The Cataclysm Part 2: The Man From A Different World.

@azure_son: @last_man_standing: @vocal: @maya_liafador: @armistice

They call it Memory Shock, it comes when a Time Siphon's oldest memory shards begin to lock into their memory pane again. Raeyn had forgotten about it and seeing as how she was worried about the Director, she didn't think of it after she consumed the temporal energy in the Key of Time. She remembered it now by force. She grabbed her head, screaming in agony as the sensations of battle subsided and her mind registered what it was going through. She fell to the ground, thrashing and convulsing as ancient memories fused into her memory pane, images she had forgotten longer than many people had been alive flashed before her mind's eye.

She bit her lip in the process, trying to control the pain and focus on something, anything, but even drawing blood was not enough. The ancient Time Siphon was under a level of mental assault she had not experienced in far too long. Her entire life was flashing before her eyes and for someone with the confusing, complicated life of a Time Siphon, it was tremendously terrible experience. To the members of STRIKE it almost looked like she was dying, her body convulsed and thrashed like she had been strapped into the electric chair and blood ran from her mouth and nose. This experience lasted almost five minutes before she was able to sink her fingers into the dirt and slowly calm her body down. At last she shuddered and became still, breathing, but her eyes were closed.

All of those titles came back with actual meaning, she remembered them all now, the Temporal Conflux, the Inner Circle, everything. The most terrible memory of all was from fifty thousand years ago, the experience of actually becoming a Time Siphon. "NOO!!!!" She screamed as her life started over in her mind and she experienced, as if for the first time, every memory, one after the other. The verbal scream was the result of seeing invading aliens kill her parents in front of her eyes...again. She was a frightened child, gripping the dirt of an alien world and crying out to an unjust universe. She remembered being taken away with the other children, their once peaceful world awash in blood, the blood of parents, the blood of every single living adult of their species. They were taken away, locked in small cages and fed only when they had to be. They were experimented on again and again until at last the terrible moment when the young child had been cast into a capsule and thrown into a rift in time, the creation of the first Time Siphon. Fear and pain were replaced with never ending hunger and the sensation of something clawing at the walls of her mind and trying to escape. She wanted her parents, she called for them in the darkness of her memory and verbally as well, loud enough for her fellow heroes to hear. The First Time Siphon was being stripped bare by her own memories, the extent of the damage done to her psyche so many years ago suddenly visible to everyone. She had not been born a merciless predator, life had made her into one.

She was so hungry and they wouldn't stop asking her questions, no one would stop asking her about how she felt after the experiment with the temporal rift. Why wouldn't they just leave her alone?! Her armor took initiative, it was perhaps more sentient than people knew and it began projecting the images burning into her mind for her whole team to see. The Temporal Armor had determined that its master was going to need the help of her allies and if they were going to help, they needed to understand the problem.

Darkness and bars, cell doors closing and children screaming in never ending darkness as they were tossed into the temporal rift one after another. All the while Raeyn held a small cube, the one they had seen her use earlier in the battle to regain her energy. The cube was alive, it kept the children alive through a process that should have killed them. It did not however, offer any comfort alone at night. When she wouldn't answer their questions the beatings started. Sometimes terrible things were done to her in an attempt to extract an answer, things no child should ever experience, let alone over and over again. One night, left alone and trembling in a pool of her own blood, sudden calm came over Raeyn. It was then that the thing clawing at her mind had settled in, the animal, the only comfort in the darkness and terror. It had an answer to solve all of her problems...if only Raeyn would let it in. The monster, the animal, it was new, placed there in the temporal rift by gods knew what. It had a plan, it had a way out, it could help.

"Help me..." She whispered quietly, grabbing at her head again, she wasn't calling to her team mates, she was calling to the creature in her memories. Next time they pulled her from her cell to answer their questions, she gave them one. All the scientists died that day. Raeyn took the children then, each had given in to their own inner animals by then. Raeyn, just a child itself, led thousands of others back home in ships and came to a world changed by the absence of their race. The world was awash in blood was now a chaotic hell, resting on the Temporal Conflux. It was perfect. The frightened children established a society, they built a culture all their own and when they grew old enough to turn to the universe at large they did so with anger and blackness in their hearts. They had been tortured to degrees no being had ever felt before and the animals in their minds wanted revenge. At first revenge came in the form of destroying the species that had destroyed theirs, but it never stopped, it kept going. Galaxies burned, screaming in terror.

All the while Raeyn fought the animal she had given control, but its claws were deep and for many tens of thousands of years there was nothing she could do but submit to its desires. The child was still there, frightened and alone and it wanted the darkness to go away, so it did, countless billions of people died to pay for the crimes of a few dozen scientists because the child had associated everyone with its enemies. The truth was simple...The Time Siphons were children, lost and terrified in a universe that refused to hold them and tell them everything would be ok. When people turned against them it was because they had always wanted to anyway, when they were hunted it was because the universe hated them, childish thinking, but ingrained in their psyche. The armor stopped projecting her memories after the first thousand years and resumed again only when she remembered acceptance. The first time she had ever felt wanted, liked and accepted. It had been around a small table at STRIKE HQ speaking to just a few of her teammates. The surprise she had concealed relatively well at the time was immense internally. Someone had finally said it was ok, it had only taken 50,000 years.

Raeyn collapsed again, shivering as her brain slowly adjusted to the presence of the new memories. Raeyn reached out for someone as she struggled to regain control, she put her hand on Ruby's leg. She still had no way of knowing if the Director was alive or not, but in this moment it didn't matter. Here was someone that accepted who she was. Energy shifted between them in that moment, it was an instinct long repressed, the desire to help others. Temporal Energy flowed out of the Time Siphon, it was not much in the scheme of things and she would hardly notice it. For Ruby though it might just be the difference between life and death. If the action was not too late. All the energy needed was the tiniest of sparks, a single living cell to fuse itself to.

@vocal: @last_man_standing: @doctor_burns: @embargo:

Leonel stood. The core of a devastation he sought to unleash on this galaxy and the next. As the New God of Quantum Mechanics, Leonel's dominion was over the foundation, the fundamental essence of everything in the physical universe. Everything possessed a quantum, even a proposed quantum. Even time, a seemingly intangible force had a quantum, a chronon. Theoretically, the New God's power had no limit. It was rather fortunate then that he had yet to realize even the face of his potential to control all that was and is. Yet even in the face of a seemingly invincible foe, S.T.R.I.K.E. did not relent. It was this unwavering resolve that many a villain found insolent, this lionhearted courage and refusal to yield even when realism was no more that made them heroes.

To challenge the unbeatable. To undo wrong. To do whatever was necessary to better the lives of others and protect the innocent. To fight for the weak and to make them believe in a greater tomorrow. Those principles were what made S.T.R.I.K.E. the globe's premier collection of heroes. While the others remained on Earth, S.T.R.I.K.E. did everything in their power to stop the destruction of not only the solar system but the Milky Way Galaxy and whatever Leonel set his sights on next. Nursing his wounds within the confines of Burns' protective barrier, Sosuke the Samurai Saint watched as his teammate, Cadence stepped forward in what was a suicide mission. "The fool.. she's going to get herself killed. Idiot", Sosuke lamented with a mild shake of the head. Meanwhile, Leonel readied his next assault.

Facing his palm towards Cadence with the intention of emitting a stream of scorching plasma that dwarfed the temperatures of entire stars to swallow the violet-haired heroine whole and reduce her to ionized dust, Leonel soon found himself... blinded? He couldn't see. The electromagnetic spectrum seemed to elude him. Even the cosmic microwave background radiation left over from the Big Bang was no longer his to use for his eyesight. And with the vacuum that the heat he radiated cultivated, his auditory senses were useless. Sound did not travel in a vacuum. Burns' quick intervention not only deprived the New God of his discovered senses, but prevented what might have been Cadence's death. Though intent on simply reducing the entire solar system and whatever lied some light years away with an explosive burst of some energy, Leonel was stopped.

Solar Hawk's light energy had initially weakened Catalina's influence over his mind and created an opening that Maya would soon capitalize on. First a punch, boiling with power that eclipsed most of what he had felt from other superhumans blasted him across the chin. It was immense, and struck with authority. It stunned the New God. The same way an intercepting jab might stun a forward-prowling adversary. The pain was superficial however. The damage lacked severity. For a being capable of plunging himself into the hearts of neutron stars and the like, it was nothing to be concerned over. But left without any form of sensory perception, Leonel had been disarmed and suddenly, he felt it. The vibration of whichever particles remained in the vacuum all about him. Vibrating in anticipation of another attack. This one however, came with the power of a god.

He felt every iota of kinetic energy from the hammer as it blasted into the pit of his stomach. As he hunched forward in pain, the heat from lightning that exceeded the temperature of stars superheated the surface on his skin. Electricity surged through what was the New God equivalent of a nervous system and fried what it could. He felt the steam escaping from the cracks formed in his skin as blood escaped from his mouth in a gush. Leonel however, was not done, he was though, hurt. Dropped to a single knee, he intended to attack again, to blow up the entire solar system and more in one go. But by virtue of Maya's will, he did nothing because her light magic seized him and wrestled Catalina's darkness from his mind. He hadn't heard any of the others' words. Neither the darkness nor the vacuum that surrounded him allowed him to. And it was because of the vacuum that he could not hear what transpired between his father and Catalina.

"NO!", Thee Champion cried, eyes widened, body rushing to cradle the lifeless frame of his fallen daughter. "Catalina...", his voice, no longer commanding or holding the authority and power that brought him fear, respect and admiration from many in the world and the galaxies beyond. Instead, the roar of a lion had been reduced to the whimper of a cub as tears rolled down his cheeks while he sobbed. Never had he felt so powerless. He, a god, with the power to destroy worlds and even star systems, was unable to prevent his own daughter's demise. He could not restore even one life. Rested on a single knee, recuperating from the perversion and blackness that had once claimed his mind, a severely wounded Leonel, along with the entire Liafador-Pettis family would have much mourning to do. Catalina was dead. Madison was dead. But finally, at least, Alexis could bring his daughter home.

@thee_champion:

Solar Hawk and Luna Hawk made their way over to Thee Champion. Solar Hawk stood quietly, looking down at the grief stricken man and his fallen daughter. "Your daughter was a warrior, corrupted by darkness maybe, but a warrior none the less." Though it didn't sound like much, it was quite a compliment coming from Solar Hawk. "As a White Lantern I have power over death, but I cannot bring everyone back. I am sorry." Only the White Lantern homeworld can bring back a suicide and even then they have to be willing.

Luna Hawk knelt down, her wings drooping briefly at the sadness around her. "Remember her for what she was at the end and what she was before she was corrupted. A father's memories are always pure and strong." I've had so many fathers now, some good and some bad...I miss them all. I can't imagine what it's like when things happen the other way around.

@embargo:

Solaris had been observing the problems with the Cataclysm since the events began. STRIKE had been taking care of the problems directly related to it so she let them and kept an eye on it. Ever since the Champions International had fallen apart her Champions Unlimited organization had been without a partner. Now that the issue seemed to be subsiding she took off from The Strip and flew up to the STRIKE carrier in the most nonthreatening manner she could come up with. She landed lightly on the deck of the flying ship, not unimpressed by the construction of the vast machine and the damage its deck had sustained earlier in the battle without falling out of the sky.

Solaris stood on the deck and found the nearest agent.

"If you have a moment, I would like to speak with whoever is in charge here." She said. She wore polarized sunglasses but even with those on the blazing suns that were her eyes were difficult to look at. She had no way of knowing there was an incoming invasion fleet, but the moment she found out she was likely to offer her assistance since she was standing here.

Thanks to the timely intervention by Raeyn, Ruby’s wounds healed almost to 100% allowing her to close the distance with the troubled Time Siphon in tow. “Thanks Raeyn” She said, placing a placid hand on her shoulder. “Try to hang in there, keep yourself focused” She said, not for sure what was ailing the Time Siphon, but did not want to deal with it right now.

“What destruction…” She said, her eyes dancing across the now desolate Earth-M, once beautiful and uninhabited, now barren and unchaste. She could hear faint innocuous chatter amongst the STRIKE team; some were huddled around Ronnie, a boy—no a man; that proved he has what it takes to handle the pressure of the world.

Others were scattered along the wreckage of the once magnificent palace, trying to aid their fallen teammates. Her eyes briefly moved from Maya, to Leonel, to Catalina; and then eventually thee Champion. As a mother, she knew the pain he was feeling, having lost a child herself; Ruby’s truest condolences went out to them.

Her eyes cut back to Time Siphon, Fraga, Vocal, Ronnie, the unconscious Maya, Addison, Solar Hawk and Burns; the Champions from Earth, she owed it to them to be firm in her decisions and just. She was chosen to be the leader of STRIKE not because her ability to lead, but because her audacity to make the toughest, often unfavorable decisions.

“I know, this isn’t the best time…but Leonel Pettis…you’re under arrest”. She said, standing with her hands behind her back. Out of everyone here, she was the least capable of inflicting damage; she had zero power—and all the power at the same time.

She watched Ronnie’s brother die, Maya deplete herself, Vocal get knocked unconscious, Time Siphon Starve herself, and members of her human team die; he owed it to them to come peacefully.

Addison watched from afar, she hadn’t taken too much damage, but it was enough to keep her sidelined for a few hours. As her eyes met with Leonel’s, a plethora of feelings course through her veins, but as an Exemplar these were feelings she couldn’t bring herself to actively display.

Sending him a cordial nod; as if to say “Just do it” She moved back toward the Eden Teleporter; her job was not yet done. As the orange beauty took to the skies, she noticed the varying changes in Reality around them. “Wait a minute…what happened to Maya Lopez?” She asked, turning back towards the crumbled palace. She found no visible trace of Prime Earths-Reality Warper. “I don’t know how to explain this…” She muttered, heading high into the atmosphere to once again join up with Ian.

“Quick surgery?” She asked, speaking on his patch job of the space-time. “I really am sorry for all this.” She added, with her hands on her curvy waist. “If I could’ve stopped Catalina on Magog none of this would’ve happened.”

Detaining Leonel, now would detrimental to the things they still needed to accomplish, Ronnie was tired; Vocal was done, Maya was done, Time Siphon was running on fumes, and Solar Hawk….well she would fight forever—they now needed Leonel to plow through the mighty Talmut fleet.

“If that fleet makes it to this Solar System…we’re toast. My plans…stop it before it gets here.”

H.A.T.V

“We have an unauthorized landing on the deck Commander Stacy” Agent Norfleet reported, pulling the woman up on screen. “Female, blonde; seems she’s requesting to speak to Director Ruby…er I mean you” Agent Barnes said, placing his gear on to accompany the commander to the outside.

Strolling through the doors to the outside of the vessel, Stacy stopped in front of the golden woman with her hands folded. “How can we be of service to you.?”

@embargo:

For Thee Champion, as he rested on his knees, his daughter's cold, lifeless body caressed by the loving touch of his strong arms, he felt only despair. The entire world had gone gray. His heart? Cut into pieces and left bleeding as its remains sunk deep into the pit of his stomach. Catalina was, in many ways, his most prioritized child. She had always been the one who needed the most protection. The one he seemed lost and always subjected to the world's cruelty. More than any of the others, she had needed him as a father. "...", he couldn't manage any words. As the tears dried on his features, he shut his eyes and pressed his forehead, gently, against Catalina's, finally uttering something of note, "Daddy will always love you, Cat".

While Alexis, Thee Champion, allowed himself a moment with the first of his fallen children, Leonel slowly but surely gathered his bearings. With a palm braced against the cracked and scorched ground, and a knee pressed against it, his eyes soon gazed upon the devastation he brought to the land when under Catalina's spell. Still unaware of Madison's death, the young New God instead grew frantic at the sight of his father with... Catalina. "She's...", he uttered in disbelief, "Dead yes", Alexis confirmed, voice low as he hovered towards his wounded son. He couldn't even begin to understand what Leonel must have felt then and there. Not only had he lost his sister. But during his corruption, he had killed one, and injured many. For a moment, the Azure Son shut his eyes, fighting back the tears that were certain to flood sooner or later.

He was a soldier, literally. The wars in Reality-M had hardened him, rendered him tough. He was accustomed to losses. He had lost all of his biological siblings, and all his friends in the war that took his home universe. Catalina's death was one he handled with moderate control. He calmed himself. This was not the time to burst into tears. Yet now as he recalled and regretted every moment he had ever vowed to kill Catalina for her crimes, it couldn't have been more difficult. And so, his eyes remained shut, and his fists tightly clenched. None of his wounds, the burn wounds, the elephantine bruise from the hammer strike that pulverized his gut, none of them compared to the emotional wounds he now felt. It was then, that his eyes flared open, "Where's Maya!?", he cried out in alarm, in concern. Only to be interrupted by Director Ruby calling for his arrest.

Though they were beyond hers or any of the Earth's law officers' jurisdictions, it was his own moral awareness of what had transpired, and ultimately a lingering gaze from a passing Addison that convinced him to yield. He met the orange beauty's eyes from a distance. There was so much he wanted to say, and even more things he felt, but it simply wasn't the time. With a nod, he turned towards Ruby and willingly offered his wrists, that was until she was made aware of the Talmut Fleet's impending ingress in the Solar System. Though wounded, Leonel was the only one capable of stopping the fleet, and he would. "You can arrest me when I'm done with the fleet". Taking off and soaring into the sky, monstrous magnetic fields were generated from the Azure Son's person until he suddenly.. disappeared. He had entered higher dimensional space where faster-than-light speed was possible.

Exceeding the universe's natural speed barrier, Leonel exited the Solar System in what was essentially an instant before intercepting the Talmut fleet in the blackness of space that existed between the Solar System and the next star system. It was there that he pulled absolutely no punches. A gamma ray burst from his palm, a gargantuan beam with the dimensions of entire celestial bodies sought to swallow the fleet whole and eradicate it with the energy output of a hypernova. It was the least he could do before returning to face his arrest.

@embargo@maya_liafador

Addison watched from afar, she hadn’t taken too much damage, but it was enough to keep her sidelined for a few hours. As her eyes met with Leonel’s, a plethora of feelings course through her veins, but as an Exemplar these were feelings she couldn’t bring herself to actively display.

Sending him a cordial nod; as if to say “Just do it” She moved back toward the Eden Teleporter; her job was not yet done. As the orange beauty took to the skies, she noticed the varying changes in Reality around them. “Wait a minute…what happened to Maya Lopez?” She asked, turning back towards the crumbled palace. She found no visible trace of Prime Earths-Reality Warper. “I don’t know how to explain this…” She muttered, heading high into the atmosphere to once again join up with Ian.

“Quick surgery?” She asked, speaking on his patch job of the space-time. “I really am sorry for all this.” She added, with her hands on her curvy waist. “If I could’ve stopped Catalina on Magog none of this would’ve happened.”

Detaining Leonel, now would detrimental to the things they still needed to accomplish, Ronnie was tired; Vocal was done, Maya was done, Time Siphon was running on fumes, and Solar Hawk….well she would fight forever—they now needed Leonel to plow through the mighty Talmut fleet.

“If that fleet makes it to this Solar System…we’re toast. My plans…stop it before it gets here.”

Upon arriving at his point in space, the first of her many questions to come out of this conflict was answered by the sight of Maya Lopez cradled in the arms of her invisible savior. Once awoken and aware of this knowledge Maya would most likely view this as a fate worse than death, the two having what could only be described as a very complicated and many times contentious relationship over the years. She was far too proud to ever accept needing anyone to save her from any threat regardless of the situation, but for it to come from him, was like adding insult to injury in a most aggrieved manner.

Armistice - "You try maintaining a collapsing section of localized spacetime, while saving a shapely damsel in distress, at the same time the powers of two alternate reality warpers from separate realities play dueling banjos with their talents."

Addison could tell his offense was only of the mock variety, thinking that she could use the addition of a little levity to the atmosphere as the repercussions of recent events unfolded in front of her. The magnitude of not only actual, but potential death and destruction was not lost on any involved,and the more political among them knew that to all parties involved some heads must roll for their part in the tragedies in their wake.

Armistice - "I could give you a sermon on the reasons why an Exemplar, much less one as inexperienced as you, should not take an active involvement in the affairs of a reality not their own, but your perceived failures only came to pass due to the threats created by others you felt a need to address on your own. We could spend an inordinate amount of time dispersing blame across multiple fronts point by point, yet the truth is actually quite simple as to the crux of the situation. Mommy and Daddy have been far too preoccupied trying to defend and grow their burgeoning little empire from any and all threats, real and perceived, to even take note that the biggest danger lies within. Absentee parents to a brood of immensely powerful children they allow to run roughshod across the world and stars above as if they own the place, too arrogant to even care about the consequences of such actions. You know full well that because of the use of alternate reality analogues they have place their entire family into the spotlight by higher powers, including the exemplars and their watchful eye. You also know it is not only in my rights, but capabilities, to erase the entire family line should I deem it necessary to ensure no further incursions. If you truly want to help them, use your influence to make them see the light, otherwise I will be left with an unenviable task that neither of us wants to see come to fruition."

@embargo:

Solaris cocked her head ever so slightly to one side, this woman was not the one she expected to be seeing. Ryan never got his information wrong...something had changed. Interesting...I will mark that to remember later.

"My name is Solaris, I have kept myself out of this fight but I want to extend an offer to STRIKE to establish a working relationship between my organization and yours. In these uncertain times we all need allies. My team was originally established as an ally to another team but that team has disbanded. Your people have put everything on the line for the defense of others, your organization seems like one I can agree to an alliance with. If you would like help cleaning up whatever is left of this catastrophe I offer to assist in whatever way I can." Solaris shifted her gaze to the agents that had followed this woman, her blazing eyes lingered for a moment on the clearly injured Agent Barnes. "Perhaps I could offer medical assistance as well."