Onboard a satellite in orbit over the city of Metropolis . . .
"Bruce, did you see this?!"
"I did," the Batman replied as he stepped down from the transporter pad, walking over to join Superman and the other leading members of the Justice League in their private meeting room. "I was monitoring CNN in the Batcave when the NHK feed from Tomobiki was fed in. It was quite interesting." With that, he sat down in his chair.
"By the sounds of it, you recognise this man," Wonder Woman noted.
"I recognise what he might be and what he represents," the Dark Knight Detective of Gotham explained as he gazed evenly at the princess of the classical Greek Amazons. "I don't know him personally, but hearing him speak his real name to that reporter gives me a very good place to start."
"Care to explain that to us, Big Guy?" the Flash probed.
"Chaos and Anarchy personified."
Silence.
"He is that," Hawkgirl muttered under her breath.
The others stared at the Thanagarian member of their group. "Are you alright, Shayera?" Green Lantern wondered, an amused grin crossing his face. "Don't tell me you actually buy into that garbage people believe about Yi- . . . "
"DON'T SAY THAT NAME!"
The other League members recoiled in shock as the former policewoman and intelligence officer leapt out of her chair. Her foot caught on the back of the seat, making her flip around to crash face-first into . . .
A pair of arms draped in red with gold bands above the wrist. "Hey! Are you okay?!" a bright man's voice tinged with the cheer of a child asked.
Hawkgirl spun around to stare at the man who just caught her. "Captain Marvel!" she gasped on seeing the World's Mightiest Mortal. "What are you doing here?!"
"I apologise for our interrupting your meeting, Shayera," a wizened voice then spoke up. "But now is not the time to allow such an ancient fear to rule your thoughts. Given the threat Destructo presents, clear reason is needed."
Everyone spun around as a man dressed in flowing white robes walked in. "Who are . . .?" Superman began before his eyes widened in recognition. "Shazam?!"
"It has been a while, Kal-el," the ancient wizard said as he gazed thoughtfully at the Man of Steel. "My champion and I came here as soon I fully sensed Destructo having come to Earth from Yizi- . . . "
"DON'T SAY THAT NAME!" Hawkgirl shrieked.
"SILENCE!" Shazam barked, the thunder in his voice causing the Thanagarian to leap behind Marvel in fright. "Control yourself, Shayera Hol! It is that sort of mindless fear that Destructo can and will take advantage of if he is allowed to! You are a person others look up to, child! Compose yourself as one!"
Hawkgirl shuddered before she felt Lantern's hand fall on her shoulder. Giving John a grateful smile, the winged warrior then took a deep breath. "Um, excuse me, I really hate to interrupt this, but I have a big question," the Flash then spoke up. "Why is it Shayera here's so scared of hearing people say the name of the place this guy comes from?! It's like how people in the Harry Potter books always jump out of their clothes after hearing Voldemort's name . . . "
Rueful laughter from John Stewart. "Let me put it to you this way, son," Lantern stated as he gave Hawkgirl another reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. "If you think wizards being scared of Voldemort might be funny . . . " A pause, and then a scowl crossed his face. "It's not the least damn bit funny when you learn how powerful the Yizibajohei are. And what could happen if that power was ever focused on you, your society, your whole planet." He then gazed in sympathy at his girlfriend. "Just like Shayera's people learned the hard way once not so long ago."
Eyes focused on Hawkgirl. "You mean to say that Thanagar tried to attack Yiziba . . .?" Superman began.
Hawkgirl shuddered. "Must you . . .?" she hissed.
"Operative word, Superman: 'tried,'" Lantern replied; he had called the Man of Steel by his nom de guerre since he didn't know how Superman and Captain Marvel had originally met. "They literally got their heads handed to them. After they got finished with Thanagar, it took Shayera's people a century to recover from all the damage that was caused."
"Whoa!" Flash gasped.
"Goddess!" Wonder Woman hissed.
"Shayera's people were not the only ones who fell afoul of the Yizibajohei," Shazam continued. "Other races who felt repulsed at the lack of any sort of order on Yiziba also attempted to impose their culture and beliefs, their systems of governance, on the Yizibajohei. The results were always the same." A mirthless smile then crossed the ancient wizard's face as he added, "Even Darkseid was made to learn that lesson."
Silence.
"Darkseid?!" Wonder Woman gasped.
"It is true."
Eyes snapped around as a man dressed in red and silver walked in. "Orion!" Superman called out on seeing the champion of New Genesis.
"Shazam speaks the truth," Orion said as he reached up to slip his helmet off his head. He then nodded greetings to the wizard. "Highfather sends his greetings to you, great wizard. He rejoiced on hearing you have chosen a new champion."
"I trust Izaya is well?" Shazam mused, his smile growing wide.
"He is, sir. But, as you no doubt suspect, he is greatly disturbed on hearing of the coming of the Chaos Bringer," Orion replied.
"'Chaos Bringer?!'" Flash wondered.
"One of Destructo's many 'titles' among the Yizibajohei," Batman answered. "Others include 'He Who Heralds The End of Order,' 'The Lord of Anarchy' . . . " He then stared at Orion. "And one title, I'm more than sure, your father wouldn't like to hear: 'He Who Will Destroy the Anti-Life Equation.'"
"Aye, Batman, you speak truth there," Orion said with a grimace. "The question we all now face is this: what do you intend to do with Destructo now walking on your world? If he intends to bring forth a Yizibajohei-like evolution of the human race, he will either elect to work at it slowly and steadily . . . "
"Or else he will seek to create an incident which could unleash the type of power that could allow such an evolution to surge forth all at once," Shazam finished.
"That's not good," Captain Marvel warned.
"Why not?" Flash asked. "I mean, what is it about these Yiziba people anyway?!"
"Every person on that planet has a metahuman power, Flash," Batman explained, and then his eyes narrowed. "Everyone. Most of them would be equal of power to people like Hawkgirl, Fire, Icemaiden and some of the other Leaguers. Some of them would be equal to Diana. And there are a few who would smash around Superman and Captain Marvel and think of it as mere morning exercise." A pause as the Dark Knight Detective allowed that message to sink in, and then he added, "On a planet of well over two billion metas. And not one 'norm' -- someone like me -- among them."
"So what?!" Flash objected. "So everyone's got powers! What's that . . .?"
"No laws."
Everyone turned to Hawkgirl. "Shayera?" Wonder Woman prodded.
"There are no laws on that damned planet," Hawkgirl said, a hiss in her voice as she tried to fight down the terrible fear clawing in her heart as the thought of actually facing something born of the Unmentionable Planet moved to overwhelm her soul. "How could there be, Diana, when you'd have telepaths and other psychics capable of reading minds? State secrets literally would become no secret. And how would you be able to enforce laws on a planet with people who could become as strong as Superman? It's impossible!" She hugged herself as she walked away from her chair to stare on the beautiful curvature of her adopted homeworld below. "Yes, my people may have wanted to conquer Yi- . . .! Yiz- . . .!" She then spat out, "THAT place! But the fact that it's constantly rocked in total anarchy would scare anyone! All we wanted to do . . . " Tears filled her eyes. "All those like my grandfather wanted to do was to bring peace and order to that place!"
Silence fell as Hawkgirl struggled to keep back her tears, a sob building up deep in her throat as the memories of a beloved grandfather -- he murdered when the Yizibajohei came to Thanagar to unleash one of their infamous "fight scenes" in a perverse punishment for the winged race's attempt at bringing hated control to their world -- surged up from deep within her heart. Seeing her about to break down, Lantern walked over to wrap his arms around her shoulders. He then moved to walk her out of the room.
The others remained respectfully silent as they watched the couple leave, and then they turned to gaze on each other. "So what's the plan?" Flash asked.
"We stop Destructo," Batman declared. "The sooner, the better."
"Such a disappointment you are, Bruce," the Doctor mused as he watched the scene on the Justice League's satellite; he was currently in a hidden cave in the Laurentian mountains to the north of Ottawa, a cave he had built up for himself as a private bolt-hole long before Grigori Wysynski voyaged to Yiziba and became Destructo. "How would you believe if you had the power the day Joseph Chill murdered your parents? Or if Thomas and Martha had the power to defend themselves from that man? How would you feel then?" He then focused on Superman. "And what of you, Kal-el? Unable to express your love to Lois out of fear that your life as Superman would see her dead? Do you not realise how much she would desire to simply fight at your side?" An eyebrow arched. "Do any of you realise that, I wonder? Or are you so afraid of your powers that you fear others will never learn to master them if given the chance?"
Dismissing the image, he then concentrated somewhere else . . .
"Grigori Wysynski?! GREG WYSYNSKI?! You can't be serious!"
"I am serious, Doctor," Amanda Waller said as she faced Emil Hamilton in the former's office close to the White House. "The Specialised Warfare Regiment's first chief scientist, the man who helped write the Omega Directive the Regiment follows even to this day, the man who most likely took Josef von Taserich's genetic research for the Nazis that Major Raeburn found after World War Two and used it to help create the Heroes Alliance . . . " A grim nod. "He's become something more."
The former chief scientist of Project Cademus and the creator of the Supergirl-clone later called Galatea stared wide-eyed at the woman often nicknamed "the Wall," and then he sank into the chair offered to him when he came in to meet his former boss. "Amanda, if that's a joke, it's not the least damn bit funny!"
"Do I look like I'm joking?!" Waller snapped back, and then she took a deep breath as she sank into her own chair. "I'm going to have to brief the President about this very soon. Heaven knows, when he learns who Greg used to work for, our relationship with the Canadians -- especially when it comes to the Regiment's private support for some of Cademus' more questionable research goals -- might take a very big hit. They'll need to cover their own tracks should the Regiment's capabilities become more commonly known north of the border." A wry grin crossed her face. "If our positions were reversed, they'd be thinking the same thing, no doubt. I only hope to God that Ed Mills and Rick Yasovitch are on the ball and making plans to stop Greg from whatever the hell he's got in mind now . . . "
"They have no offensive capabilities," Hamilton objected. "They lost that when the Heroes Alliance all disappeared five years ago. And heaven only knows where Raeburn might be now! From what I heard, she took their loss real bad."
"I don't blame her for feeling that way," Waller said, and then she took a deep breath. "Hopefully, I'll be able to arrange a private meeting with Ed or . . . "
A knock is heard at the door. It then opened to reveal Waller's secretary. "Excuse me, ma'am, but Lieutenant Laval is here to see you."
"Send him in."
"Yes, ma'am."
The door closed. It then opened to reveal an officer in the black double-breasted jacket and trousers of a Canadian naval officer, the two stripes of a lieutenant on his sleeves over his wrists. The uniform's only true distinctive mark was the wine-burgundy beret on his head, it adorned with a phoenix-motif hat badge over crossed lightning flashes and a green maple leaf edged in gold, the whole surmounted with a scroll emblazoned Quo Fas Et Gloria Ducunt (Whither Right or Glory Lead), one of the mottoes of the Specialised Warfare Regiment of Canada. "Good afternoon, Director Waller, Doctor Hamilton," he greeted them with a salute, and then he drew out an envelope with the former's name on it. "From Colonel Mills, with his compliments."
Waller nodded as she took the envelope from him. Opening it, she scanned the message there, and then she nodded. "I have to brief the President about this."
"The colonel suspected such, ma'am," Lieutenant Laval stated. "We have no objection given the nature of this specific problem and where it might have first originated. If your government so requests, our officers can brief your officials in Ottawa or at Ellesmere Island itself. But we would require that such briefings be kept as secret as possible."
"More than understandable," Waller replied.
"Secrets on secrets," the Doctor said with a shake of his head. "Worried about things that will not, in the greater scheme of things, mean anything. Such a waste for someone as intelligent and as perceptive as you, Amanda."
He then grinned as he switched his viewpoint to see . . .
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(Posted Wed, 13 Sep 2006 05:18)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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