Countdown (33 page)

Mary wondered why Holly and Harley hadn’t rated 'such status yet. Could it be that Athena still had doubts regarding their loyalty?
That doesn’t bode well....

The other initiates greeted their comrades’ elevation with enthusiasm. “FURIES!” they chanted, pounding their goblets upon the tabletop. Holly and Harley joined in the raucous chorus, the better to blend in with the rest. If anything, Harley whooped it up more than anybody else. She bounced up and down upon her bench. “FURIES! FURIES!”

Athena silenced the cheers with a gesture. “Heed my words, my sisters. The days ahead will sorely test our resolve. Brutish warriors from Man’s World will attempt to crush our spirit. Every nation will be arrayed against us. But take heart! They cannot conquer women such as we. Our strength and fury will drive them into the ground until rivers of blood flow—”

“That’s enough!” Mary hurled the amphora to the floor, where it shattered loudly upon the marble tiles. She just couldn’t take any more of this, watching all these gullible young women fall for Athena’s lies. “Are you people crazy? She’s trying to seduce you with flowery rhetoric about the glories of war and vengeance. I’ve heard this kind of talk from Eclipso—and this so-called goddess is manipulating you the same way!”

One table over, Holly buried her face in her hands. “Oh no, she is
not
doing this... !”

“She isn’t?” Harley gulped down the last of her wine. “Sure sounds like it to me!”

Athena was unfazed by Mary’s accusations. “Oh dear, it seems we have a disgruntled servant among our ranks.” She turned to the newly anointed acolytes behind her. “Furies, kill her!”

“With pleasure!” The one named Tricia launched herself from the dais. She plucked her
katars
from her hips. Defenseless, Mary braced herself for the Fury’s attack. Her back was up against a colossal stone caryatid. She realized she didn’t stand a chance.

' *
I don’t regret a word, though.

“You’re not killing anyone, Trish!” Holly sprang from her seat, intercepting Tricia in midleap. Her fist collided with the other woman’s jaw.

Harley executed a backward flip off her bench, landing directly in front of Mary. “Keep behind me, big mouth!” The tall Fury in the ebony armor charged at Harley and Mary. “We have traitors among us!” she snarled. “Kill all three of them!”

“Wait!” Mary pleaded, even as Harley defended her from the armored stranger. The blonde parried the Fury’s blows with her Amazon bracelets. Mary shouted over the din of battle, “This is stupid! Athena is just using you!” Landing atop one of the banquet tables, Tricia recovered from Holly’s punch. She glared murderously at the impertinent redhead as she massaged her bruised jaw. “You
dare
attack me! One of Athena's Elect?” She slashed at Holly with her
katars.
The blades sliced the air as Holly dodged the strikes as nimbly as a cat. Cups and plates clattered to the floor as the two women dueled upon the cluttered tabletop. Food and drink spilled over into the other Amazons’ laps. Tricia’s tattooed face turned a livid

BDilTliSi 2BS

shade of purple. “I’ll gut you and feed the pieces to my dogs!”

Less than ten paces away, Harley flipped the black knight directly into the path of the pale, bald-headed Fury, who found herself knocked off her feet by her own comrade. Confusion reigned as the tangled Furies bowled over several of the jostling spectators as well, Harley laughed uproariously at the slapstick spectacle, and Mary had to admit that the irritating flake knew how to fight. “Come on, ladies!” Harley called out to the scattered initiates, who seemed tom between fleeing the violence and competing with each other for the best view. They crowded around the combatants, adding to the chaos. Harley wagged a finger at her audience. “What happened to the whole ‘Sisterhood of Paradise Island’ vibe we had going here?”    “

>
The same thing that happened with my best friend and soul mate, Eclipso,
Mary thought bitterly.
It was all just a scam to take advantage of vulnerable young women. . . and turn them into killers.

“Is that the best you’ve got, Tricia?” Holly ducked beneath the Fury’s
katars
and delivered a solid uppercut to her chin. Tricia toppled backward onto the tabletop, landing flat on her back amidst squashed cheese and figs. “Don’t you get special training points for brownnosing Athena?”    ~ ‘    "

The winged Fury flapped angrily above them, looking for an opening. Holly grabbed a silver platter from the table and hurled it like a discus at the second-rate Hawk-girl impersonator. The spinning tray clipped the soaring Fury in the skull, throwing her off course, and she crashed headfirst into a nearby column. “Thank you for flying Air Paradise!” Holly quipped. “Happy landings!”

Up on the dais, the goddess finally lost her composure. “Why is this taking so long?” she screeched. “Kill them, my Furies! Kill them now!”

A new voice interrupted Athena’s tirade. “If anyone dies today, pretender, it shall be you!”

Hippolyta marched through the archway onto the platform. An unsheathed sword occupied her right hand. A gleaming shield, embossed with the emblem of a magnificent eagle, rested upon her strong left arm. Her purple cape rustled behind her.

“You!” Athena blurted. Her startled face betrayed her shock.
“You
can’t be here!”

“I’ve been away too long!” Hippolyta advanced on Athena. Her sword flashed in the moonlight. “This island is not your personal training ground! The gods bestowed it upon us as a place of peace and harmony!”

“Awesome! It’s the queen!” Harley pumped her fist in the air. “Kick her phony-baloney ass, your majesty!” Hippolyta swung her sword at Athena, forcing the false goddess to retreat to the very edge of the dais. “Peace and harmony are for weaklings!” Athena sneered. Bright orange bolts of energy blasted from her fingertips. “You should have stayed away, Hippolyta! You no longer rule here!”

“That’s where you’re mistaken.” Hippolyta jumped above the destructive blasts, which reduced a portion of the dais to splinters instead. Smoke rose from the charred timbers. “Show them who you really are! Reveal the true face of the deceiver!”

Her blade slashed past Athena’s defenses. The sword’s point sliced across the goddess’s porcelain features, drawing a crimson line upon her cheek. Athena squealed in pain. “My face!” she cried out—as a carefully crafted illusion shattered.

Athena’s regal fa£ade blurred and wavered, like an out-of-focus television signal, before blinking out entirely. The elegant, silk-draped goddess vanished, replaced by a stocky figure very different in appearance. Where Athena had been, there now stood a craggy-faced harridan whose matronly frame was corseted into studded leather armor. A mane of thick white hair framed her scowling face. Cruelty and contempt were etched upon her deeply furrowed countenance. Icy blue eyes peered out from beneath bristling black eyebrows. Scaly green chain mail protected her stout legs. A dark red cloak with a raised collar was clasped to her shoulders. Glowing energy-gauntlets hummed upon her wrists. Mary recognized the hideous crone at once.

Holy Moley! It’s Granny Goodness!

The name, bestowed upon the evil New God by Darkseid himself, was one of the Dark Lord’s crueler jests. Granny Goodness was infamous for the hellish orphanages she administered upon Apokolips, whose sole purpose was to mold the lost children of Armagetto into bloodthirsty minions of Darkseid. Mary’s heart sank as she suddenly remembered why the term “Female Furies” had sounded so familiar. The Female Furies of Apokolips were Granny’s prize students, the cream of her sadistic crop. Now, it seemed, she’d expanded her vile franchise to Paradise Island.

Did Eclipso know about this?
Mary worried, disturbed to discover that she had not yet escaped Darkseid’s malign ambitions.
Were she and Granny working together, or were they competing for the Dark Lord’s approval?

“Evil child!” Granny croaked hoarsely. Reddened fingers came away from her injured cheek. “You actually hurt your Granny!”

“You’re no kin of mine!” Hippolyta shot back. “And that wound is but a precursor to the punishment that awaits you!” Her shield deflected another blast from Granny’s gauntlets. “Alone against you, I knew I might not prevail, but with good, strong women at my side, you falter like the coward you are!”

“No! Damn you!” Immortal blood dripped down Granny’s face as she hastily depressed a button upon her gauntlet. A. thunderclap shook the palace as a swirling vortex opened up in the air above the dais. Fearing Hippolyta’s wrath, Granny darted into the vortex with surprising speed. She disappeared into the shimmering Boom Tube.

“Witness!” Hippolyta commanded all present. She raised her sword in victory. “Defeated, she flees with her tail between her legs!”

Mary breathed a sigh of relief. Had the evil infesting Themyscira been routed so easily? Abandoned by their goddess, and stunned by the revelation of her true appearance, the Female Furies looked floored by Granny’s retreat. Their arms drooped slackly at their sides. Tricia’s
katars
slipped from her fingers as she stared numbly at the vortex that had swallowed her divine leader. Like the other Furies, she didn’t seem to have any more fight in her.

It’s over,
Mary thought.

Or maybe not.

“Hey!” Harley protested. Bounding onto a table, she ran the length of the table toward the lingering Boom Tube. “That ugly broad scammed us all! We can’t let her get

away!”

' > She dived into the vortex after Granny.

Maty and Holly exchanged disbelieving looks. “She didn’t...” Holly muttered.

“Yeah, she did.” Mary took a deep breath as the Boom Tube began to fade from sight. Within moments, the portal would be gone for good, along with Harley Quinn. Mary glanced at Holly. “You wanna ... ?”

Holly ran toward the Boom Tube even as she shook her head in dismay. “I swear I’m going to kill her one of these days!”

“Not if I get her first!” Mary insisted. She sprinted after Holly, quickly catching up with her. Side by side, they raced for the portal, which was closing up right before their eyes.
Infuriating or not,
Mary thought,
Harley did save my life just now.

Holly seemed startled to find Mary accompanying her. She looked dubiously at the unarmed girl. “Are you kidding, Mary? What are
you
going to do?”

The Boom Tube loomed before them, filling up Mary’s vision. She glimpsed a shimmering corridor, lined with bizarre, unearthly circuitry. Coruscating energies hummed and crackled. Her skin tingled. The scent of ozone invaded her nostrils. Nightmarish memories of Apokolips sent a chill down her spine.

“I’ll figure it out later,” she said.

They threw themselves into the unknown.

The vortex closed behind them with a resounding
boom.

11 AND CODNTING.

. APOKOLIPS.

Despair
burned freely from the planet’s core, fouling the atmosphere. The entire world moaned, a sound that chilled the soul with its dull emptiness and infernal malevolence. Walls a thousand feet high enclosed a sprawling megalopolis that burst upward like a pestilent boil as charnel winds extinguished the pallid stars from view. On the horizon, towering techno-temples rested on the halfcalcified bones of a billion failed genetic experiments, thrusting upward into the smoky black sky, while across this revolting graveyard of the universe, the muffled, maddening, and monotonous whine of blasphemous wails rose from inconceivable subterranean torture chambers. Gigantic Fire Pits belched enormous gouts of flame.

Donna gazed out over the hellish cityscape. The hot air scorched her lungs. “On my list of the worst possible places to be, this is number one.”

Along with Ray Palmer, the Challengers stood atop the roof of a concrete workhouse in the filthy Armagetto. Donna recognized the dismal setting from past battles against Darkseid and his minions. Turning away from the ugly spectacle, she confronted the Monitor. “Why exactly are we on Apokolips?”

She kept her guard up. Ever since Solomon’s brutal execution of that alternate version of Barry Allen, she didn’t trust the Monitor one bit.
He may very well have the safety of the entire universe in mind,
she thought,
but he’s inade it all too clear that he’s willing to sacrifice any one of us to achieve his aims.

So did that make him a dangerous ally—or a mortal enemy?

“Yeah. What’s the scoop?” Jason demanded. He methodically polished his knife while keeping a wary eye on their surroundings. So far their arrival had gone unnoticed, but that wasn’t likely to remain the case. “Why this detour to Darkseid’s backyard?”

“That is no concern of yours,” Solomon said brusquely. 'His armored hand was clasped firmly onto the Atom’s shoulder, lest his latest recruit attempt to elude them once more. Ray’s winter jacket was soiled and tom from the battle back on Earth-51. His red-rimmed eyes held a haunted expression. “Suffice it to say that I have business on this accursed globe—as does Ray Palmer.”

“Me?” Ray blurted. “Are you out of your mind? I don’t want anything to do with this place!”

Donna wondered if he was having second thoughts about joining their bizarre expedition.
Not that I blame him,
she conceded.
I’m starting to question whether this was such a good idea myself. Prophecy or no prophecy.

“Hold it together, Palmer,” Jason said irritably. He glared at Solomon. “I’m sure our red-eyed buddy has a good reason for bringing us here. At least he’d
better
have.”

“As I said,” the Monitor replied, “that is my own affair.” To Donna’s surprise, a column of light suddenly cut off Solomon and Ray from her and Jason. Solomon consulted a display screen on his gauntlet. “Come, Ray Palmer. We can tarry here no longer.”

“Hey!” Jason shouted. He lunged at the glowing figures.

but they had already grown too immaterial to grab on to. Donna watched in dismay as the Monitor and Ray began to fade from view. Jason kicked the rooftop in frustration. “What about us?”