Hades shook his head with disappointment while he gazed into the portal to the other world--the world of magic that still wasn't his. 'I still cannot understand how I have not made that magic my own,' he seethed, and his anger caused the souls within the pit beneath him to howl with agony. 'Those who wield this magic are nothing more than children and yet they defy me at...no, it is not them. It is Diana. She is who keeps interfering.'
"This is what I get for being soft," Hades said to the soul he was clutching in his hand, a soul as black as the night. "For sending in Diana so that no one would be hurt. I should have just used you from the beginning and dealt with the souls you'd send my way afterwards. But no, I had to be nice. That will not happen again."
Hades then placed the soul into the center of his chamber and began to channel his power, giving form to the soul. Muscles formed from sand, and blood made of ash made up the body of the being, but before Hades could finish he felt his minion in the other world call out to him.
"Lord Hades, can you hear me?" Agatha asked through the vortex. Hades sighed with disappointment as he ceased working on the soul and turned towards the portal. Through it he could see the smiling face of the young girl, but Hades' face was anything but thrilled to see her.
"Why do you bother me? I am far too busy right now to be bothered with the likes of you," he replied in a cold tone that made the souls of the dead shiver.
"But master Hades, I bring news! I destroyed the source of communication between Sunset and her friends' world!" Agatha said, eyes beaming as she awaited praise from Hades. Instead, the Dark God sneered as he snapped his fingers and brought forth an image of the Earth.
"Do you know what this is? This is your world. And this," he began as he snapped his fingers once more and revealed a barrier of purple energy around it. "Is the barrier that is keeping me out. And it is getting stronger. In order for it to be doing so, Sunset must still be communicating with her friends on the other side. Which means that either she has a second way to contact her friends, or that you failed in your task."
"But that's impossible! I saw how she was talking with her friends! I destroyed the book myself!" Agatha argued, but Hades held up a hand to silence her.
"Did you check to see if the book you destroyed held the same magical properties as the girls?" Hades asked. The lack of answer answered for her. "Then it is clear that what you destroyed was a decoy, and that Sunset has once again proven herself superior to you."
"T-that can't be," Agatha stammered out as Hades turned away from her. "Lord Hades, please, give me another chance! I'll find the real-"
"No!" Hades said, silencing her with that single word. "You have done nothing but fail me when I instruct you with even the most miniscule of tasks. You are not only a failure as my trainee, but you are a failure at simply being useful. No, be silent and do not ruin anything else, lest I turn my wrath upon you."
Without waiting to hear what excuse she would come up with, Hades ceased communication with Agatha and turned back towards the black soul. To his surprise, he found that the sheer willpower of the soul had finished the rest of its body. The being was staggering towards Hades at a turtle's pace, but its eyes glowed with a red light as it extended a hand towards the Ruler of the Dead. But the hand it extended wasn't an attempt to get help. It was an attempt to kill Hades.
"Hello there, resident of my land," Hades greeted. The being let out a weak sound before it lunged forward towards the God of the Dead. Even with his godly strength, Hades was still pushed back as the creature slammed into his chest. "Enough," Hades decided, snapping his fingers and causing black chains to erupt from the ground and restrain the creature, bringing it down to its knees.
"You believe your chains can hold me?" the being asked in a weak whisper, but even as it struggled with its ungodly power against its bonds, Hades simply smiled at the display. "You cannot keep me down here. I will break free! And I will have my vengeance!"
"And all I wish to do is help you obtain your vengeance," Hades said in a voice like silk to the being, calming it down to the point where it did not struggle. "See, you are currently dead, but if you do a little something for me, I will repay you by restoring you to life. And then you will be free to exact your revenge on whomever you desire." The being went quiet for a moment before nodding up at Hades.
Hades smiled as he snapped his fingers and turned the chains to smoke, allowing the being to rise once more. "All I ask that you do, is go to another world and bring me the six girls there that wield a magic that you will be able to sense," Hades explained as he raised both hands towards the being, continuing the work that he had begun.
"Is that all I need to do?" the being asked Hades as skin began to form across its form.
"Well, there is something else you could do that I would greatly appreciate. While you are in that world, kill Wonder Woman." The being smiled with its newly reformed lips as Hades said this and let out a laugh that even the Lord of the Dead didn't enjoy hearing.
"Kill Wonder Woman? Hmph, I would have done that eventually," the being replied as it reached up and stroked its facial hair. "But since the opportunity has presented itself...how can I say no?"
=wWw=
The hundreds of students roared as the soccer ball was intercepted by Rainbow Dash's face, stopping its trajectory towards the Canterlot High goal. Dash used her forehead to slam the ball to the ground, where she began to kick it up the field while weaving in an out of the other team. Three of Crystal Prep's fastest players raced up to stop her, but the rainbow-haired girl smirked before kicking the ball over their heads. Then, in front of the dumbfounded girls, she performed a backflip and kicked the ball across the field and into the opponent's goal.
"And Rainbow Dash ties it up three to three!" the voice of Celestia rang across the soccer field, getting wild cheers from Canterlot High's side while the Crystal Prep students roared in anger from the other side. Dash raced across the field while blowing kisses to her school before turning and making faces at the opposing team.
"She's going to get kicked out of the game if she keeps acting like that," Sunset said with a shake of her head.
"Really, a lady should behave herself better. Then again, Dash isn't much of a lady," Rarity muttered from beside Sunset.
"She's Rainbow Dash. And that's all she's ever gonna be," Applejack said from behind the two before glancing down at Sunset. "So how ya feeling, Sunset? Diana manage to help ya with whatever ya were going through last week?"
"Yes, actually. She really...opened my eyes," Sunset said with a warm smile that was not lost on her friends.
"I'm glad that you're feeling better," Fluttershy said from Sunset's other side before glancing down at her bunny, who was holding up a sign that said he demanded to see blood. "Angel, what are you doing here? I thought I left you at home?"
"He probably wanted to see the biggest game in the history of Canterlot High!" Pinkie exclaimed, sending pieces of all of the candy and popcorn that she had been eating all over her friends. "I mean, we're all tied up with Crystal Prep in both the soccer game and points overall! If we win this, then it will be the first time in, like, ever that we beat them! Hopefully those clouds go away so the game doesn't get canceled. Nobody would want that."
"Well, right now we seem to be doing well, but Crystal Prep has figured out that Dash is their biggest threat and have moved more of their players to cover her," Twilight observed before writing some notes down on the pad she had brought with her. "However, that has also left a hole on the left side of the field that our team can take advantage of if we-"
"Dash takes the ball right up the center," Sunset finished for Twilight, who glanced up to see that Dash had once again stolen the ball from the other team. "Now I see why she was so desperate to play. She's really making this into her game."
"Yes, but I'm confused as to why she's playing," Twilight muttered, with the concern in her tone drawing her friends in close. "She showed me her test that she passed to return to soccer, but after adding up the numbers she shouldn't have gotten a grade high enough to satisfy Diana's request. Did Diana just let her back onto the team?"
"Yeah, that sounds like something Diana would do. It makes no sense and none of us can understand why she'd do it, but it makes sense," Rarity said.
"What is something I would do?" All six heads spun around to see that Diana was standing behind their bleachers, a bottle of water in hand as she watched the game. "I swear the amount of money people charge for bottled water is insane. Water should be free, or at the very least cheaper than this."
"Diana! You actually showed up!" Sunset said with happiness in every word.
"Of course I did. Considering how badly you've been pestering me for the last five days, I feared for what might happen if I didn't show," Diana replied with a smirk before sitting down in an empty spot behind Sunset. The crowd exploded around them as another of the players on Canterlot High's team scored another goal. "We have this won. Every time Crystal Prep focuses all of their efforts on stopping Dash, another of her team members will use their openings to score. All this game is now, is how many goals can they stop."
"That would be such a nice way to start the semester. Knowing that if we won, we'd never have to hear from Crystal Prep how better they are than us," Fluttershy muttered, Angel nodding his head in agreement before waving his sign around.
"It's been one heck of a semester already and that's only a few months in," Applejack added before giving Diana a look. "So, do you have anything else crazy planned for the rest of the year, or are ya saving some of your tricks for the year after this one?"
"Actually Applejack, it's very unlikely that I will be returning for the next school year," Diana informed them. All of the girls save Sunset gasped and turned their attention towards the teacher.
"But you're one of the best teachers that we've had in a long time! You keep Sombra in check! No one keeps Sombra in check!" Rarity informed Diana.
"You also give the best tests! Tests with tricky questions and riddles within riddles and...it's so much fun being in your class!" Twilight said.
"Yes, I know. But to be perfectly honest, I wasn't really sure that I would be a teacher here until very late. And even then, I had no intentions of staying long," Diana informed the girls. "It was more of a last minute thing. And there are many more people out there who need me far more than you do. I know that I haven't been here long, but I can already see that this school (and this world) are in good hands."
"D-do you know when you'll be leaving?" Sunset asked in a morose tone. Diana gave her a kind smile before gently placing her hands on Sunset's shoulder.
"Do not worry, I plan to leave at the end of the semester. After all, I have to make sure that you all actually learned in my class and just weren't getting by through luck." Most of the girls chuckled at those words, except for Sunset, who stared at the ground while gripping her drink tight. The crowd around the group then started to boo, and all of them looked up to see that Crystal Prep had managed to steal the ball back and score a goal in the process.
"Well, seems they have some fight left in them after all," Diana muttered as she gazed up at the score board. "And barely ten minutes into the game. This game sure does take a long time."
"Most sports generally do, "Applejack stated.
"Not the ones that I participated in," Diana muttered as she took another sip.
"Well, maybe that's because your superhuman strength crushes any that stand in your way," Pinkie pointed out, getting her a look from Diana. "What? We were all there when you obliterated Sunset's door. You scary."
"Right...girls, about the other day and my attitude-"
"You were worried about Sunset. There's nothing to be sorry for," AJ cut off.
Any other words that Diana was going to say were cut off by the roar of the crowd as Dash stole the ball from a Crystal Prep player and began to race down the field with it. The crowd of Canterlot High students leapt to their feet as Dash cleared by defender after defender, until all that was left was her and the goalie. Every eye in the stadium was upon Dash as she and the goalie sized each other up, leaving Dash to smirk as she brought her leg back and prepared to kick the ball in.
KRA-BOOM!
The sky was blasted apart as something came flying down with such speeds that it blasted apart both the sound barrier and the ground of the stadium as it impacted. The players and crowd screamed as they were knocked off their feet by the impact, which created a massive crater in the center of the field. Before any could wonder what was going on, a blast of red light erupted from the crater and incinerated the goal next to Rainbow Dash.
"What in the world?!" Diana roared as the crowd screamed, leaping to her feet as she began to head down to the field. But then something else came flying out of the crater, something that grabbed Dash by the throat and lifted her into the air with no effort. The crowd and the girls with Diana stared at the being in shock, none of them able to register the speed at which it had moved. But only Diana had been able to follow the being's movements, and what she saw in the being before her terrified Diana. For the creature was a man, a man with black hair and facial hair upon his face. But it wasn't at his face where Diana was looking. It was at his chest and the symbol that was upon it.
"Greetings, pathetic beings of this Earth. I am Zod. And before this day is done, you will kneel before me," Zod informed the crowd before turning his gaze to the crowd before him. "But before I conquer all of you, I have a simple question. Where are you, Wonder Woman?!"
ZOD?! IS HADES CRAZY! ARE YOU CRAZY HADES?!! IS HE CRAZY?!
Holy crap, Zod's back! Isn't he more a Superman foe? I don't recall Wonder Woman ever fighting him.
GENERAL ZOD?!!!
Where is Superman when you need him?
Crap, Zod is one of the few individuals that can actually give Superman a run for his money in terms of sheer power and intelligence. There won't be much of a school left for students to attend to when it's over.
Zod?! We need a kneel here and now Diana has an opponent in her weight class. I hope Sunset helps in this fight and takes him out with magic.
7137170
No, if he where to send the Joker then he would be crazy.
Is this world's sun compatible? Wouldn't put it past Hades to screw that up.
Zod, like Superman, is a Kryptonian - and what Superman showed a weakness for (beyond kryptonite)?
Magic.
Something that certain seven girls do possess...
I hope that this is the chance for the Human6 and Sunset shine as a team!
Wonder Woman should emulate Superman if she wants to go up against Zod.
Oh shit, this can only turn out well.. And who the heck is Zod?!
This I was NOT expecting. But I am intrigued to see what happens next!
So, time to see who Hades said he wasn't sure he would be able to control if he sent him to that world. And Agatha, you just got burned. That's what you get for playing with fire, or in this case, the power of the god of the dead. You're lucky you're still alive.
Well, looks like Diana made the right call letting Rainbow Dash back onto the team. Without her, I'm pretty sure Canterlot High would be in big trouble.
Oh snap! It's freaking General Zod!!! Hades chose one heck of a soul!
Dude...I love you...I love your story, your writing style, hell everything about this fic has been gold!!
...but Zod. Of all the characters, badass or otherwise...you pulled in Zod. ...you have no one to blame but yourself for what comes next.
That having been said, I sadly must join this band-wagon for the following youtube clips.
I'd add more, but I want to save some for the rest of the comment section...and yes, thanks to Nostalgia Critic whatever credibility Zod had as a villain was mostly destroyed utterly. Not to say you won't do his ACTUAL character justice or the like.
...just saying, it may or may not stick in the consciousness of the reader base due to this rather formidable point. Best of luck...and remember...
KNEEL!!!
7137256 An ex-military general from Krypton that was banished to the Phantom Zone for his crimes.
7137171 It's a common practice in comics for Superheroes to occasionally share villains
7137199 It has a yellow sun so yes,
7137221 Ah but one must consider. is their magic strong enough to harm Zod? After all, you can't really compare the elements of harmony to say a bolt of divine lightning like those utilized by the Marvels or Black Marvels.
7137362 Wait, THAT Zod!? Crap....!
7137364 Yup that's him.
static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/6/68653/1329846-zod_1.jpg
static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/11120/111200659/4892190-2622984-zos.jpg
7137362 That is quite true. I mean, Mongol has fought Superman, Batman, Robin, and Wonder Woman, though she was only in the animated version.
I'm just saying, from my knowledge, Zod and Wonder Woman have never fought each other, so why he'd want her dead personally seems weird. I mean, seeing Felix Faust would be neat, by Zod is awesome.
"Couldn't control"? Erm... hello MAGIC VULNERABILITY.
In no reality have Zod and WW even MET, he should have asked, "Wonder who?"
And sending a Kryptonian against magic wielders = fail.
Well, even if Wonderwoman never personally met Zod, wouldn't he want to kill her simply for being part of the Justice League and friends (very good friends) with Supes?
7137390 He'd want her dead simply because she is a friend of Kal-El (Superman). And quite frankly Felix Faust isn't all that strong.
7137416 That's not true. Wonder Woman has met Zod on quite a few occasions canonically both pre-New 52 and post-New 52.
7137480 True, I mean, Felix was able to chain up Hades (Who may or may not be Wonder Woman's dad, though he could have just been messing with her mind), but got his ass kicked, even if his soul was in a super powered robot body
7137416 Well, he might have heard she is part of the League, an ally and friend to Supes, and if this follows the....eh New 52, then Supers is Wonder Woman's boyfriend
7137491 But that was in the animated series which follows it's own continuity but also uses the comics as a base.
7137496 The Wonder Woman in this story is not the New 52 Wonder Woman.
7137516 I knew that, and thank God. I mean, I can get it if you wanna change up characters, but Lois and Superman together is one of the things that rarely changes, mainly when she dies, like in Injustice.
7137416
you forget this is the wonderwoman show the rainbooms will just stand around and look stupid here and be saved by wonder woman and then all of them will talk about how awesome she is and how pathetic they are and bla bla bla
Zod? Pfft... No problem, just remember how Superman beat him; Crush his hand, throw him down a deep frozen crevice, and then snap his neck.
KO awesome chapter, general Zod that's going to be hard for Wonder Women to handle. Let's hope to the girls can help her out.
7137522 The 52 isn't the first time Wonder Woman is paired up with Superman but eh. But still Zod is an interesting choice.
7137633 I know, I just can;t get behind them together.
I think I've got a popcorn maker in my Armageddon bunker.
OH BOY. Zoe has returned to Planet Houston!
Oh dear. We're gonna see us some property damage with this fight.
Zod will find her, just like he found waldo
vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/theunitedgamers/images/8/81/Michael-shannon-general-zod-wheres-waldo.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20131219204514
Holy fuckballs! Him? Well, I don't know if he's a better choice or worse than Doomsday. After all, he can think about his actions. This is going to be... messy as hell. Plus the fact there's only one way he can be stopped.
So, place your bets. Will Hades' newest chump kick Dianas' ass, or get his kicked by Teenagers with with slightly less attitude than the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (Oh come on, some one was going to make that pun sooner or later).
Oh hey its Zod...
... WE'RE FUCKED!!!
7138108 You've never seen Superman II, have you? He originally calls Earth "Planet Houston" at first by mistake when he arrives.
7138170 Well, magic CAN hurt Khryptonians, and since Diana's weapons ARE magic-laced and the EG 7's abilities are magical, Zod 's boned.
7138330 Yes! Look it up!
7137186
Magic may hurt Zod, but remember he has all the powers, Superman always held back, Zod won't.
Plus first chance he gets he will turn on Hades, God or not, Zod could severly hurt if not kill him.
Give him ten minutes in the sun and that all he need.
Can it be at least Terrence Stamp's Zod? At least that one had charisma.
well has to be man of steel Zod otherwise every other Zod is currently trapped in their phantom zones or dead with the explosion of krypton and thus has no vendetta against their superman. Cannot wait to see how this plays out but I have a feeling that its gunna come down to something like this
Zod do you think your colorful rainbows will hurt me
Sunset Shimmer perhaps not but who says where firing it at you again
Mane6 + Sunset channels rainbow power through Diana who then proceeds to magically beat down Zod
Zod? Oh, this isn't good. This isn't good at all!
There is one caveat to this and one of which I suspect Zod is unaware: Kryptonian invulnerability does not extend to magic. In other words, the girls' Rainbow Laser of Friendship could statue him and he wouldn't have a whit of resistance to offer. Similarly, Diana has hurt Kal before when using the magical sword that Hephaestus gave to her.
7137454 Zoddamn it!
Well dang.
BURNED
Well, it is school. They're kinda doing it as a fundraiser, of some sorts.
Just wondering, how much does it cost at regular baseball/soccer/football games? I'm curious.
Well then...
7137175
Don't worry, he comes in 2 chapters.
YEAH!!! You tell her Applejack! Now get your butt into that room with the others and...you did not do that.
Ugh, I am sorry but these last two chapters have really shown off my biggest problems with the story. I have been trying to ignore them for the most part and just enjoy Wonder Woman kicking ass (Wich, by the way, I have to say you have some great talent in writing Superheroes. Ever consider trying out for DC or Marvel?) but the last chapter and this one have kind of destroyed the good will of that. First off, is Rainbow Dash. Seriously? After going through two big adventures with Sunset and learning some important lessons, you would think she would the first to stay in line and sacrifice something that important. But nope, we need to flanderize her so Diana can seem like the big good.
The leaving out the others during Diana's big teacher moment also really hurt the scene. I felt no emotion other than anger at the whole thing because I wanted to see the girls start to bond again, but as it stands, anything they'll say about being close friends will ring hallow. It will take away any emotion from the scene and make it fall flat.
I also have to laugh at this
Really? Is this why you sent out Grundy? If you wanted this to go cleanly...why not send Deathstroke? Just pop him into Hades, bring out Jericho's soul, tell him to bring back the girls unharmed, and boom! You have what you want easily.
I KNEW IT