Post by redsycorax on Feb 26, 2022 2:49:02 GMT
Earth-500's Justice Alliance- Atom, Aquaman, Batman, Robin II, Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkboy and Hawkgirl, Green Arrow, Superman, Superwoman, Captain Thunder, Lightning Girl, Ultra Violet and Wonder Woman- fight a never ending battle for truth, justice, diversity and heroism!
++
NEW PHOBOS:
On his asteroid home, in Earth orbit yet named for Mars largest satellite, J'Onn J'Onnz felt a peculiar sensation. It was difficult to describe- one moment, J'Onn and M'yrrha, his wife, were enjoying a suitably chilled glass of redweed plohmeik, when they were subjected to a vivid array of telepathic impressions. His wife blinked: "Beloved? What was that?"
"I...have no idea, my love. It seemed to be an archaic version of my Justice Alliance colleagues, yet with many differentiations. Almost as if it were an alternate universe."
Abruptly, J'Onn's JAA signal device activated: "J'Onn? It's Jose. Did you receive that telepathic impression a few seconds ago? I did, through the ring. Unfortunately, I'm too busy dealing with a massive avalanche here in the Andes to deal with it adequately right now. Aata?"
Aquaman joined the conversation: "I can verify that. As we're the Alliance's two strongest telepaths, J'Onn, I think we should take this up at the Seabase. Is anyone else present there?"
"Yes, Diana, Oliver and Willie. I'll signal them that they're coming in. My wife? Regretfully, we have Alliance business. Contact me if you receive any further telepathic impressions."
"As you will, my husband." The two Martians touched tendrils and then J'Onn stepped into the Justice Alliance teleport terminal, which would take him down to Earth.
JAA SEABASE:
"Can you describe the impressions to the rest of us, Aata and J'Onn?"
"It was if they were recorded images and sounds. I felt 'outside' them somehow, as if I were looking on. It was all taking place on a world something like this one, but occurring in a past that never happened."
"It's a good thing too. What J'Onn, M'yrrha and I witnessed was that world coming to an end. From what I was able to work out, it occurred on an alternate timeline where the Cuban missile crisis here in October 1962 turned into a devastating nuclear war. There were rough analogues of some of us there, but not others. One man had a belt that gave him invulnerability and super strength, one was dressed in a catlike bodysuit with a cowl, there was a red-haired woman dressed in a green gauzelike tube dress, another woman with a domino mask and black bodysuit, someone very much like the Flash and another very much like Green Lantern. They all died trying to defend their city from nuclear attack. And a mutant. A hideous mutant."
Willie raised an eyebrow: "Hey, that sounds like the old Justice Guild of America National Comics stories that Bella and I read back home on Earth-964."
Diana nodded: "Perhaps that explains it. Perhaps the mutant that you saw was a powerful telepath and unintentionally sent that psionic image across the multiverse."
"Even so, there would have been signal degradation if it came through bleedspace. I suspect that we were experiencing recorded psionic impressions, not actually occurring real-time events."
"Are you sure, J'Onn?"
The Martian Manhunter nodded: "Something recorded those psionic impressions and retained them. Perhaps as a voyeuristic remnant, perhaps as a solemn record and testimony of that Earth's cherished and valiant heroes in their final hours. Whatever their intention was, that record is now within the public domain."
"There's something else. I don't know if J'Onn and M'yrrha received it too, but there was an incidental word at the beginning and end of that impression: Sinaloa."
At that, J'Onn reacted with surprise, taking a step back, as did Wonder Woman: "What is it?"
"Sinaloa. The name is one associated with an alien that visited Mars millennia ago, who seemed most interested in recording our family's experiences on her psionicorder device."
Wonder Woman nodded: "That sounds almost exactly like the female alien that visited me at Themiscyra to discuss Amazon civilisation and heritage as well. And with the same name. And she also carried a psionic recorder device. I wonder, could this be the same woman?"
"Green-skinned, with large yellow wings?"
"No, red-skinned, wearing a blue bodysuit. Hmm. Perhaps this is an immortal being which can change its appearance or species or transplant its mind into successive host bodies? Yes, I know it sounds like your old enemy Atticus Morbida, Willie, but this may have been done consensually."
"But why would this woman allow a stray psionic impression to escape from her care? I doubt whether this is a telepathic advertisement." Oliver inquired.
J'Onn nodded: "Most telepath regulatory organisations prohibit product advertising in psionic environments."
"So was this a call for help, especially if this woman were under attack?" Captain Thunder commented.
"This psionic impression contained her name at both ends of the segment, so it may have been. But how can we locate her?"
"I suggest that Diana and I should share our recollections of this person, so that it may assist us in our investigation."
OMNISHIP HEISENBERG:
As Sinaloa nursed her bleeding arm, she cursed her poor fortune. When the Heisenberg had inserted itself into this new alternate universe, she should have been ready to shield against any hostile incursions. She hadn't expected her old foe Materioptika to materialise his own omniship virtually on top of her own and make away with some of her precious, cherished psionic archives from countless perished worlds and their valiant and heroic inhabitants. And she disliked the fact that Materioptika's unwelcome intrusion had violated the primary Archivist moral code, only to observe and record, never to exploit what they recorded for vulgar material gain. Moreover, his antiquated omniship Decasia had not had its software updated for centuries. It would have leaked the record of... ah. Yes. The Justice Guild of Earth-109. Those fallen women and men of valour and courage deserved far better than this. She bit her lip as Heisenberg's navigation systems came back online and disclosed her location within the multiverse. This was not good. She had no option if she were to stop her old enemy in whatever objective he had for the stolen psionicorded archival material. Grimly, she set course for Earth-500.
SEABASE:
As the Heisenberg materialised in the main foyer of the Justice Alliance headquarters, Sinaloa clipped on her forcescreen belt, hoping that her reception would be friendly. In the event, she need not have worried:
"Hola, Sinaloa, welcome back to Earth-500, sister." Wonder Woman said warmly.
"Can this be Diana of Themiscyra? But you were a child when I last saw you!"
"And you were tall, willowy and silver-skinned."
J'Onn bowed: "Hail, guardian of wisdom and memory. Whatever Wonder Woman here might say, when I encountered you back on Mars while it was still habitable, you were a brilliant emerald, with luxuriant tentacles around you."
Willie was almost speechless: "Hey, it is her. I remember her featuring in a JGA Cybernoids story in which she was captured by Tom Turbine's arch enemies and... I know, I'm being a fanboy. I should stop now."
"I think I owe you an apology, too, young Captain Thunder. It was my intention to travel to Earth-964 and preserve its memories and imprints of the other heroes that existed then. Due to that very incident and my enforced captivity as a result, I was unable to reach your world in time. Otherwise I would certainly have set a warning satellite in place in case its other heroes returned from other dimensions or interstellar space to find their world a ruined wasteland."
Green Arrow nodded: "So, why do you only record and not substantially intervene in tragedies like that?"
"Because tragedies like that on Earth-964 would require the abilities of an apex-class metasapient to resolve, Oliver Two Feathers. They often consist of complex social and geopolitical undercurrents that are difficult to untangle. Or that, and a combination of unfortunate chance and temporal impermeability, such as the valiant but doomed Justice Guild of America on Earth-109. Unfortunately, not all of my people, the Progronese, are that altruistic or noble. My most ardent foe, Materioptika, most certainly is not. That being is wholly corrupt, stealing or appropriating memories or cultural preservation deposits from others and selling them to mercenary parties."
"I doubt whether the vanished Justice Guild would welcome the subversion of their legacy and memory in that manner." J'Onn said coolly.
"It is a betrayal of our sacred trust and mission as Archivists to do what Materioptika has done. It desecrates the memories and heritage of those who entrusted their legacies to us. Unfortunately, Materioptika was awaiting me as I arrived in this universe and damaged my omniship. I need assistance to apprehend my opponent and bring them to justice."
"We need some tactical advice about how to proceed first. So, tell us, Sinaloa, about your species and the Archivist mission."
To provide a summary of what dialogue occurred next, Sinaloa related that Progron was possibly the oldest continuous civilisation in the multiverse, stretching back trillions of years, in a steady state universe that was not subject to big bangs, contraction or expansion. When it discovered transmatter and consequently verified the existence of the multiverse, it found itself beset with the tragedy of more ephemeral species, civilisations and cultures vanishing from existence without any trace and resolved to preserve their legacy and heritage through the medium of psionicorder technology. And thus, the sacred mission and trust of the Archivists was born. Although Sinaloa was currently female and baseline Terran humanoid in appearance, the Progrons were actually forcescreened globes of neuronic matter and could bioform any necessary body of any species to pursue its mission. This meant that they were effectively immortal as the onset of senescence and physiological exhaustion in one species body could be resolved through xenotransplant surgery into the cloned body of another compatible species. Sinaloa was in her three hundred and tenth body to date and was now an estimated 100.000 Terran Years old.
Her enemy, Materioptika, had long been a Progron species supremacist. It was precisely "because" the Progronese were the oldest species in the multiverse that they "should" be "entitled" to exploit the cultural, mnemosynic and technological windfalls that were the responsibility of their species, and sell such marketable and valuable resources to the highest bidder. Materioptika "reasoned" that all that "mattered" in that context was profitability- no matter if technological or cultural riches fell into the hands of ruthless tyrants or cruel, malevolent galactic empires or predatory metasapients. Sinaloa had long suspected that her age-old adversary had been driven insane by a hitherto unsuspected or undetected neuroparasite during one of their body reiterations and implantations and that this had corrupted them. She sounded wistful, as if Materioptika had not always been an adversary.
As to her opponent's current shape, that was even more challenging. Currently in its four hundred and eighty third body, Materioptika was disclosed to be a vast, non-Euclidean myriapoidic being with immense tentacles, eyes the size of oceans, and multiple cavernous maws with rows of razor-sharp teeth, hundreds of kilometres in diameter and the size of a large asteroid.
"But then," Sinoloa sighed, "Materioptika was always somewhat of an exhibitionist, especially prone to grandiose displays and spectacle. What you see before you is one of the Krell Hegemony, a member of one of two dominant civilisations in the Andromeda Galaxy, two million light years from your Milky Way. They initially evolved on a terrestroid planet in this stellar neighbourhood, which you would denote as Altair IV."
ASTEROID BELT:
"Sinaloa. Such a puny body. Surely you should have done better."
"Abandon this mercenary gesture and free the mnemosynic resources that you have stolen, Materioptika! You shame our species and its sacred task with your avarice."
"And do your Justice Alliance colleagues know your own role in their own resurrection?" Materioptika thundered in derision.
"Wait a minute. Were you responsible for our own resurrection and the reiteration of this universe, Sinaloa?" J'Onn J'Onnz queried.
"Yes, I was and I do not regret it. I recorded an earlier iteration of Earth-500 and its surrounding universe, or Earth-D as it was then designated. It was utilised in cosmeg engineering to replicate your original world as closely as possible. I am not a manipulative being, J'Onn J'Onnz. I did not want your assistance, or you risking your lives out of any sense of obligation."
"How can such a noble being as yourself belong to the same species as something like that?" Wonder Woman queried.
"Materioptika is a throwback. There was a time when behaviour like zyrs was the norm for our species."
"I'm not being judgemental. My own Amazons have had periods where we have lost our ethos of peace and humanitarianism and embraced a warrior profile. Does Materioptika require these memories for anything other than commercial transactions?"
"No. No, this is pure greed and selfish profiteering on zyr part."
"Evidently, you've confronted this species before. Merokee, my mentor and shaman, told me that Materioptika has assumed the form of the Krell so that it can more readily accumulate and broadcast stolen memories to more unscrupulous galactic civilisations." Captain Thunder said, as he rejoined the others.
"How can we fight something that size, though? If Kalel and Kara and Isabella were here, we might have a chance. Or Jose and his power ring."
"We need to subdue zyr. Zyr's next target is your own world and its civilisation. Zyr intends to do this out of pure spite and malice."
"No. No, I lost one world. I will not lose another!" Captain Thunder accelerated forward and delivered a major impact on one of the creature's dangling sacs. To his considerable surprise, Materioptika let out an almighty bellow of pain. Although it batted the Worlds Most Powerful Mortal aside, Willie Fawcett was not seriously injured.
"So what are those sacs?"
"The Krell are hive creatures in origin. Materioptika has foolishly assumed the form of one of the largely abandoned Feeder caste of that species. Feeder sacs are vestigial organs but they have evolved to be sensitive so that they can carry suitable raw materials back to a Krell Hivecraft to feed their Queenking and chyr consorts as well as their growing nymph young."
"Am I to understand that those are what we humans would call an 'achilles heel?'"
"Ah, you mean an anatomical point of vulnerability? Yes, that would be a most salient metaphor."
"You would not dare, you- you infinitesimal motes!!!" Materioptika threatened. J'Onn J'Onnz smiled to himself:
"Ah. That telepathic conversation had some undertones of fear in it. Justice Alliance, strike!"
As one, Wonder Woman, Captain Thunder and J'Onn J'Onnz made for its vulnerable underside and Green Arrow loaded a volley of his explosive arrows. They focused attention on the Feeder sacs and this time, there were too many of them for Materioptika to repell. As they hit its vulnerable Feeder sacs, the immense creature cried out in pain and then, involuntarily, a cavalcade of words and images erupted from one of its forebrains. Sinaloa had a psionicorder device ready and waiting as the stolen information was refiltered back into her memory apparatus and reverent storage. The assault continued until, with a cry of despair and impotent rage, space and time rippled as Materioptika beat a hasty retreat from a universe that it had sought to plunder but which had presented an unintended insurmountable challenge to its mercenary and immoral objectives.
EPILOGUE ONE : SEABASE MEDIA CENTRE:
As the Justice Guild of America made its valiant last stand, Superwoman, Lightning Girl, Superman and Captain Thunder had tears running down their faces. Of all the Justice Alliance who had observed the heartbreaking events that had transpired within that distant alternate probability configuration, their own backgrounds on Krypton and Earth-964 made the tragedy that had unfolded most salient to them. Truth to tell, however, most of the Alliance had been deeply moved by the nobility and sacrifice that they witnessed. Inwardly, they wondered if they would have the same courage and determination under fire if they were ever once more faced by a threat that was beyond their own capability to manage.
EPILOGUE TWO: OMNISHIP HEISENBERG:
As Sinaloa prepared to return to bleedspace to resume her travel across the multiverse, her own opinion was that they would, without question or hesitation. She hoped that they never would and that Earth-500 would make it to Singularity status and an ascent to higher dimensions beyond the crude, grasping desires of the likes of Materioptika. For all zyrs power and billions of years of expertise in its profane goals, Materioptika was first and foremost a coward. For herself, she was grateful that once more, the treasured memory and legacy of her dear, perished friends from the Justice Guild of America on Earth-109 were safe from prying, or exploitation as they deserved to be. She knew that the Guild deserved so much more and not for the first time, she wished it was in her power to grant them and their vanished world a new chance at existence. However, that would require the power of a deity and even given her altruism and nobility of character, she neither aspired or pretended to any such status: "Once more, rest in peace, my dear, dear friends." Sinaloa whispered as she patted the mnemosynic matrix in which their precious memories were stored.
THE END.
++
NEW PHOBOS:
On his asteroid home, in Earth orbit yet named for Mars largest satellite, J'Onn J'Onnz felt a peculiar sensation. It was difficult to describe- one moment, J'Onn and M'yrrha, his wife, were enjoying a suitably chilled glass of redweed plohmeik, when they were subjected to a vivid array of telepathic impressions. His wife blinked: "Beloved? What was that?"
"I...have no idea, my love. It seemed to be an archaic version of my Justice Alliance colleagues, yet with many differentiations. Almost as if it were an alternate universe."
Abruptly, J'Onn's JAA signal device activated: "J'Onn? It's Jose. Did you receive that telepathic impression a few seconds ago? I did, through the ring. Unfortunately, I'm too busy dealing with a massive avalanche here in the Andes to deal with it adequately right now. Aata?"
Aquaman joined the conversation: "I can verify that. As we're the Alliance's two strongest telepaths, J'Onn, I think we should take this up at the Seabase. Is anyone else present there?"
"Yes, Diana, Oliver and Willie. I'll signal them that they're coming in. My wife? Regretfully, we have Alliance business. Contact me if you receive any further telepathic impressions."
"As you will, my husband." The two Martians touched tendrils and then J'Onn stepped into the Justice Alliance teleport terminal, which would take him down to Earth.
JAA SEABASE:
"Can you describe the impressions to the rest of us, Aata and J'Onn?"
"It was if they were recorded images and sounds. I felt 'outside' them somehow, as if I were looking on. It was all taking place on a world something like this one, but occurring in a past that never happened."
"It's a good thing too. What J'Onn, M'yrrha and I witnessed was that world coming to an end. From what I was able to work out, it occurred on an alternate timeline where the Cuban missile crisis here in October 1962 turned into a devastating nuclear war. There were rough analogues of some of us there, but not others. One man had a belt that gave him invulnerability and super strength, one was dressed in a catlike bodysuit with a cowl, there was a red-haired woman dressed in a green gauzelike tube dress, another woman with a domino mask and black bodysuit, someone very much like the Flash and another very much like Green Lantern. They all died trying to defend their city from nuclear attack. And a mutant. A hideous mutant."
Willie raised an eyebrow: "Hey, that sounds like the old Justice Guild of America National Comics stories that Bella and I read back home on Earth-964."
Diana nodded: "Perhaps that explains it. Perhaps the mutant that you saw was a powerful telepath and unintentionally sent that psionic image across the multiverse."
"Even so, there would have been signal degradation if it came through bleedspace. I suspect that we were experiencing recorded psionic impressions, not actually occurring real-time events."
"Are you sure, J'Onn?"
The Martian Manhunter nodded: "Something recorded those psionic impressions and retained them. Perhaps as a voyeuristic remnant, perhaps as a solemn record and testimony of that Earth's cherished and valiant heroes in their final hours. Whatever their intention was, that record is now within the public domain."
"There's something else. I don't know if J'Onn and M'yrrha received it too, but there was an incidental word at the beginning and end of that impression: Sinaloa."
At that, J'Onn reacted with surprise, taking a step back, as did Wonder Woman: "What is it?"
"Sinaloa. The name is one associated with an alien that visited Mars millennia ago, who seemed most interested in recording our family's experiences on her psionicorder device."
Wonder Woman nodded: "That sounds almost exactly like the female alien that visited me at Themiscyra to discuss Amazon civilisation and heritage as well. And with the same name. And she also carried a psionic recorder device. I wonder, could this be the same woman?"
"Green-skinned, with large yellow wings?"
"No, red-skinned, wearing a blue bodysuit. Hmm. Perhaps this is an immortal being which can change its appearance or species or transplant its mind into successive host bodies? Yes, I know it sounds like your old enemy Atticus Morbida, Willie, but this may have been done consensually."
"But why would this woman allow a stray psionic impression to escape from her care? I doubt whether this is a telepathic advertisement." Oliver inquired.
J'Onn nodded: "Most telepath regulatory organisations prohibit product advertising in psionic environments."
"So was this a call for help, especially if this woman were under attack?" Captain Thunder commented.
"This psionic impression contained her name at both ends of the segment, so it may have been. But how can we locate her?"
"I suggest that Diana and I should share our recollections of this person, so that it may assist us in our investigation."
OMNISHIP HEISENBERG:
As Sinaloa nursed her bleeding arm, she cursed her poor fortune. When the Heisenberg had inserted itself into this new alternate universe, she should have been ready to shield against any hostile incursions. She hadn't expected her old foe Materioptika to materialise his own omniship virtually on top of her own and make away with some of her precious, cherished psionic archives from countless perished worlds and their valiant and heroic inhabitants. And she disliked the fact that Materioptika's unwelcome intrusion had violated the primary Archivist moral code, only to observe and record, never to exploit what they recorded for vulgar material gain. Moreover, his antiquated omniship Decasia had not had its software updated for centuries. It would have leaked the record of... ah. Yes. The Justice Guild of Earth-109. Those fallen women and men of valour and courage deserved far better than this. She bit her lip as Heisenberg's navigation systems came back online and disclosed her location within the multiverse. This was not good. She had no option if she were to stop her old enemy in whatever objective he had for the stolen psionicorded archival material. Grimly, she set course for Earth-500.
SEABASE:
As the Heisenberg materialised in the main foyer of the Justice Alliance headquarters, Sinaloa clipped on her forcescreen belt, hoping that her reception would be friendly. In the event, she need not have worried:
"Hola, Sinaloa, welcome back to Earth-500, sister." Wonder Woman said warmly.
"Can this be Diana of Themiscyra? But you were a child when I last saw you!"
"And you were tall, willowy and silver-skinned."
J'Onn bowed: "Hail, guardian of wisdom and memory. Whatever Wonder Woman here might say, when I encountered you back on Mars while it was still habitable, you were a brilliant emerald, with luxuriant tentacles around you."
Willie was almost speechless: "Hey, it is her. I remember her featuring in a JGA Cybernoids story in which she was captured by Tom Turbine's arch enemies and... I know, I'm being a fanboy. I should stop now."
"I think I owe you an apology, too, young Captain Thunder. It was my intention to travel to Earth-964 and preserve its memories and imprints of the other heroes that existed then. Due to that very incident and my enforced captivity as a result, I was unable to reach your world in time. Otherwise I would certainly have set a warning satellite in place in case its other heroes returned from other dimensions or interstellar space to find their world a ruined wasteland."
Green Arrow nodded: "So, why do you only record and not substantially intervene in tragedies like that?"
"Because tragedies like that on Earth-964 would require the abilities of an apex-class metasapient to resolve, Oliver Two Feathers. They often consist of complex social and geopolitical undercurrents that are difficult to untangle. Or that, and a combination of unfortunate chance and temporal impermeability, such as the valiant but doomed Justice Guild of America on Earth-109. Unfortunately, not all of my people, the Progronese, are that altruistic or noble. My most ardent foe, Materioptika, most certainly is not. That being is wholly corrupt, stealing or appropriating memories or cultural preservation deposits from others and selling them to mercenary parties."
"I doubt whether the vanished Justice Guild would welcome the subversion of their legacy and memory in that manner." J'Onn said coolly.
"It is a betrayal of our sacred trust and mission as Archivists to do what Materioptika has done. It desecrates the memories and heritage of those who entrusted their legacies to us. Unfortunately, Materioptika was awaiting me as I arrived in this universe and damaged my omniship. I need assistance to apprehend my opponent and bring them to justice."
"We need some tactical advice about how to proceed first. So, tell us, Sinaloa, about your species and the Archivist mission."
To provide a summary of what dialogue occurred next, Sinaloa related that Progron was possibly the oldest continuous civilisation in the multiverse, stretching back trillions of years, in a steady state universe that was not subject to big bangs, contraction or expansion. When it discovered transmatter and consequently verified the existence of the multiverse, it found itself beset with the tragedy of more ephemeral species, civilisations and cultures vanishing from existence without any trace and resolved to preserve their legacy and heritage through the medium of psionicorder technology. And thus, the sacred mission and trust of the Archivists was born. Although Sinaloa was currently female and baseline Terran humanoid in appearance, the Progrons were actually forcescreened globes of neuronic matter and could bioform any necessary body of any species to pursue its mission. This meant that they were effectively immortal as the onset of senescence and physiological exhaustion in one species body could be resolved through xenotransplant surgery into the cloned body of another compatible species. Sinaloa was in her three hundred and tenth body to date and was now an estimated 100.000 Terran Years old.
Her enemy, Materioptika, had long been a Progron species supremacist. It was precisely "because" the Progronese were the oldest species in the multiverse that they "should" be "entitled" to exploit the cultural, mnemosynic and technological windfalls that were the responsibility of their species, and sell such marketable and valuable resources to the highest bidder. Materioptika "reasoned" that all that "mattered" in that context was profitability- no matter if technological or cultural riches fell into the hands of ruthless tyrants or cruel, malevolent galactic empires or predatory metasapients. Sinaloa had long suspected that her age-old adversary had been driven insane by a hitherto unsuspected or undetected neuroparasite during one of their body reiterations and implantations and that this had corrupted them. She sounded wistful, as if Materioptika had not always been an adversary.
As to her opponent's current shape, that was even more challenging. Currently in its four hundred and eighty third body, Materioptika was disclosed to be a vast, non-Euclidean myriapoidic being with immense tentacles, eyes the size of oceans, and multiple cavernous maws with rows of razor-sharp teeth, hundreds of kilometres in diameter and the size of a large asteroid.
"But then," Sinoloa sighed, "Materioptika was always somewhat of an exhibitionist, especially prone to grandiose displays and spectacle. What you see before you is one of the Krell Hegemony, a member of one of two dominant civilisations in the Andromeda Galaxy, two million light years from your Milky Way. They initially evolved on a terrestroid planet in this stellar neighbourhood, which you would denote as Altair IV."
ASTEROID BELT:
"Sinaloa. Such a puny body. Surely you should have done better."
"Abandon this mercenary gesture and free the mnemosynic resources that you have stolen, Materioptika! You shame our species and its sacred task with your avarice."
"And do your Justice Alliance colleagues know your own role in their own resurrection?" Materioptika thundered in derision.
"Wait a minute. Were you responsible for our own resurrection and the reiteration of this universe, Sinaloa?" J'Onn J'Onnz queried.
"Yes, I was and I do not regret it. I recorded an earlier iteration of Earth-500 and its surrounding universe, or Earth-D as it was then designated. It was utilised in cosmeg engineering to replicate your original world as closely as possible. I am not a manipulative being, J'Onn J'Onnz. I did not want your assistance, or you risking your lives out of any sense of obligation."
"How can such a noble being as yourself belong to the same species as something like that?" Wonder Woman queried.
"Materioptika is a throwback. There was a time when behaviour like zyrs was the norm for our species."
"I'm not being judgemental. My own Amazons have had periods where we have lost our ethos of peace and humanitarianism and embraced a warrior profile. Does Materioptika require these memories for anything other than commercial transactions?"
"No. No, this is pure greed and selfish profiteering on zyr part."
"Evidently, you've confronted this species before. Merokee, my mentor and shaman, told me that Materioptika has assumed the form of the Krell so that it can more readily accumulate and broadcast stolen memories to more unscrupulous galactic civilisations." Captain Thunder said, as he rejoined the others.
"How can we fight something that size, though? If Kalel and Kara and Isabella were here, we might have a chance. Or Jose and his power ring."
"We need to subdue zyr. Zyr's next target is your own world and its civilisation. Zyr intends to do this out of pure spite and malice."
"No. No, I lost one world. I will not lose another!" Captain Thunder accelerated forward and delivered a major impact on one of the creature's dangling sacs. To his considerable surprise, Materioptika let out an almighty bellow of pain. Although it batted the Worlds Most Powerful Mortal aside, Willie Fawcett was not seriously injured.
"So what are those sacs?"
"The Krell are hive creatures in origin. Materioptika has foolishly assumed the form of one of the largely abandoned Feeder caste of that species. Feeder sacs are vestigial organs but they have evolved to be sensitive so that they can carry suitable raw materials back to a Krell Hivecraft to feed their Queenking and chyr consorts as well as their growing nymph young."
"Am I to understand that those are what we humans would call an 'achilles heel?'"
"Ah, you mean an anatomical point of vulnerability? Yes, that would be a most salient metaphor."
"You would not dare, you- you infinitesimal motes!!!" Materioptika threatened. J'Onn J'Onnz smiled to himself:
"Ah. That telepathic conversation had some undertones of fear in it. Justice Alliance, strike!"
As one, Wonder Woman, Captain Thunder and J'Onn J'Onnz made for its vulnerable underside and Green Arrow loaded a volley of his explosive arrows. They focused attention on the Feeder sacs and this time, there were too many of them for Materioptika to repell. As they hit its vulnerable Feeder sacs, the immense creature cried out in pain and then, involuntarily, a cavalcade of words and images erupted from one of its forebrains. Sinaloa had a psionicorder device ready and waiting as the stolen information was refiltered back into her memory apparatus and reverent storage. The assault continued until, with a cry of despair and impotent rage, space and time rippled as Materioptika beat a hasty retreat from a universe that it had sought to plunder but which had presented an unintended insurmountable challenge to its mercenary and immoral objectives.
EPILOGUE ONE : SEABASE MEDIA CENTRE:
As the Justice Guild of America made its valiant last stand, Superwoman, Lightning Girl, Superman and Captain Thunder had tears running down their faces. Of all the Justice Alliance who had observed the heartbreaking events that had transpired within that distant alternate probability configuration, their own backgrounds on Krypton and Earth-964 made the tragedy that had unfolded most salient to them. Truth to tell, however, most of the Alliance had been deeply moved by the nobility and sacrifice that they witnessed. Inwardly, they wondered if they would have the same courage and determination under fire if they were ever once more faced by a threat that was beyond their own capability to manage.
EPILOGUE TWO: OMNISHIP HEISENBERG:
As Sinaloa prepared to return to bleedspace to resume her travel across the multiverse, her own opinion was that they would, without question or hesitation. She hoped that they never would and that Earth-500 would make it to Singularity status and an ascent to higher dimensions beyond the crude, grasping desires of the likes of Materioptika. For all zyrs power and billions of years of expertise in its profane goals, Materioptika was first and foremost a coward. For herself, she was grateful that once more, the treasured memory and legacy of her dear, perished friends from the Justice Guild of America on Earth-109 were safe from prying, or exploitation as they deserved to be. She knew that the Guild deserved so much more and not for the first time, she wished it was in her power to grant them and their vanished world a new chance at existence. However, that would require the power of a deity and even given her altruism and nobility of character, she neither aspired or pretended to any such status: "Once more, rest in peace, my dear, dear friends." Sinaloa whispered as she patted the mnemosynic matrix in which their precious memories were stored.
THE END.