The interesting thing about the Justice League is how much they have in common, character-wise, yet still are very different. All of them are idealists that genuinely believe their work makes a difference in the world, and though they all had different reasons for getting into the superhero business, they share similar morals and are optimistic about the future they are helping safeguard. So what are the differences?

Batman thinks of himself as Batman. He likes to plan for the worst, not because he expects it, but because he knows that it sometimes happens and believes in his ability to prevent it by being careful. Likes to keep an image as a stoic, loner badass because he thinks it helps him maintain the effectiveness of his solo vigilante work, but actually has a larger social network than everyone but Wonder Woman who has been around pretty much forever. Likes children, though he isn't sure whether he wants to have any himself. Really doesn't like guns, not only because of his personal experiences, but because they make it too easy to kill people, even by accident.

Wonder Woman is the old granny of the superhero community and knows it. She's been in the business longer than anyone else, and has a very different social background. While not quick to resort to killing, being a strong believer in the value of mercy, she has done so in the past and will do so again if she has to and knows it. (Most of the others think they might if absolutely necessary, and do everything in their power to avoid it, but J'onn is the only other one who has actually had to.) Has a tendency to mother people she takes a liking to. She's the team's rock.

Superman doesn't know the limits of his own strength. He's never come up short yet, but he's very much aware that the day will probably come when his invulnerability will face something that it just can't handle. The first time he stepped in front of a gun, he was legitimately afraid that the bullet might kill him. He did it anyway. He's the team's heart, and the others tend to look to him for guidance even though the Justice League doesn't really have a leader.

Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner) used to be a rookie, but now has confidence in his abilities. Actively cultivates and employs his creativity whenever possible, because he considers it to be his greatest strength. Believes that his job means he will always keep running into the most horrible facets of the universe. He's right. He believes that this lets him make the universe a better place, and that the work he does is meaningful. He's right about that, too. Defers to the rest of the team, especially Superman.

Martian Manhunter had to kill a crook to save his senior partner's life when he was a rookie cop on Mars. For a telepath, this is naturally a traumatic experience. But where others might have given up or flinched back, he accepted it and pressed forward, determining that he would advance his abilities to the point where he would never need to do the same thing again. He considers the ability to be merciful to any enemy reliant on his own strength. He's never had to take a life in the line of duty since. Has taken to Earth as his new home and tried to adapt. He's succeeded at the 'reading minds is an invasion of privacy' thing, but that hasn't done wonders for his social competence. Still working on body language and vocal intonation.

The Flash likes to inject levity into conversation to serve as social lubricant, in part because super-speed makes awkward silences even more hellish than normal. Takes his superheroing really seriously, though he doesn't always act like it. He considers it a calling, and treats being the Flash as if it means he's part of a knightly order; he didn't claim the title until Jay Garrick said it was his, and that was the proudest moment of his life. Likes children, and he and his wife Iris plan on having them in the near future.

Additionally:

Green Lantern (Alan Scott) wrote the book on willpower, and considers it his greatest strength. Once he decides to do something, he does it. He's not the best physically, these days, but he's come to terms with a lot of the things that troubled him during his younger years which means he's probably better with his ring... but it's hard to tell, because he was always damn impressive. Was looking forward to living out his twilight years in peace, then going on to eternal rest and seeing all his loved ones in heaven, but recent events have lit a fire under him.

Chiyako Aburame wants to be awesome. She wants to be able to protect the people she cares about, have the fortitude to face both good times and bad with strength, and a Will of Fire to drive back the evil things in the world and set them on fire and make sure they never harm anyone ever again. Metaphorically. She's super nice, and would never dream of actually setting someone on fire. She might kill someone, but she'll never want them to be in pain. She's a bit of a crybaby, but she's very reliable: she'll never leave a friend in need wanting, no matter what inner turmoil she might be going through. Idolizes Shikako very obviously and unashamedly.

Hanabi Hyuuga wants to have enough strength to be kind. She doesn't think you can afford to present anything less than your strongest face unless you have other, more practical, varieties of strength to ensure you can't be taken advantage of and hurt. She's growing into a more nuanced position on the subject as she gets socialization outside of her clan. Very protective of the things and people that she cares about, like her sister (and much more recently, Chiyako). Thinks that the Caged Bird Seal is a sign of weakness on the part of the Main House, and wishes there was a less evil version that could be applied to everyone in the clan so the kidnapping attempts would stop (please, please, please stop). Thinks the world of her sister, and thinks that if Hinata just stood up for herself a little more, everyone else would also agree that Hinata is amazing. Respects Shikako because Hinata respects her, initially, now respects her and is grateful to her because of recent events.

Shiho wants to be safe and useful. She's not jealous of the jounin-track ninja, but... it's more like she used to take them and what they did for the village for granted. She had a role which she was good at and was important and she never had to actually be in any danger but still got the benefits of being part of the military. That said, takes Konoha's ideals very much to heart. It never occurred to her to not try to protect Chiyako and Hanabi - they were children of Konoha and she was a ninja, so she would absolutely die for them if she had to. By most standards, she's actually a badass - she'd cut her way through most baseline normals with minimal difficulty. She's just really, really outclassed by the people around her. Her main problem with the current situation is that she isn't useful. The skills she's cultivated are totally inapplicable here, and she's desperate to be helpful in some fashion.

Shikako Nara doesn't have time spend on being scared. She has to keep moving, keep working, keep as many people alive as possible, make them as strong as possible, get as many of them as possible to work together. She has so little time. Less than three years now. We have to be ready. We have to save the world. (She stopped to help Chiyako just because she was a little girl who needed somebody, anybody, to be there and she decided that she would be that person. She protects the people she cares about. She has a strong moral code. She's a good person. But she's so damaged already... somebody needs to give this girl a hug.)

"I prepared explosive runes today"

-Vaarsuvius Shikako

And since the GM she is passing the note to is Superman, she actually did (just a tiny one. really. not more than one of those little gunpowder sacks they sell little kids at fireworks displays.)

Mr. Cranberry didn't get to go to the festival, sorry. He's squishy, and Shino-nii explained that there would be lots of big stompy people running around without paying attention to where they were stepping.

Giovanni Zatara is a stage magician with genuine magical powers. He's a good twenty years older than Batman, and used to be a good friend of Batman's parents before the shooting. Bruce never got back in touch, but Batman eventually did. He's a decent combatant, but not Justice League level in this universe.

Zatara murmured divination spells as he passed a white gloved hand through the air above Shikako's sleeping body. He shivered at the power he sensed coming from within.

"I fear that attempting to drive the elemental out would not end well," Zatara admitted. "If it truly does not self identify with a name, it is difficult to get a grip on it. Names are... a way to interact with others. If it had a name, I could, in principle, call upon it for aid. So, it claiming no name is a statement of non-interference with the physical plane. Now, practically, this is an area where my expertise is limited, but I do not see an easy way to separate the two. Not completely, at any rate. I might achieve some success, but I am no great archmage, and this is an incredibly powerful elemental. So long as Shikako is even slightly welcoming of it..."

Shiho interrupted. "Welcoming? What do you mean, welcoming?"

"Possessions require... hooks," the magician said. "Truly, completely unwilling possessions are incredibly difficult to accomplish. It isn't like she called upon it to enter her, but there are other things. Sometimes, ghosts will pray on loneliness or a drive for vengeance. Demons will pray on desire for power, and dark emotions, evil intentions, that sort of thing. For an elemental... alignment of purpose, I suspect, though this is an uncommon event."

"So, you are saying that she agrees with it's goals?" Batman mused.

"It appeared in her dreams first, yes?"

Shiho nodded. "She, didn't realize what was happening, and had trouble remembering, but after the glowing eyes thing happened she guessed that that was how it started."

"For this to have occurred in a matter of days, she must have a natural talent as a shaman," Zatara thought out loud. Which... wasn't necessarily a good thing. That was a talent that very much required training lest... well, this entire experience sufficed as a cautionary tale. "It probably showed her its intentions, but without training, she was unable to maintain that knowledge upon awakening. Really, given what Nekron is up to, it is unsurprising that she welcomed it in, albeit unconsciously. Consider what it has done so far: it brought Shikako's friends to a place of safety and aid, counteracted Nekron's attempts to wipe out all life in the universe, talked with some people, and fell asleep. It hasn't done anything Shikako would really object to, unless my assessment of her character is truly off."

"Except for the possession thing," Shiho pointed out dryly.

"If she truly considered that an unconscionable violation, it would be rather obvious," Zatara said as he stood back from her sleeping form. "Most possessions fail not because of any outside aid from those such as myself, but because the possessing entity attempts to force the host to violate some character trait, vow, or moral stance that is intrinsic to the host. Superman, Flash," he turned towards them, "you have spent the most time with the elemental. What is your assessment of its character?"

Flash glanced at Superman before speaking up. "It has a very different view on the world than most people do, and I'm not sure it has any concept of 'sympathy' but... I kind of have a hard time considering it a bad guy."

Superman nodded. "I think it's biggest flaw is that it just... doesn't really care about things like suffering and death. It wouldn't let someone die in front of it, but..." He snapped his fingers. "Ah! You are probably familiar with the argument about why God doesn't intervene to prevent terrible things from happening?" Most of the others nodded with varying degrees of assertiveness, while Shiho shrugged and the Martian Manhunter waved him on. "The usual conclusion is that it would violate free will. Well, the elemental is kind of like that, except it doesn't claim any moral superiority because it doesn't care about morality at all. It really cares more about people having the free will to experience life in its full range, including all the bad parts, and even including death, than it does about being benevolent."

Zatara smiled. "Well, that should make things easier. To be honest, if that's the case you have very little to worry about. I assume you asked it to leave? How did it respond?"

"It said that we wouldn't be able to get rid of it, the three of us, I mean, so we should accept the situation," Shiho recalled. "And that it had a noble purpose to serve, that it understood it was inconvenient, and that Shikako had welcomed it, though not consciously."

"We didn't really want to press, since we were mostly worried about it vanishing on us at the time," Flash considered, "but I did ask it to come back to the Watchtower, and it said, um, that she didn't plan on letting us have the chance to come up with a plan to remove it and execute it until... the crisis had passed." He groaned, smacking himself on the forehead. "Oh, wow, I totally missed that."

Zatara nodded along as they spoke. "Given what we know, I rather suspect we will not need to resort to force. I can make some preparations, just in case... If nothing else, I can set up a ritual to send a being back to it's home plane. It won't be any good while the elemental is in a host body, so I will have to do some more research on that front. Plan for the worst, and all that."

"Please do so," Superman requested. "After all, there definitely is at least one elemental running around that we very much need to forcibly be rid of."

"Yes, and that one has a name," Zatara considered. Nekron... Maybe he could come up with something. "I don't normally make artifacts, but I'm feeling a little inspired. I doubt I'll have it done in the time-frame your battle against Nekron will conclude, but given the threat he poses, a little planning ahead may be worthwhile. I'll put together a small... containment unit, so to speak. If one of you can trap a little of the black light in it, I can get together with a few colleagues and try to make an amulet specialized for dealing with him. You've seen the sort of thing I'm talking about before, I imagine?"

"Glows in his presence, defends against his magic, that sort of thing?" Flash nodded.

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," Zatara agreed. He then had a rather dark thought, and winced. "...Though I suppose if he wins, I shan't have the chance. Batman has my number. If you need anything else..." He looked at them leadingly.

"Just... how do you think we should handle his... revenants," Flash asked grimly.

"...They aren't the people they once were," Zatara advised. "After this incident, I'd recommend respectfully cremating the remains, to purify any lingering energies, so... don't hold back."

He picked up top hat from the table where he had set it down, and let Batman lead the way out of the room.

"So how are you feeling, Alan?"

Alan rolled his eyes as Diana gently, but firmly, manhandled him into a chair at his kitchen table. "I'm feeling like an old man. What do you want me to say, Diana? A necromancer turns my dead friends to the cause of evil, I take so long getting my ring that I'm almost too late, and then I waste most of my charge bouncing an energy absorber off rocks to little effect. Today has just been fantastic, really."

"The way I see it, you saved a little girl's life, saved the world, and stopped our friends' bodies being used to kill people," Diana corrected as she fished food out of his fridge. "Not bad for a man in his eighties. Did you remember to take your arthritis medication this morning?"

"Yes, mother, I did," Alan sighed. "And I don't really want to hear that from the woman who was in her sixties when she first met me."

"Don't feel bad, most people don't age as gracefully as I do," Diana grinned shamelessly, before looking at him glumly. "I will miss you, you know. It hasn't even been a century yet, and already practically everyone from back then seems to be at death's door or past it. I'm still not used to it, really. When I go back home, everything is just like I left it, but people out here change so quickly..."

"You've picked yourself up another good crew," Alan said with a smile. "They're a good bunch of kids, they'll look after you when I'm gone. Hopefully last a good bit longer, too. Healthcare these days is worlds better than what we had to suffer through. And, you know, I've heard rumors about you and Superman..." He waggled his eyebrows, and caught the orange she tossed at his head. Without missing a beat, he set to work pealing it.

"They're all in the cute kid stage from my perspective," Diana said as she moved the selection of sandwich-makings she'd found on the table with a couple of plates. "I do know Superman's species is supposed to be pretty long-lived, so who knows what the situation will be like this time next century, but I'm not going to bother making any plans."

"Sandwiches?" Alan asked 'innocently'. "Not going to try wrangling my stove this time?"

Diana snorted. "Not a chance. I've learned my lesson. Any cooking I do will involve actual flames at some stage of the process. You can keep those terrible coils for your own use, thank you very much."

"We apologize for not taking care of this form's limitations," the Life Entity said very earnestly to Chiyako and Hanabi while Shiho's snores emerged from behind a stack of physics texts. "We initially expected a swift conclusion of our battle with Nekron, and failed to reconsider appropriately after Nekron withdrew."

"Is Nee-chan okay in there?" Chiyako held onto Shikako's head with her hands and turned it back and forth slightly, while looking inside her eyes, like she expected to see a little Shikako in there if she looked hard enough. Hanabi had to hold back a snort at the mental image.

"Her mental fortitude is restored," the Life Entity assured them. "It is a very noticeable improvement. We believe that we know the best way to deal with Nekron now. Are you safe and healthy here? We can relocate you if you prefer."

"I'd be better if I had Shikako back," Chiyako looked at the Life Entity hopefully, and tried resorting to pouting when she was rebuffed. It didn't work.

Hanabi shook her head. "I feel confident that the people here are trying to look out for our interests. We'll stay here until we get Shikako back, so you absolutely aren't allowed to get her killed, understood?" She lectured the elemental. "And if you don't give her back when Nekron is gone, we'll find a way to get rid of you, so don't even think about keeping her!"

Shiho bolted upright at Hanabi's raised voice, and, kunai drawn, attempted to lunge towards the noise. Unfortunately, she just ended up slamming into a chair head-first.

"Gah! Who- Shikako- No, it's still you," she concluded, giving the elemental a disgruntled glare. "Go back to your home plane already."

"We are pleased to see that you are well," the Life Entity smiled joyfully at her, which only served to make Shiho more annoyed. "This one is once more fully recovered. The crisis should be resolved shortly. Please look after the children in this one's stead for a little while longer."

"Hmph. I can do that much."

J'onn did not hover for this meditation. Containing and focusing himself was not the goal here. Instead, he let himself free.

His humanoid form melted away, his limbs becoming multi-jointed, his hands becoming three-fingered and clawed, plates of higher density flesh rising in places. His almost-human face became unrecognizable.

But he did not stop. Setting aside his thoughts of shape, he cast his mind out. Down in the world below, an enemy to all life had gone to ground. He could not track Nekron precisely enough to be useful.

But he knew the elemental was on the North American continent. He could start there, looking for six rather peculiar thought-patterns he had recently encountered.

And as his mind spread out over the land, so did his body to a lesser degree. He rooted himself into the earth to keep himself from moving too far, and then allowed himself to shift without further thought. As he reached across the sky, so his branches spread out from his indomitable trunk. As he peered close, his leaves grew out, and as he found his targets he burst into bloom.

It took long minutes to gather himself back together, all the thoughts and feelings and memories, before he could slowly compact his body back into its normal form.

Superman waited patiently, trusting that J'onn would come through.

J'onn opened his eyes, once more the Martian Manhunter.

"California," J'onn said out loud, too mentally exhausted to want to speak directly into Superman's mind. "Gateway City."

In which: the Life Entity acts in a consistent manner and once everyone puts the pieces together they can focus more on just beating the hell out of Nekron, Zatara's attitude towards preparation demonstrates why he's in Batman's circle of friends, and... some people talk to each other, I guess. Also, Nekron is about to be the one on the defensive for once.

I look forward to watching Nekron get his ass handed to him.

guisniperman has the right idea I think. This story is seriously good, and big enough to count as its own story I think. Posting it as a separate story when you're finished seems like a good idea. Until then, I've gotta say that I love pretty much everything about it so far. I'm mostly familiar with the DC universe through fanfiction (among which 'If The Ring Fits' and 'With This Ring') but all the characters seem to be on point. I think you managed to nail the Shiho, Chiyako and Hanabi as well. The overall plot is interesting and engaging, and the sheer weirdness of the Life Entity from a human perspective is amazing. So in short: great story idea, and a great execution as well. Keep it up!

Dear Life Entity - you have access to one of the greatest minds in the elemental nations, who makes a living bending reality to her will and short cutting prophecy. Given her situation shes probably also spent a fair amount of time brain storming how to kill super powered zombies.

...And you use her as a meat puppet to punch things and send blast rays. For the embodiment of light and sentient life, you're not all that bright.

@Densho: Isn't that a Light Novel with a similiar plot/story like Nisekoi.

@guisniperman @TangoDeltaBravo

I think I will publish this when I'm done. I'll have to run it through some editing and so on, but it's a complete story rather than the snippets I've mostly been writing lately.

Also, I'll agree with that recommendation for With This Ring. It's an Orange Lantern SI currently on Spacebattles that updates daily.

@Ashen Author

Glad to hear it!

@Calimora

Not entirely the Life Entity's fault, to be completely fair. The Life Entity naturally lacks anything approaching a sense of immediacy, and it isn't like it has experience with fighting. It relies heavily on Shikako's mind for the things it doesn't have itself, and for the most part that worked out - it hasn't made any truly stupid mistakes, for example. But Shikako's mind isn't built to function without regular bouts of sleep, so it got sloppy and pretty much instantly conked out from the sleeping gas rather than telling the Life Entity how Shikako would have dealt with it when it tried to query her memories.

I've left it ambiguous how much of Shikako is really there, but it should be fairly obvious by now that the answer is 'not much, but still some'. The Life Entity acting anything approaching socially? Shikako's influence. Protecting Shikako's in-group before going to fight Nekron? Shikako's influence. You can probably pick out one or two other things that are oddly Shikako-like for an entity that really isn't human in any meaningful fashion.

That said, from Shikako's perspective, these few days of being jacked up to all of the sentient emotion in the universe is one hell of an acid trip, and she will only be able to remember so much of the experience, considering it is only partially using her brain to think. Not to say that the experience won't have it's effects; it would completely break suspension of disbelief if these events didn't change her at all.

@Tirfarthuan

thank you for being awesome.

@Tirfarthuan

Because even if it's a bit later than what I said but because I keep my promises, here is my try at Harpy Sisters!Shikako.

This was not what she expected.

When she had tracked her adventurous father's whereabout to a harpy nest she had expected many things from going on a killing spree to avenge him to learning where he went next but not...

"Big sis!"

Not this thought Shikako(Sylph ShadowStep) currently being smothered under a pile of red, blue, and several other colors of juvenile harpies. Harpies bearing features similar to her own visage.

Her father's.

There'll be some explaining to do... after she finish cuddling with all her eager, addorables siblings of course.

'So soft...'

There we go, promise kept. Now someone help expend it because I frankly think this could use someone else's touch.

Omg Tir, your fic is going so great! I haven't really been keeping up with the forum cuz assignments, but know that I am looking forward to your next snippet! I just wish I knew more of the lore that you're talking about :'D I mean, I could probably search it up but comic book lore is a dark and cavernous pit that I don't think I can climb out of in time to do life things :( Although I am picking up the basic gist of things about life/death entities.

and also guys, pandora-box-of-mind. tumblr. com/post/145285330150/magestea-tamirthegreat

Some more food for thought about a FlashFam!Shikako. They're so nice.

@guisniperman

Not bad for a short snip, especially for someone who doesn't do much creative writing. Reads a bit like a trailer.

@An Unorganized Shelf

Knowing more about the lore will help flesh out the world and draw it together, but shouldn't be necessary to understand the story, especially since I'm messing with the setting so things aren't quite canon. Well, since you seem to like it I suppose you haven't been having trouble following the plot, so that's good.

I've written up through the first section of combat, and I'm having a hard time keeping my eyes open, so I'm going to go to bed now. Sleep~

"I'll handle Jay," Barry told them resolutely.

"Are you sure?" Clark asked. "It's probably the best way to handle it, but we're a team. We're strong enough together that there's no need for you to-"

"No, I think I need to do this," Flash told him. "I want to lay him to rest myself. Flinching back from doing the right thing... that's not the kind of hero he taught me to be. I'll do it."

Clark inclined his head respectfully. "Alright. Kent Nelson. I think we'll have to rely on your lasso if we want to stop his magic, Wonder Woman."

She simply nodded, fingering the mystical artifact.

"Junior and I can handle Ted and Carter," Alan spoke up. "Won't be much use against Nekron or Charles, and I'm not sure what Wesley's zombie has up its sleeves."

"Who are you calling Junior, Senior?" Kyle lightheartedly mocked the old man, before turning serious. "I'll have to report on this to Oa directly after all of this is done. That black light is way too good at dealing with our rings. The Guardians will want to find a way for the Corps to be able to fight it effectively. I just hope it doesn't take as long as that stupid weakness to yellow objects..."

Alan blinked at Kyle, befuddled. "Eh? Yellow? Never had a problem with it. Now, wood on the other hand..."

"Wood? You're wearing a hyper-advanced xenotech law enforcement tool!" Kyle exclaimed. "What kind of stupid design flaw makes a space cop weak to arrows?"

"No idea," Alan shrugged. "Stopped having trouble with it after four or five years, never really figured out what was up with that."

"I will combat Sandman while Martian Manhunter deals with Doctor Mid-Nite again," Batman spoke up over them. "Zatara has supplied us with three paper talismans that should be able to capture a very tiny amount of the black light. I assume that Green Lantern Junior-"

"Hey! Wait, was that a joke?"

"-would appreciate a sample to bring to his superiors, and Zatara has already mentioned the potential use of them in preparing for any further problems we may have with wielders of the black light of death, and Nekron in particular." Batman passed one to J'onn, another to Clark, and hesitated on passing one to the amused Life Entity.

"If we were to carry it, it would be our light that it contained," the elemental informed him, but paused to consider it. "Perhaps... yes, it may be useful in time." She put down the, now slightly glowing, talisman to one side. Clark wasn't sure if 'useful' was meant to be a good thing or not. "We assume that Superman will aid us in defeating Nekron?"

"That's the plan," Clark said. "It might be a bit belated to ask this, but what do we need to do to defeat him, exactly? I've assumed destroying his body would do it, but..."

"We intend to purge the black light from his host body and resurrect it with our white light."

Clark blinked. He opened his mouth, paused, and closed it again. There were a lot of things he was tempted to say, and he could see that the others were similarly effected, but by silent agreement none spoke out. "Why resurrect him, exactly?" Clark asked. "My understanding of your position on the topic was... rather contrary to that. Death being a natural part of life, and so on."

"Resurrection is indeed unnatural and contrary to the proper course of the universe," she said bluntly. "However, to completely remove Nekron's far more unnatural influence on this realm, we must disrupt the ritual that called him here, or we have no doubt some cleverness or another will lead to him finding another way to manifest on this plain in the near future. To be perfectly honest, we expect the host body will not live a very long second life, given what Nekron has put it through, but the suicide that was the cornerstone of Nekron's summoning will have been undone."

"...Facial analysis has identified the host body as William Hand," Batman spoke in a low growl. "Preliminary evidence suggests that he killed his entire family-"

"The penultimate preparation for the summoning," the Life Entity said sadly. "Nekron has spoken to him in his dreams for years now, and once William began to listen we began our own attempts to enter this plane. This one's arrival on this plane was fortuitously timed."

"...Let's go end this," Alan said, and it was promise.

Here's the thing about being a death elemental: it makes it easy to find where the bodies are buried.

Yet, he couldn't find this one.

He had checked the obvious places first. The Justice Society's cemetery. Gotham. The places the man he was looking for had performed his, rather memorable, work.

Gateway City was one of those places, but more promisingly was a place regularly frequented by Wonder Woman for no readily apparent reason. But, clearly, whatever it was that drew the heroine to the city, it was not Jim Corrigan's grave.

Nekron grit his teeth together and pettily kicked over a vase of flowers by a tombstone as Jay finished his futile search of the city's cemeteries. Nekron knew where Corrigan had died, but the Spectre had risen from that death with purpose and, more importantly to Nekron's mind, with vast power. If he could raise Corrigan as his servant, the tables would not merely tip in his favor, but turn completely. The other revenants that he had called from the grave would simply gift wrap his victory.

Events thus far had not gone to Nekron's liking. Earth's heroes had emerged to oppose him. The dead he had raised were either middling as heroes went or, in the cases of Starman and Doctor Fate, not in possession of their greatest tools of power. Ted Knight's cosmic rod was attuned to his granddaughter, and while Kent Nelson now served him, the order elemental Nabu did not. Only Jay Garrick could truly stand against the powerhouses of the Justice League as an equal. His one moment of good fortune had been stolen away from him mere moments before his victory, and William Hand's body had begun to weaken under the strength of the black light he was forced to use to absorb the power of the elderly Green Lantern, forcing him to withdraw upon the arrival of the Martian Manhunter and the young Green Lantern lest his own power unmake his link to the physical plane.

And now, now his mastery of death failed to provide him with the one answer that could assure him of accomplishing his goal. The memories of dying beings gave him many answers, but not this one. How had this come to be? Had the man's corpse been retroactively erased from existence? Had some great and powerful wizard cast a concealment spell strong enough to hide the tomb from death itself? Not for the first time this day, Nekron seriously considered attempting to bring Nabu under his thrall. Doctor Fate was weaker than Nekron, yes, but his more flexible powers and world-class strength would make discovering the grave Nekron now sought a simple task. But... no, it was specifically because Nekron's powers were narrow in scope that such was impossible.

The problem was, Nekron needed to kill the Life Entity and so could only spend so much of his strength before battling it. He was at an advantage because of his conceptual superiority to his foe, so he could afford to impart a fraction of his power to animate assistants to defend him from the Justice League's intrusion into his destined triumph, but he wasn't foolish enough to spread his strength too thin. The Justice Society had been an obvious choice. They had emerged as the heroes of the day above all the many villains. Or more to the point, they had won. History is written by the victors, after all.

If he couldn't have the Spectre, then surely there was someone else with sufficient power to allow him to drive back the heroes? Solomon Grundy had already been vaporized this week, so the energy-efficient option of picking up the Earth's most persistent undead wasn't viable. Most of the truly powerful villains of this world had- Wait. Teth Adom. Theo Adam was currently using his soul as a battery to be Black Adam, but the original version was dead. A strong power, capable of going toe to toe with Superman- but, would the powers of Black Adam go to the raised version? They were granted by his gods, not inherent, after all. Yet, it was very tempting to at least make the attempt, given the capabilities of the man.

Now, Nekron considered, where were Teth Adom's remains? He immersed his thoughts in the memories of the dying, reaching far farther back than usua-

Red lightning flashed across the cemetery, and before Nekron could even react, Jay Garrick had vanished. That was- The Flash! Somehow, the Justice League had found him! Too late, he set his revenants to counteract the attacks he knew were coming, and even as Starman and Hawkman were thrust away from their defensive positions above him with constructs of lambent emerald light Nekron found himself struck, full-speed, in the chest by Superman. The hero shoulder-checked him, driving him through the air away from his undead allies, towards the waiting Life Entity, who weaved a web of white light before him.

Refusing to be taken down so easily, Nekron managed to slash an arm at the trap he was approaching, scattering most of it with claws of black light. The remnants he passed through burned with the glow of life, and Nekron felt William's body spasm helplessly until he managed to subsume the fragments of the glow. Superman wasted no time in planting him head-first into the ground before Nekron could even think of counter-attacking, and Nekron found himself forced to stumble out of the crater, using his black light to make up for the fact that much of his upper body was crushed bone. He'd protected William's brain at least, though it had been a near thing.

He'd never felt pain himself before coming to Earth. He didn't like the experience.

As vines of white light swarmed him from all around the pre-planned trap Superman had dropped him right in the middle of, Nekron swore that this would not be how it ended. His victory was inevitable! Death would overcome life, and all off the cursed lights would go out forever!

Black fire leaking from his eyes, Nekron launched himself into battle.

Batman moved silently through the tombstones as combat raged around him. It was a futile hope to actually be unseen here, it being the middle of the day in a flat area with the memorials being rather too small and too widely spaced to effectively hide a man his size.

But his target was occupied with trying to aid Doctor Mid-Nite with his gas gun, and sometimes the element of surprise is all about being swift-footed and quiet. Sandman wasn't looking his way. Hawkman and Doctor Fate had seen him at various points, but the revenants weren't a true team. They worked together to an extent, but they didn't communicate. They didn't call out advice or warning.

Wesley Dodds had no combat-related superpowers in life, but undeath had granted the man the same prodigious strength, stamina, and recovery speed as the rest of the zombies.

Batman made no effort to get any closer to Sandman, instead launching a batarang into the revenant's back. The powerful throw sent the weapon's edge through the man's trenchcoat and, fortunately, stuck in place, imbedding itself on flesh and bone. As the revenant turned his gas-gun in Batman's direction, Batman threw three more batarangs in succession. Sandman caught the one that had been aimed for the mechanisms of his weapon, while the other two, sent to bracket the zombie, struck hard-packed earth and an old tombstone.

Wesley didn't immediately approach, and Batman pretended to fall to one knee as if he hadn't bothered to bring a rebreather with a filtration system to defend himself from his target's favored weapon. Grasping the two triggers, he triggered the electric shock on the batarang that Sandman had caught, and gave it a moment to do what damage it could to the undead's physiology before activating the detonator on the explosive still stuck in Sandman's back.

There was a limit to how powerful you could make an explosive that size, and still carry it around and throw it without fear of it exploding when you didn't want it to. So it was only expected that Sandman pushed himself up off the ground and lunged forward, gas gun left where it had fallen. Batman was just disappointed that he hadn't managed to take a limb off.

Batman rolled to the side, and as Sandman's fist narrowly missed him, he reached into his utility belt once more.

Fighting creatures like this when he had the capabilities of a human was always risky and could end in his death with a single misstep. But while Batman was human, he would never let himself be just human. If you are prepared, you have victory in your grasp. If you are not prepared, then death is knocking at your door.

Batman had survived this long with the best in the world. That wasn't going to change today.

Diana smashed through a wall after a poor prediction of Kent's next spell left her flatfooted. It didn't hurt her at all, really, but it wasted time. Every moment a mage was active on the other side of the battlefield was a moment that experienced warned her that something might be about to go horribly wrong for her side. When this was over, she decided as she deflected a flurry of bolts with her enchanted arm guards, she was going to find the Justice League a battlemage, even if that meant she had to train them in the 'battle' part personally.

She threw a piece of a rubble at Kent, forcing him to pause to defend himself. A shout from off to the side gave her a warning that the revenant didn't heed, much to his misfortune, as Hawkman was born down upon the mage by emerald shackles and not one but three ball-and-chains. Carter's anti-gravity belt floated off to the Kyle's side, unfastened by some clever trickery on the artist's part.

Wasting no time, Diana threw out the Lasso of Truth which she had readied at Kyle's behest, and both revenants fell still as the artifact's charm bound them. The mystic glow of Kent's powers faded, and the black light battleaxe Carter had been attempting to free himself with flaked into nothingness.

"I'll have to stay holding the Lasso to keep them bound," Diana told the younger Green Lantern. "Go help the others!"

Alan pinned Ted's corpse to the floor with a giant nail, though he could see the black light infusing his friend's body already beginning to eat into the construct. It wouldn't be enough.

As Alan called forth a greatsword of emerald light, he felt... disappointed in the revenant. It was an insult to Ted's memory. It didn't fly like the real thing. It didn't fight with every ounce of effort. It had a measure of Ted's skill, but it lacked his brilliance, his innovativeness, the spark that had made Starman great.

So for the sake of his friend, he swung down, severing the arm holding the Gravity Rod at the shoulder in a strike not powered by his withered muscles but by his indomitable will. He tore the rod from the now-limp hand with a set of green tongs.

"Rest in peace, old friend," Green Lantern said, and brought the full might of his will upon the corpse.

Barry didn't hesitate this time. But with the additional resilience being undead granted Jay, Barry's flawless initial strike didn't quite end the battle. Jay had taken the blows Barry had landed cleanly, before the zombie had gotten up to speed, and lost the use of half his torso for what little time it took a speedster to heal. But the black light had supported his pulverized flesh and bone, and Jay hadn't missed a step.

How do you stop someone with that powerset? Barry wasn't sure, yet. He could try taking off a leg, but he suspected that the black light would just form a construct replacement. It would waste a bit of the revenant's power, but not enough to make it worth committing to something that would require him to dump that much speed into one blow.

For now, keeping Jay busy was enough. If Jay wasn't fighting Barry, Jay would be taking on his friends and Barry had to admit that that would probably go badly. Getting blitzed by a speedster was the sort of thing that turned an entire battle on its head. So Barry traded blows with Jay down the streets of the city, across the bay and back, tearing up the roads with their footfalls. Three times already he'd had to take big risks getting civilians out of harm's way, and Barry was thankful that Jay wasn't all there mentally. If this really was his mentor as he'd been in life, but evil, Jay would have endangered the people around them constantly until Barry made a costly error.

Maybe, Barry thought as he crossed the water for a third time, striking and deflecting strikes from the zombie, he shouldn't be focusing on Jay's weaknesses. Jay had died years ago, and Barry had picked up a few tricks of his own in that time.

Pulling ahead to race up the side of a skyscraper, Barry suddenly turned as their feet struck the edge of the roof, and thrust out his hands. The red lightning that appeared when he really pushed, which he still didn't understand completely, surged around his hands as he reached out and-

The instant Barry touched Jay, the revenant's speed drastically altered, leaving Jay moving at a crawl compared to his former supersonic speed.

External acceleration control, or to use less fancy words, 'stealing speed', was just one of those little things in the package of the Flash's powerset that Barry hadn't really appreciated properly before he started to experiment a little. For catching bullets safely it was pretty useful, but as a speedster it was a lot more energy efficient to speed up yourself than it was to slow your opponent down, and enemy speedsters could fight it if they understood what was happening. But sometimes, sometimes it was perfect.

As Jay began to fall towards the ground below, Barry set to work, easily gaining back the speed he had sacrificed as he ran back down the building, seized a nearby street sign, and ran in a loop around the bay area to build up momentum. Streets to docks to water to docks to street to-

Jay, in black garb, falling towards the ground like the air was made of molasses, thirty feet above the concrete. Barry's hands holding the street sign's metal pole, his form beginning to shine with crackles of red lightning at the edges.

-up the side of the office building, weapon drawn back, it's over in an instant as Barry Allen cleaves the revenant in twain.

Both halves of the body twitch, but Barry doesn't give them a chance to try to come together, and the left side of Jay's form is dropped on the other side of the bay.

Barry allows himself a millisecond for disgust, for panic, for grief, before he blitzes back to help the others.

Nekron howled with fury as Superman exhaled, freezing hurricane force winds battering him back down into a bed of white-light rosebushes, which tore into him with thorns that did not harm his host's body, but tore at the black light within.

Impossible. This was impossible.

He thrashed away at the flowering white plant-life with every weapon he could think of, tearing himself free once more, but always, always were the Life Entity and Superman prepared. The sky was filled with flying creatures of white light under the Life Entity's command who hounded him and spied upon him, and Superman was ever-ready to take even the slightest weakness on Nekron's part as a chance to force him down to the flora that filled the park below.

Why did the white light hurt so? He should be able to absorb it, but even before, when he had tried to subsume it in Milwaukee he had struggled. The black light overcame the spectrum of life! The green light of willpower had certainly been ineffective enough against him as expected. What was this? How had the Life Entity usurped the natural order of the world? The light of life should be incapable of harming the light of death!

No, he would not stand for this. Nekron called forth his power, not in the form of short-lived constructs judiciously chosen to defeat his foe's attacks, but in the form of a thousand nightmares of the dead and dying. Crawling horrors birthed from alien minds, quick-footed insectile swarms, manifestations of darkness and death without name. Let this body fall apart after this battle under the strain of the black light, if he won it did not matter what happened to it.

Nekron called forth a shield, defending himself from Superman's heat vision, as his monsters set to their brutal work, tearing into the white light constructs with the swiftness and surety of the grave and yet-

Yet they fell, their light subsumed, shattering one by one. How-

A small hand touched his back, and as white light wrapped around him in chains of life, he was gently tilted back to rest on the grassy ground beneath. It should have been brown, dead matter in his presence, yet it was a healthy green, bursting with life.

The Life Entity walked around him, placed a hand above his still heart, and the white light began to slowly seep into him in ways he could hardly understand.

"We apologize for this chain of events," the Life Entity's host said earnestly. "We failed to bring you to heel before the situation escalated to this stage. Please, take this chance to learn from this experience and grow properly into your true role as the embodiment of the black light as we remove you from this plane." The little girl had the temerity to smile at him, like this was nothing, like he had never had a chance.

But, no, he realized slowly. He was not done yet. His enemy was quite literally within his grasp - and there was some of the black light that she had not yet bound with inexplicable conceptual strength. He reached out to his revenants and unceremoniously ripped his power free from them, calling it back in a great spear of darkness. Superman called out a warning, but too little, too late, and Nekron threw back his head an laughed as the black light construct tore through the body of the Life Entity's host, stilling her blasphemous heart-

"It is important to recognize that the black light has meaning because of the spectrum of life."

What- no.

No. He must be imagining that stupid little brat's earnest voice. She didn't even have lungs anymore. No, no, no-

"Your role is one of great importance, but death by itself has no meaning. Death is relevant in the context of life, and it is from this perspective that black is one of the colors of the Glow. You should not consider yourself separate," the Life Entity continued her lecture unperturbed as the spear fizzled away uselessly within her chest. As it shrank away, he could clearly see that the Life Entity was unharmed, her clothes not so much as torn.

No, no, no, no, NO!

"We... do not claim to understand why you have trouble with accepting your place in the universe as of late," the Life Entity said, clearly disappointed, before perking up. "But we will have plenty of time to talk through your problems once your interference in the physical world is over. We have faith in your ability to overcome your flaws and become a death elemental to be proud of." She smiled at him, hopefully.

Nekron gurgled as he felt his hold on William's form slipping. "H-how?" He managed to gasp out. "Why won't you... just... die!"

"Die?" The Life Entity looked puzzled. "We are an existence of life, of living. The black light is as much a part of life as the other colors. We do not understand why you believe dying would effect us in a meaningful fashion." She cocked her head to one side and nodded. "We shall illuminate your ignorance. The white light is an existence that forever arises. Even if all life in the universe ceased, as some day it will, and all the stars went out, as someday they will, and the universe as an existence ended, as it has before and will again, new existences will come from the emptiness as is the nature of things. In time, new life will arise, as will sentience. And so, killing life is a fundamentally and metaphysically pointless act."

She smiled benevolently down at Nekron, who stared blankly up at the sky. "Please consider this, and your place in existence, until we contact you in your home plane."

And everything was washed away by the white-

Soft-spoken and awesome.

Awesome Tir. I love how Nekron literally Laughed too soon.

Ther would be a lot less fighting going on when everybody would lisen to reason when the good guys try to be nice. On the other hand ther would be a lot less cool ass-kicking, to be enjoyed, around. I'm torn between being a good boy and having fun as a bad boy.

@Tirfarthuan:

"...I just hope it doesn't take as long as that stupid weakness to yellow objects..."

Alan blinked at Kyle, befuddled. "Eh? Yellow? Never had a problem with it. Now, wood on the other hand..."

"Wood? You're wearing a hyper-advanced xenotech law enforcement tool!" Kyle exclaimed. "What kind of stupid design flaw makes a space cop weak to arrows?"

This was gold. I loved the snark about the old weaksauce weaknesses of the Green Lanterns. I know it's an old joke, but it never gets old to me, and the way you presented it here made me literally laugh out loud.

Also, completely agree with the folks here that the Life Entity's completely unintentional verbal smackdown—and implication of giving Nekron an equally unintentional Fate Worse Than Death / Living Hell of continuing to attempt to talk him to death reason; an excellent and amusing application of talk-no-jutsu that's also extremely appropriate for the setting.

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