Planetary Offices – Dubai

[planetaryguide]

 It's been a long time since I've been to Dubai. I was here in the '30s, while the British were chasing pirates. I was searching for other treasures entirely ... chasing rumors of a lost city, of mighty heroes that defended Kahndaq and Egypt in antiquity. Investigating names like "Shazam" and "Nabu." I never learned as much as I wanted, but I've heard the names resound since. 

I look out at the skyline while the local bureau chief, Shirazeh Nasser, explains to us some of what's been happening in parts of Syria and Iraq, the stories of a ghost who hunts and kills terrorists. Drums is unconvinced ... doesn't see how some anti-terror vigilante is our sort of mystery. I listen to them talk, but I'm captivated by the skyline, the way it stretches out into the desert, the way it reaches far into the sky. It's hard to imagine this was the same place I saw all those decades ago. It's almost unrecognizable.  

Shirazeh is a veteran bureau chief, and she doesn't flinch at having the field team in the office ... I hired her myself, after all, almost a decade ago. She's had a series of keywords to look for, a series of mysteries I've wanted to dig into for decades, but had to put on hold.

"You told me you wanted to look out for ghost stories, Mr. Snow," she says, and there's something almost mischievous in her voice, a sense that she knows I'm going to be interested in what she has to say. "You told me to look out for ghost stories, lost cities and teenagers with inexplicable abilities. You told me when I began to see those elements emerge, that I should hit the alarm. Well, they have, and now you are here."

 

Comments

[jakita_wagner]

Her arms crossed, she leans up against the conference table as Nasser speaks. There'd not been much information given on the trip over - Snow keeping information to himself and offering up only that the team would learn more once they got there.

Typical old man, that.

[planetaryguide]

'Don't tune out from boredom yet, Jakita," says Elijah, wryly. "We're only getting to the good part."

He turns his attention back to Shirazeh, and it's clear he's a step ahead of her.

"Yes," she says, gathering her thoughts. "We've had reports of a lost city intermittently appearing in the desert over the years. The last time we've had any reliable sighting was just after 2003, when an Al-Qaeda attack left 50 dead in a Kahndaqi city. U.S. troops pursued the attackers into the desert, where they saw an ancient city, which shimmered in the heat and disappeared. The military chocked it up to a mirage, but we know better."

She stops, and looks at Elijah before continuing. He makes an almost imperceptible nod.

"It was a bit before my time, but one of the things this office was tasked with doing was to monitor a young child named Abdullah El-Amin. Abdullah disappeared in that attack. He would have been three years old."

Elijah turns back to the window, to look out at the Dubai skyline.

"Jakita," he says, laying his cards on the table. "On the Western calendar, Abdullah El-Amin would have been born at precisely midnight, January 1, 2000. And now our mysterious disappearing city has been spotted again ..."

[planetaryguide]

The Drummer twirls his drumstick while he thinks.

"You're saying he's a century baby. Like you, Doc Brass, Jenny Sparks and ..."

And then he shuts right the fuck up, because he knows who else was one. He tries not to meet Jakita in the eyes.

[jakita_wagner]

"We can only hope that he is following in the footsteps of someone other than dear old Dad, then."

She straightens up and stretches, looking pointedly at Elijah (and as usual, ignoring the Drummer).

"Looks like we've got a field trip to get started, doesn't it?"

[planetaryguide]

"Kahndaq it is, them" he says, with something that resembles a smile in his voice. Part of him always loves this part.

He turns away from the window and regards Jakita and Drummer. Along with Ambrose, whom he hopes to rescue soon, these are the closest thing he has to a family. Not that he's going to tell them that.

"As you two know, Doc Brass was murdered last week in France," he says, levelly. "That means I'm the last surviving Century Baby of the 20th Century. I don't think El-Amin's reappearance – if it really is him – is a coincidence."

He's serious. There are very few people he would trust with this thought. He doesn't even want to verbalize it.

"We've gotten glimpses of Jenny Quantum, whom we think is the reincarnation of Jenny Sparks. We have vague rumors of some of the others. Brass was investigating them ... trying to understand how the Planetary defense systems work. I hope I'm wrong, but I think someone's looking for the new crop of Century Babies. I want to know why."

(Edited to correct minor continuity error.)

[planetaryguide]

Drummer absently thumps his sticks on a computer terminal, and the machine makes whirling and hissing noises. Shirazeh looks a little alarmed at what he's doing to her equipment, but says nothing.

"I can pinpoint the coordinates the U.S. Army recon last saw the city," he says, but there's some heavy superpowered action going on there, along with the usual assortment of armed people with assorted political agendas."

Map coordinates appear on the screen.

"Just saying. All sorts of dangerous."

[planetaryguide]

"Just take us there, Drums," says Elijah. "The game is afoot."

Later, in Kahndaq ...

[planetaryguide]

The plane lands in Kahndaq, in the desert. Coming in at night and landing without an airstrip is challenging, but not to someone with the Drummers; talents. Autopilot and cloaking mechanisms stand up and beg for him.

He sets up a scanner from inside that plane. That leaves Elijah and Jakita to examine the site of the dig. Not that there appears to be anything there but sand for as far as the eye can see.

"Good thing I don't get cold," he says dryly, eyeing the sand. "This is the place where the city was last reported seen."

Re: Later, in Kahndaq ...

[jakita_wagner]

Boredom momentarily forgotten, Jakita crouches and brushes away the sand in front of her, perhaps with the hope that it will reveal a nice easy way into the city.

All it reveals is more sand.

"Did you put in an order for a bulldozer on the way, Snow? Perhaps a friendly group of moles?"

Re: Later, in Kahndaq ...

[planetaryguide]

Elijah laughs, but his eyes are watching the horizon.

"This is dangerous territory," he says. "So I figured you and I should secure the scene, and then Drums can come down off the plane and scan for ... I don't know. Bleed energy, maybe? Magic? Whatever the Hell that was we found in Hong Kong?"

They both remember Hong Kong, where they found a Shek Chi-Wai, a murdered police officer, whose ghost was cursed to haunt the city, until another good cop was betrayed and took his place. They also found a computer that seemed to be made of human souls there. It was an interesting dig. They learned a lot.

"I figure once we isolate the energy patterns, we can ..." he trails off, distracted by something in the distance. A rustling, armed men, coming from multiple directions. Not soldiers ... soldiers wouldn't be concerned with being seen. No, these were something else entirely.

"Jakita," he says, calmly. "I think we're going to have to hit a lot of people now.

And with that, there's an explosion of gunfire.

Re: Later, in Kahndaq ...

[jakita_wagner]

"You always know exactly what I want to hear, Snow. Watch my back."

She disappears with a rooster tail of sand, heading off in the direction of that first rattle of gunfire, not bothering to try to dodge anything - just a waste of time and energy; as she gets close there are small puffs of dust as bullets bounce off of her.

Jakita appears among the first group of fighters in a shower of dust and grabs for their guns. Ignoring the heat of the barrels, she's amusing herself by tossing a few, followed quickly by a few of the fighters themselves. The rest are dispatched with a well-placed fist to the face, the throat, wherever needed.

Once that group is down on the ground, unmoving, it's on to the next. And then the next. Jakita will not stop until the threat is removed.

Re: Later, in Kahndaq ...

[planetaryguide]

Elijah almost loses himself, he's so amused watching Jakita go. It's a shame these pikers are hardly a challenge. They have numbers and guns, but for Jakita, that's barely a warm up.

Best not to get too cocky, though. A cell has managed to get dangerously close. He hears one shout, in Arabic, "Don't move, Yankee, or you're dead."

"Sorry, you motherless dogs," he says back, in perfect Arabic. "Just keep in mind, this is kinder than what Black Adam would do to you if he found you in his territory."

The terrorists only have a second to scream as the ice encases them. They'll live, but with a nasty case of hypothermia.

He doesn't even know who these fighters are. Al-Qaeda? ISIS? Some local Hydra cell? This Southern desert region has been a thruway for all manner of unscrupulous types. Rumor has it some of them may have Adam's tacit approval, but more than a few have turned up ripped in half, so that may be just stories. Even Black adam can't be everywhere at once.

Elijah walks calmly to one of the nearly frozen terrorists.

"Talk to me about the ghost," he says. The terrorists eyes widen in fear.

"The Ghost of the Desert," he says, switching to English. "We do not talk about ..."

The terrorist is interrupted by a single bullet. His head explodes.

Elijah turns to see where it came from, and sees a thin, muscular man silhouetted in the moonlight, a sniper's rifle in his hand.

"I think we've found our ghost," says Elijah, calmer-sounding than he feels.

Re: Later, in Kahndaq ...

[jakita_wagner]

ain't afraid of any ghosts runs through Jakita's thoughts as she crouches, ready to take off at the silhouette.

Not to kill him, of course. She was pretty sure that it would be taken badly if that were to happen.

One booted foot scrapes against the sand as she prepares to leap.

Re: Later, in Kahndaq ...

[first_shazam]

She doesn't get the chance. A figure streaks out of the sky flying faster than even Jakita thought possible, barreling right at her leaving sonic booms in his wake.

Re: Later, in Kahndaq ...

[jakita_wagner]

Change of plans, then, and Jakita leaps at the new guy instead of the shadowy sniper.

This one, he's probably going to take a full speed swing better than a bog-standard human (assuming that the sniper WAS human, which seems to be less and less likely). So she brings her fist around, straight for the chin.

Re: Later, in Kahndaq ...

[first_lightning]

The sniper might be spared from Jakita, but there's another threat for him to worry about. A red and blue blur with lightning arcing around it streaks towards the sniper - ready to disassemble the gun.

Re: Later, in Kahndaq ...

[planetaryguide]

Even at Jay's speed, the man seems to be tracking him. No sooner is Jay on him than he flips into the air, the rifle dropped and replaced by a pair of pistols — one in each hand — so quickly that no one saw the exchange take place, even The Flash.

First, he takes aim at where expects Jay to be ... aq calculation he can make with superhuman accuracy. The goal seems not to harm Jay, but to disrupt him.

Then, he begins to fire into what's left of the ragged terror cell, each bullet seemingly perfectly aimed, each one finding its target and unfailingly deadly. Four more terrorists lie dead on the sand in seconds. The ones on the top of the dunes, realizing something is wrong, begin to fire, raining down a thunderstorm of bullets into the area.

Elijah generates a shield of ice to shield himself and Jakita, but the Ghost is too far away. No matter, though. He seems to step between the bullets, only slightly delayed as he takes aim and shoots, eliminating more of his targets, one by one.

Re: Later, in Kahndaq ...

[first_lightning]

"Son, you just bought yourself some trouble.."

The helmet comes off - Jay starts using it to try and intercept any of the bullets that he can, though the man definitely seems to have some kind of precognitive capacity to try and keep up with one of the fastest men alive.

Old as he is, he can still catch bullets.

Re: Later, in Kahndaq ...

[first_shazam]

Meanwhile, Adam takes Jakita's measure in stride, slamming into her full force, no punches pulled, no mercy shown. She is an invader in HIS land, and must be dealt with.

Her attack is formidible, and snaps Adam's head back like a bobblehead doll. But his punch, to her, had the full strength of Amon behind it.

Re: Later, in Kahndaq ...

[planetaryguide]

This was all going to hell faster than he expected. He had hoped to avoid Black Adam, and had no way to predict that Jay Garrick would show up. So now he and Jakita were fighting a battle on four fronts, although the terror cell was being rapidly nullified as a threat.

Lending Jakita a hand is his first priority. It won't do much -- Adam can survive in space -- but subtracting the temperature around him suddenly might slow him, give Jakita a shot. But we need to start thinking evac.

As he rapidly decreases the temperature around Adam, he scans for Abdullah. He finds the boy seemingly watching the action, fascinated.

"He could have hurt Garrick," thinks Elijah. "Maybe even killed him. If I'm correct, those guns don't miss, even when the target's moving at super speed."

Slowly, Elijah tries to make his way toward the Ghost, when suddenly a signal cuts across his and Jakita's coms.

"Uhm, guys," says the Drummer. "I'm getting some sort of massive energy transfer coming. It's like a cut in bleed space."

Re: Later, in Kahndaq ...

[first_lightning]

Jay is puzzled as a few of the bullets seem to pass through his helmet - observing the phenomenon at super-speed quickly gives him an idea, however.

Those with enhanced senses and reflexes might notice his form growing blurrier as he adjusts his own vibrational frequency - interfacing with the space between worlds just enough to play his hunch ... and his success rate markedly improves.

"I have to admit, that's a new one on me."

Re: Later, in Kahndaq ...

[jakita_wagner]

Landing that punch had felt like she expected it to feel - like punching a planet. There was pain, for once, probably not broken, but this fight was going to be a little more difficult.

Always willing to try a challenge, though.

And then came the return, and Jakita finds herself airborne briefly before hitting the ground like a sack of bricks and sliding roughly to a stop.

DEFINITELY a challenge. She takes a breath and climbs to her feet as the Drummer's words come across the comms.

"How big, and how soon, Drums?"

Re: Later, in Kahndaq ...

[planetaryguide]

"REALLY Big," shouts Drummer, frantic, over the coms. "Jacquie, the only time I've ever felt anything like this was Gotham. You know, that one time with Batman and that transvestite hooker? This whole %#*(%*)@W*R is going to rotate into an alternate reality!"

Re: Later, in Kahndaq ...

[planetaryguide]

The man regards Jakita for a moment, but then, flips into the air, the rifle dropped and replaced by a pair of pistols — one in each hand — so quickly that the no one saw the exchange take place. He begins to fire into what's left of the ragged terror cell, each bullet seemingly perfectly aimed, each one finding its target and unfailingly deadly. Four more terrorists lie dead on the sand in seconds. The ones on the top of the dunes, realizing something is wrong, begin to fire, raining down a thunderstorm of bullets into the area.

Elijah generates a shield of ice to shield himself and Jakita, but the Ghost is too far away. No matter, though. He seems to step between the bullets, only slightly delayed as he takes aim and shoots, eliminating more of his targets, one by one.

[sixgodstories]

Plenty of questions had been raised in the past few months, after the Crisis, but very few answers were to be found. Especially when one of the drawbacks of having the "Wisdom of Solomon" was an insatiable curiosity to find said answers. His own age wasn't the most conductive to patience either.

So King Shazam(his self-given moniker. Still a work in progress he'd admit if pressed) found himself en route to one person who's own power shone like a beacon. The Shazam family could track one another without even realizing "how" if necessary. All of which makes Billy and Mary's disappearance that more disconcerting. Either way, he was en route to Kahndaq, courage of Achilles leading the way.

And its a good thing it was, because he found the conflict he had been hoping against. But in dealing with Black Adam, he expected the possibility. Armed gunfire, the founder of the Flash dynasty, Kahndaq's sovereign himself, and three...unclassifieds were close up. Time to make an entrance.

Arcing himself in midair, Shazam lands hard onto the surface, full of sound and fury signifying...hopefully a change in hostilities.

"Adam. Can I help?"

[first_shazam]

Adam was impressed at the fact that Jakita's head was still attached to her shoulders. That still made her the immediate threat...a threat he was so focused on that he either didn't hear King...or simply didn't acknowledge him. It was hard to tell.

He flies directly at Jakita with the swiftness of Heru...and many bad intentions.

[planetaryguide]

This has gone from "out of hand" to "complete &*#$ show, thinks Elijah, even as part of him wonders about the improbability of this confluence of individuals. This isn't random. No time for that, though.

"Shazam!" shouts Elijah, eyes on the newcomer. "Stop Adam from murdering my associate, and I'll explain everything!"

[jakita_wagner]

"Shit, Drummer, how soon is this going to happen?" While parts of that little adventure with Batman had been weird and ultimately amusing, there were others that involved a lot of pain for everyone.

She's not sure if she cares if the bruiser heading at her again ends up getting messed up by the rotation, and maybe he'll end up less powerful once it complete.

As he gets close, she leaps to meet him, wrapping her arms around him and twisting in mid-air, using her full strength to toss him as far from her as possible.

[first_shazam]

Adam actually allows the maneuver, but just as she begins the release...

"SHAZAM!"

He then flies backward as the last breath escapes his mouth.

[planetaryguide]

"JACQUIE! SNOW!" shouts Drummer, over coms. I don't know what's happening, but everything for a 1,200 x 800 metre are is starting to shift. It's bleed energy, but it's not like any other time I've felt it. The signal's messy, like magic, but ..."

Drums' voice trails off ... distracted? Interrupted?

[sixgodstories]

Everything was frozen for an instant, and then it wasn't. The Earth reconfigured itself in the midst of a truly titanic battle. Black Adam and Jakita Wagner, two Omega-level Metahumans were locked in combat and the former's magical strike was oncoming.

Freddy knew all so well what this meant, and was in midair to shoulder the bolt's properties. The Marvel family's legacy of lightning was not only powerful, but quite variable. Marvel's leap, combined with the magical discharge jolted him rigid for an airborne second.

Crashing to the Earth was a teenage boy, a few waning sparks escaping from his clothing.

[first_shazam]

The lightning struck, and Adam saw Freddy Freeman falling to the earth. He paused a second, then flew to retrieve him, catching him roughly three stories from the ground.

And it was at that moment that the world turned.

An Instant Later ...

[nabuhelm]

And then, the world turns, and they are somewhere else. Someplace impossibly old. It's a dizzying spin, even for the mightiest among them, but in an instant, Elijah Snow, Jakita Wagner, Abdullah El-Amin, Black Adam, Freddy Freeman and Jay Garrick find themselves in the market of an ancient city, its towers reaching high toward the sky, it's buildings opulent and clean ... but empty.

At first, there appears to be no life in the city at all. But then, a cat appears, perched in a window. It is black and sleek, and it regards the visitors curiously, but makes no move to either run nor greet them.

Re: An Instant Later ...

[planetaryguide]

Continued here.