Chapter 8
Chapter 8
Earth of the Avengers; Wakanda
In Wakanda, the sky was still red, calm had returned. But it was a brief respite. Since Pariah's forecast, T'Challa and Shuri had returned to Wakanda from their Earth, in order to evacuate their people. The Wakanda Royal Guard was organizing civilians and preparing them to bring them into a new destination: Earth – 1.
"Do you think this is the right solution?" asked Okoye, puzzled as she saw the crowd of people gathered.
"According to the Monitor, Earth – 1 is the Earth farthest from the path of the anti-matter wave," Shuri explained. "If we want to save our people, this is the only way."
"We are witnessing the end of Wakanda," the black warrior declared solemnly.
T'Challa joined them with a determined look.
"No, this isn't the end of Wakanda. Our Earth may be doomed, but that won't be the end of our history. As long as our people live, Wakanda will continue to exist, no matter what Earth we are in. Wakanda is not a place, it's us. And as long as we live in this Crisis, Wakanda will have a future, no matter what. (Speaking to Okoye.) Gather all the civilians, so the portals can lead them to Earth – 1. We evacuate the whole town. Once that is done, we will send our jets flying over the whole world and we will come to help all the other inhabitants of the Earth to evacuate."
"Brother, do you know that it's impossible to evacuate an entire planet?"Shuri pointed out nervously.
"I know that," replied the King Wakandan. "But we have to save as many people as we can. We still don't know when the wave will reach our Earth, so we must act without further delay."
"Kumkani," Okoye greeted before leaving for the job.
Then T'Challa turned to his sister.
"The Monitor asked me to send you to Earth – 1. Apparently, your presence is required with the heroes of this Earth. To be able to help stop the Crisis."
Stunned, Shuri shook her head.
"I can't go," she told him. "Our people need me! I cannot abandon you…"
Black Panther put his hands on his sister's shoulders.
"You won't! I can handle the evacuation of our home, your presence is unnecessary. You must help where you are useful. Go to Earth – 1 and help others stop this Crisis. By doing this, you will help our people on this Earth. I trust you, Shuri. (He gave her an extrapolator.) Go! Help our people on Earth – 1."
Still apprehensive, Shuri picked up the device, looking at her brother in concern.
"We'll meet again, Shuri. Once our people are safe, I'll come back to you," T'Challa reassured his sister with hope.
Earth – 1; Central City
At Star Labs, Kara, Kate and Sara were having drinks while mourning the loss of Oliver Queen. In front of them stood the Guardians of the Galaxy, Star-Lord, Drax, Mantis, Nebula, Rocket and Groot who drank in memory of the fallen hero. They had saved the inhabitants of a parallel Earth, but at a heavy price to pay.
As Groot wanted to drink, Rocket snatched his glass from his hand.
"No, too young for you," the raccoon replied. "Do as I say, I said no!"
"I am Groot," the young tree muttered angrily.
"Language!"
Ignoring the Guardians of the Galaxy, Sara helped herself to a drink.
"Never thought we'd be pouring one out for Oliver."
"We're not gonna wait for Barry?" Kara asked.
"I don't think he's ready to say good-bye." Kate replied.
The Guardians of the Galaxy raised their glasses to toast.
"To Oliver Queen!" Star-Lord declared before taking a sip.
There was a silence, then Sara spoke again:
"So anybody want to say some words for Oliver?"
"He sacrificed himself for me and Barry. Shouldn't have done that." Kara said, lowering her head with a guilty look.
"His sacrifice saved a billion more people." Sara pointed out. "Let's not call that a mistake. Look. Oliver died the way he lived, a hero."
And at her words, she took a sip from her glass.
Kate remained silent, staring at the two women, then the Guardians of the Galaxy in front of her, and spoke in turn:
"Not to rush a tender moment, but I think the Multiverse is ending soonish, so No."
Immediately, Rocket joined the three women, and came to stand on their table.
"The Batwoman is right. We must find a way to stop this anti-matter from destroying the Multiverse!"
Sara raised her eyebrows.
"And I guess you have a plan, furball?"
"Don't call me furball, Miss Cap Legend!" the raccoon exclaimed in a fit of rage.
Not wanting the situation to escalate, Kara intervened.
"What if we could undo what happened? We managed to get billions of people to safety. There has to be a way we can undo this. Oliver, my mom, Argo, Earth ugh all those Earths, all those people who vanished. There has to be a way we can get them back… We were able to bring everyone back when Thanos snapped his fingers. With or without Infinity Stones, we can undo what happened!"
"At least one who is optimistic!" Rocket said with an encouraging look at Kara.
"And how can we bring back entire worlds without Infinity Stones?" Quill asked, rising from the table to join the three women.
"Or we focus on stopping it from happening to every other universe." suggested Sara not very optimistic.
There was a great burst of light and Lyla aka Harbiner appeared behind the groups.
"Oh, hey," Sara said. "Welcome to the joy zone…"
Rocket and Quill groaned lightly at this, but Sara resumed as if nothing had happened:
"Where's Dig?"
"At home with JJ," Harbinger replied. "He still doesn't know about Oliver."
"Lyla, you…" said the young Lance, shocked.
"I know. I just I need to figure out," answered the woman in blue. "how to tell him."
Then loud voices burst into the room. Sara recognized Ray's in it.
"You can't just hijack the Waverider. Our crew is still on there…"
Ray Palmer had just arrived with Mar Novu by his side.
"If there is any chance at surviving the Crisis, we need its technology." the cosmic being replied.
"Hoo. Yeah. I kind of promised our crew they'd never have to do another crossover." Sara replied, embarrassed.
Rocket looked stunned.
"Wait a minute! Really? The Multiverse will soon gone and your teammates won't even lift a finger to help us? And they say that we are the worst heroes that exist?"
And he laughed, which annoyed Sara.
"Shut up, furball!" she replied.
But Rocket laughed even more.
"I can't even imagine another superhero team as worse than them!"
Groot looked amused, but Quill, seeing that Sara was furious, wanted to calm the rodent.
"Rocket, stop it, you're not helping!"
Kate looked at the heroes troop, frowning.
"Seriously, are you really the Guardians of the Galaxy?"
"Yes, it's really amazing!" Nebula muttered disdainfully from her corner, as if this conflict didn't involve her.
"It's better than being called the Legends of Tomorrow!" said Rocket again, laughing.
"I am Groot," replied the young tree proudly.
"Groot, don't overdo it," Quill retorted. (Then he addressed the raccoon.) "Rocket, I remind you that I'm the captain. You are just a backpack!"
"I thought it the captain was the little rodent," Kate retorted surprised.
"And you call me a rodent, Batwoman?" Rocket replied.
"Honestly, guys, how did you manage to stay alive all this time?" Kate exclaimed stunned.
"It's a very good question," replied Nebula.
"With the dance-off to save the universe," Drax replied.
"The dance-off?" replied the hero woman of Gotham, more and more confused.
"Enough, please!" Star-Lord grew angry. (Then he turned to Harbinger and the Monitor.) "If you want a ship, I can make ours available to you."
"No, we need the Waverider," Mar Novu retorted.
"Why the ship of these Legends idiots?" Rocket exclaimed.
Sara was about to reply sternly, when Lyla spoke up.
"We need the Ray's lab. Yours doesn't. And we have an entire multiverse of Waveriders at our disposal."
"So, pretty blue lady, where are we…" said Rocket.
But Harbinger was gone before he could finish his sentence.
"…going? All right," the raccoon stammered.
Earth – 74
Harbinger appeared inside a rather rusty Waverider vessel that looked like it hadn't been used for a long time. As she walked, she fell on some beer bottles and the command center immediately lit up.
"Is anyone here?"
"Welcome aboard. My name is Leonard," answered an interactive voice."An interactive, artificial consciousness programmed to operate this vessel's critical systems."
"I know who you are." Lyla said.
Leonard's voice was identical to that of Leonard Snart, aka Captain Cold, a former criminal turned Legend who had sacrificed himself to save his teammates.
"Always pleased to meet a fan," the voice said. "But you're trespassing. Any preference on how you'd like to die?"
Then, it was then that a man appeared behind Harbinger. A man appearing to be a Mick Rory's doppelganger. The man immediately threatened her with his gun.
"What he's saying…" said the man, growling. "… is flame…"(He drew his flaming gun.) "Or frost!" (With his other hand he pulled out an ice rifle.)
"I thought the Legends of Earth – 74 all retired." Harbinger pointed out, in a neutral tone.
"We did," Mick replied. "Well, some. One died. No one was using the ship, so I took it. It's my ship."
"Why are you here?" Harbinger asked.
"I like the quiet."
"He's trying to be a writer." Leonard said.
"Shut up," Mick grumbled.
"Of romance novels," Leonard continued, as if he hadn't been interrupted."Well, you can see how that's going."
"It's going fine, you piece of…"
"You're basically living out of your car."
"Listen, snowflake…"
Harbinger hastened to cut off the argument between this strange novelist and artificial intelligence:
"Boys… Come with me, Mick Rory, and I promise you'll have plenty of beer to drink and stories to tell. The Multiverse needs saving, and its heroes need a ship."
Mick thought for a moment before answering:
"You had me at beer."
Earth – 1
Later, the Earth – 74's Waverider joined Earth – 1. Now the heroes have discovered the new time ship. Even the Guardians of the Galaxy did their inspection on board. Quill stared at the ship, frowning.
"What a piece of junk," he whispered at last, unable to hide his disgust. "It looks like an old plane taken out of a landfill!"
"Hey, Flash Gordon," Mick said haughtily. "Keep your thoughts for you!"
"Can this thing travel in space?" Rocket exclaimed as he gazed into the interior of the ship.
"It's a timeship, the rodent! And it's very fast!" Mick said again.
"Just great!" replied the raccoon.
"I am Groot," said the tree with an enthusiastic smile.
"I love this ship, too," Drax replied.
Later, all were gathered in front of Harbinger and the Monitor. Barry, Thor and Shuri had just joined them.
There were the Guardians of the Galaxy Barry, Thor, Lois, Clark, Shuri, Kara, Thor, Kate, Mick and Ray, listening to Mar Novu speaking to them:
"You have all lost a great hero…"
"No kidding!" Thor grumbled, glaring at the cosmic being.
"The wrong hero," Barry added, furious too.
But the Monitor continued, as if he hadn't been interrupted:
"You have suffered a horrible loss, but you have every reason not to lose hope, eight, in fact. Across space and time…"
He was interrupted when baby Jonathan started to cry in Lois' arms. Immediately, very embarrassed, she passed the baby to Clark, who took him in his arms.
"Are you kidding me?" Nebula growled, rolling her eyes. "Who had the idea of bringing a baby on board?"
Mar Novu spoke again:
"Across space and time exist 8 heroes, beings of the purest will who can ultimately…"
He was again interrupted by Jonathan's tears, which started again. Embarrassed, Clark passed his son to Shuri, who hastened to cuddle him. But alas, the baby didn't calm down. Embarrassed, Black Panther's sister passed the child to Kara.
Nebula rolled her eyes again, annoyed, as Rocket turned to his companions.
"He reminds me of Groot when he was a tiny little baby tree! He too cried all the time! He was even too cute!"
Groot glared at his friend, while Jonathan seemed to have calmed down in Kara's arms.
Mar Novu then continued:
"Beings of the purest will who can ultimately…"
But was interrupted again, when Jonathan resumed his tears in Kara's arms.
"It's not working," replied the Girl of Steel in a low voice, embarrassed.
She wanted to pass the baby to Thor, but the Asgardian looked at her, annoyed.
"Sorry Kara, but I don't do babies," he said with an embarrassed smile. "I am a warrior! I don't know about babies!"
"Maybe he's hungry?" Mantis suggested to Lois.
Kara wanted to pass it on to Kate, but she didn't move to comfort a crying baby.
"Nope," she said categorically.
Finally, not knowing what else to do, Kara gave Jonathan Mick Rory. And to everyone's surprise, the baby stopped crying and looked at Mick with a small smile. Moved, Mick looked at the baby, cradling him tenderly in his arms and walking away from the group.
The Monitor took the opportunity to pick up where he left off:
"Beings of the purest will, who can ultimately defeat the Anti-Monitor. And help save the Multiverse. They are known as Paragons."
"Paragons?" Barry exclaimed, stunned.
Thor looked intrigued and spoke up:
"You told me I was the Keeper of those Paragons?"
"Indeed," replied Mar Novu. "Thor, Son of Odin, you are the Keeper of the Eight Paragons."
"First, the Avengers, now Paragons!" Quill exclaimed. "I'm glad Yondu get me out of Earth."
"And you're just dropping this on us now?" Barry growled.
"I only learned of their existence recently after consulting the Book of Destiny." replied the Monitor.
"The Book of Destiny? The same one Deegan used to rewrite reality?" Thor exclaimed in amazement.
"How?" Flash wondered. "We destroyed it last year."
Then Mar Novu waved his hands, and immediately, a Book appeared out of nowhere, floating right in front of him. For those who recognized it, it was indeed the Book of Destiny, which was just a simple holographic projection.
At the sight of the Book, Lyla's gaze blurred. She shook her head, as if she had a headache or heard voices.
"After Oliver's early demise, I went back into the time stream and retrieved it intact." replied the Monitor, opening the pages of the Book. "It is now safely stored in this ship's library."
Then, the cosmic being made the image of the Book disappear.
"So it's what, Plan B?" Barry exclaimed, still unhappy with the current situation. "That's comforting."
"It's a Book that will help us find these… Paragons to save the Multiverse?" Quill exclaimed, dumbfounded.
"Anyone else wishing they'd done that shot?," Kate said with a sigh.
While Kara had an idea.
"Uh, but wait. If the book can rewrite destiny, can it bring back Earth – 38 or any of the other Earths?" she asked.
Carefully, Thor looked at the Monitor, wondering whether the Book could revive Earths.
"Trying to re-create an entire world would surely drive one to madness." said Mar Novu in a neutral tone.
"What about my dad?" suggested Mia, who had just entered the command center. "Could it bring him back?"
"I wish it could," replied Mar Novu. "While Oliver Queen was to die in this Crisis, this is not how I saw events unfold, but as the Anti-Monitor gets stronger, I grow weaker. We must find all eight Paragons."
"And how do we find them?" asked Rocket. "How about, like, a hint?"
Quill sighed in frustration at the sight of the raccoon, addressing the Monitor as if he were the Captain of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
"I have four," Mar Novu replied. "Kara Zor-El. (Immediately all eyes turned to the Girl of Steel.) Despite all you have endured, you are the Paragon of Hope."
"The Kryptonian is a Paragon?" the raccoon said looking at Kara. "It's a start!"
Thor looked at the Girl of Steel in admiration.
But Supergirl didn't seem very enthusiastic.
"Well, you might want to double-check your omnipotence because I'm not feeling that hopeful right now."
"Sara Lance is the Paragon of Destiny," the Monitor continued.
"No kidding, Miss Cap Legend," Rocket muttered, rolling his eyes. "I feel comforted, right now!"
"Enough, Rocket!" Quill said, exasperated.
Ray gave an enthusiastic admiring sigh:
"Oh. Well, that makes sense. Captain of time travel and all that."
"And for the others," said Shuri. "Who are the other Paragons?"
"I have only descriptions for the other two paragons." replied Mar Novu. "One is of a second Kryptonian, who is said to have suffered a greater loss than most mortal men could endure. Today, he stands as the Paragon of Truth."
"Just great, another Kryptonian!" Rocket said in a bad mood. "Now there are three!"
"I am Groot," the tree muttered.
"I'll find him," Clark replied.
"I'll go with you," added Lois to her husband.
"So three," Star-Lord said. "What about the fourth?"
"The Paragon of Courage is known only as the Bat of the future," replied the Monitor.
"A Bat?" Mantis exclaimed, stunned. "You mean that ugly black thing with big wings?"
"Seriously, where do you get these names and pseudonames anyway?" Kate replied.
"Very good question," Thor replied, looking at the Monitor with a frown. "Where did you get all this from?"
"I enlisted the assistance of Felicity Smoak," continued Mar Novu. "Who earned the wisdom of a second book."
"What Book?" asked the God of Thunder.
"The Tome of the Guardians. It revealed the names of Thor, Ms. Zor-El and Ms. Lance, as well as the other two."
"Bummed out Kryptonian and future Bat?" Lois wondered.
"And this future Bat, where can we find it?" Quill asked.
"Earth – 99 exists in a future time," said Mar Novu. "Where Bruce Wayne has dedicated himself, body and soul, to fighting crime."
Ray remained thoughtful at these words, then realized aloud:
"I'm sorry. Go back. Bruce Wayne is the Dark Knight?"
"Bruce Wayne is Batman!" exclaimed Thor jovially. "I also knew it!"
"If we could all keep that to ourselves, that'd be great." Kate retorted categorically to the two men.
"The path to find him will lead you to the Paragon of Courage." said Mar Novu.
"Okay," Kate replied with a smile before addressing the others. "Who wants to meet Batman?"