By the time the rest of us reach the building, De Brown Streak is waiting for us. “Mission accomplished, Hatster.”

    “Did you find Book?”

    “Negatory. He’s not in there.”

    “Okay, we’ll have to figure out how the Word got entrenched in there later. Floor by floor search team, radio as soon as you encounter the Word, Pelopia, or Order Hatman. Don’t engage by yourself, wait for back-up.”

    “Allow me to spare you the search. We are on a timetable.”

    We all whirl around to see the Word and the rest of our quarry on the front steps of the building. The others gasp as they see Order Hatman. He glows a brilliant white, energy crackling all around him. The blank look on his face proves that he’s under the Word’s control.

    “For those of you unaware, I am the Word. This is Pelopia, the Priestess of Logos. I believe you know Magistratus, though under a different name. I see you’ve spared us the time of hunting you down. My thanks for that. As I said, we’re on a schedule.”

    “Ooh, it’s never good when the hero gets renamed as a villain. Sue Richards as Malice took the entire FF apart, and when Hal Jordan became Parallax he managed to rewrite all of creation, though at least now we know why he did it…”

    “Not now Dream.” If I let him he’ll ramble on and on and we really need to focus on the task at hand. “Plan’s still the same, team. Let’s do it!”

    “Abandoned Legion line up!” CSFB! makes a bee-line straight for Pelopia. Before he can reach her a tendril of power from Magistratus slaps him away.

    “I think not. Magistratus, deal with them.” The Word smugly takes a few steps back as his champion steps forward. I knew he’d hide behind his new toy, and my team is ready for it.

    De Brown Streak blurs around Magistratus, launching a literal flurry of punches, trying to penetrate the energy field surrounding him. With a flick of his wrist Magistratus knocks him away, but DBS gets right back up and renews his assault. He moves so fast you can barely tell he was knocked back at all.

    Dream bounds over Magistratus to deal with Pelopia. We don’t need her defeated outright, just occupied, and nobody is better suited to the job than Dream. “In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight! All those who worship evil’s might, beware my power, the sugar high!” Dream’s still on the Parallax kick.

    The Shoggoth oozes forward to engulf the Word. Whitney’s having to strain herself enough trying to keep Magistratus out of our heads, we don’t need the Word’s Voice of Reason for her to battle with as well. The Word tries to command him to stop, but the Shoggoth ignores him.

    Whitney murmurs incantations as she focuses her power. She’s going to try and purge the Word’s commands from Magistratus, but she warned me when I first suggested it that it would be difficult. She’s not a telepath, but the compulsion lodged in Magistratus’ mind isn’t natural, and as she is attuned to the natural order she might be able to remove it. I really wish we had a telepath on days like this.

    My job is to protect Whitney while she works up the spell. Seeing as how I have no powers, it’s not the easiest assignment, but there’s not much else I can do. I make myself a target, luring his fire away from her. I manage to evade most of his blasts, and the ones I don’t DBS blurs me out of the way before going back to trying to penetrate the energy field.

    “Okay, I’m ready!” Sorceress glows with energy as well, the winds stirred up blowing through her flowing hair. “Get out of there…now!” She unleashes a bolt of pure mystical force that narrowly misses me, even with De Brown Streak pulling me out of the way. It slams into Magistratus, and we all hold our breath waiting to see if he shakes the Word’s control.

    There’s no effect.

    “What?” Sorceress is shocked, as are we all. Except for CrazySugarFreakBoy!, who is still bounding around the angry Pelopia. “That should have removed anything unnatural from his mind!"

    “The Word’s word is that of Order, and our boy over there is a being of pure Order now too. To him, the influence of the Word isnatural!” All this talk of Order, it gives me an idea.

    “Josh, switch it up with Dream! Whitney, stall Magistratus any way you can! Dream, I need to talk to you, now! And Shoggoth, why isn’t the Word incapacitated yet?!”

    “He is a most interesting individual. His training with the Serious Matter is proving it very hard to drive him insane. It’s quite intriguing.”

    “We don’t have time for intriguing! Help Whitney with Magistratus! Josh!”

    “On it!” On his way to battle Pelopia De Brown Streak decks the Word even as the Shoggoth slides off, rendering the villain unconscious. I had a brief hope that the hold he had on Magistratus would falter, but it doesn’t. At least we don’t have to worry about the Word for now. Sometimes we go for the complicated when the simple works much better. I’ll have to remember that.

    “What’s up leader man?” Dream stops next to me, though I can tell he’s itching to get back to the fight.

    “I have a theory that needs to be tested. Do you have your yo-yo?”

    CrazySugarFreakBoy! pulls his Go-Go Yo-Yo out. “I don’t think this can stop the omni-powerful force that Sorceress and Shoggy are barely containing from wiping us all out, but you’re the boss.”

    “Try and hit him with it.”

    “You serious?”

    “You betcha.”

    A knowing gleam came to Dream’s eye. “Ahhhh, gotcha. Good call! Here goes!” Dream bounds over to Magistratus, who is occupied with a battle of wills with the Sorceress. She looks ready to drop while he hasn’t broken a sweat. The Shoggoth is oozing around the shield protecting him, forcing Magistratus to divide his attention. CSFB! lets the weapon fly, and it penetrates the shield.

    “Impossibilitium to the rescue!” Magistratus turns to Dream and registers him as a threat. I think he considered the rest of us to be mere annoyances. He diverts his attention from Whitney and lets a blast fly at Dream. The beam is so wide that Dream can’t dodge it, and he is sent spinning away. He lands unconscious fifty meters away.

    “I….can’t….hold him….much longer.” I rush to Whitney’s side to support her while the Shoggoth tries to completely envelop Magistratus. With a pulsing light my counterpart disperses the Shoggoth, little bits of him exploding everywhere. He’ll be fine, but it’ll take some time for him to reform.

    De Brown Streak is stalemated with Pelopia. Dream told me before that she has complete control of her body. I’ll bet that means she can shuffle pain around to non-essential areas, otherwise Josh would have taken her down by now.

    “I’m…sorry Jay. I…I can’t…” I catch Whitney as she falls, and lay her gently to the ground. With nobody to occupy his attention, Magistratus turns to De Brown Streak and blasts him as he did Dream. Fortunately he hit Pelopia as well, so at least he took her down to.

    That leaves me, with no powers and out of allies, to face off a force powerful enough to take down some of our most powerful members without actually leaving the spot he stands upon.

    “Is to be Spaaaaannnnkkkkiiiiinngg Rrrraaaaayyyyyy!!” A cosmic force impacts with Magistratus, hurling him into the building behind him. I whirl around to see Yo clutching Space Ghost’s Spank Ray.

    “Yo, you’re okay! How did you escape?”

    “Yo is to be escaping to the Happy Place once cute-Hatty and cute-Dream are to be escaping. Now Yo is back to be kicking of butting with cute-Space Ghostings Spank Ray.” Even in the face of extreme adversity there’s a smile on Yo’s face. I grin back before I see Magistratus floating free of the rubble.

    “Yo, I have a plan, but you need to keep him busy. How long will the Spank Ray last?”

    “As longing as Yo needs it to being.”

    “Good. Buy me some time!” I race to CrazySugarFreakBoy!’s side as Yo unleashes another Spank Ray blast. This time Magistratus is ready, and he shores up his frontal shields. Fortunately he didn’t catch on before that the Spank Ray doesn’t hit you in the front. He’s sent spinning away again, and Yo keeps up the assault.

    “Dream? Dream, are you okay?” I feel stupid asking, because it’s quite obvious he’s not, but what else am I supposed to say? I check his pulse and his heart rate. He should be fine, he’s just unconscious. “I hope this works. I’ll make this up to you later buddy.”

    As I begin to enact my plan, I spare a moment to check on Yo. Magistratus is actually pushing the Spank Ray back at Yo! The pure thought being actually seems to flicker as s/he fights back. The Spank Ray is a cosmic weapon, but for someone besides Space Ghost to operate it the wielder must fully believe in its power. Normally that would mean in the hands of Yo it should be almost unstoppable, but it looks like s/he is using up all his/her substance to maintain it. I hurry things up; I have no intentions of losing Yo again.

    “Magistratus! Turn and face me! I am your true enemy!” Primal forces surge within me, and I feel a power to rival Magistratus’ own. I step forward in CrazySugarFreakBoy!’s Silly Suit. His Impossibilitium-substance-of-chaos suit, now being wielded by a being of pure chaos. “You’re up against the HatChaoticCappedCrusader!”

    Even as Yo falls Magistratus turns, and hate flares up in his eyes. He recognizes his enemy, and that enemy is me.

    “Let’s finish this.”

To be continued and maybe concluded, even though I think I said that last time