Countdown. Part 19

Or maybe not.

"Hey!" Harley protested. Bounding onto a table, she ran the length of the table toward the lingering Boom Tube. "That ugly broad scammed us all! We can't let her get away!"

She dived into the vortex after Granny.

Mary and Holly exchanged disbelieving looks. "She didn't . . . " Holly muttered.

"Yeah, she did." Mary took a deep breath as the Boom Tube began to fade from sight. Within moments, the portal would be gone for good, along with Harley Quinn. Mary glanced at Holly. "You wanna . . . ?"

Holly ran toward the Boom Tube even as she shook her head in dismay. "I swear I'm going to kill her one of these days!"

"Not if I get her first!" Mary insisted. She sprinted after Holly, quickly catching up with her. Side by side, they raced for the portal, which was closing up right before their eyes. Infuriating or not, Mary thought, Harley did save my life just now.

Holly seemed startled to find Mary accompanying her. She looked dubiously at the unarmed girl. "Are you kidding, Mary? What are you going to do?"

The Boom Tube loomed before them, filling up Mary's vision. She glimpsed a s.h.i.+mmering corridor, lined with bizarre, unearthly circuitry. Coruscating energies hummed and crackled. Her skin tingled. The scent of ozone invaded her nostrils. Nightmarish memories of Apokolips sent a chill down her spine.

"I'll figure it out later," she said.

They threw themselves into the unknown.

The vortex closed behind them with a resounding boom.

11 AND COUNTING.

APOKOLIPS.

Despair burned freely from the planet's core, fouling the atmosphere. The entire world moaned, a sound that chilled the soul with its dull emptiness and infernal malevolence. Walls a thousand feet high enclosed a sprawling megalopolis that burst upward like a pestilent boil as charnel winds extinguished the pallid stars from view. On the horizon, towering techno-temples rested on the halfcalcified bones of a billion failed genetic experiments, thrusting upward into the smoky black sky, while across this revolting graveyard of the universe, the m.u.f.fled, maddening, and monotonous whine of blasphemous wails rose from inconceivable subterranean torture chambers. Gigantic Fire Pits belched enormous gouts of flame.

Donna gazed out over the h.e.l.lish cityscape. The hot air scorched her lungs. "On my list of the worst possible places to be, this is number one."

Along with Ray Palmer, the Challengers stood atop the roof of a concrete workhouse in the filthy Armagetto. Donna recognized the dismal setting from past battles against Darkseid and his minions. Turning away from the ugly spectacle, she confronted the Monitor. "Why exactly are we on Apokolips?"

She kept her guard up. Ever since Solomon's brutal execution of that alternate version of Barry Allen, she didn't trust the Monitor one bit. He may very well have the safety of the entire universe in mind, she thought, but he's made it all too clear that he's willing to sacrifice any one of us to achieve his aims.

So did that make him a dangerous ally-or a mortal enemy?

"Yeah. What's the scoop?" Jason demanded. He methodically polished his knife while keeping a wary eye on their surroundings. So far their arrival had gone unnoticed, but that wasn't likely to remain the case. "Why this detour to Darkseid's backyard?"

"That is no concern of yours," Solomon said brusquely. His armored hand was clasped firmly onto the Atom's shoulder, lest his latest recruit attempt to elude them once more. Ray's winter jacket was soiled and torn from the battle back on Earth-51. His red-rimmed eyes held a haunted expression. "Suffice it to say that I have business on this accursed globe-as does Ray Palmer."

"Me?" Ray blurted. "Are you out of your mind? I don't want anything to do with this place!"

Donna wondered if he was having second thoughts about joining their bizarre expedition. Not that I blame him, she conceded. I'm starting to question whether this was such a good idea myself. Prophecy or no prophecy.

"Hold it together, Palmer," Jason said irritably. He glared at Solomon. "I'm sure our red-eyed buddy has a good reason for bringing us here. At least he'd better have."

"As I said," the Monitor replied, "that is my own affair." To Donna's surprise, a column of light suddenly cut off Solomon and Ray from her and Jason. Solomon consulted a display screen on his gauntlet. "Come, Ray Palmer. We can tarry here no longer."

"Hey!" Jason shouted. He lunged at the glowing figures, but they had already grown too immaterial to grab on to. Donna watched in dismay as the Monitor and Ray began to fade from view. Jason kicked the rooftop in frustration. "What about us?"

"You have served your purpose for now," Solomon declared, even as his sepulchral voice diminished in volume. "Our paths part here."

On Apokolips?

"Wait!" Donna called out, but it was already too late. The Monitor had vanished, taking the Atom with him. She and Jason were on their own, and stranded on the most dangerous planet in the Multiverse.

With no way home.

APOKOLIPS.

"It was foolish to follow me!" Granny Goodness cackled. She stood upon the bleachers of a vast a.s.sembly hall within the forbidding confines of her infamous orphanage. Ugly gray masonry, barren of any ornamentation, testified to the soul-destroying bleakness of Granny's infamous inst.i.tution. "I cannot believe that I thought you mortal trulls had the potential to join my Female Furies." The genuine articles were perched on the wide cement tiers behind Granny, while a squadron of armed Parademons fanned out before her. "Now my true Furies will rip you to pieces! Kill them, girls!" she exhorted her lethal favorites. "Do it for Granny!"

"Are you kidding?" Harley jeered back. She and Holly and Mary crouched behind dense concrete columns, which provided them momentary shelter from the sizzling blasts of the Parademons' energy-rifles. The unleashed firepower chipped away at the pillars. Bursts of orange energy burned through the barriers, narrowly missing the three women. Harley shouted over the din, "I don't know the meaning of the word fear!"

"Harley," Holly quipped, her back pressed up against a column, "you don't know the meaning of most words."

Mary rolled her eyes. "I hate to interrupt your oh-sofunny banter, but is there a plan we should be following?"

I can't believe I'm back on Apokolips again, she thought. And without my powers this time. Unlike her armored companions, Mary had only a tattered smock to protect her from their enemies and the elements. The interior of the orphanage was cold and drafty, the better to toughen Granny's unfortunate charges. The chilly cement floor leeched the heat from Mary's bare feet. Smoky fumes rose from mounted torches. The stale air reeked of old sweat and fear. Mary s.h.i.+vered uncontrollably. What was I thinking, jumping through that Boom Tube after Harley?

Paradise Island was light-years away now. Mary briefly wondered what had become of Hippolyta, who had stayed behind to restore order to Themyscira. No doubt she had her hands full dealing with an island full of confused Amazon wannabes. Mary figured they couldn't count on the Amazon queen coming to their rescue. Hippolyta had no way to get to Apokolips even if she wanted to.

We're on our own, Mary realized. And up against an entire planet of evil G.o.ds.

"Plan?" Holly shrugged. "Don't look at me. I didn't book this trip."

Granny continued to rail at them from behind the ma.s.sed Parademons. Mary didn't have the nerve to peer around the corner of the pillar, but she could readily imagine the crone's livid face. "If you've come to free the G.o.ds, you're going to fail miserably!"

Free the G.o.ds? Mary exchanged a startled glance with Holly. "Did she just say . . . ?"

"Ha!" Harley gloated. Her face lit up with glee. "I knew this was a good idea." She gave her accomplices an unmistakable I-told-you-so look. "Say something mean to me now!"

"Very well," an amused voice replied from behind the Earthwomen. A flexible steel band whipped out and wrapped itself tightly around the lower half of Harley's face, gagging her. A m.u.f.fled gasp barely escaped the wide silver ribbon. "I'm going to tear your head off and feed it to my plasmid eels!"

Spinning around, Mary saw three Female Furies charging at them from behind, having obviously circled around them via the orphanage's labyrinthine pa.s.sageways. She recognized them as the elite of Granny's hand-trained warriors. Although she had never fought them before, she knew of their vicious reputation. They gave Supergirl a rough time a while back.

"The name is Las.h.i.+na," the leader of the Furies declared as she yanked Harley off her feet, "for obvious reasons." Chrome-colored strips accented a dark blue bodysuit that fit tightly over her athletic figure. A sleek black ponytail whipped about behind her head. A horizontal metal band divided her face in two, protecting her nose. Cruel blue eyes gleamed above the steel noseguard. Contempt dripped from her ruby lips. "Allow me to introduce your friends to Stompa."

The latter was a veritable behemoth of a woman, the size of Solomon Grundy or Gorilla Grodd. A double-breasted brown leather uniform encased her hefty frame. A skull and crossbones was imprinted on the brow of her hard plastic helmet, which made her look like the world's largest roller derby contestant. Tinted brown goggles concealed her eyes, but not the outrage in her voice. "Which one of you skinny b.i.t.c.hes hurt our Granny?" she demanded as she stamped her heavy antimatter boots upon the floor.

An earthquake shook the a.s.sembly, knocking Mary off her feet. A deep crack snaked across the quivering cement floor. Dust rained down from the rafters. Mary heard Holly crash to the ground as well. The other girl swore.

A third Fury sprang toward Mary. "I'm Mad Harriet!" She laughed maniacally. Her crazed grin and wild green mane immediately reminded Mary of the Joker, if the Joker were an alien madwoman with jaundiced yellow skin, chartreuse hair, and bulging green eyes. A metallic breastplate s.h.i.+elded her torso, while a lime-colored loincloth flapped between her legs. Her fur-trimmed boots matched her green hair. s.h.i.+ning steel gauntlets were equipped with razor-sharp claws. "And you made my Granny upset!"

"Granny is G.o.d!" Stompa picked up the refrain. "We wors.h.i.+p our Granny!"

Holly scrambled to her feet, but Stompa lowered the boom again. Another earth tremor rocked the corridor, sending pulverized stone into the air. A loud rumbling noise drowned out Mary's gasps. Sprawled backward upon the bucking floor, she was tossed about helplessly, which saved her life, ironically enough. The jarring vibrations threw off Mad Harriet's attack, so that the lunatic's claws missed Mary by a hair. The gleaming razors slashed the empty air only inches away from Mary's face.

Talk about a close shave!

"Wow," Holly said sarcastically, leaping toward Stompa. Unlike Mary, the former Catwoman used the earthquake to nimbly propel herself toward the hulking Fury. A steel-toed Amazon boot kicked Stompa in the teeth, causing the gargantuan woman to reel backward. She teetered precariously atop her bulky legs. "You must scare the c.r.a.p out of c.o.c.kroaches...."

Holy Moley! Mary thought, impressed and encouraged by her ally's fighting skills. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Harley grappling with Las.h.i.+na. Spinning like a dervish, Harley had somehow managed to unwind the lash about her head. "Hold still, curse you!" Las.h.i.+na hissed as Harley ducked and dodged the Fury's whistling namesakes. "Stop jumping about like an accursed bug!"

"I got a better idea," Harley said brightly. She s.n.a.t.c.hed up a piece of fallen rubble and flung it at Las.h.i.+na's head. The rocky fragment smashed against the woman's noseguard, pelting her eyes and mouth with flying pieces of stone. "Hold this with your face!"

Was that enough to defeat Las.h.i.+na? Mary had no time to find out as Mad Harriet came at her again. "Slice and dice! Dice and slice!" Still shaken by the tremors, Mary backed away fearfully on all fours, but the insane Fury was too fast for her. She pounced on Mary, pinning her to the ground. A cold metal gauntlet closed around Mary's throat. Sharpened claws p.r.i.c.ked her flesh, barely breaking the skin. Harriet's leering face was mere inches away from Mary's. Spittle sprayed her cheeks. The Fury's hot breath smelled like sour milk. "Choppy choppy, little girl!"

Only heartbeats away from being turned into heroine salad, Mary played dirty. Harriet squealed in pain as Mary bit off the tip of the Fury's long, pointy nose.

Ugh! Mary spit the nauseating morsel onto the floor even as Harriet leapt away from her, clutching her mutilated nose. Blood sprayed through her clawed fingertips. "You bad toy, you!" she howled, no longer grinning like a loon. Deranged eyes spun in their sockets. "I'll kill you! Kill! KILL!"

Mary wasn't going to stick around to give Harriet a chance to get even. Rolling over onto her hands and knees, she hastily stumbled to her feet. She looked anxiously for her companions, but saw that the girls from Gotham were still caught up in their own life-or-death battles. Holly was sitting piggyback astride Stompa's brawny shoulders, her arms locked around the Fury's throat. " Ungh!" she grunted as she fought to topple the larger woman. "Why won't you fall?"

"Release her!" Four surly Parademons arrived to reinforce the Furies. They aimed their rifles at Holly.

"Okay!" Holly flipped Stompa over so that the huge Fury slammed head over heels into the gun-wielding guards, who scattered like bowling pins. "She's all yours!" The a.s.sembly hall shook as Stompa hit the ground with tremendous force. Holly somersaulted onto the floor, springing up just in time to see Las.h.i.+na deliver a vicious blow to Harley with her trademark metal whip. The flas.h.i.+ng silver ribbon smacked Harley across the face, knocking her onto her b.u.t.t. "Oh no," Holly gasped.

"How pathetic!" Las.h.i.+na towered over Harley, who, struggling up onto her knees, wiped the blood from her split lip. Las.h.i.+na's whip spun like a propeller blade as the p.i.s.sed-off warrior woman prepared to deliver the coup de grace. "You were supposed to be a Fury?" Las.h.i.+na snorted in derision. "You're not worthy of-"

"Shut up!" Holly leapt to her friend's defense. Her heel collided with Las.h.i.+na's jaw.

Good one, Mary thought as she raced away from Mad Harriet, who chased her down an adjacent corridor. "My face! My beautiful face!" the injured Fury shrieked. She bounded after Mary like a bloodthirsty hyena.

"Do they not have mirrors on Apokolips?" Mary wondered aloud. Mad Harriet had been no beauty even before Mary gave her an impromptu nose job. Mary's feet pounded against the cold stone floor as she ran for her life. Glancing back over her shoulder, she saw the vengeful Fury gaining on her. b.l.o.o.d.y claws reached out for the defenseless young woman. "I am so missing my powers right now!"

"Miserable meat bag!" A trio of Parademons appeared before Mary, blocking her path. They hefted their rifles at the sight of the fleeing girl. "Gun it down!"

"Oh, you've got to be kidding!" Mary exclaimed. Thinking fast, she hurled herself facedown onto the floor, so that the soldiers' guns targeted Mad Harriet instead. The startled madwoman skidded to a halt as she suddenly found herself facing an Apokoliptian firing squad. Muzzles flared.

"Wait!" she hollered, but not soon enough. A merciless hail of energy beams shredded Mad Harriet's flesh, reducing her to a gory wreck on the hallway floor. Whimpered moans informed Mary that Harriet was still clinging to life. Was it even possible to kill a New G.o.d?

The scorching gunfire was over in a second as the trigger-happy Parademons realized their error. "Uh, that was ill-advised," one of them gulped. He sheepishly lowered his weapon, all but forgetting about Mary as he contemplated the enormity of what they had just done. "Granny's going to eviscerate us, isn't she?"

A finger tapped his shoulder from behind. "If I were you, I wouldn't worry about Granny," Holly advised as she and Harley ambushed the distracted Parademons. Mary climbed back to her feet as the other two women made short work of the guards and confiscated their rifles. The unconscious soldiers soon lay in a heap upon the floor. "We need to get out of here ASAP!"

Harley winked at Mary. "Nice moves for a serving wench."

"Ha-ha," Mary replied. She wished Harley would drop the slave-girl jokes; still, she couldn't complain. Compared to Mad Harriet, Harley seemed positively sane.

The pigtailed blonde lobbed the spare rifle over to Mary. "Just like a camera," Harley promised. "Point and shoot . . . preferably in the direction of evil."

"Forget it." Mary tossed the weapon aside. She had already come too close to the dark side, under Eclipso's insidious tutelage, to compromise her values once more. "No guns. And I'm not killing anyone either."

I may not be Mary Marvel anymore, she vowed, but I'm not going to take after Black Adam again. No matter what.

Harley stared at her like she was the crazy one. "You believe this kid?"

Holly shrugged. "Let her do it her way."

Thanks, Mary thought, glad that the redhead didn't try to talk her out of her decision. She opened her mouth to say as much, only to be distracted by a peculiar buzzing at the back of her mind, almost like a chorus of whispered voices straining to be heard. Now that the fighting had died down for a second, she could almost make out what they were saying.

Come, Mary Batson. Deliver us from evil....

"What . . . ?" Mary whispered under her breath.

Her companions failed to notice her bemused state. They had other things on their minds. Harley slung her rifle over her shoulder. "Okay, let's go put Granny in a retirement home."

Holly nodded grimly and started off down the corridor.

"Guys?" Mary called out to them. "There's . . . Well, I don't want to say 'voices,' but I'm hearing what sounds like . . ."

"Voices?" Holly supplied.

Harley frowned. "What voices? I can't hear anything." She eyed Mary skeptically. "Does somebody need her daily dose of thorazine?"

Mary recalled that Harley had been a psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum before becoming one of the inmates. "The G.o.ds," she insisted, knowing just how crazy that sounded. "I hear the voices of the G.o.ds."

It was true. This wasn't like before, when Eclipso had insinuated her voice into Mary's thoughts. Mary recognized the voices of the G.o.ds from the good old days, when they had freely bestowed their wisdom and power upon her. Before everything went wrong.

"The G.o.ds?" Holly shrugged again. At this point, the streetwise Gotham girl seemed inclined to take just about anything in stride, no matter how far-fetched. "This should be interesting."

APOKOLIPS.

Darkseid contemplated the figurines upon the chessboard. Discarded pieces, including Eclipso and Mad Harriet, rested in a box alongside the board. Silence hung over the gloomy war room until a sudden flash of light heralded the return of his opponent. He raised his smoldering gaze from the game to greet the Monitor as he transported into the chamber.

"Welcome back, Solomon." Darkseid gestured at the board before him. "Shall we resume our game?" He spied a red and blue figure in the Monitor's right hand. "Ah, I see you have recovered your missing p.a.w.n."

"No thanks to you," Solomon replied sourly. "Or my fainthearted brethren." He placed a miniature replica of the Atom upon the board, not far from the figures representing Jason Todd and Donna Troy. "But I am prepared now to pit my strategy against yours-for the sake of the universe."

Darkseid nodded. "The endgame is upon us, Monitor." He moved the Jimmy Olsen figure across the board. "Despite your added p.a.w.n, you will note that I have placed you in the Lucena position." He smiled craftily. "Check."

Solomon appeared unalarmed by his opponent's move. His fingers lifted "Mary Batson" from the board and placed her closer in proximity to Granny Goodness. "While the Innocent is still in play, I am not yet defeated."

A transparent play, Darkseid thought, and one I had already antic.i.p.ated. He laughed out loud at the Monitor's audacity. "Good to see that you still have some fight in you, Solomon. It will be interesting to see how your gambit plays out."

10 AND COUNTING.

APOKOLIPS.

"Could you have picked a more heavily guarded place?" Holly complained.

A half dozen moaning Parademons were sprawled upon the steps leading up to an enormous steel door. Scorch marks blackened their helmets and uniforms. Smoke rose from their twitching bodies. Rifles in hand, Holly and Harley kept their eyes and guns focused on vanquished guards, just in case any of them were playing possum.

Harley nudged one of the unconscious guards with her foot. "Yeah, seriously, Mary, what's up?"

"I swear, the G.o.ds are here!" She ran barefoot up the steps to the imposing gray door. Iron rivets studded the face of the door, which was large enough to admit an elephant provided you knew the secret pa.s.sword. "I can hear them calling to me. Just behind this door!" She shoved against the barrier with her meager mortal strength, but the ponderous door wouldn't budge. "But how can we open it?"