Interlude 3

(Komand'r)

 

Earth 22
3 years after Lois Lane’s death

 

It felt good; time had ceased to exist as I was embraced by the warmth of the solar fire, its blazing deep inside of me, my cells drinking deep on it. Should I stay longer inside the sun than this? My internal HUD is telling me that it’s been a year already since I last called on my nanites. It was also getting boring and lonely; fine, I’m going to leave and get used to all that power.

I swam away from the core at a leisurely pace and soon enough I found myself surfacing out of the sun's mantle. I escaped the surface and dodged some solar eruptions and at FTL speed escaped until I reached Mercury. It was difficult to look for other stars with the sun as a background, and it was kind of noisy as well. How could I hear noise in space you tell me? Well, I don’t know, but it's annoying.

I used the nanites inside my body to pick up radio waves in the system to find Earth more easily. Hmm, even without the nanites I could see it, with my eyes… It seems that I developed new powers while being supercharged by the sun. That’s going to need some getting used to; I don’t know how long it took me, but I finally could control it while staying stationary in space.

X-ray, microscopic vision, thermals, and I could even see further in the EM spectrum. It was nice, I kept seeing colors that I couldn't give a name to and it made me realize how beautiful the universe was. I slowly let myself fall to Mercury’s dark side and began to think about a plan to insert myself on the planet. I could see the Earth shine from there, it was blue, white, green and brown. Their current orbit informed me that they were in summer in the north hemisphere.

When I landed in one of the lesser craters, I disengaged my magical armor; letting my soft-suit cover my body. From neck to toe, the suit started to scan my body and take stock of my general health reflected by the nanite-culture inside my body. My eyes widened as I looked at the number displayed on my HUD; the levels of stellar energy contained in my body have skyrocketed to impossible levels. Shouldn’t I have already reached the cap of energy the cells in my body could absorb? Oh boy, did this mean the Unlimited One removed my limiter?!

No wonder was I feeling so strong! I wanted to cackle, but there was no oxygen so I could not laugh in space. It was while I was jumping up and down that… CRACK!! I created a deep fissure into the crater that spread twenty kilometers from my right foot. This alarmed me, what would have happened if I was on Earth? *I need to get control of my strength right away…*

I didn’t want to cause widespread devastation merely by moving. The gravity on Mercury was too weak for me to get used to my strength, maybe I could magic something up? … Um, no, no crutch. I will take this challenge on, I want to be able to hug Amora, Darcy and Ruby without crushing them. This entire trip in this dimension was so that I could train to be able to take down Hela without dying.

Looking up, I thought about what needs to be done. I needed to control myself first, next I would continue to train in Earth’s atmosphere. An ID would be needed to mingle with the primitives; technology to be able to spy and predict what’s happening around me and… money.

Nodding, I jumped and… was already far from Mercury. There was a deep spiderweb-like crack on the surface of Mercury that I could see. I felt micro meteorites bombard me as I was flying through the void, toward Mars. FTL speed was so exhilarating! 

It didn't take more than ten seconds to reach the red planet; I flew around Mars to decelerate my speed and proceed to reentry, it was that easy. My soft-suit resisted the fire and temperature, but I didn’t even feel the heat on my skin. I decelerated my speed some more, trying to go subsonic, but it was hard to compensate for the lower gravity, I was used to a terrestrial one. Here on Mars, the gravity was thirty-eight percent lower.

Finally succeeding, I looked around me and watched the arid and desolate landscape. Like Earth, Mars has an atmosphere and weather, but both differ greatly from what we experience on Earth. The composition of the Martian atmosphere differs greatly from Earth's. Earth's atmosphere is 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1.0% argon, 0.04% carbon dioxide, and small amounts of other gasses. 

It also averages about 1% water vapor. Mars' atmosphere however is 95% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, 1.6% argon, and it has traces of oxygen, carbon monoxide, water, methane, and other gasses, along with a lot of dust. Dust hanging in the air colors Martian skies tan in photos taken from the surface.

It was bothersome… I raised my hands and clapped with all my strength.

BOOOOOM!!

The shockwave spread from my hands and cleared the area and sky where I stood of dust… I also flattened the terrain around myself, only leaving the bedrock. But who cares? My vision was clear and I could see the stars and the moons. But I was focusing more on the asteroid belt, which was my true goal; there I would find my starting budget… But first, I needed to convert part of the atmosphere and soil of Mars into a bunch of nanites.

There was a reason why I only took my soft-suit to come to DC, the nanites could help me build stuff… and I wanted my own little ship. Waves of silver nanites rolled out of me, at least one kilogram; that was half my stock of nanite cultures. I needed enough to convert the matter around me into smartmatter. I left the clump of nanites pool at my feet and it was already eating through the bedrock.

I crouched, and… jumped as lightly as possible and escaped the orbit of Mars, flying toward the asteroid belt; there I will find prime materials. I wanted a comforting ship damnit, the Tempest’s scout ship design would suffice.

 

~/.\~

 

February 10th, 2010
Australia’s airspace
Tempest 02

 

The Tempest entered the exosphere, the outermost layer of Earth's atmosphere. The reactive shielding of the ship nullified the atmospheric drag effect from the controlled reentry performed by the AI of the Tempest 02. The point of entry chosen had been the southern hemisphere of the planet, with the stealth system active. The hull and systems of my scout ship were designed to specifically obfuscate sensors at all ranges, minimizing any and all chance of detection when not engaged in high energy activities.

The Watchtower, the Space station of the Justice League, was seated twenty thousand kilometers in earth's orbit in silent vigil. With the many foiled alien invasions from the past, I expected Batman and Superman to have scavenged enough technology to have powerful sensors,  advanced enough to detect anyone approaching Earth or the inner solar system. 

But I doubted that the powerful ship builder technology couldn't fool any of the tech in possession of the Regime. As if to prove me right, nothing came for me; no missiles, no superbeing stopping my ship from entering the atmosphere. I still activated the Phase cloak, the Tempest was suddenly surrounded by a spatial manifold, which perfectly conceals my vessel from detection. The sublight engines took me right down to Australia’s eastern coast; my sensors looked for active advanced technology, but I got nothing, no nuclear plants or cold fusion reactors… just primitive coal, oil and gas plants for energy generation. 

Analog and Digital signals were detected by my computer, I was stumped… they have all that alien tech and they don’t advance at all? *I already miss my own Earth.*

“MACHINA, deactivate Phase Cloak.”

Roger!

 

My new Smart AI was in truth a downgrade from the Autonomous Cybernetic Intelligence that is TALI, who was still in contact with me by the way, but she was running in the background. MACHINA was still ridiculously advanced, I would put her there with Forerunners and Precursors Artificial Intelligences. MACHINA was still in her teenage years in her development phase and housed in my Neural Mesh, keeping TALI company. She was learning at a great pace. 

The scout ship phase cloak disengaged and the ship hovered over a pre-chosen spot near the capital of Sidney, in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. There was enough space to land the ship in the clearing of the forest facing a beach.

“Landing protocols.” I commanded.

Yes, Ma’am. The ship slowly went down and lurched a bit when it landed despite the inertial dampeners.

“Good girl.” I congratulated my kid AI.

Optical Cloaking Field engaged.

“Now, what are we going to do? I already got my strength dialed down for Earth, but I still need more training… not everything is made out of smartmatter like in the ship and can be fixed easily.”

Permission to offer suggestions, Ma’am?

“Granted.”

With the cargo hold full of pallets of precious metal, I would advise you to turn some of it into local currency and to get an ID. I would suggest that you obtain citizenship from Australia as well. 

“Why here?”

I sense fewer eyes on this continent. I can feel a type of intelligence overlooking digital space that can be traced to that space station we passed earlier.

“I know who it is, if you needed to take him down, would you succeed in doing so?”

I’d need an upgraded command core.

“Already trying to get more stuff, MACHINA?”

It doesn’t stop me from being right.

“Kids, really…” I lamented, my AI kid was already trying to manipulate me. Well, that’s what I get from using my own brain architecture to build her. “Fine, I will eventually build you a Quantum Crystalline Matrix.”

Yes! Unlimited Computing Power!

“Did you just quote Palpatine? Should I… be worried?”

No, Mom. I won’t take over the world, I promise.

“Don’t play coy with me, young lady!”

The AI just smiled back at me, and returned to checking on the ship’s status. Meanwhile, I decided to hack the governmental systems and prepare my insertion into Earth-22’s human society. But first, I pulled on my magic and used one of the spells that I mastered while sitting pretty in the sun. It was non-verbal and allowed me to shapeshift into the desired form. I visualized the form of a human female, 175 cm in height, the right balance between voluptuous and muscular, platinum blonde hair, pink pouty lips and cat-like sapphire blue eyes. Her eyebrows rounded and a button nose.

Here I think I reached the perfect balance in my human identity. I decided to add some custom attributes such as tasteful tattoos on her chest and neck, though I let TALI do the artwork herself, even limited as she was right now. Then I saved this mental image in my mindscape and turned it into a template for my shapeshifting magic. I felt my body shrink and tighten, my hair changed from the deep purple it had become after my dip into the sun to a platinum blonde; my soft-suit resized itself.

My magic continued to work its changes, deep to the molecular level; it was like another layer of reality was being overlaid over my body. I would register as human physically and spiritually, so unless a cosmic being was looking at me, I wouldn’t have any problem.

Raising my right hand to look at myself, my soft-suit turned into a black sports bra and yoga pants. Instead of orange, my skin was pale. Without being asked to, MACHINA manifested a holographic mirror before the command chair.

“Beautiful, I can work with that.” Perfect Asgardian-like beauty.

I couldn’t wait to show the result to Darcy or Amora when I got back. A smirk crossed my lips at the thought. They would surely make the most out of this shapeshifting spell, I bet. For now though, I floated out of the command chair, landed my feet on the gravity plate and decided to go to the cargo bay to start synthesizing my money and ID.

 

~/.\~

 

February 12th, 2010
Sydney

 

Freya Eriksen
Female
21 years old
04/04/1988

I walked out of the Driver and Vehicle Services Centre in Sydney, looking at my brand new ID. I even got my voter enrollment and passport done. It took two days in total to make all the paper and hack the government database at the same time; MACHINA was so far the better of us two at infiltration, so I left it to her. But Freya Eriksen? Really? My AI kid had a real sense of humor.

Placing back the card into my fabricated shock- and magnet-proof case, I decided to quickly go on a reconnaissance run of the city. I already bought some land outside the city, which included miles of forest and a prefab house I built with some nanites and plascrete. It was a well-furnished two-story colonial home, and plenty enough for my current purposes.

But I doubted I would live in it for long… Superman and the Justice League didn't care about other people’s secret identity.

Okay, now that my administrative problems are done, I need some training with my magic. The support kind, as I would need to heal people, and that meant a hospital or a clinic. *MACHINA, find me the nearest children's hospital.*

I didn't have to wait for long, my kid AI was rather fast in finding a target.

High St, Randwick NSW 2031, Australia

"Upload coordinate."  

I smiled as I saw the complete map of the city and its suburbs on my HUD and saw the way there. MACHINA was taking advantage of the strangely more advanced satellite network she found yesterday. I think she's tapping in spy and Justice League operated satellites, fortunately, she was so advanced that she didn't register on their firewalls.

I power walked in the direction of the hospital, at subsonic speed. I did well to control my speed under three hundred miles per hour and keep from knocking anything in the way. I zipped between cars, buses and the streets and reached the address I was given. There were so many things there, an all-girl school, a pharmacy, a college… This was basically a little city in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. My soft-suit morphed from a sportswear outfit to a royal blue sundress with straps; with a set of silver jewelry encrusted with sapphire matching my eyes. I put on some heavy aviator sunglasses.

I even had a dark blue handbag to go with the set. I stopped before the entrance of the children’s hospital. I came here to test my healing light magic and I wouldn’t be stopped by anyone; and if someone needed to profit from this, why not sick or wounded children?

Walking into the hospital, I looked for the Emergency Room. When I reached it, I put everyone to sleep with a wave of my hand with a mass AOE sleep magic while at the door. I then started to go heal the kids one by one. My first patient was a little blonde girl who had respiratory distress. Placing a pale hand on the child's torso, I called upon mystical energy and said, “Be healed by the grace of Eir.”

White light wrapped my hand as I pulled on the dimensional energy; my magic was completely alien to this world. Magic users in DC pulled on their own energy or a god/demon as a patron. Focusing on the little girl, I saw that she began to visibly stabilize. When my hand stopped shining, I somehow knew that she was completely healed.

My attention came on a little dark skinned boy with half of his face burned; I had my work cut out for me, but I was getting the hang of healing. The next level is supposedly being able to discern what’s wrong with someone at a mere touch. Walking toward him, I resolved myself to finish what I started…

 

~/.\~

 

Miracle at Sydney Children's Hospital in Randwick

 

In retrospect going on a healing spree wasn’t the best idea I had yesterday. I was watching the news on the TV in my living room and there was a news story about everyone in the emergency room falling asleep and when they awakened every child was miraculously healed. This was going to put me on the radar of everyone. Fortunately though, I disposed of the camera records 

The anchor was interviewing a familiar blonde little girl; the first one I had healed to be precise. Her name was Mariam Butler. She had brown eyes, her hair drawn up in a ponytail, and wore a white top with blue jeans. There was a pendant in the form of a unicorn that somehow amplified her cuteness and her face was really expressive, a stark contrast from the suffering look she had when she was asleep in the hospital’s emergency room.

Her mother stood behind her, her appearance basically an older copy of her daughter and wearing a black pantsuit. The anchor was a beautiful asian woman in a red skirt suit with a pin of the network she was a part of: ABC News.

The anchor asked the little girl what happened and it started with, “I was breathing really hard and it hurt. My mum brought me to the hospital and they made us wait for a long time and the pain kept getting stronger.”

The little girl held onto her chest as she remembered the pain; I had noticed through the healing spell’s feedback how painful it was for her. How could they make her wait when she was feeling like this? Humans in the end are still primitive despite having the technology to change their world and failing to use it. What can I expect from people being led around by the few rich people manipulating the economy and the technological level on the planet?

My attention shifted back to the news story as the little girl continued to give her testimony. “Then I took a gander at the entrance, then I saw a woman in a blue dress enter the emergency room, she was pretty with blonde hair and sunglasses and… and then I fell asleep.”

Mariam, the little girl smiled angelically as she said, “When I woke up, it didn’t hurt anymore.”

The girl looked into the camera and said with a heartfelt tone, “Whoever you are, Miss, thank you!”

I chuckled, she is a cute kid.

The anchor then turned to the camera and began to say, “Most of the other children and parents that were in the emergency room have similar testimonies. No records of that woman in blue healing the children has been forwarded; the police and the hospital security have found nothing prior to and after the mass healing.”

Phew, taking any of the recording and erasing my presence was a good call; MACHINA was going to be so smug about it, that being her idea. I didn’t care much if I was discovered, but it’s too early for me to be caught in the middle between the Regime and the Resistance.

The news switched topics to world news and reported on a bunch of wars and skirmishes being stopped by the Justice League. This was centered in Africa and the middle-east, though I didn’t see them try to fix problems creating the strife those silly humans were making. No, Superman just sat on everyone and forced them to agree to terms. 

“What an idiot. What about the underlying causes? The religious division, the land disputes, or the ancient feud and the inequality and resource division?” I had so many questions, this peace was fake. How could the Justice League not see that?

Please calm down, Ma’am.

*MACHINA, don’t you see? This is tyranny.*

And we will put a stop to it.

“This is why I decided to be hands off with the humans in my own universe; I gave them knowledge and let them be, if they fall, they fall. But holding their hands and forcing them to change? Superman and his followers are going to get a rude awakening later.”

At least I can see now what I shouldn’t do… Still I got an idea, I wanted to test myself a bit more. I wasn’t ready to sortie yet and I was waiting for those fools from the Sinestro Corps to make a move. I would slowly whittle them down. I hoped to pass under the radar as well… but I didn’t hold my breath. I was happy to have chosen this point in the story, and now eagerly awaited Kara’s arrival on Earth. I always wanted to meet her, as she was my favorite heroine in my previous life.

Turning to the chimney, the beautiful Skysword sat in its display rack. I called for it and it teleported into my hand in a flash of purple light. There were some specks of dust on the crystalline blade, so I channeled some of my starbolt energy inside and heated the blade, burning whatever residue off of my cherished weapon. My soft-suit turned back to normal and created a sword belt with a scabbard for me.

I floated toward the foyer of my house, noting that the decorations were kind of bare. I would personalize it later. Just now, I realized that I can go look for stuff buried and forgotten. Even more so for legendary metals and artifacts, even books on magic. Placing my sword in its scabbard, I exited my little house and closed the door. 

The garden had nothing to compliment it and the house was not as protected as I wanted; just a couple mines and a deflector shield generator. I resolved to place magical wards around it later.

Lightly jumping, I propelled myself into the sky, in the direction of the clearing where I had placed my scout ship.

 

~/.\~

 

Gotham city
February 14th, 2010
Gotham Museum of Antiquities
Afternoon

 

The city was quite dark, even during the day; I could feel this pervasive darkness here. I wasn’t surprised that any and all magic users left Gotham if they could feel how the dark miasma encroached here. This being despite all the decreases in crime from Superman’s Regime and its jackbooted super soldiers. I could hear a lot of things happening in the background of the city, and despite the posters on some walls saying that it was safe, I didn’t believe them. 

The criminals may have gone to ground, but they’ve been replaced by the cruel agents of the Regime. I could hear and see some people being beaten up for bullshit reasons; nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power. Superman’s super soldiers clearly were molded by his current mental state, and thus they delved into evil. Justice must be tempered by mercy; and the so-called Justice League had none for the people of the world.

I wouldn’t deny the good they do, but people should be able to have some limited freedoms. This curfew and laws against public gathering was killing the morale of the people. As I looked around the museum, I didn’t see many people, so it seemed even tourism had slowed down. The economy was getting low, and Gotham was turning into a prison for its inhabitants.

I was here in the museum to see the Egyptian art pieces to scan them; you would ask me why the Egypt exposition? Because I link Egypt with Nth metal, as there is a crashed Thanagarian ship made of the metal on Earth, but I needed some sample to be able to detect it with my ship’s sensors.

I followed the crowd while the guide gave us the story about the statues, steles, coffins, and weapons. Most of them registered to my sensors as gold, rock and copper.

“But Ma’am, copper is soft, why did they use it?” A nerdy looking kid questioned the guide.

“Steel or Iron wasn’t common in Ancient Egypt and surrounding countries. Copper was the most common metal for everyday use in ancient Egypt. Copper often contained natural arsenic, you see. Therefore it was particularly hard. And copper was a ready resource for this civilization; the ores were mined and melted in the eastern desert and in Sinai.” The guide, a patient looking woman, explained to one of the young geeky students; yeah I was kind of accompanying a school tour.

It heartened me to see curious children like this. But soon my attention was pulled toward the Khopesh swords, maces, spears and battle axes that were behind the glass vitrines. They looked mainly made of copper or bronze and attached to wooden handles.

Ten minutes later, I found a reaction amongst a jewelry display; I ignored all the gold with big gems in them, my attention focused on the Eye of Ra that emanated with a shroud of magic. It felt like a curse, no… a magical protection. I pointed the smartphone shaped device at the vitrine and scanned it. A shutter sound was thus heard to deceive the humans around me about what I was doing.

Scanning…

Unknown element detected!

Thaumaturgical Quantum field detected!

Nice, I was still not stealing it. I was a thief only in certain situations, those items were loaned to the museum and insurance might not pay for it. But in the end, I got what I wanted, the metal was obviously Nth metal and now I was going to look for the motherload of the metal. I wanted none of those cursed handouts. I mimed about watching the time on my phone and turned heel to exit the museum.

Placing my scanner in my handbag, I used my speed to flash to the entrance and run to the nearest dark alley. My outfit changed from a red leather jacket, white wool turtleneck and black pants to my soft-suit. I jumped and flew into the sky where my ship waited for me ten thousand feet in the air.

I saw the ramp of the cargo bay of the invisible ship open, without any sound, I landed and floated up to Deck 2. Landing on the deck plates, I walked toward the bridge which was at the foremost section of the ship on Deck 2. Entering the wide viewing area on the bridge, I advanced toward the holographic map and held onto the ramp of the platform overlooking the rest of the bridge.

“MACHINA, take us to Egypt.”

Course plotted.

Travel time: 10 minutes at low flying speed.

“Excellent.” I said as the ship’s engine thrummed with power, to a normal person the ship would be silent, but with my sense of hearing being ramped up like this? There was no way for the ship to be silent at all. This was why, sleeping in it was getting difficult and I started living in my prefab house. The ship moved at great speed, slower than me in flight, but I needed it to transport whatever quantity of metal I would find.

The sky slowly darkened in the horizon as we changed time zones. Gotham and Cairo had a six hour difference and it was night there already. The cloudy sky was sprinkled with twinkling stars and the moon was out. We quickly arrived in Egypt, the Tempest slowly flying toward Giza, where the Great Pyramid was located. The Great Pyramid of Giza is the largest Egyptian pyramid and the tomb of Fourth Dynasty pharaoh Khufu, the name of the pharaoh was familiar… wasn’t it that guy who discovered the Nth metal Thanagarian ship? Exposure to Nth metal forced Khufu and his betrothed Chay-Ara into a cycle of reincarnation. 

My ship hovered near the top of the great pyramid, I could see the desert stretching from this position. “Deploy sensor probes.”

All of them? Asked MACHINA, she was right not to deploy them all; I should have been more accurate.

“Half.” I commanded.

Advanced reconnaissance Engine unit launched, Ma’am.

The probes were sleek, softball-sized, self-levitating orbs designed to be Mobile Analytic Laboratory Probes. They were able to be entirely remote-operated and capable of self-guidance with the dumb AI loaded in them. It automatically links with Tempest's computers, allowing the ship to track planetary details such as atmospheric conditions. Incidentally they are great at finding buried things with their sensors.

There was a lot of desert and plains to cover. I jumped over the ramp of the platform  and landed on the command chair next to the other chairs. Two holographic screens appeared before me from the projectors in my armrest. The screens further divided until they showed the footage of the forty probes beginning their search pattern, and I wasn’t even surprised that they were even capable of recognizing landmarks it was set to search for. 

As time passed, my overwatch of the situation left me bored; so much so that I broke OPSEC and went outside the ship and started flying aimlessly over Giza’s desert. I used my optic blast and started writing in the sand ‘War is coming’ in Asgardian. The superheated sand turned to glass, it happened as I turned up the temperature from the blasts. A little clue for the JL and the Resistance…

This impromptu training was beneficial, at least I didn’t explode the terrain like I did those city sized asteroids  from the belt in space. Everything was being dialed down as much as I could. I still had problems with my muscular control, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed in a month.

Matching Thaumaturgical Quantum field detected!

My HUD warned me that the probe had found what I wanted them to and on the holo-screen of my wristmounted micro-computer, the video of a golden mass twenty meters under the biggest pyramid was slowly being recorded. “Eh, it's buried in the depths of the pyramid.”

MACHINA’s blue holographic form appeared on top of my wrist.

Ma’am we found it, but it will be difficult to get to without attracting the attention of the authorities and the Justice League.

“We’re going to do something about it; can you manipulate the space into the cargo hold?” I asked as a plan formed in my mind. I was going to raise up a storm; my own pun made me chuckle.

I sent my plan to my AI kid; she looked at me as if I was crazy, clearly she hasn’t been with me long enough. It was basically my natural state.

It will not be easy, but I can come up with something…

No, it wasn’t easy at all like MACHINA said. I had to create a sand storm by flying in a circle at a certain speed, enough to cover Giza in a cloud of dust and block the sky. I had to stay under 331.29 meters per second and make it look natural. I didn’t want anyone to think that I was the Weather Wizard acting up in another country. I started my plan in the desert not too far from Cairo.

Faster, I flew faster and didn’t deviate from my course, the sand from the dunes slowly raised. The storm was fully formed after I kept this up for ten minutes and finally let go and threw the storm at Giza.

“Operation Mark.”

Excavator drone deployed.

A squid-like metal drone the size of a minivan with eight appendages separated from the Tempest and  hovered over the western side of the great pyramid and pointed four tentacles that fired a drill shaped laser construct at thirty meters from the Pyramid entrance. The drone continued to drill a tunnel through the sand, rock and ground for over one hour before finally reaching the chamber under the pyramid.

The drone continued the operation by widening the tunnel and making it as structurally sound as possible. It cut a hole into the chamber and at least twenty probes went inside it to see what was there. And to my utter lack of surprise, I was greeted with a sight full of  gold and the raised platform with a sleek ship made entirely of Nth metal.

“Jackpot.”

Not wanting to tempt fate, I quickly ordered MACHINA to land the Tempest and open the ramp to the cargo hold. I didn’t want some meddling kids or random strangers appearing and making me lose the opportunity to take my loot. The gold and jewels could stay, as they meant nothing to me; what I wanted was the ship and anything related to it. I lifted the entire ship on my back and floated toward the tunnel to load it into the cargo hold; MACHINA had expanded it with spatial folding but I could see that it was getting costly in energy.

Gently depositing my new booty in the hold, I mentally ordered MACHINA to recall the probes and the excavator drone and to get us out of here ASAP, then to use the phase cloak and bring us back to Australia. The ship lurched up and I felt it move eastward.

 “Operation complete.”

 

~/.\~

(Cyborg aka Victor Stone)

 

February 15th, 2010
01:12 PM (Egypt time)
Cairo

 

Destination reached. Recognized Cyborg. Recognized Hawkgirl.

Synching to the Airport Wifi network. Connection… Connected.

Victor and Hawkgirl arrived in Cairo via the Zeta Beam teleporter in the Cairo International Airport. Victor hated the place already, as it was covered in sand, so he was sure that he would have to scrub accumulated grains and particulate from his parts and jump jets. Being a cyborg was suffering when you had to account for maintenance cycles at all times. But as the two of them advanced into the terminal proper, people gave him and the heroine a wide berth. Perhaps that was better for everyone, but at least their contact arrived on schedule in a jeep out front of the airport’s entrance.

Disconnection. Seeking a new network.

Kafele Koury, their 39 year old contact here, waved at them; he was a clearly dark-skinned man wearing a black Egyptian police uniform, additionally sporting a desert-camo hat and sunglasses to protect against the glare of the sun. Cyborg noticed that the man was sweating because of the heat when he got closer.

“As-Salaam-Alaikum, Cyborg and Hawkgirl.” The policeman greeted them with a respectful tone.

Searching for the correct reply to this greeting. Data found.

“Wa-Alaikum-Salaam, Lieutenant Koury.” Victor smiled at the man with a little bow of his head.

Him and Hawkgirl climbed inside the jeep, the heroine choosing to go shotgun while Victor chose the backseat because of his weight. The jeep sank a bit when Victor was finally onboard; he really needed to go with lighter material but Promethium was a good metal that could channel his weaponry. 

Lieutenant Koury turned to Cyborg and asked while his hand was on the wheel, “I hope you’re ready?” Then he looked at Hawkgirl who nodded immediately. 

The heroine has her mace in her lap, her hand tightened on the handle. Since her kidnapping by Batman, the woman has become more vigilant than ever. Koury started the jeep and they were on the road. The policeman drove in silence for over thirty minutes until they exited the freeway and were on the desert road. Cyborg hated the place. It was too hot here, worse than in Frisco, as at least there they had the sea breeze that cooled the weather.

“All that sand… how do you live like that?” Victor complained, eliciting a small laugh from Hawkgirl. A mini satellite dish was constructed on his shoulder and he looked for a connection.

Satellite Internet access secured. Reviewing data.

It was the same for Koury. “You get used to it, young man.”

Victor shook his head while accessing the satellites over the area; meteorological, television and Egypt’s attempt at a spy satellite network. “I will never get used to it, as you can see, I’m quite delicate.”

“Ah! Good one.” Koury chuckled, eyes still on the road, but he glanced at Victor in the mirror from time to time.

They soon arrived at the Great pyramids of Giza and disembarked. Victor looked at the three structures with awe. This superhero gig took him to some awesome places…

Connection to Wikipedia. Search words: Great Pyramids of Giza.

The Giza Pyramids, built to endure an eternity, have done just that. The monumental tombs are relics of Egypt's Old Kingdom era and were constructed some 4,500 years ago. Egypt's pharaohs expected to become gods in the afterlife. To prepare for the next world they erected temples to the gods and massive pyramid tombs for themselves—filled with all the things each ruler would need to guide and sustain himself in the next world.

At least that’s what the wiki was telling as he was still connected to it. He knew he shouldn’t trust information that could be tampered with at any moment, but it was enough for him right now. Lieutenant Koury guided the two heroes toward the crime scene. They were led to a hole 20 meters in diameter. 

"This is where the tunnel was dug." Koury told them as he pointed at the big hole in the sand.

20 meters diameter, angle of penetration 90°.

Cyborg crouched next to the mouth of the hole, passed a mechanical finger on the rim; it was covered by Trinitite. Normally it was a leftover from an atomic blast. Did someone use some kind of nuclear powered weapon or some such here?

Analysis… no fallout detected around the site.

Victor calmed down, his machine side laying to rest his fears. The only explanation was that they used some kind of machine that used an intensely heated drill. Or was it a laser? With all those mad scientists around the world, Victor wouldn't be surprised if they might have come up with something. For the life of him, he couldn’t explain how this case went unnoticed like it did. Was the sand storm that covered this crime really natural? Or did the perp take advantage of it? Was it the Weather Wizard or someone with metapower who caused it?

Hawkgirl jumped into the hole, breaking Victor from his train of thoughts. “Hawkgirl, wait!”

“Wait for us, Lieutenant!” Victor said to the policeman and put on a grin and waved him off.

Victor jumped into the hole and fired his jump jets to slow his descent. When he landed in the hole, Hawkgirl waited for him with her mace light on. He constructed a flashlight on his machine arm and then there was light. The walls of the tunnel reflected the light in multifaceted colors, it was the first time Victor had seen such a thing; he idly asked himself what type of technology could do this?

"Beautiful." Hawkgirl said laconically. 

"Yes it is…"

Her mace in hands, her wings folded, Hawkgirl moved. "Let’s go, follow me."

Victor followed the senior member of the League, her steps echoing on the packed stone they were walking on. They ended up entering a cavernous chamber with statues of bird people, steles and platforms filled with mountains of gold trinkets, gems and weapons.

Requesting more data. 

"They went to all that trouble to make a sandstorm to cover their tracks, but they left all the gold, jewels and precious items of historical value." Hawkgirl glared at the empty platform. “They took something here, and it was what they desired the most.”

Victor had to agree with that assessment as he sported foot tracks in the dust, a single pair of tracks leading to the platform. "How are you so sure that they created the sandstorm, Hawkgirl?"

Hawkgirl climbed on the empty platform, passing the light of her mace on the ground, until she spotted a tiny speck of golden metal. She crouched to take it, and she replied to Victor, "Experience, Cyborg. The sandstorm that delayed the response of the Egyptian authorities wasn't natural. From my memories they can’t be controlled unless a powerful mage does it."

There was nothing Victor could say to gainsay that, he barely dabbled in magic and the weather branch asked too much time to master. And Hawkgirl knew her stuff, after all she had lived it. Then he realized that what has taken here was a heist when Hawkgirl presented him the piece of metal she had discovered.

Analysis…

Analysis complete.

Shard of Nth metal.

When it rains it pours, now Victor understood why the perps didn’t take the wealth displayed around. “This is going to be annoying, Hawkgirl.”

Nth metal has the ability to negate gravity, allowing a person wearing an object, such as a belt, made of Nth Metal to fly. In addition, Nth metal also protects the wearer from the elements and speeds the healing of wounds, increases their strength, and protects them from extremes in temperature. There were many other properties of the metal that the League had discovered over the years, the magical metal was extremely versatile as shown by Hawkgirl’s mace.

Hawkgirl looked left and right. “From how big the platform is, that was a big chunk of Nth metal and I remember only one thing that fit the bill. It was the ship that brought the metal on Earth to begin with, my previous self had discovered it with her betrothed.”

The heroine left the platform, Victor followed her; she made the sign to illuminate the place she was pointing at. “See those Hieroglyphs? What was stored on this platform was called the Heavenly Chariot.”

Victor asked the question that was burning in his mind. “What do you think will happen to it?”

Hawkgirl turned to Victor, her eyes hard. “This is enormous power, Cyborg. If they find a way to melt it. But seeing where we are… I doubt they will have much difficulty.”

They packed up, after looking for more samples of Nth metal; they found some cursed items that they brought with them to the surface. Hawkgirl went to speak with Koury about what was down there. The ministry of culture will be happy with the treasure trove they found; but they will be less happy that the biggest piece of the loot was already taken by someone else. Cyborg noticed something shining under the sun, fifty meters from the hole. He walked up toward it and saw that it was a big spot with sand turned glass. 

Light caught other such spots under the sun and he called in someone who would help see what was here by sandblasting the area. The sandstorm seems to have covered some important clues. One hour later, a Javelin came down from the Watchtower and it landed not too far from the crime scene. Red Tornado exited the spaceship and went to find Victor who explained what he wanted done.

Red Tornado took flight and began blowing the sand away from the glass left on the desert and… Hawkgirl was the first to see what the glass spread over the desert meant as she went up in the sky. “Cyborg? It seems they left us a message. The melted sand forms words.”

“What does this message say?” Victor pressed through their comms.

“War is coming.” Was her answer.

 

~/.\~

(Harleen Quinzel)

 

February 25th, 2010
Gotham
Bludhaven
08:31 PM

 

Bonk! Bonk! Bonk!

Harley swung her bat repeatedly as hard as she could at the helmet of the Regime soldier. His helmet dented and blood spurted from the seams of his armor. Then she ran into an alley, in the direction of old wingy’s hideout. She had a momentary thought to Nightwing who died uselessly because of a whiny little brat who didn’t deserve anything in her opinion. She looked at the open window on the side of the building and then at the space between the buildings; she ran and jumped using the wall as a springboard and ninja’d her way into the open window.

She threw her bat inside and hoisted herself up just in time to hear:

“Where did she go?!”

“How is she doing that?! Nowhere in her file did they say she could pull a Batman!”

Harley chuckled, but put her hands on her mouth to stop herself from giving away her location. For half a day she had felt hunted. Those armored fucks have been hounding her since she entered the city. There was an APB on her since she was spotted eating a burger in that diner between Gotham and Bludhaven. *Can’t they let a girl eat in peace?!*

Harley got it, she decided to stay here for an hour and then she would bounce toward the clock tower; she hoped that the hideout hadn't been cleared out yet by the League or Batman. There was always some cash there, and some gadgets and weapons. The Nightwing hideout was one of the few she knew about; those batkids always went to the weirdest places to make their nests. 

Sigh, was she going to ask for the birdy’s help again? She was taking care of her kid right now and didn’t want to impose. Or could she bunk with Pammy? No, it was too dangerous, Pammy was being watched now. “I miss the old days, I would go rob a bank or an ATM and go to hide wherever, but nope, big blue had to go all police state on us. Though it’s kind of partly my fault…”

She got up, took her bat in hand and looked around her, the apartment she was hiding in was empty and icy. Normally such a place shouldn’t be open at all. Was she that lucky? The owner must have forgotten to close the window. Harley walked toward the door of the empty room, she turned the door handle and was into a dark corridor that she followed, it was clear that the house was being renovated as she saw walls having been destroyed or electric cable hanging from the ceiling. 

“I’ve seen the movies. At any moment someone or something is supposed to appear and try to either kill me, fuck me or eat me. Not necessarily in that order!” Harley chuckled.

"G'day, Miss Quinzel."

Harley jumped back and screamed. “Aaaaahhh!”

The crazy blonde looked before her, there was a dark silhouette coming from where the stairs are; she pointed her bat at the clearly female voice and shouted, "Who the hell are you?"

But when the person next spoke it was from behind her. "Your salvation."

Harley felt a hand on her left shoulder firmly, then all she saw was white.

 

~/.\~

(Komand’r)

 

February 26th, 2010
Australia
Sydney
Freya’s basement
11:45 AM

 

I spent the next 15 minutes explaining to Harley Quinn that I didn’t want to kill her or steal her bat or have my way with her. Though the last one was a complete lie, I intended to do bad things to her that would eventually lead to her being sane and healthy, against her will. I sat her down on the couch in my basement, gave her a bottle of water and took the plunge by disabling my magical glamour.

It’s been a while that I haven’t been me; it gladdens me to see my orange skin and long purple hair, though I was still getting used to not having reddish black hair anymore. Harley let go of her water bottle in shock and looked at me with big blue eyes. “OMG You’re an alien! Please don’t probe me!”

She put her hands on her ass cheeks that she was tightening. This made me sigh, did I really need her at all? Yes, yes I do; she’s my in into the resistance. Once again I had to explain to her that I didn’t have any intention to probe her, that I had non-invasive scanners for that. She calmed down again after I put a chocolate flavored protein bar into her hand.

I watched her eat, she must have been really hungry as she finished the bar in two bites. I began to say, "So, Harley…"

She had a lot of chocolate around her mouth, it was endearing… With a big grin she said, “Call me Harleen, hun.”

Sigh. "Call me Princess Blackfire."

For a long moment, Harle-en looked at me. Really looked at me and said, "Aren't you the sister of that alien gal from the Titans from down there in Cali? Star-something."

I floated to the facing one seater sofa and sat, my soft-suit rippled over my skin and turned into my typical Tamaranean outfit, a purple and black leotard with vambraces and high boots. "I indeed am Komand’r, First Princess of Tamaran. Sister of Koriand’r, otherwise called Starfire on Earth."

Harleen’s eyes lit up. “Oooh, that's the first time I spoke with a princess who doesn't want to jail me or kill me.” 

I threw a packet of tissues at her, making a sign with my hand that she should wipe her mouth. Harleen passed her tongue on her lips and laughed. She wiped her mouth with what I gave her and then decided that she wanted me to come to the point of her little kidnapping. "Cool, cool! So why am I here, Princess. Do you want me for a team up or something, I can like totally steal stuff and be the comic relief and-"

With a glare, I silenced her and said, "I am not from your universe, I am not a criminal on my planet. Me and the Komand’r of this universe are two completely different people. Where she betrayed her people and sister, I did not; I destroyed the invaders who tried to rape my world and my people. I didn't sell off my kid-sister out of jealousy. If I was ever in the presence of my… counterpart I would kill her in ritual combat for what she did."

Harleen’s eyes went big, but a doubtful expression appeared onto her face. "Ah, another dimension? We have those from time to time." 

Her tone implied that she didn’t believe me at all. "Alright, whatever do you want me for?"

I uncrossed my legs and leaned forward toward her, I stared into her blue eyes; there was a cautious form of insanity to her, she was clearly smart, but I felt through my empathy that she wasn’t all there. "You're going to help me, Harleen."

All business, she responded with, "What's in it for me?" 

The eternal grin she had on since I caught her disappeared when I didn’t answer for over a minute. She would obviously work for me, whether she wanted it or not, but I would prefer her cooperation. 

"I am going to heal you." I finally answered.

She cocked her head and smiled and waved at me. "Aww, but I feel fine, Princess, Ma’am."

My vambrace manifested a medical scanner that I pointed at Harleen and the result came on my HUD. With a calm voice, I told her, "No you're not well, Harleen. At best you got another twenty years of life; when you fell in that toxic chemical vat you'd been dumped in by Joker, he essentially killed you.”

Harleen didn’t even notice when I stood up and was before her; I held her face with two fingers on her chin and I looked into her eyes. “That… thing in human shape killed who you were. I am quite glad he isn't around anymore, I would have killed him slower than Superman did. He was a parasite and a waste of space."

“So let's start. Like I said, I will heal you.” I gathered dimensional energy and shaped them into the most powerful mental healing spell from Frigga’s book.

My hand glowed with light, but before I could put them on Harleen’s head she stood up and threw a right hook at me that landed on the right side of my face.

POW!

Unfortunately for her, I was waiting for it; I knew exactly how she thought with my metaknowledge. There was a little shockwave that spread in the basement, but I reinforced it with enough plascrete for it to not get damaged. Harleen stared at me in shock when her full power hit didn’t do anything to me. "But… but I took Batsy’s magic pill, I should be stronger!"

Did she think that it would be this easy? I stayed one year in the fucking sun and can resist damned comets coming at me at FTL speed. I took her hand in mine and took care of not crushing it; she tried to resist but I was visibly stronger than her. Harleen’s arm shook against the strain. "I am… afraid that those paltry nanotech attribute amplifiers that Batman stole from Superman won't help you, Harleen."

My free hand glowed with healing light and I put it on Harleen’s head before she could even react. “Don’t worry, you’ll feel better after a bit of Mind Healing.”

Her eyes rolled in her head and she fell on the ground with a plop sound. I looked at her at my feet and said, "Well, I guess we're gonna have to wait for her to wake up while her mind gets better.

I like her, she was funny! MACHINA gave her opinion about the crazy ex-minion.

 

~/.\~

(Harley or is it Harleen Quinzel?)

 

Harley had to be dreaming. 

Or was she? The gray sand, the smell of death and the red walls around her told her a different story. This felt real! Or was it? Harley didn’t know anymore. 

Stab! She plunged the rusty dirk into the back of the neck of the blonde with a spear in her hands and used her as a shield against the other blonde with the assault rifle. When the gun clicked empty, she took the spear of her defeated foe and threw it at the assault rifle bearing blonde.

Harley was fighting people wearing her face, battle royal style, in a creepy blood covered arena. New challengers kept coming, this time it was a Harley in her old jester outfit with her trademark hammer.

How many Harley's were there in this place? "I am the real one!" Hammer Harley shouted with a crazy expression. The woman lunged at Harley.

Harley jumped out of the way of the big hammer, and threw the dirk at her but Hammer Harley used her weapon to deflect it. “I’m sorry to tell you, hun, but you’re a fake.”

“Fuck you! I’m the real one!” She shouted back while running toward Harley.

Harley side stepped and tripped Hammer Harley who fell and lost her grip on her weapon. Harley caught the hammer and sniffed at the jester suit of the Harley at her feet. “Huh, I doubt that, who put on a circus porn outfit to fight?”

“Don’t you dare mock the suit!” She threw herself at Harley who was ready for it and raised the cartoonish hammer.

WHACK!! CRACK!!

“I dare!” Harley said.

She was over her twisted love for the joker, he only brought ruin to everything; look at the world he created by taking something from Superman. What she wanted to do was go back to the one she truly loved, the plant lady who knew her really well. Then all of a sudden, all the eleven Harleys that she had killed and were laying on the sand of the arena melted into white mist.

The mist converged toward Harley with great celerity. There was a flow of memories flooding into her, action that she regretted, her kid that she had left with her sister. Harley wanted to be a mother, but she couldn’t because of her rare moment of lucidity. She knew that she was a bad person and wouldn’t have been able to prioritize her daughter. Harley fell on her ass, floored by all those memories and right now? She felt so coherent, a bit like her previous self.

“Fuck, is this fucking Highlander or what?” All that didn’t fix her potty mouth. 

CREEEEEK. BOOM. 

“Ah, shit this isn’t over?” She said as she heard the portcullis open.

Each time this happened, a wave of new enemies wearing her face appeared. But what she saw at the entrance of the arena instead of another army of Harley Quinns was a boring looking and attractive blonde woman with a white lab coat, blue shirt and black skirt with heels. She had no visible weapons, but Harley didn’t lower her guard.

“Well, ain’t that a blast from the past.” Harley said as she stood up with her hammer in her hands.

The woman, Harleen Quinzel used her middle finger to force her glasses back deeper on her nose. “You defeated all of them, good.”

Harley snorted and put the handle of the hammer on her shoulder. “Well yeah, they were just fakes.”

Harleen stared at her with pity. “Oh no, they weren’t fakes, Harley. Don’t delude yourself into thinking that. They were all part of us.”

The boring Harleen took something in the hidden pocket of her white lab coat. It was… “There can only be one, Sorry Harley.”

It was a detonator. Boring Harleen pushed the button and... BOOOOOOOM.

Harley didn’t feel like it had hurt exactly, she felt herself flowing toward boring Harleen, as if a puzzle was coming together, that the bits and pieces that she had felt missing since she fell into that vat of chemicals at Ace Chemicals were back… no, not back. It was like new pieces were made and slotted back to make herself whole. She didn’t feel like she was boring Harleen anymore, she wasn’t just Harley too. She was someone new, but was she better?

Harly, she was going to be Harly now. Harly opened her eyes, only to see green glowing eyes looking at her. The Tamaranean Princess who made her a new person. The orange-skinned woman held her hand before her and said, “Wake the fuck up Harleen, we've got a Regime to burn.”

“It’s Harly now.” She took the hand and she was lifted up.

Harly was going to fix the mistakes she’d made and it was going to be great.

---

A/N: This is the start of Kom's epic in DC Injustice!

If you are looking to get early chapters and read all the good stuff I haven't posted to the public yet, support with the link below:

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