Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2015 16:03:01 GMT -5
The Titans of Justice Chapter 22 “Mordru – The Takeover”
Written by: Power Guy
Co-conspirator: Scotty2Hotty
Editor: Marcus Mebes
The Hall of Justice, Metropolis U.S.A….
Nightvision, Huntress, and Sargona had just recovered from Mordru’s brutal attack. The Hall of Justice was a mess. The roof had a huge hole in it while the computer system was down.
“Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!” cursed an angry Sargona.
“Calm down Sargona,” said Nightvision, doing his best to remain calm himself.
“Calm down?” she retorted with hostility. “Don’t pull your holier than thou routine on me, Bat-boy. How the hell am I supposed to calm down when Mordru has Green Lantern, the rest of the Titans and my ruby? God only knows where he’s taken them.”
The Huntress, noticing the tension between her teammates, decided to interject. “Sargona, we’re all worried about our friends…”
“Friends?” The same hostility blurted out of the sorceress’ mouth. “You’ve barely been on the team a month. And now they’re your friends?”
“Look, I’m just trying to help,” retorted the Huntress. “I don’t have any hidden agenda… like you’re assuming,” she added, further antagonizing the other.
“She’s right Sargona, Huntress is genuinely concerned,” Nightvision said trying to get Sargona to see reason. “We all need to work together here.”
Sargona realized her teammate was right and tried to extinguish her anger. “How the heck are we supposed to accomplish anything with the computers down?” she inquired, doing her best to focus her frustration.
“The computers aren’t our only resource but it would definitely help if they were working. Let me make a phone call,” Nightvision replied, excusing himself as he walked a few feet away from his teammates.
Using his cell phone, Nightvision called up John Irons, the hero known as Steel.
“Irons here,” answered the iron-clad hero after only a moment.
“Dr. Irons? It’s Nightvision. I know Celsius has you working on that special project but the Hall of Justice has been badly damaged and I need you to come by and fix our computer system.”
There was a momentary pause, and then, “How did you find out about the project?” asked Steel.
“Never mind that. You can leave Kilowog and Dr. Magnus there to continue working on it but I need you here,” pleaded Nightvision.
“I’m on my way,” reassured Steel. “Give me about a half an hour.”
“Thank you!” Nightvision’s gratitude was apparent. After concluding the call, he approached the Huntress and Sargona. “I’ve got Steel coming by. The computers should be back up soon.”
“But even after we get the computers up and running and let’s say we’re able to track down Mordru, what good will the three of us be able to do? You saw how easily he took down the entire team,” argued Sargona.
“We’ll worry about that after we locate him,” answered Nightvision. “Can’t you cast a locator spell or something?”
“I’m not familiar with that kind of spell yet,” lamented the subdued sorceress. “Everyone thinks that I’m as powerful as my grandfather, the original Sargon, but I’m not…yet. You see, the Ruby of Life—while a powerful force—can be corrupting. My father, the second Sargon, had me spend the majority of my teenage years building up my mental strength in preparation to assume the ruby. I’ve only recently started learning spells and other types of magic that don’t rely on it.”
“What about one of the other mystics like Madam Xanadu, Dr. Fate, or Zatanna? Maybe one of them could help us,” suggested the Huntress.
“Good idea,” commented Sargona. “I’ll give them a call and see if they can help. I’ve got their numbers in my organizer,” she added, heading off to her quarters to retrieve it.
About twenty minutes later, Sargona came back with a shocking announcement, “Guys, I can’t reach any of the other mystics. No Zatanna, no Ibis, no Madam Xanadu, no Stranger, and not even the Blue Devil! I can’t reach any of the Shadowpact. Something is definitely wrong here.”
“Maybe they are all on different cases?” the Huntress wondered aloud. She was aware of the Shadowpact’s efforts, and that they sometimes brought the members to completely different dimensions.
“Could be,” muttered Nightvision, “but the timing seems suspicious.”
***
Gemworld…
An unconscious and shackled Power Guy was slapped awake by a massive golem that looked to be composed completely of quartz crystal.
“Ugh…anyone get the license of the truck that hit me?” Power Guy murmured as he awoke.
“I did,” responded the golem angrily. Power Guy got a good look at the creature, and saw that he was in the shape of a huge, muscular man, with a large crack that began at the top of its head and traveled through his eye and nose.
“I wasn’t talking about that school-girl slap you just gave me, idiot,” he retorted, recoiling in disgust at the great flaw within the creature’s shape. “I was talking about what knocked me out… earlier.”
He glared around the room he found himself in and saw the rest of his teammates in chains like himself. A few of the others were starting to wake up due to the commotion in the room.
“You attempt to belittle me, human? Do you think that was my best hit?” questioned the golem. As he spoke, Power Guy saw an androgynous teen smilingly amble up to them. Power Guy could not make out whether it was a girl or a boy, but for the sake of his own sanity, he decided it was a male. Just the concept of the teen’s gender was mind-boggling, and he could not fathom why it was so.
“So ornery, ain’t he?” he slurred, flashing a disturbing smile at the hero. “Flaw’s kinda brutal, you understand,” he said to Power Guy directly. “Don’t mind him. It’ll get worse anyway. You can’t hold it against him. It’s his nature.”
“As you wish, master.” The creature, Flaw, seemingly took The Child’s words as a command and started to beat the shackled Power Guy. His mighty arms pummeled the hero mercilessly, unrelentingly.
As hard as he tried, Power Guy could not break free from the chains that bound him. Flaw’s blows were so intense that even he could bear it only for a short time. “Argh…………..!!!” Scream as he might, the blows would not stop. In fact, his cries only seemed to fuel the golem’s fury.
“Leave him alone!” ordered Celsius, who was one of the first to wake up from Mordru’s attack. “Did you hear me? I said leave him alone or I’ll burn you to ash!!!”
The teen approached Celsius. “You’re from the world of Winston. You do not know me, and I’ll allow you that. I am the Child, and y’all are in my world now. You don’t give the orders here.” Flinging his long red hair out of his face, he turned away from the carnage and strode toward the team leader. He folded his arms across his chest and grinned. “You think you can burn me? Go ahead. Give it a shot. Let’s see what happens.” Unable to aim a blast directly at him, Celsius found himself grabbed on his left leg in the Child’s icy grip. The contact of the Child’s skin against Celsius’ skin brought about an intense mystical heat.
With his powers being what they were, Celsius had never been burned before. The pain was overwhelming. “Aghh!!!” he shrieked in despair.
The Child let up for a moment and straightened up. “See now, bubba? You don’t make threats to Flaw and the Child.” An insidious grin appeared on his face. In his own sick, perverted way, he was enjoying watching Celsius suffer. “I think we need to make sure you understand,” he said as he put his hands on Celsius’ right leg. Again, the pain was too much for Celsius and his screams resonated throughout the large chamber.
By this time, all of the other Titans of Justice in the room had woken up from the screams of their teammates. All of them tried to break free of their chains but to no avail. The chains were mystic in nature, and they had nothing to counter that. The chains would not even release Black Vulcan who had turned into her energy form in hopes of escaping.
Wonder Man, who likewise had been struggling without success to break free of his chains, thought of a possible solution. “I may not be able to break free of these chains but I’ll bet my Magic Lasso can bust me outta here.” Using his telepathic control over the mystic lariat, he guided the silver rope up his body and ordered it to wrap itself around his chains and spin itself around each of the cuffs until eventually it filed its way through. “Free!” he yelled proud of his accomplishment. “Now let’s see you two clowns fight against someone who can fight back!”
Wonder Man then threw his lasso around Flaw and swung the crystalline creature into the wall. Flaw’s body smacked against the concrete with a massive, thundering crack and then he toppled down like a pile of rubble.
The Child ran towards Wonder Man with a look of rage on his face. “You can’t hurt him! That’s my privilege! MINE! How dare you? You’ll pay for that, you lousy creep!” The Child extended both of his arms in an attempt to grab onto Wonder Man like he did to Celsius.
“Sorry kid. I don’t think so!” responded Wonder Man as he used his super-speed to position his bracelets in front of the Child’s hands just in time.
The Child grabbed onto Wonder Man’s bracelets in an attempt to burn him, not realizing their magical properties.
Wonder Man quickly did a backwards summersault which threw the Child into the air and then back down, crashing onto the floor.
“Nice work Wonder Chico, now get us out of here!” requested Vibe.
“I’m on it!” replied Wonder Man as he raced to his teammate in an attempt to break him free Wonder Man used his lasso to free Vibe the same way he had freed himself.
Just when there seemed to be a glimmer of hope for the Titans, Flaw picked himself up off the ground and lunged at Wonder Man. “You will die for hurting the Child!!!” he growled as he slammed his fists into Wonder Man’s back.
“Ugh!!” grunted Wonder Man as he flew forward and fell. Flaw began to pummel Wonder Man into the stone floor of the chamber, sending shards of rock and dirt flying upward around them.
The Child had also recovered from Wonder Man’s attack and made his way over to the male Amazon. He placed both of his hands on Wonder Man’s shoulders. “No magic metal to protect you here, loser!” he shouted. “Ow!” he cried as a chunk of rock dashed into his shoulder. “Watch it, idiot!” he ordered Flaw.
“Apol… ogies… Master!” shouted the creature as he continued his malicious efforts.
Wonder Man screamed in agony as the Child burned him and Flaw beat him into unconsciousness.
Vibe, who was struggling to regain his composure enough to use his powers thought to himself, “I’ve got to help Wonder Chico or they’ll kill him!” He put all of his concentration in getting his powers to work. “Ugh… c’mon, c’mon…” he told himself. Finally a wave of intense vibrations shot out from Vibe’s hands, sending the villainous duo flying far away from Wonder Man.
As Vibe was ready to celebrate his victory, a door to the cell he and his teammates were being held in burst open to reveal Mordru.
“You again? You are one of those who almost cost me my victory at your Hall of Justice,” the evil wizard shouted. “You will tamper with my plans no more!”
“Uh oh…” whispered Vibe as his eyes widened in fear.
Mordru raised his hands and cast a spell of containment. Vibe soon founds himself trapped inside of a mystical sphere.
“Let me out of here, pendejo!” demanded Vibe.
“I don’t think so,” barked Mordru. “You and your foolish friends will cause me no more trouble. Flaw, Child–on your feet. I want you in the audience. I have a story to tell…” He waved a hand in their direction, and the Titans saw the Child shrug indifferently, and tap on Flaw’s shoulder. Flaw was still pummeling the unconscious hero deeper into the pit that his efforts had created.
“We’re not interested in your fairy-tales Mordru. So save it!” yelled an angry Strato Hawk, tugging at his chains in vain.
“Oh, but I’m sure you’ll enjoy this one,” countered Mordru with a sinister grin on his face. “You see, it was I who provided Priscilla Rich and her grandson Michael the mystic link to be able to talk to each other.” When he did not see recognition on every face, he added, “Cheetah… and his grandmother. The original Cheetah.”
“Wow, that freak wasn’t crazy after all!” shouted a surprised Wonder Man. He recalled seeing the Cheetah argue with apparently no one.
“It was I who reactivated the Extremists; I who gave Amp his powers, and put him in the position as their new leader. Finally, it was I who gave poor, distressed Monique Le Claire her pretty little Star Sapphire. Hahahaha!!!” he cackled.
“I knew there was some outside force messing with us!” affirmed Celsius. “Too much was happening at once to simply be a coincidence.”
“Right you are boy,” answered the wizard, almost laughing. He nodded courteously at Flaw and the Child, who had withdrawn and stood together nearby. “All of these acts were an effort to see how much of a challenge you all would be when I came for Jemstone,” admitted Mordru. “You deserve some credit though. I thought you would surely fall before those lackeys.”
“What about the Shadow Thief?” questioned Green Lantern. “Where’s he hiding?”
“Hmm….probably on a beach in the city called Miami right about now,” guessed Mordru. He added, tauntingly, “On YOUR world. He was simply a hired thug. He accomplished his task so I sent him on his way.”
“Our world,” whimpered Vibe nervously.
“Where are you keeping Jemstone?” demanded Junjie Quick. “You better not have hurt her!”
“Hurt her?” asked Mordru. “Why would I hurt her when she was the key to my victory? My friends, we are no longer on Earth but on the beautiful planet of Gemworld. My home.”
“Gemworld? The home of Amethyst?” inquired Nucleus. He was among the few that knew much about the enigmatic woman named Amy Winston, who was also the goddess of the other-dimensional world.
“You are correct tiny one,” confirmed Mordru. “But poor Amethyst has been… shall we say… put out of commission. Thanks to my access to Jemstone’s power and Sargona’s ruby. But don’t worry, I have both Amethyst and Jemstone in my throne-room so I can keep a good eye on them. They have each other to suffer with.”
***
The Hall of Justice…
“Thanks for your help John,” said Nightvision. “I appreciate you dropping what you were doing to help us out.
“Not a problem. The new project can wait a bit longer; especially when you had an emergency like this. Your computers should be back online. I hate to be rude, but I’ve got to get back to work or Celsius isn’t going to pay me a dime. You can take it from here, right? Let me know, and I’ll stay if you need me to.”
“Not a problem, take care,” Nightvision said to the departing Steel.
“I’m running scans on the various sectors of the globe,” advised the Huntress. “The computers aren’t able to detect a single one of our teammates.”
“I knew they wouldn’t be of much help,” sighed Sargona. “Technology won’t be much help with tracking Mordru or our captured friends.”
“No, but I will,” came a voice seemingly out of nowhere.
A portal of light opened and out stepped the protégé of the Phantom Stranger known simply as the Stranger. Up until this point, he had remained on the edges of events, not choosing to interfere.
“Stranger!” yelled a pleasantly surprised Sargona. “You got my message!” she said running over to hug her acquaintance.
“Yes, I did,” confirmed the Stranger. “I’m sorry I’m late. I had another confrontation with Etrigan. He’s a feisty little demon. I liked him much better when he was a coat rack at the night club.”
“Issues with Etrigan, huh?” inquired Nightvision. “Batman used to speak so highly of him. But that was before the separation from Jason Blood.”
“Yes, a lot has changed since then,” agreed the Stranger. “Sargona, your message said that Mordru has captured your teammates?”
“Yes and God only knows what he’s done to them,” said a worried Sargona.
“Do not despair, I can sense that most of your friends are safe, for now,” revealed the Stranger. “In fact I can take you to them right now.”
“That sounds great but what good can the four of us do against someone as powerful as Mordru? He took down our entire team without breaking much of a sweat,” the Huntress revealed.
“That is true. We will need some allies to help take down Mordru and his henchmen,” admitted the Stranger. “Sargona, join hands with me.”
“What are we going to do?” asked the sorceress.
“We are going to summon allies to help in the fight against Mordru,” revealed the Stranger.
“But there are none,” insisted Nightvision, verging on despair. “Not here. None that can come right now. And we need powerful allies!”
“Not here,” agreed the Stranger, smiling mysteriously. “Not… NOW.”
***
Everywhere & Nowhere—also known as the home of the Monitor named Chezvid…
“Lady Quark,” said he, “it appears that the Titans of Justice are preparing for their battle with Mordru. They do not appear to realize that summoning other heroes from this era will be pointless. Mordru is familiar with them all. They would all surely fall before him.”
“I thought matters like this don’t concern you, Monitor?” inquired Lady Quark.
“You are my new Harbinger, Lady Quark, and surely you must realize that Mordru will not stop with Gemworld. Once, he has sucked that planet dry, he will continue on and on until he dominates all of existence. We must act now to maintain order. Activate the temporal displacer and combine it to augment the spell that they are casting. Use the mystic philter and tap into the residual energy left from the samples from Earth C.”
“Yes, Monitor,” acknowledged Lady Quark. With the pressing of a few buttons, the Monitor’s temporal displacer was focused on the Hall of Justice.
***
The Hall of Justice…
The Stranger and Sargona were focusing their mystic energies together. This type of a spell was new for Sargona so she was a bit nervous.
“I can sense that you’re unsure of yourself Sargona. Don’t be afraid. Let me lead the way and have more confidence in yourself. You have much more potential that you realize,” directed the Stranger. The cloak he wore began to billow out from him as the mystic energy began to coalesce around them. Huntress and Nightvision squinted their eyes as the light began to grow brighter.
“No arguments here,” agreed Sargona. “Complex spells like this one are still new to me.” She bit her lip as she noticed the energy building up about them. “So this spell will summon other heroes to combat Mordru?” she asked.
“Yes, it is currently scanning the globe for those who would be most effective against Mordru,” answered the Stranger. His eyes were closed, and his brow knotted in concentration. “Wait…” he muttered, frowning. “Something… else… there’s a…. an outside force… tampering with our spell…”
“Is it Mordru?” inquired Sargona fearfully.
“No,” he replied. Neither of them relented, and continued working the spell. “I sense the tampering… is of a…a… scientific nature.” He opened an eye and looked earnestly at Sargona. “Do not stop. Concentrate! The others–they ARE coming but…” again he wrinkled his brow in concentration, “they are… from… five years into the future!”
With that, a multi-colored portal opened, thrusting five people violently through and sending them tumbling into a heap at the others’ feet.
There was a tumult of noise and confusion, compounded with angry shouts and cries of discomfort and pain. Breaking contact with the Stranger, Sargona did her best to aid Nightvision and the Huntress as they tried to help them to their feet.
“Who are you guys?” demanded Nightvision who was a bit suspicious of the newcomers.
“Who are we?” echoed a red and black-clad man. He wore silver bracelets, and had stars all over his suit. “We’re Titans West! Who the heck are you?”
***
Gemworld…
Mordru looked upon his captives with a large bit of arrogance. “Now that you know all of the little details of my scheme, it’s time to show you that I mean business.” With a gesture of his hand, he called the mystic sphere containing Vibe close to him.
“What’chu doin’ man?” Vibe demanded as he started to tremble.
“Let him go, Mordru! You have us all where you want us!” shouted Strato Hawk.
“Exactly and this will make sure there are no more escape attempts,” Mordru countered, displaying an evil smile upon his face. With another gesture of his hand, the sphere containing Vibe started to shrink.
Vibe started to panic. In a last ditch effort, he focused all of his vibrational energies against the collapsing sphere but all it did was slow the inevitable. “Let me out of here, pendejo!!!”
“Let him out!!!” echoed Celsius whose cries fell on deaf ears. “Stop! Please!”
As the sphere continued to reduce in size Vibe started to feel the pressure against his body. “Arg…ahhh! Ahhh!!! AHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Finally, the Latin-American hero was sadly crushed to death. What they could see encased within the still-shrinking orb was so disturbing that Icemanling vomited, and the others cried out in horror.
The Titans were all in shock that Mordru had gone through with the sinister act. All of them found themselves horrified and speechless.
“All right, heh heh,” snickered the evil wizard, grinning. He waved his hand and the sphere stopped shrinking. “I’ll stop.” He retrieved the ball and tossed it up and down like a dark, red, horrible ball.
To be continued…
Written by: Power Guy
Co-conspirator: Scotty2Hotty
Editor: Marcus Mebes
The Hall of Justice, Metropolis U.S.A….
Nightvision, Huntress, and Sargona had just recovered from Mordru’s brutal attack. The Hall of Justice was a mess. The roof had a huge hole in it while the computer system was down.
“Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!” cursed an angry Sargona.
“Calm down Sargona,” said Nightvision, doing his best to remain calm himself.
“Calm down?” she retorted with hostility. “Don’t pull your holier than thou routine on me, Bat-boy. How the hell am I supposed to calm down when Mordru has Green Lantern, the rest of the Titans and my ruby? God only knows where he’s taken them.”
The Huntress, noticing the tension between her teammates, decided to interject. “Sargona, we’re all worried about our friends…”
“Friends?” The same hostility blurted out of the sorceress’ mouth. “You’ve barely been on the team a month. And now they’re your friends?”
“Look, I’m just trying to help,” retorted the Huntress. “I don’t have any hidden agenda… like you’re assuming,” she added, further antagonizing the other.
“She’s right Sargona, Huntress is genuinely concerned,” Nightvision said trying to get Sargona to see reason. “We all need to work together here.”
Sargona realized her teammate was right and tried to extinguish her anger. “How the heck are we supposed to accomplish anything with the computers down?” she inquired, doing her best to focus her frustration.
“The computers aren’t our only resource but it would definitely help if they were working. Let me make a phone call,” Nightvision replied, excusing himself as he walked a few feet away from his teammates.
Using his cell phone, Nightvision called up John Irons, the hero known as Steel.
“Irons here,” answered the iron-clad hero after only a moment.
“Dr. Irons? It’s Nightvision. I know Celsius has you working on that special project but the Hall of Justice has been badly damaged and I need you to come by and fix our computer system.”
There was a momentary pause, and then, “How did you find out about the project?” asked Steel.
“Never mind that. You can leave Kilowog and Dr. Magnus there to continue working on it but I need you here,” pleaded Nightvision.
“I’m on my way,” reassured Steel. “Give me about a half an hour.”
“Thank you!” Nightvision’s gratitude was apparent. After concluding the call, he approached the Huntress and Sargona. “I’ve got Steel coming by. The computers should be back up soon.”
“But even after we get the computers up and running and let’s say we’re able to track down Mordru, what good will the three of us be able to do? You saw how easily he took down the entire team,” argued Sargona.
“We’ll worry about that after we locate him,” answered Nightvision. “Can’t you cast a locator spell or something?”
“I’m not familiar with that kind of spell yet,” lamented the subdued sorceress. “Everyone thinks that I’m as powerful as my grandfather, the original Sargon, but I’m not…yet. You see, the Ruby of Life—while a powerful force—can be corrupting. My father, the second Sargon, had me spend the majority of my teenage years building up my mental strength in preparation to assume the ruby. I’ve only recently started learning spells and other types of magic that don’t rely on it.”
“What about one of the other mystics like Madam Xanadu, Dr. Fate, or Zatanna? Maybe one of them could help us,” suggested the Huntress.
“Good idea,” commented Sargona. “I’ll give them a call and see if they can help. I’ve got their numbers in my organizer,” she added, heading off to her quarters to retrieve it.
About twenty minutes later, Sargona came back with a shocking announcement, “Guys, I can’t reach any of the other mystics. No Zatanna, no Ibis, no Madam Xanadu, no Stranger, and not even the Blue Devil! I can’t reach any of the Shadowpact. Something is definitely wrong here.”
“Maybe they are all on different cases?” the Huntress wondered aloud. She was aware of the Shadowpact’s efforts, and that they sometimes brought the members to completely different dimensions.
“Could be,” muttered Nightvision, “but the timing seems suspicious.”
***
Gemworld…
An unconscious and shackled Power Guy was slapped awake by a massive golem that looked to be composed completely of quartz crystal.
“Ugh…anyone get the license of the truck that hit me?” Power Guy murmured as he awoke.
“I did,” responded the golem angrily. Power Guy got a good look at the creature, and saw that he was in the shape of a huge, muscular man, with a large crack that began at the top of its head and traveled through his eye and nose.
“I wasn’t talking about that school-girl slap you just gave me, idiot,” he retorted, recoiling in disgust at the great flaw within the creature’s shape. “I was talking about what knocked me out… earlier.”
He glared around the room he found himself in and saw the rest of his teammates in chains like himself. A few of the others were starting to wake up due to the commotion in the room.
“You attempt to belittle me, human? Do you think that was my best hit?” questioned the golem. As he spoke, Power Guy saw an androgynous teen smilingly amble up to them. Power Guy could not make out whether it was a girl or a boy, but for the sake of his own sanity, he decided it was a male. Just the concept of the teen’s gender was mind-boggling, and he could not fathom why it was so.
“So ornery, ain’t he?” he slurred, flashing a disturbing smile at the hero. “Flaw’s kinda brutal, you understand,” he said to Power Guy directly. “Don’t mind him. It’ll get worse anyway. You can’t hold it against him. It’s his nature.”
“As you wish, master.” The creature, Flaw, seemingly took The Child’s words as a command and started to beat the shackled Power Guy. His mighty arms pummeled the hero mercilessly, unrelentingly.
As hard as he tried, Power Guy could not break free from the chains that bound him. Flaw’s blows were so intense that even he could bear it only for a short time. “Argh…………..!!!” Scream as he might, the blows would not stop. In fact, his cries only seemed to fuel the golem’s fury.
“Leave him alone!” ordered Celsius, who was one of the first to wake up from Mordru’s attack. “Did you hear me? I said leave him alone or I’ll burn you to ash!!!”
The teen approached Celsius. “You’re from the world of Winston. You do not know me, and I’ll allow you that. I am the Child, and y’all are in my world now. You don’t give the orders here.” Flinging his long red hair out of his face, he turned away from the carnage and strode toward the team leader. He folded his arms across his chest and grinned. “You think you can burn me? Go ahead. Give it a shot. Let’s see what happens.” Unable to aim a blast directly at him, Celsius found himself grabbed on his left leg in the Child’s icy grip. The contact of the Child’s skin against Celsius’ skin brought about an intense mystical heat.
With his powers being what they were, Celsius had never been burned before. The pain was overwhelming. “Aghh!!!” he shrieked in despair.
The Child let up for a moment and straightened up. “See now, bubba? You don’t make threats to Flaw and the Child.” An insidious grin appeared on his face. In his own sick, perverted way, he was enjoying watching Celsius suffer. “I think we need to make sure you understand,” he said as he put his hands on Celsius’ right leg. Again, the pain was too much for Celsius and his screams resonated throughout the large chamber.
By this time, all of the other Titans of Justice in the room had woken up from the screams of their teammates. All of them tried to break free of their chains but to no avail. The chains were mystic in nature, and they had nothing to counter that. The chains would not even release Black Vulcan who had turned into her energy form in hopes of escaping.
Wonder Man, who likewise had been struggling without success to break free of his chains, thought of a possible solution. “I may not be able to break free of these chains but I’ll bet my Magic Lasso can bust me outta here.” Using his telepathic control over the mystic lariat, he guided the silver rope up his body and ordered it to wrap itself around his chains and spin itself around each of the cuffs until eventually it filed its way through. “Free!” he yelled proud of his accomplishment. “Now let’s see you two clowns fight against someone who can fight back!”
Wonder Man then threw his lasso around Flaw and swung the crystalline creature into the wall. Flaw’s body smacked against the concrete with a massive, thundering crack and then he toppled down like a pile of rubble.
The Child ran towards Wonder Man with a look of rage on his face. “You can’t hurt him! That’s my privilege! MINE! How dare you? You’ll pay for that, you lousy creep!” The Child extended both of his arms in an attempt to grab onto Wonder Man like he did to Celsius.
“Sorry kid. I don’t think so!” responded Wonder Man as he used his super-speed to position his bracelets in front of the Child’s hands just in time.
The Child grabbed onto Wonder Man’s bracelets in an attempt to burn him, not realizing their magical properties.
Wonder Man quickly did a backwards summersault which threw the Child into the air and then back down, crashing onto the floor.
“Nice work Wonder Chico, now get us out of here!” requested Vibe.
“I’m on it!” replied Wonder Man as he raced to his teammate in an attempt to break him free Wonder Man used his lasso to free Vibe the same way he had freed himself.
Just when there seemed to be a glimmer of hope for the Titans, Flaw picked himself up off the ground and lunged at Wonder Man. “You will die for hurting the Child!!!” he growled as he slammed his fists into Wonder Man’s back.
“Ugh!!” grunted Wonder Man as he flew forward and fell. Flaw began to pummel Wonder Man into the stone floor of the chamber, sending shards of rock and dirt flying upward around them.
The Child had also recovered from Wonder Man’s attack and made his way over to the male Amazon. He placed both of his hands on Wonder Man’s shoulders. “No magic metal to protect you here, loser!” he shouted. “Ow!” he cried as a chunk of rock dashed into his shoulder. “Watch it, idiot!” he ordered Flaw.
“Apol… ogies… Master!” shouted the creature as he continued his malicious efforts.
Wonder Man screamed in agony as the Child burned him and Flaw beat him into unconsciousness.
Vibe, who was struggling to regain his composure enough to use his powers thought to himself, “I’ve got to help Wonder Chico or they’ll kill him!” He put all of his concentration in getting his powers to work. “Ugh… c’mon, c’mon…” he told himself. Finally a wave of intense vibrations shot out from Vibe’s hands, sending the villainous duo flying far away from Wonder Man.
As Vibe was ready to celebrate his victory, a door to the cell he and his teammates were being held in burst open to reveal Mordru.
“You again? You are one of those who almost cost me my victory at your Hall of Justice,” the evil wizard shouted. “You will tamper with my plans no more!”
“Uh oh…” whispered Vibe as his eyes widened in fear.
Mordru raised his hands and cast a spell of containment. Vibe soon founds himself trapped inside of a mystical sphere.
“Let me out of here, pendejo!” demanded Vibe.
“I don’t think so,” barked Mordru. “You and your foolish friends will cause me no more trouble. Flaw, Child–on your feet. I want you in the audience. I have a story to tell…” He waved a hand in their direction, and the Titans saw the Child shrug indifferently, and tap on Flaw’s shoulder. Flaw was still pummeling the unconscious hero deeper into the pit that his efforts had created.
“We’re not interested in your fairy-tales Mordru. So save it!” yelled an angry Strato Hawk, tugging at his chains in vain.
“Oh, but I’m sure you’ll enjoy this one,” countered Mordru with a sinister grin on his face. “You see, it was I who provided Priscilla Rich and her grandson Michael the mystic link to be able to talk to each other.” When he did not see recognition on every face, he added, “Cheetah… and his grandmother. The original Cheetah.”
“Wow, that freak wasn’t crazy after all!” shouted a surprised Wonder Man. He recalled seeing the Cheetah argue with apparently no one.
“It was I who reactivated the Extremists; I who gave Amp his powers, and put him in the position as their new leader. Finally, it was I who gave poor, distressed Monique Le Claire her pretty little Star Sapphire. Hahahaha!!!” he cackled.
“I knew there was some outside force messing with us!” affirmed Celsius. “Too much was happening at once to simply be a coincidence.”
“Right you are boy,” answered the wizard, almost laughing. He nodded courteously at Flaw and the Child, who had withdrawn and stood together nearby. “All of these acts were an effort to see how much of a challenge you all would be when I came for Jemstone,” admitted Mordru. “You deserve some credit though. I thought you would surely fall before those lackeys.”
“What about the Shadow Thief?” questioned Green Lantern. “Where’s he hiding?”
“Hmm….probably on a beach in the city called Miami right about now,” guessed Mordru. He added, tauntingly, “On YOUR world. He was simply a hired thug. He accomplished his task so I sent him on his way.”
“Our world,” whimpered Vibe nervously.
“Where are you keeping Jemstone?” demanded Junjie Quick. “You better not have hurt her!”
“Hurt her?” asked Mordru. “Why would I hurt her when she was the key to my victory? My friends, we are no longer on Earth but on the beautiful planet of Gemworld. My home.”
“Gemworld? The home of Amethyst?” inquired Nucleus. He was among the few that knew much about the enigmatic woman named Amy Winston, who was also the goddess of the other-dimensional world.
“You are correct tiny one,” confirmed Mordru. “But poor Amethyst has been… shall we say… put out of commission. Thanks to my access to Jemstone’s power and Sargona’s ruby. But don’t worry, I have both Amethyst and Jemstone in my throne-room so I can keep a good eye on them. They have each other to suffer with.”
***
The Hall of Justice…
“Thanks for your help John,” said Nightvision. “I appreciate you dropping what you were doing to help us out.
“Not a problem. The new project can wait a bit longer; especially when you had an emergency like this. Your computers should be back online. I hate to be rude, but I’ve got to get back to work or Celsius isn’t going to pay me a dime. You can take it from here, right? Let me know, and I’ll stay if you need me to.”
“Not a problem, take care,” Nightvision said to the departing Steel.
“I’m running scans on the various sectors of the globe,” advised the Huntress. “The computers aren’t able to detect a single one of our teammates.”
“I knew they wouldn’t be of much help,” sighed Sargona. “Technology won’t be much help with tracking Mordru or our captured friends.”
“No, but I will,” came a voice seemingly out of nowhere.
A portal of light opened and out stepped the protégé of the Phantom Stranger known simply as the Stranger. Up until this point, he had remained on the edges of events, not choosing to interfere.
“Stranger!” yelled a pleasantly surprised Sargona. “You got my message!” she said running over to hug her acquaintance.
“Yes, I did,” confirmed the Stranger. “I’m sorry I’m late. I had another confrontation with Etrigan. He’s a feisty little demon. I liked him much better when he was a coat rack at the night club.”
“Issues with Etrigan, huh?” inquired Nightvision. “Batman used to speak so highly of him. But that was before the separation from Jason Blood.”
“Yes, a lot has changed since then,” agreed the Stranger. “Sargona, your message said that Mordru has captured your teammates?”
“Yes and God only knows what he’s done to them,” said a worried Sargona.
“Do not despair, I can sense that most of your friends are safe, for now,” revealed the Stranger. “In fact I can take you to them right now.”
“That sounds great but what good can the four of us do against someone as powerful as Mordru? He took down our entire team without breaking much of a sweat,” the Huntress revealed.
“That is true. We will need some allies to help take down Mordru and his henchmen,” admitted the Stranger. “Sargona, join hands with me.”
“What are we going to do?” asked the sorceress.
“We are going to summon allies to help in the fight against Mordru,” revealed the Stranger.
“But there are none,” insisted Nightvision, verging on despair. “Not here. None that can come right now. And we need powerful allies!”
“Not here,” agreed the Stranger, smiling mysteriously. “Not… NOW.”
***
Everywhere & Nowhere—also known as the home of the Monitor named Chezvid…
“Lady Quark,” said he, “it appears that the Titans of Justice are preparing for their battle with Mordru. They do not appear to realize that summoning other heroes from this era will be pointless. Mordru is familiar with them all. They would all surely fall before him.”
“I thought matters like this don’t concern you, Monitor?” inquired Lady Quark.
“You are my new Harbinger, Lady Quark, and surely you must realize that Mordru will not stop with Gemworld. Once, he has sucked that planet dry, he will continue on and on until he dominates all of existence. We must act now to maintain order. Activate the temporal displacer and combine it to augment the spell that they are casting. Use the mystic philter and tap into the residual energy left from the samples from Earth C.”
“Yes, Monitor,” acknowledged Lady Quark. With the pressing of a few buttons, the Monitor’s temporal displacer was focused on the Hall of Justice.
***
The Hall of Justice…
The Stranger and Sargona were focusing their mystic energies together. This type of a spell was new for Sargona so she was a bit nervous.
“I can sense that you’re unsure of yourself Sargona. Don’t be afraid. Let me lead the way and have more confidence in yourself. You have much more potential that you realize,” directed the Stranger. The cloak he wore began to billow out from him as the mystic energy began to coalesce around them. Huntress and Nightvision squinted their eyes as the light began to grow brighter.
“No arguments here,” agreed Sargona. “Complex spells like this one are still new to me.” She bit her lip as she noticed the energy building up about them. “So this spell will summon other heroes to combat Mordru?” she asked.
“Yes, it is currently scanning the globe for those who would be most effective against Mordru,” answered the Stranger. His eyes were closed, and his brow knotted in concentration. “Wait…” he muttered, frowning. “Something… else… there’s a…. an outside force… tampering with our spell…”
“Is it Mordru?” inquired Sargona fearfully.
“No,” he replied. Neither of them relented, and continued working the spell. “I sense the tampering… is of a…a… scientific nature.” He opened an eye and looked earnestly at Sargona. “Do not stop. Concentrate! The others–they ARE coming but…” again he wrinkled his brow in concentration, “they are… from… five years into the future!”
With that, a multi-colored portal opened, thrusting five people violently through and sending them tumbling into a heap at the others’ feet.
There was a tumult of noise and confusion, compounded with angry shouts and cries of discomfort and pain. Breaking contact with the Stranger, Sargona did her best to aid Nightvision and the Huntress as they tried to help them to their feet.
“Who are you guys?” demanded Nightvision who was a bit suspicious of the newcomers.
“Who are we?” echoed a red and black-clad man. He wore silver bracelets, and had stars all over his suit. “We’re Titans West! Who the heck are you?”
***
Gemworld…
Mordru looked upon his captives with a large bit of arrogance. “Now that you know all of the little details of my scheme, it’s time to show you that I mean business.” With a gesture of his hand, he called the mystic sphere containing Vibe close to him.
“What’chu doin’ man?” Vibe demanded as he started to tremble.
“Let him go, Mordru! You have us all where you want us!” shouted Strato Hawk.
“Exactly and this will make sure there are no more escape attempts,” Mordru countered, displaying an evil smile upon his face. With another gesture of his hand, the sphere containing Vibe started to shrink.
Vibe started to panic. In a last ditch effort, he focused all of his vibrational energies against the collapsing sphere but all it did was slow the inevitable. “Let me out of here, pendejo!!!”
“Let him out!!!” echoed Celsius whose cries fell on deaf ears. “Stop! Please!”
As the sphere continued to reduce in size Vibe started to feel the pressure against his body. “Arg…ahhh! Ahhh!!! AHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Finally, the Latin-American hero was sadly crushed to death. What they could see encased within the still-shrinking orb was so disturbing that Icemanling vomited, and the others cried out in horror.
The Titans were all in shock that Mordru had gone through with the sinister act. All of them found themselves horrified and speechless.
“All right, heh heh,” snickered the evil wizard, grinning. He waved his hand and the sphere stopped shrinking. “I’ll stop.” He retrieved the ball and tossed it up and down like a dark, red, horrible ball.
To be continued…