1st September 2012
15:48 GMT
Space
breaks at Persuader's axe-swing and I
fly though without bothering to issue new orders. She's in no shape to fight right now, but there aren't any opponents left where she is. She can soak in a purple healing ray until she looks less like an animated-
Two more golden women, one with Lynne under her arm, are taking fire from heavily armed and armoured gordanians in what appears to be Grayven 16's clan colour. They're not taking cover and their coordination is excellent-. Lynne's controlling them.
-corpse, and then she can join me.
As I watch the gold woman with both arms free charges a squad who appear content to maintain fire without trying to evade their attacker as she raises her fists and
smashes down, cracking skulls and shattering ribs! The guns don't seem to be
doing anything, but it's costing Grayven 16 resources so I can't complain.
**Daddy, what's the plan?**
The golden woman carrying Lynne glances back at me with a frown.
**Let's try…** I straighten slightly, a sombre expression affixing itself to my face. "Thank you for fetching her. I will take her now."
She ignores the incoming fire and frowns at me. "Are-? Is that Estrogina's head?"
Oh, right. "When I give simple instructions, I expect them followed at once."
Respect My Authority.
"Just do what he says, girls."
She doesn't look completely convinced, while her colleague picks up a troop transport shuttle and sends it rolling end over end towards the largest concentration of gordanian soldiers, pancaking them into the deck.
"Where's the
rest of-?"
BOOM!
A new tube opens, and… Grayven 16 walks through, hands held loosely at his sides and
that is some gaudy armour. Some of the surviving gordanains shift their fire to
him, but it doesn't do anything other than make him frown very slightly.
The boom tube closes, and he folds his arms behind his back.
"Pretender."
"Disgusting lesser being with delusions of mediocrity. Know that you have written your own fate."
I smile, raising my right hand in greeting. "Hi bruh, what's up!"
"Yeah, that was the aim. Why aren't you doing that instead of stealing mine?"
He looks me over, eyes alighting briefly on his henchwoman's assimilated severed head. I on the other hand take a moment to look around. Some sort of launch bay? Looks mostly empty, aside from the soldiers and a few armoured shuttles. I assume that their escort fighters are already outside. Either that or they deploy by boom tube.
I dismiss Estrogina's head, causing it to decay to orange mist and
flow into my ring. Ah, Zamaronian synthetic organics. That would explain the ring-proof skin. Grayven hired them as elite fighters by guaranteeing them fights in their weight class. She doesn't know anything about his wider ambitions.
Ring,
where are we?
Scans inconclusive.
That's a bother. This
does look like an Apokoliptian ship, and those can
certainly mess around with power ring scans. Especially with a powerful New God in command.
Grayven 16 has moved from studying me to studying Lynne.
"This child. She is yours?"
"There is nothing that you can have that I cannot take away."
"Yes indeed."
"I don't have this problem with her other uncles."
"Why?"
"Why?" A stray plasma beam hits my right pauldron. "Ah, Lynne, poppet, could you..?"
I gesture to the gordanians gradually being mashed, and they pause in their firing to put their guns under their chins before firing once more. The rampaging gold woman jogs dejectedly to a halt as her targets slump to the deck.
"Thank you."
"Why do you have..?
Her? Why does she exist?"
"Why does she feel like us?"
"Esak tried using her as a living Anti-Life broadcaster. I couldn't be having with that. So I got rid of it, and used my soul to restore her."
"You might want to try investing in individuals some time."
"Your… Soul." His eyes narrow. "Fraud,
my soul is not yours to give away."
"Look, if you're annoyed about both of us existing, take it up with Desaad or something. I don't know why we both exist. The first I knew that
you were a thing was when that Citadelian got hold of you." I make a gesture of appeal. "But I don't understand the hostility. You want to fight the Reach? I'll help you fight the Reach. You having trouble with Father-?"
Implicit Unity of Purpose.
"I do not believe for a moment that Darkseid is your father."
"You don't see the resemblance?"
"You don't feel the resemblance?"
"Appearances mean little. I half-believe that when I cut you down, your face will change to back to that of whatever chimeristic being you truly are."
"I feel a trespass."
The gold woman holding Lynne raises her over her head. "So do you want me to
keep holding the girl-?"
Other Grayven takes his eyes off me for a fraction of a second to glare her into acquiescence. "
Hold."
"You need to train them better, bruh. But, seriously, I get that you don't like me 'diluting your brand'. What I don't understand is why you're prioritising me? You had a good thing going with the Reach. You could have tried to kill me once you'd built up a bit. Or co-ordinated with me until it was just us. I'm sure that our mother would-."
"
My mother is dead."
His eyes start to glow with-. Purple light? I wasn't expecting
purple.
I shake my head.
"Lady Mortalla is alive and-."
"Mortalla is one of Darkseid's concubines. She is
not my mother." His eyes narrow. "So, you are
not a duplicate. A true duplicate would know that as
I do. Unless you actually
are Mortalla's son by Darkseid, in which case I can only see your existence as an attempt to replace me."
Ah. Well, that's what I get for jumping to conclusions. And Mortalla wasn't likely to correct me over something like that, not as she was when she first arrived. She clearly
knew Grayven when he was young, so perhaps..? She just thought I was referring to her maternal
role rather than literally being my mother?
It seems to me that this man has exactly the same reason as me for wanting Darkseid dead. One last attempt at cooperating…
"Okay, but that doesn't answer my question. Why-?"
"We're a lot alike. It would be more efficient-."
"I don't answer to you. I don't justify myself to you, or anyone else. I will rule supreme and alone, and when you are dead your power will become mine without the need for negotiation."
"I conquer and take. 'Efficiency' is besides the point when I can replenish my reserves from what becomes mine."
"Well… Darn." I shrug. "Not much I can say to that. If you're
committed to being an idiot-."
"I am not the idiot who split his power." The purple glow intensifies. "
Do you know the difference between us?"
"I'm not a dick?"
"
No.
Her."
Purple beams flash out
NO!