“To be blunt, before removing the Justice League, you need to be prepared to remove the threats they counter. Whatever entity created the Kryptonians also created Darkseid. We need to locate the Kryptonians, and remove Darkseid. We may even direct the two against each other; their truce, as it were, is uneasy at best.”

  Jason stretched as he rose to his feet. “Mm. Well. Get me every piece of magical gear we’ve got. The… thing that kills me if I look at it. What is it?”

  “The Medusa Amulet. It has a Gorgon trapped inside it; an immortal being capable of turning a victim into stone with its gaze. In both universes, she was a child of one of the Olympians who slept with Poseiden. The reality here is unknown; in ours, she was punished for attempting to kill Poseiden’s wife and usurp her place by being turned into a monster whose gaze turned any who looked on it to stone.”

  He blinked. “...Its a person.”

  “Affirmative. That amulet is, essentially, a lesser goddess, captured and empowered for use as a weapon. As her curse was a punishment by the gods, they likely assisted with her conversion, whoever did it.”

  “.....Bring it here. And all but one piece of magical weaponry I’ve made. That… is simultaneously terrible and perfect. Did Circe have anything else of interest?”

  “A variety of magical devices, designed to augment specific spells. None of it resembles anything in your records, and I lack the ability to sense magical auras.”

  Jason nodded. “Not that it would. I’m uploading a modification of one of the designs Gabriel gave me. My power seems to indicate it should work… or at least won’t do too much harm. I want you to melt down about half of the ordinance and shape it to fit, while I look over what the sorceress left us. And… let me know if we get any calls.”

  “Affirmative.”

  ***

  The corpse had worn multiple enchanted rings, an enchanted bracelet, and even enchanted earrings; Jason was glad Ascension had collected them before consigning the coffin to its hopefully eternal grave.

  All of them did almost exactly the same thing if he put them on; kill him. Almost immediately. Circe clearly didn’t want someone else using her toys, or stealing them from her.

  One ring would cause his arm to disintegrate. Another, create a blinding white light before it all went dark. The third would actually send him somewhere else; a dark, stone room of some description.

  The bracelet… would just make him freeze in place, immobile. It was extremely likely that he would be unable to find any use for these unless he revived Circe and turned her into a Pale One; which was too risky to attempt.

  His ship already had a ward against hostile magic, baked right into the hull during construction. What he was making now, though….

  Every magical ritual had its parts. The power source and the focus. He had all he needed to create an focus of absolutely terrifying power, one that would allow someone to overpower someone who had greater magical power while using it. And….. he had a power source.

  An angry goddess. Who, if her history was like his own, hated the local gods, specifically.

  As he discarded the collection of rings and bracelet into an armored box; likely to end up tossed into the sun if he couldn’t find a trustworthy local; he brought the Amulet of Medusa into the chamber Ascension had been preparing.

  He studied it; the machines were busily working, carefully shaping thin loops of metal. Every bit of it had once been part of something; buried in the aftermath of billions of dead souls. Power harvested from death both countless and horrific. If this Darkseid had used this sort of power, he could’ve easily crushed the Justice League, based on his supposed history.

  Just another bit of proof that this was all an absurd game of some sort. Though... maybe not. Andromeda had never used magic like that, and even on earth, there weren't many relics made this way... outside of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Sometimes something just wasn't invented everywhere.

  He held up the amulet; looking at it would doom him. It would all go black. Touching it? Nothing too serious. He closed his eyes. “Medusa. Can you hear me?”

  After a few moments, he could feel it. A voice, deep in his soul. ~HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE~

  It was endless. He could feel fury. Almost mindless. “I’m building something… to strip Zeus and his cronies of their power. To level the playing field and stop whoever is toying with humanity. It can work, without your consent. But magic always works best with intent behind it. Can you feel it? What we’re surrounded by?”

  ~H…Hate…. Hate Zeus. Hate Athena. Kill Zeus. Kill Poseiden. Kill Hera. Their children. Their friends. Hate…… Yes. I can feel it. Death… pain… overpowering. This is… worse than even Zeus could imagine. This… more souls died making this than have ever been born on this earth.~

  “Yes. They were killed by an enemy of mine… a group that called themselves the Founders. They’re dead. They died terribly, and they deserved it. But the fragments of their victims still have a use.”

  ~With this…. All magic. Gone. The gods… powerless. Olympus… revealed. They would suffer. Grow old. Die, as mortals.~

  “I can use magic from it, itself. But not from my arm, once its activated. Can you help with that? Weaken them, while leaving me the tools to fight them? I’ve already had run-ins with one of Zeus’s children… and even weakened, they will prove a threat.”

  ~Yesss. If you fight Zeus, and his children….~

  The endless hate filling the fragment of metal was tempered with joy…. And resolve.

  ~Complete it. If I am to be a tool, let me be the tool of the god’s downfall.~

  He set the amulet into place, in the center of the room. After a few moments, the whole array started to glow… and it felt… strange. As if the whole world was just subtly wrong.

  Jason gave a nod, as he stepped out of the room, and checked his arm; the rusty red material of the false limb still working as it always had. He nodded.

  Whoever was screwing with the earth… hopefully that would stop them. Whether their name was Zeus, Darkseid, or Mixie… Myxi… Mix….. however the hell that thing’s name was pronounced. Their interference in the affairs of man was at an end.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  “No gods, no masters. Only man.”

  ***

  Ascension had a few days to study this world; and had been able to slip in a few cyborgs of its own; machines disguised as humans to begin the slow work of infiltrating, of learning… of getting into the right positions to take out the oligarchs of this new earth.

  Lex Luthor, who just recently had been helpful to their plans, had unknowingly just hired an Ascension drone as a secretary; and sometime in the next few days, would end up dead when they crossed paths.

  For this oligarch in particular, however… not only was the target likely to be unusually challenging, but it was fully possible the Justice League would be there for backup almost immediately. Even worse, he was extremely unpredictable; rarely showing up at his business, going on random events in town, vanishing for days at a time…. Into his mansion, lurking outside the enormous cesspool that was gotham city, where undoubtedly numerous defenses were ready.

  As such, Ascension needed to be prepared.

  This particular drone was designed based on his own technology, combined with that of the Republic, and this ‘Luthor’ character. Like all of Ascension’s drones, it had speed and reflexes no normal human could match, and had reasonable odds of scoring hits on most speedsters.

  Its strength was beyond human, of course; but nowhere close to the sort of metahumans this world boasted. It could tear through a wall, and was sturdy enough no normal person could hurt it; but the moment most members of the Justice League attempted to harm it, it would be gone.

  In the event the Kryptonian intervened, it was equipped with a series of tiny bulbs emitting Kryptonite radiation in all directions. Four small turrets; two on each shoulder, two on the back of the spindly machine; were all equipped with the Cold guns; whose ability to drain the temperature from the air and create super-cooled pockets of absolute-zero air wasn’t just effective at slowing down speedsters, but if used with lethal intent, would immediately kill almost any organic life form.

  Apparently the only reason the wielder hadn’t left an extensive body count was that he had a code against killing. On its own, that one weapon could conceivably kill some members of the Justice League; it was doubtful ‘Aquaman’ would survive his core temperature being reduced to zero kelvin.

  Overall, the simple mechanical rifle that fired ordinary slugs the machine carried was misdirection. It could do the job, of course; but someone seeing it might assume it was how the machine meant to take out its prey.

  The drone would need to wait, quietly. Watch. And strike sometime when the subject returned to this ‘Batcave’ via some means other than the teleportation device mounted in the Watchtower.

  Which, of course, was something else Ascension needed to get hold of.

  The machine buried itself in the dirt to wait; the single cold gun on its right shoulder slowly tracing ribbons in the air, invisible paths that seemed not to exist…. But still caused the area to develop a slow, steady fog.

  ***

  Batman slowly raised his foot off the gas pedal as he studied the series of alerts that had popped up. He had extensive security in the forest surrounding the various entrances to the batcave; sensors to warn him if someone tried to slip inside and ambush him…. Or might be waiting to strike him as he got back.

  Dozens of them had gone offline, and then back on, showing nothing…. But three of them in particular were all blaring warnings.

  Kryptonite. Someone, or something, bearing kryptonite, was in the woods outside the batcave.

  There was only one logical conclusion. Someone had set a trap for him; and was planning on using him to lure Superman in for a kill.

  He tapped a few buttons on the console. “League, this is Batman. Batcave compromised. Kryptonite detected. Whoever it is is most likely planning to ambush and capture me in an attempt to lure in and ambush Superman. Anyone other than Superman, would appreciate an assist in capturing whoever this is.”

  He looked out into the forest ahead. There was a faint overhang of mist in the air, a bit odd considering the weather; as warm as it was, there shouldn’t be….. Hmmm.

  ~Batman, this is Wonder-Woman. Myself and Marvel seem to be…. Weakened. He’s reverted to his… other form, and I’m substantially weaker than normall. Whatever it is, it hit both of us at the same time, despite being hundreds of miles apart. Currently trying to reach Zatanna without luck. J’onn, Flash, could one of you step in?~

  ~This is Flash. Currently wrapping something up, will be there momentarily.~

  ~This is J’onn. Not busy at present. Can teleport into the batcave and handle whatever it is from the inside.~

  Batman nodded… and parked the Batmobile; tapping a button on the console, the hood popping open.. And when it snapped shut, the vehicle seemingly vanished into thin air, even as the HUD over his right eye fed him the sensor data. He gestured with his eyes, the retinal sensors sorting through the sensors that had temporarily failed; and the readings from the Kryptonite detections.

  Whoever it was had disabled sensors in a path through the woods, and stopped… here. Roughly a kilometer away from the hidden road he would drive by to reach the batcave.

  He couldn’t quite pinpoint the location; but… a distance of roughly a kilometer? Most people wouldn’t pick that sort of distance.

  “J’onn, be careful. I don’t think they’ve been inside the bat-cave. Flash, come on, but don’t rush in. Something about the forest feels off… especially considering our two magic heroes are out of commission.”

  The fog. There could be someone there with the ability to control the weather. Fries was mostly reformed nowadays; all the villain had ever really wanted was help curing and reviving his wife. The man was currently in a basement at Wayne enterprises, working away as he usually did now…

  So this was something else. Not part of his own particular band of rogues.

  ~Bats, this is Flash. Finished up, headed your way. I’ll let you know what I find.~

  “Wait, Flash! We go together. There’s likely multiple villains here.”

  There was no reply. Just silence.

  And then…..

  ***

  Ascension had heard the vehicle approach; but it had stopped, at least four kilometers away. Of course. The target had undoubtedly noticed the sensors flicking on and off in a suspicious pattern.

  He started to dig a bit deeper. He would likely need to wait for a while; perhaps days, or even weeks, before Wayne would let down his guard enough for an ambush to work. And if it didn’t…. This was merely one drone. Thousands more would be out there.

  The tiny Cold Gun mounted on the shoulder stopped the constant spiral it had been making; and Ascension prepped to go silent for a while, evaluating which of the nearby trees had sufficient metal content beneath it to best reduce odds of detection.

  Then… a sudden flash. Literally. The individual named Flash had suddenly burst into view, seemingly stopped in midair by one of the spirals of supercooled air…the effect seemed strange, that it had worked without killing him; but that could be rectified quickly enough.

  This wasn’t Ascension’s primary target, but it was a target.

  He burst from the soil; raising the rifle, both of the shoulder-mounted Cold guns sweeping the air in arcs towards him, creating an expanding cloud….

  The red figure’s right arm, outside the invisible spiral, moved in an impossible blur; it hadn’t been caught up in the effect. Even as the weapons fired, sweeping through the air… Ascension couldn’t tell what happened in that next moment.

  Had the speedster thrown an object at supersonic speeds? A burst of air? A lightning bolt? Whatever it was, it had broken the drone in half, sending the rifle and left forearm flying away, and the rest of it dropping to his feet.

  The drone assessed the odds; that the speedster would be free within seconds, at most, and it would take minutes to repair itself to a point to be able to move at anything beyond a crawl.

  The course was clear.

  It detonated.