The planet literally burned.
Roughly the size of Earth, this barren, desolate world was cloaked in near-perpetual darkness. While it possessed an atmosphere, it would hardly be classified as hospitable for any form of coporeal life, especially of the hominoid version. Yet this planet WAS inhabited by a hardy stock of humans raised in a society that could only be described as the worst form of tyranny. Ruled with an iron fist by one being.
A god who called himself Darkseid.
"Such power..."
The high lord of Apokolips stood in his reception chamber at the apex of the Tower of Rage, his sanctum sanctorum and the nexus from which his bleak realm was controlled. Standing nearby was Desaad, the master torturer and Darkseid's most loyal servant. Staring at the granite-faced, grey-skinned dark lord, Desaad felt something he had never felt before.
Trepidation.
His lord was in...
Dare he say it? Even think it?
Ecstacy?!
DARKSEID?!!
Actually looking as if he was...?
No! He couldn't think THAT, could he?!
"For so long..."
The smile on Darkseid's face slipped slightly as his voice trailed off, then he glanced dispassionately on his chief toady. Noting the look, Desaad relaxed as he dipped his head in a proper show of reverence and loyalty. Darkseid was, above all else, a master manipulator. Rarely getting directly involved in his many schemes against those do-gooders on New Genesis, not to mention that petty planet Earth in the "main" part of the multiverse, Darkseid relished in creating far-sighted, complex, long-range plans in pursuit of his goals. To do that required a disposition of solid granite -- an interesting turn of phrase given the dark lord's physical looks -- nerves of steel and blood at the temperature of liquid helium. THAT was the Darkseid whom Desaad and everyone else on Apokolips served without question.
To actually see him acting giddy was...
"Desaad."
Desaad jerked, then bowed his head. "Your command, Master?"
"Prepare Henshaw," Darkseid commanded. "There is business to be done in another dimension. He is best suited for it. When he is ready, bring him here. Speak not of this to the others." By this, he meant the others in the dark lord's direct service, monsters (as his many foes often thought of them) such as Granny Goodness, Glorious Godfrey, his sister Amazing Grace and Darkseid's own son Kalibak. "Go now."
"Immediately, Master," Desaad replied with another bow, then he scurried out of the room.
Darkseid watched him go, then turned once more to gaze into the starry night, the faint glows of distant Energy Pits the only other colour in the black sky overhead. A smile returned to his face as he reached out, his powerful senses drawing in the backblast of pure Entropic energy -- the virtual opposite of the blinding light of the Source, the cosmic fountain from which all things sprang -- that had washed over him from the direction of Earth.
His agents there had recently reported a curious occurence that had befallen that planet's many costumed defenders a week ago. The females -- Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Mary Marvel, Troia, Batgirl among others -- had all vanished without a trace, teleported into a pocket dimension for reasons unknown. Darkseid considered the matter trivial, something that could be seen as normal and typical for that lot.
Until...
Until he had felt HIM.
For so long, the lord of Apokolips had quested for the Anti-Life Equation. As to what it was, he actually had no idea. The prophecy about the Equation, something that was said to bestow its discoverer the power to rule the cosmos, had been secretly handed down from ruler to ruler since Apokolips was formed in the wake of the destruction of the Old Gods and the sundering of their homeworld in the cataclysmic battle of Ragnarok. The prophecy, which Darkseid had not shared with ANYONE, warned that the Equation would be made known when the lord of Apokolips faced a being even darker than himself. A being who embraced Entropy of his own free will.
And now...
Now...
Elsewhere in the multiverse...
"My Queen?"
Beryl, first servant of Metallica and supreme ruler of the Dark Kingdom -- and one day very soon, the ruler of all that was in Existence -- stared at her scrying crystal. It had been an annoying week for the black queen and her youma minions. Sometime after Prince Endimyon -- known to his mortal friends on Earth as Chiba Mamoru or Tuxedo Kamen -- had been won over to Beryl's side, a battle between Kunzite and those wretched Sailor Senshi was interrupted when some sort of space warp wisked the five teenage girls from Tokyo into another dimension.
While that itself might have been cause for celebration by the denizens of the Dark Kingdom, the fact that the Silver Imperial Crystal, still in the hands of Sailor Moon, had been whisked off with the Senshi had not pleased Beryl at all.
Attempts to probe into that dimension were started right away. Regardless of the fate of the Senshi themselves, the Silver Crystal HAD to be retrieved at all costs. Metallica's power, the very oxygen and life-blood of the Dark Kingdom, couldn't be unleashed on Earth and the rest of the cosmos without it.
Of course, penetrating dimensional walls was, while time-consuming and energy-draining, easy for Kunzite and Prince Endimyon to carry out.
And once that was done...
Such power...
Such pure, soul-filling, mouth-watering POWER...
She had never, EVER felt something like that before...
NEVER!
"My Queen?"
Beryl jolted, looking up in wide-eyed shock to see Endimyon gaze worriedly at her. Behind him, Kunzite and the other warriors of the Dark Kingdom remained silent, though worry was etched on their faces. Since they had finally broken through the barrier separating the Kingdom from the pocket dimension where the Sailor Senshi were now located, the black queen had been acting like...! Like...!
Like Sailor Moon had often acted like around Tuxedo Kamen!
Strange.
Very strange.
"Are you alright, my Queen?" Endimyon softly inquired.
Beryl blinked, then slowly exhaled, her face melting into the determined neutrality she normally projected to her minions. "I am well, young Prince," she declared. "The power that I sense from that dimension was unlike anything I had ever sensed before." She paused, then added, "It nearly overwhelmed me."
Eyes went wide on hearing the black queen's hushed admission. For her to say something like THAT...!
"Do you wish this power brought under your control, my Queen?" Kunzite asked.
Beryl's eyes flashed briefly with the icy rage she had projected on Kunzite's fellow generals when they failed to do her bidding, then she relaxed. "You and Prince Endimyon will go there. Take as many warriors as you will require." Her eyes narrowed. "Be warned, both of you. This power I sense is greater, MUCH greater, than what we possess. Behave humbly when you confront it. Understood?"
Endimyon paused for a second as he interpreted his queen's commands, then he bowed. "As you command, my Queen."
Kunzite followed the other man's lead, though concern is etched on his handsome face. Why was Beryl ordering something like that? What had she sensed? What was awaiting them on the other side of the dimensional veil?
What...?
"AH-CHOO!!!"
Chikage arched surprisedly as Ataru's sneeze echoed through the Windrider's nursing station. Standing on the other side of the diagnostic bed from the young sorceress, Beverly Crusher blinked. "Do you have allergies?" the Enterprise's chief doctor asked.
Ataru moaned, then rubbed his nose. "Someone's talking about me," he muttered...
And now...
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(Posted Mon, 08 Mar 2004 04:30)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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