Reply To: The Genius Scientist and the God of Evil: Universe/DC Comics

The Hall of Justice was cold and sterile. Amidst the collapse of the free world, this was one of the last places inhabited by Earth’s heroes that had not succumbed to the Anti-Life Equation. Though certain pieces of technology could be used safely, the few members of the Justice League that occupied it used them sparingly.

Chief amongst the heroes stationed in this sanctuary was a red haired woman in a wheelchair. Her name was Barbra Gordon, but up here she was known by a different moniker: Oracle. Gordon used to go by the name Batgirl, but that career was ended by a maniacal clown with a gun. Gordon was a genius when it came to technology, specifically the Internet. She might have learned to fight from heroes like Black Canary and Batman, but she knew how to use her intellect to her advantage in the fight against crime.

Though she did not approve of the idea of the Unternet, especially since she knew that it was designed by one of her more annoying enemies, the Calculator, she had to admit that it had its uses. Killing the Internet was incredibly hard to do, but at least this way she might give some people the help that they need. In fact, the Hall of Justice was full of refugees that were not unwitting pawns of Darkseid’s evil cabal.

Thankfully, she was not completely alone in her rescue attempts. Michael Holt, known to others as Mister Terrific, was one of the three smartest Earthlings on the planet and happened to be assisting her. The two had been joined by Black Canary herself and Green Arrow, two other heroes who were well respected in the Justice League, but they were out on a mission to try to answer a distress signal from one of their own: Black Lightning.

“Barbara, look at this,” Holt told the bespectacled former Batgirl. He pointed to a computer monitor that had turned itself on.

Rolling her wheelchair to Mister Terrific, Barbara saw a most interesting sight on the now active screen. “This isn’t the Anti-Life Equation…this looks to be some digital…crabs?”

“Have you ever seen this before? It looks like somebody’s calling card,” he postulated. “I’ve lost track of the various aquatic based villains around the word.”

Barbara took her place at the keyboard and tried to decrypt the dancing crustaceans. “This isn’t the M.O. of any criminal I’ve ever encountered. In fact…this isn’t a virus or anything like that. It looks like it is just trying to get our attention!” Barbara turned her head around. “This might be a trap or a potential hacker!”

“It’s coming from the Unternet, so it’s very likely. We don’t really know how many people are even aware of the Unternet yet…” Mister Terrific trailed on.

Oracle was only half listening at this point. She tried to trace the origin of the signal, but was having major difficulties. ‘It’s like it isn’t even coming from this planet…or maybe this…’ “Dimension.”

“Excuse me?”

“Michael, this isn’t originating from this dimension! It might be coming from The Phantom Zone, or a pocket universe!” Barbara explained.

“But look at the screen; the text is in Japanese!”

Oracle readjusted her glasses and reread the monitor. Sure enough, the crabs and disappeared and Japanese characters appeared in their place. Barbara was familiar enough with the language to know that it said “background check complete!”

“A Japanese background check emanating from another dimension?” Barbara muttered.

“I don’t get it…” Mister Terrific started before getting cut off.

“Alert: unknown energy source detected!” A disembodied voice warned. “Alert: unknown energy source detected!”

“Could it be Darkseid?” Mister Terrific asked.

Pulling out a pair of fighting sticks, Barbara nodded. “There’s a good chance of it.”

A door appeared in the center of the room and the two heroes braced themselves. A small pink haired child peered her head out and acknowledged the other occupants of the Hall of Justice.

“Hiya, how do you do? Might I assume correctly that this is where I can find Miss Barbara Gordon aka Oracle?” she asked in English before laying eyes on the wheelchair bound redhead.

Barbara was taken back by this girl’s behavior. ‘She seems so…unconcerned, yet she knows about me. I can’t take my eyes off of her.’ “Might I ask who’s asking little girl?”

The girl’s eyebrow raised and a smile grew on her face. “You may indeed Miss Gordon. My name is Washu: the greatest scientific genius in the galaxy!”

A small doll that looked exactly like her appeared on her left shoulder. “Oh Washu, you are so great!”

“We are in awe of your intellect!” A second doll appeared and added.

The appearance of a crazy pink haired girl who proclaimed to be a scientific genius forced Barbara and Michael to step back. Of all the things they were expecting, that was the last thing they could ever imagine. Still, it was way too early to write her off completely as either a friend or a foe.

“Err…that’s all well and good, but how did you get into the Hall of Justice? For that matter, why are you here?” Mister Terrific asked.

Washu examined him. “Curious thing on your face.” She pointed to the grey “T” shaped marking on his face. “Let’s see what your files say of it…ah, Mister Terrific! Says here you are one of the smartest people on the planet…I can respect that! Your mask is made up of nanites? Fascinating!”

“Thank you?” he replied, surprised and confused at the entire situation.

“As for your question, I am here because of that one’s message on the Unternet. Interesting gambit, I have to say. From what I’ve gathered, usually the people who frequent that section of the net are scumbags,” Washu chuckled. “But I’m getting ahead of myself here. As the greatest scientific genius in the galaxy, it occurred to me that someone as high profile as you could need my help!”

Barbara raised an eyebrow. “You know how to stop the Anti-Life equation?”

“At the present moment…not so much,” Washu admitted. “But I’ve got better resources than you in my lab. Speaking of, I managed to save a few people before the Equation hit. Mind if they join us?”

“Do we have a choice, Miss Genius?” Barbara asked, clearly still not trusting her.

“Well, I mean of course you do, but it’d be rude to keep them waiting!” The scientist opened up her door and yelled inside. “Hey, we are clear here! It’s safe!”

Washu held the door open so that two other ladies, one blonde and the other green haired, and an elderly gentleman could enter the Hall.

“Oh my gosh, it’s the Hall of Justice! Kiyone, it’s just like I told you!” the blonde haired one told her companion excitedly.

“That you did Mihoshi, several times in fact.” Kiyone sighed. “Don’t make it weird for everyone!”

“The ditzy blonde is first class detective Mihoshi and her friend is her partner, first class detective Kiyone. The last member of our party is Katsuhito Masaki, the grandfather of our mutual friend who sadly was exposed to Darkseid’s plans,” Washu explained, pointing out each member of the party.

Mihoshi went up to Mister Terrific and shook his hand. “Oh my gosh it’s so nice to meet you! I’ve read so much on all of you in Japan!”

“It’s nice to meet you too, uh, Mihoshi was it? I have to say, your English is pretty good.”

“Oh, Washu made us universal translators! It allows us to understand you all and for you to understand us!”

“Really?” Mister Terrific said, intrigued at the idea. “Interesting concept for a girl of, what, 10?”

The comment caused Mihoshi to laugh. “No silly, she’s over 20,000 years old!”

“MIHOSHI!” Kiyone yelled. “You can’t go around telling them that!”

“Why not? It’s not like they’ve encountered aliens before. Superman, Green Lantern…”

Kiyone blinked. “I never thought of that…”

“Aliens?” Barbara asked. “Are all of you from off world?”

“Well Kiyone and I are part of the Galaxy Police, Washu is a former teacher at the Galactic Academy, and Tenchi’s grandfather used to be the prince to the planet Jurai!”

“Way to sell us out Mihoshi!” Washu scolded, hitting her in the shoulder.

Barbara processed this. She made a mental note to ask John Stewart about this when the entire ordeal was over. “So, why are you here then? Why Earth?”

“I was banished here,” Washu said. “Because the Academy deemed me a threat. Pff, what do they know?”

Barbara made another mental note to ask about her status as a ‘threat’ later on. After all, if Batman taught her anything it was that the victory is in the preparation.

“We are assigned to the Solar System!” Mihoshi smiled. “So, what’s Batman really like! Is he around?”

“Actually, nobody has seen Batman since this all began. We think he was kidnapped by the Evil Gods, but we don’t know for sure…” Barbara admitted.

“That’s terrible! The world needs a Batman!”

“Mihoshi, I think you are getting Washu and Miss Gordon off topic,” Katsuhito pointed out.

Mihoshi dejectedly stopped her thoughts about Batman and sighed in defeat. “I’m sorry.”

“Now that Mihoshi is finished fangirling, we can discuss the issue at hand. Our household, like much of your planet, has fallen under the sway of the Anti-Life Equation. I’ve never had any experiences with the New Gods, but I know for a fact that you all have. I’m sure we can use your experience and my resources to think of something,” Washu said. She created a translucent energy computer out of nowhere.

This caught the attention of both of the heroes. “How did you create that?” Mister Terrific asked. “Do you utilize reflective lasers?”

“No, I just willed it into existence,” Washu said as if it were an everyday occurrence.

“I think what we need is to find out what exactly the Anti-Life Equation is,” Katsuhito contributed.

“Before I cut the Internet, I got a glimpse of what it is. It’s a mathematical…” Oracle started. “Wait, that was in the post I put out on the Unternet. You should know all of that.”

“I think he’s referring to what the actual steps of the Equation are. If we knew that, perhaps we could devise a ‘Life Equation’ that can bring balance to everything,” Kiyone added.

“Perhaps…but there is no way of knowing unless we had the Equation in a way that people will not lose their free will,” Barbara countered. She stopped and looked around. “Where did your partner go?”

An alarm sounded. Suddenly a disembodied voice cried “Doors unlocked!”

“Doors…Mihoshi what have you done?!” Kiyone screamed.

Mister Terrific ran to a computer terminal and pulled up a love security feed. “We have Justifiers entering the Hall of Justice! Damn it!”

“Justifiers?” Washu asked, panicking.

“People under the influence of the Anti-Life Equation! We have to get out of here!” Barbara yelled.

At that moment, Mihoshi came wandering back into the room. “I’m sorry! I fell and hit the button by accident! I don’t know what’s going on!”

Kiyone and over and grabbed her collar. “You idiot, you just damned us all!”

The worst fears of the planet have been realized. The Hall of Justice has been breached by Anti-Life. If justice cannot overcome Darkseid, what will?