*Elsewhere*
This world troubles him more than the others he's walked. He stands amid the wreckage of Kansas, the massive, armored man kneeling amid the radioactive dust, his eyes soaked.
The road does not pull him far. Time shifts around him, and he is ... elsewhere. The General Assembly of the United Nations. People are screaming and panicking around him. The walls are shaking. Earthquake?
No.
He looks up, and sees Superman above him -- only, not the man he knows. Older, his costume darker. His face is etched with rage, and he's about to bring the building down on all of them.
Beneath the mantle of Nau, Hector Hall shudders, and prepare to abandon his role of neutral observor. He can't allow this. Can't allow these people to ...
And then the Man of Steel is gone, as though he were never there. The ceiling begins to collapse entirely.
A flash of light erupts from Fate's fingertips before the thought has even fully formed, and the rubble is suspended in the air. Fate lowers it gently to the ground, standing revealed among the chaos. Politicians begin to crowd around him, asking questions to which he has no answers. This isn't his Earth. He doesn't know what happened here. He doesn't know what happened to Superman.
Fate's blood freezes as an ankh-shaped glow appears in the hole in the ceiling, and this world's Dr. Fate appears. But to Hector's horror, this entity is only Nabu, with no human host. By the Lord of Order's side are several heroes, many he recognizes -- Jade, Alan Scott, Batman. All older, all ragged from some apocalyptic battle.
The two Fate's stare at each other, and it becomes abundantly clear that he doesn't belong here. The Batman is interrogating him, demanding to know where Kal-El has gone, but Hector Hall doesn't know.
The universe is out of joint. All universes are out of joint. He has seen the extent of the damage -- from Gemworld to Skartaris and now to this world, which he believed was dead. But then, the girl Nightstar still lives. Perhaps no world truly dies. He doesn't know.
Nor does he have time to answer Batman's questions. It's time to move on. Follow the damage. Seek answers.
The road does not pull him far. Time shifts around him, and he is ... elsewhere. The General Assembly of the United Nations. People are screaming and panicking around him. The walls are shaking. Earthquake?
No.
He looks up, and sees Superman above him -- only, not the man he knows. Older, his costume darker. His face is etched with rage, and he's about to bring the building down on all of them.
Beneath the mantle of Nau, Hector Hall shudders, and prepare to abandon his role of neutral observor. He can't allow this. Can't allow these people to ...
And then the Man of Steel is gone, as though he were never there. The ceiling begins to collapse entirely.
A flash of light erupts from Fate's fingertips before the thought has even fully formed, and the rubble is suspended in the air. Fate lowers it gently to the ground, standing revealed among the chaos. Politicians begin to crowd around him, asking questions to which he has no answers. This isn't his Earth. He doesn't know what happened here. He doesn't know what happened to Superman.
Fate's blood freezes as an ankh-shaped glow appears in the hole in the ceiling, and this world's Dr. Fate appears. But to Hector's horror, this entity is only Nabu, with no human host. By the Lord of Order's side are several heroes, many he recognizes -- Jade, Alan Scott, Batman. All older, all ragged from some apocalyptic battle.
The two Fate's stare at each other, and it becomes abundantly clear that he doesn't belong here. The Batman is interrogating him, demanding to know where Kal-El has gone, but Hector Hall doesn't know.
The universe is out of joint. All universes are out of joint. He has seen the extent of the damage -- from Gemworld to Skartaris and now to this world, which he believed was dead. But then, the girl Nightstar still lives. Perhaps no world truly dies. He doesn't know.
Nor does he have time to answer Batman's questions. It's time to move on. Follow the damage. Seek answers.