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

[The Republic of Atria]

The Dark God fell like a ton of bricks. His molten blood leaking all over the ground, burning. He was dead. Otis fell to the ground, speaking a few last words before his body quit on him: "I...Killed...Darkseid..." He slipped into unconsciousness, smiling at his accomplishment. However, he didn't know the consequences from doing so. Booms tubes opened all over the planet, recalling the parademons and other minions to Apokolips. Otis himself was caught in the suction of a Boom Tube and was carried back to Apokolips along with everything else. The only reminder that Darkseid had invaded, was his corpse laying in the middle of the street. Otis landed on the ground in a forgotten area of Apokolips. A small group of people, named the Forgotten, saw the strange, injured creature fall.

They knew Darkseid had fallen, and this creature was responsible. The entire Multiverse knew it. Which meant that Darkseid's trademark power: The Omega Effect, would be returning. And it would need a new host. What better choice than the very person who killed Darkseid? However, if this wasn't the person that killed Darkseid, he would die. A few of the people grabbed the boy and dragged him to an open spot and strung him up on life support. His arms hanging to the side as tubes kept him alive. He began to stir. "Wha..." He muttered, too weak to even stand. "Where... Where am I?" He asked with his eyes close. The air felt hot. The smell was that of burning death.

"You are on Apokolips, boy. Tell me." The woman said and grabbed Otis' chin, making him look at her. "Are you the one who killed Darkseid?"

"Yeah... I... I blew a hole in his chest. Where his heart was supposed to be. Guess he really is heartless now isn't he?" He tried to laugh at his own joke, but couldn't muster the strength. He had to settle with a smarmy grin instead. "Why... Why am I here? Darkseid is dead. You're not his slaves anymore. You can go do whatever you want. What... What did you do to me?"

"The source of Darkseid's power is a large portion of cosmic energy called the Omega Effect." She explained. "If you truly are the man who ended the life of Darkseid. You will take it's power. If you're lying, you will die." She said. "You are benevolent, correct?"

"Anyone is benevolent compared to Darkseid, but yes... At least I hope so. And... Let me go. I don't want Darkseid's powers. I just want to go home... One of you take it."

"No. It's not your choice. We have waited for too long. Darkseid is dead, and we refuse to let any of his subordinates receive his power. You will. You will fix the damage Darkseid has caused." She explained to Otis. He tried to struggle and get out, but was too exhausted to even stand, let alone over power about 20 people. Mjolnir didn't get sucked through the Boom Tube with him. "And if you're lying. You'll get the peace you want. If you're telling the truth, then you will also get the peace you want." She said at the sky began to glow bright red. "It is time. The Omega Effect returns." She said and everyone else backed away. Otis struggled to get free, but it was no use. The red light got brighter and brighter.

"I just wanted a sandwich..." Otis muttered to himself as the red light struck him in a blinding flash. The Omega Effect rejuvenating him, making stronger and faster than he ever was. The restraints, he snapped like twigs and stood back up, mostly naked. His eyes glowing red, taller, stronger, and no longer weak. The power felt incredible. He could do anything. He smiled and opened his mouth...

"Congratulations Otis... You're the new Darkseid..."

And thus began the Age of Man...

[The Starlight]

-snip-

-snip-

"I agree, with you, my friend," Valka said to Manifest, "for this was no victory. I too must alert Asgard's allies, and that the Slime Queen was able to reduce two blasts that could break asunder worlds into being totally ineffective troubles me. But these have fought beside Asgard today, and while I would not count it as the greatest threat we have face, the battle might not have been 'won' save for their presence."

Looking keenly upon Manifest again as he spoke of going to the Throne of the Universe, she frowned. "I understand if you choose to do this, my friend, but I would advise against it. The cost is too heavy, and the universe will have great need of thee, I suspect. Do not underestimate thyself, my friend, for you defeated the Builders with the rest of us without resorting to such measures. I would advise thee to stave this off until there is no other choice. But have faith, my friend, for there are forces in this universe which are hidden. Forces with power, allies, one might call them. We will not stand alone." she said firmly, laying a hand on his shoulder.

Later...

And so, there was a feast in the halls of Asgard. Not as much revelry and joy was present as in other feasts, but any Asgardian feast was to be reckoned with. Steaming hot meats, warm breads with goat butter, boars and fish and mead and elderberry wine, all were present at the All-Mother's feast, and more besides. Calling for silence after her guests and the Asgardians had eaten for quite some time, Valka spoke, "I wish to know, new friends, if thou requests everything of me, or if thou had some idea of a boon for your service. I will not promise to do anything, but I will take it into deep consideration, for you played a part in thwarting the enemy today."

[The Silhouette of Adventure]

And thus began the Age of Man...

Gotham City, Earth, the Dawn of the Age of Man
"Holy shit." Boxer stared at the television screen. "Is.. Is Darkseid dead?"
Reclaimer could only stand in awe, watching the screen. "Isn't.. Isn't he supposed to be straight up immortal? As in, can't-be-killed?"
"Yup." Boxer replied. "I don't really know what's going to happen now, but-"

...

Reclaimer looked over to his partner and staunch friend to see why he had stopped speaking, fearing the worst (as any public servant in Gotham must). It was then he noticed that the whole world had taken on a black and white tone. He stared for a moment before shaking his head and scowling, pulling out his gun. I hate this city. So much.

Suddenly, the black and white of the time-stopped world turned sepia.
Do you really think that would do anything to me, young one?

Reclaimer whipped around and before him stood a teenage woman with extraordinarily pale skin and a rather gothic set of apparel. "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm in the wrong form." She smirked, her eyes flashing white. When Reclaimer blinked, he found himself facing the opposite direction and looking into the skeleton mask of what appeared to be a female Grim Reaper.
"Better. Hello there, Henry Retlyer. I am Death." Behind her mask, he could see no emotion, but he had a sickening feeling she did not mean this as a threat, but rather as a proclamation of fact. This was no cheap trickster masquerading as the primordial End- Nay, this was the Oldest and Wisest of the Endless, She who Was when you no longer Were. And she had presented herself to him in person.

"I see you're speechless. Don't worry, I'm not here to reap your soul. You aren't due for a while now. No, instead I come to you with an offer." She laughs. While at face value, it held much mirth and emotion, it nevertheless reverberated deep in Henry's soul. There was something... Wrong about that laugh. Something empty. "Oh, I amuse myself. At any rate, dear young one, it has come to my attention in the death of Darkseid-" She nodded towards the frozen television screen. "That I've been a bit lenient in how I govern what exactly 'Death' is. When he died, it sent a wave of invisible energy around the Universe, and every single being that had died and then somehow escaped my clutches was illuminated in my sight. There were far too many. One of which was you. The self-stylized Reclaimer."

She smirked, walking forward to him. He still did not speak, afraid beyond measure and fearful of the powerful being before him. "The Reclaimer. What a perfect title for my newest servant."

"...."

"What?!"

Death's eyes glowed black (which may seem oxymoronic, but I assure you, if you ever find yourself in the presence of the embodiment of the second oldest being in the Omniverse, you will understand completely) and she raised her arm forward, pointing it at Henry.

"Darkseid's Death has turned the key,
Where Death itself has held the lock.
May the Universe beware what's been released,
For the countless souls undead shall at last be Reclaimed."

After she spoke, a silver flash filled the frozen room, imprinting a blackened scythe tattoo on each of Retlyer's wrists. They began to smoke and dark red veins began spreading across his skin from them. He screamed, his voice distorted as he fell to his knees.

"Rise, God of Reclamation, Servant of Death. Rise, Reclaimer!"

After a short moment, the being that was once Henry Retlyer rose from kneeling. His wrists were smoking, and his eyes were silver. His skin was criss-crossed with dark red veins and those areas that weren't covered were black as char. He was taller than before- almost 12 feet total now- and in his hands were two sickles, one midnight black and the other white as day.

The Dawn of the Age of Man continues in Manifest: God of Fragments.

[Mavorpen]

Jamal groaned as he stood himself up from the small crater created when the residual energy released from the ark thrusters rained down upon him. "[Attention, it is critical you pay attention at this time. . The creature you fought has been destroyed by the drive wash. You were momentarily incapacitated due to your lack of shielding.]"

"Okay, so, our job's done here. computer an exit course and open a stargate."

"[It is far too late for that, Jamal. The electromagnetic disruption has reached levels that prevents the opening of a stargate. We are trapped here, thanks to you.]"

"Well, isn't that lovely." Jamal sighed. "Never thought I'd go out like this."

"[No, Jamal. I refuse to allow us to perish because of your naiveté. I sought to keep this from you until the time was right, but unfortunately the situation has called for it.]"

"What are you talking a-- Oh, no. You didn't." Jamal looked to the sky to see something he hadn't seen since the Annihilation Wave: other Nova Corps members.

"Greetings, Nova Prime." The man in front stated. For all intents and purposes, he appeared human under his Nova Corps helmet.

"I --what the hell is go--" Jamal stuttered in disbelief.

"[Jamal, we are running out of time. I called these Centurions here while you were battling the creature, in case you failed to flee the planet before we became stranded. With the six of you, you will have significantly more control over the gravimetric process necessary to open a Stargate.]"

Jamal was silent for a few seconds and then scowled. "Fine. But we're going to have a serious discussion after this, Worldmind. Let's get this over with."

The group of Novas, along with Jamal, formed a circle. "[Attempting to calculate a safe course. Opening stargate.]" The blue stargate opened in the center of the group and expanded outwards, encompassing the group. The next moment, they found themselves in the nearest star system.

The human-looking Centurion immediately bowed. "Nova Prime, it is an honor--"

"Malik, he's gone." The female Centurion stated. Malik looked up from his bow and watched as Jamal flew away to a nearby planet in the system. The Centurions looked at each other before deciding to follow. They found him sitting at the edge of a rocky cliff, with his helmet placed on the ground left of him. Deciding that Jamal probably wanted to be alone, they simply stood behind him.

After about 20 minutes of silence, Jamal suddenly stood up and turned around, picking up his helmet in the process and putting it over his head. "Alright, I've decided. I'm going home."

---

Karnilla sat and watched Naja walk down the aisle and watched them officially wed each other. She cheered along with the rest of the guests when the two kissed each other with a wide smile on her face. She got up and gathered around the cake along with a bunch of the other guests, waiting for Naja to cut it.

Then, she felt it. She whipped around and looked in the direction of where the battle that led to Darkseid's death. Her smile faded and for a split fraction of a second, her form flickered, but then returned back to normal as though nothing had happened. Karnilla appeared above the group of the Forgotten People and Otis. "What. Have. You. Done?" She asked to no one in particular.

"You!" The woman seemingly in charge of the Forgotten People shouted, poising at Karnilla as she descended. "Ally of Darkseid! You dare show your face here now of all times, witch? Can you not see that Darkseid has died? Peace will finally spread across Apokolips!"

Karnilla scowled and then sighed. "Yes, I can see that Darkseid is dead. If you believe Apokolips will have peace, you are, frankly, idiots." She turned to Otis. "And what of the one who actually caused all of this? What do you have to say for yourself?"

[Empire of the Siberian Flaming Eskimos]

The sounds of fists and feet slamming into padding echoed through the cell as Salis continued his daily routine. It had been almost a month since his first lawyer visit, and since then the man had gotten him several more perks to his prison life. First of all, they had to replace what he broke no matter what if it was essential. This meant that every time he tore his mattress to shreds like he was doing now he didn't have to sleep on the floor. Salis had taken to using the cusion as a punching bag by leaning it against the wall of his cell. They also had to give him some form of entertainment as long as he behaved, and as such they had started bringing a small selection of ARGUS approved and censored books to his cell. When he was done they took them back and gave him a new set. And so this was how he passed his days, reading, exercise, and sleep. He was currently embroiled in one of his training bouts, alternating between push-ups, sit-ups, running laps around his cell, and practicing what he'd learned from Ra's on his mattress.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the door to the outer area open and the bridge to his cell entrance extend. Two of his usual four guard escort walked across and waited at the door as Salis slammed his fist strait through the bedding before turning to them, sweat dripping down his bare back and chest. One of them motioned towards the table where his shit was with a bored expression that spoke of countless days of this repetition. Knowing the drill, Salis walked over and put on his shirt before approaching the door and putting his hands through a small hole that opened near waist height. The guards clamped a pair of heavy duty handcuffs to his wrists before opening the door fully. Salis walked forward at a decent pace as the two men followed behind, weapons out but held casually and with a slight air of boredom. Two more were waiting for the entourage at the next set of doors, opening them from the outside once it was clear Salis was contained. They then took up the lead, guiding him to the same visitor room he'd been in before.

Salis sat down at the same metal table in the same metal chair that had been used for the visits he'd been getting for the past month. After a few minutes the same lawyer came through the door, crisp tie and suit on, and briefcase in hand. Something was off though. His tie wasn't quite so crisp, his suit more wrinkled than normal. His eye's darted throughout the room, like an animal being hunted. As the man sat down he fidgeted with his his briefcase handle, a scared quality to his face. Yes, something was definitely off here.

"What happened?" said Salis sharply, "Is ARGUS tightening down already? I would think they'd wait awhile longer before trying anything. Media attention may be starting to fade, but it's definitely not gone."

The Lawyer seemed to jump a bit, as if just realizing he was there. "What? Media? No, no, it's not that. They're still being compliant." The man continued to shake incessantly.

"Then what happened?" said Salis with a glare. He didn't like dodging around like this, especially when he was paying so much money to have this man on his side.

The man acted like Salis hadn't said anything, ignoring his client completely. "Okay, we have pretty basic things to discuss," he said nervously, placing his briefcase on the table and fumbling with the clasps as he opened it, "we could try to get you gym or yard time, maybe a new form of entertainment if you wanted since you haven't tried to break out again. Still being good aren't you?" he let out a nervous laugh at the end, the badly hidden fear showing in his eyes.

Salis' eyes narrowed dangerously. Something had spooked this man badly, and he was going to find out. "Charles, tell me what happened, now." Salis stood up, a dangerous gleam in his eye. "I don't care how much they scared you, and you shouldn't either. You know why? Because they aren't here right now, and I am," At this point he was inches from the man's face, "Now tell me, what happened?"

The lawyer quickly realized that he was in a very dangerous position if he didn't start explaining and finally decided to spill the beans. "My house, someone got into my house," he blurted with a look of terror on his face, "I don't know how or why, but they came in in the middle of the night and left a knife lodged in my night stand."

"What kind of knife?" asked Salis, still right in the man's face with a dangerous look still on his face.

"Wha-? What kind?" he said, obviously confused. Salis gave a low growl to show his impatience and the man proceeded to answer the question. "It looked Arabic! There were lots of Islamic symbols on it and it was curved! There was no note and I didn't call the cops since I didn't want them killing me for contacting authorities!"

At this Salis backed off, sitting back down as the Charles gave a sigh of relief. This was very interesting. Salis hadn't heard a word from Ra's or anyone else in the Demon since his capture. This was to be expected since ARGUS was doing it's best to keep him cut off from the outside world, but it had started to worry him. Now it seemed they wanted to finally talk. "Can you get me pictures of it?" he asked suddenly, breaking the silence.

"What? Pictures? Yeah I guess, though ARGUS will try to screen them in case of something."

"Tell them it's legal documents and some bullshit about client confidentiality," said Salis as he waved it off, "as long as you don't report this or try to bring the actual knife in we should be fine."

"What about me?" said the man with a worried look, "Am I safe? Should I leave the state? The country?"

Salis laughed darkly at this, "Oh Charles, you were never safe. As long as you do what I say my friends won't kill you. You're too valuable for that." Charles tried for a light laugh at this, but it failed as his nervousness got the better of him. "Besides," continued Salis, "you'll get plenty of money out of this too." If they don't kill you when you're not useful anymore.

[The Republic of Atria]

It took Otis a few seconds for the rest of him to catch up. He was the new Darkseid. Or rather, the person who now had his powers. Which he had no idea how to use. Just as he finally got over the shock of what just happened some blue woman was telling him off for killing Darkseid. And that was enough of that for one day. "Bite me. I don't know, or care what I did. All I wanted to do was have a nice sandwich and catch up on Rick and Morty. But nooooo... Darkseid just HAD to come and blow up my apartment. And kill my mother. Fuck you." He spat at Karnilla. "And fuck you." He spat at the Forgotten people. "I wanted to sit on my ass for a few hours. Me time. But I had to deal with MORE of this Gods and Monsters bullshit. I'm DONE. Besides. I don't think anyone is going to be missing Darkseid. It's not like the guy was known for having friends. So, once more to recap. Fuck the lot of you. I'm going home. I'm going to eat dinner. I'm going to shower. I'm going to watch TV and then go to sleep."

However, since he was venting at everyone, his body thought he was under attack. So that meant it had to defend itself. And what better way to defend yourself then powerful death lasers? Otis walked away from them about 20 feet before stopping, gripping the side of his head, and firing the Omega beams indiscriminately. He didn't target anything, but that didn't stop him from carving several structures and the ground apart. It didn't help that he freaked out when they fired. He waved his head all around and made what damage he would have caused much worse. Once he finally managed to stop. "And you can blame those jerks for that." He pointed at the Forgotten People. "I didn't want the Omega Whatever-the-fuck. I wanted a sandwich. And so help me, I'm going to get one, if it kills me."

[The Fallen Jedi]

Lord Satera/The Highfather of Mortis

As soon as Alex had disappeared into a boom tube, Satera jumped off of the skyscraper he stood upon and landed in front of the corpse of the God of Apokolips, he was impressed of Otis' capabilities, to kill a New God that was deemed as an immortal, This feat could not be ignored in the slightest "He actually managed to kill you, one of the most powerful gods in the Universe?" Satera asked, crouching down to level with the dead Darkseid, a neutral expression on his face as he could sense that every ounce of life had been extracted from the Apokolips God, this was something of which Satera never saw before, to have Darkseid slain by a Human?! Not even Superman could have defeated him, and now a human killed him?! Now that, was a sign that Satera would take, never underestimate the power of humanity "What kind of power could pierce the most powerful Villain in the Universe and actually slay you?" Satera let out a small sigh as he stood up once more, giving one final stare at the corpse of Darkseid, he then brought his hand out, an orb of energy charging in his hand "Fade Away, In Peace..." Satera stated, his eyes glowing, Alastir's darkened emotions taking over, and without any regard for the environment of Earth as well as the vicinity of any humans, Satera fired forward his orb of energy, generating a great explosion as well as rendering Darkseid's corpse into nothing but a charred mess on the ground that shot up into the air, Satera's method of cremation.

As Satera shot up into the sky, the consciousness's of Spera and Alastir reemerged once more, the two of them expressing disbelief "Darkseid? The God of Apokolips died? how in the world is that possible?!" Spera expressed with obvious shock on his face. It was known that Darkseid had the potential to beat back and defeat Kal-El, one of the most powerful defenders of Earth, how Otis killed Darkseid was a surprise to Spera, he thought that Superman would be the one to finally kill Darkseid! But while he was shocked, Alastir demonstrated seething rage towards the display, a God like Darkseid was overwhelmed, Darkseid?!

Alastir opened his eyes, clenching his fists up in obvious anger "How in the hell did that happen?!" Alastir shouted with anger, gaining Spera's immediate attention "He just embarrassed every other god that was equal to his level, even the Minor Gods are going to have a shit fest over his death, don't get me wrong, I can sense invisible energy shooting off in millions of directions, looking to anoint other Gods, but out of all the people, why Darkseid." Alastir said with a growl "I would have thought that Beerus would die before Darkseid, but now, a human killed him, a HUMAN!" Alastir grumbled, his anger nearly causing the instability of the fusion between both Spera and Alastir himself "Next thing you know, they're going to think that they can now kill even the most powerful of gods!"

"Do not make that assumption Child..." Stated the voice of Lord Ouranos, who was able to make his presence known due to the Primordial Power that flowed through Satera's body "True, the humans shall become more and more confident with this great feat, but rest assure my child, that this is only the beginning of what is to come, Darkseid's death has cause a great imbalance in the Universe itself, but this imbalance will be quickly corrected, as those invisible streams of energy that you can sense? All of that energy is going to bestow powers of great proportions to many people who have been considered worthy by the fundamental forces of the Universe, there shall be a brand new generation of Gods that will be anointed within twenty four hours, maybe even less." the smile on Ouranos' face was present "Make no mistake child, this may also be a blessing in disguise for the both of you Spera included, you see, I know enough that one of your son's may be elevated to godhood due to this imbalance, for this is the Age of Man, where mere mortals with no experience are to become gods!"

[Baxten]

Salt Lake City
Vega looked out at the destruction he had caused. This reminded him of the first time he had destroyed a city like this. He went into the desert, and sat on a rock to ponder his thoughts. He thought of what had happened in the past, when he became entrapped by his undying rage for all life.

Planet: Unknown
Time: 2461 BCE (Earth Time)

Vega walked on the grass of this newly found planet. This was a time before Vega was a bloodthirsty monster, a time when he tried to get his life straight. He was still very cold, yes, but he tried his best to be like a normal being, one who doesn't kill. He still remembered when Satan created him from the fires of Hell, but he escaped to find a peaceful life. The only problem was that he was neglected everywhere. The words "monster" and "killer" we're yelled at him everywhere. People spat on his face, and he had been exiled from his fair share of planets in the past, all because he was a demon trying to find a new home. He used to always say "I want to be a hero. I want to help people around the galaxy and defend them. I want to be their savior". But he was never accepted, and most people jeered at himHe thought this new planet looked much nicer and peaceful. He saw a colorful and majestic city in the distance. He flew over towards the city, and saw all kinds of amazing buildings an people. He walked down the streets, and received no mean or hateful comments. "I may be able to settle here. The people seem nice, and this planet looks very nice and peaceful. Then, he heard a crowd of people with pitchforks, clubs, and sticks set on fire. They seemed to be coming from the east, and Vega faintly heard them say something. "Kill the demon", they said over and over again. It didn't take vega long to figure out what was happening; they were coming after him!

Vega ran away and hid from them, but they soon found him behind a wall. You see, Vega didn't know how to use his powers, and he never wanted to learn. He wanted to rid all connections from that evil place called Hell. But then someone stabbed him with one of their pitchforks. Something snapped within Vega, and he couldn't take it anymore. He let out a terrifying roar and yelled "I have had it! I wanted to help people, yet they can't even accept me for who I am! Why have you done this to me, God. Why!" Vega's eyes turned to a blood red, and his hellish armor was summoned to him. His own rage had consumed him, and he couldn't go back. Before Vega knew it, he had killed five people from the group that tried to attack him. He tried to stop, but couldn't. The rage held in his heart for the life of the universe was unleashed, and had taken complete control of his body. Vega was then covered in an aura of fire, and he began to use the powers he had forbidden himself to even learn. They seemed to come naturally to him. Next thing he knew, he had murdered the whole crowd. The law enforcement of the alien city came and tried to stop him, but Vega was no match for them. He murdered his way through the whole city, and had destroyed much of it, as well. The city was in flames, while people lay on the streets, dead or injured, from Vega's wrath. It didn't even phase him, as it was too late to go back to his peaceful state. He had completely forgotten the whole "save the universe" idea. His only instincts were to kill. Vega would never be the same, and it was as if he was a whole new being. Vega flew out of the atmosphere and went on a rampage around that whole solar system

Hell

"Ahahaha. That fool Vega should've stayed here. Now look at him; angry at the universe for doing what...not accepting him. Pft, how idiotic". Satan laughed at the site of Vega, angrily going from planet to planet, killing anyone in his way. He walked into his throne room, and thought about the whole situation "Vega wouldn't have lasted a day in Hell's Legion. But since his rage has consumed him, he may become a violent monster without emotions. That would be nice. Then he could fit perfectly in the Legion. But he also might try to kill us all, so I shall be cautious". Satan went to look at the destruction that Vega caused, and he chuckled saying "Now that's my boy. A bloodthirsty killing machine, just as I intended". Then Satan went into his bedroom and rested.

[Lavan Tiri]

And thus began the Age of Man...

Aaron flew through the city, lifting wreckage, stabilizing near-fallen buildings, and generally doing the job of every Leaguer who wasn't Superman: fixing the mess. The Big Blue Boy Scout was with a Doctor, he'd heard.

And Darkseid was dead. That happened too.

But the fight, and the Parademons, had left large sections of the city in shambles, leaving SHIELD, Cadmus, and the League to scramble about and clean it up.

As he heaved a massive slab of concrete back into place, sealing it with his heat vision and powers, Aaron's comm beeped, and Superman's voice crackled through. "Aaron. Report to City Hall, if you would."

Bewildered, Aaron finished with the concrete and flew off, heading for City Hall. When he got there, he found Superman and Doctor Fate, hovering over the building. "What's this about?" he asked, stopping in front of them.

Fate and Superman exchanged looks, and then Fate spoke. "Aaron, you know what the law of conservation of energy is, right?"

"Yeah…energy and matter can't be created or destroyed, only changed."

"Exactly," Fate continued. "And when Darkseid was killed, his power, his energy, had to go somewhere. We've received reports worldwide of people suddenly manifesting godlike power, and…well…"

Superman broke in. "Aaron, we believe that some of Darkseid's power has attached itself to you. Have you been feeling any different lately, any unusual emotions?"

Aaron stared down at his feet, thinking. "Well…I've been a bit pissed about the cleanup, I guess…mad you weren't helping…but that doesn't mean that-power-attaching-thingy, does it?"

But as he spoke, as he acknowledged his anger, it grew, until he was burning with rage, and Aaron felt a strange buzzing in his hands. He looked at them, and was terrified. His hands, normally covered in grey gloves, were bare and glowing red. He looked up. "Doc-"

But before Aaron could finish his sentence, Aaron gestured at him, and suddenly he was gone. If he could hear them, Aaron would hear Superman asking where the Doctor had sent the young man, and Fate replying that Aaron was bound for the one place where someone had a hope of dealing with him, and she was in…

Asgard. Aaron didn't know, intellectually speaking, when the room materialised around him, but on an instinctive level, he knew he was in Asgard. He saw a projection of the battle he'd just been in, he saw the brat who'd killed Darkseid, he heard laughter and cheering…

But all he felt was Rage. Aaron turned, to face the kid, as well as some blonde bitch. He would enjoy what was about to happen, but in the meantime, he could at least be polite. So, he spoke, his voice both booming and hissing through the hall.

"Hello. I'm Aaron. But you…you can call me Ironheart."

[The Republic of Atria]

Otis let out a sigh and rubbed his temples. It was very rare when he actually got as angry and upset as he was. Usually he was pretty calm and collected. The funny guy. He'd get over it after some time, but it still hurt. His mother had finally come around, just in time for her to get killed. It sucked. Now he was an orphan. Kind of. He walked around Apokolips for awhile until he realized that he had not only no idea where he was going, but no idea how to get home either. "Great... This day just keeps getting better and better. Powers I don't know how to use. Lost on a planet that smells like shit. And getting bitched at for killing an evil god that literally no one will miss." He muttered to himself and sat down. "Why me? Why couldn't I just be left alone for a few minutes?"

It was while he was sulking that he heard incoherent yelling coming from above him. He looked up to see the hairy brute Kalibak attempting an attack from above. It failed as he just darted out of the way. Kalibak landed on his feet with Otis looking more annoyed than actually threatened. Kalibak swung and hit Otis in the head with his club. But all it did was slightly move his head. "I am SERIOUSLY... NOT in the mood for your bullshit right now." He said and ripped the club from Kalibak's hand. "And I SWEAR. If you touch me with this stupid thing again. I will shove it where the SUN DON'T SHINE. AM I CLEAR?" He said very loud and very firm while dropping it. "Beat it- Wait. How do I get off this planet?"

"Why should I tell you anything? You murdered my father!"

"He murdered my mother. So we're even. And as for why you should tell me. Well. I don't have these red eyes for looks. And remember what I said about the club being shoved somewhere unpleasant?" He asked.

"You need a motherbox." Kalibak said not willing to have his club used as a suppository. "Desaad as them."

"See? You can be useful." He said and just stood there waiting for Kalibak to take him. "Well? Start walking. I don't know who Desaad is or what he looks like." It didn't seem to take much to intimidate Kalibak. He grumbled as he started walking towards what was Darkseid's castle.

[Charmera]

At the Wedding
Cora clapped and cheered as Naja and Alex kissed at the end of the ceremony, watching as Kylie light up the sky with fireworks. She was standing by the bride and groom with her teammates, who were serving as Naja's bridesmaids. Cora was very excited to be attending a wedding with her best friends. This was the first wedding she had ever attended, and she was enjoying it a lot. She stood next to Katie, holding her girlfriend's hand as the ceremony took place. She still couldn't believe how lucky she was to have a group of friends that she could fight crime with, and a girlfriend who cared about her as much as Katie did.

Katie, on the other hand, if you looked closely, had tears in her eyes, though not out of sadness. She always got emotional at weddings, even when she was only watching a movie with them. She was never quite sure why, and couldn’t quite explain it, especially as she was not usually the weepy type. Maybe it had something to do with her relationship with Cora too. She had been doing so every so often throughout the process, but made an effort not to during the reception or anything where she had to talk to or appear in front of others. She didn’t want to draw attention away from the wedding after all.

“Cora… It’s so beautiful...” She whispered.

-snip-

-snip-

"I agree, with you, my friend," Valka said to Manifest, "for this was no victory. I too must alert Asgard's allies, and that the Slime Queen was able to reduce two blasts that could break asunder worlds into being totally ineffective troubles me. But these have fought beside Asgard today, and while I would not count it as the greatest threat we have face, the battle might not have been 'won' save for their presence."

Looking keenly upon Manifest again as he spoke of going to the Throne of the Universe, she frowned. "I understand if you choose to do this, my friend, but I would advise against it. The cost is too heavy, and the universe will have great need of thee, I suspect. Do not underestimate thyself, my friend, for you defeated the Builders with the rest of us without resorting to such measures. I would advise thee to stave this off until there is no other choice. But have faith, my friend, for there are forces in this universe which are hidden. Forces with power, allies, one might call them. We will not stand alone." she said firmly, laying a hand on his shoulder.

Later...

And so, there was a feast in the halls of Asgard. Not as much revelry and joy was present as in other feasts, but any Asgardian feast was to be reckoned with. Steaming hot meats, warm breads with goat butter, boars and fish and mead and elderberry wine, all were present at the All-Mother's feast, and more besides. Calling for silence after her guests and the Asgardians had eaten for quite some time, Valka spoke, "I wish to know, new friends, if thou requests everything of me, or if thou had some idea of a boon for your service. I will not promise to do anything, but I will take it into deep consideration, for you played a part in thwarting the enemy today."

Katie chewed some bread which had been in her mouth and then paused. She was tempted to be humble and say nothing at all. And she started saying it. “Well… All mother… I…” Then she paused, and then she thought of something. It might be a bit selfish to ask for something like that. “You wouldn’t happen to know a way I could get to… try to lift Mjolnir? I mean I might not be able to, but It’s one of the things I’ve always wanted to try.” She said. Interestingly, she saw Mjolnir as more of an experience to be curious about than a status symbol as someone might see it. She was not asking to prove anything. She was not concerned with by worthy as seeing what the hammer was like.

Nico
Nicole went to his room for a little while and finished up his homework. He then got a text from his father that said that he and Nico's mother would be late that night, and that Nico and Cat would have to get dinner on their own. Nico sighed, wondering what nefarious things his parents were up to. It was almost impossible for him to be comfortable around them, now that he knew the truth about who they actually were.

Nico stepped out of his room and headed back toward his sister's room where he had been a few hours ago. He had a feeling she wouldn't be too excited to hear from him. It was hard for Nico, he didn't understand why his sister wouldn't just talk to him about what was wrong.

Nico knocked on her door again and spoke to Cat through it, "Hey Cat, mom and dad aren't coming home for dinner. So we'll have to eat by ourselves. You want to got out somewhere? You can pick the restaurant you want." He said to her, hoping she'd agree to come out with him, but doubted she'd be too enthusiastic about it.

Cat rolled over in her bed to regard her brother. And then sighed. She was about to refuse, when she felt a hunger pang come over her. She frowned as her belly rumbled. Then she sat up in her bed. “Okay…” She replied tenantively, walking towards her older brother, “Let’s go for… Italian? I’m feeling pretty hungry…”

[New Rnclave]

Tomia:

"No!" Tomia shouted defiantly, staring up at Claudia. It was weird to her. A few moths ago, she would have been happy to see the red Titan leave, but after four months of living with her, and being cared for by Claudia, she couldnt imagine not having the red woman as a friend.

" I-I-I love you Miss Claudia! You can't leave me!" She whimpered, desperately gripping at her clothes." I'll… Daddy will miss you! You can't leave us! We-We need you!" She shouted, her voice cracking desperately, tears threatening to pour down her cheeks. It was hard to believe she's grown so close to the hulking lady, but now she couldn't bear to see her go. She knew Claudia wanted to stay, she could feel it.

I don't care if it's selfish! I need her! She's all... She's all I have

"He won't-" Claudia started, but before she could finish she heard a beeping sound. She sighed, lifting Tomia up. "We... can talk about this later... We have to fight now..." She sighed. "Today... We fight the queen of this world..."

The Queen was enigmatic at best. She had never seen the Queen in person, but she was said to be quite the formidable opponent. A scary individual, and in this planet most everyone seemed scared shitless of her. She walked towards the door with Tomia.

"I... We need to win. Either way." She paused. "I'm so sorry Tomia. Things have gotten... so confusing..."

Tomia:

" No you're right Miss Claudia..." Tomia muttered, lacing her fingers with Claudia's as they walked. Looking over, Tomia blinked when she realized she was about at was it height with her caregiver. She'd been only begun noticing it lately, how tall she was getting, the hikes in power, emotional rampages within the training room. She was older then she was supposed to be, that was for sure.

" So we fight the Queen today?" Tomia commented, glancing over the gathered citizens, ready to witness an amazing fight she supposed. If she'd learned anything from her father, she knew she couldn't let pressure get to her. She had to remain cool and collected. Taking a deep breath, she puffed out her chest, clenching her fist angrily at her side as they walked.

[New Neros]

-Ashy/Old One

Mad City Saga
Life After Death

The group seemed to give Ashy and her Old One inhabitant a fair chance, listening to their story, and hearing them out. Mir hadn't even known the burden Ashy carried recently, he had suspected something, but having the power of an Old One trapped within her and giving her the Power Primordial, whatever that meant, was new information indeed. He leaned forward, examining the youthful-looking Old One. "Rua..." He repeated, not grabbing at her attention but simply repeating her name. He glanced over at Ashy, remembering her own battle during the Ragnarok War. "So, the Snake lives." He said solemnly, a bit remorseful, knowing that some relic of that catastrophic event still persisted in face of Max, Val, and Otto's sacrifices.

"I gathered these men and women based on their abilities and their lack of organizational ties. They hit heavy, have dynamic powers, and are ready to form a team with others, I simply gave them the go-ahead. Some took convincing, but we're all here at the table regardless." Mir explained, "One of our top priorities will be locating the Snake, and a way to siphon her powers will be to enact our protection over the globe. Less hatred, less sins for her to feed on, if I'm not mistaken, that's what she, it, lives off of, right? I remember that much, since Nul and Darkstar have such tremendous amounts of both for her. There is something we must do, though, and that is work together as a team."

He turned to fully address the rest of the Mad Gods, looking each one in the eye with sincerity, "I have at my disposal an immense room where space and time flow...Differently. While in it, a single day will pass on the outside world, but within it, a years' worth of time can be spent on anything, in our case, training. What I'm proposing is a day-long training session, where we can work together and build ourselves into a formidable, reliable team in a years' worth of time. All amenities will be taken care of while in this space. It is accessed by a special dimension, and only we have the keys. No one can disturb us, and I'm sure we're all of sufficient power individually to hold on our own."

"In this room, your mind and body will adapt to the training, but you will not physically age. In this Hyperbolic Time Chamber, we have much to gain and very little to lose - The world can wait a single day for us to become the best that we can be, so, I propose that this training exercise be our first mission together. I have plans drawn up for all of us as well, so, let's make our arrangements and be ready to enter the Chamber in one hour." Mir said graciously, a natural-born leader, each of his subordinates seeming to nod in agreement at the training exercise. With that, Mir could conclude the meeting, and did so. "Alright, we're all free to leave. Do what you must for the next hour, because after that, we won't be setting it down for an entire year."

Turning to Ashy as his fellow Mad Gods left the room, discussing among themselves the possibility of training together and getting more introductions out of the way, Mir smiled at the Vokornian with warmth. "Surely you long-lived fellows can take a year, no?" He asked, "Alone, together in the depths of the Time Chamber, we can forge a powerful alliance." He said, sounding romantic at first, but clearly talking about the team instead. "We'll only miss one day in this universe, and our bodies won't really age that much, if Maxwell's formulas are to be trusted."

Mir reached out and put a hand on the Vokornian's knee cap, "Maybe we can work on getting the Old One to be a bit more talkative." He said with a smile, the young-looking primordial deity still sitting on the table, Mir making a short quip about it.

---

A little under an hour passed after the end of the meeting, and Mir was making final adjustments to a large control panel that stood off to the side of a large, metallic, technologically advanced doorway. Over his shoulder was Victor Vaughn, who Mir explained the workings of the chamber and what it did, the former SHIELD Agent nodding and listening to the technobabble as other Mad Gods found their way to the room. "Glad to see we've all made it." Mir said with a smile, "When we get in there, you'll find suits of armor tailor-made to fit your body and compliment your powers. Consider it a gift from me, and your uniform as a Mad God."

With that, Mir engaged some buttons and flipped some switches, sending a large array of power to the door in steadily increasing levels, the hum of electricity growing louder with each passing second, until finally, the door lit up as the relays made contact, and slowly, it rolled itself open, revealing a pale white expanse within. "The Hyperbolic Time Chamber. With it, we access a dimension where a years' worth of time is spent in just one day. We can control it with some devices within the Chamber to give us varying environments and situations to respond to. We have enough amenities to survive long periods within it, so, let's get to it." Mir yelled as the doors slid open, taking the first few steps into the time-lapsed dimension.

A large house a short distance away was the only feature in the ever-expanding white nothingness in the Chamber, which Mir quickly pointed out. "That'll be our home for the next year. It has our sleeping quarters, food stores, and every little thing to make us feel at home while we're here." He began to walk forward towards the house, the rest of the Mad Gods in tow, when he felt the sickening wrongness of the universe shifting. It was the same feeling as when Darkstar entered this reality, and it nearly drove Mir to vomiting. Whipping his head around, looking out into that white nothing, his eyes struggled to keep focus, flashes of black covering his pupils off and on. He glanced at his team, some also looking towards the sky.

Johanna and Kat for the first, both with their mouths covered by their hands in pure shock, Ashy afflicted as well, and finally, Andreas threw his head up as his eyes grew wide. Mir clutched his stomach to prevent from puking, but Kat dropped to her knees in a dramatic fashion. What was going on, Mir didn't know, but All-Black the Necrosword was running wild in his veins. Kat breathed steadily, eyes and body shaking, muttering the cause of their affliction. "Darkseid...Is dead..." She said softly, the wide eyes of those who detected the mass exodus of the Omega Effect growing larger if possible, glossing over and looking down if not, wondering how such a powerful, Multiversal entity could meet his end.

Van Zant, Bree Jok-Bal, Victor Vaughn, and Alan Gabriel seemed out of the loop, Van promptly asking his comrades, "What the hell's going on?" Receiving a blank stare from most of them, Andreas walking over to the four without divine connections to the greater universe, and politely informing them.

"Darkseid. Big scary fuck, crushes universes for a hobby." Andreas explained, looking at his comrades, and then at the ground. "Well, he was one of the most powerful Gods in existence. And he just died." The Eternal said solemnly, not sparing anything to his teammates. "Some of us have powers that extend from deities and the cosmos, so, when he died, the universe wailed in agony, and we felt it. I felt it from the Celestials, Johanna from the Heavens, Ashyandra from the Old One, Kat from being from Apokolips - Home of Darkseid - and...Mir?" Andreas asked, looking at their unshakable leader, Mir's hands clasped to his skull and bent forwards over his torso, breathing steadily.

Alan interjected, feeling it, finally. "The magic plane is distorting..." He commented, "An aftershock from Darkseid's death?"

"Yeah...It could be delayed effects." Andreas said, not paying attention to Alan, but walking towards Mir, who seemed to be struggling with something from within. In the white nothingness that surrounded them, a shadow began to form around Mir, rubbing off of him like vapor as well, "Mir, what's wrong?" The Eternal asked cautiously, keeping his distance, but gritting his teeth as the Daxamite looked up at him, revealing one of his eyes had gone completely black, a single white dot becoming his pupil instead. His whole body started to cover itself in that wretched blackness as well, Mir staring intently at Andreas.

"He...Died...." Mir said harshly, his voice distorted as All-Black tried to take control. "And...New...Gods...Were...Born." Andreas' jaw hung open slightly, knowing what happens when a God dies - New Gods take their place. Mir was tied to All-Black the Necrosword, which fed on the blood of gods and deities, and the sudden emergence of new hosts for the powers of Darkseid consumed the blade, and thus, it was trying to overtake Mir. "Fight it, Mir. Don't let that world slicer tell you what to do, damnit." Andreas said, stepping forward courageously, but his fear still present. "Don't let it win."

Mir growled and flexed every muscle in his body, stopping the spread of the darkness from completely taking over his form. He groaned painfully, slowly causing the shadowy coating to retract back and away from sight, collapsing down to his knees, breathing deeply and quickly with painful winces in between each breath as the effects of the Annihiblade left his body. "It wants them..." Mir said quietly, "It wants me to take their blood." He explained, his team looking upon him with some second guesses and a bit of horror at the sight of what Mir was about to become. "I'll master this damn thing." Mir promised, clenching his fists together. "I'll tell it what to do." He said with passionate anger, "I am not All-Black, I wield All-Black." With that, Mir stood back up on his own two feet, looking at the faces of the Mad Gods.

"Let's go. We have work to do."

[Charmera]

New and Old Gods, Part 1
The Sound of Music.

Chorus walked towards the last stop she would need to make. Two remained, all gathered in a single building. Three who stood in the way of the return of her voice. The banishment of the numbing silence which had left her feeling incomplete for so long. The vision from the Pink hoodied Janice had revealed little about her enemy, but told her exactly where they were, and so she had taken the opportunity to kill the third to last of the group, a woman who called herself Flute. She was able to control razor sharp winds, and gave chorus the ability to do so too when she died. Normally that was not how it worked, but seemingly their Voice was where they got their abilities from. She knew that the huge building in front of her was where she needed to go if she wanted her voice back, and likely where her opponents were planning to kill her.

This is suicide, you’re going to get yourself killed.

This is our only chance Verse. We need to end this today.

She suddenly stopped, sensing someone in the area. A frown on her face as she pulled verse from his microphone form into the form of a blade. Then she saw a metallic figure come out from the building. She frowned as she recognised him. He was one of the five. This was Brass. The metalic figure was big and heavy, and looked at the woman in front of him, with amusement.

”So, this is the famous Chorus and Verse." He spoke, his voice raspy and almost sagely at the same time. ”You want your voice then, and the many voices I have collected over the years."

The answer went without saying. Chorus did not even give him time to finish his speech before she attacked. But she found her blade being flung back suddenly. Causing her to look at the figure with confusion.

”I’m disappointed. I saw such art when you killed the others. A young virtuoso of combat, a motzart of blades dancing like the wind… But that strike was so… boring. What happened? Desperation? Anger? Fear?"

Suddenly a hammer appeared in his hands and he slammed downwards, sending Chorus flying even though she wasn’t hit just from the sheer force. She gritted her teeth as she recovered, then Jaunted behind him in an attempt to stab him. Then once again she was sent flying.

[b”It’s Ironic really."[/b] Brass turned and rapped on his armour. ”This thing is what keeps your voice and my powers. It gives me so much power, and the ultimate protection. But still I hoped you would provide at least a spectacle before I crushed you."

Chorus would have snarled had she had a voice. But she calmed herself, she needed to think. She used her powers. First her beam. The beam was redirected, bouncing and skewering a signpost. The loaned ones, the wires bounced off similarly. Even blasts of sound from Janices loaned powers, or her new ability couldn’t help her.

Then Brass Chuckled. ”Nothing can hurt me it seems. Oh well. I gave you a fair chance. Now to begin the crushing." Brass sped towards her, slamming her with the hammer, causing her to feel immense pain as she soundlessly squealed, a few ribs crushed by the force. The next blow would have killed her if she didn’t roll out of the way. Then she blocked the next attack with Verse, causing Brass to back off slightly. And then she got some room, moving away from Brass as much as she could. But then Brass stepped on her leg, breaking it. She groaned in pain.

Not so fast Chorus, not when it just started getting good. He laughed. Tell you what... He grabbed her by the head.

Why don’t you sing me a song Chorus? Then I’ll let you live. You can do that can’t you? he chuckled, then changed his voice to emulate that of Chorus. “What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” he laughed.

Chorus was just about resigned to her fate when she snapped. That was about all she could take from this guy. And she just knew her voice was so close to becoming hers. And so she suddenly punched forward. But to her surprise, she dented his armour savagely. Her eyes widened. She didn’t know she could do that.

He moaned as he grabbed his now managled arm. ”You little-" He slammed his hammer down, but it was stopped by an invisable force. And then she understood.

Thanks Gilbert She spoke. And then she decided to finish him, focusing on the metal, she decided to pry the armour open, and with her telekinetic strength without having to move, she overcame the vector shield. It was a directiuonal shield after all, and couldn’t protect from a force that was acting from within the shield. She opened it to see dozens of small fiery balls, and then they all saw her, and rushed towards the pop star. They all wished to get out so badly, they all seems to be sucked into the body of Chorus. There were thousands upon thousands of them too.

And then, everything glowed bright blue for a second. And then everything went dark.

————

Chorus awoke what must have been hours later, she inhaled, and then exhaled. She felt it. Her voice was back. It had returned to her. After all this time. She wanted to speak. She gently spoke, not even a whisper, but more of a sound. A small one, or so she thought. It was actually suddenly an explosive force which escaped from her mouth, going towards the building she had been going towards and destroying it.

Suffice to say, Chorus was pretty shocked by this. She had not expected anything like that to happen. And so kept her mouth shut. It seemed her voice had been magnified greatly, like an Inhuman who’s name seemed to escape her. She frowned as she felt something missing. She looked around in her head. She noticed all the souls she had collected were still there, but Verse seemed… silent. Almost… not there…

Verse…

What’s going on…? Where are you? She paused. She seemed on the verge of tears, but now she felt like a sob could do a whole lot of damage, so she didn’t let herself. What’s… happening to me…?

[The Silhouette of Adventure]

If one were to search the Universe for the wielder of the Manifest Blade at any given point in the history of time, a sure bet are the odds that you will find the wielder knee deep in the dead, laughing maniacally. This isn't a feature of the personality manipulation of the Blade- It is simply the type of person that the Blade inevitably falls into the hands of. Charles Crawler, the so-called Manifest, was at this moment knee deep in dead parademons and laughing maniacally. He almost didn't notice when the demons began to retreat, killing dozens before they were able to even turn around to leave.

"What's wrong, cowards!" He called out, summoning several small War Machine-level rockets to launch into the mass of alien creatures. "Don't want to play anymore!?"

"Manifest! This is Rhodes. The parademons at the Baxter Building just... ran away. What do you have on your end?"

"Same thing. What do you think-" Suddenly, the Manifest Blade appeared unbidden in his hand, almost dragging him in a direction. "What the- What is... Darkseid." He stared in the direction the Blade pointed, not sure how he knew, but he knew nonetheless. Darkseid had been slain. "Rhodes, keep the Avengers on standby over the next few weeks. I don't know what, exactly, is going to happen but... He's dead. Darkseid is dead, Rhodes, and I don't have the faintest fucking idea what this means."

"He's dead? Isn't that a good thing?"

Manifest continued to stare, ignoring the waves of retreating parademons as they trailed off behind him. "You would think so, wouldn't you?"

And then, black static began protruding from the ground, and Charles Crawler did not notice.

Then, the static grew into fully fledged electric bolts, and Charles Crawler did not notice.

Then, a single, incredibly powerful bolt flew into the sky, and Charles Crawler closed his eyes.

Finally, black lightning struck down on top of Charles Crawler.

And Charles Crawler was no more.

Lo, the Mortal had gone, and in his place had risen a God.

Rise, immortal soul.

Rise, God of the Fragmented.


Hail, God of the Fragmented, himself granted power by the broken dead.
Hail, God of Reclamation, Aspect of Death.

The machinations of God and Man begin anew once more, as pawns are elevated, Masters move their chess pieces into position, and the rules of the Universe are forever changed.

Thus ends the Era of the New God.

Thus begins the Age of Man.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

---

Kirisvala listened to the conversation between Mars and Professor Xavier with mild confusion, which was only accentuated when something began to echo in her head. She was nonetheless able to understand that the bald man wanted them to take care of the shy blonde girl that had arrived with him, and said something about her having some memory problems after an accident. The Hadrian girl felt sorry for her, but she was confident that, as long as nobody minded that they had a new member, they would be able to take good care of her with little trouble. She was already getting enthusiastic about showing her around the Tower of Youth, and introducing her to ADAM and the other members of the group, and all the other little things that were involved in the initiation of a new member of the Young Bloods... whatever those things were. She didn't actually know what the initiation of a new member entailed, or, more accurately, what it should entail.

When the Professor left, however, Kirisvala seized the opportunity to voice her thoughts, rather literally.

"Mars... the bald man looked trustworthy, but why'd he lie to us?" She asked, believing she was whispering the question to her friend when she was in fact broadcasting her thoughts to the three people present around her, an ability that she most certainly did not have before. "I mean, he said he and the others were the X-Men, but none of them really looked like Xs..." She conveyed. Rather than question her strange new ability, Red Arrow facepalmed.

Glancing over at her red-clad fellow in confusion, the pink-haired girl quickly decided to turn her attention back to Mars. "And why was he using that weird voice that sounded inside my head?" She inquired, then paused, frowning. "Why am I using that weird voice that sounds inside people's heads?" She questioned, scratching her head with her claws, very delicately so as to avoid damaging her hair. She spoke a few random words while holding a hand to her mouth to make sure she wasn't actually physically speaking, rather surprised to find that she wasn't even though she thought she was.

After a moment though, she decided that she'd figure it out later and looked at Rin. "Oh, anyways! I'm Dragon Mage, but you can call me Kiris. Nice to meet you!"

---

---

"Nope." Etla shook her head at the rat fellow as he asked if she had the ability to heal him. That was, sadly, beyond both her natural abilities and those that were granted by the Cores she had acquired throughout her stay at Earth and the journeys that followed (admittedly, they weren't many; she reasoned that it would be very helpful if she got herself a few more to allow for more versatility). Shoving her sword back into her dimensional storage and also sending off her armor, as there were no longer any enemies present, she put her hand to her chin, but then shook her head once again. "I don't have the ability to heal you, and while I know someone who could, I don't think she can help us right now." She explained. However, knowing that Ralph was pretty beat up after closing the portals and understanding that he wouldn't be of much help in a battle if he was in no condition to fight, she figured that the least she could do was offer to help him out again. "What I can do is zap you again. It'll revitalize your cells and make you regenerate faster, and it'll also fill you with energy so you can fight some more." She stated. Despite being a bit of an airhead she was able to learn quickly, and there were a handful of books on biology lying around on Craig's place. "However, it's also a bit dangerous. I already did it once, so your cells might overload even though it's been a while, and if you're one of those weird things with a heart it might just explode."

With her explanation done, she raised a finger towards Ralph, and then raised her eyebrows inquisitively. "So, what'll it be?" She asked.

---

---

Sarah felt the nudging and woke up slowly, hearing John's words but not quite discerning their meaning, as she had just become conscious once again after peacefully napping for a while as she rode the train along with him. It took her a bit longer to adjust to the light than it usually did for normal people, but afterwards, she looked up, simply staring at John with her bright red eyes for several moments. Then, however, she smiled softly.

"You really are a gentleman, aren't you?" She said with a mellow voice, before reaching up and softly planting a kiss on John's cheek, giggling a bit after that. "I'm very sorry for not watching the scenery with you. I'll make it up to you somehow~" She spoke suggestively, winking at him.

She finally stood up afterwards, stretching a little bit, and then turned back to Morgan, the meaning of the words he'd spoken to her earlier only now truly reaching her. "Anyway, the ride is over now, no? Let's go, then. You know this place like the back of your hand, so I'm sure you can find us something else to do... Unless you'd rather resort to heading back to the hotel already, of course." She grinned at him for a moment before walking out of the train, her every step graceful.

As she unboarded, she saw a familiar face in the crowd and immediately advanced towards her. "Sam!" Sarah exclaimed happily, hugging her sister.

Then she suddenly pulled away, a dead serious expression on her face. All the sleepiness had faded in just an instant. "Where's Hanah?"

---

---

"To be completely honest," Spoke the Eternal Night, shrugging at the All-Mother's question. "I just came here for the thrill of combat. I figured that helping the side being invaded would be the most interesting choice, though do not think that my comment means I have no morals; I certainly wouldn't have helped the snot army invade you." She stated. "My point is, you don't have to reward me in any way. With this banquet I'm already getting far more than I would have expected." She admitted, giving a solemn nod in Valka's direction, before digging into the food laid out in front of her. Naturally, one would think that the mask she wore perpetually would either be removed or become a significant impediment, but one would be sadly mistaken in that regard. The only thing that the Nameless One had to do in order to be able to eat normally was lift her mask a little, and then start shoving food into her mouth, which seemed far more spacious than a human one, given the ammount of meat and bread that was being stuffed in there, though there was no actual way to tell: the area around Eternal Night's mouth, which was exposed due to the lifting of the mask, was completely shrouded in darkness, preventing anyone and everyone from seeing past it.

[The Republic of Atria]

The "palace" if you could call it that had no doors. Kalibak led him to a rather small and frail looking man wearing a cloak. "Desaad! Father's murderer wishes to speak with you." This earned him an irritated look from Otis.

"First of all. My name is Otis, or Bolt. Second of all, you can't possibly tell me that you miss Darkseid. I've been in a bad mood these last few minutes. And somehow, I think I've treated you better than Darkseid did when he was in a GOOD mood." He said. "Anyways. You." He pointed to Desaad. "I want to go home. Which is Earth. Kalibak said I needed a Motherbox. I don't know what a motherbox is. So... Explain it to me like I'm 10 years old and low on patience." Otis said.

"Of course." He said not willing to argue with the man who just killed his old master and pulled out the Motherbox. It was like a smartphone, but about twice the size. "This device is sentient. It links to its user and will open a portal that we call boom tubes. These portals will take you wherever you wish to go. Across dimensions, universes, and space." He explained, handing Otis the device.

"Huh. That's kinda neat." All it took was a small mental command and the portal opened up, leading back to Earth. "I don't know if I'm coming back. Sooo... Go nuts or whatever." He stepped through the tube and landed back in Attilan. Things were a bit hectic since his apartment was destroyed by Darkseid. The motherbox told him that she could tap into the signals anywhere on Earth. "Okay... The News." He said and the motherbox began to basically play it in his head. Straight to brain TV. There was a video being play on literally every news-station and website capable of supporting videos. And it was all the same thing: His fight with Darkseid. Most people only caught the end where Darkseid was killed, but nevertheless, within an hour, the entire planet knew that he killed Darkseid. "Daaamn."

While he was doing this, he attempted to multitask and head back to his room, which he forgot was destroyed and bumped into a woman. "Oh! I'm sorry!" He stammered and helped her up. "I wasn't watching where I was going."

[Charmera]

Xyri took the opertunity to attack, running forward and slamming her slime fist into Grodd's gut. Said fist was much harder than the ape would anticipate, and send him flying back into the wall of the lab. He grunted, and then got to his feet. Then pulled out a laser beam of some sort. "Enough of this nonsense. Burn Slime. Burn." He stated, and then fired.

Probably should have ate him. thought the slime as she quickly reformed to avoid the beam, becoming a slimey mess of goo on the floor. Don't like burn... Vera! Do something so I can nom on him!

Upon Grodd getting thrown back, Vera jumped off him back onto the ceiling, safely away from the falling ape. Upon seeing him attack Xyri with a laser she drops down next to him with her shotgun out before whistling to make sure she has his attention. She then quickly takes aim and fires a beanbag round at his hand, knocking the laser out of his hand. Now that his attention is drawn to her, she quickly jumps back up to the ceiling. Before can get safely up on the ceiling, Grodd manages grab her leg, trying to drag her down.

Xyri was not about to let a damn dirty ape touch her friend. She suddenly rushed Grodd, wrapping her slimey body around him and crushing him in a bear hug like vice. She then tossed the ape like a sack of potatoes, into a wall. She then moved to absorb him, assuming he didn't come up with any tricks of course... that might be problematic.

The "palace" if you could call it that had no doors. Kalibak led him to a rather small and frail looking man wearing a cloak. "Desaad! Father's murderer wishes to speak with you." This earned him an irritated look from Otis.

"First of all. My name is Otis, or Bolt. Second of all, you can't possibly tell me that you miss Darkseid. I've been in a bad mood these last few minutes. And somehow, I think I've treated you better than Darkseid did when he was in a GOOD mood." He said. "Anyways. You." He pointed to Desaad. "I want to go home. Which is Earth. Kalibak said I needed a Motherbox. I don't know what a motherbox is. So... Explain it to me like I'm 10 years old and low on patience." Otis said.

"Of course." He said not willing to argue with the man who just killed his old master and pulled out the Motherbox. It was like a smartphone, but about twice the size. "This device is sentient. It links to its user and will open a portal that we call boom tubes. These portals will take you wherever you wish to go. Across dimensions, universes, and space." He explained, handing Otis the device.

"Huh. That's kinda neat." All it took was a small mental command and the portal opened up, leading back to Earth. "I don't know if I'm coming back. Sooo... Go nuts or whatever." He stepped through the tube and landed back in Attilan. Things were a bit hectic since his apartment was destroyed by Darkseid. The motherbox told him that she could tap into the signals anywhere on Earth. "Okay... The News." He said and the motherbox began to basically play it in his head. Straight to brain TV. There was a video being play on literally every news-station and website capable of supporting videos. And it was all the same thing: His fight with Darkseid. Most people only caught the end where Darkseid was killed, but nevertheless, within an hour, the entire planet knew that he killed Darkseid. "Daaamn."

While he was doing this, he attempted to multitask and head back to his room, which he forgot was destroyed and bumped into a woman. "Oh! I'm sorry!" He stammered and helped her up. "I wasn't watching where I was going."

"So, you killed Darkseid..." Remarked a familiar Green Figure, apearing almost as if from out of nowhere. There was a smile on Julie's face. "I'm Julie, from the wedding and from Asgard." She remarked. "Not bad for a blue rookie. Cosmic imbalance shit beside. I mean I never really got that whole thing either..." She remarked, sighing. Then groaning as she clutched her head. A migrane was going through it. She sighed. "Remind me to get some sleep soon, now I'm having headaches... Great."

[Charmera]

"Not to sound like a dispenser of chiches, but no pain no gain Hiro." Remarked Glacia. "There are many paths to power, but not one of them is pain free. Some merely require sacrifice over a longer time." She remarked. "Besides, at least you haven't had your arm and ribs broken by a Saiyan and a pink woman, as well as having the crap beaten out of you by them before hand." She joked.

"As for my progress, I'm doing very well. I'm surprised by the amount of power I could pull from these sessions." She paused. "Still, like you, I feel like I can do more. That there is something I'm not yet attaining."

" You see. That's where we're different. I've made almost no gains, and what little gains I have made are pathetic!" Hiroshi cursed, punting a small Boulder away angrily. " Oniyo said this form was the failure of our race. Everything we achieve leads up to this barrier, the final hurdle a Saiyan has to pass over before they can become a pantheon, a first among equals." The Hybrid remarked, a golden aura bursting to life around him as his hair spiked skywards, shifting in color.

" Everything I've achieved pales in comparison to this. The Legendary Super Saiyan and Ascended Saiyan forms were only stepping stones for this. With this power? What being could stand against us? I've felt the depths of it and know how strong it will make me, not unlike the potential I feel within you!" Hiroshi commented, turning on her abruptly, staring into her eyes intently. Whatever enemy they were to face, was beyond the power they held now, or at least was according to Supreme Kai, which only made his desperation to ascend heighten.

A light feminine chuckle drifted through the hair, just its sound sending shivers down the Hybrids spine. Turning, the air not a hundred feet from them shimmered slightly, before two very potent energy signatures made themselves known.

" Mira, do you not find Hiroshi adorable right now? So full of rage and uncertainty? It's so cute." The She demon mused aloud, much to the Super Saiyans irritation. " How unfortunate that he's the only creature is this realm that has the power to defeat Dabura."

The larger blue demon remained quiet, the dumb look on his face making Hiroshi want to lay out, sighing, he turned to face the two demons.

" What are you doing here?" Hiroshi asked cautiously, tensing his frame slightly in preparation for a scuffle. " Leave before I'm forced to take matters into my own hands. We'll see how much you laugh then."

"Demons. Aren't they just annoying? Think you can just chat with a sparring buddy... but noooooo..." Mused Glacia, turning to face the two energy signatures. She cracked her knuckles in anticipation and as a threat. "So, the annoying one is Towa, while the mute one is Mira, am I guessing right?" She asked. "Like the Saiyan says, I'm guessing your not here just to be coy, come on. Tell us what your here for."

[The Republic of Atria]

"Oh, it's not a big deal." She replied as Otis helped her up. "Wait. I know you. Everyone thought you were dead after you killed Darkseid."

"No. I came close a few times, but I am very much still alive. It's a long story, but all I want to do now is go get something to eat and sleep for the next decade." He muttered. "Oh... Right. Home is... Erm. Ash."

"You can stay with me! Oh. I forgot. My name is Toriel." She said and was interrupted by the Green Lantern.

"Julie?" Otis asked. "I haven't see you in a few days. What's going on? I mean besides the whole Darkseid kicking the bucket thing. I'm past that and want to move on." He didn't want to have to deal with his mother's death. He just kept telling himself that it's not any different than it was before. He would just not be seeing her ever again. Which stung, but it really wasn't that much different.

"Oh. You're hurt. Please. You both can stay with me for the night. I've got plenty of room." She offered the two.

"You don't have to do that. We just met." Otis said. "I can just go talk to-"

"Nonsense. It's the least I can do. You saved us from Darkseid. The least I can do is give you a place to rest for the night. And please. If you wish to stay longer, I'm more than happy to accommodate the both of you."

[The Templar High Council]

"Well alright then! Now we've got a plan!" Kylie left the computer as-is, with pages open to the Red Knight and Merlin. She took her JQ communicator, just in case, and took off for space to get a good reading. With this red maniac on the loose, time was of the essence. If they could find Merlin, they might also find the answers to why this was happening.

Finally in orbit around Earth, Kylie continued to fly around listening to her two rings.

["Well, we could always tell you where Strange is."]

"Dr. Strange? Sorcerer Supreme? Why don't we go visit him?" Kylie looked to Yellow, but it was Green who answered her.

["Strange doesn't take kindly to uninvited guests, usually. Plus we have him with us."] The thinly veiled contempt from Green was so obvious, it hurt.
["You know, Green, just because someone is strong-willed doesn't mean they can't inspire fear. She was chosen by both of us. Believe me, I'd rather send you back to Oa than listen to your prattle."]
["I was here first! And it's not that we can't be together, it just isn't right! Enemies, you and I, brought together by this girl!"]

"I can hear you, you know?" Kylie was getting a bit fed up with the arguing. "Quit bickering, and keep scanning! Let's go over England, that's where the King Arthur stories came from, so it makes sense that Merlin would be there."

["IF he's still alive."]
["Optimism~~! I do agree with Kylie that the odds are in our favor."]
["You're Green, not Blue."]
["Oh, for the love of—!"] Green stopped mid-rant, for reasons Kylie did not know.

"What? What is it?" Kylie stopped flying and hovered above the United Kingdom. "Did you find something?"

["Is that..? Do you think it is?"]
["Not many magical beings possess this much power."]
["You're right. Kylie we found something. But as to whether it's Merlin or something we don't want to meet, I couldn't—"]

"Good enough for me! I like my odds!" Kylie jetted down to Earth, headed for a town west of London known as Reading.

[Tomia]

At the Wedding
Cora turned when she heard Katie's voice, seeing the tears in her eyes. Cora had been concerned when she saw Katie crying before and had asked if she was okay, but Katie explained that they were tears of joy not sadness. Cora was still confused by that, she didn't understand crying when you're happy. Still, she didn't question it, and was just satisfied with the knowledge that Katie was not sad at the moment. "I know, I'm really happy for them." Cora said, gently wrapping an arm around her girlfriend and holding her close. "You know, I never knew that this was what a wedding was like. I've seen them on TV and stuff, but this is the first time of been to one." Cora said to Katie as they stood together.

Asgard
Cora listened to Katie as she asked to get a chance to lift Mjolnir. Cora was slightly away of the hammer's magical capabilites, but she didn't really understand it fully. However she could tell that Katie was determined in trying to do this and she wanted to support her. She took her girlfriend's hand as they sat next to each. "Lady Valka, I know Katie would never abuse her privileges with the hammer. I promise you she is sincere with her intentions." Cora said, trying to reassure the goddess that there wasn't a danger in letting Katie try to pick up the hammer.

Nico
Nico smiled in surprise when his sister said she'd come out with him and that she wanted Italian. "Sure sis, Italian sounds great." He said to her with a smile as they headed out of the house. The crisp west coast air felt nice, combined with the setting sun in the sky. They headed out into the streets of Jump City until they reached their family's favorite Italian restaurants, it was probably one of the best restaurants in the city. The air was filled with delicious smelling Italian food as they headed inside. "I'm starving." Nicole said with a smile, glad to be out on the town with his sister, hoping the fresh air might help her feel better.

[Tomia]

Disney World
John grinned when Sarah kissed his cheek and spoke seductively, "Well, it wasn't too bad. You looked really cute resting on my shoulder like that, so that made it better." He said to her with a smile as they walked out together. As they left the train, John saw Sam waiting for them and followed behind as Sarah ran out and hugged her younger sister. Sam smiled when she saw Sarah running towards her and she wrapped her arms around her older sister in. Then Sarah stepped back and got serious look on her face before asking about Hannah. Sam's face couldn't help but break out into a grin.

"Hannah met a friend while I was away on a phone call. He was guy who looked her age named Roy. I felt like I was a third wheel so I left them alone. He was pretty cute for his age after all." Sam said, grinning like a hyena. Sam and Sarah had often tried to get Hannah to make friends with people her age, and Sam was quite pleased that it seemed like her younger sister might have finally found a friend that she likes and can spend time with.

[The Starlight]

Valancy Stirling
Gods Rise - To Save this Earth

The daughter of Gaea cheered with all the rest of them at Naja's wedding as the new couple kissed. Having been eagerly awaiting the cake once it had been sliced and handed to her, she lifted her fork, a smile stretched across her cheeks as she prepared to dig in. "Valancy," a voice said behind her, Valancy quickly turning to behold her mother. The Primordial Goddess of the Earth, Gaea. Her smile faded away as the daughter looked at her mother, for Gaea did not look like that she was in good health. And what hurt Valancy so much about it was that she had been given her powers to stop this very thing from happening, and-

"Stop," Gaea ordered, knowing well of Valancy's thoughts at the moment. This was inevitable, and there is nothing you could have done. Though, it is not what you think, child. Come to the Heart, and there we shall speak at further length."

Valancy nodded as Gaea's image disappeared, the demi-Primordial explaining to her fellow JQ members why she had to go. Looking forlornly at the cake for a moment, the woman turned at touched one of the nearby plants, disappearing, a sweet, flowery aroma filling the area. Contrary to the belief of science, the Earth's most inner core is not solid. In the center of the Earth, there lies the Heart of the planet, the refuge and sanctuary of the Primordial Goddess of Earth. Valancy had only visited it once before, when she had had the first part of her powers unlocked.

Appearing in the outer chambers of Gaea's Heart, Valancy looked around at the unchanged place. Already, she felt more powerful, as if she could leap a thousand miles or summon a legion of animals to aid her. Gaea's Heart, being the location of an completely unchanged, undisturbed piece of nature, provided her with such power. The environmentalist strode forward, having removed her boots, sighing as she felt the soil beneath her and the thousands of lives teeming in it.

And there, in the next chamber, was her mother, sitting upon her usual throne, if it could be called such, for it was a rather simple seat, albeit with runes, carvings and plants upon it. Gaea, seeing her, began straightaway, not wanting to waste anymore time. "The Earth is dying, my little Val. It will not die in one minute or even a year, even I do not know the hour when this world shall crumble. And that has been caused by humanity. They are, you are so wonderful, so full of life in your mortality, and the way that mankind binds together in a crisis is remarkable. And now, there are heroes, as well, you, my daughter, being among them, and yet, the destruction still carries on. I say this with no joy, daughter, for I am the embodiment of the spirit of life, growth, harvest, and renewal, but in order for the Earth to survive, humanity must change, now, or they must be razed from this earth."

Valancy opened her mouth, about to protest, when Gaea held up a finger, halting her. "Two times I have withheld my hand from destroying humanity, the first, when you were 5 years old. I still remember it as if it had just happened. You argued most convincingly for humanity's survival, and then, when I appeared unswayed, you threw a tantrum," Gaea said, chuckling about it. "And the next time was when you were 15. We argued for days, though it may have seemed like hours, and in the end, I withheld my hand. You have quite the habit of getting your way, Valancy. But now, you are grown, and only one thing remains. You are the champion of the Earth, of myself. Your powers were locked for your own safety, or so I said. But now, you must be the harbinger of doom. The messenger of Gaea. Your message will be unpopular, and yet, it is of the utmost importance. And it is a simple message, mankind must stop from their slow torture and death of their Earth, or they shall be razed from it, and only a few shall survive, those who did not contribute. This is not a message to be spoken softly, my daughter. And if fear will be the thing that stops all this, then so be it."

Valancy grimaced, obviously not happy, but her mother spoke the truth. "I thought you said that gifting a demi-Primordial their full power would cause them to go mad, die, or worse?" she said, looking at her mother suspiciously.

"That tale is told to young demi-Primordials to ensure their lack of ambition and pride. In some cases that has occurred, but it is rare. I do not think that it will happen to you daughter, I have faith."

"Think?!" Valancy exclaimed, looking all the more dubious. "You don't sound very--" and then, all of a sudden, she felt a wave of pain throughout her head, unmatched by any she had suffered before. So much so, that the demi-Primordial screamed, her yells reflecting off the walls as she dug her hands in the Earth in an attempt to stop her pain. Gaea merely frowned and grimaced, before reaching out a hand, reducing the overwhelming pain within Valancy to a throbbing punishment. "What was that?" the daughter asked, looking around.

"That, was what happens when a god dies. A major one. You felt it, my daughter, because you are connected to the godly realms. Darkseid, Lord of Apokoplis, is dead. You see, once a domain has been spoken into existence, there must always be a god or goddess of it. Always. Darkseid was a mighty yet cruel, evil god, and now that he is dead, all that power must go somewhere. New Gods shall rise," Gaea said, looking upon Valancy with what could be called sadness.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" asked Valancy, looking at her mother, before she realized. "Woah, woah, woah! Hold on a second! I am not becoming a goddess!" she said, her voice nearly rising to a shriek as her usually calm demeanor faded.

"The leaves of fate have blown, daughter. And so it must be, so it shall be. I...am sorry. I never intended to pass on this burden, my burden to you, not so soon. I had thought that perhaps, in a few thousand years. Forgive me, daughter, for what I do next. For I have no choice," Gaea said solemnly. And she gripped Valancy's shoulder tightly, and began to speak, her eyes glowing. Valancy attempted to throw her mother off, but Gaea was of far greater strength than she, and her grip stayed. Valancy caught snatches of the Elder God tongue being spoken, before she felt it. Pain. Pain unlike anything she had ever felt. The aftereffects of Darkseid's death had been nothing to this, and Valancy screamed, causing an earthquake on the surface as her blood boiled, changing from that of a demi-Primordial, to that of a god.

At last Gaea finished her work, and sunk into the earth, her words echoing in Valancy's pain-hazed mind. "Hail, Goddess of Earth."

Valancy's mind soon cleared, and she looked at herself, completely unchanged going by her external appearance. "Well, this isn't too bad," she said. That was before she felt it, the true curse of being the Goddess of Earth. Billions of animals and plants spoke into her mind, hailing her, seeming almost worshipful. But the worst was yet to come, and then, Valancy truly knew pain, perhaps not greater than that she had just suffered but still formidable. It felt like her fingers were being chopped off as her fingernails and hair were being pulled out. And then she coughed, feeling something slimy in her throat as she screamed once more. And with dawning horror, she realized what it was. The feeling of her fingers came from the chopping of trees, her fingernails and hair by the habitat destruction and animal deaths, and the sliminess, a chemical or oil spill in the oceans. She was the Earth. And if the Earth was to die, so would she, now, and Valancy not for the first time cursed her mother who had brought this upon her unwillingly.

Valancy felt the pain begin again, and she looked up to the ceiling, resisting the urge to scream. Time was running out, for her to save this Earth.

---

Coming soon, Ascension. For Craig Thomsen, God of Innovation, shall rise.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

It was the bloodiest day in the history of my race. A single day, that's all it took, and by the dawn of the next day under half of us remained, languishing beneath the yoke. It all began during the first dawn. We lived peacefully on our new home, existing together with the natives of the planet where we had sought sanctuary after being exiled from our motherland. But then, they arrived. The Dragon Lords landed on our new home, along with their king, The Tyrant, but they did not do anything, they did not bother sullying their hands with our blood. Instead, they sent forth the servant they had brought with them, a monstruous creature of endless power. I... I vaguely recognized her as someone I knew, as a member of our race, but with a bloodthirst that a thousand million deaths could not quench, and a body that was warped beyond the point of insanity. Her skin had been entirely replaced with black scales, somehow not impeding her movement; her tail and her claws were made of the fangs of the Dragon Lords, and she had no eyes, but could still see far better than any of us. We knew that their intent was hostile, and our warriors tried to defend us and the locals, but they were no match for the monster that The Tyrant had brought along. She tore them apart effortlessly, severing arms, skewering bodies and beheading warrior after fallen warrior with little regard for the bloodshed she was causing; in contrast, even though many were able to reach her, none were able to get past the black scales that her skin was made of. Eventually, she tired, and began using devastating powers to smite dozens of us at a time, incinerating them, causing darkness to swallow them whole, creating explosions from within their bodies and all sorts of gruesome measures. Finally, we bent our knees and bowed our heads, unable to overcome this threat. It was not enough, and the monster forced us to watch as she systematically slaughtered every native of the world in which we lived. Our surrender, however, was accepted, with a condition. The next dawn, over half of us were executed, and those that remained vowed to serve the Dragon Lords.

A single day. That's all it took.
-Kirisvala Az Ranwynn, Muse Leader of the Enforcers.

Where Dragons Rule

Great Temple, Dragon Force Dimension

The Dragon Force Dimension was once upon a time a serene location where the World-Dragons could relax and meditate while surrounded by their creator, and from where they gained their near-infinite power. Now, however, it was a corrupted mirror of its former self, overcome by the blight of uncertain origins that had given birth to the dark Dragon Lords. As if the existence of these creatures were not enough proof, however, the corruption of the Dragon Force was by no means something purely metaphysical, which could be easily deduced by anyone who had been to it before: while previously it had been a world of pale wandering structures floating aimlessly in a limitless ocean of all-encompassing azure, now it was a blighted world of black, pure, unending black stretching as far as the eye could see and even far beyond, a world so great that even despite its relative emptiness one could never hope to know all of it, and it was all plunged into complete and utter darkness. What few structures still remained were not like the previous ones, majestic and serene, but rather, they were sickly: the pillars were jagged and curved, the masonry was unfitting and engraved with unknowable symbols born before the stars themselves, and all of it was a dull, lightless gray that disappointed any who sought refuge or respite from the black. Floating asteroids made up of pieces of masonry that could not hold and wandered off to the endless abyss were the only sights beyond the empty structures that populated the Dragon Force Dimension, flying rocks that should not be and did not belong there, but existed nonetheless.

And one of these rocks had four beings on it. Four beings imprisoned by the Dragon Lords at the city of Mireshar.

"We're not going to be stuck here forever, right? I mean, even I find this place unsettling, and that's saying something!" Questioned Erlinmaar the Cruel, the youngest of the nine Shattar, the one fused with the Elemental Aspect of Darkness. Young, however, is a word that would undoubtedly evoke the wrong idea, for while it was true that the Monarch of Darkness was quite youthful-looking, appearing as if she were not yet an adult, the truth was that the difference between her age and that of the other Shattar could be measured in numbers of one or two digits. She, like all of the other Shattar, was millenary.

Clearly, however, this did not stop the other Shattar from treating her like a child, something that was evidenced when another wielder of an Elemental Aspect placed his hand on her head, ruffling her hair and causing the small crown she wore to fall off into the abyss. With a yelp, Erlinmaar sent out a tendril of darkness to retrieve it from the endless black, and sighed with relief as she placed the golden ornament on her head once more.

"You might as well just give up, Erlin. There doesn't seem to be any way out and we've been trapped for years already." Said another of the Shattar, the Monarch of Ice, Isdragaar. He spoke with clear pessimism, and yet, his brow was furrowed in thought, as if he was attempting to meditate on an important matter that had been troubling him for a while. However, Erlinmaar, instead of resigning like he had, glared at him angrily, more so because of the fact that he had nearly caused her to lose her crown and less so because of his words, though she was still in a disagreement with him.

"Pfft, a hundred years? There's no way you can tell, you don't even have a watch or anything and there's no sun in here! Admit it, that's a lie and you know it." The Monarch of Darkness replied, crossing her arms as she glared angrily at Isdragaar, a frown present on her face. The White King glanced at her.

"No, that's true, I'm merely making an educated guess as is my right. Besides, what you just said is redundant: if one is unaware of the falsehood of a statement then it cannot be considered a lie." Isdragaar stated with a didactic air as he addressed Erlinmaar, though he was clearly distracted with another thought as he spoke. The lack of attention seemed to ignite the Black Queen's fury even further as she began shouting at him.

"Ugh, big brother, you're an oaf, have I told you that?!" She cried out.

"Hundreds of times, yes." Was the disinterested response.

There was a sigh from a third Shattar who stood some distance away from the first two, with his back turned towards them, a young man in red who clutched the hilt of a thin sword half-buried in the dull gray stone where they all stood. "Yet again it is proven to me that hubris runs through the blood of your family, seeing how you two are so clearly alike. It is still a mystery to me how it was at all possible for your dynasty to rule an empire for over a thousand years, Isdragaar; your people nearly starved to death after just under a decade of having to deal with you." The Monarch of Flame, Arnulgaar the Just, stated without ever turning his back towards the two that he addressed. In response, Erlinmaar turned her glare towards him, pointing angrily, and even Isdragaar glanced in the Red King's direction with a frown of vague annoyance on his face.

"Shut up!" They said in unison.

Lucismaar the Faithful, the Yellow Queen, wielder of the Elemental Aspect of Light and Holy Protector of Shamra, watched all of this transpire before her with an absent gaze, her arms crossed in front of her chest as she leaned on a nearby protuberance of the rock they were on, some distance away from the two siblings and the Red King. Much like Isdragaar, she too was immersed in her thoughts; however, whereas the White King mused about matters unknown (which she suspected had something to do with his lost wealth or some such, as he had always been selfish), the Yellow Queen thought about her people, and specifically, of how she had failed them. For millennia she had been the guardian, keeper of faith, defender of the weak; Arnulgaar acted as a judge, Isdragaar as a tyrant, and Erlinmaar was plain mad; all of them shared in common the fact that they were far too centered on their own stupid interests and ideals to pay attention to what truly mattered (at least, such was her sincere belief, even though the same could easily apply to her as well). She was the one who cared, she was the one who fought to protect everyone, and even then, it had been all for naught.

Her thoughts wandered back to the battle of Mireshar. Even though the Shattar for the most part didn't get along with each other too well, they had still understood that they needed to band together in order to drive away this new and terrible enemy that was attacking their walls and slaughtering their people. The powerful nine Elemental Monarchs were a force to be reckoned with... and yet, they had been unable to overcome their foe. She was among the last of the Shattar to be brought down to their knees by the magic of the Muses, with only Arnulgaar having held out for longer, and as she was sent to the Dragon Force Dimension, to that bleak prison from which she could not escape, all she could see were the stabbed, dismembered corpses of the people she had sworn to protect. There was no pain in the memory, however, only disappointment in herself, an overwhelming sense of failure.

However, something suddenly distracted her from the morbid thoughts she was immersed in. It was... a strange noise. She suddenly blinked, her amber eyes surveying the empty landscape, trying to spot the source of the sound that had suddenly reached her, a rhythmical noise that was faint when it reached her ears, very distant. Seeing nothing nearby that could be the thing emitting that sound, the Yellow Queen then looked to her fellow Shattar, trying to see if they too had heard it, but all she saw was Arnulgaar continuing to stare off to the side, and Erlinmaar complaining to Isdragaar while he simply nodded idly, still immersed in his thoughts. Clearly, none of them had heard, and were all far too distracted with their own activities, inconsequential as they were. Lucismaar let out a sigh. Nothing had changed, even after the destruction of the crown jewel of Shamra.

Deciding to check out the source of the noise, Lucismaar stood up and began heading towards where she believed it might be located. However, before she could step out of the rock, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Mildly surprised, she turned around and noticed Arnulgaar standing there.

"Will you leave us as well, Lucismaar?" The Red King asked. "The other five already have." Lucismaar nodded.

"I will, Arnulgaar. I will return, if able, but there is something I must see for myself." She spoke, placing her hand on Arnulgaar's and squeezing it as if to reassure him that she did not intend to abandon them for long. While the Red King and the Yellow Queen did not always see eye to eye, nor were bound by blood like Isdragaar and Erlinmaar, they shared a kinship of sorts for being the ones who cared for the law and the order of Shamra's civilization.

Arnulgaar seemed to concede, and nodded, taking off his hand. He watched as Lucismaar began walking away, treading on a bridge of light that formed beneath her feet as she stepped out of the rock in which they had been standing.

"Shouldn't we go after her?" Erlinmaar asked her brother Isdragaar, having seen Lucismaar leave, but the White King did not respond. He was fully immersed in his thoughts now.

After taking a few steps, Lucismaar looked back, and the rock was a great distance away from her now, with her barely being able to distinguish Arnulgaar standing over the very edge. For a moment, she was taken aback, but she then reasoned that the asteroid must have been in movement all along, and she had been unable to notice due to the lack of landmarks in the horizon. Regardless, now that they were so far away, she knew that she would have to find the source of the noise, and so, she turned her back to the rock that was already fading into the distance, and continued walking through the black void, a bridge of light being the only thing that separated her from the sempiternal abyss.

For a long time she walked, though how long, she could not know, as there was no way to measure the passing of time within that prison, but eventually, she found something: a barren temple in the middle of nowhere. Picking up the pace, Lucismaar rushed towards it, intending to reach it before it too moved away, but it did not seem to flee from her like the asteroid had, and so, she was able to reach it easily. This, she reasoned, had to be the place that the noise was originating from. During her stroll above the abyss, she had noticed that she was able to perceive it more clearly the more she walked, which meant that she was heading in the right direction, and now that she stood in that strange temple, it was unmistakable. Trudging on, the Yellow Queen marched past the broken masonry, jagged pillar and eldritch symbols of the Dragon Force Dimension, until she finally reached the source of the noise.

There, in front of her, was a titan of a man, tall and powerful. He had long blonde hair, and golden light erupted from his eyes. Most importantly, the noise in question was the loud thumping of the man's fists against the enormous black gate in front of him, which seemed to resist every effort to smash it open, the sound of the man's fists seeming like they could easily echo through the entirety of the Dragon Force Dimension. However, none of this was interesting when compared to the peculiar effect around the door. And it was that, everything around the door... it was not black. It was azure. Just like it had been once, five years ago, though the Yellow Queen had no way of knowing that. Regardless, this effect made it more than obvious that there was something important hiding behind the black door, and the desperate attempts of the man at opening it only seemed to reinforce her theory. Cautiously, Lucismaar approached him.

"Naja..." He half-muttered, half-growled, evidently unaware of the Shattar's presence until she was right next to him. The golden god turned towards the woman, ready to break her every bone at a moment's notice if she displayed any hostility or tried to stop him, though he did not immediately attack her; he stood to gain nothing from that, and as he had been the only person there for five years, it did not take a genius to guess that they, like him, were prisoners, held there against their will by the Dragon Lords. Thus, he simply stared at the woman, breathing heavily from the effort.

"Allow me to help you." Was all that Lucismaar said, and then, her form seemed to shimmer for a moment, glowing, light enveloping her as her silhouette seemed to change. When the light was gone, the Yellow Queen had shed her human form, and now, the true visage of the Shattar appeared, light erupting from every gap in her glorious, shining armor as she raised her enormous cross-shaped crimson blade above her head, before swinging it at the black gate.

The flash of light that followed could be seen easily even from the distant rock where the other Shattar stood.

---

---

A Dark Dwelling

Their home was nested in a dark place, the deepest hole in the deepest cave that could exist beneath the land without sinking into the depths of Hel itself. It was a place where no light could reach, for it was long stopped by the soil and the stone and the crystal that were present far above, every single ray of the sun's golden glow being seized and defeated before it could reach the abyss below, for even though there were paths, however convoluted, that one could take to reach that place, they were dark and winding, almost impossible to traverse for any mortal creature, for how could a being bound by the laws of death possibly descend into a place that even the power of light itself could not dream to ever touch? How could any mortal do what a force of nature could not? It was not merely unlikely, not just improbable; it was illogical. It was unacceptable. It was, to put it bluntly, impossible.

It was not a mortal who had descended to that place.

Their home was in the midst of a dark field. Though it was so deep within the earth, it was located in a grand fissure within the darkness, an enormous plain of indeterminate proportions, a skyless expanse that never seemed to end; if one could even see far in that lightless land, of course, for this place was one that seemed inhospitable. Indeed, it was a place where only the maggots of the earth could dwell. However, their home was not dark, like their surroundings. No, their home was nothing like them. Their home was bright, a lavish hall of golden walls and a mirrorlike ceiling, with precious stones creating patterns of sublime beauty on these walls, adorning the already opulent halls. The ostentatious ensemble was completed by the throne room that sat deeper down the hall, where the complete wealth that those hoarders of the depths had amassed was piled up on the corners of the room, to either side of a small golden throne, before which was a golden anvil with powerful hammers beside it. Though the land was immersed in shadow, the wealth of this dark court was illuminated by numerous torches that hung from the walls, the flickering light of the orange flames reflecting off of the gold and the rubies and sapphires that were hoarded beside the throne of the dwellers of the depths.

The All-Mother burst through the golden gates suddenly, sending the doors flying back a great distance before finally collapsing to the ground, shattered through the middle. The impact itself had knocked out many of the torches, and the shattered slabs of gold themselves had caused many more to fall, killing the light in the hallway, but even so, Valka walked on, disregarding the damage she had caused, a glacial expression of determination on her face. The startled dwellers of that golden hall barely had a moment to tear their gazes from their drinks and their feast in order to turn them towards the hallway, where a grim figure with blonde hair stood now, fair of face and yet so full of cold, patient fury, the fury of a woman who waited for the right moment to unceremoniously plunge a spike through the heart of whomever had dared to wrong her and her people.

"Sindri!" The All-Mother roared. "King of the depths! I, Valka Silverhand, demand your presence!" She spoke. In one of her hands, she held the legendary spear that Odin Borson had wielded once, before his death, a mighty weapon that had been forged in these very same depths an eternity ago. In her other hand, she held... something. An object that none of the dwellers of that place could see just yet, though it was clearly also very powerful.

The one sitting on the golden throne stood up. In his full height, he did not manage to reach the All-Mother's shoulder. "What brings you here, All-Mother?" The king of the depths inquired, clearly annoyed with her entrance. "This is my domain! I am the King of Nidavellir!" He admonished the furious Aesir.

"Silence." Valka sentenced, and Sindri spoke not another word. "You are the only creatures in all of the Nine Realms whom I would ever recognize as my betters in the forge. You will give me a weapon that would shatter even Those Who Sit Above In Shadow, and you will do it now." The All-Mother spoke authoritatively, before walking forward towards the center of the room. She plunged the blade of Gungnir into the ground so that the mystical spear would hold itself upright, and then held out her hand. In it appeared the trusted sword that Odin himself had protected so carefully in his life, the almighty weapon that bore the name of the late All-Father, the Odinsword. Valka placed the enormous blade on the anvil, and then brought up her other hand, at last displaying the object clutched between fingers of uru. It was a dark sphere the size of her fist, and from it radiated immeasureable power. It was the dark sphere that she had retrieved from a sciencell she had brought to Asgard. It was the being known as T:D:H:D.

"Should a single one of you attempt to wield either weapon against me, you will die before you even realize what your mistake was. Now, forge." The All-Mother demanded.

"And what will we earn if we obey you, Silverhand?" Sindri asked with greed in his eyes.

Suddenly, Valka began to glow with power, the Valkaforce spiraling around her as her eyes shone fiercely with the light of a million raging fires. The force displayed was such that the torches around the room all went out simultaneously, leaving the glow of Valka's power and the shining blade of the Odinsword as the only sources of light in the room. Soon, the All-Mother ceased her show of strength, and glared over at the King of Nidavellir.

"The question is not what you will earn, Sindri, but what you will get to keep." Valka growled.

Then, the All-Mother turned around, her cape fluttering in the windless dwelling as she walked away from the dark court of the King of the Dwarves.

---

---

Enforcer Headquarters, Ark

Mars sat up on the bed after suddenly awakening, letting out a huge, silent yawn before glancing around. The lights were dim, which indicated that it was still nighttime, as far as the planetwide convention that the Muses and Banshees used was concerned. Clearly, as Ark was nothing more than a hollow, artificial world created in the middle of the endless void of space, away from any star, there was no natural day and night cycle in place for the Enforcers (and any other inhabitants of Ark, Mars reminded himself, for it was not only him who dwelled there without bearing the nightmare black armor, but also the servants and the workers of the fields) to adhere to, but in its place, a temporal convention, artificial as the world itself, had been created, adjusted to the natural biological cycles of the Enforcers, and the world itself had been programmed in accordance to such a convention. During the time that the Muses and Banshees used to go about on their daily business around Ark, or head off through the portal matrix to wherever they were needed, Ark was full of light, and during the time that the Enforcers used to rest and recover, Ark was dark and quiet. The cycle, however, was not too different from Earth's, all things considered, and Mars had grown used to it by now. It was thanks to this that he knew that, at the moment, it was still night time, and most of the Enforcers, if not all of them, were fast asleep.

He didn't have to move at all to confirm his suspicions, either. On the bed, next to him, he saw the naked form of the Muse leader, half-covered by the bedsheets, though the upper half of her body was still clearly visible, and Mars could see, among other things, Kirisvala's black, leathery wings, which, though usually very large, were currently very small, neatly folded against her back. Mars smiled softly as he saw her, gently pulling up the blanket so it would better cover her body, and then simply staring at her face for what seemed like an eternity to him. She had a peaceful expression on her face as she slept, and there was even a thin smile drawn on her lips, an unmistakable sign that she had been quite content when she fell asleep, something that Mars knew perfectly; he had been quite content, too. He reached out and gently began to caress her, running his fingers through her locks of rose quartz hair, feeling the Enforcer quiver ever so slightly as he touched her, responding to the affectionate gesture with soft, unintelligible mumblings.

Suddenly, Mars remembered something she had told him once. It was a story, about the subjugation of the Enforcers. Mars knew that Kirisvala belonged to a race whose name had long since been forgotten, wiped from the minds of the Enforcers themselves and of anyone who knew of their name by the Dragon Lords themselves. However, that was not the only thing that happened, and in fact, it only happened once the Enforcers had finally been forced to bend their knee before The Tyrant and the one who represented his power and his will, the first of the Enforcers. First, as is natural, they had tried to resist, but their attempts to fight back against the Dragon Lords were vain, and met with the swift destruction of their homes, with the inexorable incineration of everything they knew and held dear. Forced into a corner and with no possibility of fighting back against the eleven winged destroyers and their absolute king, those clawed warriors finally surrendered, having no other choice. But that was not enough to appease The Tyrant.

Every single male, no matter if it was a man, an elder or a mere child, was slain in a grand execution in which, according to Kirisvala, resulted in an absolute mess; it took days on end for the women to gather all the severed heads that rolled away from their bodies that day and place them all in a pyre, the resilient skulls buried deep underground. As he recalled, it had cost the Muse leader a lot just to talk about it, and by the end of her tale, the pain that was oh so evident in her cold yet saddened face had made him feel bad for her. That had been one of the first times he spoke to her, in an attempt to comfort her. To this day, he was still amazed by what happened that day: out of the blue, she had opened up to him, showing him the scars she bore inside her heart. A period of awkward silence followed those events, but once that had passed, the two began talking a lot more often, with Mars opening up to her as well. He was still infinitely thankful to her for showing her soul to him that day, and though many aspects of his new life still made him feel apprehensive, he made sure to let her know he was grateful as often as possible.

Some time after that conversation, however, the topic came up once again, but with an approach that the young man had not seen coming: prisoners. Strictly speaking, the Enforcers had a policy of taking no prisoners, a policy put in place by the Dragon Lords, but, more often than not, as long as they were not being directly supervised by the Dragon Lords or one of their despicable mercenaries, some Muses and Banshees would bring home prisoners that were captured during the final stage of a given campaign, taking them to their quarters. The reason for this made it painfully evident just how messed up the society of the Enforcers was after the meddling of the Dragon Lords, but even then, it was a very simple one, something that Mars had to admit, once it had been explained to him. The Muses and Banshees, they had been subjugated, yes, and indoctrinated in order to serve the Dragon Lords, but, often, ignoring their natural urges was just too much to ask of them. The prisoners taken from the battlefields, they were the outlets that the Enforcers used in order to keep these urges in check.

Mars had once asked Kirisvala if he was one of them, another prisoner, another toy. But she had denied such a thing energetically, and it did not take her too much effort to convince Mars of it. After all, upon bringing it back, she never really did anything to him, never even forced him to do anything against his will, beyond staying, and he now knew that that had been for his own safety. That was, perhaps, the most convincing evidence, and certainly the one that had eased his worries, though there were others. If he had truly been intended to be nothing more than a disposable toy, then what was the point in opening up to him? There was none, and yet, the Muse leader had done exactly that. Furthermore, even once he had become close to her, out of his own free will, she never treated him with roughness or disregard. The prisoners, he had heard, were treated horribly by the other Enforcers, who forced themselves upon them and cared not if their actions caused pain or injury; it was rare for prisoners to survive for long. He, however, was a guest, and the Muse treated him with the utmost care at all times, always keeping her claws away from him if they lacked the white coating, always making sure that he was comfortable and well fed. She looked out for him perhaps even more than she looked out for herself, he thought grimly.

Suddenly tearing himself from his thoughts, he looked down to see that he had stopped caressing Kirisvala's hair, and noticed her with her red eyes open, looking straight towards him. "Mars...?" She spoke very softly, clearly still tired both from their night and from her campaign in Shamra. Mars, after breaking out of his initial surprise, smiled at her, nodding, and then leaned down to kiss her.

"Go back to sleep, Kiris." He told her. She smiled sleepily, nodding, and then turned around. It did not take her long to fall asleep once again.

With a sigh, Mars got dressed up and then walked over to his 'workplace', which occupied roughly half of the room. He spared a glance at the improvised bedsheet bed on the ground, a smirk on his face; he rarely used it nowadays. He soon turned his attention back to his machines, however. Some of them were old and dusty, others were contraptions that he had never seen before the start of his life on Ark, and most of them were at least partially dismantled, their constitutive parts stripped from them and used in order to create other artifacts, an assortment of various scrap machines that were laid out on the nearby table, along with several blueprints, some of them matching some of the mechanical structures lying next to them.

It had been very difficult to design those blueprints and machines while keeping their true intended purpose concealed under apparently innocuous forms and ambiguous made-up terminology, considering how Enforcers had an uncanny ability to understand any form of communication just by being subjected to it once. So far, Kirisvala seemed to think that those machines were just toys or curious little contraptions meant to distract him and keep his mind off other things rather than to serve any practical purpose. She did not suspect that the things that Mars was designing were in fact weapons, weapons that would, hopefully, be powerful enough to stop even the Enforcers on their tracks. He realized that she would not turn against him or throw him out for doing such a thing, as he was certain that their connection was too deep to be severed by something like that, and he knew for a fact that she was not content with the rule of the Dragon Lords either, but even then, he was afraid that she would try to stop him. He knew that he could trust her with his life... but could he trust her with something that could potentially lead to his death?

With a heavy weight on his shoulders, Mars continued working. Quietly, so that he would not wake up his Muse.

---

---

An Empty Field in Japan, Earth

The Fist of the Rebellion rode alone through the night, heading straight towards one of the strongholds that the followers of the Dragon Lords had established in Japan. Nowadays, the Muses and Banshees had no bases in the surface of Earth, delegating most policing tasks to the underlings they had down in the planet, only coming in when called or when something proved to be too much for them. Indeed, only a handful of Banshees remained down providing support for some of the larger strongholds of those loyal to the Dragon Lords. And unfortunately, it just so happened that the central base in Japan was one of the few. Twenty or so Banshees were stationed there, and while the Fist held one of the few weapons that could get past that impregnable ebon armor of theirs, their speed and their powers were quite dangerous nonetheless, not to mention that the ammunition, though unlimited, had some difficulties: it would only be possible to take out half of them before being forced to reload, assuming no bullets were wasted on lesser enemies, of which it was almost certain there would be plenty.

Suddenly, a thunderbolt slammed down right in front of the feet of the Fist's steed, though the demonic-looking horse did not seem fazed by this development at all. It was as if the creature had been anticipating conflict to arise, something not unwise considering the purpose of its master, though said master had not been expecting trouble to arise so early. Regardless, Commander Greyson frowned deeply and dismounted from the Phantom Horse, ignoring the beast's protests and scanning the landscape in search for the enemy. The current location was an empty field in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by cherry blossom trees in full bloom. An ominous location, certainly; the Commander couldn't help feeling that if reality were an anime, a very important and dramatic battle would be about to take place.

Little did the Fist of the Rebellion know, life was a comic, and the truth was not far off.

Suddenly, a figure appeared in front of the Commander. It was, at first glance, a young man, but soon it became apparent that this was not the case. It was rather easy to tell that he had short hair, unnaturally white, and slightly more difficult, though still relatively simple, to notice the glowing blood glare coming from his hollowed, blind eyes. However, the darkness concealed his true form, and it was only once the clouds of smoke that rose from ruined cities parted way for the moon to shine her light upon the land for a moment that said true visage became fully visible: the man's skin was completely black, two small horns of the same color protruding from his head, silvery scars running across the entirety of his body, easily visible in his bare arms, chest and back. On his hand, he held a large, shining sword with an ornate hilt, the blade entirely covered by emerald flames, lightning crackling through it. A powerful weapon for sure, not to mention the sheer waves of killing intent that he seemed to emit. Any creature with a lesser strength of will would have turned and ran or become paralyzed by now, but not this one, not the Fist.

"Shadow, leave." Spoke the Commander, addressing the sentient beast, who protested before resigning and vanishing from the premises. The Commander watched it leave, and then turned back to the enemy, not appearing surprised to see him at last. The two of them stared at each other for several moments, curls of blond hair gently swaying in the breeze along with the masked Fist of the Rebellion's long black coat. Finally, it was the monster who first spoke to the human.

"Commander Greyson." He said as a hostile greeting. The one addressed did not seem surprised.

"Demon King... No, scratch that; Aki." The Commander spoke in response. "You betrayed everyone, though I can't say I blame you."

Indeed, after the Enforcers, the shock troopers of the Dragon Lords, blitzed the nation of Japan and annihilated not only most of its armed forces, but also an enormous percentage of the Yokai population and nearly all of the Kami, many of the few supernatural entities that remained immediately aligned themselves with the Dragon Lords in order to have a better chance to survive and perhaps, just perhaps, live better than the rest of the population that was suffering under the yoke. Their wish was granted, for the most part, but in return, they had to sell out any of their fellow Japanese folk whom they suspected of conspiring against the dark rulers of the universe, and worst of all, they were to become cannon fodder in case of an uprising. Naturally, this had the unfortunate implication that they were the first line of defense against the raids performed by the Rebellion. Out of those Yokai who had remained after the attack on Japan, the few who didn't join the Dragon Lords, joined the Rebellion instead, and the result was that brother fought against brother in that land, one dying for everdistant freedom, the other for indifferent kings and queens. The Commander assumed that the Demon King was among those who had joined the Dragon Lords out of convenience, a steep mistake.

"Well, what else did you expect, Garnet?" The Demon King spat. "When you found out what I was, you shunned me! Your friends shunned me! Nowhere, nowhere was the bastard child welcome, Yokai and humans alike caught sight of me and ran or attacked me, not even the people of my unknown father would accept me, the hybrid. Well they can look at me now!" The half-Oni growled. "There was no real choice, do you understand? Do you think your precious resistance would have admitted me in their ranks, when their revered commander couldn't even accept me as a friend? Do you think I wanted to starve to death like a pathetic street dog? No, Garnet. I'll end you and your little Rebellion, and then maybe, just maybe, I'll finally have some peace in this miserable hellhole that we call home."

Throughout this speech, Garnet remained completely impassible.

"...I realize this is my fault. I sincerely apologize for it." She spoke, softly. "I suppose now it's too late to make things right?" She asked. In response, Akihiko raised his blade, pointing towards her. She smiled forlornly underneath her mask.

Suddenly another brutal bolt of lightning arced towards Garnet. But by the time it struck, she was no longer there. She moved away nigh-instantly, and then charged towards Akihiko, swinging a mighty fist covered in her cursed gauntlet. He was barely able to react by raising his sword to block the blow, the emerald flames licking at Garnet's clothes, but not actually setting them on fire, which she appreciated. The moment that the gauntlet struck the sword, there was an explosion of red light that illuminated the entire field and the surrounding forest, and the impact was such that it sent Akihiko flying back, causing him to slam quite hard into a cherry blossom tree, causing countless leaves to fall off and be scattered in the wind. However, he recovered instantaneously, and leaped high into the air. Not a moment after he had done so, three bullets embedded themselves on the tree, which withered away in a matter of seconds.

"I do this because someone has to!" Garnet shouted at the Demon King as she fired at him, the bullets missing their mark as he soared through the air, before abruptly landing just behind her. The Fist of the Rebellion turned around just in time to block the sword with her cursed gauntlet, but she was unable to seize this opportunity and fire at the half-Oni, as he was quick to follow up his slash with a swift kick that she was unable to dodge, gasping out as the air was knocked right out of her and slamming down onto the ground several feet behind from where she had stood moments ago. She could feel multiple of her ribs were broken, but she paid no attention to it. They would heal quickly, Malady would make sure of that.

Instead, Commander Greyson paid attention to the very angry Demon King that was leaping towards her, ready to descend blade-first upon her and leave her pinned to the ground and unable to move as she slowly bled out. Naturally, she wasn't going to have any of that, and so, she held out her non-armored hand towards the edge of the field, and suddenly, an enormous, skeletal, ethereal purple hand emerged from one of her bracelets, latching onto one of the trees and pulling her towards it and away from where she was lying just in time to avoid being skewered by the Demon King's burning blade. She reached the tree's side in an instant and turned back to see the Demon King already charging towards her. She raised her pistol and fired off three rounds again, but despite having no eyes, he swatted them aside expertly with his blade. Frowning, Garnet tapped into the powers of her other bracelet, quickly opening a portal and going through it, appearing on the other side of the field.

"I do this because I have to!" Akihiko roared as he plunged his sword into the tree, incinerating it due to the thunder and emerald flames circling the blade. However, Garnet was no longer there. In fact, she was refusing to take a shot at him, instead buying time through inaction as she planned, believing that if she did nothing and was too far for him to smell, he would not be able to tell where she was, as his eyes had been destroyed. The half-Oni, however, seemed to catch onto this pretty quickly, smiling an ironic smile. "You like them, don't you?" He asked as he removed his sword from the ashen tree and turned around, sniffing the air. "One of your underlings did this to me. He was very brave; he managed to send you one of the shards of the hammer." He stated. She frowned, knowing what had happened to the people in the Chinese base of the Rebellion. Total annihilation. "The last one, correct?" The Demon King continued, and Garnet's shock at his knowledge of such delicate information became audible in the form of a gasp.

Immediately, he was upon her once again. A dance of green flames, red flashes of light and loud bullet explosions was performed on that field, with neither of the combatants gaining any advantage... or so it seemed, at first. But, despite Commander Greyson's versatile equipment, adaptability in battle and combat experience, she seemed to be struggling more and more against her enemy. After all, it seemed that, the more that the battle dragged on, the angrier Akihiko became, which granted him even more power. Conversely, all that happened with Garnet was that she grew tired, slowly but surely, and so, knowing that she was not likely to win this battle unless she used her head, she performed one last gambit. Charging towards him, she swung her fist once again, trusting that he would block, but, much to her surprise, his course of action was different: he simply used his free hand to deflect the attack, just enough so that it wouldn't hit, and then reared back his sword, as if preparing to thrust.

"SWORD OF SALVATION!" He exclaimed beforehand. After he did this, the emerald flames circling around the blade and the electricity that crackled through it were both snuffed out, and in their stead, an aura of a pristine dark blue emerged, the way that the night sky used to look like when the world was right.

Seeing this, Garnet quickly leaped back, thankfully able to react before he thrusted forward, jumping several meters away from her enemy into what she assumed was a safe area, as she was now quite far from Akihiko, and as far as she knew, even Kusanagi wouldn't reach so far. Her face, however, suddenly contorted into an expression of shock and pain. When she looked down, she saw what had happened. Kusanagi's blade had lengthened itself as necessary, and thanks to this, the thrust had come all the way to where she stood, piercing right through her, blood staining her clothes and flowing down the blade of the mystic sword.

An inaudible curse was muttered and Garnet dropped her pistol. As Kusanagi's blade returned, she fell to her knees.

---

---

Paris, Earth

The Voice of the Rebellion sat at her desk, carefully studying the data in front of her. As always, she was covered in a thick black shroud that concealed her entire form and most of her face. Here and there, locks of ebon hair reached past the edges of the cloak, but they were hardly visible, instead blending in with the blackness of the shroud, a shroud that was not made of thread or hide, or any sort of material substance. Indeed if one were to touch or attempt to reach through the dark cloak, and assuming one was not immediately removed from the premises by any of the guards or promptly skewered by the darkness itself, one would realize that their hand went right through the thing that pretended to be black cloth, phasing through it effortlessly. The shroud would not even seem to have any sensation associated with it, not evoking any sort of reaction even when it came into contact with one's hand. The reason for this was that the cloak in which the Voice of the Rebellion hid, was made entirely out of shadows.

But of course, there was no one there to do that. No one nearby was stupid enough to try.

The data in front of her was composed of several papers and text displayed on nearby screens, all of which essentially amounted to a list of the covert efforts made to contact any surviving extrasolar governments willing to join forces against the oppression brought by the Dragon Lords. The underground complex in Paris was the largest and most advanced of all the bases of the Rebellion, second only to the headquarters in Gotham City, where the Eye of the Rebellion, General Graham himself resided; this base was also the one in which all of the Rebellion cells scattered throughout Europe and Africa were coordinated, and it was, evidently, home to one of the three members of the Rebellion's triumvirate.

However, whereas the base in Japan relied on the sheer quantity of magical weapons, supernatural soldiers and other advantages of mystical nature, and the headquarters in Gotham City relied on their mass-production of weapons and their advanced military technology, the Paris complex and all of the cells under its wing all relied on the shadows, remaining hidden with such expertise as to make phantoms blush, an apt duty given the nature of their Commander. Never fighting, always dancing around the jaws of the wolf, they focused on their objective. Rather than strike down their enemy, like Greyson and Graham were attempting to do, their task was to gather intel and find allies to assist the Rebellion. The technology that the Paris complex was equipped with was a reflection of this: rather than being geared towards the research and development of new weapons and equipment, the technology there was meant to provide secure communication between the Rebellion and any desired target. It was thanks to this technology that they were able to make the aforementioned efforts to contact extrasolar factions.

But nobody came.

Regardless, the Voice of the Rebellion watched all of this data not to plan or amend their protocols, but simply to distract herself from that which was eating away at her mind, torturing her, something that plagued her every thought and made her feel like the lowliest worm of the earth. She felt her sins crawling down her back. And then she heard something.

"Commander Grimm!" Spoke a young man, barely into his twenties, who walked into the room.

"Yes..." The woman replied sullenly, red eyes staring from beneath the cloak. "...James Anderson. What is it?" She asked.

"The spies have returned. The information they gathered will arrive shortly." The soldier stated, a tad nervous. He had heard the rumor that the Voice of the Rebellion was very beautiful, but she was always so cold and distant with everyone, always hiding beneath that cloak, so how could such a thing be? But it was not his place to question that.

"Very well. You may leave." The Commander said, nodding. The man closed the door behind him, leaving her alone with her thoughts. Alone once more as her thoughts drifted back to that which tortured her.

Alone once more as she thought of her betrayal.

---

---

Gotham City, Earth

---

The General had been immersed in his thoughts before, but he was swiftly drawn away from them and back into reality when he heard the voice of the Black Bat addressing him. He turned, his single eye scrutinizing the young woman with a hard stare as he listened to her speak about the Runner, his harsh demeanor not the result of any sort of hostility towards Cassandra, but rather simply a manifestation of the cold face that he had learned to show the world after the events that had led up to him becoming the head of the Rebellion. He did, however, pay attention to the Black Bat's words. Indeed, he had met the Runner before. During the events of what was known as the Long Night of Gotham City, he had arrived at the domain of the Bat, a lost young man with no powers or training. His contact with the Gotham City Defenders was quite brief, but he had certainly met the Runner, once or twice.

Of course, that was before the Dragon Lords arrived. Given that, he did not doubt that the Runner had changed. He had not seen him in person again since then, and his voice did not seem to have changed, certainly, but his demeanor was different than he remembered. Regardless, General Graham could hardly blame him for having changed; he himself was not the same person that he had been once, before the subjugation of Earth and the death of...

The ding of the elevator brought him away from that dark alley of thought, and he stepped out behind Cassandra, keeping a slow pace as opposed to the young woman, who had reached the Runner's door in no time. Stepping through, his single remaining amber eye gazed upon the Runner for the first time in a long while. He had certainly changed for the worst, grown old before his time, no doubt due to the stress he must have been suffering as the head of the Gotham City Defenders during these times of turmoil. Any revolutionary group was in danger of being brutally annihilated by the agents of the Dragon Lords, and though perhaps none suffered from such a risk more than the Rebellion itself, the punishment, in any case, was equal: death.

"Runner." The General greeted coldly. "Let's get straight to the point."

---

---

The Moon

A peculiar creature hummed softly to herself as she worked on the surface of Earth's satellite. The dark side of the moon was fairly difficult to navigate through, as the lack of light caused quite a bit of trouble for any organism not accustomed to such conditions, but thankfully, the bioluminescent matter that coated her body and her enormous spear arm provided enough light for her to perform her duties comfortably, and, should it prove necessary, she could always move her long tail and coil it near her workplace in order to provide additional light, though such a thing was not needed for the time being, and so, her tail was sprawled on the surface of the crater in which she had first landed.

"What a weird place to be sent to in search of an artifact." Ashes mused to herself out loud as the front part of her spear arm began spinning rapidly with the tip touching the crust of the moon, functioning as a high-powered drill that began tearing at the stone, as it had been for several days now, the armor using its own ability to reconfigure itself in a constant manner so that the drill effect could be achieved. Truth be told, she hadn't even known that she could do that when she accepted the mission: she only wanted to get out of the underground, and when Commander Grimm asked for a volunteer to go looking for a stupid rock in the moon, she offered herself instantly, thinking the chance was as good as any.

The moon suited her just fine, after all. It was a quiet, tranquil place, and there was so very little of interest there that there was no danger of the Dragon Lords coming along and ruining her peace. She had thought of staying up there, but concluded that it was not viable. The Rebellion would send more people over and the Enforcers might raise an eyebrow at the sudden presence of several lifeforms on the moon. However, the mission assigned to her was not one that was expected to be accomplished quickly, and so, she was taking her sweet time with it, figuring that it didn't matter if the Commander got her stone sooner or later, as long as she got it. One could hardly be demanding while sending someone to look for a rock on the moon, after all.

Suddenly, the drill struck something that stopped it. Curious, Ashes lifted it slowly, and then looked at the object in question. It was a strange small stone, the color of blood, with ancient markings on it, and a white core. Ashes smiled, lifting up the artifact to look at it through the enormous crimson eye of her sentient armor.

"Found you." She whispered.