The return to this new Multiverse from Otherverse had been nothing short of exhilarating as far as Kara was concerned.
First things first, they had introduced the twins to Lex Luthor…standing by and watching closely while both girls seemed to bristle and finally accept that this man was not bad.
Next, they had gone to check out the land that Tony Stark had purchased for them and then taken a trip to Xavier’s School.
The twins, being teenagers, were not really thrilled with the idea of going back to school, especially since they felt there was little they could learn…not after having Zor-El as a tutor for so long.
Both Kara and Rogue were unwavering in their decision, however. The twins needed to learn about their new world and they needed to learn the social skills often absorbed in school. Both things they could get at Xavier’s School for the Gifted.
Once the twins were enrolled and set to start school the following week, the four returned to Metropolis and began to make plans for the construction of their new Fortress…and their plans for inserting themselves into society…secretly.
With the help of Lex Luthor, and a few favors called in from a few people in SecPol, eight new identities were created. Identities with histories that could not be easily checked, and left no tell-tale trails through the various governmental computer systems. As far as they were concerned, those eight people, four of whom were teenage girls, were all upstanding citizens, with nothing about them to draw suspicion.
The twins, naturally, had wondered at the four names. Two assigned to each of them.
One set they recognized as those names under which Kara and Rogue had enrolled them in Xavier’s school. Carrie and Karen Dox.
The other set matched the names Kara and Rogue had taken for themselves. Once again Kara had donned the secret identity of Linda Lee Danvers. Rogue, for her part, was simply Marie Danvers.
The twins, again stuck with their real names, were now Carrie and Karen Danvers.
“I know you both are experienced at keeping your identities a secret.” Kara had told them. “But these are special circumstances. While you are at the school, you will be Dox. That way, if some one does happen to discover your identity, and there well be a better chance of it there, they will not be able to trace you back to Linda, Marie, Carrie, and Karen Danvers.”
What Kara did not tell them was that she felt certain that the two girls would be unable to keep their identities a secret. In the past, before they had come together, they had been somewhat isolated, living in the country, going to school during the day and then returning home.
At Xavier’s school, they would be living with their classmates in the dorms. And now, after coming together, things had changed. It would be much harder for them to…disguise…themselves.
After that, the four of them had sat down and discussed
where, exactly, they wanted to live.
Would they build a fortress in
Rogue had vetoed that from the beginning.
“Why go through the bother then?” She had argued. “If it is not going to be a place we spend
most of our time, then we could just as well build it in the
In the end, it was decided to build not only a Fortress…but a Fortress that was also a home.
“Much easier to hide that way, in any case.” Rogue had said. “We can’t have the sprawling Fortress we had in Otherverse. But from the outside, it will look like a regular house. A large one, but not large enough to attract a lot of attention.”
“And the working part of the Fortress can be built underneath!” Karen caught on, looking at Carrie. “And it’s still right by that lake so we can do what we did with the old fortress and make emergency tunnels that run from the lake bottom to the lower levels!”
“This time try to do it without flooding the place!” Kara warned, causing both girls to blush.
That settled, there was only one thing left to do and that was to meet with Lex and Tony Stark and find out how they were going to build the fortress/home, how they were going to furnish it, and how, most importantly, they were going to pay for it.
“I don’t think that will be a problem.” Lex told them when the presented the idea…and the problem…to him.
They were seated in the living room of his penthouse in Metropolis, waiting for Tony Stark to arrive.
The twins, still somewhat uncomfortable with Lex, had been lured away by Mercy and were off in the expansive kitchen, doing who knew what kind of damage.
“In fact, I think we have the solution already well in hand.” Lex finished with a smile.
Kara frowned, wondering what Lex was up to, when doors of the personal elevator the opened directly into the living room slid open and two individuals stepped out.
“You!” Kara exclaimed. “But…but…”
Lex and the two newcomers burst out laughing while both Kara and Rogue stood there…speechless.
It had been a very long two weeks.
A long and, in some ways, painful, two weeks.
She had, she thought, finished her mourning years ago. Mourning the loss of an older sister, who had also happened to be her best friend, and the loss of a niece she had barely gotten to know. Not to mention a brother-in-law that she, along with most of the world, had adored…Superman.
It had been a day of surprises when she accidentally
discovered that her bumbling brother-in-law, Clark
She had often wondered exactly what Lois had seen in the man.
Oh sure, he was the perfect gentleman in almost every way. But compared to Superman, around whom Lois spent most of her time, he was just so…ordinary.
And then the day had come when Lucy had barged into their
apartment, without knocking, just in time to see timid
Lois had sworn her to secrecy…and Lucy had never broken her silence. Even in the years that followed. In the eyes of the world, Superman was dead. Had it been during normal times, the people of Metropolis would have mourned the presumed death of one of its most famous news anchors.
But those were not normal times. What were the deaths of two reporters and their child when they were but three out of millions just in the Metropolis area alone that had died?
Lucy, sitting back in her chair, forced her eyes open as the scenes of those days once again began to play back on her eyelids.
Since that day, two weeks ago, those scenes had come back again and again.
And with them, the memory of just how glorious…and despicable…mankind could be under such circumstances.
“Why is it the scum always seem to survive any disaster?” She wondered aloud as the tears formed in her eyes.
The scum had survived then…but she had been one of the lucky ones—if you would call it that. Not those lucky enough to escape their clutches, but one of those lucky enough to live through being in their clutches.
Questionable luck at best.
Many had been the times, in those early days after the war, and before the restoration of law and order, that Lucy had contemplated suicide. They had used her. In every conceivable way a depraved man…and woman…could use another human being. She had lived through degradation, again and again and again, but her spirit was broken…her trust…gone. She had become a mindless automaton, her body used at will by whom ever when ever.
Until he had shown up.
She had thought him dead…another victim of the war, killed as he, the photographer turned reporter turned action man, had done what he was best at…getting smack dab in the middle of things!
She never discovered where he had been, or how he had found her. He was just…there.
She vaguely remembered him slinging her over his shoulder; she remembered crying out as her arm brushed against the white hot barrel of his machine gun, though to him it had probably been a barely heard whimper
There had been no time for niceties. No time for comfort.
Holding her with one arm, his other hand sweeping the death-spitting weapon in wide arcs, he had carried her out of that den of thieves and cut throats…back into the world of light and hope.
She had later learned that, after getting her out, he had gone back in, again and again, until he and others like him, those not willing to surrender Metropolis to the scum, had cleared the city of the worst pockets…and saved untold hundreds of people living in abject fear!
Afterwards he had found help for her. In a world where little time could be spared to help those traumatized beyond belief, he had found someone who could help her, or could at least find her the help she needed to try and put her life back together…and, to her great surprise, he arranged for that help from Lex Luthor.
For the next several years, as she slowly…and at times painfully…regained her sanity, her rescuer had come and gone, always the gentleman, always careful of how he approached her…but never trying to hide the love and worry in his eyes.
Lucy drew a ragged breath and tried to force her thoughts away from those painful years. It was hard. Made even harder by the doubt and…yes…longing that still lingered. She had last seen him six years ago.
She had put her life back together and was, according to the doctors, progressing rather well. And she had wanted to show him how well.
In those early years, it had been almost impossible for her to endure the closeness of another person. And the touch of a man would send her scurrying for safety.
But she had risen above that…and her rescuer had refused her!
The love in those eyes had not changed. There was nothing in his talk or actions that accused her of being dirty…of being ruined. Far from it. Yet he had taken her face in his hands, gently kissed her lips, told her that he loved her…and walked away.
She had not seen him since and no amount of begging, threatening, or cajoling would convince Lex Luthor to help her track him down.
Lucy slammed a hand on the desk, the sharp pain forcing her mind out of the dark path that threatened to engulf it.
She could not blame it on the appearance of this Superwoman…not truly. She had nothing to do with what happened seventeen years earlier. But her very appearance now was dredging up those old memories; opening those old wounds.
And she was not the only one. It was the same everywhere with those that had lived through those horrible days. Of course the new generation was not saddled with those old demons. But somehow, they understood that their parents were reliving memories their children could not imagine in their worst nightmares.
And it was for the best. Lucy told herself…and as much as said in every piece of news coverage of Superwoman and Andromeda.
Andromeda.
Lucy smiled at that, grateful that her mind was finally beginning to focus more on the present than the past.
She had not been the first person to name Rogue ‘Andromeda’. That honor belonged to some blonde headed little girl that had snatched the name out of the air on the day they had first appeared.
Rogue had lifted into space to check on the Lunar colonies while Kara had sped towards
And the little girl…the same little girl that Rogue had carried and deposited back into the arms of her worried father…had insisted that the woman with the funny hair was called Androm’da.
It was Lucy, however, who had made that name stick…and made it worldwide.
She still grinned when she thought about the second interview the two women had given her…and Rogue had accused her of starting that.
She sobered quickly. The two women had been honest with her. They had told her the entire story of where they came from. She knew that Kara was not truly the cousin of the Superman she had known, but the cousin of the same man…in another reality.
They had told her the truth…and left it for her to decide how to release it to the public.
So far, Lucy had told no lies and would not, if it could be helped.
She told the truth, as they had. But she did not go to the effort Kara had to make her understand.
Kara was the cousin of Kal-El of Krypton. That much was true. She mourned her cousin…again true. Her cousin was known as Superman…and as
Almost all the details were true…strictly speaking. They simply did not apply to the same person. Her cousin…Her Kal-El, was not the same one who had been the Superman of this Earth. That fact she did not reveal.
There were other things that were not so easy to…shuffle aside. It had been noted by many that this Superwoman and this Andromeda were substantially more powerful than they remembered Superman to be. And Lucy had cued off that. Memory! Again she never lied out right. But perhaps the years had muddled memory…and seeing it now, fresh, after not seeing such feats for over sixteen years, they might appear to be feats that not even Superman could have performed!
In truth, both women were more powerful than Superman had been…this world’s Superman. Kara was adamant about that. She freely admitted that she had not been quite as powerful as her true cousin.
But that, she had pointed out, had been only natural; the general differences between men and women.
There were other differences, but none that would ever amount to anything.
But then had come the announcement, from Kara, that they were not alone!
Somewhere, out there, yet to be revealed to the world, were two teenage girls!
Neither Kara nor Rogue had revealed their names, calling them Supergirl and Powergirl. Twins, if Lucy had got it right. Kara’s daughters.
Lucy had not delved into that, though her reporter’s nose smelled a story, partly out of decency…and partly out of the realization that neither of these women would let her know anything they did not want her to know.
She had just been considering how she would release the information about the girls when her mind had drifted, naturally, to her dead niece, Lanie. And from there it had gotten worse.
The buzzer on her desk went off, startling the blonde reporter out of her second slide in to the past.
“Yes, Drew?” She pushed the answer button and demanded. Drew was a young girl recently hired to take the place of Lucy’s regular secretary…who had resigned earlier that week.
“Sorry to bother you,
SecPol?
Lucy sat up straight in her desk…and then decided against sitting altogether. She stood and crossed her arms.
“Let him in, Drew. Thank you.”
She waited and when the door began to open she put on her best professional scowl…only to have it dissolve as the man stepped into her office.
“Hello Lucy.” Jimmy Olsen smiled that smile she remembered so well…and Lucy, the strong willed reporter…the survivor or untold horrors of the war…did the only thing she could do…she fainted.
“Well?”
Damien Tyler glanced up impatiently from the workload on his desk as his assistant shuffled through the door. One look at the assistant’s face told him all he really needed to know…but he had to hear it.
“It’s true.” The assistant nodded, “Wilson Fisk is to be named the Intelligence Director, answerable only to the President.” He announced. “And, President Golder has announced a new, cost-saving budget which effectively disbands several agencies…including SecPol.”
“And the Legislature?” Damien demanded, needing to hear it all.
“Ambivalent.” The assistant shrugged. “They like the idea of cutting costs in certain areas…it means more for their own pet projects, but they are unsure about putting the entire intelligence apparatus under Golder’s complete control.”
“Idiots.” Damien surged to his feet and stalked over to
the wall-spanning window to look out over the city of
“Neither the President nor Fisk would give a time-table for their actions, but they assured the Legislature that the unswerving loyalty of SecPol personnel would not be wasted. Many would be absorbed in to the UIA.”
“Like hell they will!” Damien spun back around and the assistant unconsciously backed away, seeing the raw fury in the director’s eyes. “It’s not the people they want…it’s our information!”
“President Golder is the legally elected President, Sir.” The assistant tried to calm his supervisor.
“And?” Damien glowered at the assistant. “You took the same oath I did…and that oath was not to the President of the UEG…but to the principles upon which the UEG was founded!” He grew quiet for a moment and then nodded.
“Okay. We’ll play the
game. Let’s see what the central office
in
The assistant consulted his clip board.
“Though we were unable to prove any direct contact, we do have reason to believe that certain…elements…within the UIA are secretly funding the Friends of Humanity.” He read off. “At the same time, however, we believe they are also funding the MEU—Mutants of Earth United.”
Damien shook his head. The FOH was bad enough. The Mutants of Earth United were worse. Both extreme ends of the bigotry spectrum . The FOH considered themselves purists and would take any action they deemed necessary to purge the human race of mutations, metas, and aliens. Since the arrival of Superwoman and Andromeda, they had been uncharacteristically quiet, but Damien knew that would not last.
The MEU was the other end. Mutants, Metas, and aliens. Every type of individual the FOH was against, banded together for one purpose…war!
It was, they believed, inevitable that war would erupt between Homo-Sapiens and Homo-Superior, as they considered themselves. A simple natural event. Nature, however, was not moving fast enough to suit them…so they sought to help it out…by causing disruption and mayhem amongst the normals.
In many cases they used dummy groups as fronts, such as was
the case of the Mutant League members that Superwoman and Andromeda battled in
It did not surprise Damien in the slightest, however, to discover that the UIA was secretly funding both groups. It was like them to try to play both ends against each other…causing more instability…allowing them to garner more power. Damien knew Wilson Fisk had to be involved somehow.
“We have also come up with two names.” The assistant drew his attention back. “Within the MEU. Their leadership has been a mystery for some time…but we think we finally have a lead on their two top people.”
Damien looked at him, waiting for him to continue.
“The first name we came up with was Erik Magnus Lehnsherr.” The assistant supplied. “Otherwise known as Magneto.” He consulted his notes. “A reluctant leader, we are led to believe. A one-time friend of Dr Charles Xavier, Magneto was targeted for assassination by the FOH. The attempt failed, but the effect was to galvanize Magneto into action. Before then, he was more than willing to use peaceful methods, working with Xavier to educate the populace and to work against anti mutant legislation. After the attempt, he became bitter and lost his belief that anything could be changed peacefully.”
“Great.” Damien shook his head. “I know him. He is a frigging genius compared to most people. A very respectable man…and a notable figure in the war.” He sighed and gestured for the assistant to continue. “You said two names.”
“Yes sir.” The assistant nodded unhappily. “Though we have not been able to figure out exactly how she got the position, we have reason to believe that the top person in MEU is not a mutant, meta, or alien. She is, in fact, quite normal, except for her extreme intelligence. Though they have a working relationship, it is quite clear that Magneto can and does take orders from this woman.”
“Spit it out man. Who?” Damien demanded, tired of the run around the bush.
“We…that is…the evidence suggests….” The assistant sighed
and allowed his arms to drop to his sides.
“Sir, the leader of the MEU is
“She did what?!”
Lex Luthor glared at the image in his view-screen, his hands clutching the edges of his desk.
Probably, Mercy thought, to keep them from reaching out and trying to shake the information out of the vid-phone. She stood from her usual seat across the desk and moved behind her husband, rubbing his shoulders gently.
“I’m sorry President Luthor.” The visibly shaken UEG representative on the screen gulped. “I…”
“I know.” Luthor waved the man’s words off. “You’re just the messenger. Very well. You can tell President Golder that the message has been received and will be given all the consideration it is due. Luthor out!”
Before the messenger could protest Lex reached out and slapped the disconnect switch.
A whirring sound drew Mercy towards the print receptacle where she lifted out several sheets of flimsy wax paper.
“By order of the President of the United Earth Government….” Mercy’s eyes flared and she held out the papers to Lex. “That woman is mad!”
Lex took the papers and laid them carefully on his desk, as if fearful that he might give in to his desire to crumple them and toss them into the wastebasket.
He sighed and rubbed his temples. There was no sense in putting it off.
In the room beyond Kara, Rogue, and the twins were busy catching up with Barbara Gordon. One of Kara’s friends from her original world…a friend that, like Kara, had some how outlived the end of their world…as they knew it.
And now this…That reunion was about to be cut short.
“Something’s wrong.”
Lex whirled and his eyes narrowed, seeing the redhead…Babs, Kara called her, standing in the doorway. The door, which he was sure he had locked, closed behind her.
Though neither she nor Tony had volunteered any other
information about her life in that other world, Lex had put two and two
together and was convinced that Babs was responsible
for the resurgent fear of the Bat in
And she was damned good.
“Kara and Tony are discussing plans for their new fortress.” Babs walked forward and leaned on his desk.
Like Kara, she had come from a world where Lex Luthor had been the epitome of evil…though most of that evil had been aimed at Superman. It had taken her some time to get used to the idea of a benevolent Lex, and the fact that his mannerisms sometimes matched that of the…OTHER…Lex didn’t help.
But she had gotten over it…for the most part.
“What makes you think something is wrong?” Lex tried to bluff, grimacing as Babs shook her head.
“Let’s not play games.” She responded. “If it doesn’t concern Kara just say so and I’ll apologize and waltz back out of your office. But if it does involve Kara…”
“Then it is her business…” Mercy began, becoming irritated. Her words broke off as Babs looked up at her.
“Yes…it is.” She agreed. “But Kara is my friend…I’ve lost her once…I’m not going to lose her again! In whatever world, the House of the Bat always watches over the House of El…always!” Her words confirmed Lex’s suspicions. They also conveyed another message. They told him that she was freely offering that information…a sign of trust…and she was expecting a sign of trust in return. Wordlessly he nodded and slid the papers on the desk to her.
Babs shuffled through the sheets, her eyes narrowing as she scanned the contents. She lifted her eyes, her expression inviting Lex to explain.
“The Legislature met and agreed to confer special law enforcement authority to Kara and Rogue. Much in the same manner the United Nations had bestowed the same authority on Superman.” Lex offered. He gestured towards the sheets Babs now held. “President Golder has issued an executive order, amending that authority and tying it to a service clause. In other words, she has drafted Kara and Rogue as special agents, answerable only to her, and under her authority.”
Babs tossed the sheets back on Lex’s desk.
“I would like to see her try to exercise that authority.” She actually smiled. “Kara is going to take one look at those and then promptly forget them.” Her frown faded. “Rogue, on the other hand, might take it a bit personal and feel inclined to…vent her emotions.”
“In which case she would be playing into President Golder’s hands.” Lex scowled and paused. Finally he stood and touched a button on his desk.
Behind him, the wall parted to reveal a holographic map of the world, with the various countries shaded, according to the legend at the bottom, in accordance with their standing in the UEG.
Those countries listed as loyal to the UEG were a dark blue, those that were not part of the UEG were painted in a deep red.
Those considered borderline or trouble spots were gray.
Babs raised an eyebrow on noticing while both the Mexican and Canadian members of the North American Union were blue, the United States segment was gray.
“According to those papers,” Lex continued, “Golder wants to use Kara and Rogue as enforcers. Denying their services to non UEG member nations and using them to squelch rebellious member nations.”
“It won’t happen.” Babs shook her head. “Kara will never be a political pawn…and she would never not act when needed simply because of political boundaries.”
“Golder has to know this.” Lex nodded. “I think she is counting on it.” He indicated several places on the map. “Several members of the UEG are experiencing tremendous nationalistic revivals. Some countries, like the United States, have always been reluctant members and are now openly defying UEG mandates. The non aligned countries, mainly the Middle-East and China, are becoming bolder and beginning to be a threat.”
He turned back to Babs.
“Golder needs to consolidate her power…and she needs to do it in such a manner that the world falls in behind her. The easiest way to do that…is to give the world a common enemy.”
“Kryptonians.” Babs put it together. “Damned if they do, damned if they don’t.”
“Right.” Lex nodded. “If they accepted this, they would be damned…but the countries would fall in line…out of fear. If they reject it…then Golder can have them outlawed…and paint them as villains.”
“And given the war…there are still enough people around that would be more than ready to believe that Kara and Rogue were evil Kryptonians.” Babs finished. “The countries would be united out of fear again.”
“Correct.” Lex settled back in his seat. “And I’ll be damned if I can see a way out of this.”
“Perhaps we can help?”
Babs, Lex, and Mercy spun at the words…and found themselves facing Kara, Rogue, and Tony Stark. It had been Tony that had spoken.
“I think the answer is clear.” Tony went on, entering the office. He stopped in front of Lex’s desk and leaned over it, his fists resting on the hard wood. “It’s time you took the Presidency back!”
“Incredible.”
Zor looked over the material and shook his head. He sat in what an earthman would readily recognize as a kitchen, hardcopy (printed on recyclable material) strewn across a table, a cup of Kafa, (the Kryptonian equivalent of coffee) sitting nearby, cooling, forgotten.
“Zor.” Allura, his wife and the current chairperson of the Science Council, sat across from him, frowning. “Do you really think this is that important, considering the list of other grave issues we have facing us?”
Zor looked up from the printout in his hands and sighed, setting the copy down and clasping his hands on the table before him.
“My wife, I am not denying the importance of these other issues, nor am I ignoring the dire predictions that you and the Council have issued.” He spoke gently. “But this.” He picked up the print out and waved it at her. “This is absolutely fascinating. Made more fascinating by the simple fact that it was developed by a Terran!”
“Lex Luthor, you mean.” Allura scowled. Unlike Zor, she was not quite ready to believe that anyone named Lex Luthor could be a decent being. Nevertheless, she had to admit… “Lex Luthor is not your average Terran.”
“No, he’s not.” Zor shook his head. “In fact, he is far further developed than Terrans actually born in this time period.”
Allura narrowed her eyes at Zor’s choice of words.
“What are you hinting at, Zor?”
“Hinting, my wife? I am hinting at nothing.” Zor smiled. “I am a scientist, my dear. And I have seen the evidence.” He stood. “I was able to obtain a sample of Lex’s DNA. By studying that and comparing it to the average Terran, I was able to determine conclusively that there is absolutely no way Lex Luthor was conceived and born in this century…correction…there is no way that he was born to parents born and raised in this time period! Somewhere, somehow, both Lex and, I would venture, his sister were born in the far future and sent back in time…for Rao knows what reason…or their parents were time travelers stranded in this time period…again from the far future.”
“If that were the case, then his sister would be as intelligent as he…and from what we have learned, that is not the case.” Allura countered, interested despite herself.
“Not necessarily.” Zor shook his head. “I believe that Lex and his sister were…are, rather…mutants. Perhaps there are purity laws in the future they came from. For whatever reason, their parents brought them here…and I would venture it was after they were born…not before. I would be able to tell more clearly if I could get a DNA sample of Lena, but I would venture to guess that Lex’s mutation was manifest in his heightened intelligence. Lena’s mutation could be something entirely different. In fact, I would suggest that it was Lena’s mutation that galvanized their parents into bringing them into the past rather than Lex’s. If not, why wait until she was born before making the move? I have a hunch that Lena’s mutation was not so easily…explained away.”
“Okay.” Allura could accept that…but now her mind swept back to her original purpose. “But is this that important?”
“It is.” Zor nodded. “Our people outlawed extreme genetic research long ago…And now, when we need that knowledge…we don’t have it. Lex does!” He held up the print out again. “What he has done here might be something that we can use! We have fallen below the viable limit, as far as our genetic pool goes…this might be something we can use to correct that!”
“Zor, No!” Allura looked aghast. “We can always rejoin our people in Otherverse.”
“And lose more on the return trip…if such a trip is possible? Or perhaps we can ask them to take the risk of coming here?” Zor shook his head. “I suppose we could ask Kara to have Lord Ian ferry us there or them here, but to what purpose? No, my dear. We are on our own, as we had planned. Even if we perish, there will be some that survive in Otherverse. But I don’t intend to let our people here perish.” He shook the print out in her direction. “If I can find a way to save our people in this…then by Rao I will!”
He tossed the printout down again and, with a shudder, Allura read the now visible title: The Matrix Project—Mercy Graves!”
“Does Kara know about this?” She pulled her eyes away and looked back to Zor. “I mean about this…project?”
“I don’t think so.” Zor shook his head. “She should be told…I assume. But there is a small problem.” His eyes grew troubled. “We can tell her…but do we then warn her?”
“Warn her?” Allura tilted her head slightly, confused.
“About this.” Zor indicated the printout. “We can tell Kara…but should we then warn her to remain silent?” He looked up. “You see, Lex has never told her!”
“Her? OH!” Allura’s eyes grew wide and her hand flew to her mouth.
“Exactly.” Zor nodded solemnly. “Mercy Luthor has no clue that she is not…and never was…Mercy Graves! She does not know that Mercy Graves died…seventeen years ago! And the creature we call Mercy has no clue of what she is truly capable of! Neither, I believe, does Lex truly know what he has created. The problem is…what will happen when she finds out.”
“When?” Allura frowned.
“When.” Zor nodded again. “Not if. There can be no doubt that, sooner or later, she will learn the truth. The problem will be…how will she react when she learns it?”
“You son of a bitch!”
Though not what he hoped Lucy’s first words would be when she awoke, yet Jimmy Olsen was not really surprised.
“Next time, please try to fall away from the desk!” He replied.
Lucy’s only response was a slight groan as she pressed the ice pack to her head.
She had come to, spitting and coughing, when Jimmy had passed an ammonia capsule under her nose, Drew hopping from one foot to the other behind him, holding on to a dripping wet ice pack.
Obviously, the two of them had moved her from the floor to the couch in her office.
After making sure Lucy was okay and that her eyes were able to track well, Jimmy turned to Drew and motioned for her to leave. When she looked stubborn, Jimmy threw his hands up in the air.
“Damnit, Child, I am not going to harm her!” He grumbled. Drew’s look said she believed that about as much as she believed in Santa Claus. Finally, after a nod from Lucy her self, however, the secretary withdrew, but not before casting a withering glance at Jimmy as she closed the door behind her.
For a long moment the two of them sat in silence, merely looking at one another, waiting for the other to say something, make some motion, some sign.
When Lucy could stand it no longer she cleared her throat, though her voice still sounded choked as she spoke.
“So…you work for SecPol.” She asked, feeling foolish even as the words passed her lips. “How long?”
“I was recruited the day I took you to Lex.” He responded.
“Seventeen years.” Lucy shook her head. “So that is where you would always disappear to.” Jimmy nodded.
“So what brings you back here?” Lucy demanded, unable to keep the bitterness out of her tone.
SecPol business…and personal business.” Jimmy answered softly. “Unfortunately, they seem to coincide.”
“What?” Lucy forced her feelings down and let the reporter take control.
“The Vice-President of the United States was assassinated three days ago.” Jimmy told her with out preamble.
Lucy stared at him in shock. She had heard nothing about an assassination and said as much. She was surprised to discover that she had no feelings whatsoever about the death of the man. She had not liked him from the start, though she could never put a finger on why.
It was not just because of his political affiliations…or the fact that he was an admitted member of Friends of Humanity. There was something else that just did not…feel right.”
“SecPol put a lid on it.” Jimmy responded.
“They can’t do that!” Lucy blurted.
“They can…and did.” Jimmy shook his head. “They had good reason…believe me. He was assassinated by Katara!”
The name sent chills down Lucy’s spine.
Katara! The dark-haired, mystery woman killer that appeared unexpectedly, killed, and seemed to vanish from the face of the earth. No one knew her true identity or what she was attempting to accomplish.
“It’s been…” Lucy did a quick calculation. “…two years since Katara last appeared!”
“Two years exactly.” Jimmy agreed. “But thanks to the lid we put on it…this time we were able to find a common link between the Vice-President and the others…killed.”
“What link?” Lucy tried to think. What had the twenty men Katara had killed had in common…other than all being of similar ages?
“It took some digging…some bribing…and some threats…but we were able to uncover a part of the Vice-President’s past that not even his political opponents had been able to uncover. The vice-president was, after the War, a member of the Black Hand…in Metropolis!”
Lucy looked as if she would faint again and Jimmy palmed another ammonia capsule.
The world seemed to close in and Lucy felt her mind being thrown back in time again…this time to Metropolis right after the war. Lucy knew about the Black Hand. Knew more than she ever wanted to know. For it had been the Black Hand that had held her…and used her….
“Lucy!” Jimmy’s sharp voice snapped her out of it, forcing her to back away from the edge of the pit over which she teetered. She forced herself to look at him and watched as he reached into a pocket and removed a small cellophane packet. “Normally Katara leaves no evidence that would allow anyone to identify her. But I think she was rushed this time. This was found in the Vice-president’s hand.”
Lucy took the packet and opened it. Several strands of dark hair fell out into her palm.
“Hair samples!” She exclaimed, the reporter taking over again. “You can trace her by DNA!”
“SecPol can’t.” Jimmy shook his head. “They don’t know about the samples. As far as they are concerned, there never were any samples.”
“What?” Lucy shook her head. “Jimmy, you can’t withhold this kind of evidence! Why?”
“I had the tests run myself at a lab.” Jimmy explained. “Normal procedure. We didn’t tell the Lab people what it was for or where it came from. They simply furnished the results.” He paused. “I took the results and was intending to turn them over…but something about them looked familiar. So I double checked. And then I came here.”
“Jimmy, what are you getting at?”
“Lucy, that hair belongs to Katara.” Jimmy pointed at her palm. “But that hair has been dyed. And that DNA is an exact match…of yours!”
Stephanie Strange sighed as she closed the front door of her one bedroom apartment behind her. Stepping around her bags, deposited just inside the door by Lex Luthor’s people, she tossed her keys onto the end table and gratefully sank into the recliner that had been the only piece of furniture she had been able to salvage from the wreckage that had been her father’s home.
Though she had thoroughly enjoyed her stay in Metropolis…and the Antarctic Fortress of Solitude, she was more than happy to be home.
She had left, assured that her “patients” were doing fine, leaving a promise with Lex that she would periodically return to the Fortress to check on the Jennifer and Lar’s unborn child, though as long as it remained in the stasis unit, there should be absolutely no change in its condition.
Meeting and getting to know Kara and Rogue had been an experience…and she wished she could have stayed in Metropolis long enough to meet the twins.
Yet she had other responsibilities as well. Patients here in Denver that deserved her attention.
And a mystery that she still had to unravel.
She had been a little girl when her father had been killed at the onset of the invasion seventeen years earlier and though she knew she didn’t have all the facts, she felt she was finally beginning to understand the why of it.
Who was not a problem. The name Mordru was the first fact Stephanie had been able to uncover when she started her research five years ago.
In that time, she had discovered that Mordru was a mage of tremendous power…equal to if not greater than the power her father was said to have had.
Again, this was something she knew only from researching…none of these things could she recall on her own. She knew her father had been involved in the Eastern Religions….probably why she had not been inclined to follow the mainstream path her self, though her quests in faith had led her to the west and the older religions found there.
She could not recall, however, her father ever exhibiting any true supernatural power in her presence.
She could, she supposed, have gotten more information from her mother. But her mother had perished in one of the many attacks on Denver.
Then there was Wang. But no one had seen or heard from her father’s servant since he had delivered the message that Dr. Strange had been murdered.
Stephanie put those thoughts from her mind and pulled herself out of the recliner. It was late and she was due back in her office early in the morning.
Walking through the apartment, she paused in the bathroom to turn on the shower, letting it run out the cold water in the pipes while she moved to her bedroom….
She paused, frowning. The bedroom door was closed, yet she distinctly remembered leaving it open when she had left.
She shrugged, considering that she simply remembered incorrectly and turned the knob, pushing the door open.
She was not at all prepared to see the white haired, bearded man that turned towards her as she entered.
“Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my apartment!” She demanded, her voice raising several octaves.
“Who am I?” The old man’s eyes gleamed with what Stephanie could only describe as malevolence as he looked at her. “Perhaps you will live long enough to discover…if you tell me where you have hidden it?”
“Hidden it?” Stephanie was more baffled than scared. “What the hell are you talking about you old buzzard? Get the hell out of my apartment before I call the cops!”
“He did not have it when he died…so he must have placed it within some talisman. Where is it?” The old man roared!
“When he…” Stephanie’s hand flew to her mouth. “Mordru!”
“Your father had the Spark. Yet it was not part of his essence when he died.” The old man glared at her. “He hid it….but where?”
Stephanie started to back away slowly and the old man actually grinned.
“You seek to leave? Very well, leave you shall.” He chuckled nastily as Stephanie’s face grew white. “Oh I shall not kill you…I might have need for you…later. But I think I shall send you someplace…out of my way for the time being!”
Stephanie had time for one gurgling scream as, with a single wave of his hand, the world faded around her.
Stephanie opened her eyes, and found herself lying flat on her back in a bed that was clearly not her own.
She struggle up on to her elbows…and stopped.
There, at the foot of the bed, a ruggedly handsome man stood, looking down at her.
“Ah…you are awake I see.” The man inclined his head slightly. “Welcome to Castle Doom!”
(Look for more on Stephanie Strange in upcoming stories in John Philip’s: The Realm!)
-- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2003 by Dylan Clearbrook
-- and may not be reprinted without permission.
-- The Continuum Worlds Concept is a joint creation of
-- Dylan Clearbrook and
-- Supergirl’s Multiverse, as depicted in the Continuum Worlds,
-- are original creations of Dylan Clearbrook.
-- Alterverse and The Inheritors, as depicted in the Continuum Worlds,
-- are original creations of
-- The Realm and Shadowverse, as depicted in the Continuum Worlds,
-- are original creations of John P. and Jason G respectively.
-- Some characters in Continuum Worlds stories are original creations
-- of Dylan Clearbrook,
-- Andrew Shields, Kyle M., Brian, or Jason Froikin and may not
-- be used without express permission of the respective author.
-- All DC characters are property of D.C. Comics.
-- All Marvel characters are property of Marvel Comics.