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Post by sunofdarkchild on Jul 25, 2023 12:11:00 GMT -5
If a later writer or story comes along and fixes an earlier bad story or uses that bad story as a springboard to a good story, that does not excuse the original bad story.
It's bizarre how people defend certain stories by citing other stories written decades later. If I say 'making Madelyn Prior into the Goblin Queen in 1988 was a case of victim blaming in order to get Cyclops off the hook for becoming a deadbeat husband and father,' I'll get the response that 'Maddie was always evil, look at what she did to Cyclops in this book that came out in 2008' as if that later story has any bearing on the decision to make her a villain to salvage Cyclops' character 20 years earlier. And if I complain about the effects of bringing Jen Grey back in the 80s, I'll get some nonsensical response about how it's part of some grand arc to explore exactly how she and the Phoenix are connected and 1 and the same as if retcons from 20 years later have any bearing on the original decision or as if writers in the 80s had the same plan as the writers of the last 20 years despite all the interviews they've given about what they actually intended and wanted. And it's not like those later stories are good either.
War Games is a horrible story that character assassinates many characters, most notably Stephanie Brown and Leslie Thompkins. The retcons fixing Steph's death being Leslie's fault to Leslie faking her death to protect her and Brian Miller's use of the story as a springboard for a great series and redemption arc when he wrote Batgirl doesn't excuse anything about War Games.
I hate the New Mutants parts of Inferno for what a terrible ending it was for my favorite character and how it cheated her out of a proper conclusion to her arc. The failures of Inferno allowed for her resurrection and subsequent character development to be so well handled. If her character arc had been wrapped up with the neat bow the way it should have been in Inferno, there would have been no point to bringing her back and, modern comics being modern comics, she probably would have been brought back at some point despite there being no point. And then there would have been nowhere to go since her story was completed, just like how there's been nowhere for her brother Colossus to go in the 20 years since his resurrection. There was story left to tell since the story was left incomplete to begin with. So in the long run, Inferno's failures led to the character's current successes and if Inferno had been the story it should have been if Simonson and her editors had done their jobs then the character would be in a worse place nowadays. And even that doesn't excuse how bad Inferno was or the 2 decades it took for its problems to start to be fixed.
Good writing can come from bad writing, but that does not excuse the original bad writing. 'There. I said it.'
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Post by sunofdarkchild on Jul 23, 2023 8:56:53 GMT -5
I'm of the opinion that if they had to make a TV show about a group of teens trying to solve the murder of Bruce Wayne and protect Gotham in Batman's absence, the main character should have been Stephanie Brown and Turner Hayes shouldn't exist. A story focusing on the 'failed sidekick' who Batman rejected trying to prove herself to his memory and wondering if he was right to reject her would be far better than a story focusing on a made-up adopted son with no personality or distinguishing traits. I've put my money where my mouth is in the 'Original Fiction and Art' section.
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Post by sunofdarkchild on Jul 21, 2023 9:16:58 GMT -5
The skies of Gotham turned orange as the sun began to set; not the majestic golden glow of the sunsets of romantic novels, but the rank orange of rampant smog. The skyscrapers which dominated the city's skyline took on a menacing appearance as they became slightly obscured in the late-day haze, with their sharp angles and numerous adornments. The gothic statues and gargoyles of the tops and corners of each building seemed to come alive as the day began to turn to night, appearing as if they were ready to leap onto any unsuspecting resident unlucky enough to be on the streets at sundown.
One building was different, standing above the rest in the center of the city. Built decades after the others, with modern sensibilities in mind rather than in an attempt to live up to the city's name, Wayne Tower's simple elegance stood in utter defiance against Gotham's stubborn refusal to move on from a distant past.
Wayne Tower had been built by Bruce Wayne as he expanded his family's company Wayne Enterprises, of which he was the CEO. This made him the largest employer in all of Gotham, as well as the city's wealthiest citizen. But few knew that he was truly the most important man in Gotham's long history.
Bruce looked out over his city from the large window of his office at the top floor of the skyscraper he built. To an outside observer he would have seemed as man at the height of his powers, with his tall build, wide shoulders, and impressive three-piece suit giving him the image of a monarch surveying his kingdom. But to anyone who truly knew him, his appearance told a different story.
Beads of sweat dripped down from his hair, which was starting to grey around the temples. His breathing, which would have been normal for any other man, was noticeable, a very unusual occurrence for him. His impressive shoulders were ever-so-slightly slumped, as if he was finally starting to feel the weight of all the years he had given to this city, asking for nothing in return.
Bruce's fingers ran over the golden medallion in his hand, feeling the image ingrained onto it.
He slowly turned around, slipping the medallion into his pocket as the door to his office opened. There was no sound, but even in his current state, Bruce did not need to hear his visitors enter to know they were there. He scowled.
"I never thought it would be you."
"Begin."
The two combatants wore almost identical full-body white fencing uniforms and masks. The only difference was one was sized for a large, muscular male, while the other was fitted for a medium-sized athletic female.
There was no one around to watch the duel as the male combatant attacked, striking out with his saber. The female combatant stepped back as she deflected the first strike, and continued to give ground as her opponent struck a second and third time.
The larger fencer saw his chance for a quick and easy victory and put his entire body into his fourth strike.
This was exactly what the girl had been waiting for.
In a blur of motion, she spun around her opponent, and he stumbled forward, over-committing to his attack and losing his balance as his blade met no resistance. He had no time to even turn his head as her saber shot out in her first and only strike, tagging him on the small of his back.
"Point!" the referee shouted.
"Hey, wait up!" Brody March called out.
Stephanie Brown turned around. She and Brody had taken off their masks, but still wore their fencing uniforms.
Brody was what was called a jock. It was his family name, connections, and fortune which had gotten him into Gotham Academy, rather than his academic acumen. He was most comfortable when competing in sports, and his skills in those areas more than made up for his lackluster grades, as far as the student body was concerned, at least.
Stephanie expected Brody to be angry at his loss to her, but he was all smiles.
"That was amazing. I've never seen anyone move like that."
Stephanie gave him a half-smile in return. Her long blonde hair, which she usually let down, was still in its ponytail from their match. "It's amazing what you can do when you're underestimated."
"If we ever have a rematch, I won't be making that mistake again."
A small group of students from the track team passed them on their way to the field. Three of the runners high-fived Brody without giving Stephanie a second look.
"I'll see you guys at six-thirty!" Brody yelled after them before turning back to Stephanie.
"Hey, my folks aren't home tonight, so I'm throwing a party at my place. You should come."
"Are you sure?" she asked. "You do know I'm one of 'The Wayne Twelve.' We don't get invited to parties."
"You can consider that rule rescinded."
"So, if I were to tell the rest of the Wayne grant crowd that they're invited …"
"They can come too," Brody declared.
Stephanie's half-smile morphed into a full smile, and she nodded. "All right. Your place at six-thirty it is."
Night had fallen when the group of twelve students arrived at the March residence. Where Bruce Wayne lived in stately Wayne Manor and only worked in a skyscraper, the March Tower doubled as both the family home as well as place of work, the perk of owning an entire 20-story building that had once been a high-end hotel.
The music was loud, uncomfortably so. The penthouse was full of teenagers talking and mingling amongst themselves, secure in the world of wealth they had been born into.
A scrawny ginger boy with freckles and old, slightly crooked glasses stepped next to Stephanie and looked around. Not one head had turned to the door when they entered.
"Just like school, no one even notices we're here."
Stephanie scowled. She was aware of a growing number of partygoers who were glancing at them out of the corners of their eyes.
"Oh, they notice."
Her eyes focused on one couple who had been making out when her group arrived and were now engaged in a conversation in which neither one was happy. It was difficult to concentrate with the music blaring, but Stephanie was pretty sure she read the words "Wayne" and "trash" on the girl's lips.
"You made it!"
Brody was all smiles again as he approached the Wayne Twelve. "I was beginning to think you guys weren't coming."
"We're fashionably late, like all important guests should be," Stephanie replied.
Brody turned to the other eleven newcomers, who were becoming more self-conscious about their clothes upon seeing what the rich kids were wearing.
"Mi casa es su cassa. Have fun, but not too much fun," he said with a knowing wink.
Most of Wayne Tower's staff had gone home for the night. Senior manager Bernie Benson was among the last to leave his office. Benson had little hair left, and none on the top of his head. He had only recently stopped wearing a black toupee when Bruce Wayne informed him that he would not face mandatory retirement at the age of 65 and could remain in his position as long as he could do his job.
Bernie was pleased to see the elevator stop at the top floor before he had reached it. It wouldn't save him more than a minute or two, but it still meant he would exit the building and get home just a little bit sooner.
The janitor who came out of the elevator was young. Bernie didn't recognize him, but that wasn't too surprising. Bruce Wayne's big heart was notorious throughout the company, and it seemed that every sob story who came through the doors looking for employment found it in some form or another, even kids unqualified for anything who needed something part-time to help pay their way through college and were willing to use a mop. Bernie's continued employment was a product of that generous spirit, though he was as qualified as it was possible to be.
"Hey," the kid said. He looked uncomfortable, having not expected to find anyone still on the floor.
"Don't mind me," Bernie said as he got into the elevator. "But I want the floor in my office so clean and shiny tomorrow morning that I can see my reflection in it."
"You got it, sir," the kid replied. "It'll be so shiny you'll need sunglasses."
Bernie laughed as he pressed the button to take him to the parking garage. His office was carpeted, not that a janitor cleaning the top floor for the first time would be expected to know which office was his in the first place. But it was always fun to tease the newbies a little.
When Bernie was gone, the janitor took the mop out of his cart, but instead of starting to wipe the floor with it, he wiped the lens of the security camera in the corner above the elevators.
"Ok, they're blind, we're clear," he said, taking off his janitor's uniform.
A girl emerged from inside the janitor's cart, trying to crack her stiff neck. "Next time…" she said, a mix of exasperation, impatience, and pain in her voice.
"I'll ride in the kart," the fake janitor finished. He had moved on to the next part of their plan, removing the cover from a vent in the inner wall.
"There's not gonna be a next time," the girl said, "at least not with her."
Another girl leapt out of the vent. This one was clearly different from the other two. Where they were serious, nervous even, she was grinning from ear to ear and had a manic look in her eyes. She held up a box with torn wires sticking out of both ends and said "motion sensors are toast."
"Come on, team," she told her partners, grabbing the cart and pushing it forward, "crime is money."
This odd trio consisted of two siblings, Cullen and Harper Row, and Duela Doe. The latter was well-known in the criminal underworld, not for anything she had done, but for what her father had done. Cullen and Harper would not have agreed to work with her unless they had no other choice, and there had already been four times on this little adventure in which she had given them cause to second-guess their decision.
They approached a fancy door which bore a plaque with the name 'Bruce Wayne.' Duela examined her reflection in the plaque.
"What?" she asked when Cullen stared at her. "I've never broken into a place this fancy."
Harper ignored them as she focused on picking the lock to Wayne's office.
None of them had ever seen a CEO's office before, but they were all sure this was unusual even by eccentric billionaire standards.
The room they entered had two couches facing each other and chair in front of the large window, but no desk. In one corner stood the armor of a samurai from 15th century Japan. On the opposite wall hung several antique swords and masks from various cultures. Next to these was a bookcase filled with literary classics.
Duela laughed. "This place looks like a museum had sex with a bank vault."
"That's not what I was thinking," Cullen responded, "but yeah, also not impressed."
Harper opened a cabinet underneath the antique wall, revealing a steel safe. She took out a device which made a high-pitched whine as she attempted to crack the safe's code.
Duela fixed her gaze on one of the antiques. "Hello, how much are you worth?"
"Duela, can we focus on our plan, please?" Cullen asked.
"You mean my plan, which includes me waiting not-so-patiently for your sister to get the safe open?"
There was a whishing sound, followed by creaking, as the safe popped open. Harper frowned as she looked inside.
"Somebody beat me to it."
The other two looked over Harper's shoulder to see a safe that was empty save for an old handgun.
"Uh, I don't like this," Cullen said.
Duela reached in and grabbed the gun. "There you are, you .38-caliber cutie."
"We got paid 100K to steal an old gun?" Harper asked incredulously.
Duela lovingly caressed the pistol. "She's not just any old gun. She's the one Joe Chill used to pop Bruce Wayne's mom and dad."
She frowned as her fingers moved up the gun. "The barrel's warm."
Harper bent down and sniffed the weapon. "It's been fired recently."
"Now I really don't like this," Cullen said.
Harper shut the safe and the trio looked up. They could hear a helicopter overhead. Even Duela looked worried.
They stepped into the next room, the true office, and collectively gasped.
The window had a large, jagged hole in its center. Above the hole, in red paint the same color as blood, was written: "YOUR BAT IS DEAD"
"Oh my god," Cullen said.
The helicopter circled overhead, its searchlight moving back and forth, occasionally lighting up the office. Duela stuck her head out of the hole in the window and looked down, the others peering over her shoulders.
At that height they could not make out many details or see the surrounding blood, but there was no mistaking the body sprawled on the sidewalk below.
"We've been set up!" Duela screamed. "Go, go, go, go, go!"
The sight of cop cars rushing down the streets with their flashing lights and the sound of multiple sirens were commonplace in Gotham City, but it was unusual to see so many police vehicles approach Wayne Tower.
What was even more unusual was that one of these vehicles contained the city's District Attorney. But then, this was no ordinary case.
One of the policemen who were examining the body called out: "Hey, Dent, you're gonna want to see this."
Harvey Dent suppressed a shudder as the body was turned over. The three-piece suit and white shirt were stained with blood. The eyes were still open, and the face even seemed to bear a slight smile.
But the face was partially obscured by a mask Harvey knew all too well, a mask that while broken in several places by the fall from the top of a skyscraper, was instantly recognizable thanks to the pair long, pointed ears sticking up from the head.
"Bruce," Harvey whispered, looking up at the building from which Gotham's most famous citizen had fallen.
Two policemen were already coming out of the elevator when the criminal trio ran out of Bruce Wayne's office.
One of the officers shouted: "Freeze! Stop right there!"
Cullen froze, but the girls continued running straight at the police officers. The first officer had barely drawn his gun when Duela grabbed his wrist and began repeatedly striking him in the head. He dropped his weapon and Duele hit him with it one last time, knocking him out. She then used the gun to bludgeon the second policeman, knocking him down so Harper could deliver a kick to the head which sent him into unconsciousness as well.
The immediate threat dealt with, Cullen bent down and took out the first officer's radio. "Suspects spotted entering north stairwell," he said into the device in a thick Gotham accent. He proceeded to do the same with the other officer's radio, dropping the accent and putting on a deeper voice. "Copy that: Have visual confirmation. North stairwell, north stairwell."
A voice on the other end said: "All units, converge on the north stairwell."
They ran to the south stairwell, encountering no further obstacles on their way out of the building.
"We need a car," Harper said. She spotted one of the cop cars from which the police had entered the tower and began moving towards it.
"What, are you crazy?" Cullen demanded. "They'll find us for sure if we take a police car!"
"Just act casual," Duela said. The police had not yet established a true perimeter. Otherwise they would have been spotted and arrested the moment they left the building. A crowd had begun to gather on the front side of the tower where what police who were still outside were congregated, drawn by the commotion and eager to see the body of Bruce Wayne. Carefully, they walked around the building and joined the growing crowd.
Harvey could not look away from Bruce's face. The billionaire was one of his best friends, and the vigilante was his most trusted ally in bringing order and safety back to Gotham. But in all these years, he had never realized the truth, not until now, when the broken mask and lack of black eye shadow revealed the face of both Gotham's Dark Knight and most notorious playboy.
One of the policemen touched his shoulder, and Harvey looked up. "There's too many people around. You should go before something happens."
Harvey stood up and turned to the crowd. The police had their hands full keeping the civilians back. Many were taking pictures and videos on their phones, but a few had actual cameras, and the flashes were almost blinding.
One girl caught his attention as she pushed her way to the front. She was young, no older than 17, and had dyed her hair a shade between red and purple., indicating that she was in some sort of punk phase.
The girl titled her head as she took in the sight of the body, utterly fascinated by it. After a few moments, she noticed that Harvey was staring at her. She lifted her hand and smiled at him, giving him a small wave before disappearing back into the crowd.
The party was going quite well, mostly. The twelve newcomers were no longer being stared at by anyone and were now being entirely ignored. This suited them just fine, as they were free to enjoy the refreshments and explore the apartment at their leisure.
Brody's ex-girlfriend Heather approached him, a glass of champagne in hand. "You actually invited the Wayne Twelve," she said.
"Yeah, why?" Brody asked. "What's the problem?"
Heather glanced at Stephanie, who was one of the only people there pouring herself a glass of soda instead of alcohol.
"I think they've gotten enough charity and don't need anymore."
"It's a party, not a charity ball," Brody insisted.
"Yeah, whatever. I'm just saying, you could do a lot better."
A girl across the living room held up her phone and yelled: "Hey, Wayne brats! Guess what?"
Most of the group ignored her, having learned not to take the bait of their more well-to-do classmates. Stephanie glanced at her out of the corner of her eye, being careful not to betray too much interest.
"Your benefactor's dead!"
Immediately, all eyes turned to her, and then people began pulling out their own smartphones.
"Holy crap, Bruce Wayne really bit it," one boy said.
"It says here he was murdered."
"Thrown off the top of his own building. What a way to go."
"Who'd want to kill Bruce Wayne?"
"Half the rich women in Gotham, probably. A lot of the rich men too."
Stephanie glanced over the shoulder of the boy standing in front of her, reading the news article on his phone as best she could at that angle and distance.
"I bet it was one of those criminals he hired," someone said. "My dad says Wayne cheeps out by hiring people when they're released from jail. He pretends that he's being altruistic, but really, it's just so he can get away with paying them really low salaries."
"Hey," Stephanie said loudly, "a man is dead. Show some respect."
"All right, everyone calm down," Brody said, walking into the middle of the room in an attempt to take charge. "This is a party, not a funeral. I don't want to hear anymore talk about dead people."
Most of the partygoers put their phones away, and any discussions on the death of Bruce Wayne continued only in whispers.
Brody went over to Stephanie. "Sorry about that. I was worried a fight might break out."
"Don't worry," Stephanie said, handing her half-full cup to him. "I was just leaving."
Widowstone Creek was a run-down neighborhood in one of Gotham's outer boroughs. Much like the rest of the city, it had a glorious past before falling on hard times. Petty crime was high, with muggings and stick-ups being regular occurrence. Three street gangs constantly fought over territory and illicit drugs and guns were sold on practically every block.
The neighborhood had two things going for it. It had seen only two super-villain incidents in the previous decade, one of the lowest rates of any part of Gotham. And its housing prices were the cheapest in the city.
That last factor was the reason Stephanie lived in Widowstone Creek.
Two boys were leering at her from across the street. One's arms and face were covered in tattoos and his smile showed a missing tooth, while the other had dyed his hair green and made it into a spiky mohawk.
Stephanie was familiar with those two and the gang they belonged to. She was surprised to see them back on the street so soon after they had been sent to jail, but then, criminals always did find their way back into crime in Gotham.
As she took out her house key, Stephanie turned her head and gave the pair an intense glare to ensure they did not get any ideas. With certain people, one had to let them know that one was not prey.
"Mom, I'm home!" she called out as she quickly shut and locked the door behind her. "Mom?"
Stephanie found Crystal Brown lying on the couch in front of the TV. The middle-aged woman was passed out, two empty bottles of beer and a box of pills lay on the floor in front of her.
Stephanie scowled and shook her head before bending down to pick up the bottles. The TV was still on, and Stephanie froze as the bat-image with was the symbol of Batman appeared.
"Gothamites received a second shock tonight following the sudden death of Bruce Wayne," the news anchor on the screen said. "In addition to billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, and humanitarian, we can add vigilante and superhero to the list of roles Wayne played. The police and the mayor's office confirmed this evening that Wayne was in fact the legendary Batman."
The beer bottles fell from Stephanie's grasp and shattered on the floor. Crystal snorted in response to the sound and fell back asleep.
Stephanie almost collapsed and would have fallen onto the couch her mother not already been there. She stood frozen in shock as the words 'Batman Dead' flashed across the screen, taking short labored breaths as the color left her face.
It took over ten seconds for Stephanie to begin to move, but when she did, it was with astonishing speed, running straight into her room.
Stephanie bent down and reached under her bed, pulling out a wide metal box with a lock keeping it shut. Her trembling hands fumbled with the combination the first time, and it took two attempts to get the box open.
What she pulled out was the last thing anyone would have expected to be in her possession. It was a boomerang, made of a completely black metal, three inches long and eight and half inches wide. The inside of the boomerang was carved into four scallops that looked exactly like the wings of a bat.
Stephanie sat on the floor in front of her bed and held the batarang to her heart. She wanted to scream, but she could not. There was no one around to comfort her, only a drunk woman on the couch and two gang members outside who she could not risk giving any ideas. Stephanie bowed her head, droplets of water falling onto the batarang as she sobbed in silence.
"What the hell were you thinking?" Harvey demanded.
Mayor Hamilton Hill rubbed his forehead. Being the chief executive of a city like Gotham was an often-thankless job. There were no magic bullets to fix all of the city's longstanding problems, and no end to complaints from every kind of person imaginable, from special interest groups to the police to fellow politicians such as the city's district attorney.
"The killers wanted the fact that Bruce was Batman to be publicized! By signing off on revealing that to the public, we played right into their hands – not to mention told every criminal and crazy in the city that it's open season!"
"What would you have me do, Harvey? Lie to everyone?"
"You could have at least consulted with me, given us a chance to prepare for repercussions of everyone realizing that Gotham doesn't have its protector anymore."
Hill stood up from his desk and looked out of his window. "Its protector. You and I were supposed to have that role, weren't we?"
"Sir?"
"For decades now, justice, hope, all the things Gotham needed, came only from the shadows. We all counted on someone whose face we never saw, whose name we never knew. Bruce lied to the whole world, and the world loved him for it."
"The death of Batman is the end of an era. Maybe it's time to stop relying on the shadows and start trusting the people with the truth. Maybe that's the only way to truly save the city."
"A noble sentiment, coming from a politician," Harvey said under his breath.
"What was that?"
"Nothing, sir." Harvey turned to leave. "I'd better get back to work. We're going to see the biggest crime wave in Gotham in 20 years."
"I wish you luck, for both our sakes. If you can't get control of the situation, my reelection goes up in flames."
"I'm glad to know I can count on your support," Harvey said dryly as he closed the door to the mayor's office behind him.
"Miss Brown, could I see you in my office?"
Stephanie stopped. "Mr. Millicheck?"
"I said I wished to speak with you, Miss Brown."
Stephanie was nervous as she took her seat in front of the headmaster's desk. Being called to the principal's office was never a good sign, especially not at a school where they called them 'headmaster.'
"Are you all right, Miss Brown? You look like you've had a hard time recently."
Her eyes were dry and red, and had bags under them.
"I'm ok," she said. "I just took the news kind of hard."
"Yes. Many of us did. I can't say that Bruce was a model student, but he certainly left an impression."
"Am-am I in trouble?"
"Not yet."
"Not…yet?"
Millicheck sat down. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about. You need to keep out of trouble."
"I don't understand."
"There are those in the school administration who don't want you associated with this institution."
"Why? I earned that scholarship."
He nodded. "You did, but you bring with you some … unfortunate associations."
"Half the students have parents who have done something illegal-"
"We've never had a student who was the child of one of these-these supercriminals. Gotham Academy has maintained its reputation by keeping that world far outside these walls. If you didn't have Wayne fighting for you, you're test scores wouldn't have mattered."
Stephanie's draw dropped.
"Bruce Wayne put his foot down when certain board members attempted to use your father as an excuse not to admit you. He threatened to cancel the scholarship program entirely, as well as withdraw other funds the school receives from the Wayne Foundation. He was quite adamant that you be judged on your own merits and not for the sins of your father."
Stephanie had to take several deep breaths. Her eyes seemed to grow wider with each passing moment as she struggled to process what she was learning.
"Bruce Wayne … did that?"
"Do you see the situation you are in now? With Wayne gone, so is your protection. There are powerful people who will be looking for any excuse to have you expelled. Your record must be completely spotless if you are to remain a student here."
Stephanie did not seem to hear him. She stared off into nothing.
Millichek rose from his chair and walked over to her. "Look, classes will be cancelled for the funeral, and we've reserved a spot close to the grave from the faculty and students who'll attend. You can thank him then."
Stephanie closed her eyes and exhaled as she returned to herself. "I … I understand, sir. Thank you for warning me."
Bruce Wayne's funeral would have been a major event on its own. Batman's funeral was the largest and most widely televised the country had seen since JFK was shot. Tens of thousands of people lined the streets along the funeral procession. So many lives had been touched by the caped crusader or his alter ego, so many had been saved, or changed.
Harvey saw many signs, hand-drawn by children or adults. Drawings and paintings of Batman or the bat-symbol. One sign, held by a boy who couldn't have been older than eight, showed the Bat-Signal shining in the sky along with the words: "Batman Forever."
Gotham's district attorney shook his head. For a moment, the boy holding the sign looked to him like the spitting image of the photograph of eight-year-old Bruce Wayne which dominated the front page of all local newspapers the day after the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne.
It was such a simple motivation, so obvious in hindsight. How had Harvey and everyone else missed it?
The roads had been cleared, and they had no trouble reaching the cemetery. The mayor was not part of the motorcade. He arrived earlier in secret, out of fear that one of Batman's many enemies would attack the procession in one last bid to get revenge on the Dark Knight. Harvey had it on good authority from the police that no criminal elements were plotting to attack the funeral, but many crooks were planning to take advantage of so much of the city gathering along the funeral route to commit robberies elsewhere. Police were stationed in otherwise empty areas for that very reason.
They parked and walked through the cemetery, toward the plot where Bruce's parents had been buried so long ago. Harvey had barely gotten out of his car when Detective Ford approached him from behind.
"What is it?" Harvey asked. He wasn't a fan of Ford, but he didn't dislike him either. The man had shockingly little imagination for a detective, which went double for a detective in a city as wild and wacky as Gotham often was. But to his credit, Ford's never seemed like his pride was hurt whenever Batman solved a crime in such a way that proved his assumptions about the case wrong.
"Got an anonymous tip on where Wayne's killers might be holed up," Ford said.
Harvey turned to him, and for the first time since he found his friend's body, the fierce, no-nonsense district attorney who could spend hours and hours standing before a judge and jury convincing them that there was no doubt a criminal needed to be behind bars was back.
"Good."
Wads of cash fell out of the bag, sprawling out all over the table.
Cullen fought back bile as he watched the others begin to divvy up the money. "Guys, th-this is blood money."
"This is the money that is finally going to get you and me out of Gotham," Harper assured him. "And we didn't kill anyone."
"An entire city thinks we killed Batman, which is exactly what whoever set us up wanted," Cullen said. "Why else would they pay us all this money up front?"
"That's your complaint?" Duela asked. "Really, that I didn't get the money on an installment plan?"
"You didn't even get their name," Harper pointed out.
"Oh, well what was I supposed to do? Ask for an ID? A gun license? In crime, people who hire you to do something illegal usually don't want it traced back to them."
"So it only traces back to us," Harper said angrily.
Cullen glanced at his watch. "Funeral's starting. If we want to get out of here, now's our best, and probably only, chance."
Harvey didn't pay attention during the mayor's speech. Hill had never met with Batman and was never more than an acquaintance of Bruce Wayne. He was much closer to Lincoln March, Wayne's biggest competitor in the Gotham business world. March himself stood close to the mayor the whole time.
Lincoln March stood at the top of the list of people who would have benefited from the sudden death of Bruce Wayne, or he would have if not for the revelation that Wayne was Batman. That previously unknown detail complicated every aspect of the investigation and made narrowing down the number of people who had motive impossible.
With any luck, that anonymous tip would pan out and the entire episode could be put to rest. It would be good for the city to bring the killers to justice as quickly as possible.
Harvey looked at March, whose gaze seemed to focus on the area where the students and faculty of Gotham Academy were gathered to pay their respects to Bruce Wayne. Harvey was not surprised at all to see March's son standing at the front of that group.
He was surprised, however, to see the blonde girl who was standing next to Brody March. Lost in her own thoughts, she did not notice that the eyes of Gotham's district attorney had fallen upon her.
When the mayor finished his speech, it was Harvey's turn to speak. He stepped up next to the casket and fought down a gulp. This was the part he had been dreading the most.
"I confess that I am at a loss for words," Harvey began. "In some ways, I probably knew Bruce Wayne better than almost anyone, having been friends with both Bruce and Batman. But now, I feel like I never truly knew the man at all."
"Bruce was always a man of masks. The face he put on at parties, that of the rich playboy without a care in the world, was never the real him. That much I always knew. When we talked, the conversation was never about women or money or where he was going on vacation next. It was always about the problems facing Gotham and how his money could be used to fix those problems.
"Because of the playboy image he cultivated, most people thought Bruce had little to nothing to do with the charities of the Wayne Foundation. But in fact, he was personally involved in the establishment of every new fund. In hindsight, I can now see how the cases he encountered as Batman influenced each new charity he initiated. He did not merely fight crime, but truly sought to eliminate it as its root.
"A lot of people thought former Commissioner James Gordon was crazy for trusting a vigilante. By the time I became district attorney there was no longer such a stigma attached to working with Batman. Gordon and I both quickly realized that Batman did not fight crime because he enjoyed beating up the poor and the mentally unwell. We both saw that this was a person who cared deeply about his fellow man, even the criminals he stopped.
"Many times, Batman would come to me and ask that I seek a lighter sentence for a criminal he had stopped. He would tell me that this person was not a criminal at heart, but someone who was desperate or someone who just needed a chance to do better. Sometimes I listened, and sometimes I didn't. There were those who truly believed were evil to their core, but Batman believed they could be something more. Many of those people went on to work for Wayne Enterprises, proving him right about their capacity for change.
"So, if there is one thing which I believe we can learn from the life of Bruce Wayne, it's to have hope for a brighter future. Everything he did, as Bruce or as Batman, was done to move Gotham a little bit closer to that brighter tomorrow he envisioned. And if we can all show the kind of growth he believed even the worst of us were capable of, that future will be here sooner than we realize. I can think of no better way to honor his memory than by creating a better tomorrow by being the best versions of ourselves."
Several swat teams converged on the abandoned warehouse where the trio was holed up. They were backed up by many dozens of officers who had established a perimeter around the building, a far more complete and professional effort to cut off any escape rout than had been made at Wayne Tower.
There was nothing Duela, Harper, or Cullen could do as heavily armed and armored swat officers kicked down every door to the building at the same time and pointed their weapons at them, but that did not mean that they would not try. Duela put up a good fight, even managing to steal one officer's rifle and strike two more with it before she was tackled by multiple policemen. Harper got in a few good hits on the closest policeman to her as well. Only Cullen put his hands on his head and did not resist being arrested.
Stephanie waited until most of the mourners and onlookers had left before approaching the casket and placing a single red rose on top of it.
She had not meant to linger there, but her legs would not move and her heart beat fast in anticipation, making her realize that deep down, she was expecting to see the coffin open and Batman emerge, or to see that there was nothing inside. In her heart, she did not believe that Batman was truly gone, that this time he had not found yet another clever way to cheat death.
"What did you want from me?" she whispered to his ghost.
"How are you doing, Miss Brown?"
Stephanie was shocked out of her reverie by the words of the district attorney, who had moved beside her.
"I'm surprised you remember me, Mr. Dent."
"That was a pretty unusual case, even for Gotham."
"I suppose it was."
"That was a very brave thing you did," Harvey said, turning to her. "Thanks to your testimony, the entire Carson gang is in prison and we finally got your father sent to Blackgate instead of Arkham."
"At least something good came from everything that happened. I wish I could forget the whole thing."
"That's a Gotham Academy uniform, isn't it? How'd you get into the most elite and expensive school in Gotham?"
"A Wayne scholarship."
"Right. I remember now. Bruce mentioned that he was setting up a fund so disadvantaged students could attend. He put a lot of money into fixing's Gotham's educational system the last few years. I'm glad to see you were able to benefit."
"I guess. I was one of twelve."
"The way Bruce explained it, the test students had to take to get that scholarship was extremely tough and designed to ensure that Gotham's most elite minds didn't slip through the cracks because of bad schools or poor backgrounds."
"How do I know I really earned it, and didn't just get in because Batman knew who I was through my father?"
"I doubt that's the case. If Bruce didn't think you could handle Gotham Academy he would have arranged for you to be able to attend one of those new charter schools he funded."
Tears welled up in Stephanie's eyes again, making her look down to hide her face. She had told herself that she was done crying, and was angry at herself for not being able to keep that promise.
"Damn it."
"What's wrong?" Harvey asked.
"I just – this is gonna sound so stupid, but … ever since I was a little girl, I always had this dream, this fantasy … that I'd be adopted by Batman and taken away from this life of drugs and crime and poverty. And now I find out that Batman did more to ensure I have a future than my real parents ever did – but I didn't know until after he died."
"He was your real-life Hogwarts letter."
"Yeah."
"I'm sorry. We think we're close to catching the killers, if it's any consolation."
"I sure don't envy whoever you're sending to catch them."
"What do you mean?"
Stephanie paused as her tears stopped, and she set her eyes on the casket with a look of pure determination.
"Anyone who's skilled enough to take down Batman is not someone to be trifled with."
She stepped away, and Harvey looked back to the casket. He felt a newfound concern for the policemen who had been sent to capture the suspected killers, as well as a worry that even if they were brought in, it would only be the beginning of a case which would fester like an open wound upon the city.
By the time Stephanie came home, the news had moved on from its live coverage of the funeral to the aftermath.
"Widespread looting took place across the city today as police were spread thin during the funeral of Bruce Wayne, who was also Batman," the anchor said.
"The mutant gang, emboldened by the Dark Knight's demise, claimed responsibility for a series of arsons in the Narrows. Several people were hospitalized for smoke inhalation, and one man was killed in the violence. According to police, the man attempted to stop the mutants himself by pretending to be Batman. He wore a Batman costume with hockey pads for added protection. Unfortunately for him, the costume's cape got stuck on the fire escape he leapt from when he attempted to face the mutants and he landed on his face next to them. The slipup proved fatal, as he was immediately set upon by the gangsters, who beat him to death."
Her cohost continued: "Experts are warning that this is just the beginning of what is expected to be a major crime-wave as criminal elements become more active following the death of Batman. Authorities have called on citizens to call the police if they see something and not to take the law into their own hands as today's Batman impersonator did to such tragic results."
Stephanie turned the TV off and went to her room. She quickly removed her school uniform and changed into a tank top and exercise pants before re-opening her door. Near the top of the doorway hung a metal bar she hand installed long ago. There was no need to close her door to hide what she was doing; her mother would not notice or care.
Stephanie grabbed the bar with both hands and pulled herself off the ground until her chin was above the bar.
"We got em, Mr. Dent," Detective Ford said. "Why not announce it?"
"I want to be thorough about this, especially after Batman's identity was revealed to the press so quickly," Harvey said as we looked over the mugshots of their three suspects. "You really think a bunch of teenage punks like this killed The Batman?"
"They can fight," Ford said. "The girls, at least. Four swat officers injured in the bust. That's nothing to scoff at."
"Still, this is Batman we're talking about."
"Yeah, but the guy was pushing sixty. Maybe he wasn't as good as he was 20 years ago."
"Maybe," Harvey conceded.
Ford opened Duela's file. "Born in Arkham. In and out of juvie. Back in again. Petty theft, grand larceny, assault, assault…"
He threw the file to the side. "Assault."
"And that's just the stuff you know about," Duela said, giving him a mischievous grin. "I would like to speak with my legal counsel."
"Then you shouldn't have shattered her kneecap," Ford said.
"She shouldn't have tried to get me to plead guilty to something I didn't do."
"We've got your prints on the gun that killed Bruce Wayne. Not to mention the pile of money we found you with. So, who paid you? The Cascimentos? The McKillens?"
"I don't know," Duela said angrily.
A buzzer sounded as Harvey entered the interrogation room. He held out a playing card and put in on the table in front of Duela. It was a joker card.
"The police found this on you. So, is it true? Are you really the Joker's daughter? Is that why you murdered Batman?"
Ford grinned. Whatever Harvey's doubts about the case, he would not go easy on these kids, nor would he ignore what the evidence said.
"Wait," Duela said, looking at Ford. "You're saying I did it for the money." She turned to Harvey and said, "and then you're saying I did it for revenge. So, let me get this straight. Somebody paid me to do something that you say I would have happily done for free?"
"I mean, I'm not a big, fancy lawyer, I'm just a girl with two working kneecaps. But you two might want to get your stories straight before you take this to a judge."
Harvey sat down next to Ford. "You're right. You're not a big fancy lawyer. If you were, you'd know everything you just said is wrong."
"Those two motivations are hardly exclusive," he explained. "You have no murder in your record beforehand. Perhaps your desire for revenge is what allowed you to cross that line this time, and the money simply made the decision easier."
"Moreover," he continued, "your motivation is immaterial at this point. We have the literal smoking gun with your fingerprints on it, as well as the money you were paid for the job. That's enough for any jury."
Harvey put his hands together. "We already have everything we need to put you away for life, even without all the other crimes you committed. The only thing that can possibly help you now is that you're a small fish in this pond, and I want the big fish. I want the people who paid you to kill Batman."
"Harper Row," Harvey read from her file. "Straight As, honor roll, but seven months before graduation, you dropped out. Unlike you, I didn't take AP calculus, so maybe you can do the math for me."
"It's not math, it's history," Harper said. "Mom left, dad couldn't beat on her anymore, so he turned to his kids. He didn't have a problem with bisexual chicks in his porn, but having one under his roof was another story."
"I had to get me and my brother out of there," she declared.
"Your brother?" Ford asked skeptically.
"My name is Cullen Row."
"Really?" Ford asked. "Because it says on your birth certificate-"
Harvey interrupted him. "Don't deadname the kid."
"Fine, I got another dead name for him: Bruce Wayne!"
"Ford," Harvey said, "take a walk."
The detective scoffed as he rose and left the room.
"Sorry about that," Harvey said. "From what your sister told me, it sounds like you got enough of that from your dad."
Cullen fought back tears as he responded. "Look, I- know what you're doing. This-this is building trust through performative allyship."
"Or maybe I'm just not a dick," Harvey retorted. "And maybe I know that you are not a killer."
"No," Cullen said, "just desperate for money. And then Duela just pirouettes her way into the Union Street soup kitchen with a plan, a one-time robbery."
"And you didn't know that the thing she really wanted to take was Bruce Wayne's life?" Harvey asked.
"No, I-" Cullen stammered.
"I can make a jury believe that," Harvey said.
"But-you can't make me believe that," Cullen protested, "because it's not what happened! You're just trying to turn us against each other!"
Harvey shook his head and had to stifle a yawn. He'd been working for far too long that day. "I'm just trying to get the truth."
"It was me," Harper declared. "I killed Bruce Wayne."
Harvey leaned forward. This was the last thing he had expected her to say.
"I'll sign whatever confession you want, but my brother walks," she insisted.
"Who paid you the money?" Harvey asked.
Harper shook her head, and her voice cracked. "I don't know."
Harvey stood up. "Then we don't have a deal."
As he left, Harper banged her hands against the table and screamed.
Ford had a donut in hand when he found Harvey sitting outside the interrogation room.
"What do you think?"
"I don't like it at all," Harvey replied. "I could believe that Duela pulled the trigger. We have her prints on the gun. But why are the other two defending her? They've got no reason to lie for her sake and everything to gain by giving her up."
"Maybe she's got something on them. Or maybe they're just teenagers who think they're smarter than everyone even though they're stupid."
Harvey scowled. "Maybe, but my gut tells me this isn't as cut and dry as it looks."
"The evidence is overwhelming."
Harvey looked to the side in thought. "Bruce…and Batman, told me to always follow my gut."
Stephanie sat in front of one of the school library computers, staring at an article on the arrests made in connection with the murder of Bruce Wayne. The pictures of the three suspects dominated the screen in a manner more suited to a tabloid than the Gotham Gazette, the most prestigious newspaper in the city.
She scowled as she scrolled through the article. The author or editor presented the suspects as if they had already been tried and found guilty. The words 'alleged' or even 'accused' did not appear once, with every publicized detail depicted as a stone-hard fact.
Stephanie flipped open her phone and with a glance around to make sure no one was looking at her before dialing. The phone rang and rang without going to voicemail.
"Come on, Dinah, pick up," she whispered. She hung up and dialed again.
"Is that a flip phone?"
Stephanie started and nearly dropped her phone as Brodie appeared behind her.
"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you."
"What do you want?" Stephanie asked tersely.
"If you're gonna use your phone in school, you need a better hiding place. I have three places on campus where I can get away with being on my phone as much as I want."
"Thanks for the advice."
"How old is that phone, anyway?"
"What, have you never seen a flip phone before?"
"No, actually. I didn't realize they still made them."
Stephanie glanced up at the ceiling, which was adorned with paintings and chandeliers worth more than her house. There was no point in having such decorations in a school other than to flaunt the wealth of the institution and its students and alumni.
"In the real world there are a lot of people who can't afford fancy smartphones or just don't want a phone that doubles as a computer."
Brodie looked over her shoulder at the computer screen. "Crazy, isn't it? The Joker's daughter killed Batman."
"It's bullshit is what it is," Stephanie said angrily.
Brodie looked at her in shock. He had never heard Stephanie engage in profanity like that before.
"There is no way three kids our age killed Batman. If they had that kind of skill, they'd never be arrested so easily."
"So what, you think they're being framed?"
"Exactly."
Brodie stared at her for a few moments. "Did you … know Bruce Wayne? You're taking this really hard."
Stephanie closed the browser and stepped away from the computer. "Sorry. Forget I said anything."
Cullen was brought back to the cell where Duela and Harper were being held. He spent the most time in interrogation because the police had decided he would be the most likely to break and give up the others.
Duela gave him the stink-eye. "So, you convince them you're too innocent to kill anyone yet? You're lucky I know you're too spineless to sell us out."
"Hey, leave him alone!" Harper yelled, coming between them.
"Harper, I don't need you to fight all my battles for me," Cullen said.
"I'm not," she insisted.
"Then why'd you try to cut a deal to save me?"
"Hey! What deal?" Duela yelled, grabbing Cullen's arm. "You're gonna say I pulled the trigger?"
"I don't have to!" Harper yelled back. "Your prints are all over the damn gun!"
Duela grabbed Harper by the shoulders and head-butted her before throwing her into the prison bars. Cullen tried to grab Duela, but she kicked him in the side. This gave Harper a moment to recover, and she leapt on top of Duela, knocking them both to the ground as they began to hit each other repeatedly while screaming.
Two police officers heard the commotion and ran to their cell. "Break it up! Settle down!" the first officer yelled as he opened the cell door.
The officers began hitting the three prisoners with their batons, even Cullen. Duela and Harper fought back for a few moments but were quickly overwhelmed.
Detective Ford arrived just as the fight was brought under control. He spat in disgust. "Get these animals cuffed and stuffed."
Stephanie was once again using the metal bar in her room. This time, she was doing a form of one-armed pull-ups, her left arm holding onto a strap hanging from the bar while her right hand held onto the bar itself. She grunted in pain from the extreme effort it took to pull her body up high enough so that her chin was above the bar.
At the end of her count, Stephanie let go of the bar and let herself drop, her feet making a loud thud against the floor. She took two deep breaths and wiped the sweat from her brow before reaching up and removing the bar from its place on her doorpost.
"Steph?" Crystal called as she came from the kitchen holding an empty pill bottle. Stephanie quickly hid the bar behind her back.
"I need you to run down to the drugstore. I have to get a refill on these," the older woman said. "Are you going out later?"
"Mom, are you sure you should be taking so many? You're going through a bottle a week," Steph said.
"I need these!" Crystal yelled. "I'll get sicker without them! Do you want me to be a wreck all the time? You going out later or not?"
Stephanie's hand tightened on the metal bar held behind her back. "Yeah. I'm going out soon."
Duela, Cullen, and Harper were led in handcuffs to a police van. As they were seated, an officer attached their handcuffs to the floor with a chain.
The officer left and shut the door, and Duela grinned at Harper. "Great job back there. You made it look very convincing."
"Oh, I've been thinking about clawing your face off for a while," Harper retorted. Duela winked, showing off a long scratch Harper had given her above her left eye.
"Everyone got their trinket?" Duela asked, pulling out a pin she had grabbed from the shirt of one of the officers who broke up their fight in the cell. Harper opened her mouth and spat out a GCPD label she had been hiding in her cheek. Cullen likewise produced a pin.
The van doors opened again, and Detective Ford and a masked policeman with a rifle entered and sat down next to them.
Ford was ecstatic to get the three of them out of the GCPD headquarters. "All aboard the Blackgate Express.
The van began to move, and, escorted by four police cars, made its way into the Gotham night.
Ford dozed off quickly despite the blaring sirens of the van's escort, and the masked officer kept his eyes trained on the driver, allowing Duela to begin attempting to pick her handcuffs. Unfortunately, her pin was not the right size or shape, and all she ended up doing was creating a metallic noise that alerted Ford.
"What are you doing?" he demanded.
"Well, I'm trying to get these stupid handcuffs undone with this damn pin," Duela said, "but it's not working."
The masked policeman stood up in response and looked down at her.
"Cullen and Harper had no problem getting theirs off," she said.
"What?" Ford yelled as Cullen kicked the masked officer. Harper grabbed Ford's wrist, preventing him from being able to point his gun at any of them. Cullen seized one of their police batons and hit Ford over the head with it, causing him to drop his weapon.
While the twins dealt with Ford, Duela was able to grab a bottle of mace from the belt of the masked officer and spray him in the face with it. Harper tossed her label over to Duela, and the other girl was finally successful in undoing her handcuffs.
The driver of the van heard the fight, but was unable to do anything more than look back as it played out. Duela and the masked officer were now wrestling over the officer's taser, causing it to go off. The projectile shot through the gap in the metal partition between the front and back and shocked the driver, causing him to spin out and the van to roll onto its side.
The four police cars stopped and eight officers emerged with their guns drawn and approached the back of the van.
"Come out with your hands up!" the officer in the front ordered.
One of the doors to the back of the van opened vertically, and Detective Ford began to crawl out, bleeding profusely from a head wound. "Don't shoot!" he yelled, "she's got my gun!"
Duela emerged behind Ford, holding the weapon to his head. "And if you don't all back off, I'm gonna give him back the bullets!"
"You're surrounded!" the other officer said. "We will fire!"
"What a coincidence, so will I!" Duela yelled back.
"Just let us go, and no one gets hurt," Cullen said as he and Harper emerged as well. "We didn't kill anyone, and we don't want to start now."
"So why resist now?" Ford asked.
"Are you kidding?" Harper responded. "We know exactly what's going to happen when we get to Blackgate. Whoever set us up is going to silence us forever."
"You've got that right," Ford whispered as he grabbed Duela's arm and twisted it, causing her to drop the gun. He picked up his weapon and backed off, putting some distance between them as he pointed the gun at Duela.
"Dent was right," he said. "You punks really couldn't have killed Batman. All the more reason to get rid of you now before people get a chance to see it."
"They're all in on it," Cullen exclaimed. Ford was flanked by the other eight officers, all of whom were pointing their guns directly at the trio.
"Your little escape attempt just made my job a whole lot easier," Ford said triumphantly.
He clicked his gun and his finger began to tighten on the trigger, the barrel still pointed at Duela's head.
"No hard feelings, kid."
Something struck his hand, just before he could fire, knocking the gun from his grip. All eyes turned to see a black boomerang with bat-scallops come to rest on the ground.
The police had no time to react as a figure barreled into them. At, first, all anyone could make out was a blur of purple moving through the officers like a tornado. Two were down before the figure came to its first stop.
The figure wore a dark purple costume that blended into the night, with a black mask and utility belts around its waist and left thigh. The eyes of its black, full-face mask were largely covered by a hood which connected to a long, flowing cape the same deep purple as the body. In its hands it held a long metal bo staff.
Two of the officers who were still standing managed to point their guns at the figure, which somersaulted over one of the police cars to strike them with the staff. The figure pirouetted, spinning the staff around to strike at distance and with tremendous force.
The masked and caped figure continued to spin at it launched against the remaining armed officers always keeping out of their reach as they fell before the bo staff. Finally, it turned to Ford, who had been left for last since he had been disarmed first and therefore posed the least threat. With one final strike, the last of the police force sent to kill Duela, Cullen, and Harper was rendered unconscious.
The teens stared at the figure as it collapsed the bo staff into a short metal bar and bent down to pick up the batarang. Half of Duela's face was grinning, while the other half was scowling, at the newcomer.
Cullen was the first to find his voice. "Who the hell are you?"
The figure looked at them and spoke in a feminine voice, revealing itself as a girl. "I'm the Spoiler. And not to sound cliché, but you'd better come with me if you want to live."
Spoiler bent down over Ford and began searching him.
"Please tell me you brought the batmobile," Cullen asked.
Spoiler pulled a golden coin out of Ford's pocket along with his cell phone before putting them in two compartments on her upper utility belt. "Nope," she said, "just my mom's car."
The others looked at each other in bewilderment. Spoiler had just taken out nine armed policemen in barely thirty seconds, but was using her mother's car, they all wondered.
Duela shrugged and stepped forward. "Whatever. I call shotgun!"
The older Harvey got, the more he hated talking to the press, especially before an investigation was complete. But there were times when there was no choice but to hold an impromptu press conference, because his job was not only to keep criminals off the streets, but to make the citizens of Gotham feel safe.
"In the wake of the violent escape from a GCPD convoy earlier tonight, I want to assure the citizens of Gotham that we are marshalling all of the city's resources to hunt down these fugitives, Harper and Cullen Row, and the Joker's daughter, as well as anyone who aids or abets them."
The Spoiler brought them to Gotham Academy. It took some work to avoid the school's security cameras, but eventually they reached the belfry overlooking the rest of the academy.
This was a part of the campus which few had set foot in since the days when Bruce Wayne was a student there. Several of the windows had been broken years or even decades ago, and plants and moss grew on several of the walls.
"No one comes here," Spoiler explained, "not even to hook up. Urban-legend stuff."
"I like it," Duela said. "No one would think to look for us at the rich-kids school."
"Guess we finally got in," Cullen told Harper, who was more focused on Spoiler. Their savior was looking through the recent calls made on Ford's phone. Her hood was down, but her mask remained on, allowing them to see the white eyes on the otherwise black fabric.
"How do you know about this place? You go here?"
"That would be the logical assumption."
"Figures," Harper said. "Guess you have to be rich to be a vigilante in Gotham."
"That wasn't a rich-person's car we came here in," Cullen pointed out.
"Why'd you save us?" Harper asked.
Spoiler looked up. "I know you didn't kill Bruce Wayne. And if you died, any chance I have of figuring out who did likely dies with you."
"I knew it wasn't just out of the goodness of your heart."
"So what are you?" Duela asked. "Batman's secret sidekick? His secret love-child looking to avenge daddy?"
"Neither. I'm an independent vigilante."
"Can you really not tell us who you are?"
Spoiler sighed. "You people may not have killed Bruce Wayne, but you're still criminals. How am I supposed to trust you?"
"And how are we supposed to trust someone who won't even tell us their name?" Duela retorted. "How do we know you're not working for the people who framed us in an attempt to make it look like we could have actually pulled it off. And don't say 'you have no choice.' I hate that cliché."
After a moment, Spoiler nodded and pulled her mask off, revealing the face of teenage girl with blonde hair. "My name is Stephanie Brown."
"Brown?" Duela asked. "Please tell me you're not related to Arthur Brown."
Stephanie met her eyes. "He's my father."
"Oh, god damn it!" Duela exclaimed, turning away. "This is so effing embarrassing!"
"What?" Cullen asked.
"Arthur Brown is the Cluemaster, a third-rate Riddler knockoff. The Joker's daughter can't be saved by the kid of such a loser supervillain."
"How much of a loser could he be if he can afford to send his daughter here?" Harper asked.
"He can be a very big loser," Stephanie said. "And I'd prefer to judged based on my own capabilities, not who my father is, thank you very much."
"So, what's the plan?" Duela asked. "How's the teenaged daughter of a loser my daddy wouldn't stoop to hiring as a doorman going to solve the biggest crime in Gotham's history?"
"I don't know," Stephanie admitted. "I'm hoping that detective's phone will have something from whoever had him try to kill you. There's also this coin he had. I've never seen anything like that before."
"Coin?" Duela asked. "Let me see."
"It's got an engraving of an owl instead of an eagle, not what you'd expect from a normal golden dollar."
Duela held up the coin and didn't even attempt to fight back her gulp of fear.
"We should have just let him kill us, cause we're already dead."
"You know what this is?" Stephanie asked.
Duela looked at her. "It's the symbol of the Court of Owls. They're the ones who really run this city."
"That's just a fairy tale," Stephanie insisted. "Something parents tell their kids to make them behave like the boogeyman or Krampus."
Duela shook her head. "No. They're real. No one knows who they are, and you don't dare ask, because if you find out, it'll be the last thing you'll ever see."
She pushed the coin into Stephanie's hand. "Your daddy told you bedtime stories about them, huh? Well, while you were being tucked in, I was listening to the warnings that echo through the halls of Arkham."
Duella stepped to the window as Stephanie said: "Beware the court of Owls…"
"…that watches all the time," Duela continued, "ruling Gotham from a shadowed perch, behind granite and lime."
A tear fell down the side of Duela's cheek as she recited the poem, and the others all turned to stare at the golden coin that ominously lay in Stephanie's hand.
"They watch you at your hearth, they watch you in your bed, speak not a whispered word of them, or they'll send the Talon for your head."
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Post by sunofdarkchild on Jul 14, 2023 3:28:06 GMT -5
The writing for Spock continues to be pretty bad. The latest episode ends with him saying that Vulcan emotions are more intense than human emotions, which while consistent with past canon undermines the entire premise of the episode. Being entirely human and experiencing these less intense human emotions should make it easier for Spock to suppress them, not harder. Vulcans aren't unemotional because they are born that way like the incubators from Madoka Magica. They are very emotional creatures and go through intense mental training and discipline to suppress their emotions. Becoming human does not cause Spock to suddenly forget all of his training and discipline. They tried to have their cake and eat it too here, but it doesn't work at all.
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Post by sunofdarkchild on Jul 12, 2023 12:22:05 GMT -5
Are they implying that Ahsoka tried to train Sabine in the force?
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Post by sunofdarkchild on Jun 23, 2023 8:50:40 GMT -5
Does anyone know of any places that still sell the 10.5 inch Eaglemoss model of the Enterprise A? Mine was broken this week, and they're sold out everywhere.
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Post by sunofdarkchild on Jun 23, 2023 1:16:16 GMT -5
The Mario RPG remake is as faithful as it's possible to be. They have real cutscenes and the graphics are 3d instead of pseudo 3d sprites, but everything else is exactly the same, down to the isometric camera angle.
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Post by sunofdarkchild on Jun 18, 2023 13:32:28 GMT -5
Episode 1 is mostly good, but I feel like the writers really don't get Spock. At this point in his life he should be the most by-the-book person in Starfleet and the most Vulcan Vulcan who ever Vulcanned. The only thing that made him different from other Vulcans was that he chose to go into Starfleet, but he had a chip on his shoulder from the way he was treated as a half-human to be as close to the Vulcan ideal as it was possible to be. Calling him abnormal for a Vulcan is the biggest insult anyone could possibly give him. It's specifically through his time as Kirk's first officer that he learns to embrace his human side to an extent and that there is more to life than rigid logic. But going by Strange New Worlds he just gave up trying to be a good Vulcan years before TOS and was more of a rule-breaking maverick who did things his own way than Kirk ever was, so there's no character arc to be had in TOS or the movies since he's already at his endpoint before he even starts. The JJ Abrams movies got Spock right far more than Strange New Worlds does. And the way they got the Spock-Chapel relationship backwards also rubs me the wrong way.
I don't care so much about the Gorn retcons, the Klingon retcons, or most of the other retcons. But I do care that Spock is a completely different character from the character Leonard Nimoy portrayed.
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Post by sunofdarkchild on May 25, 2023 16:38:37 GMT -5
Khan!!! The Musical, the off-broadway parody of Wrath of Khan, is very enjoyable. If you can get to New York in the time it has left I highly recommend it.
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Post by sunofdarkchild on May 8, 2023 15:16:58 GMT -5
Final Chapter: Parting
The landscape was unrecognizable. What had been a flat plain of ice and snow was now a jagged wilderness of hills, boulders, and large cracks covering the ground. This made approaching the site of the battle difficult.
They found Illyana lying on her side. Her costume was in tatters and her body was covered in wounds and injuries. Every few short, labored breaths she coughed up more blood. Her back was crisscrossed with deep lacerations and her upper abdomen was covered in dark patches and bruises from internal bleeding.
Piotr bent down and lifted his sister up in his bulky arms. Illyana's eyes blinked open and she saw the smiling faces of her friends and teammates. She looked at the Sailor Guardians.
"I don't know how you did it," she said weakly, "but thank you."
"You don't have to thank us," Mina said. "We were just doing our jobs."
"We helped too," Kitty said. "Everyone pitched into lend you their power."
Illyana looked to Storm. "You were all willing to give me your power, even after you saw what I am?"
Ororo put her hand under Illyana's cheek. "Of course."
Illyana's smile faded to nervousness as she looked up at her brother. "Piotr, I…"
"Shhhhh…" he said, wiping a long of blonde hair covered in grime from her face. "It doesn't matter what you became when you were Belasco's captive. Now and forever, you are my sister."
Piotr pulled Illyana into a tight hug, and Kitty and Mina wiped tears from their eyes, overcome with emotion.
"And, Little Snowflake, a braver, truer, lovelier girl does not exist on this planet, or any other!"
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Professor Xavier and Doug were waiting in the hangar when the Blackbird returned. The X-Men's jet had survived the battle due to having been a kilometer away, but it had still been sent skidding nearly a hundred meters on its landing wheels and been turned around by the incredible winds of the final energy struggle between Belasco and Illyana.
The New Mutants disembarked first. Their spirits were surprisingly high. While they had not truly fought themselves, this was still their first battle alongside the X-Men and they had contributed about as much as the senior team had. Saving the world felt good.
Colossus exited the plane next, carrying his sister. Illyana had fallen asleep soon after they had taken off, not trying to fight her exhaustion or injuries. Doug, though he had been informed of Illyana's injuries, was shocked at the sight of her. Having joined the school only after Dani's return from the hospital, he had never seen anyone in such a condition before.
"Don't worry," Xavier assured him. "She'll be fine."
"Um, sure," Doug said as he watched Piotr and Kitty take Illyana toward the infirmary.
As bad as she looked, Illyana's condition was nowhere near Dani's had been after her mauling by the Demon Bear. Moreover, once she was rested and recharged her mystic batteries, a healing spell would suffice to restore her to full physical health.
Roberto came over and wrapped his arm around Doug's shoulder, leading the linguist away so he could regale him with a tale Doug already knew from monitoring the battle with Xavier.
Dani looked to Xavier, and their mentor smiled and nodded at her. Dani smiled back at him in response to this sign of his approval of her performance as team leader.
The rest of the X-Men and the Sailor Guardians were the last to disembark, Artemis leaping into Mina's arms as she appeared.
The mutant superheroes' sense of relief was palpable even without Xavier's psychic powers. Never again would any of them have to face the nightmare that was Belasco, and they had avoided a repeat of what was perhaps their greatest failure in losing Illyana for seven years to Limbo.
As for the guardians, they appeared unsure of themselves. It was understandable. The mission, the purpose for which they had been awoken and gathered, was fulfilled. It was only natural they would be left wondering where to go from here.
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Dani found Rahne sulking in her room, glaring at a notepad on her desk.
"We need to talk."
Rahne merely scowled and turned away towards the window.
"When all of us were giving Illyana our power so she could save the world, you were the only one who stood aside and did nothing."
"What does it matter?" Rahne demanded. "It's no' like the power of a werewolf would have made a difference."
"That's not the point," Dani said. "If your power would have been the difference-maker, then your problems with Illyana would have doomed the whole world!"
"She's a demon!" Rahne screamed. "Didnae' you see what she turned into? Why is everyone pretendin' like tha' never happened?"
"Maybe the rest of course care more about what she does than what she looks like!"
Dani sighed to calm herself down and took her phone out of her pocket. "I can call my parents and talk to them whenever I want. That's because of Illyana. So yes, I can look past the horns and how much they freak me out."
"I cannae' do it, Dani. I cannnae' be friends with a demon and a witch."
Dani let out another sigh, this time a sad one. "I can't force you to like her, Rahne. But this can't go on. Sooner or later, this is going to hurt the team."
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Mina, Amy, Rei, and Lita stopped in front of the door to Kitty and Illyana's room and looked to each other in concern. Three signs were posted on the door which read: 'The sorceress is IN,' 'Knock before entering,' and 'Beware of demons.'
"And here I thought she was getting better," Lita said.
Mina nervously knocked on the door, and was surprised at how OK Illyana seemed when she opened it.
"Yes?"
"Um, what's up with that?" Mina asked, pointing at the signs on the door.
"Just a precaution. I take it you're going now?"
"Yes. Artemis thinks some youma escaped the fight in the arctic. We're going to hunt them down and tie up all loose ends."
"I guess this is goodbye then."
The others were surprised by the finality they heard in Illyana's voice, as if this would be the last time they would ever speak.
"I don't understand," Amy said.
"We won," Illyana explained. "We beat your enemies and mine. Now there's no reason for there to be a Moon Princess anymore. The Moon Kingdom's dead and gone, and we're not going to rebuild it with five people. And if I started planning to bring anyone to Limbo to rule over them, I'd want someone to stop me."
"You should be happy," she told them. "Once you've dealt with the youma, you can all go back to your normal lives."
Mina nodded sadly. "I understand. But … if you ever need help, don't hesitate to call us."
Illyana extended her left hand, allowing Mina to use her non-injured hand to shake it.
"Thank you for everything you've done. I'm glad you didn't let me push you all away."
"And thank you for saving me. I know how hard it was for you to show that other side of yourself."
"I had to do it," Illyana said.
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The X-Men and New Mutants gathered at the entrance to the mansion to say goodbye to the Sailor Guardians.
"I wish you all well on journeys," Professor Xavier said. "And our door will always be open to you."
Ororo nodded. "We can never repay you for all you've done."
"I feel like we should be saying that to you," Amy said.
"So much has happened these last few weeks," Lita added, "it seems like forever since we first came to the mansion."
"The brief days we spent here will be with us for the rest of our lives," Rei said.
Kitty approached Mina. "So, any chance I'll be seeing Sailor V's name in the news again anytime soon?"
Mina gave her a mischievous smile. "Afraid not. Sailor V was just a mask. Sailor Venus is the real me."
She surprised Kitty by giving her a hug, and further surprised her by slipping a piece of paper with a phone number into the other girl's hand.
"In case Illyana needs us," she whispered.
After letting go of Kitty, Mina turned to Dani. The New Mutants were not as sorry to see the guardians go as the X-Men were, but the jealousy and resentment of the younger team was lessened following the battle in the arctic.
"I'm jealous of you," Mina said. "I hope you appreciate what you've got here."
Dani nodded. "I do, and I'll see to it the rest of my teammates do as well."
The guardians and Xavier looked to the top of the staircase, where Illyana was watching them. The young sorceress merely nodded at them, having already said her goodbyes.
"Take care of yourselves," Mina said as she and her fellow guardians turned and stepped through the doorway, out of the world of mutants.
As the mutant heroes began to disperse, Xavier walked up the stairs to speak to Illyana.
"How are you doing?" he asked. "You must have many conflicted feelings after all this. If you need to talk…"
"Maybe later," Illyana said. "Right now, there's something I need to do, alone."
She disappeared into a stepping disk, leaving Xavier alone with his thoughts.
The professor decided to head to his office and attempt to contact Lilandra. The former empress of the Shi'ar would love to hear the details of this adventure.
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Illyana stood up and wiped a thick layer of sweat from her brow.
She stood before five freshly dug graves, placed at the center of what had used to be the garden of the sorceress Ororo. While she had spent hours digging each grave, her demon servants had collected the bodies of the X-Men who had died in Limbo and brought them here for burial. The mistress of Limbo had then poured the dirt she had dug up back into the graves, using manual labor rather than magic to accomplish the task.
Illyana placed her shovel down and picked up the guardians' sword. She planned to bring it back to earth so that they could summon it if needed, as Mina had shown they could do when she killed Beryl. For now, she held the sword in front of her in honor of the fallen heroes who had been brought to their final resting place.
"I'm sorry," she told her departed friends. "I should have done this sooner. But I couldn't face you. I couldn't bear the guilt, not until now.
"I wasn't strong enough to save you, any of you. You all sacrificed yourselves for me. You all … died for me," she said as a single tear streaked down her cheek.
"I just wanted you to know that your sacrifices weren't in vain. Because of all of you, I was strong enough to save Mina. I was able to protect all of my friends and spare them from the fate you suffered. I was even able to put an end to Belasco and his schemes of world domination without losing myself. That's all because of what you did for me.
"It doesn't make up for what happened to you, but I hope that you can know how much strength you've given me. And then maybe, somewhere, somehow, you're smiling at me.
Illyana wiped the tears from her eyes.
"So thank you, for everything. I'll never forget any of you … and goodbye."
A stepping disk appeared at Illyana's feet, taking her back to Earth
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Post by sunofdarkchild on May 2, 2023 14:15:40 GMT -5
Chapter 11: As One
The X-Men, Sailor Guardians, and New Mutants fell nearly ten feet out of the stepping disks onto the ice and snow below. Many of the younger heroes groaned or yelped in shock and pain from the impact with the cold surface.
It was Storm who recovered her wits first. "Is everyone here?" she demanded, looking around.
"No!" Colossus screamed. "Where is my sister?"
Each team quickly counted took a headcount. They were all accounted for, except for Magik.
'Ororo?'
"Charles!" Storm yelled.
'What is going on? How are you in two places at once?'
"Belasco was too powerful. Illyana teleported us away to save us. What do you mean in two places?"
'It would seem that you've been teleported several minutes into the past. At this moment the youma are preparing to attack your past selves.'
Storm began to understand why she had been unable to contact the Professor telepathically before. He had been busy communicating with their futures selves and had not wanted to cause a temporal paradox by revealing that fact.
"Then we've still got time!" Kitty yelled. "We can go back and save Illyana!"
"No," Sailor Venus said.
All eyes turned to her, and even her teammates looked to her in shock and confusion.
"What are you talking about?" Kitty demanded.
"We can't go back," Venus stated firmly. "It's suicide."
Colossus angrily turned away and began to run in the direction of the battle.
"Stop!" Mina yelled, throwing her bead chain around the X-Man. "Don't make me use the love-me-chain against you," she said, warning him not to transform to break out of the chain.
"Let me go!" he roared. "I'm not leaving my sister in Belasco's clutches for another second!"
"What is your problem?" Kitty screamed. "Isn't your whole mission to protect her? She just sacrificed herself for you, and now you're just going to abandon her?"
'Everyone, calm down!'
Many of the heroes looked up as the disembodied voice of Charles Xavier seemed to scream at them from the heavens.
'Kitty, Peter, I know how you feel. But right now you need to listen to Mina.'
"Thank you, Professor," Mina said as she pulled back her chain and turned to Kitty. "You're right. Illyana did just sacrifice herself to save us. And the quickest way to waste that sacrifice is by going back and committing suicide. That's the last thing she'd want us to do."
"Mina's right," Sailor Mercury said. "You saw how powerful Belasco was. Having doubles of us won't make any difference."
"Best-case scenario is we get teleported away again," Sailor Jupiter added. "Worst-case is we all die."
Storm scowled. "That may be true. But we have to try. We can't let Belasco take her from us, not again."
"Agreed," Venus said, "but we have to be smart about it."
"We did see that light on the horizon right before the battle," Dani recalled. "Illyana might have realized that was her teleport disks."
"You're saying she planned to send us back in time from the moment she saw the light?" Roberto asked.
"It's possible."
"If that's the case," Venus said, "then I think we have a chance."
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Illyana trembled as Belasco summoned an eldritch fire under her chin. Though she felt the full heat of the flames, only the top of her uniform was consumed, the fabric burning away and revealing the Beatrix medallion just above her heart.
The locket opened, and a brilliant light burst forth from it. The inside of the medallion contained an inverted pentagram, with bloodstones placed at the center of three of the star's five points.
In the center of the pentagram lay the Silver Crystal, magically fused with the medallion by Illyana in her efforts to protect it.
If Belasco was surprised to find the Silver Crystal in the locket he had first given to Illyana when she was six-years-old, he did not show it. His focus remained on the two empty grooves at the points where no bloodstones were placed.
"The energy produced by the creation of just one bloodstone will be enough to free Metaria; two will free the Elder Gods."
He extended his hand at Illyana. Though she braced herself, she still screamed as he cast his spell on her.
Of all the tortures she had suffered during her years in Limbo, even the worst of her beatings from S'ym, none came close to the pain she had experienced when Belasco forcibly tore a piece of her soul apart to forge the third bloodstone. Zoisite's attempt on her life had been like an annoying itch in comparison. And now Belasco was doing it again.
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Colossus paced back and forth and Kitty nervously bit her nails as the Sailor Guardians prepared to enact Venus' plan.
"You're sure this will work?" Dani asked.
"I wish I was," Venus replied.
Sailor Mars put her hand on her leaders' shoulder. "Do you have faith in the queen?"
"You know I do."
"Then it'll work," the warrior of fire assured her.
Kitty gasped and began to grasp her heart.
"Kitty?" Ororo asked.
"I feel cold," the youngest X-Man said.
"Well, we are in the arctic," Roberto said.
"No, it's like something in my heart," Kitty insisted. "I think it's Illyana. She needs us. Whatever you're gonna do, do it now."
The four Sailor Guardians formed a circle and held each other's hands as they knelt in the snow.
"Venus power," their leader chanted. A golden-orange aura surrounded her.
"Mars power."
"Jupiter power."
"Mercury power."
Similar auras surrounded each of the guardians as they called upon the powers of their guardian planets, each the same color as their costumes.
Sailor Venus continued her chant: "Hear my prayer, oh Silver Crystal, the heart of our beloved Silver Millennium. Let our hearts be as one with our princess in this dark hour."
Sailor Jupiter spoke next: "Hear my prayer, oh Silver Crystal, original source of our power, take our strength and lend it to the princess in her hour of need."
Sailor Mercury said: "Hear my prayer, oh Silver Crystal, fountain of purity, let our hopes reach her and protect this world we love."
Finally, Sailor Mars said: "Hear my prayer, oh Silver Crystal, that which binds us, give her the strength to banish evil."
There was a crackling of energy as their auras swirled around them.
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Illyana's voice began to fail her after several minutes of non-stop screaming at the top of her lungs, the first sign that her resistance to Belasco's spell was beginning to waiver.
It required an incredibly strong will to be able to resist the bloodstone creation ritual for even a second, such was Belasco's power and the strength of his own will. As a small child, Illyana had been unable to resist it at all, while as a preteen she had at least put up a valiant fight before the third bloodstone was forged. Having been forged between the hellish fires and frozen tundras of Limbo, her willpower was extraordinary by any standard. It had to be for her to escape from that realm and to continue living given the extent of her traumas.
But her battle was not merely against Belasco's spell. It also raged within her soul. A large part of her longed for the darkness and power of the bloodstones, a part which grew with each bloodstone. This aspect of her being saw giving in to Belasco and to the darkest parts of her nature as the simplest way to end her pain and suffering. As long as that part of her existed, which it would for the rest of her life, she would never be able to win any struggle against Belasco's attempt to create another bloodstone no matter how hard she resisted.
Belasco roared in triumph as Illyana's resistance began to crumble and an ethereal smoke began to rise from her eyes, just as had happened the last time had cast this spell on her. In mere moments, the fourth bloodstone would be placed in the Beatrix Medallion, sealing humanity's fate.
The smoke began to coalesce into the form of the Darkchild's face, the last step before the bloodstone would take physical form, when the light from the Silver Crystal suddenly increased in intensity a thousandfold.
Belasco gasped and was forced to cover his eyes with his one hand from the white light which filled the throne room, breaking the spell.
As the light faded as he lowered his arm, Belasco saw Illyana rise to her feet, no longer bound by his chains, and gaped at her appearance.
Illyana was surrounded by a bright pulsating aura of gold-orange, red, green, and blue. The colors swirled around in constant motion, creating a kaleidoscopic effect.
Belasco stood there, unsure of what was happening and transfixed by how beautiful Illyana was while surrounded by all those colors, as she examined her own hands and felt the power now surging through her.
"More than the sum of your parts, huh," she said softly.
Like a switch, Illyana suddenly fixed her eyes on Belasco with a look of pure determination, and in a single motion summoned her soul sword and swung it, releasing a burst of energy which cause Belasco to stumble back.
The Silver Crystal was taking the power of all of the Sailor Guardians and combining it, magnifying it, and using it to raise Illyana's own powers to unheard-of levels.
Belasco barely had any time to regain his footing and raise the guardians' sword to defend himself as Illyana brought the soul sword down on him with astonishing speed. Her blade glowed with the same colors as her new aura.
He side-stepped Illyana's next swing, and as his head turned to see the wall behind him collapsed by the shockwave produced by the force of her attack, his eyes showed real fear for only the second time in his centuries-long life.
While Belasco's focus was split by the collateral damage the first second of the fight had caused, Illyana's eyes stayed laser-focused on her former master. She took one arm off of her sword and fired a blast of magical energy which struck Belasco in the center of his chest. The force of the blast propelled him into the air and through the ceiling, causing the roof of the throne room to collapse completely.
Illyana teleported straight up to the surface, where Belasco was lying on his back in the snow. She raised her blade to deliver the finishing blow, and froze.
She had had Belasco dead to rights once before and spared him because to kill in anger would mean killing the last vestiges of the innocent child she had once been and losing herself to her dark side forever. Would killing him now be any better, or was she making the same mistakes as before, she wondered. Could she separate the anger and hate fueled every strike she made against Belasco from the need to stop him?
Unlike the last time they fought, Belasco did not lose power at the same time Illyana gained power. While she hesitated, he was able to summon the power to quickly heal any injuries he may have suffered and launch a blast of his own at her. Illyana's sword was not in a good position to block this attack, and she was forced to back up several paces as she deflected it, giving Belasco the space he needed to get back to his feet.
Their blades clashed again, and the advantage began to shift back in Belasco's favor. The initial shock of Illyana's newfound power had worn off, allowing him to respond more effectively. In addition, Illyana was in no shape for a protracted fight despite the power she had gained. Every muscle in her body screamed with each movement made, a lasting effect of the damage caused by the long minutes she had spent enduring Belasco's bloodstone spell.
Each time their sword met, the icy ground around them deformed in response to the clash of powers, and a deafening sound like a large explosion could be heard from miles away, letting the other heroes know that a battle was underway.
Belasco trapped Illyana's sword in a blade-lock and lashed out with a powerful kick to her stomach. She spat out a large amount of blood as she went flying backwards. She landed on her back and skidded across the ice for many meters, ripping the back of her uniform.
It was a testament to the endurance Illyana had acquired over her time in Limbo that she could rise again after taking such a hit. Belasco's smile returned as he menacingly approached her. Her healing spells did not work automatically the way Belasco's did, and they both knew she could not continue to fight at the same level with the injuries she had sustained.
Illyana summoned a stepping disk and leapt into it, causing Belasco to stop and wonder if she was running away. He abandoned that thought when another portal appeared in front of him, followed by yet more portals behind him, above him, and to his left and right.
Illyana came flying out of the stepping disk which was on the side of his missing arm, forcing him to quickly shift his body to just barely deflect her sword strike as she rushed past him and into one of the other portals.
This was another way in which Illyana pushed her mutant power in ways she had never attempted before. Ordinarily, she would have been wary of engaging in such a tactic for fear of ending up in the wrong time with so many portals, but with her boosted powers she felt more confident in her control of her stepping disks and their power over time.
No matter how Belasco turned, he could not prepare to defend himself from every conceivable angle with just one arm, and Illyana continued to press that advantage, appearing from her disks where his guard was weakest and making one slash before disappearing into another portal.
Belasco barely staved off strike after strike, each one catching him off-balance and staggering him for the next attack. Counter-attacking was out of the question, until at last Illyana caught his blade so out of position that she knocked it from his grasp.
The guardians' sword flew into one of the stepping disks, landing in Limbo where he could not risk attempting to retrieve it. He raised his hand, charging a blast of magical energy in the hopes of catching Illyana when she next reappeared.
But instead of Illyana launching another sword strike, enormous beams of energy burst from every stepping disk around him. Belasco had no chance to defend against such a powerful attack from so many angles and was struck on all sides.
Belasco screamed in agony much as Illyana had while he had tortured her earlier. His cape and much of his regal outfit were destroyed by the numerous blasts striking him from all sides, and he collapsed to his knees as the onslaught ended.
The various stepping disks dissipated as Illyana reappeared in front of Belasco, holding her soul sword to his throat.
"It's over," she said.
"Over?" Belasco asked through labored breaths. "You're still too cowardly to do what must be done. That is your weakness!"
Belasco's body turned transparent as he began to fade into the ice below, disappearing from view.
Illyana felt her legs give out and collapsed to the ground, unable to follow him. The aura and power the guardians were giving her remained, but her body had reached the limits of its endurance.
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Belasco fell on his face as he materialized in Queen Metaria's chamber. Much of the chamber had been destroyed in his battle with Illyana, but the eldritch abomination itself remained untouched.
"Metaria … help me," he begged for the first time in his life. "I need more power."
"Don't whine at me, Belasco," came the deep voice of Metaria. "You are nearly as incompetent as Beryl and her minions! I should abandon you here, but then there would be no one left to free me from this imprisonment."
"There is … one way …" Belasco said.
"So be it. I shall trade one prison for another. You shall become the vessel for all of my power."
Belasco was lifted off of the ground as a dark energy reached from Metaria to him.
"The time has come to instill hatred and greed in all living creatures in the universe. Belasco, eliminate all who attempt to resist us and plunge this world into total darkness!"
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Illyana gasped as the ground beneath her began to shake. A large patch of ice in front of her cracked open, and a black tornado rose from the hole which was created.
As the tornado dissipated, a nightmare beyond comprehension stood before her. Belasco had returned, transformed. His red skin had turned a pale blue, and his hair now stood straight up in large spikes. Even his missing arm had returned.
But what was the most frightening thing about Belasco was his size. He had grown to the height of a skyscraper, dwarfing Illyana to the point where she was an ant in comparison to him.
"At last, all of the dark power is mine!" Belasco yelled. "With this strength, I shall rule this universe forever!"
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Belasco was so large that he could be seen where the rest of the heroes were, miles away.
"Uh, guys?" Kitty said nervously. "Belasco's gone full kaiju. That's not good, right?"
Belasco's boast reached their ears eight seconds after he began to speak.
"Definitely not good," Roberto said.
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Belasco turned his attention to his former apprentice and looked down at where she lay. Her multicolored aura was difficult to miss even at his size.
"Illyana! I give you this one last chance! Join me, rule at my side as my queen, and I will forgive all your transgressions!"
Illyana struggled to pull herself off the ground, and was unsteady on her feet as stood up.
"Never," she vowed. "You won't rule anything ever again … or hurt anyone else I care about … as long as I live."
Belasco started, his face momentarily betraying the pain Illyana's words caused him. He closed his eyes in sadness for three seconds before they shot open with the hate and rage only a demon could possess.
"So be it. You will perish, together with the rest of this pathetic world."
He raised his arms, both old and new, over his head, and a torrent of black lightning danced between them, coalescing into an enormous ball of black energy.
Illyana gripped her locket, where the Silver Crystal was still giving her the Sailor Guardians power, and closed her eyes in prayer.
"Please, give me the strength to carry on."
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"Alarm! Alarm!" Warlock screamed, his sensors going haywire. "Energy produced by giant-foe Belasco exceeds safety parameters. Contact with surface will result in complete annihilation of the planet!"
Dani turned to the guardians, who had remained kneeling with their hands together in a circle the entire time. Beads of sweat were dripping from each of their foreheads.
"Can you guys give Illyana any more juice?"
"No," Sailor Venus said, her voice strained from the effort it took to maintain their link with the Silver Crystal. "We're at our limit."
Storm turned around and grabbed Venus' shoulder, her eyes turning white. "Then let's see if we can add ours. Let the power of the storm be added to yours."
Venus opened her eyes as the guardians' aura became more chaotic.
"Is it working?" Sam asked.
"I don't know," Venus responded.
"Even if it doesn't, it's better than waiting around to die," Roberto said. He transformed and put his hand on Storm's shoulder. "Power of the storm? Let's see what the power of the sun can do here."
Magma also transformed, leaving only her hand not covered in flames and lava as she put it on the shoulder of Sailor Mars. "Let the power of the Earth itself be brought to bear to save this planet."
Kitty put her hand on Sailor Mercury's shoulder. "I don't have such fancy powers, but I'll do anything to help Illyana, so take as much as I can give."
Colossus likewise put his hand on Sailor Jupiter's shoulder. "If this is the only way to save my sister, then I will do it."
Dani looked to the rest of the New Mutants. "Come on. Everybody get in on this."
The remainder of the mutants placed their hands on the shoulders of their comrades. Soon, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Cannonball, and Warlock were all attempting to give their energy as well.
"Giving my power to someone else instead of taking it," Rogue observed. "Ah guess there really is a first time for everything."
Dani looked at Wolfsbane, who was the only one not holding hands or shoulders to give her energy to Illyana.
Rahne turned her head away from Dani's disappointed face, and looked away.
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Illyana felt a rush of new power flow into her, and her aura doubled in size. She did not know where this additional power came from, but that did not matter. The only thing was mattered was that this was power she could use.
Illyana closed her eyes and held out her locket in front of and above her head, gathering all of this power into one spot.
With a roar, Belasco unleashed the blast he had been charging, throwing it straight at Illyana.
"Farewell, my Darkchild. We will not meet again."
Illyana's eyes shot open as Belasco's blast struck an invisible dome fifty feet above her.
"What?"
Illyana's feet slid back and pieces of ice the size of boulders were lifted off of the ground around her by the clash of these two great powers.
"Impossible!"
For several moments, they appeared to be evenly matched, Belasco's dark energy clashing against Illyana's invisible counter. But Belasco put even more power into his attack, and the dome began to shrink and be pushed closer and closer to Illyana.
Illyana gritted her teeth and screamed, willing more strength into her counterattack and stopping the advance of Belasco's energy. But still she could not truly push back.
'I've got to do this! Kitty, Piotr, Mama and Papa, all the X-Men and Sailor Guardians, even the New Mutants: they're all counting on me!'
But another voice, also her own, whispered in her head. 'And what if you win? Will destroying the Dark Lord only allow the Darkchild to rise up and take his place?'
'If I don't, he'll destroy the world!'
'Better he destroy the world you do it.'
Belasco's dark energy began to push closer to the ground again as Illyana's doubts chipped away at her resolve. In less than a minute, the planet Earth would be nothing but an asteroid field, and every last man, woman, and child on it would be gone.
'Kitty, Piotr, everyone, I'm sorry. I wasn't strong enough.'
A translucent hand reached for the Beatrix Medallion, and Illyana gasped.
She saw before her Ororo. The long hair which was not cut into a mohawk and wrinkled skin told her this was not the young Storm who currently led the X-Men, but the old sorceress who had taught her the true meaning of magic back in Limbo.
Ororo was not physically there. Illyana could see through her like a ghost, and her hand passed through the locket without touching it. In truth, Illyana could not be sure she was not hallucinating. But she did not care as the apparition smiled at her with the same look of a love of life tempered by wisdom and sadness Illyana remembered so well.
Another hand appeared from the other side of her, and Illyana saw another apparition, this time of a woman in her prime, a brunette with thin oink fur covering her face. Cat, her friend in Limbo, the woman who taught her how to fight, was there as well.
Three more apparitions appeared beside Illyana. Her brother, his metal hair turned grey and his steel face no longer smooth as a result of age, along with Wolverine and Nightcrawler.
They were all there with her at the end.
Tears flowed down Illyana's cheeks as she let out one final scream which was heard as far away as the heroes whose power she was borrowing. She put all of her strength into one final push, and her invisible dome began to expand at a great rate, quickly forcing back Belasco's dark energy.
Belasco screamed as well, his deep voice assuming a high pitch of terror as Illyana's invisible energy overwhelmed his attack and began to envelop him whole. Illyana's counterattack consumed Belasco, reducing the Dark Lord, and Metaria with him, to atoms.
Illyana laughed, in disbelief more than anything else, and lowered her hands as her attack continued on into space, where it would eventually dissipate. She let herself give into her exhaustion and collapsed, the multicolored aura which has surrounded her disappeared as the Sailor Guardians broke off from their circle, and many of the heroes let out a collective cheer at the sight of Belasco's death.
The world was safe. It was over.
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Post by sunofdarkchild on Apr 30, 2023 3:45:13 GMT -5
Professor Xavier knew something was wrong when a device in his suit pocket began to vibrate. His phone had been turned off for his meeting with the Albany official who currently sat in front of him, and only the X-Men knew how to contact the emergency communicator he carried.
Xavier raised his hand to his temple, appearing to the man on the other side of the desk as if he had become frustrated at their impasse, and reached out with his mind. It was difficult to stretch his psychic abilities over 100 miles from Albany to the mansion, and he could not spare any focus for the excuses coming out of his interlocutor's mouth. The professor would simply have to read the man's mind in a minute to know what was being said and figure out a way to end the conversation quickly.
'I'm here, Ororo,' Xavier said telepathically. 'What is wrong?'
Storm's response was only two words, and the fear behind them was greater than anything he had sensed from the leader of the X-Men since Jean had become Dark Phoenix.
'He's back.'
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Mina groaned as she awoke. It took her a few seconds to register that she was not in the mansion anymore, and a second more to realize that bands of energy were wrapped around her body, holding her in place.
She sat up, an act that took a great deal of effort given the mystic chains which bound her and gritted her teeth in an attempt to force her way out of them. She had broken out of bonds before, breaking handcuffs and chains with her sheer strength, but this was something different. These chains were far stronger than anything she had seen before, and did not have a weak link to exploit.
A deep voice laughed at Mina's predicament, and she looked up and began to examine the room she was in. It was obvious at a glance that she was in the Dark Kingdom. Her surroundings were a strange mix of cave-like and palace-like structures, all a dark blue. An otherworldly mist seemed to pervade the air, obscuring anything more than a few meters away, but still she saw creatures stirring in the shadows.
"Welcome to the Dark Kingdom, Sailor Venus."
She turned her head and realized she was in front of Beryl's throne. Sitting on the throne was a one-armed man with horns and red skin who she had never seen before. He was examining the sword with which she had slain Beryl, which still glowed with the power she had imbued it with.
After all the trouble Mina and the other guardians had just lifting the sword, this man was holding the legendary blade with one hand like it was nothing.
He placed the sword next to the throne and smiled at her. "My name is Belasco. I'm sure Illyana must have mentioned me at some point."
Mina fought down a gulp. Illyana had mentioned the name of the sorcerer who kidnapped her to Limbo and made her into the person she was today. But none of them had considered that he could have been working with the guardians' enemies.
"I should thank you, Venus. You've given me everything I needed."
"What are you talking about?"
"I dared not face Illyana again or challenge Beryl on my own as I currently am. By destroying that pompous queen, you created a vacuum that allowed me to take her throne and her power." He glanced down at the sword. "You've also gift-wrapped me a weapon to stand against hers ... and irresistible bait."
"You're dreaming," Mina scoffed. "Illyana doesn't even like me."
Belasco rose, grabbing the sword again, and his lips parted in a smile which sent a shiver down her spine.
Mina had thought that Beryl was the epitome of human evil, someone so wrapped up in her own pain that she would inflict it on the rest of the world a thousandfold just to feel empowered. Her rage was barely kept under control and made her impulsive and easy for Metaria to manipulate. Belasco was something else entirely. His rage and hate, while as powerful as any villain she had fought, were completely under control and exercised no control over him. He was a different kind of evil, focused and pure, more akin to a force of nature like Metaria than other human villains.
Were it not for one emotion Mina sensed in him, she would have thought Belasco more god than man. And that one emotion which was not completely under his control frightened her more than the rage or hatred of anyone she had ever faced before.
"You forget, I know my apprentice far better than you. I know her heart."
Belasco turned and carried the sword into the chamber behind the throne, the chamber of Metaria. He dropped to one knee and laid the sword on the ground in front of him.
A mass of energy pulsated in front of him, forming the outline of a face.
"Beryl has fallen," came the voice of Queen Metaria.
"Yes, she has," Belasco acknowledged. "But I am more than capable of taking her place."
The form shifted, and it appeared that the face was now glaring at the Dark Lord. He showed no fear, merely smirking at the eldritch abomination's doubts.
"I have already done what Beryl failed to do. I have brought you the leader of the Sailor Guardians as well as their greatest weapon. And I have done this with my powers being at a fraction of what Beryl's were."
"If I could do this in my current state, just imagine what I could do with more power."
"I care not for what you could do. My only desire is to be free of this prison so I may lay waste to this world once again."
"Help me, and you will. By tomorrow, I promise, you will be free, Queen Metaria. And it will be the energy of the princess' own soul which breaks your shackles."
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It took almost an hour and a half to get back to the mansion, even while speeding. Xavier used his powers to telepathically nudge other drivers out of the way to avoid any accidents and to erase his vehicle from the minds of any traffic cops who may have seen him.
The situation was far too serious to waste any time.
He knew what to expect as he arrived, having been in telepathic contact with the X-Men since Ororo contacted him, but seeing it with his own eyes was still a shock.
The automated repair system had begun repairing the damage, but furniture remained strewn across the room and burn marks remained on the second-floor wall. As bad as the damage to the property was, the people looked even worse.
It wasn't the visible injuries and dishevelment among all the X-Men, guardians, and New Mutants which showed the toll the fight had taken on them, but their haunted expressions. All of them were in shock. The guardians had just lost their leader and inspiration. The New Mutants had never experienced helplessness like they did when Beryl stopped them from using their powers. And the X-Men had come face to face with a nightmare they had hoped would remain nothing more than a memory. Even the cats seemed distraught, with Amy holding and consoling Artemis. Only Warlock, whose power had been restored by Storm's lightning following the attack, seemed to be all right.
Illyana was the worst affected of all of them. Kitty and Piotr had wrapped her in a blanket as she sat on the stairs, unmoving, unblinking, staring blankly at nothing.
Xavier had seen this before. He'd helped several trauma victims who'd retreated into themselves emerge from catatonic states. And it was hardly unexpected that Illyana would react this way to seeing her old master again. When S'ym attacked the mansion, she had frozen in fright and taken 15 minutes to calm down enough to fight back. And the sight of a mere simulation of Belasco had caused her to have an anxiety attack back when she still had not revealed that she possessed superpowers. The real thing would be far worse.
Xavier walked up the stairs and approached Illyana. Kitty had her arms wrapped around Illyana's shoulders, holding the blanket in place, as Piotr kneeled in front of them, holding his sister's hand and trying to get her to respond.
The professor motioned for the two of them to move away so he could talk to Illyana alone. Unsurprisingly, Kitty and Piotr were hesitant to move even a foot from her side, but they trusted that if anyone could help Illyana now, it would be Charles Xavier.
Xavier assumed the same position Piotr vacated, kneeling in front of Illyana on the stairs.
He looked into her blank eyes and a frog formed in his throat as he remembered the joy he saw in those same eyes as a six-year-old girl bounded down that very staircase to see her big brother, secure in the knowledge that Piotr, his friends, and his mentor would always keep her safe.
That had only been a year earlier. But in that year, the only time he had ever seen any joy in Illyana's eyes was for those few brief, glorious seconds after he had danced with her on her birthday, when she realized that he could walk again.
He took her hand. Even after it had been held by Piotr, her skin was cold to the touch.
"Illyana, I need you to listen to me now. With anyone else, I could have used my powers to bring them back. I could make it hurt a little less, make it a little less scary. Just enough for them to pull themselves back. I can't do that with you. My powers won't work on you. You have to come back to us on your own," he said.
"You've pulled yourself out of worse pits. I can't even imagine how much strength it must have taken to come back from Limbo. I need you to show that strength again. We all need you. Mina needs you."
He felt the slightest movement in her hand, saw the smallest twitch in her eyes.
"That's it. You have to fight. Fight for yourself. Fight for all of us here who love you. Fight for the girl who just saved your life."
The Sailor Guardians moved to the bottom of the stairs, and Illyana began to blink as they came into her view.
"I'll fight."
It was barely a whisper, hardly audible even to Xavier. But the steel which returned to her eyes was impossible to miss. That iron wall which she hid her pain behind, which allowed her to intimidate just about anyone with a glance, was back.
Illyana stood up, the blanket falling off of her.
"I'll fight," she said, louder this time.
Kitty rushed over to grab Illyana's arm and steady her. Illyana took a deep, long breath, and looked to the guardians.
"The four won't become three."
Xavier did not need to turn around to notice the change in the guardians' demeanor at Illyana's words, the grim smile on Lita's face that signified resignation to the battle ahead rather than any form of happiness, Rei's determination to rescue her hero, and Amy's growing hope that they could win their first battle fought without their leader.
Dani stood up and looked to her teammates. The professor felt her resolve to fight as well pass into the other New Mutants, and he closed his eyes and let out a long, sad sigh.
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The three teams stood outside the Cerebro room as Xavier and Illyana combined their powers in an attempt to determine where on Earth Mina had been taken. Illyana's locator spell allowed Xavier to focus Cerebro on a specific area and break through any magical obstruction concealing Mina's location.
As they waited, Ororo turned to Dani. "You should stay here."
"With all due respect," Dani said, "if Illyana's going to be fighting, then we're going to fight too. We're a team, and we're going to stick together."
"You don't understand how dangerous Belasco is."
"Is he really that bad?" Amy asked.
Kitty shuddered, and Logan said: "Yup."
"After our first encounter with him," Ororo explained, "we couldn't even do a Danger Room session with him as our opponent."
"He's already killed one team of X-Men," Rei observed.
"That won't happen again."
They turned to the doorway, where Illyana and Xavier had reappeared.
"We've found Mina. She's being held in the arctic."
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The X-Men, Sailor Guardians, and New Mutants changed into their uniforms and entered the hangar where the supersonic jet the Blackbird was held. With over 2,500 miles between them and their destination in the arctic, using Illyana's stepping disks was out of the question as a displacement in time would be all but guaranteed.
As Nightcrawler and Kitty prepped the aircraft for takeoff, Illyana grabbed Doug's arm.
"You should stay back."
"Why? Is it because my power is mental and not physical?"
"It's because you're so innocent. You've never even been in a real fight. You're exactly the sort of person he'd target first."
Doug scowled and looked to Dani, but the New Mutants' leader shook her head. "She's got a point. If it's probably a bad idea for us to go, it's definitely a bad idea for you."
Across the hangar, Xavier was telling Ororo that he would be remaining behind as well.
"I'll monitor you at all times with Cerebro. My abilities are not effective against demons and will be best utilized from a bird's-eye view."
Ororo nodded. "I understand. But I still believe it is a mistake to send any of the children, Illyana included. She's not ready to face him again."
Xavier looked towards the New Mutants. "She has to do this, I'm afraid. If she doesn't face Belasco now, she will never get closure. And I can't stop the New Mutants from going with her, not now when they're finally treating her like a teammate."
Ororo scowled. "If letting Illyana fight that monster again is the only way to help her, then we've failed."
"Yes," Xavier said sadly, "yes we have. Let us not fail again."
The loading ramp to the Blackbird lowered, and the three teams of heroes began to board the craft.
Illyana stopped right before the ramp as Artemis walked up to her. The white cat had been silent since Mina was taken.
"Mina's important to you, isn't she?" Illyana asked.
"I was the one who first found her and got her involved in all this," Artemis answered. "Before I came along, she was just a normal girl. And for a while, it was just the two of us."
"Please," he begged, "bring her home."
"I will," Illyana promised. "You have my word."
Illyana spared one last look at those who would be staying behind on this mission, Professor Xavier, Doug, and the cats, before boarding the plane, the ramp closing behind her. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Belasco did not want Mina dead, she realized. Her first clue was the bandage covering her hand where it hand been pierced by Beryl's hair. Whatever his plans for her, were they did not include her bleeding out.
All she could do was attempt to analyze her captor after he returned from Metaria's chamber. His behavior continued to surprise. He felt no emotion towards her whatsoever, nor did he have any regard for Beryl, whose throne he now sat on. Despite her dominant position over him, he had no jealousy or sense of rivalry towards the late queen. She had merely been an obstacle to be overcome and a tool to be used, just as Mina was at that very moment.
Belasco held out his hand towards Mina, and she felt an icy coldness flush through her body.
"Hmph," the Dark Lord said in mild disappointment. "It would seem that your unique heart-based powers make you immune to my influence. A pity, you would have made a fine servant."
"So what, you'll just kill me instead?"
"Yes, once you've outlived your usefulness. Of course, you could always choose to serve us instead."
"Us?"
Mina gaped at him in confusion. He did not seem to have meant Metaria or the Elder Gods. Moreover, he had actually felt something while using that word.
"I get it now."
"Oh?"
"What you're really after. The reason you're doing all this. You … Illyana's the only thing in the world you actually care about besides yourself. You actually see her as a real person, as an … an equal. And you can't live without her."
"Very astute," Belasco admitted, unashamed of admitting this one seeming weakness. "I see the stories of your empathic abilities are not exaggerated."
He sat back in his throne and raised his open palm straight up. "I would imagine your friends will be here soon. Why don't we give them a warm welcome?"
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Colossus burst forth from the cave wall, his face a mask of unleashed fury.
"It was for you we died, Illyana!" he screamed. "For you we were damned! Those scales must be balanced!"
"Illyana!"
She gasped as her eyes shot open, breathing heavily and clutching her heart. Everyone on the plane was staring at her in shock.
Colossus stood up from his seat and rushed over to her. "Snowflake, what were you screaming about?"
"I was-I was trying to meditate, to calm myself before the fight," she said. "It didn't work."
"I'm afraid it's too late to try again," Storm said from the co-pilot's seat. "We're nearing the coordinates."
Illyana looked out the nearest window. Night had fallen, but the moon was out, and its light revealed the white snowfields and glaciers below them.
"Hey," Sailor Jupiter said, "once we land, why don't you summon S'ym from Limbo? A demon that strong would wreck some serious shit against the Dark Kingdom."
Illyana shook her head. "It's too dangerous. S'ym was Belasco's servant long before he was mine. I dare not test his loyalty that way."
Jupiter grimaced in disappointment. "That makes sense."
"We've got a problem," Nightcrawler said from the pilot's seat. "It looks like there's a localized storm right over the coordinates you gave us. Winds are hurricane level, and there seems to be a lot of ice and hail."
Storm's eyes turned completely white for a few moments before reverting to normal. "I can't stop this tempest," she said. "It must be magical in nature."
"Belasco," Illyana said. "He knows we're coming."
Nightcrawler brought the plane to a lower altitude. "I'll have to bring us down away from the site. That storm would tear us apart if we got near it."
They landed about a kilometer from the coordinates where Illyana and Xavier had located Mina and disembarked.
The storm Nightcrawler had warned them about was everything he had said and more. The entire area under which the Dark Kingdom lay was covered in a dark, swirling cloud. Cracks of lightning streaked within the cloud and from it, briefly lighting up the night sky, followed three seconds later by the deafening roar of the resulting thunder.
"Ok," Kitty said, "how are we supposed to get through that?"
Sailor Mercury summoned her visor and analyzed the storm. "I believe it's starting to dissipate."
"The storm's not the problem," Illyana said, " it's what the storm is hiding we need to worry about."
The lightning stopped, leaving only the moon and the stars providing any light, and as Amy said, the storm cloud began to fade. When it was gone, it was not the white ice and snow of their artic surroundings that was revealed beneath, but a black mass.
Wolverine spat at the sight. "That's a flamin' army."
Amy took a step back in fright as she calculated the number of youma which stood before them. "There's thousands of them. This must be the entirety of the Dark Kingdom's forces!"
The mass of demons began to roar as those in the front of the army ran at the heroes, leading their fellow youma in a battle charge.
"What do we do?" Kitty asked. "There's no way we can fight that many!"
"I hate to say it, but the kid's right," Wolverine said. "We're all going to die if we don't get out of here right now."
Sailor Jupiter looked at Sailor Mars. "I never thought they were this powerful. Even if we had Mina with us, we couldn't win this fight."
"But we can't leave her!"
A bright light appeared on the horizon to their right, making them turn their heads.
"What's that?" Kitty asked.
Amy turned her visored gaze to the light, which faded almost as quickly as it had appeared.
"I don't know. It's either gone now, or it's too far away to get a reading."
Illyana continued to stare in the direction of that light even as the others turned their attention back to the army of youma which was running straight at them.
"Do we even have time to get back on the plane and take off?" Jupiter asked.
"You children go," Storm ordered them. "We'll buy you the time to get away."
"No way! We're not leaving you to die here for us!"
Illyana turned back to the youma, which were getting closer with every second. "No one's dying today," she declared.
She stepped forward, her declaration silencing their proclamations of doom, pausing only to give her brother one last look.
"Illyana?" he asked.
"Please," she begged, "don't hate me for this."
"Hate you? What are you talking about?"
"What are you going to do?" Kitty asked.
Illyana did not answer. She walked ten paces ahead of the other heroes, who could only stare in confusion. She bent over, and raised her left hand to her face, grunting as her transformation began.
The convulsions of her body made the pain of the transformation obvious to all of them, but only the guardians knew what was truly happening.
Illyana's limbs grew as her skin darkened to a deep red. Her feet burst from the boots of her New Mutants uniform in split hooves and a tail burst from the back of her costume. Her soul sword appeared in her right hand and she screamed as she swung it, creating a shockwave with her power.
Illyana raised her head, and though she did not face the heroes standing behind her, there was no mistaking the demonic horns which were growing out of her forehead.
The X-Men and New Mutants stood speechless as they beheld the Darkchild for the first time, their shock silencing any voicing of their fear and concern. Only Rahne, who stood at the back of group, found her voice.
"I knew it," the lupine mutant said to herself as Illyana revealed her demon form.
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The empathic pain rolled through Mina like a wave, and she knew that the Moon Princess was there fighting. There was no one else whose emotions could be felt so strongly from so far away.
The leader of the Sailor Guardians trembled. There were times when being empathic was a nearly unbearable burden, and being within a mile of Illyana while she was in her Darkchild form was one of those times.
She looked up at Belasco, who was examining his own trembling hand.
"You feel it too, don't you?" he said. "The power and rage beyond mortal comprehension. Even I never imagined my Darkchild would be such a force. Yes, I experienced true fear for the first time when I beheld her in all her darkling majesty. Even with Metaria's power flowing through me, the memory of that fear remains."
Mina could only glare at him. She could not even imagine what kind of monster could inflict such pain on another being as she now felt radiating from Illyana, especially the only person he cared for. And he wasn't done yet.
Mina took a deep breath to calm herself and focus on her empathic senses. While Illyana's emotions were just as intense as when Zoisite had caused her to transform, they were under far greater control than they had been then. Whatever Illyana was doing, she was not simply lashing out at her opponents.
Mina's draw dropped as she began to understand what was happening. Illyana, who had refused to transform to use her true power even to save her own life, had willingly transformed now: all to rescue her.
And when she got there, her old tormenter was waiting for her.
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Each swing of Illyana's soul sword sent dozens of youma flying, each blast released from her hands or mouth disintegrating many more of the monsters.
The X-Men and New Mutants continued to stare in shock as wave after wave of youma broke against the impenetrable wall that was the Darkchilld's power. Several members of the younger team backed up in fright. For the X-Men, they had not witnessed one of their own wield such power since Jean Grey had become the Phoenix.
Colossus looked at his baby sister with growing horror. "Illyana Nikolaievna, what has happened to you?"
Storm reached out to their mentor with her mind. 'Professor, do you know what's going on? What has she become?'
There was no response.
It did not take long for the surviving youma to realize that facing this demonic child was certain death, and they began to turn and flee.
Wolverine recovered from his shock first as he realized that Illyana had dealt with the army of youma on her own. "What are we even doing here?"
The youma either defeated or fled, Illyana lowered her sword and turned her head slightly to the side, too afraid to turn around all the way and see the reactions of her friends and teammates.
"I'm going," she said in a raspy, snakelike voice.
The Sailor Guardians stepped forward. "And we're going with you," Sailor Jupiter said.
Storm stepped forward as well, followed by the rest of the X-Men. There was never any question that these heroes would never let Illyana face Belasco alone. They had already fought a hopeless battle against the Shi'ar Imperial Guard on Jean's behalf, and Illyana had not destroyed an inhabited star system like the Pheonix had.
Dani felt the eyes of all of her teammates turn to her. The New Mutants had no obligation to serve their sovereign from a past life like the guardians had, nor did they have the inherent love for Illyana all who met her before her years in Limbo had. They were not expected to fight the fights or make the kinds of sacrifices the two other teams were expected to. No one would have held it against them if they turned around, boarded the Blackbird, and waited for the battle to be over. Most of the X-Men would have welcomed that course of action from them.
Inwardly, Dani cursed her status as unofficial team leader. She needed time to process what they had just seen like the rest of them, and it wasn't her place to tell them how to feel, but still they looked to her for guidance.
Tentatively, Dani took one step forward, then another. Rahne gaped in horror as all of the New Mutants began to follow their leader, choosing to fight alongside the witch-demon. As the three teams began to make their way towards the entrance to the Dark Kingdom, she transformed into her wolf form and ran behind them.
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Belasco remained seated on his throne as the heroes passed unopposed into the evil realm and headed straight for the throne room.
"Welcome," he said, smiling like he was greeting old friends. "I'm so glad you decided to join us. And as you truly are."
They saw Mina bound on the ground in front of the Dark Lord.
"Nightcrawler, go," Storm ordered.
The furry mutant teleported in a puff of black smoke, reappearing in a similar puff right next to Mina and bringing himself far closer to Belasco than he would have liked. But the demon lord did not react as he teleported the guardians' leader back to the rest of the heroes, where Illyana could use her soul sword to break the mystic chains holding her.
"I … thank you …" Sailor Venus said.
With that taken care of, Illyana turned her attention to Belasco. "Now it ends, demon," she spat.
She raised her sword and leapt across the throne room at her old master. Belasco finally stood, raising the guardians' sacred sword to meet her blade. The two swords met with a roar of thunder, and the heroes struggled to remain standing from the wind force created by the clash of powers. Belasco's brow creased as he began to exert himself, throwing Illyana to the ground.
Illyana's hooved feet skidded across the floor and she looked up at Belasco in shock. Even at the height of his power when he ruled Limbo, Belasco had not been a match for her when she was in her Darkchild form.
"He's drawing power directly from Metaria!" Mina yelled.
"Did you really think I'd draw you here without being prepared?" Belasco asked. He gestured at Illyana, and an invisible force drove her to her knees. Her horns shrunk back into her head, her tail into the back of her costume, and her hooves split into toes.
Belasco had forced her out of her Darkchild form.
Every hero who could use projectile attacks leapt into action, and a cavalcade of lightning, fire, and water struck Belasco with enough force to destroy multiple city blocks. Storm, Warlock, Magma, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Mercury hit him with everything they could muster. The ceiling collapsed The Dark Lord stood there, as concerned as he would be at a tiny drizzle of rain. He did not even need to summon a barrier to protect himself as Kunzite and Beryl had. He was simply so powerful now that their attacks meant nothing to him.
Kitty and Colossus ran forward to attempt to help Illyana up, and Dani reached into Belasco's mind, hoping to distract with the image of what he feared most. An apparition of the Darkchild appeared before him, frothing at the mouth with bloodlust, and his eyes flashed with anger.
In an instant, all of the heroes collapsed, screaming in pain.
"Insects," Belasco said. "Fleas."
Illyana continued to struggle to stand, but without access to her transformation, her power was nothing compared to Belasco's. She turned her head and beheld in horror the state her comrades were in.
"Stop it!" she yelled. "You're killing them!"
Belasco ignored her pleas. He had been patient long enough, and these annoyances were delaying his plans.
Illyana stopped struggling and reached deep inside herself. Her magic wasn't enough, and the Silver Crystal's power was beyond her reach. But she had another power, which she considered her true birthright, even if she used it only sparingly due to her lack of control.
A stepping disk appeared under her brother, then another under Kitty. More and more teleportation circles began forming beneath all of them, the X-Men, Sailor Guardians, and New Mutants.
Illyana had never before pushed her mutant power in this way. She had never summoned more than two stepping disks at the same time. Now she was summoning 16, and she could not say for certain when they would end up.
"Illyana, no!" Colossus screamed as he and the rest of them disappeared, leaving Illyana all alone, and at Belasco's mercy.
The Dark Lord smiled again. "It would have been more merciful to let them die here and now, to spare them from what Metaria and the Elder Gods will do once they are released. But now that those pests are gone, we can get down to business. I think that's enough teleporting for one day."
Metal chains grew out of the floor and wrapped around Illyana's wrists, draining her of all the power she had left, even her mutant power.
"Now, the time has come to forge the fourth bloodstone."
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Post by sunofdarkchild on Apr 30, 2023 3:38:58 GMT -5
Chapter 9: Beryl
Mina, Rei, and Lita stood to the side as Professor Xavier, Amy, and the cats examined the stone sword they brought back from the moon.
"This equipment is incredible!" Amy exclaimed. "I never imagined such technology existed on Earth!"
"It doesn't," Xavier said. "The technology is Shi'ar."
The laboratory in the mansion's sublevel had been relatively modest by superhero standards when Xavier first had it constructed many years ago. Its capabilities had been greatly enhanced by Hank McCoy, one of the original five X-Men and current member of the Avengers, and had been even further enhanced when Lilandra had used Shi'ar technology to help rebuild the mansion and would now make Reed Richards and Tony Stark envious.
"To get microscopic images this small and detailed, without even needing to take a piece off to put under the microscope, is astounding!"
Xavier turned to the computer monitor, which was displaying a set of readings.
"Hmm… Interesting."
"What is it?" Lita asked.
"The stone that forms the blade of this sword appears to be made of elements that are unknown not just to Earth science, but to Shi'ar science as well."
"And what does that mean?" Rei asked.
"If I knew that, then they wouldn't be unknown, now, would they?"
"Have you found anything that could tell us how to use the sword against our enemy?" Mina asked.
Artemis shook his head. "Afraid not. Whatever this is made of is harder than diamond though."
"That's the problem. It's too heavy to use in battle."
"Perhaps we should give it to Colossus," Xavier suggested. "It would be quite an effective weapon in his hands, given its size and weight."
"The sword is ours," Mina said angrily. "That's what the Queen said."
Amy looked down at the blade. "That's true. I wonder if the sword's true power is dormant?"
"Dormant?" Xavier asked.
"It's been thousands of years since the sword was used. Perhaps whatever power it had as a holy blade has simply run out in that time, making it dormant."
"Ok, so how do we wake it up?" Lita sked.
Amy sighed. "The only thing I can think of is to use the Silver Crystal to restore the sword's power."
"If that's the case, then we have a big problem," Rei said.
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Illyana lay on her side in her bed, staring at the Silver Crystal and her medallion. She had gone straight to her room the moment they returned to Earth and shut the door, casting a charm to prevent anyone from entering. Neither her brother with all his strength nor Kitty with her phasing power could open or pass through the door without Illyana's permission.
She had not fallen ill this time, but she still felt completely drained. The Queen's parting words had smashed through her defenses and forced her to confront the truth. Moreover, it had forced her to think of her birth parents and the last time she had seen them, a memory which was especially painful even for a life as filled with pain has hers had been.
There was a knock on her door, prompting her to raise her voice and declare: "I want to be left alone. Go away."
"It's Doug," came the voice on the other side of the door. "I brought you some food."
Illyana grunted in annoyance and exerted far more effort than she should have in picking herself up. Her head and limbs felt unusually heavy as she lifted them off of her pillow and bed. The difficulty in getting up only added to her annoyance as she approached and opened the door.
Doug was holding a tray with chicken, mashed potatoes chick peas, and a glass of orange juice. "You didn't come down for dinner, so I thought I'd bring you something," he explained.
Illyana felt her countenance soften, the muscles in her cheeks relaxing as her frown disappeared. As much as she wanted to be angry in that moment, she was finding that she couldn't be mad at Doug for trying to help, not when he had that unsure, almost dopey expression on his face.
"Thanks, but I'm not hungry."
Many of the X-Men and Xavier were concerned by Illyana's tendency to skip meals after she had returned from Limbo. One of the many things they did not know about her imprisonment was that she had gone an entire year without a single bit of food, and even before, depriving her of meals had been the least severe of the punishments Belasco had inflicted on her. During that final year in the frozen hellscape Belasco had banished her to, she had used the life force of the giant oak tree created by the alternate version of Ororo to sustain herself in lieu of food, much as the demon sorceress Selene whom the New Mutants fought in Nova Roma used the life force of humans to become immortal. Unlike Selene, Illyana had not gorged herself on the tree's life force and used it only once every few days, and even then, as little as possible.
After a year of that, she noticed hunger as little as she noticed physical pain below a certain threshold. When she had been trampled by the horse conjured by the mutant Tarot during the New Mutants' battle with the Hellions, Illyana had not realized how badly she had been hurt until her healing spell took more power to perform than she had expected. It was only in hindsight that she recognized that she must have broken numerous bones. Only a truly intense pain, like Zoisite's final attempt on her life, even registered to her. It was the same for hunger, which she only noticed when she was truly starving.
"At least take the orange juice," Doug insisted. "Astronauts often have balance and mobility issues when they come back to earth. I don't know if we were in space long enough to have that effect, but at the very least you need to stay hydrated."
"All right," she said, grabbing the glass. In seconds she had gulped down all the orange juice in one go. As she put the glass back on the tray, she let out a loud, involuntary burp.
Doug stiffened, unsure how to react to this. But Illyana just laughed.
"Well, that wasn't very princess-like."
Doug relaxed and chuckled as well. "No, it wasn't. There's one more thing. When I came upstairs, Dani asked me to tell you that she wants to talk to you when you feel up to it."
"And Kitty and my brother will want to talk as soon as the X-Men get back from their mission," Illyana added. "Thanks for the drink, and tell them I'll speak to them tomorrow, maybe."
Illyana closed the door and turned towards her bed, where two of the most powerful and dangerous magical artifacts in the universe lay. One of them she could not use at all, the other was too dangerous to ever use, but both had come to her and become her responsibility.
In that moment, she decided that she would wallow in self-pity no longer. She was one of the most powerful sorcerers on earth, and it was time she started acting like it.
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Following Kunzite's attack on the mansion, the Sailor Guardians insisted on staying at the school. Now that the enemy knew where Illyana lived, they felt they had to remain close by to be ready for the next attack. The mansion had plenty of extra room, so Xavier had no problem letting them move in. Only Amy, whose parents lived in New York, did not sleep over at the mansion, though she did spend as much time there with her teammates as she could.
The X-Men had no problem with the guardians' presence, but the New Mutants were another matter. Mina caught flashes of resentment from them, especially Dani and Roberto, when Illyana entered the main living room in the morning and approached the newcomers rather than her teammates.
"Did you find out anything useful about that sword?" Illyana asked. The Professor had left early that morning for meeting with a politician to discuss mutant rights, so he was not available to ask.
It was Amy who answered. "We think the sword is dormant and needs the Silver Crystal to reawaken."
"Have you had any luck on that front?" Lita asked.
Illyana shook her head. "Afraid not. I have made progress on protecting it, at least."
"How?" Mina asked. Illyana's hand involuntarily rose to grip her blouse just below the collarbone.
"I'd rather not say, but rest assured, there's only two people on the planet who could even theoretically use it after the precautions I've taken."
Dani stood up and began walking towards Illyana. At the same time, the X-Men began to emerge at the top of the stairs. Most of them had slept in given how late they had gotten back from their latest mission, and Kitty still locked groggy.
Mina stepped away, and the other guardians followed her. They weren't there to monopolize Illyana's time and attention.
Dani looked uncomfortable as she approached Illyana, but not in the fearful way of her previous interactions with her sorceress teammate.
"Look, I just want to apo-"
A sudden burst of wind made her stop. This wind did not come from any of the windows, but from further inside the mansion. The X-Me, guardians, and New Mutants looked up to see a dozen youma on the second floor. Standing between them, at the top of the stairs, was a tall woman with pale white skin and red hair which reached all the way to the floor. The pupils of her eyes were blood red, and the rest of her eyes were a deep yellow. She carried in her right hand a white staff which was seven feet long and ended in a pointed red jewel which emitted a soft glow.
"It can't be," Mina whispered in fear. "She actually came here herself?"
"Greetings," the woman said. "I am Queen Beryl, ruler of the Dark Kingdom."
Illyana stepped froward, her glowing soul sword appearing in her left hand as her eldritch armor covered her arm. "So you're the queen bee? Good. Then we can end this nonsense right now."
Beryl leered at her. "It would seem that you're no longer that weak little girl you were all those centuries ago. It will make no difference. This time, there will be coming back after I have killed you."
Piotr transformed into his metal form and stood next to Illyana. "If you think you can just march into our home and threaten my sister…"
Beryl rolled her eyes dismissively. "Learn your place, little man." She raised her hand, and Piotr was instantly transformed back into human form. Before any of the heroes could react to what had just happened, she tapped her staff on the floor, casting a spell which sent Piotr flying into the wall behind them.
"Piotr!" Illyana yelled. She raised her sword over her head as she ran up the stairs at Beryl, ready to end it all with one blow.
Beryl did not move a muscle, merely grinning as part of her hair rose off the ground and shot straight at Illyana, warring around her arms and pinning them to her side, forcing her to dissipate her soul sword.
The X-Men also attempted to leap into action. Rogue and Cannonball leapt into the air and fell on their faces, their powers of flight not kicking in. The other mutants looked at their hands in confusion. Like Colossus, none of them could use their powers.
'So, the spell he taught me actually works,' Beryl thought. 'Good. That should eliminate most of these pests as a problem. Now the only obstacle is those accursed guardians.
As if on cue, the guardians appeared, having transformed into their powered-up states. Unlike the mutants, their powers were unaffected by Beryl's spell.
Sailor Venus drew her arm back to throw her crescent compact, intending to free Illyana from the tendrils of hair holding her in place. Faster than the eye could see, another tendril of Beryl's hair shot out and went straight through her hand, piercing her palm and coming out the other side of her hand. She screamed and dropped the compact, clutching her injured hand as she collapsed to her knees.
"Venus!" Sailor Mars screamed as she and Sailor Mercury rushed to her side. Sailor Jupiter stepped in front of them and fired a lightning bolt at their foe. Beryl tapped her staff a second time before Jupiter attacked, forming an invisible magical barrier which dissipated the lightning.
Sailor Venus' eyes widened as Beryl's voice whispered to her in her mind.
"Wait your turn. I'm saving you for last. I have much to repay you for before you die."
Warlock transformed himself into construct with multiple large plasma canons and launched all of them at Beryl. The witch gasped in surprise as the powerful energy blasts crashed against her shield. This foe was neither guardian nor mutant, and Belasco had never met him, making Warlock an unforeseen complication in their plan.
Two of her youma leapt over the second floor railing and pounced on top of Warlock, who was forced to change shape to his more humanoid form in an attempt to fight them off. Having vowed never to consume the lifeforce of a sentient being after being acted by Xavier and the New Mutants, Warlock did not use his most powerful ability to infect the youma with the transmode virus and eat their lifeglow as he would have done just a few weeks earlier.
The X-Men charged at Beryl. Their powers were not what made them heroes. That was their courage and their willingness to fight for what's right. The youma Beryl had brought with her sprang into action to defend their mistress, blocking most of the X-Men from even reaching where Illyana was being held, let alone Beryl's protective barrier.
"Remember, don't kill any of them," Beryl instructed her minions. That part of her partner's instructions was crystal clear. Killing any of the princess' friends risked enraging her to the point where she would transform into that monster which had overpowered Zoisite. She issued the instructions loudly so that Illyana could hear. Once the princess was no more, there would be nothing to stop Beryl from killing everyone in the mansion, but Illyana did not need to know that.
Wolverine managed to break through the youma with his adamantium claws, which were unaffected by Beryl's spell. He slashed at the tendril holding Illyana, only to find Beryl's hair to hard for even his claws to cut.
A tendril of hair grabbed him by the ankle and flipped him upside-down. He roared like a caged lion as the evil queen held him just out of reach of his claws.
"My, you're quite the animal, aren't you? Maybe I'll keep you around as a pet when I rule this world."
She noticed a glow from across the living room as the Sailor Guardians prepared their Sailor Planet Attack. With a dismissive flick, she threw Wolverine into them, knocking all of them over.
"This futile battle no longer amuses me," Beryl said as she unleashed dozens of hair tendrils, filling the living room with them. The guardians, X-Men, and New Mutants were all seized by at least one limb and raised into the air. With a flash of her eyes, Beryl sent a wave of energy through all of her hair tendrils except the ones holding Illyana. The energy coursed through their bodies, making most of them scream in pain and knocking the wind out of them. Had Beryl wished, she could have used far more power and killed them all then and there. But for now, she settled for taking them out of the fight. Only Warlock still fought, and with the rest of the youma now free to gang up on him, he was quickly beaten into submission himself.
With her arms pinned and her teleportation disks rendered unusable by Beryl's spell, Illyana began to recite a spell.
"Vanush-ummph!" she said as Beryl cut her off by wrapping her mouth in more hair.
"Shhhh," Beryl said. "It'll all be over soon. Don't struggle, and I'll even let your friends live."
One final tendril shot out from Beryl's bangs and wrapped itself tightly around Illyana's neck, even as the tendril covering her mouth extended to cover her nose as well.
Screams of "Illyana!" "No!" and various profanities filled the air as Beryl choked Illyana. All of the mutants attempted to activate their powers, desperate to save her.
Warlock screamed out "Alarm!" as his sensors registered what the final result of Beryl's increasingly tight squeezing of Illyana's neck would be. With the techno-organic equivalent of adrenaline, he summoned the strength to transform himself into a rocket which blew past the youma standing over him and launched straight at Beryl. For a split second, Beryl's eyes showed fear as the Warlock rocket collided with her barrier with such force that it shattered.
But Warlock was in no condition to take advantage of this opening as he collapsed in a tangle of circuitry, nearly all of his power extended.
"Self…failed…" he said weekly. "No… hope left… of saving…self-friend-Illyana…"
Beryl licked her lips as she turned all of her attention to choking Illyana to death.
'So Belasco was also right about physical attacks not triggering her transformation the way energy attacks do,' she thought. 'I almost feel bad about planning to kill him when this is over.'
Meanwhile, the Sailor Guardians continued to be shocked every few seconds by waves of energy sent through the tendrils holding them to keep them from using their powers.
"Come one…" Sailor Venus grunted at Illyana between shocks. "Transform." The guardians all knew, as did Beryl that Illyana had the power to turn this entire battle around in an instant if she would unleash her demonic form.
Venus' eyes shot open as she realized the truth. She sensed that Illyana had calmed down since the choking began, and was more at peace than she had been at any point since they first met. Mina had sensed the potential for suicidal tendencies in Illyana before, but now she realized that the young sorceress would rather die than transform in order to save herself, and also that would rather die than let her brother see her in that form. When faced with death, she welcomed it.
"This is the day I've dreamed of since I first pledged myself to Queen Metalia!" Beryl yelled in triumph, walking down to stand right in front of Illyana to closely observe her last moments.
The guardians were shocked again, and Sailor Venus remembered. She remembered seeing this same evil woman standing over the princess' lifeless body, holding a sword covered in blood. She remembered her scream of grief and rage as she used the guardians' sacred weapon to avenge her charge.
With her uninjured hand held by Beryl's hair, Sailor Venus raised the hand which had been pierced and yelled!: "Hear me! Oh, holy blade which guards the princess! Sacred Sword, I summon Thee!"
The stone sword which was held in the mansion's sublevel materialized in her injured hand. Instead of being black, it now glowed the same color as the Silver Crystal. Venus had discovered how to use the blade. Rather than draw power directly from the Silver Crystal, her own power was filling it with energy, reawakening it from its dormant state.
With one swing, she cut the hair tendrils holding her and her fellow guardians. Now gripping the sword with both hands, she charged up the stairs, swinging the sword to slay any youma who came between her and her hated enemy. Beryl's mouth opened in a silent scream as Venus passed through the spot where her barrier would have stopped the guardian if not for Warlock. She raised her staff to cast another spell, only to have the guardians' attacks strike the staff and knock it out of her hand.
With a scream from millennia-old rage, Sailor Venus drove the sacred sword through the evil queen's malignant heart.
All of the mutants were freed from Beryl's hair tendrils as the death-blow was delivered. Even with her heart run though, such was Beryl's power that she did not die instantly. Her screams of agony and denial of the great oblivion which awaited her echoed through the mansion's halls. She buried her face in her hands as her body began to slowly crumple into dust, until nothing remained of the ruler of the Dark Kingdom but a pile of ash on a pair of stairs.
Piotr and Kitty rushed to help Illyana, who had fallen badly on the stairs when Beryl's hair released he and was gasping for air as she massaged her neck. Doug went over to Warlock, who was in bad state with an extremely dim life-glow.
Sailor Venus swayed in place and collapsed into unconsciousness, her injuries and use of her own energy to reawaken the guardians' sword having taken their toll on her. She did not fall to the floor, as a powerful arm caught her and the sword in mid-fall.
Illyana and the X-Men froze in fear at the sight of this newcomer who stood on the stairs above them. They knew his pupil-less yellow eyes and devilish horns from their nightmares.
"B-Belasco," Illyana stammered.
"It's wonderful to see you again, Illyana," her old master said. "Unfortunately, this isn't the right time for a full reunion, but don't worry: we'll have plenty of opportunity to make up for lost time soon enough.
Ororo threw her hands forward, attempting to cast a torrent of lightning at Belasco, but the spell preventing the mutants from using their powers was still in effect.
The other three Sailor Guardians stepped in front of Illyana, Piotr, and Kitty to confront Belasco.
"Let her go," Sailor Jupiter ordered him.
Belasco glanced down at the guardians' leader he held in his one arm. "I think not. I have some business with this girl."
"You fiend!" Sailor Mars yelled, launching a fire-blast at him. Belasco laughed as he faded away, the fire passing through his image and striking the wall of the second floor.
Sailor Jupiter slammed her first into her palm as the mutants looked at each other in shock.
Belasco was gone. And he had taken Mina and the sacred sword with him.
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Post by sunofdarkchild on Apr 30, 2023 3:36:01 GMT -5
Chapter 8: To the Moon
Three of Charles Xavier's students, Danielle Moonstar, Sam Guthrie, and Roberto da Costa, stood before the professor in his office, which had been automatically repaired by the mansion's Shi'ar technology following the battle with Kunzite. And they were not at all happy with him.
"We should have been there when Illyana was fighting," Dani stated with a firm determination.
"You shouldn't have sidelined us!" Roberto added.
Xavier regarded each of the members of his trainee team, including those who were not present at the moment. Doug would not complain about being left out of a battle given how recently he had joined the school and his complete lack of combat skills. Warlock did not think in human terms, and so any complaints he had would stem from a different place entirely. Amara was as proud as any of the three who stood before him, but being raised in an ancient Roman culture she placed a high value on respect for authority and was not one to question decisions Xavier made as a military leader.
As for Rahne, the idea of her complaining about not being allowed to help Illyana was laughable.
"And why should I have sent a team of children into battle?"
"The Sailor Guardians are the same age as us," Roberto said. If they can fight, then so can we!"
Dani squinted her eyes in pain and leaned forward over one of the chairs on the other side of his desk, putting her weight on the chair.
"Illyana's our teammate," Dani said. "When our teammate is fighting, we should be there."
"Is she?" Xavier asked. "Is she your teammate? You hardly seem to act like she is."
Dani looked like she was struck by lightning, while Sam and Roberto exchanged guilty glances. Dani finally gave in to what her body was screaming at her and sat down.
"Danielle, you just got out of your wheelchair, and are hardly fully recovered. And you want to go back into battle already?"
In truth, Xavier believed that Dani was the New Mutant who could have been the greatest help during the battle with Kunzite. The rest of the team's powers could possibly have been effective against the youma, but that was hardly the assistance the X-Men and Sailor Guardians had needed during the fight. Only Dani's mental ability to summon a person's fears had a chance of breaching Kunzite's defenses. Still, that did not mean he wanted to see her on the battlefield, especially in her condition.
"When your teammates battled the Demon Bear, they were willing to risk life and limb to defend you. Your team fought like they'd never fought before, because you are their friend and important to them. Can you honestly tell me that the New Mutants would fight the same way for Illyana?"
Xavier had never brought up the way the New Mutants treated Illyana with them before. He wanted them to build a relationship in a more natural manner based on a gradual culmination of interpersonal interactions with her, and he believed that simply scolding them would not help matters, and in some cases would even deepen the resentment they felt towards Illyana.
This decision of these three to confront him was the first sign that the team was finally beginning to move past their fear and dislike of their sorceress teammate. If they were finally starting to see her as more than a scary witch, then they were perhaps ready to feel guilt over how they had behaved.
Dani was silent. She had been the only member of the team who had started to treat Illyana as a human being before this Moon Kingdom business had started. But as the unofficial team leader, she had not stepped up to diffuse the tension that had been created when Illyana had joined their ranks or asked any of her teammates to try to treat Illyana better.
It was Sam who spoke up instead. "Maybe you're right, Professor. But those scoundrels didn't just attack Illyana. They attacked the mansion and all of us who live here. We'd fight to defend our home."
"I have told you many times, you are not meant to be the next generation of X-Men," Xavier said. "Some of you may become X-Men in time, but that was never the purpose for which I gathered you. If it had been up to me, none of you would have fought at all until now, and I consider it a failure on my part that you have seen real combat. It is true that the Sailor Guardians are the same age as you, but I am not their teacher or their guardian, and their safety and well-being is not my responsibility the way it is for you."
Dani stood up, her strength returning. "Illyana didn't just save my life from the Demon Bear. She brought my parents back to me. I'm not going to sit on the sidelines while she's fighting for her life."
Roberto nodded. "And where Dani goes, the rest of us will follow."
Xavier rubbed his forehead as the three turned and left his office. The mixture of frustration and pride he felt was becoming an all too familiar sensation.
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Illyana and the Sailor Guardians sat around one of the library's tables. Luna and Artemis stood on the table. All eyes were on the Silver Crystal, which lay on the wooden surface.
"It's no use," Illyana said. "Nothing I've tried has gotten any response from the crystal has worked. Even just using it to power spells does nothing."
"That is strange," Artemis said. "Every member of the royal family has always been able to wield the Silver Crystal without problem. With your training as a sorceress, it should be even simpler for you."
"Then the simplest solution would be that I'm not a member of the royal family."
Lita rolled her eyes. "That again? Just give it up already."
"Even if you weren't the princess, you should still be able to use the crystal to empower your spells," Luna explained. "It has to be something else."
"Maybe the crystal only responds to someone with no evil in their heart," Rei suggested, earning her a look of rebuke from Mina.
Luna shook her head. "If that were the case, we wouldn't have to worry about keeping it out of the enemy's hands."
"That's right," Mina said. "The queen's strategy in the final battles would have been completely different if the enemy couldn't use the Silver Crystal's power to enhance their own strength."
"Just how strong is their leader?" Illyana asked.
"Beryl," Mina said softly. "She's much more powerful than any of the Shitennou, but she's not unbeatable, which is why she needs the Silver Crystal. I'm almost certain you're quite a bit more powerful than she is when you transform."
Illyana looked down. "I'd rather not have to do that."
"I'm sure we can come up with a strategy together with the X-Men that will allow us to win without having to use the crystal or your true power," Mina said. "Right now, I'm more worried about how they knew the exact moment we reforged the crystal."
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Queen Beryl's upper lip quivered in rage as she waited for her summons to be answered. She fought the urge to express her impatience by tapping the edge of her throne or to take out her anger on the youma which cowered along the walls of her throne room.
At last, the man she had summoned arrived. Many youma fled the throne room entirely as he entered, more afraid of this newcomer than of their own queen, even though his power was a fraction of her own.
The man's skin and clothing were a deep red, though his outfit and flowing cape were adorned with golden highlights and jewelry. His neat hair, erect posture, and cape gave him a regal appearance. Even the pair of curved horns which protruded from his forehead seemed like a crown upon his head. His eyes were yellow and pupil-less, and his right arm was missing, his cape concealing where it had been cut off.
Kunzite had found this man and brought him to Beryl under her orders. But now she wondered if that had not been a mistake.
"What do you have to say for yourself, Belasco?"
"When I told you that I had sensed that the Silver Crystal had been reforged in Limbo, I instructed you not to panic. The death of your subordinate is entirely the result of your own rash actions."
"Be mindful of to whom you speak!" she hissed.
Belasco bowed to her. "My apologies, Queen Beryl. I meant no disrespect."
The words flowed with such seeming sincerity that she almost believed them. Belasco was crafty and far more cunning than any of the Shitennou had been.
"As I predicted, the princess was unable to use the Silver Crystal," he said.
"And when she does learn how to wield it?"
"She never will. The crystal will never be a threat to you as long as it is in her possession."
"How can you possibly be sure of that?"
"Because I trained her myself, and I know my apprentice better than she knows herself."
"How do I know you do not retain a soft spot for your former apprentice, and are attempting to protect her from me?"
Belasco growled in rage and raised his one fist. "Once I sat at the same table as Mephisto, as Hela and Satannish. I ruled Limbo like a god. And she took that from me, reduced me to groveling at your feet. I will have my revenge. When I take back my kingdom and the locket she stole from me, my powers will be fully restored, and you will learn to fear the name Belasco."
There it was, she thought. The selfish motivation he could be trusted to pursue at all costs. That would make his inevitable betrayal predictable. His boasts about his true power were probably exaggerated to some extent, but to be safe, she would eliminate him after he outlived his usefulness.
"These others who joined in the battle against Kunzite, what do you know of them?"
"Ah, the mutants. The X-Men. Yes, they are a serious complication. As individuals they are powerful in their own right, and as a group they are a force to be reckoned with. But they can be defeated. I killed them all in one timeline. If you are willing to listen, I can show you how to eliminate the mutants as a threat entirely. Raw power is not what will win the day, neither against the X-Men, nor the princess."
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Illyana set the Silver Crystal down on her desk in her room and glared at the object. She could sense the awesome power contained within, making it all the more frustrating that this power remained so far out of reach.
This anger frightened her. Power was an addictive drug, as she knew all too well from her years in Limbo. She remembered the thrill she felt each time she mastered a new spell and the first time the demons she had so feared as a child fled from her sight in fear of her growing power.
The Silver Crystal was dangerous in the wrong hands. But even if she believed every word the Sailor Guardians and their cats said, it did not mean that her hands were necessarily the right hands.
There was a loud knock on her door, causing Illyana to reflexively raise her hand towards it. Recent events, starting with S'ym's attack on the mansion, were beginning to make her paranoid, and she was starting to consider putting warning signs on the door, for the others' protection more than her own.
Lowering her arm, she asked: "Who is it?"
"It's Doug."
Illyana walked to the door and opened it. She must still have looked angry, because Doug just stood there for several awkward seconds like a deer in headlights.
"What is it?"
"Um, you remember how I was reading up on the X-Men's old battles?"
'Yes."
"Well, I was reading about the whole thing with Jean Grey going all Dark Phoenix … Man, that must've been crazy."
"I know about Jean Grey," she said, growing annoyed. The Dark Phoenix saga was another cautionary tale for her, and a likely harbinger of her eventual fate. "What's your point?"
"Well, at the end, the X-Men fought the Shi'ar elites … in the ruins of an ancient civilization … on the moon."
Illyana's jaw dropped and she stared at him for several more awkward seconds.
"Illyana?"
"Get Warlock," she instructed him. "We're going on a field trip."
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On the International Space Station, an astronaut floated into one of the station's cupolas to gaze out of its windows at the Earth below. The seven-windowed module attached to the station served many purposes, from observing the approach of spacecraft to taking spectacular photographs which NASA's PR team loved.
The astronaut noticed a black dot on the earth's surface while looking through the center window. As he focused his attention on it, the dot grew closer, and he realized that it was a large object approaching from the Earth at an extremely high speed. Whatever it was had to have launched from the earth.
"No way," he whispered as the object grew close enough to make out its shape. The object was not on a direct course for the space station, but it changed direction slightly to put a greater distance between itself and the station as it passed by.
"Holy shit!"
"What is it, Larry?" a fellow astronaut asked, startled by his sudden profanity.
Larry climbed out of the cupola. "You're never going to believe this, Joe. I just saw the freakin' Enterprise."
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It takes an Earth vessel three days to travel to the moon, a Shi'ar vessel mere minutes. For Warlock the journey took about a half-hour.
For the journey, the techno-organic being had assumed the shape suggested to him by Doug, that of the Starship Enterprise from the original Star Trek movies.
Warlock approached the Mare Serenitatis, the Sea of Serenity, and touched down in the Luther Crater, assuming a shape more appropriate for landing as his passengers disembarked.
Illyana, Professor Xavier, Doug, the Sailor Guardians, and the cats stepped out into the Blue Area, the ruins on the moon which contained a habitable atmosphere, the site where Jean Grey had died.
All of them gazed in wonder at the ruins surrounding them.
"This is it," Mina said solemnly. "This was our kingdom."
"Something's different about it," Artemis observed.
Amy summoned her visor and began to examine the ruins. "Someone else rebuilt this city after the Silver Millennium was destroyed. There's newer, alien architecture built over the original structures."
"That would be the Skrulls and the Kree," Xavier said. "Reed Richards believed that they built this city when the human race was in its infancy. It would seem that they merely appropriated what was already here."
Illyana turned to Doug. "That's why you're here. If anyone can sort through the different languages we're bound to come across and lead us to something useful, it's you."
"I'd better get to work then." Doug approached Amy, who was continuing to scan the environment. She pointed at a particular structure which stood out to her.
Mina pointed: "The palace would have been in that direction."
"Are you sure?" Lita asked. "This place looks very different from when we used to live here."
"Positive."
The group was silent as they followed Mina's directions. She and the cats were haunted by memories of what was, and the other guardians felt a sense of loss despite not having the same memories of their previous lives. Xavier was haunted by far more recent memories.
It was here that he had watched as his X-Men were defeated one by one, taken down by Lilandra's Imperial Guard. Here that his first student, Jean Grey, had taken her own life rather than succumb to the power of the Phoenix.
That was the main reason he had chosen not to bring the other New Mutants on this trip to the moon. He knew they would be angry at him again, but he did not want to associate his newest students with the fate of his oldest student any more than absolutely necessary.
Soon all of them had learned to pick out the white ruins of the Moon Kingdom from the more metallic alien ruins.
They approached the ruins of a large stone building, and Xavier closed his eyes in a grimace.
"The palace, it's all gone!" Luna exclaimed. "But the inner parts were still standing even after Metaria's attack!"
Xavier knew what had happened to it. What remained of the palace had been destroyed in a battle between Illyana's brother and the Gladiator, Lilandra's most powerful soldier. The collapsing stones had decided the battle's outcome, and not in Colossus' favor.
"We may not find anything of use," Artemis said. "It may all have been destroyed."
Doug stepped forward and began to climb over the rubble, looking for any piece of stone that had pictures or writing on it.
"I think I've found something," he said. "This stone has the word 'prayer' on it."
"That must be the entrance to the chamber of prayer!" Luna said. "We need to remove that rubble!"
"How?" Rei asked. "Even with the moon's lighter gravity, those stones still weigh tons."
"Leave that to me," Illyana said as Doug climbed down from the rubble. She extended both arms, her heft hand in front of her right, and curved her fingers downward as she cast a levitation spell.
Stone after stone rose slowly into the air, hovering between eight and fifteen feet off of the ground, and revealing an underground passage beneath. Illyana gestured towards her left, and the stones moved in tandem with her arms, dropping in a place where they would no longer be in the way.
Luna approached the passageway first. "Only the Queen was allowed into the chamber of prayer. It was at the base of the Crystal Tower, the heart of the Moon Palace."
The followed her down, Warlock providing light, and emerged into a round room. Pillars, some half destroyed, circled a large crystal obelisk. In front of the obelisk was a stone altar in which a black-bladed sword was sheathed.
"The Sword in the Stone," Doug said.
"Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Venus," Luna asked, "can one of you free it?"
"Sure," Lita said, grinning as she approached the altar, "just leave it to me." She grasped the hilt and began to pull with all of her might.
"What is this thing?" she asked as she strained to budge the blade. "Who makes swords out of rocks?"
Lita let go, rubbing her hands. "It's stuck."
"If this is indeed similar to the Arthurian legend," Xavier said, "strength of arms will not suffice to free that sword."
There was an orange glow as Mina transformed into Sailor Venus. She took Lita's place and gripped the hilt as Lita had done.
Mina grunted with the effort, but slowly, the blade began to move upwards, A blue light burst forth from the hole left by the sword as she pulled it free.
Mina stumbled backwards, the low gravity sending her tumbling into the other guardians, who caught her. Having pulled the sword out, she now struggled to lift it up, such was its weight even on the moon.
A voice spoke from within the blue light. "That is a sacred sword, meant to protect the royal family of the Silver Millennium. Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, it belongs to all of you."
The light coalesced into a figure, a hologram of a woman, which appeared above the opening in the stone where the sword had been sheathed.
The figure was beautiful. Her face was nearly identical to Illyana's only older, as a mature adult, and with the golden crescent moon permanently shining on her forehead. Her long, silver hair was gathered in a pair of buns on top of her head, from which two ponytails extended all the way to the ground. She wore a gorgeous white gown and appeared to have a pair of translucent butterfly wings extending from her back.
"Luna, Artemis, thank you for bringing everyone here," the holographic woman said.
"Queen Serenity," Mina said.
The queen smiled at each person and cat gathered in front of her before setting her gaze on Illyana.
"My adorable little Serenity, is that really you?"
Illyana took a deep breath and glared at the hologram. "I'm not your anything. I don't know you, and I certainly don't consider you to be my mother. I've already got a mother."
"I see," the queen said sadly, looking down.
Seeing how the hologram reacted, Amy asked: "You're not just a recording, are you?"
"Thanks to the Moon Palace's Eternity main system, even though I have physically perished, my consciousness and my memories remain in this form. I have waited so long for this moment."
She looked up at Illyana again. "However, why is it that the princess appears to be the same age as her guardians?"
Illyana was startled by the question. "What do you mean?"
"When you were killed, I was inconsolable. After I barely managed to seal Queen Metaria away, I used the last of my strength to ensure you and the Sailor Guardians would be reborn on Earth. Knowing that the enemy would return, my spell would have had the princess reborn many years after the guardians. I had hoped this would prevent the enemy from finding you, and allow you to grow up in a world free from that darkness after the guardians defeated Metaria and her servants."
Mina looked down at Artemis. "We were never supposed to fight at the princess' side at all! We were supposed to keep her from ever having to fight!"
Artemis scowled. "If only we'd known. If only we'd remembered!"
Illyana stared open-mouthed at the image of the queen, trembling. Finally, she steadied herself enough to speak.
"If that was your plan, then it backfired spectacularly. I've suffered more than you could ever know, and it was because I was so young and innocent."
Xavier and Illyana had seen many holograms in the Danger Room, but they had never seen a hologram cry as the image of the queen did then.
"I am so sorry. I did what I thought was best. Can you ever forgive me?"
Illyana looked down in thought, then back at the queen. "I don't know," she said softly.
The queen turned to Xavier, Doug, and Warlock. "And who might you be?"
"I am … I am Illyana's teacher," Xavier said. "And these two are her classmates."
"You must care deeply for her, to have come all this way with her. I thank you, for looking after my daughter."
The queen wiped her eyes, and her tone grew stern. "You all must have many questions. I will do my best to fill in the blanks. Ours was a peaceful, prosperous kingdom, thanks to the power of the Silver Crystal. Our mission was to watch over the earth and guide it as its people grew and evolved."
"But then, a terrible disaster occurred. A horrible creature emerged from its billion-year confinement in the heart of our sun, an ancient eldritch abomination …"
"An Elder God," Illyana said.
The queen nodded. "That is exactly what Metaria was. Despite our best efforts, it conquered Earth quickly. The people of the planet were easily swayed by its power and evil. But this was not enough for it. It wanted the power of our Silver Crystal. And so, it attacked us here in our home. Even with the Silver Crystal, I could not destroy this evil. All of our people were killed in the battle, including the princess. Only the Sailor Guardians' leader survived long enough to help me use the Silver Crystal's power to seal Metaria away, before she too succumbed to her wounds."
"I alone remained of our great kingdom. But I knew that one day the seal I placed on Metaria would be broken one day, and I would not have the strength to battle it a second time. But my motivations were far more selfish. I simply wanted my daughter to live again. So, I used the Silver Crystal one last time to bring her back, as well as the guardians to protect her.
"I know that the evil one has returned to finish what it started. While this was not my intention, now that you are here, Serenity, it falls to you to destroy it once and for all. You must do what I could not, and end the threat of Metaria for good."
Mina stepped forward. "Your majesty, there is a problem. We have successfully reforged the Silver Crystal, but the princess cannot use it. It does not respond to her."
"Given what I have heard here today, I cannot say that I am surprised," the queen said. "The Silver Crystal follows the princess' heart. If in her heart she rejects who she is, she rejects the crystal as well, and it will not work for her. It will likely never work for her, I am afraid."
"But there is another way the Silver Crystal can be used," she continued. "The Silver Crystal is also the original source of the powers you guardians wield. If you combine your powers, all four of you, you can channel that power through the Silver Crystal even without the princess. And perhaps more."
"Was that what you had wanted us to do originally?" Mina asked.
The queen nodded again, and the image of her began to glitch, becoming pixilated for split-seconds. "Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, work together, and protect the princess. Do our kingdom proud"
"I am afraid I cannot talk much longer. The system which allows this image to manifest before you has little power left after so long.
The queen reached out towards Illyana. "Serenity, I know you have had a difficult life, but I hope you can still find happiness with those you love."
Another tear fell down the queen's digital cheek as the glitches became more frequent.
"Goodbye, my little snowflake."
Illyana gasped, the hardened expression she had maintained melting away. "What … what did you just call me?"
The hologram glitched again, and Illyana ran forward, attempting to grab the queen's outstretched hand.
"Wait, mother!" she screamed.
The queen disappeared just as Illyana's hands passed through hers. Illyana froze in place, her hands outstretched, her mouth wide open, and her eyes unblinking.
The Sailor Guardians stirred. Seeing the queen had awakened something deep within their minds.
"I remember now," Amy said.
"So do I," Rei said. "We used to live here. We were so happy here."
"Those were the best days of our lives," Lita said. "How could we have forgotten?"
Mina walked over to Illyana. "I just remembered something, too. The one time you and the queen visited the earth together … we went with you as bodyguards. You were so young, you had never seen snow before, and you were fascinated by it. The queen explained how every snowflake is unique in its beauty, and she decided then that was how she would express how special you were to her. From that day on, you were her little snowflake. Do you remember any of this?"
Illyana finally moved, turning her head to look at Mina. Pools of water were forming around her eyes. Unlike the hologram, her tears were affected by the low gravity and did not fall down her cheeks. She choked back a sob, and shook her head. No memories had returned to her, good or bad.
Xavier walked over and put his hand on Illyana's shoulder. She looked up at her teacher and pulled him into a hug.
Warlock extended his neck towards Illyana and Xavier, intending to ask why Illyana was crying, but Doug tapped his shoulder and motioned for him to stop and leave them be.
"It's true," Illyana said between sobs, in a voice so soft only Xavier could hear her. "I wanted it to be a big mistake so badly, but it's all true."
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Post by sunofdarkchild on Apr 30, 2023 3:31:33 GMT -5
Chapter 7: The Silver Crystal
Illyana regained her strength relatively quickly, but still they were not ready to reform the Silver Crystal. According to Artemis, that could only be done after the next full moon.
In the meantime, Mina wanted Illyana the guardians to familiarize themselves with each other's fighting styles and abilities to be more effective when the time came for them to fight together. The Danger Room provided the perfect place for practicing.
In fact, the Danger Room proved to be too good, as it could be made to simulate any battle the X-Men and New Mutants had ever fought, and the temptation to continuously fight and defeat a simulation of arch-mutant terrorist Magneto was difficult for Mina to resist.
But sometimes, it was better to forgo the fancy alien technology of the Danger Room and train the old-fashioned way. That was what Illyana and Mina did three days after the guardians learned of Illyana's Darkchild form and history in Limbo.
It was a simple sparring match, meant for the girls to gain an accurate sense of each other's fighting skill.
The other guardians and Kitty watched from the control room as they fought. Mina led off with a devastating leaping kick that connected with Illyana's jaw and knocked her flat on her back.
Kitty tensed upon seeing that first blow and had to fight the urge to phase through the floor to give Illyana a hand. Even though it had been a year Illyana had more than doubled in age during her captivity in Limbo, Kitty still thought of her as the little girl she would tell bedtime stories to. It was a good thing Colossus was not there to watch, she realized. If it was that difficult for her to see Illyana get kicked in the face, it would have been even worse for her overprotective big brother.
Mina dropped her battle stance and tilted her head in confusion as Illyana rose.
"Why didn't you try to defend yourself?"
Illyana stretched her arm on the side which was struck and cracked her neck. "That makes up for the one I gave you. Now we're even."
Mina chuckled, both at the gesture and in surprise at how unscathed Illyana appeared. Clearly, she could take a hit.
"I guess I don't need to hold back."
Illyana's response was to leap into action, covering the distance between them shockingly fast. Mina ducked under the first blow and brought her knee up to the other girl's side, only for Illyana to block the strike with her elbow.
They continued to trade blows, learning how the other fought as they did. Mina, who had adapted to fighting multiple armed criminals, favored kicks for their longer reach and preferred to dodge attacks, while Illyana, who had been trained in combat by Cat and Belasco, was more of a grappler who would use her powerful arms to grab ahold of and pin her opponent as well as block attacks.
The other guardians leaned forward as they watched the sparring session play out.
"She's good," Amy realized.
"No, I'm good," Lita clarified, "and even I've never lasted more than 30 seconds against Mina."
"Is it really that surprising?" Kitty asked. "Illyana had to learn to defend herself growing up in Limbo."
"I guess," Rei said. "But Mina's taken on a dozen armed men at the same time."
Seeing that Illyana was holding her own, Kitty relaxed and began to enjoy the fight. There was a certain thrill to watching two martial arts masters compete, as she knew from watching Logan and Kurt spar.
On the Danger Room floor, Mina and Illyana were enjoying themselves as well. Mina had never faced any human opponent who could go toe to toe with her or engaged in a fist fight that lasted more than a minute. Even when mob leaders attempted to hire strong-men to counter Sailor V, they were never able to stand up to her. Having a real one on one fight was a new experience for her, and it was surprisingly fun.
For Illyana, this was the first time she could truly cut loose since her return from Limbo the year before. She spent more time watching others use the Danger Room than use it herself, and there was no comparison between the relatively basic hand to hand combat training Xavier put the New Mutants through and the constant and intense training Cat had subjected Illyana to every day for two years straight. Any sparring match would have been so unfair as to be out of the question even if they could get over their fear of her.
Kitty felt a tiny nudge in her mind and leaned forward to use the control panel.
"Better call it here," she said into the speaker, causing both combatants to freeze, Mina with her knee in the air ready to extend into a full kick and Illyana in the middle of a turn she had planned to turn into a roundhouse punch. "The prof says the X-Men need the room and you need to get back to your studies, Illyana."
Mina and Illyana slowly dropped out of their battle poses and grinned at each other. Mina was breathing heavier. While she had had long runs across the rooftops of London, nothing in her history could compare to the stamina Illyana had built up during all the says she spent running with Cat from dawn past dusk.
Illyana rubbed her right forearm. The downside to blocking was it meant using one part of her body to shield another, and some of those kicks had left bruises.
"You can tell the Professor the room is free now. I'll be in the library." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dani and Rahne were reading together at one of the tables in the library, while Doug and Warlock worked at one of the computers. The girls looked up as Illyana entered, carrying the same book they were reading, and walked towards them.
Illyana opened her mouth to ask if she could join them, but she could not get a word out before Rahne transformed into a wolf and ran out of the library. Dani picked up their book and gave Illyana a wordless apology before going after her.
Illyana scowled. Rahne was refusing to talk to her at all since learning about this Moon Princess business. Illyana wasn't sure if that was an improvement over the constant name-calling she endured from Rahne beforehand or not.
She turned her attention to Doug, who was clearly doing something other than reading their assignment if the picture of the original five X-Men on his computer monitor.
"What's that?"
"This? I've just been reading up on the X-Men's old battles."
"Self hopes that self never has to fight the villain Magneto," Warlock said. As a being of organic circuitry, the alien would be especially vulnerable to the master of magnetism.
"Have you finished the reading the professor gave us?"
Doug nodded. "Yeah. Do you need some help?"
"Yes. English is not my first language."
In truth, English was not even her fifth language. Professor Xavier had telepathically taught her how to speak the language while she slept when she was still a child, mostly as a precaution in case she got lost and needed to tell the authorities to bring her back the Xavier estate. But he had not included the ability to read English, preferring that she develop that skill on her own like other children. And she had, just not in English.
Illyana had spent the vast majority of her years as Belasco's prisoner and apprentice in his library, reading every book he possessed, no matter how ancient or in what language. She had mastered a dozen spell-casting or dead languages, but there had been little in that library which was recent enough to have been written in modern English. It was only after her return from Limbo that she truly began to learn how to read in English, and the myriad contradictions and exceptions in its rules and spelling conventions confounded her. As a result, she was more comfortable reading a papyrus written in ancient Egyptian or a tablet in ancient Sumerian than the Harry Potter books Kitty had been trying to get her into.
Doug closed the page he was looking at and moved to the desk Rahne and Dani had vacated. Illyana sat down next to him, Warlock extending his neck to look over their shoulders rather than walk over.
"I can't even ask anyone else on the team for help," Illyana said.
"You are kind of unapproachable. Witch, ruler of Limbo, MP," he said, being careful not to call her 'Moon Princess' again.
"Except to you," she observed.
"I find everyone here unapproachable," Doug said. "One minute I was a normal kid, the next I find out my best friend and all her classmates are superheroes and I'm being asked to communicate with an alien for them. The stuff the New Mutants have done is mind-boggling, and they're just the trainee team. Kitty's a full-fledged X-Man. She's actually fought Magneto. I haven't been able to have a normal conversation with her since this all started."
"So, from your point of view, I'm not that different from everyone else here?" she asked.
"I guess. Mutant, sorceress, techno-organic alien, it's all equally overwhelming to me."
"I wish the others shared your point of view."
"So what part's giving you trouble?"
"The beginning."
"Really? We're on chapter … oh, right."
Professor Xavier had assigned the New Mutants to read his favorite book, The Once and Future King. Illyana had fallen behind between her time travel debacle and being sick. Catching up on the math was simple – she had had little trouble bringing herself up to grade level in the subject after coming back from Limbo – but reading was another matter. She had a vague understanding that the novel was about King Arthur and Merlin, and wondered if the Professor's objective in assigning it was to change his students' views on sorcerers with a story about a good and wise sorcerer.
"So, you want me to explain what happens?" Doug asked.
"If you could read it, and I'll ask if I have any questions."
"Ok," Doug opened the book. "On Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays …"
Illyana closed her eyes and listened. The edges of her lips twitching upwards as the words which made little sense to her on the page fell into place when spoken aloud. When she was small, Kitty and Kurt used to tell her bedtime stories all the time. She had not realized until that moment how much she missed listening to stories.
Perhaps she could ask the Professor if she could use a Russian translation to make reading assignments easier, she thought. But in that moment, doing something as simple as catching up on her schoolwork and enjoying a classic book with a classmate, even with Warlock transforming into objects or people mentioned in the story, she felt normal. In that moment, she wasn't the Moon Princess or the Queen of Limbo. She was just Illyana. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the morning after the full moon, the Sailor Guardians returned and met up with Illyana in Professor Xavier's office.
"So we're supposed to fuse these seven small crystals into one big crystal, and that will give us the edge over these horror movie rejects?" Illyana asked.
"That is correct," Artemis said.
The guardians were all tense with anticipation, but Illyana merely looked resigned. "Let's get this over with."
"Wait," Mina said. "I think we should do this in Limbo."
"Why?" Illyana demanded.
"Because there is a good chance the enemy will sense the energy released when the Silver Crystal is reforged and even where it is. But if we do it in another dimension, they'd never know."
Illyana looked to the Professor, who was impressed with Mina's idea. "It would be wiser to take every possible precaution."
"Fine," Illyana said curtly.
"If you do not mind, I would like to be there for this," Xavier said.
Illyana did not respond and merely gestured for the others to gather around her. She summoned a stepping disk which brought them to the part of Limbo which seemed best suited to their purposes, Belasco's library.
The guardians expected to be left in pitch blackness just as they were the last time they were taken to Limbo, but the library was lit by torches and candles which had burned since the day the first book was placed on a shelf inside it and would continue to burn as long as a single book remained.
Xavier and Amy gaped at the seemingly endless shelves filled with thick books.
"Incredible," Xavier whispered.
Amy approached a bookshelf which was full of scrolls. "Some of these books must be thousands of years old!"
"Those are books?" Lita asked.
"There are more ways to put together a book than binding pages together so that you have to turn each page over to continue reading. The Bible was originally written on scrolls like these."
"Unless you can read ancient Cimmerian, those scrolls hold nothing for you," Illyana said, prompting Amy to leave the scrolls be and return to the group.
Mina was less wide-eyed about the contents of the library. "Cool as this is, most of these books are probably evil."
Illyana nodded. She herself had destroyed several of the most dangerous books Belasco had accumulated over the centuries, and there were times she wondered if she should do the same to the rest of the library so that the deadly knowledge contained within could never be used by anyone else. There were plenty of books that were neutral or even good, but the evil far outweighed everything else.
She walked over to an old wooden table which she had spent uncounted hours sitting, and under, during her captivity. Mina followed and took out the seven rainbow crystals, placing them on the table.
"My compact is the key to bringing the rainbow crystals together," she explained. "But it can only be charged by the light of the full moon. That's why we had to wait until now to do this."
Mina transformed and opened her compact. Illyana stood next to her as she held the open compact over her head.
"Venus Power, Love Crescent Shower!"
The accumulated moonlight shot out of the compact and filled the entire library. All gathered shielded their eyes and were unable to see what was transpiring on the table, though they could hear the rainbow crystals shaking and scraping against the wooden surface.
The shaking and scraping were replaced by a soft humming sound, prompting Mina to close her compact and preserve what little energy remained within it. Slowly, the others opened their eyes.
There, lying on the table, was a teardrop-shaped object which glowed in a manner not unlike the soul sword. It appeared at once both smooth-edged and sharp as well as both white and silver.
"Beautiful," Xavier said.
"Kind of small, isn't it?" Illyana asked. The Silver Crystal was more than twice as large as a rainbow crystal, but it was far smaller than all seven of those were together.
Illyana realized that all eyes had turned from the crystal to her and stepped forward to pick it up, doing her best to ignore the satisfied look on Mina's face as she did so.
Even before she touched it, Illyana could feel with her mystical senses that Mina and the cats had not been exaggerating about the Silver Crystal's power. By her estimation, anyone who used it would wield a power comparable to her Darkchild form, a prospect which was at once alluring and frightening in equal measure.
She paused, her hand inches above the Silver Crystal.
"Go on," Mina said. "It's your birthright."
Illyana let out an annoyed sigh and took the crystal in her hand. As expected, the glowing crescent moon appeared on her forehead just as it had the first time she held a rainbow crystal. She managed to keep her expression neutral as she placed the crystal in her pocket, the excited looks of the cats and most of the guardians demonstrating her success.
Mina, however, looked sad during this moment she had waited such a long time for. With her empathic ability unaffected by Illyana's psychic shields, the guardian's leader was annoyingly hard to fool.
"Let's head back," she said.
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A stepping disk deposited the group back in Professor Xavier's office.
The professor began: "Now that-
He was cut off when an explosion destroyed the window and outer wall of the office, spraying debris in all directions and knocking them all to the floor.
"Is everyone all right?" Mina yelled. She quickly took stock of those around her. They had all sustained minor cuts, but miraculously no one seemed to be seriously injured.
They looked out through the large hole which had been blasted through the wall and collectively gasped.
Floating two stories above the ground was a man in a grey uniform almost identical to Zoisite's. His long white hair and flowing cape billowed in the wind. Below him stood a small army of monsters of all shapes, sizes and colors.
The attacker looked down at his forces and ordered them: "Kill them all and find the Silver Crystal!"
"Kunzite!" Mina hissed. She stood up and fired a crescent beam at the ground in front of the youma, carving a small trench as a warning shot to delay their advance.
"Transform now!" she ordered her fellow guardians.
Xavier did not bother to rise. Instead, he put his fingers to his temple to give his own orders.
"To me, my X-Men!"
He sent a second order to Kitty to gather the New Mutants and bring them to the lower levels. He would not risk the trainee team in this battle unless it was absolutely necessary.
The X-Men arrived, some in uniform, and some not, just as the guardians and Illyana began to fight the youma, taking the battle into the front yard and away from the building.
The X-Men's leader, Storm, flew above the fray and targeted the man who was clearly the leader of the enemy force with her lightning bolts.
Kunzite grinned as a translucent black sphere appeared around him. Storm's lightning was blinding in its intensity, momentarily freezing all combatants on the ground, but it did nothing as it crashed into the sphere, simply being absorbed into the dark energy.
Rogue, the X-Men's other flyer, took to the skies and launched herself at Storm's target. She struck the sphere with a blow so mighty that the shockwaves caused all of the mansion's front windows to shatter.
"Pathetic," Kunzite said, his barrier completely unaffected. He held out his palm and summoned a ball of yellow energy, shooting Rogue with it at point blank range and knocking her out of the sky.
Rogue plummeted to earth and was caught by Colossus. Despite her invulnerability, Kunzite's attack had knocked her unconscious.
"Don't!" Sailor Mercury yelled. "Every time you attack that barrier, the energy it absorbs makes these monsters stronger!"
Indeed, as soon as Storm's lightning had struck the sphere, the battle on the ground began to turn against the two teams of heroes. The guardians' attacks no longer killed them in one shot, Wolverine was beginning to take hits, and even Colossus was struggling to fight off a particularly large youma while holding the unconscious Rogue with one arm.
"Use the crystal!" Sailor Venus yelled at Illyana. "He can't block that!"
Illyana drive her sword into the ground, creating a shockwave which blasted all the monsters around her away and giving her time to reach for the Silver Crystal and point it directly at Kunzite.
Kunzite gasped as he saw her attempt to use the Silver Crystal against him and instinctively crossed his arms in front of his face. He knew this would be a useless move, but it was a last, desperate attempt to stay alive.
After a few moments, he lowered his arms and stared blankly at Illyana, who was looking at the crystal in confusion.
"What's wrong with this thing?"
While she was distracted, an arm stretched to the length of a city bus grabbed her from behind and began to wrap around her many times. A second arm from the same youma soon followed, covering her completely from the neck down.
"Illyana!" Colossus screamed, dropping Rogue and rushing to help his sister. Kunzite took advantage of his unguarded moment and struck him with another energy blast to the side of his face, knocking the armored giant to the ground.
The arms around Illyana began to tighten as the youma holding her in place attempted to crush her. Illyana had seen this method of killing once before, when a giant snake attacked her in the wilds of Limbo while Cat was off hunting food. It had been less than a week after the swordswoman had taken her from Ororo's garden, and she'd never forgotten what it felt like to have her ribs crushed as the snake wrapped its coils around her.
She'd survived only because Cat had returned at the last possible moment, driving her sword into the snake's skull.
But Cat wasn't here. She was dead, killed at Illyana's own hands, just like Ororo. All the X-Men were dead because of her…
The youma holding Illyana screamed as its arms were sliced off. Sailor Venus caught her crescent compact mid-run and leapt into the air, striking the youma with a kick which broke its neck.
Sailor Venus put her compact away. That attack had drained what little power it had left after it had been used to restore the Silver Crystal.
Illyana struggled to free herself from the arms as quickly as possible, and was shocked when Sailor Venus grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet.
They both looked up at Kunzite, who was charging a third energy blast, this one far larger than the previous two.
'If only I had more control over my stepping disks!' Illyana thought, 'I could teleport into his barrier and end this with one swing of my sword.'
She could also transform and unleash her true power. Kunzite's barrier would never stand up the Darkchild. But no, that wasn't an option. Not in front of her brother and the other X-Men. Not when the risk was so great.
Sailor Venus was just as frustrated. 'It can't be a coincidence that he showed up now with all these youma. They must have known that we'd reforged the Silver Crystal the moment it happened. But how? There's no way they have sensed that in Limbo. That's the whole reason we went there!'
This was a battle unlike any the Sailor Guardians had ever fought. Never before had any of the Shitennou sent more than a single youma against them. And Kunzite was on a completely different level from the previous three generals they had defeated.
Professor Xavier sensed Mina's frustrations and reached out to touch Kunzite's mind, hoping to learn how the Dark Kingdom knew they had the Silver Crystal. But Kunzite had psychic shields in place. They were not as strong as Illyana's psychic shields, but Xavier could not say how long it would take for him to penetrate them.
Illyana grabbed Sailor Venus' arm. "That attack you used against S'ym! That would be powerful enough to stop him!"
"That'll take time to charge!" Sailor Venus protested. "We'll all be sitting ducks!"
"I'll buy you the time you need!"
Sailor Venus nodded and called out to her comrades: "Fall back! Into the office!"
Kunzite grew nervous again as the guardians assumed the stances they used whenever they charged the Sailor Planet Attack. He unleashed his energy ball at them, hoping to take them all out at once. His attack disappeared into a disk of white light.
Illyana may not have been able to use her teleportation disks in an offensive manner, but as long as she didn't care if part of Limbo was destroyed, her disks could serve as the ultimate shield.
That was all the guardians needed. When Illyana's portal disappeared, they launched their attack. Kunzite screamed, his barrier not even slowing the attack down before it enveloped him and he disappeared in a burst of light, vaporized to atoms by the combined might of the Sailor Guardians.
With Kunzite dead, the X-Men were free to turn their full attention to the remaining youma. Storm gathered the monsters with a burst of wind she strengthened into a small tornado, spinning them around and knocking them into each other. Some of the weaker ones died from this attack. The rest she deposited in a pile in front of Colossus, who brought his fists together in a two-handed blow which could destroy a mountain. With the youma already weakened by Storm's attack, Colossus' blow was enough to finish them off.
The bodies of the defeated youma began to crumple into dust as the X-Men and Sailor Guardians took stock of the damage the battle had caused. Xavier's office had been largely destroyed. Every window in the front of the mansion was shattered, and the front grounds were a complete mess. But the interior of the building had been largely undamaged and no youma had made it inside.
All eyes turned to Illyana, who was holding and glaring at the Silver Crystal, the powerful and yet useless artifact which had almost gotten her killed.
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