In
Between
Black focuses intently on the portal. "
Hostile?"
"Of course it's
hostile. I can feel the other versions of me he has hooked up to the machine he uses to generate it."
"And we're not being swarmed under with Manhunters because..?
"
Time Trapper begins picking up shards of crystal and depositing them in his robe. "Because this place is protected. But imperfectly. Charging in will turn his assault force into an outwardly-directed blast of exotic radiation, but he can work around that problem given time." He looks at me. "Did Ambush Bug show you anything about how you should handle events like this?"
"No.
"
"Did he say anything that could be helpful?"
"No, but… When I met Doctor Schwab, he mentioned..? I don't know if it's important, but he mentioned that he was having some sort of contact with Grayven.
"
"Grayven? Darkseid's son?"
"I don't know anyone
else with that name.
"
"What
exactly did he say?"
"'Only from your point of view. From everyone else's, they got a quick lesson on the Antarctic's environment and an awesome fight with robots and pirates! And that Grayven guy, for the niche crossover appeal.'
"
"Niche.. crossover-?"
I point at Red.
"Teen Titans.
" Then at Black.
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
"
Red frowns. "What?"
"You don't know who the Teen Titans-?
"
"No, I know who the Titans
are. I just didn't recognise the exact line-up."
"You don't remember the animated series?
"
"
Not with that line-up. Why? Do.. you?"
"
I remember a Buffy the Vampire Slayer film."
"But not the television series?
"
"
No.
I remember the comic series, which…" He frowns. "
I watched Angel.
I remember Buffy appearing in a few episodes.
I didn't think it was important…"
Shit. Have
I forgotten some sort of.. comic series, or Teen Titans reboot that.. I'm now living through? I didn't recognise how I was talking about my ring and I still can't say my name…
Time Trapper exhales sharply. "Your mental deficiencies are not pertinent at this stage. Were any of the versions of you which you've seen involved at all in parallel universe travel?"
"Blue's parallel has planeshifting technology, but they're a Crime Syndicate reality.
"
"That will have to-."
Red Queen
tenses.
"They're-"
The universe around us
shudders as the portal jerks wider, just in time to admit a huge robot.
"-through."
It's clearly a Manhunter, though at eight feet tall and nearly as wide it's far larger and less feminine than the previous batch we encountered. Its outer surface is red, shaped like a heroically proportioned humanoid sumo wrestler, the only breaks in colour being the purple-grey bands around its legs and forearms. Its chest-. The head is bucket-shaped, purple-grey face and two 'eyes' which I suspect are show. The front piece of the chest is transparent, clearly showing a woman-
Jade, that's a Jade.
-trapped there like I remember the pre-War of Light Manhunters did with captured Green Lanterns. It's using her in order to exist here.
"By the command of Krona, no man escapes the Manhunters."
My crystalline construct armour is already in place, and I put a shield in front of Red Queen and Time Trapper happens to be there. Red
throws out construct magnets-on-poles, Angelika flies an evasive pattern while firing heat vision and Komand'r
charges.
"Time-"
Angelika burns out its faux eyes, though the armour beneath proves far more resilient. Komand'r's eye beams hit the middle of the transparent section a second ahead of her fists. For a instant the Manhunter appears to be moving to block her, then
the constructs hum and it trembles, not crippled but just
slightly put off its stride.
"
RRRRRAAAAGH!"
The Manhunter shakes at the hits, but isn't knocked back, much less actually damaged.
"-Trapper-"
The Manhunter's internal sections start to glow, and the crystal landscape around us starts to
fracture.
"-what are-"
Time Trapper's hood jerks around. Great, he doesn't know what's happening
either.
"-we doing?"
The spheres of bubbling wax
twist and
flow, moving through the air to form circles around the Manhunter.
Angelika darts to the Manhunter's right arm and grabs a finger, straining for a moment to bend it back and break it. A moment later it gives way and Red
sprays red vomit into the breach-.
And then it moves.
Komand'r is
pushed into the ground, fracturing crystal embedding itself in her flesh. Golden light flares around the hand Angelika is attacking, disintegrating an arc across her costume and leaving an angry red welt on her skin. The
red light from Red's ring is redirected, drawn into a siphon deployed from the grey-purple bracer on its left forearm. And then it's in front of him, damaged face-.
Black hits it,
ghostly white claws coating his hands and slicing through the Manhunter's chest-mounted containment unit-.
A small explosive detonates, and that Jade's head is reduced to a red smear.
No.
Violet crystal encases the Manhunter's arms and legs as Red grabs Komand'r and pulls back as fast as he can.
"
Queen, anywhere."
"They're-. Jamming-."
The portal spasms again as the crystal around the Manhunter I trapped begins to crack. Their AIs aren't sophisticated enough to learn to feel love.
Red Queen sags as another, smaller portal opens. "Go."
Jade 32 appears from behind the spire and dives through, Time Trapper just behind her, and Angelika waits just long enough to get a nod from me before flying for it. Komand'r's gotten over her shock sufficiently to take Red through with her, while Black pulls back more slowly, alert for any sign of weapon-.
Another Manhunter drifts through their portal, opening fire as it comes! Black just tanks the shots-
"
Go."
-and I
fly through the portal.
