Hovering six feet above a small bed the Callisto Rod dimly pulsed and flared it's unearthly light muted. The pop of its arrival and the intense flash of light had failed to wake the teenager sleeping below and a final command prevented the ancient artifact from doing more.
Had anyone been watching they would have been struck by a feeling of impatience. Henshin rods are not self aware. It was not capable of processing the memories copied from its masters, but it was well over 20,000 years old and floating silently waiting for the inauguration of the next Senshi went against it's core design. Not to mention nearly 3000 years of programming. It's complex network of esper interface circuits were not digital circuits, it understood values far more than all or nothing. Only a tiny number of circuits containing the Henshin rod's final order were holding it silent and they were feeling the strain.
The Callisto Henshin rod was in a state very similar to what humans called impatience. Almost reluctantly the Rod hovered, betrayed only by seemingly random flickers and flares in it's cold flame. The two orbiting rings creating flickering shadows. Shadows that seemed to to almost evoke memories of an ancient dance played across the walls of Zatanna's room.
"Get that sensor array on line! Move it! Move it! I don't care what our fleet is doing, shed the loads. The Nautilus and the rest of the fleet can get by on emergency power. I want the teleporter at full power in thirty seconds, divert the power now! Get it done NOW!" the little man screamed.
Dark hair flying wild the little man continued screaming orders even as his hands flew over controls pressing buttons and carefully positioning gemstone quality crystals the size of his head, altering the configuration of the strange machine around him. He was standing in a surreal vision. A machine that seemed to be equal parts the mad dream of a victorian future married to a mercury tube past and anointed with the red glow of LEDs from the digital now.
Adolf abruptly grew silent, his face taking on a frown of concentration, his movements becoming slow and precise as a soft pop heralded the formation of a eye watering rip in reality at the center of the teleport grid.
After a few seconds of staring into insanity, he started lowering his personal artifact into what some would described as an rip in reality. The small Crystal skull's descent stopped, its slight sway suddenly frozen. The golden chain attached to the top going slack as the crystal seemed to wedge in nothing. Part of the skull seemed to twist and vanishing, going nowhere. His eyes glazing, Adolf's face took on a half crazed look of intense concentration, his tiny mustachio twitching. It was a look not seen in thirty years. A look seen in the red glow of the digital displays sending shivers down the spines of all who were present.
The little man's esper abilities linked by his personal artifact and powered by a major portion of Mystery Islands generating capacity manipulated the forces in and around the rip. This was creating a point of congruence through a higher dimension. Not for only an instant as was normal, but for longer. Long enough to see, long enough to recover and most especially long enough to kill. Smiling at the last thought Adolf's mind pulled more power storing it in the rip, banking it for when he moved.
Using a sixth sense that the artifact boosted and focused, Adolf mentally reached into what he quickly determined was an electrical substation near Chicago and began his search. That the point of congruence had formed in such a place was not a surprise, it was an inherent trait for a unfocused teleport to link to such. Ignoring the substation that surrounded his awareness, he reached out. Looking, feeling and searching for what had once been and would be again the League's Henshin rod.
Thirty seconds later, he snarled in frustration. It wasn't a surprise, but he had hoped to find them the first try. The thieves had activated the stealth mode for the linking and the rod was fuzzing its location, creating a huge zone of uncertainty. Pausing, Adolf confirmed the feeling that said 'west' before allowing his awareness to return to his body.
His awareness firmly back in his body, Adolf smiled and performed an act that was to be repeated eight more times that night and released roughly 1,300,000 joules of energy in the form of a spark that grounded though the substation. Adolf would consider, in the coming weeks, the reports on the destruction and death caused by those eight widely spaced substations as an incomplete down payment on what was to come. America and Americans had hindered him far too many times and it was high time they pay for denying him the world.
Zatanna stiffened, coming out of a deep sleep at the sounds of frantic car horns and a loud crash. Not yet fully awake, the groggy fifteen year old fumbled at the lamp next to her bed. She grumbled when several sharp clicks did not immediately brighten the darkness of her room.
"Come on light! Stupid lamp, I need light!" the girl's sleepy grumble was answered instantly, but not by her lamp. A cold, gray and unearthly glow filled the room with its intensity, brightening the room and making harsh shadows dance and circle on the wall. Zatanna did not notice that her commands were answered not by her repeated clicks, and a surge of electricity and an incandescent glow, but by the light of a more distant sun filtered through an alien atmosphereand collected from the surface of another planets moon.
Zatanna blinked, winced at the temperature change and rubbed her eyes once more. Standing in front of her window, she blinked confusedly at the darkness. The entire town was dark and all she could see was the head lights or tail lights of a few cars. Some were moving, some were not. Hearing loud angry voices through the glass, she looked down to her left and saw in the blackness, car dome lights, tail lights and a single functional headlight glaring from what must be two cars crumpled together in the intersection. Dimly, her sleep fuzzed mind processed the thought that the power must be out and an instant later, a second thought came to her that was a question which cleared the fuzz away with a surge of fear. Why was her room lit?
Whirling, she shoved the heavy curtain aside and froze at a familiar sight hovering over her bed. Thanks to a ticking wall clock almost directly behind the floating Henshin rod, Zatanna knew how long she stood frozen. The second hand spun through three short eternities before the teenager gathered her courage to grasp the memories that might be her father's last.
Taking a deep breath, the teenager who had argued long and hard for what was now hers sobbed quietly, eye dry of tears. Reluctantly Zatanna reached with her left hand and her mind. Her mind touched the Henshin rod first and in spite of some daydreams, the minimal training her father had allowed and her determination to remain in control, the world vanished in a swirl of power and shadowy memories as the Callisto rod completed a task placed on hold thirty-five years before almost with joy. It went about linking thousands of years of history and the power of a moon to her very soul.
Lady Titan staggered as the soul deep feeling of a Senshi's birth washed through her mind and body. Her hands clenched, crushing and splintering the mahogany banister. The passing invisible shockwaves awoke feeling and brought memories. Almost against her will Titan relived in an instant her mothers last thoughts and death. The event forced a single soft word "Callisto" from the Senshi's lips. Spoken more as a curse than a name and filled with a deep hatred.
Fighting to hold back the tears and rebury her mothers last memories Lady Titan turned and stepped from the small balcony and entered the council chamber. Though her vision was blurred by tears, it still allowed her to see there had been no change in the large holographic image of North America. The orbital view floating over the council's mahogany round table was unchanged, she had entertained a small hope that the final linking would produce a refinement in the data. Sadly it showed only a large patch of red covering most of the United States.
Ignoring the flurry of worried speculation from the other members of Avalon's council Lady Titan stood staring at the map for almost a minute and then turned and silently made her way back to the balcony.
Leaning on the banister Lady Titan looked over the city and thought sadly "The city has joined me in my sadness." The sky over the lake had cleared in the short moments she had been inside and the sun light filtering through eight feet of lake water was painting Avalon a meloncholly blue.