Chapter 8: The Gathering Storm: Engagement

© Eldric 2014

LexCorp Sub-basement Lab

“Don’t you remember your own son, Father, Mother?”  Lexie pressed Lex and Mercy as they both stared at the creature that had been cobbled together from the remains of their son.  The creature claimed to be Lex Jr., but Lex could not bring himself to believe that to be the case.

“Lexie, what were you thinking?”  Mercy Graves charged towards Lexie, grabbing the younger woman’s shoulders.

“You’ve never taken me seriously!”  Lexie grabbed Mercy’s right hand and squeezed.  Lex heard the sound of breaking bones as the Amazon struggled to keep her composure. 

“Lexie,” Lex called out, “what the hell is wrong with you?”

“Do not lecture me,” Lexie retorted as she faced her father.  “I obey only the commands of Lord Brainiac.”

“Brainiac?”  A startled Lex asked.  “What is a Brainiac?”

“We are being diverted from our mission,” Lex Jr. spoke in his monotone machine voice.  “We must focus on our primary objective.”

“Primary objective?”  Lex asked, stalling for time.  At the same time, he activated an emergency signal to Project Infinity.  He hoped that neither Lex Jr. nor Lexie would know to intercept the signal.  Had either of them had the full set of Kryptonian powers and the experience that came with using them, Lex would have been entirely out of luck. 

Then Mercy, while the clones were distracted, tossed her concealed kryptonite charge towards the clones, causing both clones to stagger.  Lex and Mercy took advantage of the clones’ disorientation and fled; the kryptonite would not be enough to kill the clones, but it would hopefully stop them long enough for Lex and Mercy to reach the elevator and obtain Project Infinity assistance.

Lex hated calling for help, but Mercy’s wounds needed attention and Lexie had clearly gone off the deep end, seemingly under the influence of an entity of which Lex had no knowledge.  Lex led Mercy into the elevator and activated it, leaving the heavily shielded area.  Lex activated the signal again, hoping that it would get through. 

Finally, the elevator doors opened, allowing Lex to reach a workstation, where he could trigger a more powerful signal to Project Infinity while he contacted his own security forces.  At the same time, Mercy broke into a first aid kit and began to wrap her swelling broken hand. 

As Lex worked, he heard noise in the elevator shaft.  One or both of the clones had escaped the effects of the Kryptonite or found a way to nullify those effects. 

Then the elevator doors opened.  Lexie and Lex Jr. flew out, targeting the two of them.  Lexie flew towards her mother, while Lex Jr. trailed slightly behind.

“Hold,” Lex Jr. commanded as he moved towards Lexie.  “Personal distractions gain us little.  We have our assignment.”

“And what would that be?”  Lex heard Brandy’s voice behind him as he watched Captain Marvel land between Lexie and Mercy.  “A scholarship to charm school?”

Lex Jr. stared blankly at Brandy.

“Our Lord Brainiac demands the Probability Device.”

“He can demand all he wants to,” Brandy retorted.  “We don’t have it.”

“Then find it.”  Lex Jr. ordered.

The Darkstar vessel ‘Beta 27’

“Brainiac,” Jimmy Olsen spoke to Alexis Graves in a room without listening devices or cameras.  There was no such thing as a technology-free zone on the ship, but conversations in this particular room would be lightly less easy to monitor.  “He steals cities from worlds, sometimes just before a world ends.  We encountered him several times.”

“Ellen and the imp have explained who Brainiac is,” Alexis prompted suspiciously.  “Why isn’t there more information about him in the Fortress files?”

“Brainiac can access any technology,” Jimmy explained, “without leaving footprints behind.  And Superman did not want him to know that we knew about him.”

“Why not?”

“In this universe,” Jimmy continued, “Superman was not born on Krypton.  He was born from a specially constructed matrix that released him on Earth.  No other Kryptonians survived because they were all tied to their world: departing meant an agonizing, but rapid death.  Superman’s DNA had been specially altered to avoid that fate.”

“How horrible,” Horror crossed Alexis’s features as she digested the meaning of his words.  “But why would…”  Sudden realization flashed from her eyes.  “Great Scott,” she drew a deep breath.  “Superman wound up on Brainiac’s vessel and found a Kryptonian city with no survivors…all dead.  So he tried to cover his tracks, so that Brainiac would not suspect there had been a survivor of Krypton after all.”

“Yup,” Jimmy let her finish her thought.

“But, somehow, Brainiac knew about Kal-El.”

“Somehow,” Jimmy agreed, “even though Superman had been careful not to carry tech with him onto Brainiac’s ship.”

“If what I suspect is true, it was already far too late to take precautions,” Alexis rebutted.  “Not with Brainiac…not if you understand his nature.”

“How so?”

“The Brainiac of this universe has likely traveled to the MVP-1 and MVP-2 probabilities.  So, even though the timeline of this universe has been reset several times, recordings of the original timeline exist in those probabilities.  And the original timeline had a city of living inhabitants of Kandor, which Kal-El rescued and kept in his fortress.”

Jimmy heaved a heavy sigh.

“So as soon as our Brainiac reached out to his devices,” Jimmy surmised, “which were likely calling to him from the other probabilities, he relearned the original history of this universe.  And he knew all about Earth and its Superman.”

“Both Lexie’s DNA and mine are variants of what my father programmed,” Alexis considered.  “The imp altered mine, but didn’t know anything about Lexie.  I wonder if Brainiac altered her DNA,” Alexis realized as horror entered her voice.  “Earth could be in deadly danger.  My sister…and maybe my brother…altered to serve Brainiac.  That would explain so much.”

“I can get a message back to Earth,” Jimmy volunteered.

“Please do,” Alexis agreed.  “In the meantime, I need to find out where Brainiac’s fleet is and where it’s going.”

Jimmy rose to depart, but realized that Alexis continued to gaze at him with an expression of curiosity.

“Okay, what’s puzzling you?” he nudged as he sat back down.

“How did the prisoners survive their exit from the Phantom Zone?”  Alexis queried.  “They should have died immediately; this Krypton no longer existed.”

“I don’t know,” Jimmy admitted.  “Personally, I think it might be a discontinuity caused by the timeline flux. Brandy and Buddy Raines told me about the original Kryptonians on the Probability One Earth and the Kryptonians they knew in Otherverse, all of whom are able to survive far from Krypton.”

“Ellen explained that to me,” Alexis offered, easily retrieving the data from her super-memory.  “Those Kryptonians had power levels that might be significantly greater than Ellen’s or mine.  And they were no more tied to Krypton than I am.”

“The flux did something to the Zoners,” Jimmy concluded.  “Maybe because they were in the Phantom Zone at one point, the timeline shifts didn’t quite affect them like it did the other Kryptonians from this universe.  They had the reduced power levels they should have had, but they weren’t tied to Krypton like they should have been.”

“But how did they know that leaving the Zone wouldn’t kill them?”  Alexis puzzled.  “Or did they bleed into this timeline from a timeline where they wouldn’t have expected to have the problem?”

“I don’t know,” Jimmy admitted, shaking his head with frustration.  “And even if we asked them, I doubt they would know to tell us.  I wonder if the imp knows something.”

“I’ll remember to ask if I see him again,” Alexis promised.  “I’ll be thinking about it while I’m tracking Brainiac’s fleet.  I’m going to be spending a lot of time trudging through space.”  She drew in a breath, frowning before sighing.

“Something else troubling you?”  Jimmy prodded.

“I’ve heard the stories of Kara Zor-El and her crew,” Alexis admitted.  “They’re supposed to be more powerful than I am, extremely experienced, and supremely brilliant.  I have a feeling we’ll meet them before this is all over.  I’m just worried if I’ll measure up.”

“It’s not a contest,” Jimmy advised.  “Everyone contributes in their own way.  And you’re doing things that no one else is in a position to do.”

“Thanks for trying to cheer me up,” Alexis offered graciously.

“Don’t stop doing what you’re doing,” Jimmy emphasized.  “I know you’re still very new to all of this…”

“That’s part of what scares me,” Alexis exclaimed before making an effort to focus.  “I’m sorry; I know I’m a bundle of nerves.  I really need to go home and check on Lexie.  The more I think about it, the more certain I am of Brainiac’s influence.”

“I’ll contact Ellen,” Jimmy stated.  “We’ll have to take the risk to warn her.  Hopefully, she can do something.”

“Thanks,” Alexis nodded.  “I’ll go back to Arisia’s ship and see what I can do.  Please let me know when you hear something.”

LexCorp basement

“What the Hell is a Brainiac?”  Lex asked again.

Ellen debated whether to answer when heard her comms activate.  Now what?  She tried to focus on Bruce’s voice when Lex Jr. spoke again.

“Lord Brainiac will give you 48 hours to turn over the Probability Device,” Lex Jr. threatened while Brandy ignored him to listen to Bruce Wayne.

“Message from the Midnight Angel, courtesy of Jimmy Olsen,” Bruce Wayne’s voice echoed across her comms.  “Brainiac may know about MVP-1 and MVP-2.  He has likely retrieved this probability’s history from his stored memory in those two probabilities.  And Lexie may be under his control.”

“You think?”  Ellen swore under her breath, softly so that no one could hear her.  She could tell by Captain Marvel’s expression that he had received the same message.

“Rock of Eternity,” Captain Marvel advised Brandy.  “No tech at all.”

“Done,” Ellen flew towards Lexie as Captain Marvel flew towards Lex Jr.  Ellen could feel Lexie struggle as Ellen trapped her from behind, putting her into a sleeper hold.  Lexie fought it, but even she could not fight off lack of oxygen to her brain. 

Captain Marvel had the tougher job.  So much of Lex Jr. had been replaced by technology that no wrestling hold could subdue him. 

“Fool, you are no match for me,” Lex Jr. touted. 

“I have to be,” Captain Marvel retorted as he realized his only course of action.  “I have to be better.”

He pushed Lex Jr. into the wall.  As Lex Jr. bounced off the wall, Captain Marvel hit him with all of his strength, sending him through the wall and into the Earth’s crust.  Captain Marvel followed Lex Jr. through the opening at full speed.  He impacted the clone at full speed, forcing him outward again.

“Cyborg Superboy,” Lex swore as Ellen flew out of the facility with Lexie in tow.  “How could Lexie do such a thing?”

“More importantly,” Mercy opined, “how do we undo it?”

The Rock of Eternity

Brandy and Captain Marvel approached the Rock of Eternity, divesting themselves and their captives of any electronic devices before entering.  Ellen gazed at Lex Jr, once more, shuddering.  Captain Marvel had beaten him so severely, limbs were barely connected and the head connected to the torso at an odd angle.  Still, the clone healed rapidly; Ellen realized they only had minutes at the most before Lex Jr. reawakened.

The Shazam Wizard immediately understood the situation, directing them to two specific holding cells.  The cells were back to back, to minimize any chance of communication.

“It feels like I’m under a red sun in here,” Ellen commented.

“You basically are,” the Wizard explained.  “No solar rays or any form of frequency can enter here without me allowing it.  These cells would not hold you or the third clone, but they should provide some breathing room with these two.”

“The problem,” Captain Marvel added, “is that while they can’t use their technology, we can’t, either.”

“I’ll contact Dr. Strangefate, if you don’t mind,” Ellen stepped around to Lex Jr.’s cell, watching the body continue to heal, “he might be able to do some diagnosis.  We need to know if they are somehow being overshadowed.  If so, we just have to figure out how to end his control.  If not…”

“We’ve got harder decisions to make,” Captain Marvel finished.  “We can’t let them run loose.”

“No,” Ellen agreed.  “We can’t.”

Darkstar Vessel Alpha 17

Arisia Rabb escorted Alexis through the halls of the Darkstar ship, leading her to the commander’s ready room.

“Brainiac had been in the Orenda sector,” Arisia explained as a hologram appeared.  “There had been no set direction to his most recent explorations.  But that may have changed.”  Arisia pointed to the motion of Brainiac’s fleet, demonstrating random motion leading into more fixed motion.  “Looks like he’s decided he’s outstayed his welcome.”

“Can you show me the direction to Earth?”

“Certainly,” Arisia added a new pinpoint of light that appeared across the room.  “Here’s where his path will take him,” Arisia projected Brainiac’s trajectory, which led directly to the pinpoint of light.

“I wonder why he is suddenly so interested in Earth,” Alexis tapped her chin.  “Lexie…oh no…”

“Pardon?”

“I have to get back to Earth,” Alexis explained, “before Brainiac can.  Great Scott, this universe is advantageous for Brainiac.  Even the Guardians…”  Her eyes widened.  “Commander Rrab, we need to have Brainiac’s fleet tracked.  And we also need to know if the Manhunters start moving towards Earth.”

“We can access that data from here,” Arisia explained.  “We’ll encrypt it for Kreon so he can receive it on the Project Infinity satellite and forward the salient information to Brandy and to you.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Alexis nodded gratefully.  “Thank you.”

“I also need to contact the Controllers,” Arisia added.  “This is end-game.  This isn’t about just Earth, but the entire Cosmos.”

“I hope you’re wrong,” Alexis commented, “but I don’t think you are.”

RISING STARR

“Everything Alexis asked to be sent has been spot on,” Bruce Wayne advised Ellen Starr as he shared the results of the Darkstar research.  “Brainiac is moving towards us, but he is taking his time.  The Manhunters are beginning to move in our direction as well.”

“Where is Alexis?”  Ellen asked.

“On her way back here,” Bruce explained.  “She’s deduced what happened to Lexie.  We haven’t told her about Lex Jr.”

“I don’t want her here, Bruce,” Ellen rebutted.  “We need her out there, tracking Brainiac and watching after the Darkstars.”

“Any particular reason?”

“I want her away from her family melodrama,” Ellen emphasized.  “She has more of her mother in her than you might think.  Out there, this mess isn’t real to her yet.  Here, she’ll focus on her family.  And the universe can’t afford that distraction.”

“Do we have the right to keep her from her family?” Bruce prodded.

“If she were anyone else, I would agree with you,” Ellen explained, scowling.  “But we can’t afford to lose her from the front lines right now.  She may be new to this, but she understands strategy, tactics, and the need for and limitations of alliances.  We need her out there with the Darkstars to help slow Brainiac down, so that we have time to plan our defenses and to help her family.”

“All right,” Bruce agreed, “I’ll reroute her.”

“Try to have Babs or Jimmy in her vicinity, if you can,” Ellen suggested, “she’s doing a great job, but we’ve been lucky so far.  She’s still new to the game; she doesn’t know what she doesn’t know.”

“And,” Bruce surmised, “you have an ugly suspicion that representatives of the  other two MVP probabilities will show up and you want your representative on sight.”

“That’s right,” Ellen agreed as she displayed a hologram.  “We’re at just about the time I left Otherverse to travel into the past of this world.  Things are getting bad out there and our counterparts will find a way to act.”  She pointed up to the hologram.  “This is Kara Zor-El of the MVP-1 probability.  She and her crew will try to come on site and take over.  They’ll be backed with every expert they can dredge up.  I can’t really blame them, but I don’t want to lose control of the situation.  It’s volatile enough already.”

“And you haven’t forgiven them for leaving you behind in Otherverse.”

“It shows that much?”  She crossed her arms, shaking her head slowly.  “I know I shouldn’t blame them.  They left me where they thought I would be safe, on a farm with Martha Kent.  But I was bored to tears,” she sighed, before smiling at Bruce confidently.  “Don’t worry, I won’t let it interfere with my work.  All of you deserve better than that.”

“Farm animals,” Bruce smiled wryly, “the closet I ever got was a robin and a penguin.

As Ellen groaned, he added. 

“First, I’ll contact Alexis.  And then I’ll contact Waynetech, to see if we can help with the Luthor mess.”

“That’s unusually kind of you, Bruce.”

“It’s bad enough to watch your children die,” Bruce emphasized.  “But watching them die only to return as parodies of themselves…I would not wish that even on Lex Luthor.”

“And watching over the children is one of our prime missions,” Ellen confirmed, “the real reason we’re both here.”

“Yes,” Bruce agreed strongly.

RISING STARR

“Any luck?”  Captain Marvel watched as Dr. Strangefate manipulated mystic energies within the prison environment that held the clones.  “The Wizard says that almost all external signals are blocked here.”

“I wonder if blocking the signal will draw our adversary,” Charles Xavier pondered as he examined Lex Jr.  The male clone appeared to have healed from his beating, but did not move, remaining motionless, not even breathing.

Charles stepped over to Lexie’s cell, watching as she repeated the same phrases.

“Brainiac is coming,” she swore, “and your world will die, just as soon as you have surrendered the Probability Device.  The faster you surrender the device, the less pain this world will feel at the end.”

“Now that’s cold comfort,” Captain Marvel clucked.

Darkstar Vessel Alpha 17

Arisia’s ship fell out of Hyperspace in the outer reaches of a red star system, quickly hiding within the nearest asteroid belt.  Alexis could feel the lack of yellow solar rays immediately, as her cells received almost no new sunlight to metabolize.

“This is not good,” she grumbled as she entered the bridge.  “I’m going to start losing power.”

“Prepare to deploy sensor drones,” Arisia ordered her command crew.  “Let’s see what’s really going on out there.”

“Can you hold?”  Alexis requested, focusing through the side of the vessel as Arisia nodded to her crew.  “Give me a second…we’ve got company…strange looking ship accompanied by Manhunters.”

Arisia broadcast a hologram in front of Alexis.

“Does it look like this?”  Arisia asked.

“A lot like that,” Alexis confirmed as she glanced away from the fleet towards the hologram.  “Is that a Hunter-Killer ship?”

“Yes,” Arisia confirmed.  “The fact that Brainiac’s fleet and the Manhunters are cooperating indicates that Brainiac is in collusion with the Guardians.”

“More likely he’s taken them over,” Alexis remarked, frowning as she scanned.  “Let me go out and take a look.  I’ll have to leave my comms behind, just in case.”

“That’s a red sun out there, Alexis,” Arisia reminded her.  “You’re running on batteries.”

“Hopefully, they’re big batteries,” Alexis groused.  “If I get too low, I’ll have to jump back into Hyperspace before I run out of power.  I just don’t know how long I will take to recharge.”

RISING STARR

Alexis flew from the Darkstar vessel, skirting the asteroid belt, doing her best to stay out of sight.  She sensed a trap; there was just enough lead to frustrate her weakening X-Ray vision and her super-hearing only worked on a world with an atmosphere. 

She continued to weave her way through the asteroid belt until her instincts hammered at her.  Manhunter tech?  She slowed down, hugging the surface of the nearest asteroid, using her X-Ray vision to pierce through it.

Lead core…perfect trap.  She bore through the asteroid, stopping just before reaching the surface.

There…a squadron of them…they’re hunting for the Darkstars.  We have to get out of here.

She reversed her course, slowly tracking her way back to the ship.  Her dark expression as she stepped through the airlock told Arisia everything she needed to know.

“You found them,” Arisia surmised.

“One set of them,” Alexis agreed, “there are probably more ships I did not find.”

“We’re out of here,” Arisia informed her as she marched towards the bridge.

RISING STARR

The Darkstar vessel maneuvered back through the asteroid belt, aiming for enough clear space to accelerate to enter Hyperspace.  But as they maneuvered into clear space, a distant Manhunter ship fired on them.  More Manhunter ships began to appear, dropping out of Hyperspace, blocking their escape.

“This area is thick with them,” Arisia cursed as the ship raised shields.  “There are too many of them to hide from.  And I have to have straight shot before I jump.” 

“Then let me off,” Alexis requested.  “If I can stay out of their sensor range, they won’t even know I’m here.  All you have to do is draw them back into the Asteroid belt.”

“Do you have enough power left to do this?”  Arisia gazed at her with concern.

“I think so,” Alexis assured, “especially if my powers work the way I think they do.”

RISING STARR

Alexis estimated their opponents at twenty ships.  Dropping out of the Darkstar vessel, she waited until the Manhunters followed Alpha 17.  The ship would occasionally fire on the Manhunters, but would direct almost all of its power to its shields.

Alexis tracked the trailing Manhunter vessels.  She tracked the last one, waiting until it was out of sight of the next nearest vessel.  Then she fired at its engines, igniting the energy charge that drove them.

As the engines blew, she flew into the center of the destruction, absorbing as much energy as she could before moving towards the next vessel.

That worked…it’s not that red solar rays depower me, it’s just that they don’t add much to my power reserves.  There’s enough yellow energy in the explosion to boost my power levels for just a bit.

She waited for the next vessel in line to come back to investigate.  Then she used heat vision to blow it apart, absorbing its energy.

This should start sowing confusion any time now.

She waited as the Manhunters sent a pair of ships towards her, barely giving her enough time to take one out before focusing on the other.  Both exploded quickly, adding to her energy stores.  To her relief, her strengthening senses confirmed that the Manhunters had broken off the attack on Alpha 17, now maneuvering to track and attack her.

She would not give them the chance.  She sped towards the Darkstar Vessel, entering the airlock as Arisia initiated an emergency Hyperspace jump.  The ship sped a quarter parsec from where they entered Hyperspace before dropping out near a yellow sun. 

Alexis felt the airlock open into space, exposing her to the full onslaught of yellow solar radiation.  She flew towards the sun, feeling her energy levels rapidly recharging as she flew towards it.

But her fully re-powered senses soon revealed that they were not alone.  They had been followed.  Alexis powered away from the new arrival, moving towards a small planet.  Approaching the planet, she used the combination of the planet’s gravity and her own speed to hide her jump back into Hyperspace, dropping out of Hyperspace behind the vessel. 

The symbols on the vessel were in Interlac, the same language she used to converse with the Darkstars, but with slight variations.  Curious, she allowed herself to be seen.  As she waited, a brown-haired man dressed in a black and green costume flew from the ship towards her.  An emerald glow encased him, providing his life support as he flew, stopping just short of her.

She gazed at the symbol on his chest and recalled a name from Ellen’s files.  Lacking her comms device, she resorted to American Sign Language, hoping that he was who she thought and that his ring would translate.

“Welcome to MVP-3, Mr. Jordan,” she signed.  “You appear to be a very long way from home.”

End—The Gathering Storm: Engagement