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March 28, 2019; Tartarus

There was only a hum.

That low, basey hum that can only come from infinite emptiness, infinite silence. Silence that reverberated off the shattered chunks of reality that floated aimlessly in the dark void of Tartarus. A place where there was no life, not anymore. A vast prison of skeletal inmates.

And now, even a rotting warden.

He laid there in a thick pool of his dried blood, surrounded in shattered fragments of what used to be his armor. Even the sparks that used to leap from its cracks had died out. The malicious red light that once gave it its evil glow was long extinguished, left in the dust of time like the rest of him.

There was no life in this realm.

No ears left alive to hear the quiet footsteps that shattered the silence and cast out the hum.

The figure clad in black strolled across the shattered remains of the world as if they were mere stepping stones. He kept his old, wrinkled eyes fixed on the corpse ahead of him, unphased by the blood or shards or anything that added to the grim atmosphere surrounding him as the only living thing in this dimension.

The intruder stopped mere feet away from the corpse and stared down at it, taking in the site, calculating, thinking through his plans and wondering if this was indeed a valid option.

He decided on yes. Yes it was. In order to get his revenge and take the spoils of his war beyond the limits of his power, this was a fine option indeed.

He brought his palms up close to one another as he closed his eyes and began to concentrate. The wires in his armor began to glow deep purple as sparks began to form between his fingertips. A ball of energy began to grow between his palms, crackling with purple lightning that leapt onto his cloak and onto the corpse below him. He smiled, slowly moving his hands forward towards the body, ready to begin the first phase and finally, after all this time, enact his revenge on the world and the boy who stood in his way of domination over it.

“You know I can't allow you to do that, Eon.”

His eyes suddenly snapped open. His energy ball fizzled out as his grin shifted into a scowl. His hands fell to his side and he clenched his fists tight, but he didn't turn around at all to face the man standing behind him.

“This does not concern you, time-walker,” he told the man.

The labcoated man behind him simply stood there, completely unafraid, serving to further the amount of irritation that boiled within Eon. “Everything you do concerns me, old friend,” said the time-walker.

“I am not your old friend,” Eon snarled. “That was not me!”

“True. But it doesn't change the fact that you could have been him. I'm rather disappointed to be quite honest.”

“You cannot stop me from enacting my plan, Paradox.”

“Perhaps not. But I know who can.”

“He cannot do anything here. Not in the dimension I plan to conquer. He does not exist there. Only pathetic humans with no idea of the power that lies within the ancient tools they find.”

“I feel that body you're standing in front of is proof that you're underestimating that universe, Eon.”

“Perhaps. But nothing and no one of their world will be able to stop me.”

“Why do you think I'm here?”

“You intend to fight me again?”

“No. Not here. The fabric of reality is too weak here and I'd rather not be responsible for another tear in it. Thankfully, I have other means.”

“Do your worst, time-walker. I will not fall to you this time.”

“Perhaps. Perhaps you will. Only time will tell.”

Eon frowned, sitting in silence for a moment before finally deciding to turn around, only to see that the man was gone, vanished between the waves of spacetime. He closed his eyes again, satisfied with this leave, and he went back to work.

His hands glowed again as purple energy began to flow into the body laying below him. The effect was slow and gruesome, but it was already beginning to work. The gaping, rotting wounds in its flesh started to close up and regain some semblance of complexion. The dried blood around him turned back to a thick red liquid as it crawled back through the cracks in its skin and they closed up. Its wrinkles started to smooth out, and even the scattered chunks of armor began to leap back into place, mending back together as if by some arcane magic.

Then there was a pulse.

And the corpse’s eyes snapped open.

He groaned along with his armor, placing his hands on the ground for support as he struggled to lift himself back up. Eon smiled, already admiring his handiwork. The previously dead man wobbled to his feet, snarling as he regained his bearings. He blinked, looking around the empty realm with a confused uncertainty. He looked down at himself, baffled by the feeling of life once again flowing through his being. Then he looked over at Eon, who simply continued to smile.

“Hello Lucifer,” he said to the ex-corpse.

“What have you done and why?” Lucifer asked, jumping straight to the point.

“What I've done is returned you back to life. As for why… I have a deal for you.”

“You think I owe you any favors for this? And that I’d uphold them even if I did? I invented the shifty deal; I'm the Devil. So don't try.”

“You have me all wrong, Lucifer. I simply see a valuable partnership between us for a certain goal that I know we both share.”

“And what would that be, you Daft Punk wannabe?”

“Revenge.”

That made Lucifer go quiet for just a moment, which pleased Eon greatly. Now he had his attention.

“I admire your work,” Eon continued. “It takes an intensely superior and complex mind to dip into the realm of interdimensional manipulation so early in the development of a civilization such as your own.”

“Cut to the chase before I decide to kill you already.”

“What if I told you I have a means of giving you full power over this fabric of spacetime we find ourselves between right now. I know you have plans for this universe, and I have plans for mine. And all it will take is the combination of two artifacts.”

Lucifer looked at this cloaked figure, taking in what he was hearing. “Alright,” he said. “I'll bite. What's the catch?”

“No catch. We work together to get these devices, we use them to achieve our goals, and we get our revenges. You destroy this plane with that Arlie girl inside, and I get to enslave what's left of the multiverse.”

Lucifer pondered it, putting his finger on his chin as he thought it through while Eon waited patiently for what he hoped would be a yes.

Then Lucifer smiled.

“Alright,” he said. “Sounds like a good plan. You've got yourself a partner.”

He reached his hand out to be shook, and Eon took up the offer with a malicious grin that was only rivaled by the grin of Lucifer himself.

“Excellent,” Eon said.

“So where do we start, Fishbowl?”

“My name is Eon. And we shall start with those damned Assassins.”

Lucifer simply responded with a grin, and in a moment, the two of them vanished in a hail of purple light, leaving the void empty once again.

Not even the hum of silence dared to come out of hiding again.

------------

March 28, 2019; Roanoke Island, North Carolina

The Professor stood in the red-lit halls of the Devil's temple deep beneath the soils of Roanoke. He never liked this place. In any dimension really. It was a wildcard. An inconsistency that was different for every individual reality. He liked to have at least some predictability when he went travelling. But points such as this island did not offer him that, and it quite bugged him.

But nonetheless, he knew he had to be here. He looked down at the smooth ancient floor beneath his feet. More specifically, he looked down at the shattered remains of an artifact that laid in front of his shoes. It wasn't much, just a few tiny shards of gold and wires. But even so, it was always these little things that held the biggest impact on the destiny of existence. He crouched down to get a better look at the state of the broken triangular artifact, and made a tch noise with his tongue.

“Well it is a good thing dear Ms. Arlie didn't put anymore force into her stomp,” he said to himself. “Otherwise this whole matter could've gotten very complicated very fast.”

He stood back to his feet and pulled out his pocket watch, gazing at the hands on the clock face for a moment before smiling and closing it back up. “Right on schedule!” he said. “I do love it when things go the right way.”

He lifted up his foot, hovering it over the broken artifact, and suddenly brought it down hard, shattering it into even smaller pieces. It cracked and sparked as it came apart, with jolts of energy appearing and disappearing from it. Paradox smiled, stepping back and walking away as it pulsed and sparked.

“It's also rather nice when fixed points do my job for me,” he chuckled for himself. “I get to skip out on the dreadful labor of bringing folks across dimensions.”

He paused, pulling out his pocket watch once again and looking it over. “Oh dear. I was a few seconds late actually… I'm afraid they're in for a bumpy flight. Oh well. What's important is that they get here. I just hope I can get there in time before too much chaos breaks loose…”

There was a sudden flash of blue light as he gazed into his pocket watch and vanished into thin air, the light disappearing as quickly as it had appeared in the first place.

The only sound left in the temple was the mechanical hum of the ancient machinery and the crackling artifact that was just shattered by the professor's shoe. The bolts jolted and jumped into the air. And, more importantly, between realities itself, as it practically reached out to bring to this dimension the only people that could truly save it.

The only heroes whom Paradox knew would be capable of stopping Eon before it was too late.

Description
March 28, 2019; Tartarus

There was only a hum.

That low, basey hum that can only come from infinite emptiness, infinite silence. Silence that reverberated off the shattered chunks of reality that floated aimlessly in the dark void of Tartarus. A place where there was no life, not anymore. A vast prison of skeletal inmates.

And now, even a rotting warden.

He laid there in a thick pool of his dried blood, surrounded in shattered fragments of what used to be his armor. Even the sparks that used to leap from its cracks had died out. The malicious red light that once gave it its evil glow was long extinguished, left in the dust of time like the rest of him.

There was no life in this realm.

No ears left alive to hear the quiet footsteps that shattered the silence and cast out the hum.

The figure clad in black strolled across the shattered remains of the world as if they were mere stepping stones. He kept his old, wrinkled eyes fixed on the corpse ahead of him, unphased by the blood or shards or anything that added to the grim atmosphere surrounding him as the only living thing in this dimension.

The intruder stopped mere feet away from the corpse and stared down at it, taking in the site, calculating, thinking through his plans and wondering if this was indeed a valid option.

He decided on yes. Yes it was. In order to get his revenge and take the spoils of his war beyond the limits of his power, this was a fine option indeed.

He brought his palms up close to one another as he closed his eyes and began to concentrate. The wires in his armor began to glow deep purple as sparks began to form between his fingertips. A ball of energy began to grow between his palms, crackling with purple lightning that leapt onto his cloak and onto the corpse below him. He smiled, slowly moving his hands forward towards the body, ready to begin the first phase and finally, after all this time, enact his revenge on the world and the boy who stood in his way of domination over it.

“You know I can't allow you to do that, Eon.”

His eyes suddenly snapped open. His energy ball fizzled out as his grin shifted into a scowl. His hands fell to his side and he clenched his fists tight, but he didn't turn around at all to face the man standing behind him.

“This does not concern you, time-walker,” he told the man.

The labcoated man behind him simply stood there, completely unafraid, serving to further the amount of irritation that boiled within Eon. “Everything you do concerns me, old friend,” said the time-walker.

“I am not your old friend,” Eon snarled. “That was not me!”

“True. But it doesn't change the fact that you could have been him. I'm rather disappointed to be quite honest.”

“You cannot stop me from enacting my plan, Paradox.”

“Perhaps not. But I know who can.”

“He cannot do anything here. Not in the dimension I plan to conquer. He does not exist there. Only pathetic humans with no idea of the power that lies within the ancient tools they find.”

“I feel that body you're standing in front of is proof that you're underestimating that universe, Eon.”

“Perhaps. But nothing and no one of their world will be able to stop me.”

“Why do you think I'm here?”

“You intend to fight me again?”

“No. Not here. The fabric of reality is too weak here and I'd rather not be responsible for another tear in it. Thankfully, I have other means.”

“Do your worst, time-walker. I will not fall to you this time.”

“Perhaps. Perhaps you will. Only time will tell.”

Eon frowned, sitting in silence for a moment before finally deciding to turn around, only to see that the man was gone, vanished between the waves of spacetime. He closed his eyes again, satisfied with this leave, and he went back to work.

His hands glowed again as purple energy began to flow into the body laying below him. The effect was slow and gruesome, but it was already beginning to work. The gaping, rotting wounds in its flesh started to close up and regain some semblance of complexion. The dried blood around him turned back to a thick red liquid as it crawled back through the cracks in its skin and they closed up. Its wrinkles started to smooth out, and even the scattered chunks of armor began to leap back into place, mending back together as if by some arcane magic.

Then there was a pulse.

And the corpse’s eyes snapped open.

He groaned along with his armor, placing his hands on the ground for support as he struggled to lift himself back up. Eon smiled, already admiring his handiwork. The previously dead man wobbled to his feet, snarling as he regained his bearings. He blinked, looking around the empty realm with a confused uncertainty. He looked down at himself, baffled by the feeling of life once again flowing through his being. Then he looked over at Eon, who simply continued to smile.

“Hello Lucifer,” he said to the ex-corpse.

“What have you done and why?” Lucifer asked, jumping straight to the point.

“What I've done is returned you back to life. As for why… I have a deal for you.”

“You think I owe you any favors for this? And that I’d uphold them even if I did? I invented the shifty deal; I'm the Devil. So don't try.”

“You have me all wrong, Lucifer. I simply see a valuable partnership between us for a certain goal that I know we both share.”

“And what would that be, you Daft Punk wannabe?”

“Revenge.”

That made Lucifer go quiet for just a moment, which pleased Eon greatly. Now he had his attention.

“I admire your work,” Eon continued. “It takes an intensely superior and complex mind to dip into the realm of interdimensional manipulation so early in the development of a civilization such as your own.”

“Cut to the chase before I decide to kill you already.”

“What if I told you I have a means of giving you full power over this fabric of spacetime we find ourselves between right now. I know you have plans for this universe, and I have plans for mine. And all it will take is the combination of two artifacts.”

Lucifer looked at this cloaked figure, taking in what he was hearing. “Alright,” he said. “I'll bite. What's the catch?”

“No catch. We work together to get these devices, we use them to achieve our goals, and we get our revenges. You destroy this plane with that Arlie girl inside, and I get to enslave what's left of the multiverse.”

Lucifer pondered it, putting his finger on his chin as he thought it through while Eon waited patiently for what he hoped would be a yes.

Then Lucifer smiled.

“Alright,” he said. “Sounds like a good plan. You've got yourself a partner.”

He reached his hand out to be shook, and Eon took up the offer with a malicious grin that was only rivaled by the grin of Lucifer himself.

“Excellent,” Eon said.

“So where do we start, Fishbowl?”

“My name is Eon. And we shall start with those damned Assassins.”

Lucifer simply responded with a grin, and in a moment, the two of them vanished in a hail of purple light, leaving the void empty once again.

Not even the hum of silence dared to come out of hiding again.

------------

March 28, 2019; Roanoke Island, North Carolina

The Professor stood in the red-lit halls of the Devil's temple deep beneath the soils of Roanoke. He never liked this place. In any dimension really. It was a wildcard. An inconsistency that was different for every individual reality. He liked to have at least some predictability when he went travelling. But points such as this island did not offer him that, and it quite bugged him.

But nonetheless, he knew he had to be here. He looked down at the smooth ancient floor beneath his feet. More specifically, he looked down at the shattered remains of an artifact that laid in front of his shoes. It wasn't much, just a few tiny shards of gold and wires. But even so, it was always these little things that held the biggest impact on the destiny of existence. He crouched down to get a better look at the state of the broken triangular artifact, and made a tch noise with his tongue.

“Well it is a good thing dear Ms. Arlie didn't put anymore force into her stomp,” he said to himself. “Otherwise this whole matter could've gotten very complicated very fast.”

He stood back to his feet and pulled out his pocket watch, gazing at the hands on the clock face for a moment before smiling and closing it back up. “Right on schedule!” he said. “I do love it when things go the right way.”

He lifted up his foot, hovering it over the broken artifact, and suddenly brought it down hard, shattering it into even smaller pieces. It cracked and sparked as it came apart, with jolts of energy appearing and disappearing from it. Paradox smiled, stepping back and walking away as it pulsed and sparked.

“It's also rather nice when fixed points do my job for me,” he chuckled for himself. “I get to skip out on the dreadful labor of bringing folks across dimensions.”

He paused, pulling out his pocket watch once again and looking it over. “Oh dear. I was a few seconds late actually… I'm afraid they're in for a bumpy flight. Oh well. What's important is that they get here. I just hope I can get there in time before too much chaos breaks loose…”

There was a sudden flash of blue light as he gazed into his pocket watch and vanished into thin air, the light disappearing as quickly as it had appeared in the first place.

The only sound left in the temple was the mechanical hum of the ancient machinery and the crackling artifact that was just shattered by the professor's shoe. The bolts jolted and jumped into the air. And, more importantly, between realities itself, as it practically reached out to bring to this dimension the only people that could truly save it.

The only heroes whom Paradox knew would be capable of stopping Eon before it was too late.