At Titans Tower

[-nightwing-.livejournal.com]

The meeting with the JLA is concluded for now. There's a plan to set in motion. But it's clear from the looks he's seeing on the faces of the assembled Titans that Secret's death is hitting them hard. They need a few moments to regroup, and he can see that.

He gets to his feet slowly.

"Take five, people. And get ready. We've got a long road ahead."

Nightwing moves away to get status updates from the Titans currently off-base: Cyborg, Flamebird and Fauna.

(no subject)

[boy-of-steel.livejournal.com]

He's lost another friend. Kon knows he should be grieving, he knows that crying would be the right response here, but all he can think is how badly he wants to hit something.

Can't beat up a virus. Can't punch a pathogen.

Any criminals on the streets of San Francisco are going to be a blessing to him, even if it's just a carjacking.

"I can't stay here, I just...I can't," he says, to no one in particular. Two long, powerful strides carry him out of the room, and he's airborne, heading for the roof access. Outside is better. There's probably someone to hit outside.

Elsewhere ... A Day in the Life of Dr. Fate

[doctorfatejsa.livejournal.com]

Fate is suspended on spiderwebs composed entirely of the souls of human homicide victims. Above him, the sky is an ocean made from liquified time. Below him is an abyss, and even he has no idea what lurks at the bottom, or if there even is a bottom.

He does not know how long he's been unconscious. That phrase probably has no meaning here. He thinks of Lyta and Gemma waiting for him back home, and stirs.

Earlier, he battled an army of mummified pharoahs seeking to raise an army of the damned to conquer worlds beyond Earth's ken. Nabu remembered some of their number ... petty men, who died petty deaths and, evidently, passed on to petty afterlives. The battle raged across worlds, until he was taken unaware by a band of techno-pagan sorcerors from the Vega system, who sought to defeat both the pharoahs and Fate and claim this dimension's incarnation of the wheel of Karma for themselves. As far as Fate could tell, they sought to use the Wheel in a mad bid to ressurect the goddess X'Hal, and bring about the destruction of worlds that had bought and sold their race into slavery throughout the stars.

Nabu's voice is whispering to him of eldritch cities and dying children, and it's clear to him he cannot linger here too long. But there are worlds at stake ...

Fate pulls his right arm free of of the webs the sorcerors bound him with, and an ankh of light forms around his clenched fist. He opens his palm, and holds a world in his hand ... things are bigger here. He can feel the heat of the star Vega burn the back of his knuckles. He pulls his left arm free and the webs break, and he, the technomancers' world and a screaming chorus of ensnared souls tumble down into the abyss.

The entire Vega system trembles as an ankh lights up the heavens ... Dr. Fate struggling to save them all.

(no subject)

[wrist-magnum.livejournal.com]

Floyd's never been a praying man. Not when he was a kid, and the folks would drag him to the occasional church fundraiser dinner, and not now, after having fought guys who claimed to be Gods. Kneeling at the side of his bed wasn't for praying. It was for digging out the vocal scrambler in the shoebox under there.

The hospitals had been too full. There was a 2 and a half hour wait for an ambulance, and even then, no guarantee that it would get Zoe any bedspace, or a look from a doctor. He could always go out, find a doc, and bring him back at gunpoint, but if he put the guns on now, while his kid was coughing up half of Lake Michigan into her lungs, he wasn't sure that the guns would ever come off again.

Only one place left to turn, really.

He screwed the vocal scrambled into the mouthpeice of the phone, and dialed the relay number. The clicks came as the line bounced off satellites and through relays.

It always took too long for Noah to answer him phone.

"C'mon, Calculator," he grumbled under his breath, "You're all I got left."

(no subject)

[blind-will.livejournal.com]

Travis, for the first time in a long time, just feels lost, like something is missing. Usually, when things get desperate, his mind starts racing, running through ideas, analyzing things from five or six different angles - having a ring has only increased that. And right now, his mind is racing like few times before.

But he sees the expressions on people's faces, and knows it isn't the same. He knows they're terrified, for themselves, for their families, for all the children out there.

Normally, this is an advantage. Not reacting the way anyone sane would. But this time, its not producing any results. He lacks information he'd need for this to make any sense at all, and he doesn't know enough about magic to trace the com patterns until Corrine is done with Dr. Palmer so he can get her help.

And despite it all, he can't stop his mind racing, wanting to figure it out, to do... something. So he settles for waht he can manage, keeping an eye on all these people's com signals to trace them, figure out what people are up to, what leads they might be following up, and waiting until some of the puzzle pieces start to take shape.

The JLA Watchtower -- After the Big Meeting

[reducing-ray.livejournal.com]

The meeting ends, and Ray's focus returns to his computer simulations of the virus, examining them from every angle, how they replicate. Looking for a weakness.

He knows damn well he's not going to find one. It weighs on him. So does Jean. But he's a good enough scientist to know when he needs a second opinion, and Faust's was hardly what he would call reliable.

So instead, he's turning to someone who hates his wife ... ex-wife ... with a fiery passion.

Like that's unusual in this crowd right now ...

When you wake, you will find/All the pretty little horses....

[jla-extras.livejournal.com]

Children are not often seen in the Watchtower, and seldom in the sick bay. But in times of crisis, what is usual and customary is pushed aside. The stentorous breathing of the sick children is punctuated by the soft bleeps of the monitoring equipment.

A fool's errand?

[zinda-blackhawk.livejournal.com]

Her Colts are cleaned; meticulously shiny and holstered on her thighs. Her second thought after hearing the ultimatum has brought her to Blüdhaven. She knows the boss lady has a baby of her own, though she isn't sure how old she is -- and damned if she was going to let her deal with this crisis and the crisis of the world on her shoulders alone.

"Skipper, it's me! Open 'er up!"