NOVEL NEXT Chapter 53: Useless
The Man:
"Noo," Raven shouts, pushing herself up and throwing her hands. We all watch as Raven only throws her hand. "Noo! No! No! No! What did you do to me? What did you do to me!"
Running toward me, Kara prepares to do something but I shoot out my hand and stop her. Instead, after pushing Kara back, I drop to the ground and do a spin kick. Hitting Raven's feet, I knock her to the ground.
"I took away your magic," I repeat, standing back up. "You no longer have any telekinesis or can summon any more demonic minions. You can no longer fly or go intangible. You are powerless."
Staying on the ground for a bit, I listen to her breathing as she tries to take in everything I said. Looking past her shaking body, I can see her clenching her fist. A few seconds later, Raven screams as she turns around. She tries to hit me but I immediately block her. Grabbing her cloak, I throw her behind me. Raven hits and lands on the other magic users. They all yell and scream as they fall.
By now, the effects of my paralyzing darts are slowly wearing off. Felix and Klarion are back on their feet but can barely move their arms. Morgan le Fay and Mordru are helping Raven up but their stiff arms and legs are making it a challenge.
"Get off me," Raven shouts, pushing Morgan and Mordru. Looking like a rabid dog, drool falling out of her mouth, Raven looks at me. She takes a step but quickly stops.
"This---This isn't over yet," Raven says. "I will get my powers back! And when I do, I will rip you limbs from limbs! I will torture you! All of you! Forget Superman's order!"
Raven throws out her hand again but nothing happens. Throwing out her hands a few times more, Raven stops and runs away. Her 'allies' wobble after her.
We watch them, all of them, wobble away. Someone must have called for a boom tube because one appears in a flash of light in front of them. As all of them run for the boom tube, I see Slade, Jason, and even Snart bringing up their guns. They start lining up shots but I raise my hand and place it on the barrel of Snart's gun.
"Don't," I say, lowering the gun.
"Why not," Snart asks. "This may be the best opportunity we have. Raven lost her magic, and those fours can barely lift a finger. If we all attack now, we can kill them all!"
Snart tries to raise his gun again but I keep it down.
"Don't," I repeat. I turn my head and look at something. Everyone else seeing me, follows my gaze and sees the families from Old Gotham. They're all hugging each other, and shaking. Honestly, I can't tell if it's from the cold or fear. Either way, the solution is the same.
"Come on," I say, walking toward Zatanna, John, and Ares. Waving my hand, the invisible wall vanishes and the three are revealed, standing around my lightning rod. Picking up my lightning rod, I fold it back up before putting it into my jacket pocket.
"Hub City is this way. We should move fast. Dawn is in 30 minutes."
Thankfully, no one wasted a second. All the families, and every member of the Insurgency, follow me toward Hub City. As we walk toward Hub City, Zatanna runs to my side.
"I still sense the dark magic," Zatanna whispers. "You didn't do it. Did you?"
"I didn't have time," I answer. "As I was preparing the ingredients, the cave started collapsing. I dropped everything and rushed to get the three of you out of Old Gotham before it was buried. Forever."
"Three of us? Wait, what happened to Black Mask?"
Black Mask:
Coughing as I'm being dragged out of Old Gotham, my skeleton army, or what's left of it, throws me on the ground. My head hits the hard dirt but I shake it off and push myself up. Screaming as I painfully push myself up, my bones feeling like they will break any second, I look ahead of me.
"This...," I say, grinding my teeth. "This...isn't over yet."
Cyborg:
"Son of a bitch," I say, shaking my head as I look at the monitors.
As soon as I got the call, I summoned a boom tube that brought Raven and the others to the One Earth's infirmary. I waited for them to come through the boom tube, and when I saw them, I screamed.
I hear the doors to the infirmary open and turn my head. I see Superman, Wonder Woman, and Black Adam, all running in.
"What the hell happened," Superman screams. He walks right up to Raven's bed and checks the monitor she's linked to.
"I don't know," I answer. The second I answer, Wonder Woman grabs my neck. She grabs my neck and lifts me.
"What do you mean by 'I don't know'," Wonder Woman asks.
"I...don't...know," I repeat, struggling to breathe.
"Put him down," Superman orders. Wonder Woman listens to Superman and puts me down. Rubbing my neck and trying to catch my breath, I turn to Superman as he looks at me with crossed arms.
"What do you mean by you don't know," Superman asks.
"I got a call from Felix Faust," I start, "According to him, he, Raven, and the others needed immediate pick-up."
"For what? I don't remember hearing anything about a mission."
"Neither did I, but it's what Felix Faust told me. He told me they all journeyed to Old Gotham and fought the man in the sunglasses and the Insurgency."
"What!"
Hearing about the man in the sunglasses, Superman crushes one of the metal corners of Raven's bed. This causes all the doctors in the infirmary to jump. It takes a minute or two but I order them to get back to work.
"It gets worse," I say.
"Worse," Superman repeats. "How?"
The Lords of Order:
"How is this possible," I scream, slamming my fist on the ground. "How is this possible!"
"That is one question we find ourselves asking many times lately," another Lord says. "How? How did the man in the sunglasses drain Raven of not only her powers but ours too? How did the man in the sunglasses do it so we cannot bestow Raven with our power again? How is this, and everything he had done, possible?"
"He had trespassed into our realm against our wish," a third Lord goes on. "He had humored us by biting and burying us in deep snow. And now this. This!"
"We have had enough," I scream, lightning and thunder accompanying my scream. "The man in the sunglasses must die!"
"There is no discussion as to whether or not the man in the sunglasses must die," the second Lord states, "But it is a matter of, once again asking the question, how? We have seek other magic users to defeat the man. We have given a portion of our powers to Raven. We have even gone so far as to have rewritten the timeline, but no matter what we do, we cannot destroy the man! His skills. His technology. His own magic that we have yet to even study or understand! It is all too much for us! Too much!"
"Silent," I yell, shutting the second Lord up. The second Lord, along with the rest of the Lord, all stop to look at me. "You are right. We have tried and tried again, but nothing we have done is enough. It is time for us to meet the man head-on."
The second I bring this up, the other Lords whisper among themselves.
"You cannot be saying what I think you are saying," a Lord asks. "Are you?"
"You must be crazy to suggest something like that!"
"If we do it, we risk destroying the balance of magic in the world."
"The balance of magic is already destroyed," I say. "The man in the sunglasses had destroyed it the very moment he came into existence, and now, it is up to us, the Lords of Order to fix it."
Again, the Lords whisper among themselves. I have to wait with a tapping foot before they talk again.
"We shall do it," the other Lords say. "We should manifest our bodies and invade the moral world."
While all of us nod our heads, one Lord speaks up.
"Even if we do manifest our bodies," the Lord starts, "It may not be enough to destroy the man. Remember, he invaded our realms, and despite both our magic and number, he was able to defeat all of us. We will still require help."
"It cannot be Raven or any of those other pathetic magic users. They have proven to be useless."
"Yes, but not Raven. Raven still had one use."
"What is that?"
"Raven is the gem."