Post by redsycorax on May 9, 2022 0:31:19 GMT
Catwoman, Rousalka and Tina Turbine are the legacy heirs of the Justice Guild of America, who valiantly gave their lives to mitigate a nuclear attack against their native Seaboard City decades ago. However, there is another legacy now evident and it is slowly destroying what human life still remains on their native Earth-109, unless...
++
NEW YORK CITY RUINS: 2002:
"Oh, blazes."
"What is it, amiga?" Tina Turbine turned to her radsuited colleague, Denise (Catwoman) Blake, who looked up from her geiger counter:
"This tallies with what else I've detected in Detroit, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, all of the other cities that I've surveyed. It's why there's an uptick in the level of radiation poisoning in the Canadian borderlines. And it tallies with what else radiologists have been able to determine in other borderland territories across the world. Tibet, Mongolia, Vietnam and Mexico have virtually identical readings. There's no room for doubt anymore. It looks like radiation intensity is increasing instead of diminishing."
"Which would explain it, but why?"
"At a guess, some of the unlaunched missiles from the nuclear holocaust are going up."
"Why now? Why cumulatively, all of a sudden?"
"Because of some arbitrary long term decay in their computer storage systems, who knows? But if this keeps up, Tina, it's going to end with terminally high radioactivity levels. All human life on Earth will end."
TORONTO: 2002:
As the stocky man looked up from his desk, he wasn't startled to see the trio of metahumans looking over at him from the doorway:
"Mr Triton? John Triton?"
John Triton sighed to himself: "Have the sofa. Is this about what I think it is?"
Tina Turbine nodded: "Yes. About forty years ago, our parents in the Justice Guild of America had a precognitive team member, Cassandra Astriides. From what she told us, she was a descendant of the original Agamemnon and Cassandra from ancient Greece and was the latest in a long line of precognitives that had inherited their foremother's visionary skills. She was a brave and determined woman, Even though use of her precognitive abilities caused neurological damage and ultimately would have killed her, she still served as a cornerstone of the JGA, no matter what the cost."
John Triton drew back his chair: "I knew this would catch up with me sooner or later. Yeah, something similar is true insofar as my own family heritage is concerned. In my case, though, it wasn't old Agamemnon and Cassandra, it was another bloodline from ancient Greece- the legendary Apollonian oracles of Delphi. And unfortunately, the same limitations apply. So I take lithium to cancel out the neurological damage that would eventually kill me. Can you blame me? Cassandra was a true hero, but not all of us want to make that sacrifice."
"John, we know what we're asking. However, we need to know. In the moments when you have trouble sourcing lithium to cancel out what would otherwise happen, do you have visions of the world's future?"
He looked up toward the ceiling and turned away from them:
"Look, I wish I could help you, but..."
"We aren't asking you to make Cassandra's sacrifice, given what it cost her in the end. Please, just tell us."
Looking out the window, he seemed lost in another world:
"All right. I won't lie to you. I witnessed a disturbing vision a few months ago. It was a deserted street, with an upturned safety sign. There were no people on the streets, no bird song, everything was silent. Doors were left open. Trams were parked in the middle of the road. And from taller buildings, you could see across the rest of the city. It was as dead as the grave. So yes, it looks like the cumulative radiation upsurge will render our world uninhabitable in the end."
Tina bit her lip: "I'm sorry we have to do this, but can you remember anything else? Were there any bodies? Car crashes? Burning, abandoned buildings?"
John Triton's brow furrowed: "Yeah, I noticed that too, Ms. Turbine. That's the strange thing. There were no bodies and no signs of collateral damage. It all looked antiseptic and well co-ordinated. Which is odd, considering human nature. As if it had been abandoned. And the other thing... in the trash blowing around the empty street, I saw a ticket. Do the words Tau Ceti mean anything to you?"
Catwoman and Tina Turbine stared open-mouthed at John Triton's inadvertant revelation. Then, realising that he honestly didn't know what he had disclosed, Catwoman replied:
"Mr. Triton, you may have just saved humanity. And to answer your question, yes, Tau Ceti is a red dwarf sun about ten light years from our own. Astronomers have detected seven planets in orbit around it. Three of them- Phosphorus, Hesperus and Lucifer- are habitable. The question is, can we get there?"
"Catwoman, I know what you're going to ask me. You...want me to do oversight over the scientific research into FTL, don't you?"
Catwoman gasped: "Mr Triton, no! Given what happened to Cassandra, our parent's friend and comrade in arms, we would never ask you to make that sort of-"
John Triton held up a hand: "It's okay. I've foreseen this moment for the last several months. And there's something else you should know. Cassandra was my cousin. And for that reason, I will say yes. I have no family left. They all died when Chicago went up, forty years ago. So... yes, I will stop taking the lithium and I won't suppress my precog abilities anymore. If that what it takes to save others."
"Thank you."
TORONTO: AUGUST 2002:
"Hard to believe that it's almost forty years since it all went up." Tina said, as she surveyed the shuttles lifting off from Toronto Spaceport toward the fleet of starships building in Earth orbit.
"It will be at the end of October. Although frankly, I've had enough of the so-called "Reform" Party opposing mutant berths on the vessels. What, so we leave them behind to die?! Thankfully, you don't have to be a Catholic like me to see the murderous immorality in that, I hope." Catwoman replied.
"I'm just glad the Supreme Court overruled them. So where are Irene and Johnny today?"
"Making time together. The two of them have gotten quite close over the last few months, notice?"
"I know, and it'll tear her apart when he eventually passes away. He's so much like Cassandra was. I just hope he makes it to see us land on our new homeworlds."
"This is like a nightmare come back to haunt us, this legacy radiation. And to think we all thought we were safe."
"We will be. And the Justice Guild of Canada will do our damnedest to insure that all humanity reaches its new home."
CHICAGO RUINS: SEPTEMBER 2002:
But hiding in the ruins of Chicago was a possible obstacle to the aspirations and hopes of the new Justice Guild members. The history of religion took a dramatic swerve from those of many other timelines after the Cuban War. Mainstream Christianity recoiled in horror from the desolation and indiscriminate deaths of civilians, especially elderly and infant civilians, during the nuclear war and mainline Protestants and Catholics alike repudiated the apocalyptic reading of the Book of Revelation outright. Pope Stephen authorised the excommunication of Catholics holding such tenets and doctrines, as did many mainline Protestant and some larger evangelical Protestant churches. However. there was a pocket of twisted fundamentalist Christian nihilism that gladly accepted those expelled from mainstream Christianity over adherence to the apocalyptic doctrine into their ranks. The nihilists held that the Third World War was a preliminary judgement of God on corrupt humanity and that in order for the Second Coming to occur, there had to be a Fourth World War and that Judgement Day would ensue. Ruminations about "one world government" and the 'apostate mutilation' of the Bible from those mainline denominations who had decided to drop the Book of Revelation from the Bible given its dubious provenance. The Nihilists had some support in border Mexican towns from southwestern survivors who had fled Texas and other states during the Cuban War. Given the proximity of the Southern states to the Cuban inferno and Soviet retaliation, there weren't many, but they had inexorably spread through the remnants of the United States.
And, on that dark, desolate September evening, a figure addressed a crowd of angry Nihilists, vowing to stop the 'immoral' and 'anti-Christian' proposed emigration to Tau Ceti's sanctuary worlds from Earth. In days ahead, many would come to rue the name of "Prophet Omega."
TORONTO: OCTOBER 2002:
"So who is this pretentiously named customer?" Rousalka asked.
"A cult leader, apparently. The Nihilists can't accept that they've been expelled from mainstream Christian circles over their apocalyptic doctrine and failure to accept that the Book of Revelation's presence in the biblical canon was a mistake in the first place, which all mainstream Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox theologians now agree over. So they will try to do anything to prevent the Armada of Refuge from escaping from the Earth." Johnny Triton, now known as Oracle, said to the woman he had realised he loved.
"It's getting worse, isn't it, Johnny?" Irene said, laying a hand on his shoulder.
"I think I'll last until the fleet embarks."
"And when were you going to tell me that? I won't leave you here alone to die."
"I got this vision of the two of us flying over a forest, anyway, Irene. And the sun in the sky above was definitely Tau Ceti."
"Johnny, is there something else you're not telling me?" But Johnny Triton remained silent as her arms enfolded him and she softly kissed his temple. How could he tell her that in his vision, he died during the unfolding vista before them both?
CALGARY: NOVEMBER 2002:
"Hell!" Catwoman said, as a lifetime of reflexes enabled her to detect the suicide bomber shortly before they ignited their explosive package at the base of the Tree sculptures in the city heart. Tina looked up from the ground as one of the towering structures threatened to collapse onto one of the evacuation buses to Calgary Spaceport. She scrambled to her feet and ran to pit her powerbelt enhanced strength against the monument. Looking at her satcam, Catwoman had located the terrorist and bit her lip. Judging from the bulk evident within the other man and woman with the Trees terrorist, her companions were en route to the main spaceport. As Tina's laser settings fused the Tree sculpture back on to its base, Catwoman ran toward her longtime partner:
"There's more than one of them! Is the sculpture okay?"
"Yeah. Think they'll target the main freeway to the spaceport or the spaceport itself?"
"Not the main freeway, it's too well guarded. Oracle, Rousalka, did you both get that?"
"Check."
"Catwoman, was anyone seriously killed or injured at the Trees?"
"No to that, Rousalka. Oracle, have you had any visions about an incident at the Spaceport?"
"Unfortunately, I didn't get one about the Trees terrorist attack, otherwise I would have let you know. Can you send me the images of the remaining terrorists? We can intercept them at the bus terminus at the airport. They won't try anything on the bus itself- I got a flash premonition of them a minute or so ago and they know that taking hostages or blowing up the bus would mean its security guards would take them on to prevent that. At a guess, they want maximum publicity and that would mean television cameras at the spaceport."
"Filthy ghouls." Rousalka muttered.
"Ah. Getting an image of the precise wiring and framework of their explosive vests. Catwoman? I'm sending you the chemical identification formulae."
As the Hovercat neared the Spaceport, Catwoman nodded:
"Thanks for that, Oracle. Yeah, it'll be safe if you sever the fuse wiring in place and prevent the chemical reaction from occurring. Anything else?"
"I got two consecutive visions, Catwoman. One of them's wearing an exoskeleton and will evade us, so it's a safe bet she's targeting the evac shuttle area at the spaceport. When you get there, both of you need to make a beeline for that vicinity."
As they awaited the confrontation, Oracle felt a telltale sensation in his nose as it bled. Rousalka saw it and swallowed, knowing what it meant. Oracle was using his precog abilities too often and it was killing him. She blinked a tear back from her eye and concentrated on the task at hand. Telling Johnny what his sacrifice meant to her- in fact, to all of them- had to wait until the bus passengers and spaceport were out of danger. And then the bus halted at the sidestop approach to the spaceport:
"Everyone, get down! He's got an explosive vest." Oracle shouted, as he wrestled with the first terrorist, slapping his hand away as he tried to activate the trigger on his vest and pulling away its fuse wires. The chemical admixture would now never happen and Rousalka's haymaker meant that he couldn't get to any more mischief. As Rousalka handcuffed the terrorist, Catwoman and Tina Turbine had arrived at the walkway where the second terrorist was trying hard not to attract attention. However, she did not realise that she had already failed, as Tina Turbine ran to embrace her with her powerbelt, sending a remedial electricity bolt which fused the settings on her assailant's exoskeleton:
"Got her! Rousalka, Oracle? What about the male terrorist?"
"He was trying to swallow a cyanide pill, Tina, but I foresaw it, got it out of his mouth and crushed it underneath one of my boots. It's a safe bet your friend on the walkway has one too."
Tina Turbine nodded, thrust her hand into the other woman's mouth and removed the pill from it, throwing it to Catwoman for further forensic analysis later.
JANUARY 2003: EARTH ORBIT:
One of the dubious "advantages" of the early sixties nuclear holocaust had been the diaspora of Earth's premier surviving scientists and access to surviving industrial centres of civilisation in the Southern Hemisphere other than in the devastated United States, Soviet Union, Eastern Asia, Eastern and Western Europe. Civilisation had not been destroyed outright outside the afflicted areas and so, scientific development had continued apace. One of the discoveries was a functional, manufacturable interstellar drive to adjacent planetary systems, although it took most of the resources of the surviving industrialised nations to insure that all humanity was provided with a berth on the kilometres-length interstellar vessels that had been hurriedly constructed in near Earth orbit. And thanks to the valour, courage and cumulative sacrifice and increasing bodily toll it had taken on Johnny (Oracle) Triton, the Justice Guild of Canada had managed to intercept most of the Nihilist terrorist attacks on the evacuation effort. Ultimately, though, the vessels were finally ready and all evacuable humanity was now present within them. It only remained for the might of the photon drive engines to be triggered and the scarred and ruined Earth behind them would be left to silence and memory alone.
And then, a millionaire known to many as a decadent international playboy got to his feet, cleared his throat- and was shoulder-tapped by Tina Turbine:
"Thomas Wayne, Junior, I assume... or should we call you "Prophet Omega?"
"You interfering meta bastards won't stop me. Humanity has to be judged and purified!"
"Except you don't get to play judge, jury and executioner. Look around you."
As Thomas Wayne did, he was startled to realise that the ship around him was inhabited by mannequins, although it would have taken a forensic expert to have immediately identified that they were animatronic simulacra of human beings, not the real article. As he struggled to escape Tina Turbine's grip, he looked into her eyes- and then realised that he was also looking at a robot. No matter how much he struggled, he was unable to free himself, watching in horror as the surrounding, functional starships ignited their FTL drives and blazed away from the debris, heartbreak and desolation of the poisoned, radioactive Earth. "Prophet Omega" would pay for his role in planning terrorism and envisaging the massive loss of life as he watched the rest of humanity escape his stygian doctrine and head away to sanctuary and a new beginning for their species. He would be trapped on an inert orbital vessel for the rest of his life. Oh, there were abundant supplies there, but he was now more terrifyingly isolated than any human being had ever been, or ever would be again.
EPILOGUE:
And with that, the careers of the Justice Guild of Canada ended, light years away from the world of their birth. Tina, Denise and their families watched in sorrow as Irene assisted the dying Oracle onto a reconnaissance and survey ship. As they glided over the crimson and scarlet forests of Lucifer, he whispered to Irene: "It looks beautiful down there." Tears streaming down her face, Irene placed a wedding ring on his hand and leant forward for one last kiss. And with that, embracing the woman he loved, John Triton, Oracle, the man who had saved humanity, passed away.
THE END
[1.35pm , May 11, 2022]
++
NEW YORK CITY RUINS: 2002:
"Oh, blazes."
"What is it, amiga?" Tina Turbine turned to her radsuited colleague, Denise (Catwoman) Blake, who looked up from her geiger counter:
"This tallies with what else I've detected in Detroit, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, all of the other cities that I've surveyed. It's why there's an uptick in the level of radiation poisoning in the Canadian borderlines. And it tallies with what else radiologists have been able to determine in other borderland territories across the world. Tibet, Mongolia, Vietnam and Mexico have virtually identical readings. There's no room for doubt anymore. It looks like radiation intensity is increasing instead of diminishing."
"Which would explain it, but why?"
"At a guess, some of the unlaunched missiles from the nuclear holocaust are going up."
"Why now? Why cumulatively, all of a sudden?"
"Because of some arbitrary long term decay in their computer storage systems, who knows? But if this keeps up, Tina, it's going to end with terminally high radioactivity levels. All human life on Earth will end."
TORONTO: 2002:
As the stocky man looked up from his desk, he wasn't startled to see the trio of metahumans looking over at him from the doorway:
"Mr Triton? John Triton?"
John Triton sighed to himself: "Have the sofa. Is this about what I think it is?"
Tina Turbine nodded: "Yes. About forty years ago, our parents in the Justice Guild of America had a precognitive team member, Cassandra Astriides. From what she told us, she was a descendant of the original Agamemnon and Cassandra from ancient Greece and was the latest in a long line of precognitives that had inherited their foremother's visionary skills. She was a brave and determined woman, Even though use of her precognitive abilities caused neurological damage and ultimately would have killed her, she still served as a cornerstone of the JGA, no matter what the cost."
John Triton drew back his chair: "I knew this would catch up with me sooner or later. Yeah, something similar is true insofar as my own family heritage is concerned. In my case, though, it wasn't old Agamemnon and Cassandra, it was another bloodline from ancient Greece- the legendary Apollonian oracles of Delphi. And unfortunately, the same limitations apply. So I take lithium to cancel out the neurological damage that would eventually kill me. Can you blame me? Cassandra was a true hero, but not all of us want to make that sacrifice."
"John, we know what we're asking. However, we need to know. In the moments when you have trouble sourcing lithium to cancel out what would otherwise happen, do you have visions of the world's future?"
He looked up toward the ceiling and turned away from them:
"Look, I wish I could help you, but..."
"We aren't asking you to make Cassandra's sacrifice, given what it cost her in the end. Please, just tell us."
Looking out the window, he seemed lost in another world:
"All right. I won't lie to you. I witnessed a disturbing vision a few months ago. It was a deserted street, with an upturned safety sign. There were no people on the streets, no bird song, everything was silent. Doors were left open. Trams were parked in the middle of the road. And from taller buildings, you could see across the rest of the city. It was as dead as the grave. So yes, it looks like the cumulative radiation upsurge will render our world uninhabitable in the end."
Tina bit her lip: "I'm sorry we have to do this, but can you remember anything else? Were there any bodies? Car crashes? Burning, abandoned buildings?"
John Triton's brow furrowed: "Yeah, I noticed that too, Ms. Turbine. That's the strange thing. There were no bodies and no signs of collateral damage. It all looked antiseptic and well co-ordinated. Which is odd, considering human nature. As if it had been abandoned. And the other thing... in the trash blowing around the empty street, I saw a ticket. Do the words Tau Ceti mean anything to you?"
Catwoman and Tina Turbine stared open-mouthed at John Triton's inadvertant revelation. Then, realising that he honestly didn't know what he had disclosed, Catwoman replied:
"Mr. Triton, you may have just saved humanity. And to answer your question, yes, Tau Ceti is a red dwarf sun about ten light years from our own. Astronomers have detected seven planets in orbit around it. Three of them- Phosphorus, Hesperus and Lucifer- are habitable. The question is, can we get there?"
"Catwoman, I know what you're going to ask me. You...want me to do oversight over the scientific research into FTL, don't you?"
Catwoman gasped: "Mr Triton, no! Given what happened to Cassandra, our parent's friend and comrade in arms, we would never ask you to make that sort of-"
John Triton held up a hand: "It's okay. I've foreseen this moment for the last several months. And there's something else you should know. Cassandra was my cousin. And for that reason, I will say yes. I have no family left. They all died when Chicago went up, forty years ago. So... yes, I will stop taking the lithium and I won't suppress my precog abilities anymore. If that what it takes to save others."
"Thank you."
TORONTO: AUGUST 2002:
"Hard to believe that it's almost forty years since it all went up." Tina said, as she surveyed the shuttles lifting off from Toronto Spaceport toward the fleet of starships building in Earth orbit.
"It will be at the end of October. Although frankly, I've had enough of the so-called "Reform" Party opposing mutant berths on the vessels. What, so we leave them behind to die?! Thankfully, you don't have to be a Catholic like me to see the murderous immorality in that, I hope." Catwoman replied.
"I'm just glad the Supreme Court overruled them. So where are Irene and Johnny today?"
"Making time together. The two of them have gotten quite close over the last few months, notice?"
"I know, and it'll tear her apart when he eventually passes away. He's so much like Cassandra was. I just hope he makes it to see us land on our new homeworlds."
"This is like a nightmare come back to haunt us, this legacy radiation. And to think we all thought we were safe."
"We will be. And the Justice Guild of Canada will do our damnedest to insure that all humanity reaches its new home."
CHICAGO RUINS: SEPTEMBER 2002:
But hiding in the ruins of Chicago was a possible obstacle to the aspirations and hopes of the new Justice Guild members. The history of religion took a dramatic swerve from those of many other timelines after the Cuban War. Mainstream Christianity recoiled in horror from the desolation and indiscriminate deaths of civilians, especially elderly and infant civilians, during the nuclear war and mainline Protestants and Catholics alike repudiated the apocalyptic reading of the Book of Revelation outright. Pope Stephen authorised the excommunication of Catholics holding such tenets and doctrines, as did many mainline Protestant and some larger evangelical Protestant churches. However. there was a pocket of twisted fundamentalist Christian nihilism that gladly accepted those expelled from mainstream Christianity over adherence to the apocalyptic doctrine into their ranks. The nihilists held that the Third World War was a preliminary judgement of God on corrupt humanity and that in order for the Second Coming to occur, there had to be a Fourth World War and that Judgement Day would ensue. Ruminations about "one world government" and the 'apostate mutilation' of the Bible from those mainline denominations who had decided to drop the Book of Revelation from the Bible given its dubious provenance. The Nihilists had some support in border Mexican towns from southwestern survivors who had fled Texas and other states during the Cuban War. Given the proximity of the Southern states to the Cuban inferno and Soviet retaliation, there weren't many, but they had inexorably spread through the remnants of the United States.
And, on that dark, desolate September evening, a figure addressed a crowd of angry Nihilists, vowing to stop the 'immoral' and 'anti-Christian' proposed emigration to Tau Ceti's sanctuary worlds from Earth. In days ahead, many would come to rue the name of "Prophet Omega."
TORONTO: OCTOBER 2002:
"So who is this pretentiously named customer?" Rousalka asked.
"A cult leader, apparently. The Nihilists can't accept that they've been expelled from mainstream Christian circles over their apocalyptic doctrine and failure to accept that the Book of Revelation's presence in the biblical canon was a mistake in the first place, which all mainstream Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox theologians now agree over. So they will try to do anything to prevent the Armada of Refuge from escaping from the Earth." Johnny Triton, now known as Oracle, said to the woman he had realised he loved.
"It's getting worse, isn't it, Johnny?" Irene said, laying a hand on his shoulder.
"I think I'll last until the fleet embarks."
"And when were you going to tell me that? I won't leave you here alone to die."
"I got this vision of the two of us flying over a forest, anyway, Irene. And the sun in the sky above was definitely Tau Ceti."
"Johnny, is there something else you're not telling me?" But Johnny Triton remained silent as her arms enfolded him and she softly kissed his temple. How could he tell her that in his vision, he died during the unfolding vista before them both?
CALGARY: NOVEMBER 2002:
"Hell!" Catwoman said, as a lifetime of reflexes enabled her to detect the suicide bomber shortly before they ignited their explosive package at the base of the Tree sculptures in the city heart. Tina looked up from the ground as one of the towering structures threatened to collapse onto one of the evacuation buses to Calgary Spaceport. She scrambled to her feet and ran to pit her powerbelt enhanced strength against the monument. Looking at her satcam, Catwoman had located the terrorist and bit her lip. Judging from the bulk evident within the other man and woman with the Trees terrorist, her companions were en route to the main spaceport. As Tina's laser settings fused the Tree sculpture back on to its base, Catwoman ran toward her longtime partner:
"There's more than one of them! Is the sculpture okay?"
"Yeah. Think they'll target the main freeway to the spaceport or the spaceport itself?"
"Not the main freeway, it's too well guarded. Oracle, Rousalka, did you both get that?"
"Check."
"Catwoman, was anyone seriously killed or injured at the Trees?"
"No to that, Rousalka. Oracle, have you had any visions about an incident at the Spaceport?"
"Unfortunately, I didn't get one about the Trees terrorist attack, otherwise I would have let you know. Can you send me the images of the remaining terrorists? We can intercept them at the bus terminus at the airport. They won't try anything on the bus itself- I got a flash premonition of them a minute or so ago and they know that taking hostages or blowing up the bus would mean its security guards would take them on to prevent that. At a guess, they want maximum publicity and that would mean television cameras at the spaceport."
"Filthy ghouls." Rousalka muttered.
"Ah. Getting an image of the precise wiring and framework of their explosive vests. Catwoman? I'm sending you the chemical identification formulae."
As the Hovercat neared the Spaceport, Catwoman nodded:
"Thanks for that, Oracle. Yeah, it'll be safe if you sever the fuse wiring in place and prevent the chemical reaction from occurring. Anything else?"
"I got two consecutive visions, Catwoman. One of them's wearing an exoskeleton and will evade us, so it's a safe bet she's targeting the evac shuttle area at the spaceport. When you get there, both of you need to make a beeline for that vicinity."
As they awaited the confrontation, Oracle felt a telltale sensation in his nose as it bled. Rousalka saw it and swallowed, knowing what it meant. Oracle was using his precog abilities too often and it was killing him. She blinked a tear back from her eye and concentrated on the task at hand. Telling Johnny what his sacrifice meant to her- in fact, to all of them- had to wait until the bus passengers and spaceport were out of danger. And then the bus halted at the sidestop approach to the spaceport:
"Everyone, get down! He's got an explosive vest." Oracle shouted, as he wrestled with the first terrorist, slapping his hand away as he tried to activate the trigger on his vest and pulling away its fuse wires. The chemical admixture would now never happen and Rousalka's haymaker meant that he couldn't get to any more mischief. As Rousalka handcuffed the terrorist, Catwoman and Tina Turbine had arrived at the walkway where the second terrorist was trying hard not to attract attention. However, she did not realise that she had already failed, as Tina Turbine ran to embrace her with her powerbelt, sending a remedial electricity bolt which fused the settings on her assailant's exoskeleton:
"Got her! Rousalka, Oracle? What about the male terrorist?"
"He was trying to swallow a cyanide pill, Tina, but I foresaw it, got it out of his mouth and crushed it underneath one of my boots. It's a safe bet your friend on the walkway has one too."
Tina Turbine nodded, thrust her hand into the other woman's mouth and removed the pill from it, throwing it to Catwoman for further forensic analysis later.
JANUARY 2003: EARTH ORBIT:
One of the dubious "advantages" of the early sixties nuclear holocaust had been the diaspora of Earth's premier surviving scientists and access to surviving industrial centres of civilisation in the Southern Hemisphere other than in the devastated United States, Soviet Union, Eastern Asia, Eastern and Western Europe. Civilisation had not been destroyed outright outside the afflicted areas and so, scientific development had continued apace. One of the discoveries was a functional, manufacturable interstellar drive to adjacent planetary systems, although it took most of the resources of the surviving industrialised nations to insure that all humanity was provided with a berth on the kilometres-length interstellar vessels that had been hurriedly constructed in near Earth orbit. And thanks to the valour, courage and cumulative sacrifice and increasing bodily toll it had taken on Johnny (Oracle) Triton, the Justice Guild of Canada had managed to intercept most of the Nihilist terrorist attacks on the evacuation effort. Ultimately, though, the vessels were finally ready and all evacuable humanity was now present within them. It only remained for the might of the photon drive engines to be triggered and the scarred and ruined Earth behind them would be left to silence and memory alone.
And then, a millionaire known to many as a decadent international playboy got to his feet, cleared his throat- and was shoulder-tapped by Tina Turbine:
"Thomas Wayne, Junior, I assume... or should we call you "Prophet Omega?"
"You interfering meta bastards won't stop me. Humanity has to be judged and purified!"
"Except you don't get to play judge, jury and executioner. Look around you."
As Thomas Wayne did, he was startled to realise that the ship around him was inhabited by mannequins, although it would have taken a forensic expert to have immediately identified that they were animatronic simulacra of human beings, not the real article. As he struggled to escape Tina Turbine's grip, he looked into her eyes- and then realised that he was also looking at a robot. No matter how much he struggled, he was unable to free himself, watching in horror as the surrounding, functional starships ignited their FTL drives and blazed away from the debris, heartbreak and desolation of the poisoned, radioactive Earth. "Prophet Omega" would pay for his role in planning terrorism and envisaging the massive loss of life as he watched the rest of humanity escape his stygian doctrine and head away to sanctuary and a new beginning for their species. He would be trapped on an inert orbital vessel for the rest of his life. Oh, there were abundant supplies there, but he was now more terrifyingly isolated than any human being had ever been, or ever would be again.
EPILOGUE:
And with that, the careers of the Justice Guild of Canada ended, light years away from the world of their birth. Tina, Denise and their families watched in sorrow as Irene assisted the dying Oracle onto a reconnaissance and survey ship. As they glided over the crimson and scarlet forests of Lucifer, he whispered to Irene: "It looks beautiful down there." Tears streaming down her face, Irene placed a wedding ring on his hand and leant forward for one last kiss. And with that, embracing the woman he loved, John Triton, Oracle, the man who had saved humanity, passed away.
THE END
[1.35pm , May 11, 2022]