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10

By Ed Ainsworth

 

"DAMN IT!"

Buddy ran for cover hiding in the nook between the ball of Elasti-Woman's foot and heel. Considering she was 60 feet tall at this point, it was a rather sizable nook. Clutching his illegitimate daughter to his chest, and letting out a long breath in conjunction with a sigh of relief, he paused to look over his shoulder quickly. The brown stuff was hitting the fan and he couldn't do a damn thing about it.

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"Here's where it gets interesting, Rip," Kid said, sitting down next to him, placing a hand on his shoulder and smiling widely.

"It gets more interesting than sitting on a giant tree at what is essentially the centre of creation with you, a talking dog and Swamp Thing?" Rip asked, his words dripping with sarcasm.

"Look man, there's no need for that. We need you to just fix things for us."

"Fix things, how the hell can I do that? I'm just one man, you're asking me to fix.What is this thing, the Red? You want me to fix something I know nothing about when I'm a Time Traveler? That's like getting a plumber to do open heart surgery."

"We needed ya to come ta yer own plans, Rip. We needed ya to create your own way out, we just needed ya," Mr. Cow said trotting over to the pair and slumping down to eagerly lick his genitals.

"Do you enjoy that?" Rip asked, almost wishing he hadn't.

"Very much so, Rip," Mr. Cow said, drool hanging from his jowls.

"Nice."

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Zauriel hit the ground hard, his sword clattering on the grass, as Ram casually flicked his wrist to remove the angel's blood.

"You are an obsolete format now, Zauriel. Give over to the new world order and we can give you a place to thrive. A new heaven; maybe Australia ?"

The Angel got to his feet slowly, and delivered a haymaker that would make Superman proud. Ram hit the ground hard, sliding on his back and feeling the small hairline crack on his jaw with his hand.

"Nothing is obsolete, Ram. History is what we build our lives upon, and religion, just like life is upgraded and reinterpreted throughout the ages. You're replaced with better models, only computers are obsolete."

Ram thrusts the sword upwards, slicing through some of Zauriel's feathers, causing the Angel to swing backwards, kicking out blindly at Ram's shins, toppling backwards.

"Desperate words from a desperate fool," Ram said, tossing the sword towards Zauriel, the flaming blade singing through the air.

Zauriel caught it by the handle and swung it downwards, slicing off Rams fingers and holding his pose, staring into his eyes.

"Desperation is the mother of Courage."

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Vixen dropped James on the table in his lab. The wounds on their bodies were healing, but they had no idea why. James' mind was addled, and he had no idea what was going on. The peyote wasn't making things that much easier.

"Vixen." James rolled off the table and coughed some blood onto the ground. He could see the ribosomes and the proteins in his plasma. He could hear the erythrocytes calling to him.

"James?" Vixen was stumbling around, but he could clearly see something. There was a link, an umbilicus of Red "stuff" joining them. Was it corporeal? No, it was not, it moved and swayed as James ran his hand through it.

"Odd."

Vixen stumbled over to the containment centre controls, and looked back at him.

"We're forming connections, you and I, and with these guys, James."

"Connections?"

"I don't know what it means, but do you want to be potentially stuck with these people?"

James shook his head, as Vixen opened the containment locks for the variety of people and villains that James and Platinum had collected over the last few months.

Solomon Grundy, The Female Parasite, the Amoeboid Man, Zoo Keeper, Orca - All representatives of their chosen areas, all Animalistic and all now connected to the artificial "Red" being generated and maintained by Vixen and James Highwater.

"Oh...S#!T. This isn't going to end well."

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The ground in front of Lady Quark exploded into an electromagnetic spray. Energies poured from the opening like blood from an open wound, as it tore through the ground, zig-zagging along invisible fault lines. Quark threw up an energy shield, trying to protect herself from the blasts, but the combined might of the energy based Harbinger and the reanimated corpse of Jet.

"You'll not find me an easy target," Tashana spat. She'd lost everything in her lifetime. Her family, her world, her universe, even her place in this one. She had been killed on a mission with the Legion; Vril Dox had always cared little about her; but suddenly she found herself being harried by Sinestro, and involved in the Crisis. Her anger overflowed, and she joined the battle.

Yet, shortly afterwards, she found herself on Rann, nearly a year had passed and she was none the wiser as to why or how she got there. It's caused her no end of confusion, but all that has been pushed to the back of her mind. She is after all a woman, and they primarily concentrate on the here and now, burying her pain until she can use it.

And right now, she is using it.

Shooting through the air, her fist collides with Jet's jaw line with a satisfying smack, sending the women hurtling towards the ground, whilst Harbinger blasts directly into Quarks stomach, sending her bouncing against the grass of Buddy's garden.

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"They can fight amongst themselves for as long as they want, that will solve nothing," Naiad stated before the group, the puddle folding against itself.

"How very committal of you, Naiad, perhaps you should consider a diplomatic position," Tefe said sarcastically. "We need to make an affirmative decision here, otherwise the world soul will be lost to us. Can we really entrust the soul of Maya to a group of near insane humans?" She continued.

"Aren't they all insane?" Dolphin piped up. "Don't they all desire to destroy everything in their hands?"

"You of all people should know Buddy Baker better than that, Dolphin," Firestorm stated in its dual tongue.

"But still," Dolphin went on, "He would need our presence to test him, and were he to move out of order he would feel our hand."

"Our hands are tied as it is without an Earth Elemental," Naiad added.

"They need not be, Naiad," Tefé said. "We should take action against this potential disaster before we move to create a new Earth Elemental. After that we can decide if Markovia is the best choice or not."

"A vote then," Firestorm said, "All in favor of aiding the Animal Man?"

A resounding "Aye" came from all members of the Parliament.

"If only there was this sort of democracy in the human world," Shade said, staring at his feet.

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Rex's attention was diverted for a moment, just a moment, from his battle with Floro, by Lady Quark hitting the ground in his peripheral vision.

"Tashana?!" He yelped as Floro's bark coated fist collided with his face. Rex fell on his back, as the very grass underneath him wrapped itself around his arms and waist. He shifted to gas form, and transfigured his hand into a hammer, just like the good old days, smashing Floro across the face.

It sounded like a tree falling over. And Floro simply grinned, hitting Rex in the stomach this time with a fist the density of a Red Wood tree.

Rex flew through the air, shifting his lower body into a spring, and rebounding off the house, colliding with Floro's midsection and throwing them both into the road. Rex's fist hit against Floro's face again, whilst Floro's haymaker dislocated Rex's jaw.

"No Barbs? No thorny words?" Floro quipped, as Rex stretched his fingers into nails and drilled them into Floro's jaw.

No time for words. Just fighting.

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60 feet tall is a long way up, and Rita Farr always enjoyed the view from the top. Sadly, Rita always had more success as something other than a superhero, as an actress, or a model, or even working in the hospital before Buddy "recruited her".

She was always more successful, but she did so enjoy being a superhero. There was something so powerful and all consuming about growing to be bigger than a normal human. Much, much bigger.

Of course that helped very little when she was fighting a veritable army out here. Hundreds and hundreds of mutates, given the ability to fly by Extrano manipulating the latent powers within Thomas Kalmaku. Rita was only one woman after all, she couldn't defeat hundreds of mutates clawing at her and circling around her. She could barely move in this suburban area, for fear of crushing the smaller people.

Swatting the air helplessly wasn't helping either, and Rita felt that familiar scratching against the base of her thoughts. Self doubt. She couldn't do this; she'd never been very good at this sort of thing. What a useless hero she made.

The doubt took root in her, and Rita took a dive, landing on her side in the middle of the street. The mutates dove from the sky as well, pinning her to the ground as Extrano walked over her body and stood on her stomach, the exposed Buddy holding Anna in his arms, staring at Extrano defiantly.

"Give us the world soul, Baker, and you'll only die quickly. Hold out on us, and this new world order will be stripped off you and your family, and everyone you ever held dear."

"Honestly, do you listen to yourself speak? You're like a cliché. I used to have really different villains, but you're just like everyone else now. Are you going to use an overly elaborate method of killing me?"

"Baker, really? Are you trying to delay me by talking this through with me? I'm not here to play games." Extrano pointed at Buddy and Gloss leapt into action, the balls of her feet digging into the turf of the garden as she bolts towards the pair.

"What a time for the Red to be broken, huh Anna?" Buddy turned around on himself and made a break for the house, hopefully once inside he could get to the basement and the old JLA teleporter.

Sadly, that eventuality was not to be, and Gloss caught up with him, dropping him with a backhand. Luckily he kept hold of Anna while he fell, landing on his side and rolling his tongue around in his mouth.

"F^&k, that hurt quite a bit," He said, as Gloss yanked him from his position on the floor, and slapped him across the face again.

Gloss removed Anna from Buddy's possession and dropped him on the ground. Buddy shook his head and leapt onto her back, only for him to be thrown a few dozen feet, landing on the back of his shoulders and skidding to a halt.

"Damn it."

Buddy drew himself up to his feet, and walked towards Extrano and the group, but was knocked onto his back again as Platinum's extendable fist collides with his face.

"Give it up Buddy, you can't win this."

Buddy let out a long drawn sigh, staring at the bloodied grass in front of him.

"One way or another, Extrano, this is going to end."

To be continued...