Chapter 12
Chapter 12
Earth – 96; Metropolis
In the Daily Planet office, the Paragon Superman had just pushed Earth – 38's Superman against the wall where the commemorative plaques were hung. Thor stepped in, getting in his way, but Superman swung his fist and punched the Asgardian squarely in the jaw. He was no longer himself. He was now bewitched by the Book of Destiny, forced to obey Lex Luthor.
"You don't belong here." he declared with a voice full of rage.
"We're here because we need your help," said Superman of Earth – 38, getting up.
"Kal-El, you're not yourself," Thor told him alarmed. "Luthor controls your mind with the Book of Destiny. You must fight! You are Superman! You have to fight it! And we need your help to save the Multiverse!"
Lex was watching the scene with a sneer, slyly.
"Help?" exclaimed the Paragon, mad with rage. "I couldn't even save my wife, my friends. And I don't care about your universe!"
"Yes, you do," Lois intervened. "You're the Paragon of Truth."
"Listen to her," Thor told her, slowly approaching him. "Use the truth that is in you!"
The Earth – 96's Superman looked at Lex, who nodded at him with a smirk, then returned his gaze to Thor and Superman.
"There's only one truth!" he roared. "I serve Lex Luthor!"
And he grabbed his doppelganger by the shoulders and threw it out the office window, then flew out over Metropolis. Thor, Iris, and Lois rushed to the window, to see the two Supermen flying through the sky, one of whom sought to kill the other.
"Do you think they're going to kill each other?" Iris said with anguish.
"That won't happen!" said Thor waving his hammer.
And he flew out of the Daily Planet and flew skyward towards the Paragon.
Superman of Earth – 96 wanted to attack his double, when Thor brandished his ax creating lightning that stopped the spellbound Kryptonian, and threw him on the roof of a skyscraper. Thor landed right in front of him, wanting to stop him.
"Kal-El, I don't want to hurt you! Luthor has corrupted your mind! You must resist! You cannot be under the orders of a madman! You are Superman, the last Son of Krypton! And you are a superhero! If you don't do it for yourself, do it for everyone you've lost. For your wife and your friends."
At the mention of his loved ones, Superman let out a roar of rage, and crossed his fists, ready to punch his opponent.
"I can't be saved!" he yelled furiously. "And you'll see what it feels like to lose those you love."
"Trust me, I already know that," Thor said wryly. "I too have lost loved ones. I lost all my family, my kingdom, my friends. Good people that I have lost. I know that feeling. But these losses make us stronger. See, you and I are more alike than you think. You are able to overcome your losses, Kal."
But Superman swung his fist and wanted to punch Thor in the face, but the latter barely dodged him, and used his thunderbolt to push him back. He brandished Mjolnir, summoning lightning from the sky, and again struck the Paragon.
"I can help you, Kal. I can help you get Luthor out of your head!" Thor yelled.
"I don't need your help, puny God!" resumed the mad Paragon with rage.
He leapt into the air, used his superblast on Thor, knocking him to the roof floor. Then he used his heat vision on the Asgardian, who used his hammer and ax to repel Superman's heat vision.
The Paragon burned his eyes with heat vision to incinerate Thor, who was shielding himself from it with Mjolnir and Stormbreaker.
"Maybe you're a God! But here, on this Earth, you are nobody! You are nothing!"
As Thor attempted to ward off his assailant's heat vision, the Earth – 38's Superman came flying in and grabbed his double, sending him away from the God of Thunder.
"You have to get Lex Luthor out of your head, Kal," he yelled, flying straight up to his counterpart. "The Multiverse needs you!"
"And what about what I need?" grumbled Earth – 96's Superman, rushing towards his double.
The two Supermen clashed as their punches created a shockwave that shattered the glass of surrounding buildings. Paragon Superman dragged his double up and down as the two embarked on yet another showdown. Superman freed himself, as the Paragon flew high in the air, then returned his gaze to the Daily Planet.
"Let me show you how it feels to lose the ones you love." he said, rushing towards the building.
Thor, who had stood up, saw the Earth – 96's Superman flying straight in the direction of the Daily Planet.
"Iris! Lois! Get out of there!"
At the journal desk, Iris and Lois stepped out of the window, while Lex rejoiced in the fight.
"This should be fun!" he declared with an evil smile.
He didn't notice the interdimensional breach that had opened up behind him, and closed immediately.
The Paragon of Truth flew straight towards the office, as if to attack Iris and Lois, he was rejected by Superman and Thor. Both had moved on top of him, preventing him from entering through the broken window.
Lex looked disgusted. Then a small voice spoke to him:
"Hey chrome dome!"
The bald psychopath froze, wondering who was talking to him. He lowered his head, and to his surprise he saw what looked like a tiny man in a jumpsuit standing on his jacket sleeve.
"Hi there," said the little man.
"What the…?" Lex exclaimed.
Then the man instantly grows up, hitting Lex Luthor, causing him to lose his grip on the Book of Destiny. It was Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man. He smiles at the bald man pinned to the ground.
"Hi dude! I'm Ant-Man."
Stunned, Lex barely had time to figure out what had just happened, when another person grew up next to him, and kicked him in the face stunning him. It was the Wasp, aka Hope Van Dyne.
Ant-Man raised his helmet, revealing Scott's face, and turned to the two women greeting them with a friendly smile.
"Hello ladies! Ant-Man and the Wasp to the rescue!"
Hope lifted the helmet from her jumpsuit and greeted the two women.
"What are you doing here?" Iris exclaimed, stunned.
"A strange and creepy guy with ridges on his head and big muttonchops came to see us, Hope and I, on our Earth," Scott explained. "I didn't understood it all… he talked about a Crisis affecting the whole Multiverse… and he said you needed help on this… this Earth with a Superman who would be a Paragon… but I didn't understood…"
"He told us about that bald guy with that weird book," Hope added, gesturing to the unconscious Lex on the floor, with the Book a few inches from him.
"We have to take the Book of Destiny," Iris exclaimed, alerted.
"The Book of what?" Scott exclaimed, confused.
"We need to open it," added Lois. "Help us!"
Then the four of them got down to open the big Book. Then the pages scrolled, revealing rays of energy.
"What the heck is this weird book?" Scott exclaimed, dumbfounded.
"No time to explain to you," replied Iris. "We need to free Clark from Lex."
"Picture the Clark that we met." Lois added, standing up with the Book in her hands.
"Who is Clark?" Scott asked, more and more confused.
"I thought we had to save Superman?" Hope added as confused as he was.
"Superman is Clark," Iris replied.
Then the two new heroes realized the air combat that was taking place outside the building. Scott and Hope came to the window and saw Thor with two Supermen. All three clashed while flying.
"Oh man, Thor is fighting with two Supermen!" Ant-Man commented, fascinated. "Which of the two is the real Superman?"
"Both are Superman," replied Iris and Lois at the same time.
Suddenly, the two Supermen returned to the office. The Paragon pushed back its counterpart, roaring with a fierce look.
"There's only room in this world for one of us!" he declared to his double.
Slightly frightened, Scott backed up against the wall.
"Uh… I'm not fighting him," he said with a small voice. (Then he looked puzzled.) "Hey, wait, this Superman sounds like familiar to me, like I've seen him before!"
Then the Earth – 96's Superman grabbed his doppelganger by the neck and stashed him against the wall, strangling him.
Iris and Lois, still with the Book of Destiny in their hands, attempted to bring Clark Kent back to his normal state.
"Ladies, whatever you do doesn't seem to be working," Scott replied anxiously as Superman strangled his double.
"Lex must have turned Superman's love into hate," Iris replied.
"Love!" exclaimed Lois, who understood then. (She turned to the Paragon.) "Clark, this isn't you, not the real Clark, the one that Perry White respected and Jimmy Olsen looked up to and Lois loved."
But Earth – 96's Superman turned his head towards the two women in rage.
"You know nothing about me or them!"he exclaimed furiously.
He wanted to attack them with his heat vision, when Thor came over and used his hammer to block the laser beam attack.
"Remember who you really are, Kal!" the Asgardian told him, repelling the attack. "The reason why you became Superman! You have always fought with honor and courage! Think about those you lost! They would have wanted you to remember them to lift you up, not drive you to darkness! That's the one and only truth, Kal-El! And the truth means everything to you! Remember who you really are!"
In his anger, the new Superman seemed lost in thought, then finally gave up on attacking Thor. He inhaled and lowered his head, thinking about what had happened to him.
Scott and Hope, who had stepped back, watched the scene cautiously.
"Its okay? Has he become good again?" dared to ask Ant-Man.
The Earth – 38's Superman came to see his doppelganger.
"You okay?"
"Actually, this is the second time I've gone nuts and fought myself," said the Paragon, sighing.
He came over to shake the Asgardian's hand.
"Thank you Thor!"
Then the Thunder God showed him his hammer.
"The Monitor said my hammer could be carried by Paragons. Take it!"
A little dazed, the Paragon took Thor's hammer… and lifted it easily as if it were very light. He was therefore indeed a Paragon.
Thor smirked, despite himself, although he was hardly used to seeing strangers lifting his hammer.
"I think I just figured out why I'm called the Keeper of the Paragons," he explained.
"Paragons?" Hope said, confused.
"Looks like we missed a lot of things," Scott replied, not understanding what had happened.
Thor turned and noticed the two new heroes.
"Scott Lang, glad to see you again!" he said, smiling.
"Hi Thor!" Ant-Man replied, raising his hand jovially. "It would be nice to fill us in this Crisis. And what are these Paragons? And why are there two Supermen?"
Earth – 18; North Dakota
Constantine was leading Mia, Sara, Clint, Peter and Barry into an underground cave with torches at hand to light them. Then they came to a pool of water.
"Yep. This is the place." Constantine said, stopping walking.
"This famous Lazarus Pits is located in a town of western?" Clint replied, looking around.
"Very dismal," Peter commented stunned. "Is anyone really in this backwater?"
Then the occult detective put his two fingers in the water and licked them.
"That's clean enough." he said, indifferently.
"Don't tell me you just tasted that?" exclaimed Clint in disgust.
Sara and Peter made faces of disgust as they looked at Constantine.
"We'll clear this out!" Mia said, seeing several planks of wood around them. "Peter, can you help me?"
"We'll go get Oliver," Barry said, opening an interdimensional breach.
Then he disappeared with Constantine and the breach closed behind them.
Mia and Peter came to pull the wooden planks away from the pit, while Sara stared at the pool of water, recalling memories. Worried, Clint joined her.
"You okay?" he asked her.
"Yeah," Sara replied. "Just that I don't have good memories with… Lazarus Pits. (She turned to Mia.) Are you sure that you want to do this?"
Mia and Peter had just put down a long plank of wood, before the archer retorted to the Paragon.
"More than anything," she said.
"Okay," Sara agreed. "Your father wouldn't take no for an answer either."
"And he wasn't the only one," Clint replied with an amused smile, thinking of someone he had known on his Earth.
Then Sara started to lift a wooden plank while talking to Mia.
"When I think of all the stupid stuff we got into when we were your age, it's amazing we didn't get arrested more." she said to Green Arrow's daughter.
"Arrested more?" Mia asked intrigued, crossing her arms.
"But you're way smarter than him." Sara answered hastily. "You get that from your mom."
"Wow, the Green Arrow's story is a lot more thrilling than I imagined," Clint laughed, throwing a plank of wood.
"I know a little bit about Oliver's pre-island past," Peter replied, remembering his interactions with the Earth – 1's archer.
"Ladies and gentlemen, seems you have tied your horse to the wrong saloon!"said a hoarse voice behind them. "This mine is off limits."
A tall cowboy had just entered the cave, with a very unfriendly gaze. Sara recognized him as Jonah Hex. But a different Jonah Hex than the one she knew. His face had no scars.
Puzzled, the two Avengers looked at him with frowns.
"Are you a real cowboy?"Peter asked, dazed at the sight of the lonely man.
"Hey look, Clint Eastwood, we don't care of this mine," Clint retorted.
"Uh… he looks more like Josh Brolin*," Peter replied in a low voice, slipping his web throwers on his wrists.
"I don't care who owns it." Mia retorted, crossing her arms. "We need to use this pit."
The cowboy then approached the young archer of Earth – 1.
"Well, I'm a-sure we can come to an arrangement."
With a sadistic smile he put his hand on Mia's cheek, but immediately Clint took his hand and twisted it with a murderous look.
"I wouldn't touch her if I were you!" he shouted at her in a calm voice, but full of threats.
Peter intervened in turn.
"Hey, Brolin! You've got no idea who you're dealing with! Get out of here or else you're not going to like what's going to happen to you!"
Far from being intimidated, Jonah broke free from Clint, and glared at the young man.
"Watch yourself, little boy!"
And he took a knife out of his pocket, which he brandished in front of him. Peter pretended to be terrified.
"Oh no, a knife! I'm scared! You found my weakness!"
Then he threw his cobwebs at Hex's hands, sticking them both together. Then Clint took the opportunity to lift him up and throw him to the ground. Then Sara rushed at him and took his knife from his hand, bringing the blade closer to his face.
"The mine is ours," she declared, bringing the blade of the knife closer to the cowboy's cheek.
"The hell is it?" roared Hex.
"Guess you were gonna get this scar eventually, Hex!" added young Lance, slashing the man's cheek.
Then Clint drew his bow and aimed an arrow at Hex's head.
"Do you want to know what it feels like to have an arrow on your head?" he growled threateningly.
"The mine's yours. The mine's yours." the cowboy moaned with an incision in his face.
"Better!"said Archer Avenger satisfied.
Then Mia punched the man in the face, knocking him out. Clint couldn't help but look at the girl in awe.
"What?" Mia said to the Avenger.
"Nothing, it's just… you remind me of someone I knew," Clint replied with a small smile. "Good woman. I'm sure she would have liked you."
Seeing Mia fight made Clint remember her partner Natasha Romanoff. Like Oliver, she had sacrificed herself to save the universe. He was absent for a moment and recovered.
"Are you still with me to revive my father?" Mia asked her.
"Of course he's my friend, and I miss him," Clint replied.
And Mia had turned to Peter.
"You have super reflexes," she told him with admiration.
"Thank you, that's nice," Peter replied, smiling.
"You're a real Avenger," Mia added.
At that word, Peter's face darkened.
"I don't know if I'm really an Avenger. My life has become complicated these days. It's a long story, but… that's one of the reasons I want to help you bring Oli… uh, your dad back to life."
Finally, Barry and Constantine returned to the mine through a breach, with Oliver's lifeless body with them.
They noticed Jonah Hex unconscious on the ground.
"Did we miss something?" asked Barry.
"Nothing," Sara replied. "Just put him in the water."
Earth – 1; Waverider
Rocket joined his friends the Guardians of the Galaxy at the ship's command center.
"Do we have any news from Thor or Superman on this… Paragon we need to find?" he asked.
"Still nothing," Quill replied. "And on your side, with the Paragons detector?"
"It's on the way," the raccoon replied.
Then he saw Groot with Mick. The man handed his book to the sapling and made a signature on a page of the book. Groot seemed quite happy.
Furious, Rocket came over to them.
"What the hell am I looking at?! Groot, what are you doing? With this stupid guy?"
Innocently, Groot looked at Rocket, while Mick watched him proudly.
"Your tree asked me for a dedication of my romance novel."
"I am Groot," said the tree happily.
"What?" Rocket exclaimed incredulously and furiously.
And Mick signed on the page and handed his book to Groot, all jovial.
"And that's it for my alien tree fan," he said happily.
"I am Groot," Groot replied with a big smile.
"You're welcome… Groot," Mick replied, having guessed what the tree had just said.
Rocket was both horrified and stunned at not believing what he saw in front of him.
"Groot, don't tell me you bought a book from that stupid novelist?"
"I didn't sell him anything," Mick answered innocently. "I was walking around with the baby in my arms, telling my story, and your buddy Groot, who was here, heard me and it interested him! So I gave him a copy of "Caged Passion"! And he even asked me for a dedication!"
Groot nodded in agreement.
"I am Groot."
But Rocket was not at all enthusiastic that his friend could read an erotic book. He shook his head, deeply annoyed.
"No, no, no, no and no! Groot, give me this book right now! I forbid you to read that crap! Give me this book, or I swear if we survive this Crisis, there's no space travel for you for a month!"
He tried to grab the book, but Groot lifted his arm away from Rocket, who had to leap into the air to try to reach him.
"Give me this book! Give me this book! I'm not asking, Groot! Give me this book or you will be punished!"
"I am Groot!" Groot muttered, raising his hand in the air holding his book away from his friend.
After some effort, Rocket gave up jumping, which made Mick happy.
"Well done Groot, don't let that little furball tell you what to do! You are a big tree!"
Immediately, the raccoon turned to him, baring his teeth angrily.
"Don't talk to him! And get out away from him, shitty dirty novelist!"
Mick just shrugged and walked away. He picked up Jonathan from a cradle and walked quietly.
"Go screw yourself, raccoon!"
At the mention of the raccoon, Rocket's rage had increased tenfold.
He leaps like an excited animal, howling in rage.
"I wish the wave of anti-matter will consume you, stupid writer!" he roared at the man who walked away with the baby.
For his part, Quill had seen it all, and had shook his head.
"Groot, I'm warning you, I don't want erotic books in my ship!"
"I am Groot!" Groot snapped at him.
"You don't talk to me like that!" Quill scolded him.
"By the way," Mantis pointed out, opening her eyes wide. "Groot can read? Since when does reading fascinate him?"
"Yes, that's a good question," Drax added.
Even Quill was intrigued that Groot wanted to read. Although he would like the young tree to read something else about cultivation rather than erotic reading.
"In any case, if this book comes on my ship, I'll throw it in the trash," Star-Lord warned uncompromising.
Groot went to his corner, immersed in reading his new book, much to the chagrin of Rocket who began to scream:
"Okay Groot, you asked for it! No space travel for you for two months! Crisis or not Crisis, you're punished!"
But Groot ignored the raccoon and read on happily.
Exasperated, Rocket rubbed his face, on the verge of hysterics.
Earth – 18; North Dakota
Our heroes had settled Oliver's lifeless body on a stretcher, made from wooden planks that lay in the cave. Gently, they gently placed him in the water, and plunged him there.
"That's it, and now?" Peter asked nervous at the concept of the resurrection.
"Now we wait," said Sara, dreading what would happen next.