jla_watchtower | The Past is Prologue -- Ancient Egypt

Entry tags:

The Past is Prologue -- Ancient Egypt

Dr. Richard Occult takes politely of the feast Prince Khufu, the first incarnation of Hawkman, has provided to the weary travelers, but his attention remains fixed on his colleauges.

Hector Hall, the current (by his reckoning) incarnation of Fate eats not at all, refusing to remove his helmet. The chaos magicks that have infested his aura are growing stronger, making him edgy. So too is Gemma Marsters, after Arion's revelation that she may be destined to become the Witch Queen.

They wait for Nabu, whom Khufu has sent for. The delay in his arrival concerns Occult. Something is wrong.

The other shoe drops an hour into the meal, when an Egyptian messenger comes, sprinting into Khufu's tent.

"Your .. your highness ... It is Nabu. He has arrived, but .. he ... he ..."

The messenger stops, and catches his breath.

"Your highness, he is plagued by demons."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Jay narrows his eyes. "What can we do?"

Occult stands suddenly.

"Quickly, man!" he says to the servant. "Take us to him! He's in grave danger."

Occult prepares to shuffle after the man, but takes a moment to glance at the others, particularly Fate.

"Whatever it is that has happened to Fate ... the chaos infestation, The Witch Queen's control ... it's my suspicion that it begins here."

Fate likewise rises.

Then we must see that this ... obscenity does not come to be.

His voice is dark, resolved.

"Indeed," says Occult, hurrying after the messenger, who is near-panicked now. And with good reason.

On the edge of the desert, just outside of Khufu's fortifications, the elderly Nabu is on his knees, screaming, entwined in golden energy bands that burn his skin as he struggles against them. As the bands wind, they transform into golden metal, fusing with his skin.

And behind him is man with a sharp goatee and what appears to be a magic wand in his hand.

"Really, old man," says the villain, looming above the tormented mage. "I expected you to be made of sterner stuff.

There's no time to mess around. He moves quickly, attempting a superspeed fist to Kadabra's jaw.

"Figures," he says -- not sounding terribly surprised by who's stumbled upon him. "Thousands of years in the past, and I'm still stuck with a Flash."

He waves his wand, encircling both himself and the struggling Nabu inside a sphere of energy.

"Abhararakadhararbarakh," says Occult sternly, eyes narrowing on the strange "magician" from the future. "You have a role in this?"

"Really, Occult," says Abra Kadabra. "Haven't you been paying attention? It's a new worlds order. Degaton's building a brand new world ... literally. A world without heroes. A world that doesn't need heroes. And I get to help."

He glances at Jay Garrick.

"And of course, get a little revenge on various Flashes while I'm at it."

"Got your revenge right here, Amazing Randi." Jakeem says as he clicks his pen. "So cool."

The Thunderbolt emerges. "Yeeeeeeessss?"

"Free the Nabu of this time, T-bolt." Sand says.

The Thunderbolt charges right at the sphere.

Kadabra waves his wand and grits his teeth, obviously buckling under the force of the Thunderbolt's assault.

"You'll ... have to do better ... than that ... genie," he says defiantly, although his brow his covered in sweat.

To his side, Nabu screams in agony, and a golden metal now seems to be soaking into his skin.

"Degaton was also working with Chronos, too," Jay points out. "And things didn't work out so well for him."

While they concentrate on Kadabra she's more worried about Nabu. Whatever is happening here is the origin of whatever is happening to Hector and that needs to be stopped.

She's not sure exactly what's happening but she throws her will into helping Nabu fight the metal that seems to be fusing to his skin while trying to analyze what is happening to him.

Fate agrees with Gemma's assessment of the situation. While the others are preoccupied with Kadabra, Fate reaches out to Nabu with his magic. There, his mind touches Gemmas's, and Occult's.

Here, thinks Fate. This is the moment, the genesis of our current woes. But my magic is sliding of the infection ... the golden metal soaking into his skin.

The three mages remain where they are in Egypt, but are also in a dreamlike astral plane, where they can see Nabu writhing under the energies binding him.

"I'm not entirely convinced this is magic at all," says Occult. "More like ... some sort of technology .. or magic intertwined with technology.

And then, in the distance of the dreamscape, an impossible city, where superhuman sentiences made of energy speak in electronic pulses.

A voice whispers in the distance: We have a throwback to be punished/scolded/rehabilitated> Not pleasing here[Will you expropriate him in you time/? Located your lodging date now< will be jimdandy for the madchild Abhararakadhararbarakh.

Occult listens with great attention.

"Someone's trying to tell us something. To show us something."

And then, the four mages are joined by a fourth ... the astral projection of Arion, who adds his power to theres.

"Indeed," says Arion. "You and I have each walked legs of this path, as has Fate, and Miss Marsters' uncle. The birth of Abra Kadabra. Listen."

Arion extends his spectral arm, and the image before them, and a new voice -- recognizably human -- appears.

"The people of Earth practice something that is neither magic nor science, but partakes of both in equal measure. Imagine computers composed partly of gleaming silicon, partly of a net of spells."

"I know that voice," says Occult. "Mister E."

"Yes," says Arion. "The journey through time where I met -- will meet -- the Hunter, when E. tried to kill him ... that day, they inadvertently drew Kadabra back to the 20th Century. But it is not he that is important. It's his world, this fusion of science and magic. It is why our Witch Queen has remained hidden from us."

"So what do we do?" She's at a loss right now and getting ready to hit things out of frustration.

"We stop the infection. Let the others deal with Kadabra, we must save Nabu."

"Indeed," says Fate gruffly, extending his hand and allowing energy to flow through him. "And here, at this point in time I can ... REVEAL!"

The magic flows from him and shapes into an apparition, a horrid female figure in white. But Fate knows better now, and is disinclined to tolerate the illusion.

"I said REVEAL!!!"

And finally, the shape takes form ... glowing golden metal, staring down at them with contempt.

"And now I am revealed, Hector Hall. What do you think you can do to me?

"I wouldn't worry about him you great golden prat, I'm the one with the temper." Hector and the other Fates have some sort of weakness against this but Gemma is not Fate even though she is taught by him.

And she's also kind of impulsive and this thing is attacking someone she's come to look on like a father.

Willpower and magic are twined together as Gemma throws her attack.

Indeed, says Mekanique, extending her hand and catching Gemma's mystic energy in her palm. Your mind is part of the matrix that has made all this possible.

"What was stolen from her, you mean," says Rose Psychic, where Dr. Occult once was. Rose lends her will to Gemma's ... a stoic, grounding force amid the flurry.

"Her and other women, I see."

"How," says Fate, joining his energy to Gemma's and Rose's to continue the assualt on the seemingly unstoppable android.

"You know what's dangerous about stealin' things?" She reverses her plan instantly and instead pulls at Mekanique.

"The person you stole it from is the rightful owner and they can take it back."

What is it you are doing? says Mekanique, sounding panicked as she's pulled toward Gemma.

And in that moment a circuit is born, allowing Gemma to see into her own future ... Mekanique's past.

Snapshot: Chronos creating a recording of poor, mad Jean Loring's mind ... and then -- decades later -- realizing what he's done and trying to prevent it ... to prevent The Witch Queen from rising.

Later still, Chronos and Degaton's other agents using Kadabra's technology to attack and get mental scans of various female mystics: June Moon, Corrine Bertrand, Zatanna Zatarra, herself ...

It's unclear what happens in those moments ... sometime around the year 2012 ... later? Their tracks go black, as the recordings are folded into Mekanique's memory banks.

And then she rises ... Fate fully under her control ... a plague across timelines ... untraceable by both mystics like Arion and time travelers like ..

Who is Rip Hunter The question burns throughout Mekanique's synthetic mind. A man ... a hero ... who seems to be the only one who stands between them and ...

The images flash now: On the planet Krypton, Degaton forestalls the planet's death ... a scientist doesn't send his son to Earth in safety; In a Gotham City alleyway, Degaton stops a mugger from killing a wealthy doctor and his wife ... their son watches on, overjoyed at their safety; In Ancient Greece, an army from the future comes to the aid of a tribe of Amazons ... forestalling their retreat to an island paradise.

The images are strange, overwhelming.

We ... have made the calculations ... says Mekanique. We have solved the equations ... it will be a world without heroes ... because it will need none. There will be .. only Degaton ... Degaton and I.

The android resists Gemma with all her might.

"It's mine and I'm taking it back bitch!" Gemma has no idea what ripping away the bits of herself that were stolen will do to either of them but she won't let any part of herself be included in this.

The images are spilling over from her down the links of magic Hector and Rose have with her, they are filling her head and sight until she's feeling lost but still she pulls</> to take away those parts of Mekanique she can.

"There will always be heroes...take away the ones that are ...new ones will be born...balance...the universe will balance..."

Outside the conflict, Kadabra struggles to stave off the power of the Thunderbolt ... but his will is obviously weakening. He grits his teeth, concentrates on the force field.

"You ... will not ... stop me," he mutters, unde rhis breaht. Beside him, Nabu weakens as the infection spreads.

"Yes!" shouts Rose, lending Gemma her powerful mind. "You're doing it!"

And she is .... through the conduit of magic Gemma's created, the "files" that once belonged to her future self -- one of The Witch Queen's templates -- begin to transfer. And suddenly, Gemma Marsters is flooded with information ... ghost echoes of a life she's not lived yet, which she may never live. Battles, tragedies. Loves both one and lost.

And power ... things Gemma has yet to learn.

All of it flows to her.

You ... will not ... prevail protests the struggling Mekanique. Our victory ... preordained. ...

"No," says Arion, calling upon magics that even here, at this time, are older than history. "It is not."

What happens when you suddenly remember living lifetimes you haven't experienced yet? And what happens when suddenly you know far more than you should of power?

She couldn't stop the transfer now if she tried, and to be honest she's too caught up in it all to even try. A voyeur to a life that may never be she can't look away as she lives it all in her mind.

And now she has a lot more knowlege to draw upon as she pulls at Mekanique with the new things she's learned.

"You will be an empty shell."

The patterns play out across Mekanique's brain ... the symmetrical dance of artificial neurons across elaborate circuitry. Briefly, Gemma catches a glimpse of the past ... Mekanique's past -- Degaton stealing Chronos from the JLA, and absconding with him to the 6oth century ... rendevouzing with Kadabra. How the three time travelers made a pact to resurrect her, and use her as a weapon to defeat their enemies. ... How Chronos, years later by his time, realized the horror they'd perpetrated, and escaped into the past to stop it, but had been driven so insane that he nearly erased the universe trying to kill Jean Loring and and Ray Palmer.

And then there's Gemma ... and as the template for Gemma's future self dissolves in the matrix, the other threads begin to unravel. And then there's something else ... a voice that sounds not far different from her own. A message to herself. A last will.

Find Rip Hunter.

And with that, Mekanique's astral projection dissolves, disappearing into the ether.

Well done, Gemma Marsters says the voice of Nabu, finally beginning to break through. Now, Hector Hall, you must return to the world and stop Abhararakadhararbarakh.

"I think I'm goin' t'be sick." One hand over her mouth as she is digesting everything she just experienced.

"Easy, child," says Rose, resting her hand gently on her shoulder as the world around them spins, returning to its "normal" perspective. "You've done well."

"Indeed," says Fate, sounding dour but more like himself again. "And that means there's only one thing left to do here."

Reality returns to its normal aspect in full, and his gaze trains on Abra Kadabra, who's on his last legs against Flash, Khufu and the Thunderbolt.

"Kadabra," he says. "I would have words."

An ankh of energy flashes around Fate, and the 60th Century villain's force field -- already overtaxed -- crumbles beneath the force of his power.

Kadabra, too, is blown backward by the attack, landing on his back in the desert sand.

"You will speak, Abhararakadhararbarakh," says the voice of Fate. "Why did you do this. How?"

Fate waves his hand, and suddenly the nano-bots flooding Nabu's system are torn from his body, rising out of him like a swarm of insects. It's painful, and the wizard screams, but it seems to be working.

The old wizard will survive, uninfected.

"Tell me" says Fate, and Kadabra's survival from this moment on is suspect."

Kadabra cowers. "It was Degaton. Degaton used Chronos to find me ... to get me to repair Mekanique. To make her more powerful. Then he hatched a plan where we could rule the world. A world where there were no heroes to stop us."

He begins to rise, but Fate's glower stops him.

"Think about it. I admit, we had to start out bad, killing heroes to make sure those who'd stop us were out of the way as we kept splitting timelines. Mekanique calculated what we needed to do. But after that ... no Krypton exploding. No fateful muggings in Crime Alley. No death of Abin Sur."

He seems to get a bit of his spine back. Just a bit.

"But there was more. We called it the Superman Quandary. Superman's saved the world so many times, you can't erase him from the time line without destroying everything, which isn't what we wanted. So Mekanique calculated the sequence of events, time line to time line, until we could accomplish it all. But there was only one thing in our way. ..."

"Rip Hunter," says a familiar voice, as a seeming portal of light appears in the sky below them. And from the portal descends a woman engulfed in flame.

"Good to see you all again," says Firebrand. "Things have gotten bad. The JSA's needed."

"Firebrand!" says Fate, seemingly surprised. Which is a rarity. "How is it you've come to this place in time?"

"Long story, Fate," she says. "We've gotten some help. But Degaton's made his move, so we need to, too."

"So we shall," he says. "But first ...."

Fate waves, and a light engulfs Kadabra. The villain screams, and then is gone.

"He shall be imprisoned in my amulet, until we can bring him to justice properly. Come, my friends. The war awaits us."

He stops though, and turns and looks at Khufu. And for a second, sadness seems to radiate from him.

"Goodbye, Lord Khufu. Thank you for your help. We shall meet again."

And with that, Fate flies into the portal, leaving in his wake a beam of light that will allow the others to rise after him.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The Past is Prologue -- Ancient Egypt

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject