She appeared in an orb of sizzling silver energy, and flew
towards Burger World, the nearest building. Whispering
an enchantment and gesturing with her hands, she caused the
restaurant to grow to the height of a skyscraper. Obsidian spires
and crimson domes melted into existence out of the side of the
enlarged tower. She hovered past a convenience store, and did
the same to it. One by one, she warped a row of buildings into
structures that literally oozed magic. Swooping down to the
ground, she cast multiple incantations at once towards a group
of people, and in a glimmer of light, they were all horribly
disfigured. One man now had only a single eye in the centre
of his face, a woman's hair had been turned into snakes, wings
sprout out of another woman's back and fire spat out of a blind
man's mouth.
As she prepared to streak up into the air, a police officer
jumped into her path. "Why are you doing this, woman?"
he asked. "Who are you?"
The man looked at her questioningly as she stared at him arrogantly.
As female super-criminals went, her costume was surprisingly
not skanky. Her chestnut-coloured bodysuit covered her entire
body from neck to toe, and it was complemented harmoniously
by her long scarlet cape. Most unusual, though, was the strange
bunny-eared headgear she wore.
"What I do must be done," she stated, "I
am the Silver Sorceress."
EuroGuard's meeting hall in their Justice Castle appeared
to be low-tech with it's large wooden round table surrounded
by high-backed wooden chairs, in a brick-walled room decorated
with various historical banners. Naturally, everyone knows that
appearances can be deceiving.
"...at which point, the terrorist vanished. And that
is the report we received from Adelaide, Australia this morning."
Catherine, with her summary complete, put her stack of papers
back into their appointed file folder.
"I don't get it," Dr. Light said, standing up from
her high-backed medieval chair. "Why would someone go on
such a pointless rampage? Warping buildings, disfiguring people...for
what purpose?"
"Do we know who did this? Or is this someone new?"
Blue Jay added.
Looking back into the file folder, Catherine attempted to answer,
"As if things weren't confusing enough, that's where we
start to get conflicting information. Some of the victims report
that she was cackling the entire time, others say she was screaming,
'I'm going to kill you! I'm going to kill you.' There was one
report, from a police officer, who said that she claimed to
be doing what must be done," Cath paused and looked
at Blue Jay comfortingly; "and that she called herself
the Silver Sorceress."
"What?!?" Jay blurted out unbelievingly, as the colour
drained from his face.
As matter-of-factly as possible, Catherine continued, "Visual
confirmation from the witnesses shows that she was wearing the
same costume as the original sorceress."
Power Girl exclaimed, "The REAL Silver Sorceress
sacrificed her life to defeat the Dreamslayer,*
I say we find this impostor and beat her brains out!" Finding
herself thinking with her fists again, Kara glanced at Dr. Light
apologetically as she said, "Or we could question
her vigorously to find out her true identity and motive. We
will pick at her brains...you could say..." Kara
trailed off, brushing a few strands of blonde hair behind her
ear. This whole situation was getting her upset and what upset
her even more was that she wasn't sure if she was angry because
she really was angry, or if she was angry because she
felt that she should be angry.
*(In Justice League Europe 35 -
Still Mourning Bren)
From deep in thought, Erewhon turned to the others; "Why
are we assuming that this is an impostor? What if..."
The dread that had been in Blue Jay quickly turned into anger,
and he snapped, "Laura would never go on a rampage like
this!"
"Agreed!" Light announced and slammed her fist on
the table, attempting to bring order to the meeting. The steely
features of her face turned sheepish when the others all turned
to stare at her, most with looks of shock and bewilderment at
Kimi's outburst. Sounding slightly less determined, Kimiyo continued,
"For the moment, it will be better, and more logical, to
assume that someone else has taken on the name and costume of
the Sorceress and that we are not dealing with an insane resurrected
old friend."
Chandi fidgeted with one of the bracelets of her extravagant
costume, as she asked, "So...are we just going to sit around,
waiting for her to attack again?"
Catherine turned to Dr. Light, silently asking whom she believed
was obviously the team's leader for permission to speak, and
then shrugged to Maya, "I don't see what else we can do.
No one on our team is magically inclined."
"I'm not so sure about that..." Dr. Light said knowingly,
eyeing Maya and Power Girl.
PG slammed her can of cola - regular cola, she wouldn't touch
the diet stuff anymore - down on the table and put her hands
on her hips. 'What?' she silently wondered, 'Exactly
who is she talking about? Does she think I know? She
better not be thinking what I think she's thinking...'
Although Light was going to fully explain her theory, she never
got the chance because one of the brick walls - actually a hard-light
hologram - flickered away to reveal a large monitor screen that
was beeping softly. One of the jobs of the newly installed computers
in the castle was to scan media sources, such as television,
radio and the Internet for pertinent disasters and emergencies.
The highest priorities for these searches had been recently
set to watch for any mention of the Silver Sorceress. An Italian
news broadcast flashed on the screen with English subtitles.
The image on the monitor switched from that of the anchorwoman
to that of a shaky camera shot of the Silver Sorceress swooping
around a wooden house, and raising a glowing hand to it. The
house, in turn, glowed and a wooden wall reformed itself into
griffin-like creatures that came to life and flew away.
"...Such...chaos..." Tasmanian Devil breathed out.
Catherine was already beginning to worry about her team even
though they hadn't even left yet. She could already feel that
churning in her stomach, her heart pounding in her throat...and
she loved every second of it.
Blue Jay moved like a mindless drone as he quickly put on his
white and blue costume, complete with golden gloves and a brand
new bird-like cowl. His thoughts were of the past more than
they were on preparing for their mission.
Jay Abrams had been born and raised on a world in an alternate
dimension that was very much like this one - too much like this
one, he sometimes thought. He had begun his super hero career
in his late teens, very soon after he discovered that he could
shrink in size, and that blue wings sprout out of his back when
he did so.
For years Blue Jay, and a group of heroes, fought off evil forces
that threatened his world, until the evil forces became too
powerful and killed every living thing on his world, except
for three of the heroes: Blue Jay himself, Silver Sorceress
and Wandjina. They came to Earth to try to prevent nuclear disasters
similar to the one that killed everyone on their world, and
ended up saving Earth in a different way by joining the Justice
League International. Tragically, both Wandjina and Silver Sorceress
died along the way.
Now, Blue Jay remained the sole survivor of his entire planet.
EuroGuard's scarlet sonic sled silently "slid" across
Sicily's sky.
"Stop the sled here, Hugh," Dr. Light ordered Taz
as they passed over the city of Messina in Italy. She, along
with the other EuroGuardians, stared at the structures that
were impossibly tall, and at the recently deformed citizens
who were scurrying around on the ground.
"How do we face something like this?" Kimi said to
herself in awe.
"By facing the Sorceress," Blue Jay cried out as he
caught a glimpse of the Silver Sorceress' cape in the distance.
He jumped off the sled abruptly and flew towards the Sorceress
with great haste.
"Stop!" Dr. Light called out, but Blue Jay chose not
to hear her. He had to face the Silver Sorceress alone before
the rest of EuroGuard got to her. Just in case this wasn't an
impostor.
Power Girl hovered into the air above the sled and asked, "Should
I go after him?"
"No," Light decided. "Let him go after the Sorceress
for now. We'll deal with the damage that has been done..."
She looked down at the people below who were now covered in
scales or feathers or tails or mucus, and she wanted to nurture
them all. "We have to make sure they don't start hurting
each other, or beginning crime sprees with their new-found abilities."
Crimson Fox looked around at the buildings that seemed to be
shifting in shape and colour. "What can any of us do against
magic?" he asked, suddenly feeling sorry for his powerless
human self.
Erewhon was the first to notice the human, transformed into
a dragon-like creature by the Silver Sorceress, flapping his
leathery wings to bring himself closer to his object of interest
- EuroGuard's sonic sled. The disembodied soul, made sometimes
solid by a hard-light hologram, jumped out of the sled and soared
right into the dragon-man. In a disturbingly deep voice, the
Erewhon-controlled dragon boomed, "I shall take him where
he can't hurt any of you. Be careful." He tossed one last
look at Dr. Light with his last words, and flew away from the
sled.
Kimiyo mouthed a silent "Be careful" at Erewhon, and
turned her attention to Kara once he turned away from the sled.
"Power Girl, from what I've heard, don't you have latent
Atlantean magical abilities?"
"Other than the super powers I've got, I don't know how
to use the magic. That strange armour and those forcefields
just...happened when I was defending my son from the chaotic
mystical creature Scarabus.* It's
not like I can magically throw up a forcefield if something
attacks."
*(as displayed in Justice League America
94 - Bren)
The words had barely left Power Girl's lips when one of the
warped structures hurled a ball of purple flame at the sonic
sled. Kara threw her arms up instinctively to defend herself
as the flame approached, and in a crimson flash a glowing forcefield
surrounded the sled. As the flame orb struck the field, and
snuffed out, Power Girl doubled over and gasped in pain. With
the magical threat gone, her translucent energy field fizzled
out as well.
Fox raised an eyebrow at Power Girl. "You were saying?"
As Blue Jay got significantly closer to the crimson cape ahead
of him, he beat his wings twice as fast. Quicker than before,
he made his way closer and closer to the flapping cape of the
so-called Silver Sorceress.
'I never realised how much I still miss her,' he thought.
'I've been searching for a new home for so long - trying
so hard to make EuroGuard my new family - but what I really
need is a link to my old one. I love her - I really do - but
only like a best friend or a sister. Me and her never
would work as a couple. Jeez, if only she would turn around
and let me see her face...'
As if she had read his thoughts, or detected his presence magically,
the Silver Sorceress spun around to face him.
'She looks just like Laura. Could she possibly...'
Predicting what he would most likely ask - since they all asked
the same question - she stated determinedly, "What I do
must be done," and she produced a handful of sparkling
dust from thin air to sprinkle down on a cluster of people below
her. Blue Jay couldn't bring himself to look at what the Sorceress
had done, knowing that it would probably give him nightmares
for years and he already had too many night terrors.
"I don't doubt that," Jay said cautiously, not wanting
to upset this being of obvious power. He slowly fluttered his
wings to bring himself inches closer to her. "You look
very much like someone I used to know. She too called herself
the Silver Sorceress, and she had a grasp of magic, although,
I'm not sure it was as great as yours. I wonder...maybe you
know her? If not on a conscious level, but perhaps your...spirits...might
have...connected...or something." Blue Jay grimaced once
he realised that he had no idea what he was saying.
"Perhaps," she offered and levitated slightly closer
to Abrams.
Talking to her as if she were an old friend, as if she were
his old friend, Laura, he asked, "Why are you doing
this? What must be done?"
This Silver Sorceress was thinking of opening up to Blue
Jay; she was willing to listen to him...for the moment.
"The Silver Sorceress I knew would never harm innocent
people, or turn homes and shelters into death traps," Blue
Jay said as he stared at a glowing building that appeared to
be breathing.
She had been willing to listen to him, but now he was trying
to guilt her out of her sacred task. Could she let that happen?
Never.
The Sorceress flicked her wrist, which mystically brushed the
Blue Jay away from her. "You will never understand,"
she said disappointedly, "No one ever understands."
"I could try," Jay pleaded. He wanted to stop her
- to knock this bitch out cold - it would be the right thing
to do, because she was undoubtedly planning where to attack
next, but if he did that there was no hope for him to make a
connection with her.
With her cape fluttering in the growing wind, the Sorceress
threw up her hands, which created coalescing rings of silver
energy. The rings began to spin around her, fusing into a globe
that surrounded her.
"Taz, what are you doing?!?"
Jay heard Dr. Light's screamed question as the sonic sled sliced
over Blue Jay's head, and slammed right into the Sorceress'
teleportational globe. In a sparkle, the orb winked away, leaving
Blue Jay behind. Alone.
He sighed. Blue Jay flew down towards the closest unchanged
building, landed on the ledge and looked down at the frightened
people below, but he didn't really see those innocent victims.
Instead, he replayed his failure as Sorceress' negotiator over
and over in his head as he grew to his normal height.
"Some negotiator I turned out to be. Why don't I just go
and talk some one out of jumping off the ledge of a building..."
Jay's sarcasm was cut off as he was spirited away in a flicker
of silver energy.
A silver orb crackled into existence somewhere in the quiet
region of Calabria in Italy. The quiet was shattered by the
scream of the sonic sled shooting out of the orb, and landing
roughly on a patch of grass.
"Where is she?" Power Girl snarled, looking to the
skies.
"She ditched us," Maya moped.
"How's the sled?" Kimi asked the Tasmanian Devil.
Hitting the controls, Hugh replied, "Oh, it'll fly..."
Silver Sorceress and Blue Jay appeared in the clouds above
Rome, sitting on silver chairs. Sorceress' bunny-eared headpiece
was down around her neck, letting her long silver hair flutter
in the light breeze. Blue Jay found that his cowl had also been
similarly pulled back, while he had been teleported.
"Maybe there is a better way for me to do what I must do,"
Sorceress said to Jay, with an apologetic look on her face.
Slowly, her features turned from apologetic to sultry, "And
maybe that way is with you..."
Blue Jay wasn't sure how to take that. 'This is definitely
not Laura,' Jay thought. 'She never used her sexuality
to get what she wanted...'
While one part of Jay's mind was worried about who this
Sorceress was and how he still wanted to make some sort of connection
with her, the other concentrated on keeping her talking while
EuroGuard hopefully homed in on the communicard in his back
pocket. "Sorceress, please, explain to me what it is that
you are doing. I can't help you unless I know what I'm helping
you with."
With a slight dramatic flare, the Silver Sorceress explained,
"Balance. Without it, the Earth would be destroyed. If
evil or chaos were to ever overthrow good, it would eat away
at this world and leave behind a blackened husk. If good or
order were to ever completely overthrow evil, this world - as
it is - would no longer exist, and the souls residing on it
would live on higher planes of reality. I am here now and always
to preserve a balance and to save this world's magic."
Blue Jay had to actually stop himself from giving her a look
a disbelief; he knew that would only anger her. '...This
woman isn't a link to my home...' he realised.
"There is more and more scientific garbage being added
to this planet every day," she continued, "and yet
spellcasters and magicians alike grow old and die day by day.
Some of them don't even pass on their knowledge, and the general
populace of this planet doesn't care."
While Blue Jay listened intently to what the Sorceress was saying,
a part of his mind comprehended the mistake he made earlier,
'...I made such a fool of myself, by charging after the Sorceress
alone, instead of searching her out with EuroGuard...'
The Silver Sorceress went on, "Average people laugh at
the idea of wicked witches and Sorceresses, when they should
be embracing that knowledge. They should simplify their already
hectic lives with glamours and even other simple spells..."
'...Jeez, I should be bonding with EuroGuard, not isolating
myself from them during missions and during my off-time...'
"But no, covens of witches have traded in their scrying
pools for e-mail. Wizards have thrown away musty old books,
because they can find spells more easily on CD-ROM. The broom
stick and teleportation spells have been made obsolete by Martian
teleporter technology."
'...Why is it so easy for me to realise that this
is my home now, and that I should work harder to leave my old,
dead home in the past, when it's so hard to actually act
upon that knowledge?...'
"Fools! Don't they understand that without the regular
use of their magic, even regular use of the minor spells, the
balance between science and magic will tip and magic will be
entirely wiped out? Every astral season I return here from my
dimension, as all of my sisters do on other worlds, to increase
the use of magic on this plane of reality and to encourage its'
further use. In previous seasons, I made smaller changes in
far more cities across the world, but people would laugh at
me or wouldn't believe what their senses were telling them:
that magic is as useful as science and all of its' gizmos."
'...In the same way that this Sorceress is stuck in this
cycle of terrorism, I'm stuck telling myself to become more
a part of life here, and then I continually end up spending
time alone in my room reading or working out in the Justice
Castle's gym at times I know no one else will be there...I have
to find a way to break my cycle. And hers...'
"Last season, I swore to myself that I would not be ignored
anymore. Taking advantage of the various communication networks
that have been created by science, I have made these drastic
magical changes this season to ensure that I am not ignored.
I will make sure that every single soul on this planet is aware
that magic exists and that it can be used for their own benefit!"
"Um, I'm not, like, very metaphysical or anything,"
Blue Jay interrupted the Sorceress' rant and tried so very hard
to sound more like a friend than a pompous super hero, "but
I don't see how all magic will just, y'know...disappear
if the people on this planet are a little more dependent on
science than magic. It's not as if all of the varied types of
magic and mysticism on this plane of reality come from some
big source of arcane energy. Do they?"
For the first time, Blue Jay say pain and sorrow in the Silver
Sorceress' eyes. Since she looked so much like Laura, it hurt
him to know that he had caused it. "You do not understand.
You..." she brought their chairs closer together, and placed
her hand over his, "...who had the power to help me in
my quest, do not understand at all."
Silver Sorceress knew that it was time for her to release the
final necessary mystical energies, but she was confused by the
connection she felt to the Blue Jay. A connection that she was
afraid was atrophying.
"I apologise if this face makes you uncomfortable,"
she said in a hushed tone, with her face close to Jay's. "I
did not wear it because of a connection between myself and your
friend, the Silver Sorceress, I look as I do because of a connection
I felt to you. This season, when I came to this plane of reality,
I felt your yearning for the Silver Sorceress even though she
is not I. I could feel your thoughts, and I made myself look
like this so that I could fill a need in you, and also because
I was hoping you could fill a different need in me..."
"I'm not certain of what you're talking about, Sorceress,
but I'm not sure that I can..."
Raising a hand, she said understandingly, "I know. If it
makes you feel any better, I won't always be the Silver Sorceress.
One day I will ascend, and become the Golden Guardian..."
With a though, the Sorceress' physical glamour peeled away revealing
her true appearance. The design of her costume remained the
same, but it was revealed to be silver. Her face, though, looked
nothing like that of the deceased Silver Sorceress, Laura Neilsen.
This Sorceress' sad smile turned into a sick grin as she continued
her sentence, "...But that day isn't today."
Half a dozen tentacles grew out of Blue Jay's chair, and they
wrapped around the costumed man. Struggling against the metallic
bonds, Jay grunted, "Sorceress, I can still help you..."
"No, you cannot," she insisted, "I must
make the world must know." The Sorceress hovered in front
of her own silver chair, which quickly poofed out of existence.
"Perhaps I should make an example of you, if you cannot--"
The Silver Sorceress' sentence turned into a scream when she
was struck from behind by EuroGuard's sonic sled. She was sent
hurling through the air above and over Blue Jay's chair, but
was quickly able to right herself. Hovering in mid-air, she
spun around to see Blue Jay and her attackers. She didn't like
what she was seeing.
Tasmanian Devil and Crimson Fox were slashing into the tentacles
on Blue Jay's chair with their claws, while Dr. Light, who hovered
near them, kept the chair and three EuroGuardians from plummeting
to the ground by floating them on a wave of hard-light. Maya,
who had taken over driver's seat from Taz, was having difficulty
keeping the sonic sled in place, while Power Girl was a blur
with a pair of fists.
PG barrelled her fists towards the Sorceress' face, but was
bounced off the Sorceress' protective mystical field. The Silver
Sorceress, who hadn't even flinched, looked at Power Girl with
pity as Kara approached her again. The Sorceress asked PG something
like "Are you going to hit me again with your little fists?"
but Power Girl could barely hear it. All she could hear was
her Atlantean blood boiling at the contempt the Sorceress was
showing her and because of the magical energy that radiated
out of the Silver Sorceress. Power Girl didn't just think that
she should be angry, she was mad as hell!
"Fascinating," Silver Sorceress muttered, as Kara's
Power Girl costume was covered by ancient Atlantean armour in
a crackle of pink energy. PG grabbed the Silver Sorceress' shoulders,
which brought an alarmed "hey" from the Sorceress'
lips, and forced her down towards the ground below.
"No," Power Girl growled as gravity assisted their
decent, and they began to pick up speed, "I'm gonna hit
you with Earth!"
As she helped the freed Blue Jay into the sonic sled, Doctor
Light cringed as she heard what sounded like an explosion as
Power Girl slammed the Silver Sorceress into cars and then the
asphalt of a parking lot below.
"Take us down, Maya," Light ordered, pointing in the
general direction that PG had forced the Sorceress down.
"Will do," Chandi responded.
And then the sonic sled fell out of the sky. Tasmanian Devil
promptly took over the piloting controls from the co-pilot seat,
to ensure that the sonic sled would land on the ground,
and not smash into the ground. Seconds before the sled
set down, with the vehicle's roof in it's standard retracted
position, the EuroGuardians rapidly jumped out into the parking
lot, which looked like it had been struck by a bomb.
Power Girl's teammates crowded around her as she, straddling
the Silver Sorceress, continued to beat the woman beneath her.
Hearing a growl in Tasmanian Devil's throat, Dr. Light put a
hand up to him and the others as a signal to let Power Girl
handle the Sorceress.
PG's fists started to flare with a pinkish nimbus as she punched
the Sorceress' face, and as her fists flashed brighter she began
to burst through the Silver Sorceress' mystical field. Power
Girl had expected the Sorceress to be knocked as senseless as
a punching bag when her punches started connecting with the
Sorceress, but the silver-clad sorceress wasn't even bruised
or bleeding. The pain of PG's punches began to annoy the Sorceress,
though, and with a primal roar more terrifying than even Kara's
current screaming, the Silver Sorceress murmured a spell, which
put Power Girl flat on her back five feet away.
"Do you see how pathetic this creature is?" the Silver
Sorceress asked Blue Jay, as she got to her feet effortlessly.
"She has such potential and yet she wastes her magic on
the crudest abilities, and cannot even access anything beyond
her self-imposed limits without an outside magical influence
such as mine." Silver Sorceress looked at the pissed off
Power Girl with disdain, "I'll have to remember that for
the next season..."
A pair of helicopters, from local news stations, heading towards
their position grabbed the Sorceress' attention. Once her mystical
senses told her that both of them could get clear video shots
of her, she raised her arms and created a completely brilliant,
yet unnecessary, light show. She created a giant bird of fire,
which emerged from the ground before her and dispersed in the
air in front of the two helicopters. An enormous dolphin-like
creature, made of water, followed the bird into the air, before
splashing down on an unsuspecting village a few miles to the
south. The same village was then almost completely decimated
by a vortex of high winds that closely followed the dolphin,
and it all happened so quickly that EuroGuard had had no time
to react. A pillar of earth shot up out of the ground beneath
the Sorceress, and it grew impossibly tall. From atop her pillar,
Silver Sorceress looked down at EuroGuard, and Blue Jay in particular.
Speaking in a magically amplified voice, she told them, "The
balance has been achieved for this season, I must now prepare
for the next... I only hope the next group of misguided heroes
who try to stop me prove to be as ineffectual as you were..."
Pulling the headgear of her costume on, over her silver hair,
the Sorceress nodded once at Blue Jay, and then vanished in
a glitter of silver light.
On television screens across North America (not to mention
a certain monitor screen in a certain castle in London) Stephanie
Love continued her report of global news, and over her left
shoulder was a super-imposed image of the Silver Sorceress.
"...Reports say that the acts of this reality altering
metahuman were completely random, but it is believed
that the threat is over for now. In other news, Lord Elgin Whitestone
has been named as the new editor of Hero Style magazine after
an apparent..."
EuroGuard
Glory is fleeting. Obscurity is forever
