Hollywood Fighting Tournament is not liable. On that note, let's get to the fight!"

I breathed deeply. My powers were going haywire, but I was too damn greedy to get out of dodge. I'd made more cash and had more fun at these fights than I ever had at a casino, but even my luck was running thin. I glanced around, looking at the audience- It was paper thin. One of the judges was a stand in, and there was only one ref.

"For this match, we have the man, the myth, the legend- The Ex-Hydra agent! Our reigning champion and the mysterious hero of his own story, his background is as stooped in mystery and adventure as it is in fighting and power! Ladies and Gentlemen, give a thunderous reception to the self-proclaimed Avenged! Against him is this year's underdog, a man whose rise to the top was as much skill as it was luck. With his canny dodging and incredibly well timed punches, this glass cannon is a threat to be feared! Introducing, Johnny Seller! The two fighters enter the ring, and tonight, one of them will leave a victor!"

I cracked my neck as I walked up, preparing. I may have been idiot enough to stay with that sinking ship, but I wasn't entirely stupid. My plan was to win this quick, hopefully without my powers. However, since I don't actually have any skill in fighting, this... Didn't go well.

My head slammed against the ground as I groaned. I couldn't see out of one eye and my left arm hung limp at my side. I could take a lot of punishment, but damn if this guy couldn't dish it. I finally sigh and close my eyes for a moment, turning my power on once more. I rolled to my left, simultaneously popping my arm back into place and tripping him onto the floor. I back away, rubbing my aching shoulder, before putting my fists up. "Second wind. Let's do this." I scowl at him. He rushed forward, sending a flurry of hits that would almost definitely have taken me out otherwise, but I dodge every single one. I glide to the side, hitting him on his temple and knocking him sideways. He hits the side of the ring and bounces back. I clench my eyes, knowing he was about to hit me-

And then it never comes. I slowly become aware of cheering in the stands. I open my eyes slowly, glancing around. The HYDRA guy... He was just gone. Like he never existed.

"That's right folks, here to receive the trophy after winning his championship bout last week is the one, the only, Johnny Seller! This underdog was set to fail, but through a combination of incredible luck and astonishing skill, he made his way to the top! Give our new champ a hand, folks!"

I paled. I took the money and the trophy and got the hell out of there. I was lying on my bed trying to think of what in God's name I was supposed to do now when I got the call.

---

Now

"You must really be desperate if you, of all people, are willing to call me." Sigma Three smirked. "Give me a moment. I'm on my way to Hollywood." She tapped a button on her waist, calling in a Quinjet to her location.

Hawkeye scowled and rolled over to the first chair. "Jess? If you can hear me, Sigma Three has been activated and is en route. I repeat, Scarlet Witch is en route to pick you up. Stay alive, dammit!”

In Hollywood, Jessica Drew slowly opened her eyes, the darkness fading away. Where... Am I? She tried to speak, but could not. She slowly rolled onto her back, grimacing in pain and glancing around. To her right was the building with the fighting ring, where 52 was. Oh. Right. She groaned. Strangely, no sound came out. She didn't bother investigating, figuring it had something to do with their target. She leaned forward, seeing the shattered remnants of her helmet several meters away from the crater that was her impact site. She glanced to the left.

Her arm was impaled on the shattered remnants of a storefront across the street. She paled, looking down at the stump that remained. It did not bleed, and it did not hurt. She attempted to scream, but there was no sound. She calmed down after a moment, still breathing heavily, and looked up at the fighting ring, where the explosions were occuring even more quickly. She grunted inwardly as she rose with one hand, attempting to limp towards the ring. To her surprise, the air resisted her efforts- Like water. She was... Swimming in the air. What... What is he? She swam upwards with one arm, breathing heavily, and entered the ring.

There, 52 had moved- Instead of simply being locked in place, his glowing golden eyes now following her as she crossed the room. The entire was surreal, and she crossed over towards him to try and free him from his bonds. If his pain was causing this, then freeing him would fix it... Right?

Instead, a fire rapidly began to spread outward from her arm to her entire body, and sound returned.

All Hawkeye could hear on the communicator was her scream of terror.

---

The Day Before

That call the day after my actual championship bout, with the man that I erased, was an interview call with a local newspaper. I checked them out- They seemed legit. When I showed up, though, no one was there. Half a second later, a strange green field surrounded the entire stage. I tried to use my powers to take it out, but they didn't seem to work. Outside it, a man in a wheelchair pulled up. "Professor X." I sighed. "Figured I'd run into you eventually." I know who the X-Men are, of course. Who doesn't? I was especially knowledgeable, since I had to know how to escape from them should I need to. The power shutdown was new, though. Xavier gave me his spiel about fighting the good fight and doing good in the world and bla bla bla, bla bla. I ignored most of it, trying to find a way out. I knew how this always went down. And, wouldn't you know it, Magneto and his Brotherhood broke through the wall behind me right as X finished his monologue.

They fought for a bit, and all the attacks just bounced off the field surrounding me. It was like being first seat to a 3D action movie. Kinda cool, really.

At least, it was until Magneto got it in his head that, "If we can't have him, nobody can!" That idiot broke down the field generators hidden in the edges of the stage and, before I could react, bound me up in metal. This was when I started freaking out. He started to contract it. I almost died. Then, everything went black.

---

Now

The Scarlet Witch dropped down into the quarantine zone, unaffected by the metaphysical aspect of 52's power due to her nature as a Chaos user. She wandered through, quickly locating the epicenter. Just as she was about to enter, though, she noticed Spider-Woman's arm on the other side of the street. Confused, she crossed, kneeling next to it. "What the-?" She was cut off by Spider-Woman's scream inside. Quickly whipping around, she rushed forward, entering the building and putting out the fire with her powers. Surprisingly, Spider-Woman was unhurt. With a sigh, Scarlet Witch looked up, tapping a button on her waist to activate her communicator.

"So, after my father tried to kill him, his eyes went rainbow and the X-Men teleported to Antarctica?" She questioned. "Why Antarctica?"

"Because it's unlikely." Hawkeye replied. "This guy's powers are based on chance, luck, the works. Oh, you should know- We got word the Brotherhood got picked up by a third party off Mount Everest. Magneto wasn't there."

"So he's still here." She sighed.

"Uh, I guess. Why would he still be there, and the rest not?"

"How did you put it? 'Because it's unlikely' ?" She scowled, approaching 52. She tapped the metal bindings around him, cancelling his powers connected to them. Immediately, Magneto re-appeared, gasping for breath. He looked around wildly, his eyes focusing almost immediately on his would-be victim. He held out his hands, contracting the metal even more. "No, Father, stop!" Scarlet Witch blasted Magneto across the room. "If you kill him, we could all die!"

Magneto rose, about to retaliate before listening to what she said. He hesitated. "You owe me, child." He held out his hand, releasing 52's bonds and flying out one of the many gaping holes in the wall.

Scarlet Witch sighed. She touched 52, and her powers ended this whole fiasco.

---

An unknown amount of time later.

"There you have it." I sighed. "That's my story." The woman across from me put down a small file labelled 'Sigma Strike Force.' From what I had gathered glancing at it when she leaned it forward while reading, these where the SHIELD agents who cleaned up my mess.

"Do you know who I am, Jonathan?" She raised an eyebrow, leaning her elbows on the desk and crossing her arms.

"Not a clue." I admitted.

"My name is Amanda Waller." She smiled, and a deadly glint filled her eyes.

"Welcome to the Suicide Squad."

[Galnius]

---

---

Immersed as she was in her epic boss battle, Jamie would've never suspected that Marybeth was creeping up the stairs muffling her footsteps with her powers, and she didn't notice even as the blonde girl entered the living area of the Justice Queens tower. Hearing a voice nearby, however, Jamie nearly jumped, though she managed to avert doing so, and hit the pause button on her controller before glancing at the person addressing her. It was Marybeth, and for a moment, Jamie raised an eyebrow. Why was Marybeth asking her who she was? They had already met, and while they perhaps didn't talk a lot (which was understandable, as Jamie didn't really talk a lot with anyone), she was fairly sure that the other girl should at least know her name.

But then, after a moment, she remembered that she was wearing the magical shades she had pulled out from her inventory earlier, and had to make an effort not to facepalm. Putting the controller aside, she took off her shades and looked at Marybeth, who would now be able to recognize Jamie for who she was. "Hey, Marybeth, it's just me. Um, Merry Christmas and all that stuff." The black-haired girl said.

---

"It's christmas already?!" said Marybeth, in shock. Mind, she never was very good at telling dates, and didn't exactly know when Christmas was. She would have to get a calender......eventually...."Wait, how did you do that?" She looked the girl up and down, noticing the complete change in her form. "Which one is the real you? This one...or the other one....or neither? Are you a shapeshifter?"

[Tomia]

Young Bloods
Mars heard Vera's question and looked over the plans for the buildings that he had obtained, there was no sign of an elevator down there. The security cameras didn't show anything either, as if they were set up to put the elevator shaft in a blind spot. "There's no sign of an elevator shaft Vera." Mars told his teammate through their communicator. "Someone went through great lengths to hide it. We should find what's down there." Mars said, before telling the others to join them through the communicator. He then headed up through the elevator shaft to join Vera, he didn't have much of a choice otherwise after all.

Nico had turned off his communicator as Cat used her recently aquire memories to find a way inside the secret base. She led them to the elevator as well. Seeing that it was currently at the lower level, they'd need a way down. Nico turned on his communicator, he had a way down but it was a one way trip, so he needed everyone there. "We found a secret elevator, it must lead to the place we're looking for. Meet us down in the basement, I think I have a way to get down there."

[Niketa]

Sojourn AKA Feist, Metropolis

I can't believe her. If it weren't for that idiotic hothead of a sibling I was unlucky enough to get, I'd be in school with early graduation and peace of mind, instead of the daily ritual of handling bruises and gashes.

I'm Feist, the grudging street doctor and aid to the vigilante of metropolis.

Clipping my hair back, I set up the house shrine and set down a berry branch. With so many gods and deities, it's unwise to forget them. Besides, it boosts my powers a bit. I pull my travel packs off of my belt and put them neatly across the counter, sorted into groups. A bit of stabilization magic and sterile padding goes next to the bare mattress, and a sheet of wax paper goes over it.

I stand back and run through my checklist.

I tear open a new pack of gloves, place all of my stitching tools, and flip over the sign. Reading "she's home" in pencil, the simple laminated paper flapped in the breeze.
Looking around semi-contentedly, I sit with my laptop and open my school website to wait for my next victim/experiment patient.

[Siliarba]

Sector 199
Multiple planets containing sentient life
54 minutes until arrival

Several planets listened and had been successfully evacuated, nobody likes to leave their home, let alone leave their planet all together. But this was all the guardians could do. When evil shows up in their sectors their green lanterns are there to vanquish it, but what was coming was beyond their level, all they could do for now was save as many as possible until they found a way to challenge the Empress. But there was always a planet, at least one, where nobody wanted to even think about relocation, some because they simply don't want to leave their home so they chose to stay and face whatever comes. Usually these planets surrender rather fast. But then there's the planets who think they can face whatever comes at them, they have no idea what they'll face. The Empress, no, she rarely shows up herself, her warships show up first. But they're only there to be intimidating and try and force a surrender, if the planet refuses to surrender, members of the Fang or the Maw descend on the planet. I don't know what's worse, the utter destruction they bring, or the fact that 2 of the fangs constantly kill and revive their opponents over and over until they accept surrender. At which point their ultimate faith is usually to become slaves of the Empress through mind control.

No matter what a way to stop her has to be found, biding for time can not be the acceptable course of action as she slowly takes over the galaxy like a cancerous growth that has infected the universe, a cancer with no idea how to cure or even simply fight it. It's time to swallow our pride, and look for help, let the Green lanterns know, all of them, to find beings strong enough or wise enough to find a way to defeat this Second Empire. Only 7 more minutes until time runs out, every time she invades a place under green lantern protection she is forced to be given fair warning and only invade 2 weeks later. Only 7 more minutes and she'll invade, there's no choice, time to order the green lanterns trying to convince the last planet to leave the sector. All we can do is hope they surrender quickly and that some day we can liberate the sector once more.

And just as the last second of the timer ended, warships arrived all over the remaining planet, the only one where the race inhabiting it didn't allow itself to be relocated. They were a warrior race, all extremely powerful, the warships vanished in mere moments, destroyed as soon as they arrived. Those poor people, if only we could have gotten them to relocate then they wouldn't have to face what comes next. The Maw was absent, but the Fangs all arrived as expected.

The Fangs assault

The first to land was the Fang of Emotion, better known as the Terrified Beast. All though most mistake his name for the Terrifying beast considering the terror it tends to spread. It let out a giant howl as with a single blast of energy originating from its mouth it decimated the opponents that had destroyed the warships with ease. But that wasn't enough to make the inhabitants of this world give up, wile many fell from that single attack they were the rookies of their race. They didn't feel threatened yet, and unfortunately for them the Fang of life landed next. The moment she landed the first thing she did was revive and heal all those the Terrified beast killed "Drip, drip, drip, do not worry children, mother Drop is here to heal you with her embrace." If the terrified beast had caused any fear Drop removed it completely. The beast was fighting an endless stream of warriors this way, any he killed got revived only to be killed and revived again, but he didn't let up.

Lastly the Fang of Knowledge arrived, she couldn't agree with herself where to land first, a usual problem for her. "Oy Drop, stop reviving the enemies for a bit, it's pointless until they surrender you know. Ah whatever, she won't listen, she never listens, not like I do." "Nice of you to try though Luna, you can be friendly if you want to be." "Did I freaking ask you anything? Huh? I don't think so, so shut up Luna or do I have to make you go home?" "Hey don't pick on Luna, Luna, she can't help it she's a sweet little girl. Besides we should be causing mayhem not arguing amongst ourselves." "Hmpf, you're annoying Luna, and don't go defending Luna all the time, she's weak because you keep her weak Luna. But you're right, time to cause some destruction, until we're done I don't want to hear a single word out of either 3 of you, Luna, Luna and Luna. After all, it's time for Luna to cause some massive mayhem."

Now that she finally stopped arguing with her 3 split personalities the Fang of Knowledge showed a devious grin and quickly created several weapons from her pocket dimension and began firing wildly in every direction. Her weapon of choice today, some sort of grenade launcher with a reach that it could hit any target on the planet from this one position and a destructive force to destroy large cities with a single attack. This had distracted Drop long enough that the beast had run out of opponents, at least the weaker ones. One of his stronger opponents actually managed to get close and land in a powerful hit against the beast's mask, cracking it. In a terrifying howl the beast destroyed half the continent he was standing on, but this wasn't an angry howl or even an intimidating one. It was one of pain absolute terror. The helmet cracking had caused the beast to be terrified to its core, hence his name.

"Beast" Drop quickly reacted and held him in her arms, restoring the crack on his helmet as she sat down on her knees with the beast in her laps as she began to sing. "Hush little angel, don't be afraid, Drop will be there so the fear will fade. When the darkness is all you see, Drop will make the sun shine bright as can be. Now close your eyes it's time to dream, Drop will protect you from every evil scream." And just like that the beast that had just caused so much destruction in a panic had fallen asleep in the arms of Drop. After being gently put down on the ground Drop began to resurrect every fallen enemy. They didn't fight any longer, that last attack of the beast mixed with the terror Luna brought in such a little time had broken the spirit of this warrior race. They were ready to surrender, even if Luna wasn't ready to stop her destruction just yet. After her rampage continued for a wile longer she finally came to rest, satisfied and this part of the galaxy was now conquered by the Second Empire and through Drops efforts, with 0 casualties on either side.

[The Republic of Atria]

Khan was flabbergasted that not only was a human able to comprehend the Source, but that the same human treated him like he was nothing more than a servant. His eye healed quickly, but even by then, he watched as Wyatt tore apart his fortress. He teleported back inside to find the human screaming at his servants. His brother, Steppenwolf, Granny Goodness, Kalibak, Desaad, dozens of parademons and just about everything else inbetween. "What the fuck kind of place is this?! No shitter?! And you're what passes for a goddamn woman?! You're a goddamn dwarf!" All the while his powers were distorting the very fabric of reality just by him screaming at them for not meeting his standards. "And you!" He waved his hand at Khan. "How fucking incompetent are you?! You know what... I'm sorry. I just get a little bit upset when everyone around me is so goddamned useless. Let's start over. My name is Wyatt Walker-"

"I am Yuga Khan! I have taken more planets than years you've been alive! I am-"

"Going to SHUT! THE! FUCK! UP! I don't give a half FUCK who you are! You do what I say, when I say! Even if it involves kneepads and plenty of Listerine." Wyatt hissed. "Alright... Alright. Here's what's going to happen. Khannie. That's your new name. You are going to show me what you use to going around getting your asses kicked, so I can show you how it's done. Don't think of me as your boss. Think of me of being the guy who's gonna turn your skull into a jack-o-lantern and play football with it. The shitty European one. You. Fucker who hasn't shaved a day in his life." He turned his attention to Kalibak. "And you. Scarface. You two are gonna be my assistants. You. Fat old woman. Go make yourself presentable and grow like... 2 feet taller. You wouldn't even reach my dick at that height."

Kalibak and Desaad hesitated. Yuga Khan was still standing right there. It took Wyatt all of a half second to run out of patience. "Alright. Let me put things in perspective. Khannie!" Wyatt snapped and teleported Khan right beside him. Khan tried to move but found himself stuck in place by Wyatt. "I can be a good boss. See? Look how friendly we are." And with that, Wyatt slammed Khan all around the room, further decreasing the stability of the already damaged fortress before smashing him on the ground. It was a horrifying sight to watch as Wyatt slammed his foot on Khan again and again, making a mess out of what was once his skull. "There see? You. Ugly Bitch. Get this garbage cleaned up for me, yeah? And make me something to eat. You two. Come with me."

Kalibak and Desaad decided that the psychotic human that just crushed the skull of the most terrifying god to ever exist, was probably not the one they wanted to disobey. It was how gods came and went after all.

[Altito Asmoro]

Sojourn AKA Feist, Metropolis

I can't believe her. If it weren't for that idiotic hothead of a sibling I was unlucky enough to get, I'd be in school with early graduation and peace of mind, instead of the daily ritual of handling bruises and gashes.

I'm Feist, the grudging street doctor and aid to the vigilante of metropolis.

Clipping my hair back, I set up the house shrine and set down a berry branch. With so many gods and deities, it's unwise to forget them. Besides, it boosts my powers a bit. I pull my travel packs off of my belt and put them neatly across the counter, sorted into groups. A bit of stabilization magic and sterile padding goes next to the bare mattress, and a sheet of wax paper goes over it.

I stand back and run through my checklist.

I tear open a new pack of gloves, place all of my stitching tools, and flip over the sign. Reading "she's home" in pencil, the simple laminated paper flapped in the breeze.
Looking around semi-contentedly, I sit with my laptop and open my school website to wait for my next victim/experiment patient.

Jonathan Pierce

Damn those wretched gangs, damn them.

After all of the negotiation, suddenly they turned their mind and firing at him. At him. Yes, you read that right, at him. Now he was wounded, but he managed to killed them all. He had reported to Maxwell Lord that the gangs...just didn't wanted to worked with them at least, but he assure him that he used their gun, not his. Thus left no evidence, except for blood.

Maxwell Lord then told him to returned to the Lord Technologies branch in Metropolis and then regrouped. Superman should be there any moment, but now all Lord needs to do is to do some "cleansing" first.

Jo stumbled into a place, yes, a place. A good medicine place, perhaps. He opened the door, and there, he saw a woman, or a girl? She's too young to be a woman but why a girl owns this...place, is unbearable.

"Sorry, can you help me? I was wounded in my shoulder and a graze on my left stomach part. I'm not sure whether there is a bullet inside, or not, but I can pay you," asked Jo to the girl, he didn't lost consciousness but it's a close one.

"I already injected myself with a morphine to keep me awake, but I don't think it's enough."

[Zarkenis Ultima]

---

Sarah nodded with a very serious and mildly concerned expression on her face. "Yes, Hanah, we're under attack." She said in a hushed tone as she leaned closer, looking over her shoulder as if to make sure there was no one eavesdropping, no one save for John, anyways. "I didn't think he would be here, but he is. Sam and I are going to buy some time, but we need you to run away right now, or you won't be able to get away from... THE TICKLE MONSTER!" She suddenly shouted cheerfully, all pretense of tension disappearing completely in but an instant as the eldest of the Grimm sisters proceeded to tickle the youngest one. It was a flawless plan: sleepy as she was Hanah wouldn't be able to react in time, and the mention of danger would further throw her off guard since there was clearly nothing wrong going on in the hotel.

Of course, she didn't want it to last too long either, or Hanah might be annoyed, and so, after a few moments, Sarah stopped. "Anyways, sleepyhead, let's go and wake up Sam so we can get some breakfast, alright?" She said, before creating a comb out of shadows and handing it to her. "And fix that hair. You don't want Roy to see you like that do you?" She teased her younger sister.

---

---

Etla blinked twice at Serene's answer and then shrugged. "Oh, well, alright then. If that's what you feel..." The Rainborn conceded, thinking no more about the situation. If Serene felt that this way would lead them to the Guru, then she'd just follow along, partly because she was prone to changing her mind, like the free-spirited Rainborn she was, but also because she believed Serene. Some humans could be really perceptive, going as far as to border on the premonitory, or at least, that was her experience with them. For example, Craig often was able to find out which machines were malfunctioning and why, without so much as looking at them, which had always fascinated her.

It took her a moment to realize that this had nothing to do with premonition, but his powers. By then, however, they were already descending. The blonde girl thought about it no more and instead simply admired the glow of the cave. It was exactly the kind of thing that would catch the attention of someone like her after all, and so, she stopped paying attention to other things until they reached the clearing. Noticing that the others had stopped, Etla did as well, and only then did she look around, noticing that two earth thingies were charging at them. Frowning slightly, she reached into the Cloud and pulled Cyclone out of its dimensional storage as she summoned her armor to her.

"Power Shift: Star Core." She spoke, and suddenly her blade was filled with light. However, rather than attack, she merely held it up to block the attack of one of the two golems, wondering what else the creature had in store for her and the others.

---

---

Noticing Marybeth's utter shock at her simple holiday greeting, the normally quiet girl couldn't help giggling a little. It was amusing to see someone get worked up over something so silly. Nonetheless, she caught hold of herself rather quickly and stopped doing it, instead simply staring blankly at the blonde girl. She chuckled again, however, when she was questioned about what was, from Marybeth's perspective, a sudden change in her appearance. "A shapeshifter? No, no, that's not it." The black-haired girl said and held up the shades. "It was these things. Think of it like Superman's glasses. I technically don't look any different, you just can't associate my appearance with me while I'm wearing them." She said, before putting the shades down on the sofa next to her, leaning back and picking up the controller. "That's what the in-game description says, anyway." She mumbled afterwards, half to Marybeth and half to herself.

[The Silhouette of Adventure]

Six Months after the events of Lucky Break

As 52 sighed, leaning back against the back of his cell, the alarms in the corridor began to ring and his cell door opened. He frowned. "I hate you, Waller." He tugged at the power-disabling collar around his neck, walking out. He glanced around, looking to see who his teammates were today. On the far side of the hall from the exit, an oversized cell began to open. Within the darkness of its insides, a scaled hand jutted out, gripping the doorway. Killer Croc. Much closer to the door, two cells across from each other creaked open. Inside, a man with greying hair and an eyepatch walked out, carefully eyeing everyone else. Across from him, a woman walked out carefully. Her spotted fur revealed her identity readily. Deathstroke and the Cheetah. The four of them looked around for a moment.

"Only four?" Deathstroke asked, amused. "Waller's getting cocky."

"I recognize the two of you, but who's the new guy?" Cheetah narrowed her eyes at 52. "I know everybody, and I don't know him."

"I've heard his cell open before. Waller's been training him. First mission, I assume?" Deathstroke watched his reaction carefully.

"Maybe." 52 replied casually. "Wilson, Minerva, Jones." He pointed to each in turn. "Waller gave me a file to study on everyone in Task Force X. Your strengths- Your weaknesses." He glanced at each of them in turn. "Hmm."

Deathstroke and Cheetah glanced at each other. "And who do you think you are, new guy?" Deathstroke asked, a smirk on his lips. "The last one with your arrogance died ten minutes into the mission."

52 shrugged. "I used to be a low-budget criminal, but I figure it's always the same. The experienced guys don't trust the new guys until they prove themselves, right? Let's talk with Waller, then. I want to get past the mindless banter and get my damn freedom back."

Deathstroke watched him for a moment before shaking his head, and the group went through the door. On the other side, Waller and two armed guards stood. They glanced at each other, obviously frightened out of their minds. Deathstroke chuckled. "What's wrong, Waller? Normally the guards are out of sight."

She didn't reply. "After Gotham City's temporary collapse, the GCPD's caches were raided. Batman's rogue gallery has an impressive array of tech that regularly falls into the hands of minor criminals." She tapped a button and a holoprojector at the center of the room displayed several devices, one of which was highlighted.

"A prototype of a new version of Freeze's cold ray. After his last defeat, he tried to up his game. This one is far more powerful than his regular one." The next object was highlighted. "A barrel of an enhanced, experimental version of Bane's Venom. Called TITAN, it destroys its user psychologically while boosting their physical strength and size to astonishing levels." She moved on. "Last but not least, Clayface was captured by Batman and quantum locked in several sealed storage crates. We've retrieved all of them... Except one."

The hologram fell, quickly replaced by the blueprints of a compound. "Each of these items is located somewhere in this facility. We do not know where. The cold ray is low priority, however, Clayface and the TITAN must be retrieved without damaging them."

Deathstroke paused. "Alright, what's the catch?"

Waller smiled. "You get it. It's a base of League of Assassin runaways."

"Shit." Cheetah sighed.

52 just smiled.

[Syrixces]

Old Man Johnny?

Jimmy Wilson / Johnny Scene / Gideon

Jimmy dashed down the street, running hard, the drizzle overhead, making the stones in the pavement slick with moisture, slipping, a looming threat with each step. He slid into a corner, bullets flashing down the lane of the alley, as he panted, desperately trying to catch his own breath. He grinned, breathing hard, a sly smile on his face.

Jackholes, he thought. Like a bullets stopped me yet. The Columbian gang had been after him for more than a week, chasing from city to city, desperate to slap a cap, in the dirty, drunken teleporter. Of course, with little to no success, just like very other half-bit merc on his trail. He grinned, and dashed down the corner, teleporting instantly to a roof, right above, the bullets flying through the empty air where he had once stood. He looked down, smiling at the fools below him, before gasping, and widening his eyes in shock.

"Oh, sh*t," he muttered. Right below him, was a man glowing bright, bright blue, energy humming off of him in waves. He peered over, before instantly teleporting away, a lightning bolt piercing the air where he once stood, sizzling the skies with it's furious power. Jimmy frowned, reaching up, and feeling his brow, coming away with black streak on his fingers. "You...you scorched by eyes brows!"

Jimmy growled, and leapt off the rooftop, slamming down, and touching the back of one of the mercs necks, sucking the heat from his body, leaving him shivering and comatose on the wet stone pavement. He grinned, and telepored away once more. He slid away, teleporting instantly. Straight into a bolt of lightning. The sky thundered, rippling, as he telepored, not through 3d space, but 4d space, his powers enhanced by the blow of the lightning bolt, sliding him not into empty space, but into another universe. He screamed, as he was ripped away from his own reality, the sky glowing a bright, bright blue, the world spinning out of control in his vision.

"Ughhhhhhhhhhh........" Jimmy sat up slowly, dragging himself off the ground, course sand beneath his fingers.
What the? Sand....?, he thought, gradually opening up his crusty eyes, glancing around the area around him, taking in the desolate waste. The f*ckin' Mojave. He was in the f*ckin' Mojave. He sat up slowly, glancing up, his ears picking up an engine far off in the distance. He looked up quickly, seeing a car, hovering off in the distance. He snapped his fingers, absorbing the heat of the desert, his hands glowing bright orange with the unnatural energy. "And. Here. We. Go. "

20 Years Earlier - Earth 42

Otto ran down the hall, his green and yellow, Hydra uniform, soaked with sweat. The corridors around him were as grey and as blank as an empty canvas, a complete opposite of the chaos amid the Hydra base at the moment. All around him, Klaxons blared, sirens roared, and general chaos ran amuck. He stumbled into a core-room, at the very foundation of the base, desperately searching for his master, like a dog scrambling for a bone.

"Herr Skull!" He called, panting, desperate to catch his breath, "Herr Skull!"

The man before him, dressed, in a black as night SS uniform, turned swiftly to face his henchmen. But, in place of an ordinary, glared a crimson skull, with deep-set, intimidating eyes, eyes that scoured a man down to his soul. The Red Skull stood tall, his SS uniform, perfect, down to his armband, and spit-shined boots. In his left hand, was a crumpled piece of map, and strapped to his hip, a pistol of impressive size.

"What is it, Otto. I am quite busy. Ze Fuhrer's tomb cannot be much farther from here. " He looked Otto up and down, ignoring the blaring sirens around him, a perfect column of clam, and sense, in a sea of chaos. "I have sensed ze vibrations. The very Gods of old descend from the skies. "
He stood calm, smug, amidst the chaos. "I will not show them mine fear." He turned to an attendant. "Open ze box"

The man, dressed in an Hydra uniform, nodded, and began typing a series of commands into his computer, as the windows of the room, began to pull themselves apart, revealing a hidden chamber, with a single, skull shaped box in the center. As the man typed into his computer, a series of pronged tentacles separated themselves from the walls, prodding the box, before locking on, and connecting to the hinges, inserting a series of commands. Skull stood behind the windows, watching with glee. "This is not magic, mine friends. This, is science." The tentacles, locked, and twisted once, twice, revealing a blast of white light.

CRACK~THOOM!!!!!!

The sky itself shuddered, as those, imprisoned so long ago, were released once more. Skull, watched with glee, as a glowing blue Boom-Tube formed, as a series of shadowy figures stepped from the door way into oblivion. The first one to step out, stood tall, a blue and red costume on his body, the sigil of a blue, yellow and red U on his chest.

The Skull stepped forward, hand out, embracing his long - lost allies. He smiled, hand on his communicator. He smiled, and shook hand with Ultraman. "Ze Crime Syndicate returns at long last. Time, to gather ze Society. Time, to conquer ze world. "

[Niketa]

Sojourn AKA Feist, Metropolis

I can't believe her. If it weren't for that idiotic hothead of a sibling I was unlucky enough to get, I'd be in school with early graduation and peace of mind, instead of the daily ritual of handling bruises and gashes.

I'm Feist, the grudging street doctor and aid to the vigilante of metropolis.

Clipping my hair back, I set up the house shrine and set down a berry branch. With so many gods and deities, it's unwise to forget them. Besides, it boosts my powers a bit. I pull my travel packs off of my belt and put them neatly across the counter, sorted into groups. A bit of stabilization magic and sterile padding goes next to the bare mattress, and a sheet of wax paper goes over it.

I stand back and run through my checklist.

I tear open a new pack of gloves, place all of my stitching tools, and flip over the sign. Reading "she's home" in pencil, the simple laminated paper flapped in the breeze.
Looking around semi-contentedly, I sit with my laptop and open my school website to wait for my next victim/experiment patient.

Jonathan Pierce

Damn those wretched gangs, damn them.

After all of the negotiation, suddenly they turned their mind and firing at him. At him. Yes, you read that right, at him. Now he was wounded, but he managed to killed them all. He had reported to Maxwell Lord that the gangs...just didn't wanted to worked with them at least, but he assure him that he used their gun, not his. Thus left no evidence, except for blood.

Maxwell Lord then told him to returned to the Lord Technologies branch in Metropolis and then regrouped. Superman should be there any moment, but now all Lord needs to do is to do some "cleansing" first.

Jo stumbled into a place, yes, a place. A good medicine place, perhaps. He opened the door, and there, he saw a woman, or a girl? She's too young to be a woman but why a girl owns this...place, is unbearable.

"Sorry, can you help me? I was wounded in my shoulder and a graze on my left stomach part. I'm not sure whether there is a bullet inside, or not, but I can pay you," asked Jo to the girl, he didn't lost consciousness but it's a close one.

"I already injected myself with a morphine to keep me awake, but I don't think it's enough."

Looking up, she checked him over with a doggedly neutral expression. She closed her laptop and quickly stowed it in a cabinet, moving to support his injured side and motioning for him to come in. With her foot, Feist hooked the door closed and glanced at her patient.

"That is extremely dangerous for those who do not a have a comprehensive knowledge of medicine, but as you seem to be used to this state of injury I will not ask questions. Please, lay down on the bed", she commanded, making a sweeping gesture. "Are you willing to be worked on with magic, or should I stick to human medicine? It would be easier and cheaper to use magic, if that makes any difference."

She pulled her operating tools out of the disinfectant and prepared an examination spell, almost certain he would trust the cleanliness and affordability.
"We are a no questions clinic, but knowing potential bullet types could help the process." She stated.
Please, let it be a clean exit wound. I hate extractions.

[Krytonus]

Lex Luthor's Biological Weapons Laboratory
Undisclosed Location
04:00

"You have it?", Lex Luthor asked as he gestured towards the cooler box in Marcus's hand.

"I fuckin' hope so," Marcus replied, going to light a cigarette. "Otherwise my ass is all over SHIELD's CCTV for jack shit." He moved the lighter up to his mouth. Luthor made a small gesture with his hand and one of his guards knocked the lighter out of his hand, causing it to skitter across the floor.

"Please refrain from smoking in my Biological Weapons Lab." he hissed as a small man in a lab coat took the cooler box from Marcus. He scurried over to the side and carefully opened the box, peeking inside.

"BP-7868. This is it sir."

Luthor smiled, and gestured to another guard who walked up to Marcus with a suitcase. A few paces away, he clicked the case open, revealing precisely $10,000,000, in sweet, sweet green notes. Marcus whistled and strode up to the guard, but he wasn't looking at the case- he was looking at the guard. Six feet of pure hunk with slicked back hair and green eyes that just sparkled. He couldn't have been much older that Marcus.

"Hey there hot stuff. You and I could have some fun later. Call me." Marcus whispered to the guard before grabbing the case from him and winking. "Oh, and before I go... What exactly did I steal for you?"

The sides of Luthor's mouth twitched as he eyed the scraggly teleporter.

"I was not aware I paid you to ask questions."

"Can you at least tell me where you plan on using it, if you're going to use it? I don't wanna accidentally teleport into an ebola-cloud or something, y'know?"

"Do not worry, if we do plan on using what you acquired for us today, we will be sure to notify you. You're too useful to us."

"Okey-Dokey." Marcus pointed to the sexy guard. "And you better call me, hunk." With a wink, Marcus teleported away.

[Altito Asmoro]

Jonathan Pierce

Damn those wretched gangs, damn them.

After all of the negotiation, suddenly they turned their mind and firing at him. At him. Yes, you read that right, at him. Now he was wounded, but he managed to killed them all. He had reported to Maxwell Lord that the gangs...just didn't wanted to worked with them at least, but he assure him that he used their gun, not his. Thus left no evidence, except for blood.

Maxwell Lord then told him to returned to the Lord Technologies branch in Metropolis and then regrouped. Superman should be there any moment, but now all Lord needs to do is to do some "cleansing" first.

Jo stumbled into a place, yes, a place. A good medicine place, perhaps. He opened the door, and there, he saw a woman, or a girl? She's too young to be a woman but why a girl owns this...place, is unbearable.

"Sorry, can you help me? I was wounded in my shoulder and a graze on my left stomach part. I'm not sure whether there is a bullet inside, or not, but I can pay you," asked Jo to the girl, he didn't lost consciousness but it's a close one.

"I already injected myself with a morphine to keep me awake, but I don't think it's enough."

Looking up, she checked him over with a doggedly neutral expression. She closed her laptop and quickly stowed it in a cabinet, moving to support his injured side and motioning for him to come in. With her foot, Feist hooked the door closed and glanced at her patient.

"That is extremely dangerous for those who do not a have a comprehensive knowledge of medicine, but as you seem to be used to this state of injury I will not ask questions. Please, lay down on the bed", she commanded, making a sweeping gesture. "Are you willing to be worked on with magic, or should I stick to human medicine? It would be easier and cheaper to use magic, if that makes any difference."

She pulled her operating tools out of the disinfectant and prepared an examination spell, almost certain he would trust the cleanliness and affordability.
"We are a no questions clinic, but knowing potential bullet types could help the process." She stated.
Please, let it be a clean exit wound. I hate extractions.

"That is fine, I am a former soldier so I know how and why...kinda," said Jo as he was lied on the mattress of this doctor's shop? Yeah, that. As he looked to the girl, he saw a human-like? "Your skin is too white, albino, perhaps? Sorry, try to make a small talk, ouch," Jo winced as the wound was touched.

"Your the doctor, you know what's best for your patient. Just trust your judgment," Jo told her about. "The bullet type is the normal version of the bullet, not AP not HE not HP, normal."

[Niketa]

Looking up, she checked him over with a doggedly neutral expression. She closed her laptop and quickly stowed it in a cabinet, moving to support his injured side and motioning for him to come in. With her foot, Feist hooked the door closed and glanced at her patient.

"That is extremely dangerous for those who do not a have a comprehensive knowledge of medicine, but as you seem to be used to this state of injury I will not ask questions. Please, lay down on the bed", she commanded, making a sweeping gesture. "Are you willing to be worked on with magic, or should I stick to human medicine? It would be easier and cheaper to use magic, if that makes any difference."

She pulled her operating tools out of the disinfectant and prepared an examination spell, almost certain he would trust the cleanliness and affordability.
"We are a no questions clinic, but knowing potential bullet types could help the process." She stated.
Please, let it be a clean exit wound. I hate extractions.

"That is fine, I am a former soldier so I know how and why...kinda," said Jo as he was lied on the mattress of this doctor's shop? Yeah, that. As he looked to the girl, he saw a human-like? "Your skin is too white, albino, perhaps? Sorry, try to make a small talk, ouch," Jo winced as the wound was touched.

"Your the doctor, you know what's best for your patient. Just trust your judgment," Jo told her about. "The bullet type is the normal version of the bullet, not AP not HE not HP, normal."

Poking an amethyst cone with silvery writing at him, she mumbled as it gently touched to the wound. Her brow furrowed, and she pulled the stone away to drop it in more antiseptic.

"You're in luck, buddy. Exit wound. There won't have to be any removal after all. However, now we have two holes and a possible shattered bone. Count yourself doubly lucky that we don't have major organ damage. Whoever shot you either didn't get a good shot, or didn't mean to kill you. About the skin? Mixed parentage, elven to human. Since you feel like asking questions, how'd you get shot anyways?" she queried, prepping her hands with white rosemary ashes and alcohol for the healing process.

"I'm going to be using simple mending, so it's gonna hurt like heck and feel sore for a while. Not to mention the hunger that follows. Not much different than typical human healing, actually, just faster and no chance of infection. How much morphine did you take exactly? I don't want to start if you barely took anything, but I don't want to overdose you. I don't do toxins yet."

She turned back to him, glaring quizzically as if she were chiding him for self medicating. Well aware of her choppy, succinct way of talking, she expected him to be slightly flustered at the lack of answer time. "how will you be paying? Cash is always best, but this is fronted by a legitimate majik shop so digital transfer is possible." if you already overdosed that's on you, imbecile. And if you don't pay... I don't know.

[New Neros]

Parahumanity
Behemoth

A grotesque figure leapt to street level from somewhere far up above, cracking apart the asphalt and causing a literal wave of concrete and earth to fly in all directions as he slammed his feet down. A sinister scowl and forearms the size of tree trunks with puny legs mismatched, the imposing figure of Dapp appeared on the scene. All eyes turned to the menaces' flashy, destructive entrance, Mad Max's mouth slightly agape, Shatterstar's face narrow and furiously observant, and Daud's own face twisted into a smirk. Dapp spoke slowly and with enunciation, challenging the Parahumans. "Come and fight me if you want to die."

A sudden blitz by Shatterstar was fruitlessly stopped by Dapp's insane reaction time, the two titanic mountains locked in a strenuous display of raw strength and power, Shatterstar's fist connected to and blocked by Dapp's massive forearms, the two warriors struggling to push their way against the opponent. "Look's like we have a taker..." Dapp taunted, "Have you made peace with this Earth? Because I'll bury beneath a piece of this earth..." He said with a sick, ecstatic grin.

"Funny..." Shatterstar retorted, "People who talk the most shit get knocked the fuck out the most."

"It ain't talkin' shit..." Dapp exhaled, backing up quickly to dislodge Shatterstar's fist and bring the giant closer, Dapp stepping forward with a massive punch aimed right at the Parahuman's gut, slamming into it with enough force to rip through metal beams. Shatterstar's eyes bulged forward as he took the hit, Dapp finishing his thought process and letting the strike almost speak for itself, "If you can back it up."

The hit launched the massive frame of the Parahuman some ways away, but his own strength saved him from any major injuries or slamming into a building nearby. Crouched down for a moment, Shatterstar stood up and readied himself for battle once more, his teeth clenched so hard together that a crack formed in one of them. Dapp seemed almost impressed, and almost happy to have found a worthwhile opponent. "Most superhumans don't even survive my first hit." Dapp commented, "So let's see if the second one is just as good." With that, he launched forward at Shatterstar to attack him head on, the Parahuman already prepared for the assault.

Shatterstar moved forward right as Dapp approached, letting the punch graze his shoulder slightly as the Parahuman extended and connected a vicious straight punch to Dapp's cheek, warping the monstrous man's skin by the impact and sheer force behind it, not to mention adding Dapp's forward momentum to the equation. It should have torn his entire head and upper body into mush, but Dapp simply stumbled back. Shatterstar did not wait for a return, though, and followed up his first hit with a second hit, an uppercut that sent Dapp's head snapping back with enough force to launch it into the lower stratosphere, yet, the Power Titan whipped his head back into place, a vicious smile threatening to tear his lips in half. "God damn, you're strong. But I'm -"

"Shut," Shatterstar yelled, throwing a balled fist into Dapp's right midsection, breaking the sound barrier in the process, "Up." He finished, sending his other fist into the dead center of Dapp's chest with a hit that would register on the Richter Scale, sending the Titan scrapping back on his heels as he covered up his core. He looked up at Shatterstar with a different look, one that immediately gave away that Daud's powerhouse was absolutely livid at being a punching bag, to which, Shatterstar goaded him on. "Get mad."

Shatter's eyes widened as his pupils registered the immense fist of Dapp merely a centimeter from from his and closing in fast, connecting faster and harder than Dapp had ever had to put forth, nearly breaking apart Shatterstar's skull and actually sending the immense Parahuman flying back, flipping over and across the destroyed cityscape, nearly unconscious from the blow, with Dapp in hot pursuit.

---

The two commanders did not simply stand around as two leviathans duked it out, Max launching a surprise attack against Daud, wildly moving and striking at the Ultra Corps Commander with stunning efficiency and style, producing massive damage and energy output in a short span. Daud held his own for a while, but the unpredictable mannerisms of Max's fighting style was to be noted, and proved overwhelming superior to whatever martial arts Daud possessed. Daud suffered repeated jabs and strikes, dishing out only a select few in return for Max's own, but managed to find a break in the fist-fight.

"Good Lord," Daud said with exhaustion, "What kind of fighting style is that?"

"Developed on Madworld. It's meant to fight superhumans, since Madworld is populated entirely by them. Your abilities reflect a flaw in training and mindset: You've trained in a human fighting style that's meant to fight other humans. Not superhumans, and certainly not Parahumans." Maxwell said in response, his sturdy form leaving hardly any gaps in defenses, his forearms pressed tightly against his helmet, allowing him to deflect head shots and dip quickly to deflect body blows, Daud standing a partial kickboxing stance. "We call it God Fist."

"God Fist?" Daud repeated, "I need to get some lessons sometime." He said with a smile, stepping back quickly in order to dodge another rush attack by Mad Max, attempting to grab onto the Mad King's arm to preform a take down, but just missing it as Max placed it back against his head with stunning speed. Daud took a step forward and launched himself into the air at an angle, knee first, in an attempt to hit Max in the stomach. The Mad King used his training, though, and simply crunched his abdomen, Daud's knee connecting with Max's elbows first and losing their forward momentum and damaging power.

"When you repair my Kingdom, if you live that long, I may consider it." Max said quickly after backing away from Daud, "However, I'm out of both time and patience." He growled, lowering his hands and relaxing his body. "You've seen two things I am capable of with stunning effectiveness, Daud, and that's energy projection and combat skills. But, you only got a sliver of my true abilities, my raw potential realized, and I will now use it to end this battle, and this invasion." Daud perked up at the sound, knowing Mad Max was a powerful energy absorber, but no one really knew just how strong that absorption. "Behold, Daud of Ultra, the power that is the Morningstar Equation."

A thunderous noise filled the battlefield as Max held his hand upward, a purple colored light swirling and smoking around it, the droning of the Equation being caused by the very vibrational energy made by sound-waves being sucked away by the Mad King. Daud took a step back as the winds radically shifted, centering all of their blowing power as Max, as if he held a living black hole in his hands. Max tightly closed his fist, the purple and gray energy-like substance covering his hands all the way up to their elbows. Daud crouched down and readied himself, launching forward quickly and unexpectedly.

A single strike slammed into the Mad King's helmet, faster and more powerful than what Daud was giving back during the pair's round of fisticuffs, and effectively split the helm in two. The halves flew back away from the stationary Mad Max and revealed his face underneath, the Parahuman King not so much as flinching or blinking from the attack. Daud's face was full of concern, the curly blonde hair of Max gently framing his square jaw and light complexion. He jumped back and skidded on his feet, the now helmet-less Mad Max simply staring at the invader.

The hazy energy flickered across Max's face briefly, concealing his eyes for just a moment. When they pulled back, the whites of the Mad King's eyes had become gray, almost demonic and sinister, causing Daud to stiffen up further, a nervous smile creeping on his face. "Hah, ah, well..." He began, "I suppose that...I suppose that I need to go all out, too, no?" He said nervously, as if he was bluffing, "But I guess that's fine with me. A final showdown of our abilities and such, as is tradition."

"Regeneration? Please..." Max began, his tone dry and dark.

"Oh yeah..." Daud said, remembering he never got to finish telling Max about his powers before being blindsided by Shatterstar. "Before your lapdog attacked me, I was telling you I had a certain power set in my arsenal, and only got to 'regeneration' before I was sucker-punched. You see, Maxwell..." Daud began, his body glowing a greenish aura that surrounded him completely, "I can regenerate my body from nearly any wound...And then adapt to whatever injured me." The information seemed rather trivial on Max, but the King suddenly widened his eyes as he put the pieces together, clenching his fists tightly. "Yeah..." Daud responded, "Let's see if I can't nullify energy absorption, shall we?"

Max narrowed his eyes and dropped his chin slightly, mentally preparing his moves ahead of time, searching for some foreseeable weakness against Daud's versatile ability. It didn't stop him, however, from defending the pride of his Parahuman subjects and their plight in the face of invasion, and agreeing to the brawl. "Let's."

[Altito Asmoro]

"That is fine, I am a former soldier so I know how and why...kinda," said Jo as he was lied on the mattress of this doctor's shop? Yeah, that. As he looked to the girl, he saw a human-like? "Your skin is too white, albino, perhaps? Sorry, try to make a small talk, ouch," Jo winced as the wound was touched.

"Your the doctor, you know what's best for your patient. Just trust your judgment," Jo told her about. "The bullet type is the normal version of the bullet, not AP not HE not HP, normal."

Poking an amethyst cone with silvery writing at him, she mumbled as it gently touched to the wound. Her brow furrowed, and she pulled the stone away to drop it in more antiseptic.

"You're in luck, buddy. Exit wound. There won't have to be any removal after all. However, now we have two holes and a possible shattered bone. Count yourself doubly lucky that we don't have major organ damage. Whoever shot you either didn't get a good shot, or didn't mean to kill you. About the skin? Mixed parentage, elven to human. Since you feel like asking questions, how'd you get shot anyways?" she queried, prepping her hands with white rosemary ashes and alcohol for the healing process.

"I'm going to be using simple mending, so it's gonna hurt like heck and feel sore for a while. Not to mention the hunger that follows. Not much different than typical human healing, actually, just faster and no chance of infection. How much morphine did you take exactly? I don't want to start if you barely took anything, but I don't want to overdose you. I don't do toxins yet."

She turned back to him, glaring quizzically as if she were chiding him for self medicating. Well aware of her choppy, succinct way of talking, she expected him to be slightly flustered at the lack of answer time. "how will you be paying? Cash is always best, but this is fronted by a legitimate majik shop so digital transfer is possible." if you already overdosed that's on you, imbecile. And if you don't pay... I don't know.

"Elven, huh? Know a couple of Elves from SHIELD, they know all sorts of medicine as well, working as medic on the field and inside the helicarrier. Speaking of who shot me, I was on my way to negotiating a very, very high-quality goods that could be made into either military equipment that is so awesome and refined it could kill everything on sight, and I want to use it to manufacture it for heroic things. Unfortunately, they didn't brought any and instead try to kill me. I escaped after I killed them, with their own gun. To avoid leaving evidences. At the same time the goods is useful for medicine as well, they say." he explained, as he managed to made himself more comfortable on the mattress.

"I took one full injection of morphine, not much. And speaking of payment, I have a credit card in my wallet, so if you want to, I can pay here directly if you have the machine. Otherwise..." said Jo as he pulled out his wallet and pulled out a credit card, "there's cash as well in the wallet if you don't have the machine for the credit card..."

[Finland SSR]

Intermission

Xicor

---

Punch. Punch. Man, this one is a bit resilient! Punch. Punch- and the head finally breaks. That's what you get for invading this planet.

I took my fist out of the destroyed Celestial Android's face and took a brief look at the scenery. Nothing but thousands of robotic corpses stretching to the horizon, not a single one still standing and trying to attack this planet's inhabitants. This was probably the last one of them, I can safely turn the Influx transformation off.

Just a few moments after the white aura around me faded, the first heads of the living started popping out of their hiding places - from under rocks, behind trees and out of the ruins behind my back. These were the army's target - small, goose-like alien creatures, inhabitants of this lonely rocky world. The best weapons that they've got are slings and bronze swords - had I not came here just in time, they would've been wiped out in just an hour. Because that's what my despicable kind does nowadays - wipe out planets and galaxies for the sake of it. And unfortunately, I fight them alone.

Frank's not here to help me, for sure. He's too busy hanging out on Earth and doing... I don't even know what's up with him. I never saw him as all that heroic, yeah, but I'm pretty sure that the Namchinnians told us a pretty clear message 50 years ago - your race is evil, so destroy it.

Someday, I'll go there and beat some sense into my little brother.

The aliens were really suspicious and weary of me at first. After all, it was my rafe who just slaughtered people here. Okay, no sudden movements. Stay calm. They're walking towards me, slowly. Staring at me... looking around the bodies... Suddenly, one of the aliens - visibly a male - looked towards the sky, and immediately screamed in fear. Everyone was running back into their hiding spots.

I looked up. It was just a speck in the sky, almost like a star, coming from the left, but it was moving relatively fast - pretty strange to an uncivilized native. I wonder, is that yet another of those Celestial transport spaceships? Ugh...

"I'll intercept it, guys, don't worry." I spoke to the nobody that was listening to me, then turned on the flight module and shot forward, towards the skies. Just a few seconds later, I left the atmosphere, and the image was already visible. It was a spaceship, yes, but not one I'd attribute to the Army. It had some green and red symbols on the side, and overall, it was pretty small, only able to accommodate five or six people, at best.

It was moving fast, though. Really fast. I clenched my fists and flared up the aura - going into my Influx form - to catch up. The driver, whatever it was, noticed me almost immediately, and slowed down, opening the back door for me to enter.

And so I did. Whoever is flying this ship, they either recognized me from first glance or are very polite. I was greeted by the words "AUTOPILOT ON" echoing across the tight spaces. The halls looked kinda futuristic from one side, while at the same time a bit awkwardly built and cumbersome. I don't really think I've seen this kind of engineering befo-

AGH! I tumbled on the floor, covered in smoke, as I realized that someone had just shot me with an energy blast. And not a particularly weak one, either - I'm still in Base Influx and the attack was strong enough to be felt.

Buuut... it didn't hurt me, either. I quickly bounced back into a standing position and waved my hand a bit to clear the smoke out. What my eye sensors registered was a rather short, but certainly not weak-looking female. She had blue-green-ish skin and wild, but short orange hair. The clothing was a bit of a mess, too.

"You're not him. You're just a normal Celestial Android."

I was about to say 'Wait!', but she did not wait. Instead, she clenched her fists, screamed a bit and transformed. Bigger, more muscular, light green skin, dark red hair. Oh, I know where this is from. She's a Heran. That race.

The girl leaped forward and charged right at me, sending her right fist forward. I didn't have much trouble detecting and catching it, but the force she exerted was tough to bear. I could barely hold myself in a standing position! Our auras clashed, too, for an impressive light show. Alright, time to end this. Flight module, on! Now, a nice kick to the side! Perfect. She's knocked back.

No time to waste! A barrage of punches and kicks followed - one after another, with no time to rest of catch a breath. I got this! I got thi- Ouch! No, I don't. She cancelled my combination with a jab right between by eyes.

Screw it! Elbow strike, sweep kick, grab her by the neck.

"Will you rethink my classification now?" I spoke.

This was, unsurprisingly, a shock to her. She looked at me as if I just did something deemed impossible.

"You... you can talk? You're alive?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"But you're a Celestial Android! I only know one of you who is capable of this!"

Wait a second... "Is it's name Frank?"

A brief moment of silence followed. "Yes." I immediately released her, and she fell right onto the floor.

"God dammit." I exclaimed.

"You know him?" she asked as she lifted herself up from the ground.

"Well, if I recall, we were built in the same factory, we were a part of the same unit and we gained consciousness together, so we're more or less brothers."

"Wow, awesome!" the Heran exclaimed, now in a far more cheerful demeanor. "My name's Itaku, and I got to know your brother a bit."

"I'm Xicor... What happened between you two?"

"Well, he saved me and my entire race from the Celestial Army once. So you know, that's something to be thankful for."

"I don't believe you."

"Excuse me?"

"You're making shit up right now. Frank's not the type of person to help others."

"What do you mean? He was right there! Helped me! He fought alongside us!"

I folded my arms. "So, you're flying to visit him or something?"

"How'd you know?"

"I mean, it's not hard to notice when people see others through a pair of rose glasses. Some advice if you're befriending Frank - don't. Honestly. He's way too toxic and egocentric to be tolerable."

Short pause. "You sound like you have something against your brother."

"What? N-no! I just... know him as a person, and that's all. If I believed in yinyang, then me and Frank would be a circle. I'm the white half, he's the black half."

"You sound far more pretentious, though."

I turned around, looking towards the open exit to open space. "Also, he's a living problem attractor. So you know, that's something to remember."

I leaped out of the ship, and watched it as it speeded away at many times faster than light speed. I wonder what's up with that girl...

Eh. Maybe I'll check it out later.

[The Republic of Atria]

As soon as they stepped outside, they took to the skies towards Attilan. "You look great. See? You don't have to spend every waking moment of your life in that costume. You can look like a normal person with long hair." She said as they landed in the city. "Now you can finally spend some time with your beautiful wife. Would it kill you to at least pretend you're in a good mood?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you I was." Xander replied. "It is nice that I don't have to worry about something blowing up the planet for the 50th time this week." He smiled. A little, but it was there. "And I'm sorry I haven't been spending enough quality time with you. You're right."

"There's the big ole' softy in there. You're going to love the surprise I have planned for you when we get done eating here and go home. And I'm still going to make you get up on that stage and do a song. You're going to have fun if it kills you." She teased as they landed. "It's nostalgic being here. Everyone here was so nice. Hopefully they're all still nice."

"I can confirm." Otis said as he landed with Julie. "Almost everyone here is still very nice. My evidence is that I still live here. People don't give you weird look when you've got blue skin and a long tail. Not gonna lie though, I love this tail. It's like a third arm over my butt... Okay, maybe not the best comparison, but it's pretty cool. You really should think about getting one."

"Yes Otis. I can just go get a lengthy extension to my spinal cord." Xander responded sarcastically.

"You can?" Otis asked. "You'll have to show me where later. Also, I've noticed your sarcasm has gotten much better. You'll be a normal person in no time at this rate." Xander found it difficult to frown at the young man who just looked... Happy. Otis had certainly suffered much worse than he did and he was the one with a grin. "I saw that. You can smile. I can assure that it won't tear the fabric of reality apart. My motherbox would've told me otherwise."