Nova stood in the middle of Lady Echidna’s ancient courtroom. Deep carvings covered the stone walls, while a powerful beam of light shone down over Nova, casting sharp shadows. Three points of light broke through that darkness, each planted in the eye socket of a carved beast of myth. A hydra, the Charybdis, and Fenrir. Infamous creatures that spun elaborate nightmares since the earliest recorded fables.
“Why am I standing here?” Nova asked aloud, his voice breaking through the dense quiet of the room.
“Centuries ago, when I called you my lover, you saw me create the four beasts of my apocalypse.” She spoke to Nova, not the pitiful creature under her hand. I crafted three of them from pure magic and nightmares. I created the visions of humans, stories they themselves crafted out of their own imagination, their fears. World ending monsters of unmitigated power. I wanted to use their nightmares to control them, to dominate them, and to ultimately use them for my purposes. Yet, it was this one, who was not my original creation, that came to me as a power that I could control.” She walked by the green scaled monster and it recoiled.
Nova said, “He found you, challenged you. You were a chance to prove his strength.”
“Yes.” She smiled. “He had the audacity to think I was weaker. But, I proved my skill was not only in sheer strength, but in manipulation, control. I dominated him. Turned him into something new, something I could use. My masterpiece. Through him I would not only weave the end of this world, but the end of Merlin’s creation on the other side of the Great Divide.”
Nova said, “Why are you telling me this? I know this. I was there.”
She came closer to him. “Midgardsormr was my finest weapon ever created. Yet, in the moment of my triumph then, he turned on me. He broke free and joined with you, a treasonous ex-lover, to exile me into the void.”
“That was before. I am devoted to you, and he is devoted to you now that you have filled his mind with your darkness.”
She became quiet again and walked around Nova in that light. Returning to Midgard, she put her hand on him, which made him twitch slightly. “You broke him, stole some of his power so that he would weaken. And, by doing so, my work over him was also weakened. He was freed of my control. Now, though he has returned, he remains weakened. He should have destroyed those heroes and ended BADGE once and for all. Yet, he lost the battle.”
“I had nothing to do with that battle.”
She pointed a gloved hand at him, and Nova grabbed his throat. “You never told me how you restrained his power back then. How you could stop him. Now, he holds back, uses less of what he is. How? Why? Tell me!”
Nova gasped in a breath when she let go. “I do not know. The shadow you placed back in his mind should have reformed him back into what he was before. I can't remember the details of how I did it, but I know I locked it away, and only your darkness could unlock it. You touched his mind again. He should be all yours.”
She looked at him for a long moment and then walked back to her throne. Sitting down, she finally said, “I do not know how much I can trust you.”
“Fenrir, Charybdis, and Hydra, I have brought them all back to you. How much more do I need to do to prove my worth, my faith in you?”
She said, “I want you to do something for me, something that Nova, the honorable leader of BADGE, would never do.”
“Name it.”
Biting her lower lip, she chuckled at him. “I love that tone, that capitulation. The time has come. I have the four powers to harvest, to bring about my greatest form. With it, I will return to Yohan and establish a new empire of dark magic that will spread far beyond that world, covering this and all the other worlds across this universe. But there is something you need to clear away. Go destroy the city of the superhero rejects near the portal in the South Pole.”
“New Meta City?”
“Yes, my love. Do not let them escape. Slaughter every man, woman and child. With the snowlands of the south drenched in the blood of the innocents, at your hand no less, you will have earned my trust.”
Nova did not crack a smile or wrinkle a single frown at this. He merely answered, “The people of New Meta City will be an easy target, but they are defended. BADGE will send considerable forces to stop me. I am not enough to truly contend with them. Unless I tap into my true potential. . . “
“No!” Her voice cracked in the air like a whip snapped at a disobedient horse. “You will not do that. I expect BADGE to respond. I want them to respond. When their dear Director Nova has his hands covered in the blood of those they swore to protect, it will dishearten them. It will weaken their composure and drive them mad. That is when I will arrive.”
Nova casually said, “It will take time. Without my full power, my reach is limited. Perhaps I should take the mercenaries with me.”
“Yes. Bring them all. I want this done quickly. Then, line my path to the portal with the mercenaries so that I have a royal procession when I return.”
“As you wish.” He answered her and then asked, “You will bring the other beasts when you arrive?”
“No, only their shadows. I will absorb the four beasts’ power to become what I was meant to be, a goddess among insects. I will destroy the heroes and walk triumphant into The Great Divide, and I will finally have revenge.” She stood and walked over to him, placing a finger on his chest. “If you are truly devoted to me, then this will be But, if the honorable Director Nova is still in there, he will not be able to do this. I will still arrive, and I will still be triumphant. However, your blood will mix with theirs in the snow. Do not believe it will end any other way. So, prove your love, or prove your treasonous heart, you have no other choices.”
He took her hand and kissed the back of it, then looked her in the eye with a sultry expression. “It will be done.”
***
“Are you sure this will work?” Arx asked as he stood on the side of a BADGE boat in the ocean.
EB finished creating a rather large, colorful egg next to many others. “It will work perfectly. These eggs are enchanted to hold the extra oxygen tanks. So, when the heroes get down there who can survive the extreme pressures, they will have extra oxygen in case of an emergency. I made this egg shell once before. I used it to surround several parts of a nuclear facility that was about to blow. I mean, it was a total wreck. Shoddy workmanship. But, the cold war was a time of bad ideas. I saved half of the world, but got no credit. It did inspire me to make the first true everlasting gobstopper. Don’t believe that dumb movie. I made it first, and it worked. But, then I realized it was a bad idea. Candy that never goes away. REALLY bad for business. And... sorry, rambling again.” He shut up at the look on Justin’s face.
Justin walked over with several heroes. “Thanks for your help, EB. Grimlock, Gravitia, get them down there. We start phase one of this operation now.”
A woman in a purple outfit with a special mask for diving on her face walked around the eggs and touched them. Each shimmered with purple light for a moment, and the boat suddenly tilted to the side. “Better get ‘em in the wata!” She said with a thick Bronx accent.
Grimlock, a burly ten foot tall hero, grabbed up one and pitched it in the water at a special buoy marker. It splashed in and instantly sank. He did this to each of them.
Justin watched the last go down and he turned to the team of heroes gathered on the deck. Some of them had diving masks and oxygen tanks hooked up, while others had scales and appeared to be part fish.
“This mission is crucial. You have to find whatever is down there as soon as possible. You know the risks. Each will be touched by Gravitia and will be able to withstand the intense pressures. Don’t linger, her power only lasts three hours. You get two. Go down, scan with instruments and your senses. Find what you can and return. Two hours. This is the Mariana Trench, not a playground. Go!”
They agreed and went straight to work.
Justin looked at Arx. “Thank you for bringing in your water rescue team. They’re the best suited for this.”
“Most aren’t actual superheroes who fight crime. But they’re damn good at what they do. I hope they find what Nova left for us.”
Justin watched the team dive in. “That is assuming this is a real lead and not just a diversion.”
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