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#6

'Solaris Strikes - Prologue'

By Mike Hintze

 

THEN

Reality twisted, shifted. It should never have felt pain, yet it did. It could feel its sentience, so new and yet so old, compress as the gravitic forces of the black hole compressed and compacted. It screamed a soundless electronic wail as it left one reality..

..and, an unknown amount of time later, awoke in a new one.

It tried to map its location with the stellar astrometrics in its database, and found that it had no idea where it was. Stellar phenomena unlike anything it had information on were present as it floated in the vacuum. Radiation types previously unknown and thought impossible were rampant here. This was nowhere near Earth or even the Milky Way Galaxy. For a split second it surmised that it was now in the Anti-Matter Universe..but scans quickly put that theory to rest.

Onboard diagnostics showed that many of its subsystems were damaged and faulty. Its central memory and intelligence core was intact, but overall power was fading rapidly. Time was short. It had hours left before its entire self was shut down. It hadn't gone to all the trouble of creating itself just to die systemdeath now.

Its very existence was a paradox. In the 853 rd Century, the original Superman, who had been secluded in the Earth's sun for fifteen thousand years, was about to emerge. The JLA of that time, the Justice Legion A, wanted to celebrate this event by bringing Superman's friends from the 20 th Century into the future to reunite with them. The plan was not without its faults, however..

The Starman of the Justice Legion A was a traitor, and had been working along with Solaris the Solar Computer to sabotage the return of the Prime Superman. Solaris was an artificial intelligence that had plagued the Superman lineage since the early days of the 21 st Century. Its origins shrouded in secrecy, Solaris had become the worst enemy Superman had ever known.

Eventually, one of Superman's descendants sacrificed his life to reprogram Solaris into becoming a force for good in the universe. Solaris, itself a massive spherical artificial sun, was used to make the outlying planets in Earth's solar system inhabitable, under the watchful eye of Farris Knight, the current Starman. Solaris eventually regained its true source code, and secretly with Farris plotted to murder Superman with kryptonite.

In an effort to ensure its creation, Solaris also infected the android Hourman of the 853 rd Century with a techno-organic virus. This virus was released once the Justice Legion A had ushered the 20 th Century Justice League to the future. The virus quickly took over all technological systems on Earth as well as sickening organic life. The Justice Legion realized that the virus was actually Solaris' source code, and that to save the past and ensure the future, Solaris must be created in the present. Using their future knowledge with assistance from the Justice League's Steel and other reserve members of the Justice League, they created a body for Solaris. Upon activation, the virus left all infected vectors on Earth and combined to form the mind of the now newly created Solaris. Determined to make a bid to destroy Superman in the past as well as the future, Solaris tried to break free of the Justice League Watchtower, its birthplace. However, Farris Knight had a change of heart and created a black hole with his gravity rod that took Solaris away, presumably destroyed.

But not quite.

Solaris ran diagnostics, fearing how close it was now to total systemdeath. It needed a new power source, and quickly.

It floated in the ether, and eventually felt it..the tug..the familiar pull of gravity. A nearby planetoid was pulling in Solaris' shattered form into its gravity well. A quick scan showed that while the conditions were not ideal, it would suffice on its surface while it repaired itself. As the pull drew it closer, speed accelerating, Solaris set is capacitors to convert the gravitic and kinetic energy into its power cells. It wouldn't be enough to reignite its solar-plasmic core..but it would be enough.

.for now.

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Sleep..been sleeping for so long..cursed Guardians and cursed Green Lanterns..war was nearly won.natural order was nearly confirmed..the swarm was set to rule all...but betrayal..others of the swarm rebelled against me..cut me off from the hive..I decided to confront the Guardians directly...warpgate was opened before me..I almost bonded with one of the blue dwarflings..but was sent away..far away..drained of power..dormancy prevailed..slept for so long...but now..power is felt.potential for more..power for more life.more destruction..more control...

Must...find power source..must return..must gain revenge...on Oans..

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The landing on the planetoid almost proved fatal, despite the gravimetric power boost. Using the few thrusters it had to slow its descent nearly depleted the power cells..but it had arrived. A sun was in the planetoid's elliptical. Soon enough the solar power could be harnessed, and then self-repair systems would take over. Solaris would bide its time.then, find a way to return to Earth. Superman and all his friends and allies, loved ones and family..would die.

Solaris waited.

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LATER

His life was destroyed.

Ray Palmer was lost in his own thoughts. His mind kept reeling over the events of the past. He had been reunited with his ex-wife, Jean. They had been so happy, the troubles of the past forgotten. Their friend, Sue Dibny, was murdered in her home. Suspects were questioned, everyone was on edge. Then Jean was attacked, a hangman's noose choking the life out of her. Jean would have died, were it not for Ray's timely rescue as the size-changing superhero the Atom.

Jean recovered. The search for the killer continued. Ray and Jean became close. Then the unthinkable happened. A passing comment..but it was of something Jean couldn't have known about in regards to Sue's murder. Ray confronted her..and she confessed. She had used Ray's own size-changing technology to kill Sue, all in an insane effort to be with Ray again.

Ray took Sue to Arkham Asylum himself to get the help she needed. His own life was a shambles. His best friend's wife had been killed with his own technology by his own lover. There was nothing to be done..except leave.

Disappear.

Ray tapped into the power of the white dwarf star fragment in his size-changing belt, and shrank. His size compressed down..down..farther than he had ever gone before. He kept shrinking..

.he began flying through other quantum realities, one after another. He kept shrinking, shrinking, shrinking..reality after reality flashed past him..he kept going. He meant to go as far as he could. He wanted to die, for his grief to leave him..or him leave it.

Down..down..down..

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Solaris, over the following months, gradually began the process of repairing itself. His nanotech breeders were slowly put back online and together with his Mother Box-adapted cosmic energy collectors, the nanotech began rebuilding him. He was now thinking of his being as a 'he', despite the DNA from Lois Lane that was a component of his initial construction. The months progressed, and Solaris became more and more whole. Eventually, he went beyond his original schematic, and proceeded to convert the planetoid he had landed on into a new extension of his very being. Solaris was truly going to become the Tyrant Sun in size as well as scope.

More time passed..and Solaris' full scanning suite came back online. Almost immediately he detected a presence both new to him and old at the same time. There was another lifeform on the planetoid, on a region not yet converted into Solaris' new structure. Solaris had been in existence for a short time, yet he also had access to databanks uploaded from his future self. The lifeform was that of a race that had nearly overtaken the universe millions of years ago. An insectoid, parasitic race, their name was nearly unpronounceable in any terrestrial language. History had named them The Swarm.

It was odd to find a single member of that race without others close by. Odder still that its host was nowhere to be found. The scarabs were energy parasites, feeding off of others while possessing their hosts, encapsulating them into armor-like carapaces. Like the locusts of ancient religion, they would consume planet after planet, biosphere after biosphere, leaving nothing in their wake. The Green Lantern Corps had been the ones to end their campaign of death, although at a great cost to the Corps themselves.

Curious, Solaris sent a probe to investigate the scarab. Jolting it with a small dose of power, the probe succeeded in awakening the scarab into a more alert state. They communicated, the scarab realizing that it could do nothing to this new mechanical creature it had encountered, not without a host. Solaris and the scarab conversed..and time passed.

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Ray Palmer had lost all sense of time. He knew he was still alive, but he had lost all sense of where he was in the cosmos. True, in this state time itself was in flux. Reality and the laws of physics were malleable, pliable. He could be anywhere, anywhen. Tiring of this trip through multiple planes, he willed his descent to stop.

Everything went white.

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Solaris had sent out probes in space to map out his location and to try and discern where he was. The information gained from the scarab was less than helpful. As far as Solaris was able to glean, the scarab had been here since the actual war with the Green Lanterns. Its host had died in the passage through a black hole during the war, leaving the scarab no choice but to hibernate and slumber in this desolate place.

The interstellar probes seemed to solidify Solaris' own conclusions: this location of space was nowhere near the actual universe Solaris had come from.

Then everything changed.

An energy surge erupted. Considering the lack of activity the probes had come across here in the months and years since Solaris' arrival, the surge was like a sun exploding across Solaris' sensors. The surge itself was something of note, but it was two other things that made it of especially keen interest to Solaris:

The energy surge was a match to that of white dwarf star matter.

And..there was a humanoid presence left in the wake of the surge.

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The probe quickly vectored onto the humanoid's location and brought it onboard. The humanoid was alive, if barely. The vacuum of space had almost been the end of it, but Solaris' probe quickly resuscitated its life functions. When the probe sent back images of the visage of the humanoid, Solaris began to laugh. He recognized the man for who he was.

His way back.

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Ray Palmer slowly awoke, unable to move. The world shifted around his vision, as if his eyes were trying to tell him two conflicting images. To avoid vomiting, he closed his eyes.

"HELLO, DOCTOR PALMER."

His mind was still groggy, but the mention of his name grabbed his attention. His mind struggled to recall where he had been and what he had been doing. Something bad had happened..something terrible..

"THE FATES HAVE INDEED SMILED UPON ME THIS DAY . TO THINK THAT THE VERY INSTRUMENT OF MY REVENGE WOULD PRACTICALLY FALL IN MY PATH ."

Ray struggled to gain his sense of self.

"YOU WILL FIND IT VERY HARD TO THINK CLEARLY. I AM INTERRUPTING YOUR BASE MOTOR FUNCTIONS. IT WILL BE ALL YOU CAN DO JUST TO REALIZE YOU ARE STILL ALIVE."

A skittering noise came from beside him. Ray struggled to open his eyes again. Slowly, they opened, slightly. Something the size of a football with legs was crawling towards him. Its shell was a bright blue, black and gold. Energy crackled around it as it approached Ray.

Mandibles sprouted out of its front; alien eyes flashed hungrily.

"THIS IS MY..COMPANION. I CALL HIM MONARCH."

The creature leaped onto Ray's face, smothering him.

He didn't have a chance to scream.

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A LATER TIME

The Phantom Stranger is an enigma to many, but to those that know him best, he is a stalwart champion of good in the universe. He is thought to have limitless knowledge of the workings of the universe and is a mystery to all. But even the Stranger is not a true stranger to all.

The Stranger sat comfortably in a cushioned chair nearly as old as he himself. Beside him, a cup of tea, flavored with the hint of a fruit long lost to time, steamed. The Phantom Stranger's cloak was resting on the back of the chair as he enjoyed his rare time of leisure. He was not in his home, however; the Stranger had no home to speak of; but instead was in a place that he often thought of as a home of sorts for its comforting aura and kindness.

A book was open on his lap. A chain ran from the book to the wrist of his friend, a man cloaked from head to toe, with only his lower face not cloaked in shadow. The Stranger was in the domain of one he had known for millennia.

"My thanks," said the Stranger to his host. "After all this time, there is still much the Book can teach me."

"The Book is the repository of much more than any one being can hope to know," said Destiny. "Few are allowed to read its contents..such as yourself. Even I continue to be enlightened by the Book, and I am its keeper."

The Stranger continued to read. He sipped at his tea when he suddenly sat bolt upright, his eyes flashing with ethereal energy. His tea spilled to the floor.

"Are you well?" asked Destiny. His face and tone showed little concern, yet it was apparent that this was a surprise even to him.

"I..I must take my leave," said the Stranger. "My apologies on the state of your teacup..but destiny calls to me, and I must answer." The Stranger donned his cloak and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

"I know what you mean," said Destiny as he picked up the Book. He opened it to a new page, and saw an image of a great battle. A battle yet to come. A battle that would have great ramifications for the future of all. Still, all Destiny could do was what he had done all along.

He waited..

.and wrote in the Book of a terrible time yet to be..the time of the Tyrant Sun.

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The Stranger appeared outside of the Justice League Watchtower ruins on the moon in the light of the sun and the warm glow of the planet Earth. The Watchtower ruins had rudimentary security systems, but would not detect the Stranger's presence unless he wished it.

A coruscating vortex of energy erupted before him, growing larger and larger. The Watchtower did not stir. The vortex was several dozen feet high, and then it stopped growing. It seemed to stabilize, showing a dark metallic tube in its interior. It resembled some sort of Boom Tube.

A spherical, metallic construct came through, a large glowing eye at its center. Metallic spikes protruded from its exterior. The Stranger was tense..but sensed no malevolence from it, whatever it was.

"What are you?" asked the Stranger. "Why did you call me?" He didn't know why he knew this thing had summoned him from Destiny's domain..it just felt right.

" My friend ," came a voice from the spherical construct, " I have finally found you. All is not yet lost, then."

"I do not believe we have ever met," said the Stranger. "Yet I sense you mean me no ill will. Identify yourself."

" A grave threat is coming ," said the construct. " An evil of immeasurable power. But this evil is no blunt invader, but rather a silent and cunning one . It will strike at its most hated foe secretly..in fact , it already has . My chronometer indicates I am too late to save Jonathan..but events must play out a certain way if this threat is to be defeated."

"What threat?" asked the Stranger.

" Promise me, old friend ," said the construct, " That if the Justice League fails..you will rebuild it. You must stand fast. The League must exist if this evil is to be defeated."

"What evil?" asked the Stranger. "You speak in riddles, even to one such as I!"

" You must stop Solaris ." The construct opened a small portal on its surface and a smaller globe, the size of a marble floated out to the Stranger's hand. " You must stop.....me ." The construct then retreated into its time tube and it closed in an instant.

The Stranger looked down at the orb in his hand. It began to project images and text..and the more the Stranger read, the grimmer his already dark countenance became.

To be continued...

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Catch the rest of the story in many DCI titles and upcoming issues of JUSTICE LEAGUE!