Of Jesters and Orcs 7: Invasion

[CENTER][u]Of Jesters and Orcs[/u]

Chapter 7: Invasion

<<<Karaka the Wise>>>[/CENTER]

The next day, after his meditations, he felt odd. Like something was on the cusp of happening. It was impossible to tell what though, so he started to move towards the main hall with more than a touch of trepidation.

While he wasn’t paranoid, he was reasonably weary of unexpected surprises. Any seasoned adventurer would be, of course. He felt reasonably sure that Mopsa and his host, Batman, wouldn’t spring anything unpleasant on them. Well, depending on your definition of unpleasant that was. Still he glanced around trying to figure out the source of the feeling he was experiencing.

Entering the main cavern he glanced and noticed Mospa had yet to join him, perhaps she opted to sleep in? He knew very little about elves in general, but was he mistaken in his belief that they didn’t need as much sleep as others? 

“And then I said ‘We need to put the fire out now! Bring the river if you have to!’” He heard Mopsa shout from another room, “Now, obviously you can’t just move a river, which made the demon very surprised when the earth quaked and dumped a lake on his head!” She cackled, “The entire lake! Sure it didn’t kill him, but there was so much water that it swept him out to sea! The look on his face was perfect!”

“Guess she woke up first then.” Karaka thought with a chuckle as he decided to join them.

Entering where he heard Mopsa, he saw Batgirl, Nightwing, and a third individual wearing a largely red suit with a lightning symbol on his chest  listening to the jester. Batman was busy tapping away at that large device of his. Approaching Mopsa, apparently he had come in at the tail end of her tale.

The last man snorted, laughing as Mopsa created an illusory face. It was, he had to admit, the most surprised and startled look he’d ever seen on a demon. “Good morning Karaka!” Mopsa said, waving happily towards him, “How are you feeling? Not too sore, I hope?”

“I’m fine.” He chuckled, “The spar made me feel like a young orc again, heh.”

“Wait… ‘young’?” The new human blurted out.

Nightwing snorted, “Yep. Wonder Woman threw hands with a geriatric orc,” He said, “She even went on to say he could probably get into a fistfight with Bane and have a chance.”

“He’s plenty spry, this is just makeup!” Mopsa announced, skipping over to him, “Watch!” And then smacked him on the shoulder, his age melting away like a candle its wax. “Sorry, still temporary,” She whispered.

“It’s fine.” Karaka said, patting her shoulder before looking at the colorful human, “And who is this one?”

“This is Flash,” Batgirl said as she patted his shoulder, “He decided he wanted to meet our guests,” She added.

“Happy to meet you,” Flash said with a charismatic grin, holding out his hand for him, “You’re Karaka then? Wonder Woman tells me you can move pretty fast when you want to, any drawbacks to that?”

Karaka chuckled and took his hand and shook it, “Well I’m certainly not petite or pretty enough to be Mospa so I must be,” He said with a good natured chuckle, “And regarding my speed? Mostly on my joints. It’s only really started getting bad in the past five years.”

Flash nodded, “Yeah I can understand that.” He said, “Never experienced it myself but I might in a few years, maybe. Main issue I have is my diet, I have to eat so much.” He paused for a moment, “And I have to wait hours for anyone to reply to anything I say. That little pause there? It felt like three minutes. I got used to it though.”

“Sounds like a cursed existence,” Karaka said, “Though I imagine it lets you catch up on your reading.” He added with a chuckle.

“It can be, but thankfully I have things to keep me from focusing on it when I have to go real fast,” The Flash said, “And yeah, it does help with reading.”

“One of the most intelligent men I know…” Batman said from the sideline, “And if he ever started taking things seriously, he might even be respectable someday.”

“Ah, come on Bats! Between you and GL the League doesn’t need any more serious heroes!” The Flash said, “Besides, people love me! And, I don't think I could do the serious brooder thing like you do.”

“I’m not denying you are well loved,” He started, “But you’d be more loved if you stopped slipping salt into people’s coffee.” Karaka could, just barely, see a smirk on Batman’s face

He certainly wasn’t going to bring attention to it, he’d seen many adventurers that have similar relationships.

“Oh come on, Bats! You know that wasn’t me! That was Plastic Man!” Flash complained, “Are you going to hold this over my head forever?”

“Yes,” Came the instant reply, “Can you head over to the Watchtower? I’m picking something up on our long range scanners, but it’s on the other side of the ecliptic plane. You can get there faster than I can.”

“It’s probably just a passing alien fleet or something,” Flash replied, sounding sarcastic, “But I’ll check it out. If it’s just a weird asteroid, you’re buying lunch.” He vanished with a flicker and rush of air.

“Are… alien fleets a normal occurrence?” Karaka asked curiously, something that Mopsa looked interested in hearing as well.

“Not particularly,” He replied, “It’s probably nothing, but there’s a risk of it. Earth is… an attractive destination for a lot of threats, for a variety of reasons. And if not Earth, Mars. The fourth planet away from our sun, Sol, is Mars and it has some rather advanced technology.”

“Never a dull day, then?” Mopsa asked.

Batman didn’t say anything, but if Karaka wasn’t mistaken the man did wince slightly at the comment. 

“Well, better to be safe than sorry right?” Karaka said.

Batman just grunted and, a moment later, Flash returned. He did not look happy. “We’ve got a problem. They shot down the probe I sent after I asked to talk with them, they said I could. I didn’t trust them so I sent the probe.”

“Well, that isn’t good,” Karaka thought.

“Good call,” Batman praised before turning to him and Mopsa, “If you don’t want to participate in this, I don’t blame you. This will be dangerous and you’ll be risking your lives if you fight with us… but no one would say no to having more help on our side.”

Karaka harrumphed, “This is our world for now, it would be wrong to let invaders despoil it,” He said, honestly feeling rather excited by the prospect of facing an invading force.

It was no war, but no one ever wished for war… not even the most battle hungry of his kin.

“True!” Mopsa agreed, twirling a mace in her hand, “Hold on, let me get dressed! Karaka, get your armor on! Unless you don’t use it, then don’t!” She didn’t stick around for an answer, just running to the bathroom to get things on.

Karaka just hummed, “So… does anyone know where she got a mace?” Frankly he didn’t even know that Mopsa had anything beyond a knife or a rapier in truth.

He would’ve considered a bow but… well that’s just stereotyping. He knew elves that didn’t enjoy archery after all.

“Her bag, she was showing it to me earlier,” Flash replied, “She isn’t very good with it.”

“She almost took my head off,” Batgirl clarified, “Accidentally.”

“Wonder if she’d be open to an exchange?” It was a poor trade in his mind, but learning how to fight with weapons in exchange for magical lessons? He wasn’t sure what more he could offer her.

Still Karaka gave a nod before he went to get his own armor on.

When they met back up again, and next to a craft that Batman promised would get them to the Watchtower quickly, Mopsa was wearing… a normal looking robe, for once. It was on top of her jester’s outfit, but it was progress. The effect was ruined by the glowing gemstone on her forehead though. “How lethal am I allowed to go for this?” She asked, “If you wish, I can restrain myself, though I know not why you’d desire to spare invaders.”

Karaka, who was still checking his armor before focusing on his sword which somehow seemed more dangerous than normal, “Why would you… ah, right. Different worlds, different methods… seems foolish but I’ll abide by any combat doctrines…”

“If they surrender, accept it,” He replied, “And this is only if it’s actually an invasion. They may have mistaken the probe for an attack.”

“Alright, curses and ultra-violence it is!” Mopsa half cheered as she hopped into the ‘jet’. “Come on then, get in! Let’s get it on!”

Karaka just chuckled as he boarded as well and sat across from Mopsa, giving her an amused look. When she acted like this it was easy to forget how old she was for a few moments.

He heard Batman sigh before he got into what must have been the control seat, Batgirl and Nightwing following, “There are belts on the seats, please use them. I don’t want anyone to get a concussion before we even get there, again.” Karaka got the feeling that it was directed against Nightwing…

“Ah, I was wondering what these were for.” He thought before he put them on after some finagling as they didn’t seem to have been designed with the thought of a giant orc in equally large armor.

Mopsa had no such trouble and had… launched into a story about a time she’d, supposedly, held the line single handedly against a horde of invaders. He wasn’t sure anyone believed her, certainly not with her wild descriptions of battling giants with one hand behind her back and while blinded by magical curses.

It certainly broke the tense mood, and he supposed that was her goal all along.

As the aircraft left the ground, Karaka was pushed into his seat with great force, as though he’d gained a few hundred pounds, before it let up. Mopsa seemed as surprised and confused as he was, but the others were unconcerned.

“And that’s when I brought the mountain down!” Mopsa finished, “A rockslide to end the day off just felt right, you know?”

“Didn’t you say that the mountain was destroyed by the meteors you summoned earlier?” Nightwing asked with a smirk.

Karaka was just chuckling as he listened, the funny thing was that he knew everything she had said was possible with magic. Granted you’d have to be ridiculously talented and powerful, but still possible.

“No no, that was a different mountain, obviously!” She said, waving it off, “Honestly, you people are terrible at listening to stories and good gods, what is that over there!?” Her shock and surprise sounded genuine enough that, when he looked and saw nothing out of the ordinary it actually surprised him.

Turning back and finding that she’d gone invisible certainly wasn’t much of one after that though.

“... I should have seen that coming,” Nightwing admitted after a moment.

“Worshipper of a god of pranks and mischief,” Karaka said, “Yes, yes you should have.”

Batgirl poked at the area Mopsa was and elicited an “Ow!”, Mopsa reappearing with little flair as she rubbed her eye. 

“Oh, shit! Sorry!” Batgirl exclaimed, “I didn’t think your face was there!”

“It wasn’t,” She replied with a cheeky smile, “But it could have been! And that hurts just as much…”

Batgirl just sighed and shook her head, and Karaka was pretty sure he saw a faint tremble in Batman’s shoulders.

The banter lasted until they’d come to a stop, Mopsa teasing and telling wild stories with everyone else retaliating and poking holes in them, but ended soon after they’d exited. “We’re not going directly into the Watchtower,” Batman advised, “It will be the first target in an invasion, but the Boom Tube, a form of teleportation device, will be able to send us anywhere in the world if we’re needed.”

“Sounds useful,” Mopsa said, “How’s it work?”

“It folds space to make two points intersect,” Batman replied without missing a beat, “To know more, you’d need to talk to Red Tornado.”

Karaka vaguely recalled his Master bragging about being able to ‘Cut Space’ but he was rather deep in his cups so he wasn’t entirely sure if it was true or not. Still the thought was intriguing, maybe he would sit in one Mospa asking this ‘Red Tornado’ and perhaps he could figure something out. If only to honor his Master, as he… wasn’t entirely sure such an ability could be used in a non-lethal manner.

“Will do!” She replied happily, “So, when’s everyone meeting with-” She cut herself off as Superman and Wonderwoman dropped down next to them followed by Flash. “Nevermind then.”

Karaka just looked at Superman curiously but otherwise remained relaxed as he pulled a whetstone from a pocket and started running it along the edge of his sword.

“Brainiac,” Superman said, “It’s Brainiac. He said that he has a machine that will be able to trap us and that if we don’t surrender he’ll just launch attacks against everyone on the globe at once. Tornado is in Europe right now, he’ll be part of the fast response team there, Lantern is in DC.”

“And what manner of creature is this ‘Brainiac’ exactly?” And the unspoken ‘and how do I kill it’ was obvious.

“A cyborg from Krypton,” Batman explained, “He’s a dangerous threat, Superman, Wonder Woman, and I will be handling him. You two should stay back with Nightwing and Batgirl as backup. Flash, you know what to do.”

Karaka just nodded in understanding, he didn’t enjoy not getting in the fight but he knew better than to complain. They knew how this creature operated, he’d be at a disadvantage if they clashed, still he glanced at Nightwing and Batgirl. He could see they also didn’t like the idea but were willing to listen to Batman.

“Got it Bats,” Flash replied, “Be careful guys, I might be a bit far away if you need help.”

Mospa was just hopping one foot to the other, dancing to an invisible tune, “La-la-la, I’m gonna fight a cyborg.~ I don’t know what that is, but it sounds cool.~”

Karaka just snorted with a faint amused smile.

“A cyborg is, uh…” Nightwing started, “Do you know what a golem is?” At Mopsa’s nod he continued, “It’s like that, but all metal.”

“And no magic was used in its creation?” Karaka asked curiously.

“None, as far as we know. Dr. Fate didn’t detect anything, at any rate, and he’s the strongest magic user I know of,” Batgirl said, “No offense, Mopsa.”

“Impressive,” Karaka said he knew of some wizards that claimed to create something like that.

Usually it was just a regular golem in armor however, but a true metal golem sounded rather… intimidating to fight.

There were Warforged, but those were rare and he’d never fought one himself, he’d never even seen one in person.

It only took five minutes for the screaming to start in the nearby city. “Guess that’s our cue,” Nightwing said, “Follow me, the Boom Tube is just over here. Focus on protecting civilians first, fighting the robots or aliens second,” He advised as they ran. “And get ready for a fight!”

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