Dr Synergy representing the League of Justice

In a laboratory deep within the streets of State City, the greatest mind in the world (at least as far as she was concerned) was about to forge her greatest creation. A weapon that even the deadly cult of Vestra would fear, one that even the damn League of Justice would fear, most importantly of all.

“They’ll be forced to remember my name after this. The whole world will know the name of DR SYNERGY! MWHAAHAAA!”

She could hardly wait for the heroes to see her newest creation. Sure, the Cult of Vestra might have gotten ahead of her in their task of destroying the world, but if nothing else, then Synergy would rule the ashes. Now all she needed was to-

*CRASH*

Synergy smiled. So the heroes were here at last; no longer did they think she was some 'amateur upstart' but a real threat to be taken seriously. She turned around, an entire monologue prepared in her head, just tingling on her tongue. She had spent hours practising in the bathroom mirror, and she had gotten her pitch just right.

"Ah, Golden Warrior. We meet at- hang on a minute. Who the fuck are you?"

Synergy's face scrunched into disgust at the sight of the superhero who was very clearly NOT Golden Warrior. Instead, he seemed to be a newbie, barely more than a sidekick. He barely looked older than eighteen, with basic fire powers and a simple, underwhelming red spandex outfit.

"The name's Fire Lantern, just got promoted, see." He flashed a badge of the League of Justice with an infuriatingly proud smile. "I'm here to bring you in."

Synergy, though, felt her face scrunch up in disgust at the sight of the badge. "A newbie? They sent a newbie to fight the deadly DR SYNERGY!"

"Well, who did you expect?" Fire Lantern asked, a little defensively.

"Golden Warrior! You know the world's greatest leader!? The leader of the League of Justice? Any of this ringing a bell?" Synergy asked, her voice slowing as if she was explaining two plus two to a toddler.

Fire Lantern gave out a dismissive snort. "Yeah, right, you're not even an F-tier villain. I don't think you're even on the tiers. I'm only here because your mad laughter is keeping my bros from sleeping in the apartment next door."

"AH HA!" Synergy declared, pointing a finger at Fire Lantern and glancing to the dorm room across the street. "Now I know your secret identity!

"Well, yeah. I post it on Facebook. I'm not one of those heroes who gets hung up over secret identities. Too much work these days." A confused Fire Lantern admitted, scratching the back of his head. "Hey, actually, I think you're the first villain I've dealt with since graduating from being a sidekick. So congrats."

"And your LAST!" Synergy declared, pointing a finger at Red Lantern. "For now, you will see the fruits of my unmitigated genius. Behold a selective acid compound combined with the hyper-advanced cosmic rays and accelerated with electromagnetic energy. All of which came together to make a monster of unique and unheard-of power. BEHOLD!"

She pressed a button on a remote, and immediately her test chamber opened up with a nasty hiss; smoke emerged from the chamber and filled her laboratory with an ominous fog. Fire Lantern covered his eyes with his sleeve as he emerged, what was sure to be the greatest terror that mankind had ever experienced.

"It's just a slug?" Fire Lantern looked confused. Obviously, he was terrified, overwhelmed by the sheer staggering terror of Synegy’s genius.

“Not just a slug. I call it Rankorr! Made of a unique substance that can dissolve through even the toughest titanium and raw bones. Advanced intellect capable of following advanced battle tactics and strategies, and topped off with an immense strength-to-mass density that can allow it to wrestle even Golden Warrior herself! Behold the weapon of the League's ultimate destruction!"

"Really? Why's it so small then?" Red Lantern asked, folding his arms in an annoyingly unimpressed fashion.

"The budget ran out," Synergy declared as confidently as ever. “Hydratropic acid doesn't come cheap and I was dealing with mounting electricity bills. And have you ever seen the price of cosmic ray satellites? I had to take out a massive loan for that alone. I’ve been eating outdated instant noodles for weeks!”

Rankorr was crawling across the floor like a snail, and about as threatening as one as well. Red Lantern looked down at Rankorr with amusement. He’d regret that.

“Get him, Rankorr! Get him! Get him! Get him!” Synergy cried, arms waving in the air as her great invention crawled limply towards Red Lantern. The meagre hero simply sighed and walked forward, not even bothering to slow his stride when his foot came crashing down on Synergy’s greatest creation with a loud splat.

“YOU WILL RUE THIS DAY, HERO! YOU WILL REGRET THIS MOMENT THAT YOU EVER DEFIED DR. SYNERGY! I WILL RETURN, I WILL REBUILD, AND I WILL UNLEASH A TERROR THAT YOU CAN NEVER COMPREHEND!” Fire Lantern walked forward, grabbed Synergy by the collar and started dragging her to prison. “YOU MIGHT BE VICTORIOUS TODAY, BUT ONE DAY I’LL RULE THE WORLD. AND YOUR SUFFERING WILL BE…um… SUPER DUPER PAINFUL! YEAH! AND-

Three hours later

“A DAY MAY COME WHERE THE VILLAINY OF SYNERGY ENDS! A DAY WHERE I GIVE UP AND GET A NORMAL JOB EATING FLIPPING BURGERS BUT IT’S NOT THIS DAY! THIS DAY I-

“Please. Shut up.” Flame Lantern begged, throwing her by the cuff into a prison cell. “You’re going to need a gag for this one.”

“I REGRET NOTTHIINNG!”

He marched off, leaving Synergy to take a seat and fold her arms impetuously. It wasn’t fair; she was able to make it big in the supervillain business. It wasn’t as if even the Cult of Vestra would have gotten as far as they did if they were working on Synergy’s budget.

Though that did mean that Synergy had learned to be resourceful. Like by pocketing Fire Lantern’s phone, for example. She pulled it out of her pocket and effortlessly hacked into the rudimentary security, and she could call for help. With the support of some friends on the outside, she'd be out of her cell in no time. There was just one problem.

She didn't have any friends on the outside. She didn't really have any friends in general. So really she had no use for the phone.

"Maybe I should create a Reddit post?" Synergy muttered to herself. "Looking for villains to break me out of prison? Any volunteers?"

She paced around her cell. For now, she didn't have a prison outfit yet, but she supposed that she'd get one later; for now, Red Lantern had just dumped her in a holding cell. Sloppy work, sloppy as one would expect from an inexperienced hero, just as it was so easy to pickpocket his phone.

Still, if nothing else, at least the phone would let her keep up to date with the current events on the news. It was always important for a towering intellect like herself to keep up with current events. Even as the world was clearly falling apart.

She doom-scrolled through the headlines.

Religious groups declare Vestra virus a curse from gods.

Again? Seriously, do they never learn about science?

Civil wars break out in Britain over government incompetence in Vestra virus.

Yeah, who wasn’t fighting each other any more? Being sterilised tended to do that to people.

Pregnant Texas woman revealed to be a fraud following shocking investigation.

What was really shocking was that people were still falling for this. The Vestra virus sterilised everyone. Full stop. Everywhere. Why people thought there were exceptions was beyond her.

Golden Warrior makes announcement about potential cure for Vestra virus.

That…that was interesting. Golden Warrior might be a pretentious prick, but she wasn’t a fool nor a liar. If she had something, then she was probably not speaking out of her ass.

Synergy’s finger pressed the link, and it took her to a livestream of her nemesis. The famous, the pretty, the powerful and endlessly pretentious Golden Warrior standing before the crowd. The crowd was divided in two; many had tears in their eyes, a display of their desperation, whilst others were angry and had fists raised in the air and screamed at the League of Justice.

“Calm down, calm down. This violence and anger get us nowhere. Listen first and then consider whether your anger is justified. Just hear me out." Golden Glow had a special power to appear gentle and firm at the same time. A power that went far beyond the strength of her superpowered muscles. Synergy had to admit that she had a talent for making others swallow her pretentious bullshit.

"We have all been maimed by the Vestra Virus that afflicted us a year ago. I want to reassure you all that the League of Justice did everything possible to try and stop them.” As soon as she said the words, she instantly regretted them. Rocks, bottles, fruit and even bricks were hurled at the superhero as cries of anger erupted from the crowd.

Synergy laughed. This was much more fun than any television. “Get her! Get her! Don’t use rocks; her skin will just bounce them off! Use something messier!”

The crowd was getting restless, and the other heroes who came to support Golden Warrior stepped forward to suppress the crowd. “No! Stop! Don’t hurt them!”

The heroes paused, looking upon their leader with confusion. “They have a right to be angry; we don’t need to fight them, we need to help them. And we can help them; we might…we can cure the Vestra Virus.”

Her words were not shouted, but they still broke through the mob’s roars. Where once there had been shouting and anger, there was simply now stunned disbelief and desperate hope. Synergy herself scoffed, but nevertheless continued to watch.

“This.” Golden Warrior held up a single letter. “Is an invitation from some sort of advanced alien race. We don't know where it came from, but we are absolutely certain it's genuine and sincere. The invitation is for us to send a champion to this contest of nations; should we emerge victorious, then the Vestra Virus will be cured."

The normally unflappable Golden Warrior paused; she seemed desperate. Desperate for the crowd to believe her, but ultimately there was no need to doubt; something about the letter seemed to pierce through their year-long frustration and humiliation of being sterilised and convince them that this would indeed cure the virus. Even Synergy believed it, knew it to be true.

"I will volunteer myself as our people's champion." Golden Warrior declared, visibly relieved that the crowd had calmed down and gained hope again. "Whatever the cost may be, I shall devote every bit of my power, my body and my soul to cure this plague and give this world a future. And this I promise you, as long as I live, I will ensure that there will be hope for our world. And that we WILL have a future!"

The rage was gone; the disappointment and frustration had given way to hope. Synergy had to give Golden Warrior credit for how she was able to manipulate the mouth breathers.

“You can do this, Golden Warrior!”

“We believe in you!”

“We will have children again!”

“We stand with Justice! We stand with Justice! We stand with Justice!”

Synergy felt a headache forming in her skull, as it often did when she heard that damn chant. Lord knew that she hated it, like she could feel her brain cells commit suicide one by one. She closed her link and folded her arms. So what if the League of Justice might have a cure for the Vestra virus? All it meant was that they’d be distracted when it was time for Synergy’s next master plan.

Speaking of which, it might be worth putting some thought on that.

“Okay, so Rakorr was a bust; maybe I should start looking into different applications of Solar Rays? Maybe I could make a tractor beam to pull the moon into the Earth… no, Golden Warrior would just push it back into place. Hmm…” It was a tricky problem. She supposed she would have to wait for opportunity to come knocking.

And it was right at that moment that Synergy found herself being lurched through space and time.

Alex Mason

The third of the girls that Hera had summoned appeared before him, this time though she didn’t seem to come from any kind of fantasy world like Ashara and Orbita. This one appeared to be a scientist of some sort if the goggles on her head and lab coat were any indication. How many different worlds could Hera draw from? How many were there? Infinite like the movies?

And Alex was expected to judge them? Hold their nations in their hands? Alex couldn’t help but feel more and more nervous. He’d already quickly realised that he was over his head, but more and more it was looking like that would be an understatement. Mountains high over his head now. Magic seemed to be unveiled before him casually, and now superheroes.

This new girl was different from Orbita and Ashara, though. Beyond simply the more modern outfit and that she looked as if she hadn't just stepped out of a fantasy story, she looked around the room not with a sense of duty or disdain. Rather, she started giggling and smiling with a mad glint in her eyes.

"Now what do we have here?" She asked, emerald eyes darting around with unparalleled speech. Alex felt them land on him, and he suddenly felt as if he was under a microscope.

"Right here, my dear Dr Synergy, is where you have been chosen to represent the League of Justice in this humble Contest of Nations," Hera said, a wicked grin forming on her face. For a moment, Synergy seemed to be surprised, but then her wicked grin grew wider.

"Oh, so I see. Poor little Golden Warrior thought that she could volunteer herself for this position.” Synergy purred, a hand to her mouth as she giggled. There was a malice in her similar to Orbita, but this malice was less refined, more childlike. Over Synergy’s shoulder, Alex could see Orbita studying Synergy intently whilst Ashara looked at Synergy with concern and worry. "Looks like she doesn't get to select her champion. You hear that, Golden Warrior; if you're watching, then know this! I'm better than you!

They were braver than Alex, who was too timid to look at this mad woman.

Hera herself seemed to enjoy Synergy’s presence. “Oh, this one’s fast on the uptake, one of the first to understand my genius. Yes, we chose you because you had the qualities we needed for this contest, and more importantly for the DRAMA! The Excitement! And the CHALLENGE of watching former foes try to work together for victory!"

Synergy folded her arms, her grin growing more smug, more excited. Her eyes darted around the palace, looking for a hidden camera. "And Golden Warrior is watching me right now?"

"All the people of the world are watching you right now." Hera teased, smugly. "Anything you'd like to say to them."

"Looks like the whole world’s depending on me now, League of Justice, and I’ve got only four words to say to all of you!”

“Fuck all of you!”

Without another word, Synergy turned on her heel with a smug grin on her face and sat down with her arms folded as she had already won the game.

“This one will be fun,” Ashara muttered with no shortage of sarcasm, and Alex couldn’t help but agree.

“Curious,” Orbita said, eyeing Synergy like she was a weapon she could use. “Most curious indeed.”

Alex didn’t like the greedy look in her eyes, or at least he thought it was a greedy look. He could be wrong; he wasn’t exactly very good at reading people.

“Looks like we’ve got a wildcard in this race. I’ll give our audience the rundown for this world because we’ve got three more beauties to get through.” Hera’s golden eyes were sparkling with enjoyment as she pointed a gleaming red fingernail at the screen, which had changed to become a superhero symbol.

“It’s your typical kitchen sink superhero world. Big evil monsters, noble heroes of justice, impossibly tight spandex suits, galore. Epic battles, steamy romances, endless retcons and deaths that just won’t stick.” Hera giggled at her own joke. “But in all seriousness, all these wild and wacky characters were kept together in an alliance called the League of Justice (wonder where they got the name from?) that kept evil at bay. At least until they failed.”

The screen changed again to mimic Hera’s words, this time a microscopic view of some kind of pathogen. The viruses seemed to pulse with a gross green energy. “Then one day they were just a little too late, and an environmentalist cult called the Cult of Vestra unleashed a nasty little virus called the Vestra virus. Sterilising the entire population of their Earth in an instant."

Alex's hair on his neck stuck up at the ends; a lump of disgust filled his stomach. Watching the pathogens spread across the screen like rocks in a river, knowing that they had caused a genocide.

"Personally, I don't know what they were all so worried about. I mean, free fucking without worrying about childcare, who wouldn't want that?" There was no joke in Hera's mind, even though her lips were curled into a bright smile. "But I guess they all had breeding fetishes or something cause the whole world started to collapse quickly afterwards. Anyway, the League of Justice have been given this one chance to cure the Vestra Virus. But our genius writing staff, aka me, thought we'd throw in a twist and see if the League of Justice can successfully work with a low-level villainess failure-"

"HEY!"

"-to win the contest. Can evil and good come together and save their world? Or will the differences between these two sides cost them their one chance? You'll have to tune in to know."

The blaiseness in Hera's voice made Alex uncomfortable, even sick to the stomach. But he wasn't brave enough to save anything; he knew better than to antagonise this goddess. But still, he hated himself for not doing anything, for being unable to find the guts necessary to do more than grip the edges of his seat in disgust. She was talking about the fate of billions, of genocide, like it was some kind of game. A game she danced to and played game show music to.

"But we're not done yet. We've had a harsh warrior, a bloody tyrant and a scientist who smells like she just came out of the gutter-"

"Again, HEY!"

"But what we need now is some class and sophistication. We're altering history to see what would have happened if imperialism never ended and the Europeans still ruled the world in the 21st century. A Baroness you'll want to rule you, give it up for BARONESS VON VANITE!"