As the meeting wound to a close, the four men working for hours to handle the logistics of building a prison under a mile of water, Anarchy decided he needed their help with one more thing; "I want to know what you think of my new recruitment video, for playing in stadiums and before movies." Anarchy pushed a button on the remote that sat on his desk, though he was ten feet away, and the TV screen across the room turned on.

As the music started, the screen filled with images of normal people going about their lives, but the images changed to those same people in Phoenix uniforms, then showed them fighting as a team, lead by Captain Boomerang, to take down the Reverse Flash as he tried to run from a bank he had robbed. Best of all, the footage of the battle was real, and was taken from the body cameras of his security officers, new cameras, and cameras in their cars.

The video ended with a splash screen stating "Become a Hero. Join Phoenix Security today." followed by their 800 number and Mark turned the TV off, noticing that Oliver was nodding, and Bruce looked thoughtful.

"Definitely emotionally powerful," said Mr. Queen. "Especially the real footage of a battle. Seven officers with tech taking on an evil superhuman. Should speak to a lot of people."

"Well produced, too." said Mr. Wayne. "Should help your employment problems."

"Yeah," responded Mark, "With all of the supertech and superpowers on the market, superhuman crime is starting to climb again, and my people are working overtime in some places. Then you have the various revolutionary groups that are attacking common people in pursuit of their goals."

"Isn't that what you did?" asked Bruce.

"No, I specifically targeted the government, and gave them a chance to stand down before using the least force I needed to remove them from office. These groups don't care who they hurt, and often don't even offer quarter to POWs."

Wayne shrugged. "What you did emboldened them to overthrow their governments too. You can't expect them to be as civil about it. Nor can you dedicate your people to stopping them, with all of the problems the power vacuum caused."

Mark nodded. "Yeah, I estimate at least another year, maybe two, before things stabilize enough that I can deal with serious problems in other countries." He pushed a button on his desk to buzz Kevin and the assistant walked in. "Kevin, do you mind showing them to the Zeta tube? Mr. Wayne is returning to Gotham, and Mr. Queen has a meeting in Beijing."

"Of course," Kevin responded, and motioned for the others to follow him.

A temporary disturbance in Earth. It was but the 1/1000000th of a second but that was enough for whatever that it was to pass through the gap. For those that witnessed it's sudden appearance went mad with terror until it assumed a body. As the mask came on, it's true identity hidden and the terror that came upon witnessing it quenched. 237 people died with terrified expressions on their faces. Any recording device was rendered useless and even if someone were to peer into the past and look at the thing, if they actually managed to get past the interference, they would meet the same end as the other humans, dead from terror. Off it went into the world.

Not many states away...

The Jester kept hopping from one place to the next. That would be perfectly normal if they were traversing the ground but no, they had to make it weird and skip through the air.
"LOOK! THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS!"-which was briskly followed by a slap to the back of his head by his wife.
"Shut up Frank. Your preaching hours are from 7 to 4. It's already 5!"
"B..bu-"
Another slap to the back of the head:"No BUTS. We talked about this. With the amount of meta-humans around, I don't think Jesus was that special after all."
"BUT WALKING ON AIR!"
"HE WALKED ON WATER! Even I know that and I have never read that fan fiction book of yours."
"..it's a gospel.."
"Yeah, Grosspel, whatever, come home now."- and home he went after his wife.

True...not about the religious stuff, not that they knew the religions of this world anyway but they were attracting a lot of attention. Fishing their cards, multiple cards emerged from each other in a row. Damn it, they should've marked them somewhere, some tracking method to tell what is where. Finally finding it they fished it out, a card with the picture of a book on it, and expelled the book from the card. The book appeared before them while the picture slowly dissipated leaving the card white. Now only to find the spell...

It was a clairvoyance/teleportation spell. You focused on what you needed to do and it brought you to the closest possible location in order to achieve your goal. Depending on what your goal was, 99.99% of the time it put you in a sticky situation. This wasn't that 0.001%.
He appeared before the head quarters of the ruling faction of this world, the true ruling organization. If there weren't any strong magical barriers they would be teleported inside the headquarters. If there were any barriers they would appear just outside them. Book still in hand, they started talking...what was that humans said again?
"Goodbye?"

Lobo sat in a small bar on Blograk 7, strolling through the many, many bounties he had to choose from. "Loser... Loser... Chump... Nerd... Jeez, that is one ugly fraggin' loser." he said, although, the last comment was about a large alien creature that had just walked in the bar.

"WHAT WAS THAT, WORM!?!?!?" The creature roared. Lobo just stared back at him and belched.

"I'm sorry, I believe my exact words were "Jeez, that is one ugly fraggin' loser." but I sometimes get things mixed up." he grinned his toothy grin. The creature growled and stared at him with a nuclear fury.

"I PUMMLE YOU FOR THAT!!!" it roared. Lobo held up a hand and the creature stopped. Lobo continued looking through his bounty cards.

"Well, Grolblak the Vile... Only 50,000? I thought you were worth more. aw frag... Well, I suppose I can take you in for some fun." he said. The barman looked at them.

"Gents, please take this outside." Lobo smiled in response.

"Won't need to." He walked over to the bar. "It looks kinda crummy out there." He slammed 10,000 credits on the table. "That's for fighting in here and i'll pay for all damages." he said. He was clearly twice the size of the bartender, so the man was in no position to argue. "Main Man looks out for his barkeep."

"SO YOU'S GONNA DIE IN YOUR BAR!" Lobo looked shocked for a second.

"Oh no, i'm gonna die in here!" he exclaimed in a faux-scream. Then, in almost a blur, drew his pistol and blew Grolblak's head clean off. "Yeah, but then that happened." he mumbled, going to pick up the head. He got out his phone and held it up next to his own face, taking a picture of him holding the severed head. "Goin' straight on Space-Book." he laughed. "When I can be bothered." he put his phone away and then walked out to his Space-hog with the head and the body. He got on and started looking at the cards again, when one caught his eye. "What? WHAT!?!?!" He then laughed out loud. "NO FRAGGIN' WAY!!! BLUE-BOY BIT THE DUST!!!" He then read it out. "Oooooh, somebody is gonna get it. Let's see... Damn, there are a LOT of people that want this guy... Tamaran, Thanagar, Daxam, Ungar, Argoa, OA? Oh wait, not payin'... Damn, there was a lot of people who loved mr Goodie-two-shoes..." He then stood up. "DAWG!!!" he roared. The large alien dog-like creature slowly plodded its way over to him. "Get on the fraggin' bike." the Mutt did so and Lobo revved the engine. "Right, we're gonna deliver mr Headless here, pick up the denero, then we're goin' ta get us a Superman Killer." he slowly thumbed the Red ring on his necklace... "Nah." he huffed, before the hog blasted into the air.

The RV was in rough shape. The air conditioning was out again, the water filter needed replacing, one of the engine belts was slipping, and it only had a gallon left in the fuel tank. But somehow, it had made it. Arturo leaned back in the driver's seat and stared out of the massive windows into the city sky, admiring the massive and clean buildings. It was different there. More upright. But there was some damage scattered across the city. Construction projects were underway to fix up smashed roads and buildings after the revolution.

He smiled to himself. Infrastructure damage is good. 'Specially in a place this big. Can probably get a lot of supplies in trade here... There were supposedly a few companies that might be willing to work with the Free Territory of Chihuahua and Sonora, the expanse of land that the Black Militia and ILW had stormed and taken over when global leaders had disappeared. It stretched all the way from Los Angeles, CA to Albuquerque, NM, to Parral, MX, though territorial lockdown was fairly loose and a number of smaller groups were trying to build new nations inside its claimed areas. Arturo was out looking for materials to feed the growing population of the Free Territory, and his journeys had taken him all the way to Metropolis, still one of the biggest centers of commerce in North America even after the collapse of the old government.

Soil. Fertilizers. Raw minerals. Seeds. Most of the Free Territory's needs were covered by its masses of craftsmen and farmers, since the first order of business had been to ensure that everybody had food, clothing, entertainment, and shelter. But now it needed materials to not only expand its settlements, but also to give restitution to the families and friends of those who had been killed during the revolutionary war. It took a few weeks, but Arturo had managed to convince most of the other council representatives of the Free Territory that even 'enemies' should be treated fairly and given a choice between staying and becoming a productive member of society, or leaving with a mobile home and enough supplies to survive until their crops started growing.

Most people had opted to stay, but that meant the Free Territory was running in the red for the time being. A group of biologists and architects was tasked with coming up with a sustainable living plan. The plan mandated prefabricated housing equipped with solar panels, a home battery, rooftop rainwater collection, an automated indoor personal hydroponics garden, and a public outdoor miniature greenhouse. It seemed reasonable, and after being cleaned up by industrial engineers, the material requirement per unit dropped below that of ordinary housing. But the Free Territory needed materials in the first place: they could only build 5,000 out of the needed 500,000 prefab homes.

Arturo's musings on sustainable communities ended and the large man stood, stretched, yawned, and stepped out of the RV and onto the pavement. The free parking lot was on the outskirts of the downtown area, and he had quite a ways to walk. Even if he fucking hated them, the capitalists in the area hadn't been forced to build their production chains from the ground up, and were possibly willing to trade.

Trinity’s 13:00 Appointment was a Ghoul with cash who had heard that she could not only she into the past those touched her could also Sense whatever she did when she went Witness. He wanted to pay her an obscene amount of money to take himself and three others on a violence tour of the world’s greatest battle sites. Then the Golden boy got angry with her after she told him that she wasn’t an entertainment service and that 10 million or 20 million while a lavish offer was still an abuse of her abilities. He screamed and raged believing that he could bully her into complying with his demands just as it had his parents and everyone else in his life.

Her retort had caused him to explode when she exposed to him three things that she’d seen in his near past which could destroy him socially and he had tried to attack her physically. Subduing a mundane had been easy for her and proof her inclusion of a hook to hold zipcuffs sound judgement as her two bodyguards frogmarched the twit out.

Mavis please fetch me a coffee she called out to her secretary.

Then she turned her attention to the stack of letters people had sent her begging help Tracing lost things and people and because word had gotten out that she did gratis work made a lot of people resentful that she didn’t chose them. It wasn’t as if she didn’t want to help everyone who was deserving but paid or not she was only one woman. Then there was the problem of being trapped in the fallback time and never resurfacing because she’d used her Witness too much.

Mavis came in with Trinity’s favorite coffee which made most who tried it gag because of how sweet it was. Sure Turkish coffee was extra sweet and bitter at once but Trinity required her’s double the strength till it was almost a black syrup and Mavis even winced as her Boss took her first slurping sip

How you drink that is beyond me Ms. Smith but you’re the boss said the older woman

Trinity winked at her secretary and took another slurp before saying It’s how I charge the batteries.

I love how you’ve begun to read my needs in sorting through the requests

You should have let me handle the last one, I know his dad and he’s a jerk as well sighed Mavis as she took a seat on the edge of her boss’s desk

What and let you have all the fun? giggled Trinity

---

---

---

Alex please do be careful; the man shot Superman after all said her mom into her ear over the hotel phone.

Mother please let me do this without a debate. We have debated this 4 times now and a 5th won’t change my mind…. she said hoping that would end the debate but knowing it wouldn’t

How long she verbally sparred with her mom Alex couldn’t guess but she was relieved when it ended; so relieved she went Photonic and flew to the center of the city which was 30 miles from her hotel in less than one second.

She had been drawn to this city to because it was the base of the man responsible for the death of Superman or for the seeming death of a man who had seemed to have been killed several times in the past only to pop up later. Alex was here to see if the death were true or not because what had followed it was not the actions of someone who sought absolute power; well at least 75% didn’t.

Presently she was in her Ultraviolet spherical form which made her invisible to all but eyes and instruments that could see in that spectrum. Her spherical form made it easier for her to use her elemental power much as a relaxed stance made a more capable fighter.

So it was while looking at the city through the spectral bands hoping it might reveal things that hid under cloaks of altered light when she saw a purple sedan fleeing about 6 police cars so she dropped into the back seat to listen to the two men arguing in some odd language but clearly angry and scared.

So deciding she should really try and find out what was going on Alex went visible and tangible so she could ask Sorry gentlemen but I have to ask what you did to make the police so angry?

She smiled as sweetly and innocently as she could hoping it might put them at ease but the passenger just screamed and held up what looked like the joystick heads they used in flight simulators his thumb threatening to press the button.

Knowing a bomb trigger when she saw one Alex groaned thinking “Great I was after Criminals not Dummies” just as she went into high-speed search mode. She didn’t need to do much searching because she didn’t see it in the backseat where she was and the two men were up front leaving only the trunk which was sealed against light pollution and forced her to go intrusive lazing a hole in the boot lid. Once she’d penetrated the trunk she saw a large complex device which she had no skill with disarming leaving her only one choice.

The pursuing police officers who were chasing them were stunned by a flash of light that caused three cars to lock their brakes because of they were blinded as if they’d looked into the sun over the top of a hill. Then once their vision returned they saw the sedan or at least half of it skidding to a stop with two suspects.

What had happened in the blink of the eye was Alex had been forced to transform her spherical form into a self contained laser furnace that had vaporized the explosives, detonators, and most of the rear of the sedan. She had stuck around long enough to watch the police drag the two morons out of the wreckage happy to see no one was killed and that collateral damage was a bubbling hole of macadam in the highway where it had happened.

She considered revealing herself but having no legal rights to have done what she just did and likely held responsible for the damage to the highway decided against it. She did stay near by so that she could listen in on the police and how they operated knowing that they were most assuredly connected to Phoenix Security being as this was the base of that organization.

@BishopA strange fellow in a clown outfit appeared in the lobby of the Phoenix Security building in Metropolis.

"I'm sorry, sir." said a woman behind the reception desk. "Unauthorized teleportation is restricted here. Can I help you?" She wore a business dress and glasses.

@RumikoOhara As the two business men left for other meetings and John left to see to his duties, Mark called his friend, Trinity. Upon getting her secretary, he left an offer to go to Rome for a late lunch, though it was supper time for people in Rome. His date had canceled on him just before the meeting with Bruce and Oliver, and this was the first chance he had gotten to call her. Should she accept, he would meet her at 2:45 outside the Zeta tube room in this building.

As he hung up, though, Kevin entered. "John just informed me that someone with light powers just vaporized half of a vehicle that was running from our security. The two men were hyped up on low-grade Venom and had tried to rob the bank with a bomb. They had a hostage, but the Light meta stopped them."

Mark nodded. "See if you can figure out who she was, and offer her a job. We could certainly use someone with her talents."

"I'm sorry, sir." said a woman behind the reception desk. "Unauthorized teleportation is restricted here. Can I help you?" She wore a business dress and glasses.

"I'm sorry, sir."..."Unauthorized teleportation is restricted here. Can I help you?"...-they murmured to themselves while perfectly mimicing her voice.

Tilting their head, the thing approached the receptionist and laid the book on the desk, the title "Everything you need to know while visiting a new World" seen on top, while turning page after page like they were looking for something. They sometimes stopped in the middle only to read a few lines before beginning the search anew. *This wasn't going anywhere*-was their thought just as they remembered the summary located on the last page. Going to the last page they followed all the dots and lines connecting the writings, a super weird categorization system, until they found what they were looking for.

"To learn and speak the language of another race simply make contact with their communicating organ and utter the following incantations."
**Author's Note: The creature whose in the receiving end of this spell will feel excruciating pain and likely lose their voice forever. I suggest you find a desolate specimen to perform this act unnoticed so as to avoid repercussions.**

Still unfamiliar to other worldly customs they didn't know what the author meant by "repercussions". What could be the harm? Extending their hand they made contact with, what they assumed was, the communicating organ. For him it was the giant mound of flesh on her chest. Soft and tender, how could this thing allow them to communicate. After the response from the receptionist they connected the dots. The mouth was moving when they communicated along with the throat which trembled a little, assuming it was the origin of the sound. Now fixing their aim they went to grab the throat.

-

Inferno

Inferno looked gloomy as he stared out the window. He was to be given his next assignment soon. But he was tired of being bound to the throne of Apokolips with no option to leave unless Darkseid willed it. He wanted to explore the universe, reactivate his Black Lantern Ring one day, and in the back of his mind he wanted to return to New Genesis. He heard a knock on his door and he went to open it, and saw Steppenwolf and Kalibak.

"Hello, brother" Kalibak said to Inferno with some distaste in his tone. Steppenwolf motioned to Inferno.

"We have a mission for you. You are to scout out for any Lantern scum patrolling the Earth Sector. If you find them, you are to eliminate them."

"I shall grant any request given to me, great uncle Steppenwolf." Inferno said. Inferno left the Castle and flew into the air. He arose, breaking through the hellish skyscape of Apokolips and into space towards the Earth Sector. Inferno was blindingly fast, and was traveling through Solar Systems with haste. Inferno thought about Darkseid's Elite, and his mind wandered off into thoughts of disloyalty and insubordination. Eventually he neared the planet of Blograk 7, but he could smell something foul even in the vacuum of space. He recognized that smell, a mix of liquor and body odor.

"Lobo." Inferno thought. Inferno flew towards the smell and saw Lobo riding on his space hog. Inferno flew in front of his bike and generated a blast of fire in his hand, pointing it at Lobo.

"Lobo you swine, what are you doing in this sector of space?" Inferno looked at his bike and saw a corpse mounted on the bike. Inferno thought he must be collecting on a bounty.

@TheUnknowable



Trinity was at the Metro Museum in a room with documents from one of King Henry's secretaries translating his scribblings for two enthralled historians of the Royal Society Museum and Mavis who sat nearby recording it on two cameras and taking shorthand when she felt her phone hum in a vibrational code telling her it was Mark.

Able to carry on two conversations without pause if one was text and the other basic scribbling reading of a known language she pulled out her phone drawing a look from Mavis which made Trinity pause in her reading and texting to stick out her tongue.

Then she went back to reading to two puzzled English men, an annoyed Mavis while texting back to Mark.



It was a lovely read and she was happy to see that the two professors were more pleased than shocked by the letters commenting on how poetic his letters were, Mavis was even moved; proof she had was her controlled breathing and smile. So Trinity wrapped up then headed out to her huge Van where Tony a Local gym owner was waiting behind the wheel.

Mavis I’m headed to Mark’s offices which is out of your way and I would see you dropped off first but traffic conditions have me crunched for time.

I can have a cab or limo come and take you home or you can come with and ride home with Tony after you drop me off: “Your Call”

Mavis looked at Trinity with a worried and disapproving expression.

So, Cab or Limo? she asked expressing her lack of desire to discuss her friend’s disapproval of whom she dated or was friends with.

Mavis took a Limo with a grumble and a kiss leaving Trinity and Tony to drive to her appointment.

So when she arrived at the sidewalk she gave Tony a peck on the cheek and hopped out and headed towards the entrance.

She was bumped into by a man dressed in a long coat and cowboy hat and would have normally walked on thinking about the logic of walking so fast while looking down but this man had been touched by history, violent history. He had killed someone 10 minutes ago but that wasn’t the crime that had cinched it. He had been part of the raid on a Naval base down the coast that had resulted in a big fire fight leaving 7 dead service men and 5 men connected to a mayhem for hire group.

“Goddess I hate being physical” was Trinity’s thought as she tackled the man at the knees sending them both flying into a chrome banister of the nearby stairs. Under normal conditions Trinity’s Meta human physical nature would have taken the man down and out but he was juiced and therefore more than a match for her.

He flung her off like a ragdoll and drew a nasty looking gun that she knew was an energy weapon able to burn a hole right through her but she wasn’t afraid, only curious how her luck would protect her.

---

---

---

Alex had flown all around the city giving it a once over before going to the building that the Man who called himself Anarchy was known to use.

It was while observing the building and people that she was surprised to see what she thought of as a case of sidewalk rage gone wrong.

Big man ran into a smartly dressed woman who then for some reason tackled him. Big man threw woman 12 feet and drew a gun showing he had no idea of what Overkill meant.

Well Alex couldn’t allow the scene to escalate and the first step to a solution was disarming the man which she accomplished by tossing a laser ring around the barrel as she appeared 3 feet to his right distracting him enough that he didn’t notice he now had a weapon that was cleanly cut off an inch from the trigger guard till he swung it on her.

The big guy was angry and lunged at Alex too dumb to realize he could see through her and connect that to intangibility. Then the now not so smartly dressed woman said he has a bomb.

Alex paused a moment wondering what it was about bombs today as the big man crashed into one of those big potted trees people seemed to like. He was actually stunned which Alex thought a stroke of luck and was about to go solid when the woman walked through her and knelt near the man and reached in and disarmed the bomb like an expert pulling the detonator package lose disabling it completely.

Zane had a rough past week filled with false hopes, dead ends, and grumpy old man. But he knew the last part was not too bad, because the old man was back, Kent Nelson, and he was here to stay. It had taken a lot of coaxing and some strong magic to remove the helmet and convince Nabu that Nelson was no longer fit to be his host. Soon after he got it off the, man used some of the little magic he had left to seal it withing the Tower of Fate. The place had become a new home for Zane as he learned what he could from Doctor Fate, and hopefully learn something to help find his parents.

After his mom and dad were released he waited and waited, but the one who came and found him was Fate, who alos had been looking for his mother. Soon after even more magical entities on Earth started to drop all around, Cheetah, Circe, Phantom Stranger, a majority of the Lords of Order had stopped keeping contact, and it was only getting worse by the day. Zane had only met a small hand full of the "greats" and still was wet behind the ears when it came down to the magical community and magic in general. So in summary, his mom and dad were missing and any lead he could have on finding them was going cold every day. Plus to top it all off, Nelson would not let him out the tower, saying he was not ready and that he might cause more harm then intended. Zane wasn't an idiot though, Nelson, Fate, Nabu, they all knew something and just did not wanna tell him. Instead he opted to just sneak out like the 18 year old teenager her was.

Now he stood in front his destination, Phoenix Security building in Metropolis. He knew Anarchy was here, and kind of felt bad for stealing a spell from Fate to get that information. He promised himself that he would not, no matter how much he hated the man, cause a scene. Plus in the note he left Nelson he had promised the same thing and intended to keep it, in reality he did not hate Anarchy just the thought of what he might have done to his parents. After being gone for a year and some change he could only imagine what really happened to them, and he knew his mom she was not frolicking in a field of roses with her long lost lover Constantine. The last one to see her would have been Anarchy and that meant he had some answers.

With that thought he was about to walk into the building, until he saw a woman take down a man with the skills of a NFL linebacker. He was dressed in a trench coat with a cowboy hat, and had just flung her off of him like a wet rang but she looked unfazed by it. So much for not making a scene, plus I liked these clothes, Zane thought as he took his wand out is jean pocket and pointed it at the cowboy's gun filled hands. "Ezeerf!" He said with power, the spell sent a blue zap that encased the man's gun filled hand in ice. Zane came to stand next to the lady and looked between her and him, his hand would weigh the same as a ice block but that should not bother him at all. "You alright, sorry if I interrupted." he said while focusing on the mysterious cowboy with the scary gun. By no means was he a hero, but if he did not help where he could Zane would probably be disappointing his mom where ever she was.

@Grec
Lobo drove merrily on his way through space when he saw the being jump in front of his Hog. He slammed on the breaks and leaned on the Handlebars, staring at the man. "Swine?" He asked with fake shock "You one of you goody-goody-two-shoes-twinkle-toe types, ain't Ya's?" he asked, not even bothering to really assess the man. "Look, mr Hero, I got the bounty on this nerd right here and you know the first rule of the galaxy. Finders-keepers Losers-get-fraggedd." he smiled, pulling out the Radion cannon. Lobo had no idea that he had actually drawn the exact weapon to fight someone like Inferno, he just liked it because it was big. So big that he had to wield it underslung, rather than his usual pistol-style weapons. Radion was a substance as poisonous and deadly to a New God as Anthrax to a human. He had originally been hired to destroy the weapon by the New Gods of New Genesis, but when he went to do it, he had thought to himself "Would it really be so bad if he just kept it out of anyone else's reach? After all, if the New Genesis guys were so afraid of it, it must make a really big boom." Of course, he had no way of knowing that the weapon was originally designed to kill Darkseid.

"So, nerd, you wanna throw down? Because I have yet to use this thing and I have it on good account that this makes a hell of a boom. Now, I am feeling pretty generous today, so if you really want to take this bounty, I'm willin' ta give it to ya's. Just call me a little sentimental that an old, old enemy o' mine just turned up dead." He reached behind and pulled out the head of the corpse, he looked it in the eyes. "You happy he's dead?" he asked it. "Nah, he's just a corpse, he don't feel nutt'n. So, you want the corpse or nah? His bounty's worth 50k." All this time, he hadn't take the guns aim off of the man. He was overconfident to a fault, but he wasn't stupid enough to let his guard down against an enemy he had no idea about.

*****

@RumikoOhara@Queentze
Meanwhile on earth, the Blue planet had been roiling in despair since the murder of their beloved hero and the instillation of his murderer as a main power. But in this despair, hope was beginning to shine through. Such as in a lazy little town where a small fight had broken out between a large man and a pair of women. As they stood over the knocked-out man's body. There was another man approaching. One who was full of self doubt and wracked with guilt over lies to loved ones and promises he perhaps, subconsciously, never intended to keep. "Hello." a voice said as a bright blue light descended towards the boy. "Do not be afraid. I am a Dog. I saw that you three were in need of hope and I decided to grant that, because it is my duty to do so." he panted heavily and happily. The words seemed to flow from the blue light surrounding him than from his lips. "I sense that you three are disheartened by the current climate and are in need of hope. I do like to give hope to others." The dog floated down and landed next to them, still panting and wagging his fluffy tail happily.

((As a note, when addressing him, people are compelled to refer to him by the name of their most beloved pet they ever owned, even if it wasn't a dog.))

Still unfamiliar to other worldly customs they didn't know what the author meant by "repercussions". What could be the harm? Extending their hand they made contact with, what they assumed was, the communicating organ. For him it was the giant mound of flesh on her chest. Soft and tender, how could this thing allow them to communicate. After the response from the receptionist they connected the dots. The mouth was moving when they communicated along with the throat which trembled a little, assuming it was the origin of the sound. Now fixing their aim they went to grab the throat.

The receptionist shrieked. "Help!" she yelled, having just been violated by some person she didn't even know while she was trying to talk to them. Her days of offering that kind of "help" were over.

John Stewart heard the sound from the balcony above and flew down. He created a wall between them to try and force the mad clown off of her, but when he asked if she was all right, her response was to mouth "John", with no sound coming out.

"What have you done to her?" he asked forcefully, pointing his ring at the clown.

@RumikoOhara@Queentze@mattmanganon
George Harkness, formerly known as Captain Boomerang, pulled up in a police car, then opened the back of it to pull out one of the two bank robbing bombers from an hour earlier. They were both shaking, starting to experience withdrawal symptoms from the large dose of low-grade venom they'd injected about two hours earlier, and Harkness wanted to get them in a holding cell and on withdrawal meds before they got to the convulsion stage.

That's when he witnessed Miss Smith tackle a man, then a light beam cut the gun in half. Then someone walking by whipped out a magic wand and froze his hand, which was still holding the piece of a gun just before it was swung wildly through the holographic person who had cut the gun in half. Then, because the situation wasn't crazy enough, a blue-glowing dog floated up and started talking.

He rubbed his eyes with his free hand. "Uh, maybe we can come back later?" the criminal tried, only to get a look of annoyance from Captain Harkess.

Harkness sighed, handing the man off to another officer before running over to the now concussed man and handcuffing him. "Great, another bomb." Boomerang said, sitting the man up. "And let me guess." He reached into his pocket and found two more vials of cheap venom. "Great. And I was just about to fill out some paperwork on the two other junkies and head home. Looks like my wife's going to be fussing at me for being late for breakfast."

Another one of the cops came over to finish searching the man before hauling him inside. "Nice to meet you again Miss Smith." he said, nodding at the woman, though not offering to shake her hand because he knew of her powers. "I've never met the rest of you though. I assume you are the one that vaporized half of the car I was chasing." he said, pointing at the holographic girl. "You look familiar, but I don't remember where I've seen you." He pointed at the magician. "And I know I would remember seeing you, Duke." He walked over and started petting the Corgie. "So, who wants to go first?"

@mattmanganon

Inferno pondered blasting Lobo right then are there for his threat, but he rescinded his thoughts when he heard what the dead body he was carrying was worth.

"50k, huh? Yeah, I think I'll take that body. Just give me the coordinates and we can both be on our merry ways, Lobo." Inferno said to Lobo.

A silent scream painted her face as they grabbed the receptionist by the throat and drained her vocal capabilities. Any skill and knowledge that she had in language communication now they had. Then they saw a black man pointing a green ringed finger at them, as if to threaten. That item must have some magical properties. Maybe they would get around to collecting it, with time...

He started speaking, the receptionist's voice and way of talking could be heard coming from the jester. It was as if the receptionist was under the mask and costume talking.

"I mean no harm and I really didn't mean to do that to her. I mean like, she can't speak anymore now after the spell but it's not like she can't get a voice but I still needed a way to talk to you all."
This voice was obnoxious. Did she talk like this normally? Maybe while in high school? They were most likely stuck with he way she spoke when she was a teen. And it was messing with their head, mixing their words to give way to this crappy way of talking. But a voice was all they needed. Grading the voice, deepness, tone, frequency they achieved an equal, androgynous emotionless voice. They also started using only the most crucial words that they needed to convey what they wanted and nothing excessive.

"As I was saying, I mean no harm to you or your people. I come from another place to warn you of a dangerous creature that escaped from our world. One look at them and people cease to live. Being near them causes mass hysteria and terror. I lost track of the thing an hour ago. It seems to have gone into hiding. I need your help in finding it. For your world's sake."

Alex looked at the group that had assembled and shifted to her solid form so she could speak.

"I was the one who stopped the car but my reasoning for vaporizing the rear of the car was because it was the only way I could think of to disarm the bomb in the trunk.

Please call me Photon for that is the element which I control answered Alex with a soft tone of voice that showed her nervousness in its timid tone.

@TheUnknowable@Queentze@mattmanganon



Trinity smiled gently as she regarded the girl who had appeared and saved her from being shot but couldn't hide her surprise when Photon said bashfully that she had achived a temp capable of vaporizing not only a bomb but the rear of a car meaning the shy creature who had saved her could achive tempetures above 2862 °C.

@BishopAnarchy stepped out of the elevator into the reception area, as it was necessary to go down a different elevator to get to the Zeta tube in the basement. As he stepped out, however, he saw John lower his ringed hand. "Fine," John said to the clown-like entity. "If there really is a dangerous inter-dimensional entity in the city, why don't you come with me to the interview room so that you can tell me all about it?"

"Problem, John?" Mark asked, seeing the receptionist rubbing her throat. He was fairly certain he had heard her scream a little while ago.

"Nothing I can't handle. This individual just came through from another dimension, chasing some sort of inter-dimensional horror. He did use some sort of magic to steal Jenna's voice. I'll make sure the medics do whatever they need to so she can recover." He looked at the clown and motioned down a hallway. "Meanwhile, I'm going to learn whatever I can about this threat."

Mark nodded and walked over to Jenna, helping her up. She seem to no longer be in pain as she dusted herself off. "Are you all right?"

She nodded, tapped a sign indicating an infirmary was down a hall directly across from the doors, and smiled.

"Glad to hear it." He motioned to John that he could leave, then went over to the reception desk to call another branch. When he was done, he sat down at the chair behind the front desk, closed out Jenna's twitter page on the computer, and sat there for about two minutes until another receptionist came up the elevator from the Zeta tube room. "Thank you for coming from Star City on such short notice." he said, shaking the man's hand. "Our other receptionist was just attacked and is in the infirmary."

"Is she alright?" the receptionist asked.

"Her voice was magically taken, but otherwise she's fine."

"uh, Ok." said the man. "I'm not still in danger, am I?"

"No, the attacker is currently with John Stewart. Apparently, he came to this dimension to warn us about some great evil."

"Ok, well, I don't have any powers so if he attacks me, I'm running."

Mark giggled. "I wouldn't blame you. Most people would run, but I doubt that would happen." There was a noise outside and Mark looked out the door, spotting several people with Boomerang and Trinity. "Well, just make yourself comfortable. The next shift's receptionist will be in at five." he looked at his watch. 2:47. "Right now, though, I've got a date, and she's held up. Excuse me." He turned and walked out the door.

@RumikoOhara
"Hello, Trinity." he said as several men in handcuffs walked by him, followed by officers. "I assume you caught another criminal?"

A groan passed from the magician's clenched teeth as he made his ways through the disgusting streets of Gotham city, cigarette held tightly between the stained enamel. The comforting scent of burning tobacco soothed his nerves, while he tucked the lighter back into one of the bags he'd been carrying. Flying was always such a hassle, and stressful as hell. Magick or no, security was never something he got used to, but neither were cities for that matter. While they were a testament to the spirit of man, there was also something distasteful that Albert could never shake. Big, grimy, and often so out of touch from the world outside them, cities like Gotham proved to be even worse. Aside from the ever present criminal element and costumed maniacs, there was a very... fatalistic aspect about the monolithic buildings and sheer vastness of the sprawling metropolis. Seemed like no matter how hard you tried it would swallow you up, it was yours the minute you were born in the midst of its filth.

The magician pushed such thoughts from his mind as he walked, bags clenched tightly in his hands. Incense, charms, fetishes, ritual attire, and all manner of things that would never be let through onto a plain were carefully cradled within their leather embrace. Everything he would need to set up shop in that trash heap of a city. His new employers with their impressive resources, had secured him and his soon to be coworkers with a small, unassuming place from which to conduct their work within Gotham. Small was certainly the key word there. Standing on the sidewalk, Albert's frown stretched into a full blown scowl as his eyes scanned over the rather pitiful millhouse which stood before him. It was old, and though in decent shape far from attractive what with its peeling paint, broken shutters, and filthy windows. A man of middle years sat on the porch, cigarette clasped between his fingers as he glared at Albert.

"You Barton?" His voice was gruff, and his tone rather rude.

"Yeah, what the hell have you been doing here this whole time, thought you were supposed to get the place furnished and ready for moving day. Place looks like shit, man."

The man frowned and stood with a groan, motioning for Albert to follow him inside. "Yeah, we were and we did. Didn't say nothing about touching up the outside of the damn house."

With a sigh Albert tossed what little remained of his cigarette, grinding it beneath his foot before walking in to join the rather unpleasant man. The interior was admittedly much more well kept, the furniture new if simple and sparse. Another man was sitting inside on a laptop, mumbling softly to himself and not giving the two of them a glance.

"You've got heat, air, water, all the essentials. Rich boy's package is in the garage along with some old junker. Should work fine for your purposes right? Anyways, he can set up his own little network when he gets here if he likes, but you've got the plain old internet as well if you prefer."

"Thanks, now if you gentlemen will excuse me, I have work to do and little time to do it in. Jupiter is in a very delicate position that won't last another day or two at most, can't let that opportunity pass me up." He set his bags down and smiled at the two men, who simply looked at one another and shrugged before heading towards the door.

"We'll be in touch." With that the two were gone from the small dwelling, and Albert could breathe easily at last. Wasting no time, the magician began unpacking his ritual materials. One of the two bedrooms (if they could be called such) had been set aside per his request. After years of careful practice the ritual space was prepared within minutes, Albert dressed in the full regalia of his ceremonial garb and all the necessary tools on a table within his reach. So began a series of rituals which would seal and ward the dwelling against prying eyes both mundane and supernatural, a barrier through which only those invited spirits could pass in the astral plane. The smell of sweet incense and earthy oils permeated the air in the millhouse as the magician continued his work, ensuring the security of himself and those who sought refuge within the small home.

Isaac drove a dark blue rental car through the streets of Gotham. It wasn't his favorite way to travel but it beat walking the streets of Gotham, and if nothing else he arrived faster. As he pulled up to his destination, an old mill-house, Isaac pulled in next to the building and set the car in park. He'd have to put it inside somewhere before long, but for now it would be fine, and if someone did do something to the car it wasn't like he couldn't cover it.

Isaac got out of the car and looked around him. There wasn't much to say about the place beyond that it needed some work, and perhaps there would be times for that later. For the moment he grabbed a bag from the car and walked up to the door, passing two men he could only guess were the movers. On his way in, Isaac couldn't help but notice that Mr. Barton had already set to work and decided not to bother him, instead he made he way to garage to look over his things and make sure they were unharmed.

In the garage Isaac found his suit disassembled and unharmed, as well as workbench and a brace to assemble his suit on and facilitate work. He set the bag on the bench and set to work unpacking tools he would need to assemble and maintain the suit while he was here. There was high tech readouts and miniaturized computer systems for diagnosing and programming the suit as well as low tech equipment like wrenches and battery powered drills. There was even a hammer for...percussive maintenance.

Once it was all laid out it was time to assemble the suit. A simple enough endeavor for Isaac, since the suit was intended to do this for ease of transport. It started with the legs and moved up to the hips, torso, arms, and then head, all going together by slotting together, bolting the pieces together, and then connecting some electronics on the inside. Of course all of this was facilitated by the new Kepler Gravity Manipulator that was essentially a miniaturized tractor beam/field. This entire process took about 15 minutes and then it was time to set up the network.