Overmonitor Banishes Freedom

Life, Crime

For their desperate attempt to survive Crisis, largely handed to them by Doctor Scott, the Freedom Society (namely Dawnguard, Gadget, Man-Dragon, and Soldier) are punished for traveling between dimensions and altering the histories of a dimension that is not their own. Most chief among their supposed crimes was the act of erasing timelines in a dimension not of their own. Given a second chance at heroism, Overmonitor bestows mercy and leaves the society more or less intact.

The Freedom Society entered the cemetery and found none other then Lantern Jack waiting for them. Lantern Jack warned them that the Anti-Society was coming to trap them and summon Infinity to steal their power. Dawnguard accidentally called Mxyzptlk who dropped the force field that Duskbringer placed to trap Infinity (an unknown, evil, cosmic entity). Dawnguard asked if Lantern Jack knew of the Green Lanterns and he knew of the symbol but admitted he wasn't of them. Soldier asked Lantern Jack to take down Duskbringer after Jack offered his own peril and doom to take down one of their enemies. The party discussed tactics with Lantern Jack, Lucy then made sure Jack was okay with giving his life away and he said he'd waited his whole life for that moment. The team then went to Dawnguard's library and found a book about the Sixth Dimension. In their research, the Freedom Society learned that the Sixth Dimension, also known as the Multiversal Nexus or hub dimension, is similar to the Bleed which exists ”outside” of the connected system of parallel Earths and allows access to each of them. They learned that the space was inhabited and guarded zealously by the satellite station and home of the Monitors, from where they observed the entire fifty-two known core parallels, paying careful attention to those individuals and entities that traveled between those Earths. Dawnguard then took the book to the asylum whereupon it erased itself for the knowledge contained there in as it had cautioned that the very knowledge within the book would cause the Monitors to come to Earth and destroy that dimension. Dawnguard retained most of the knowledge in the book. Dawnguard attempted to open a portal to the Bleed and it opened to a different dimension then, a chain reaction set off that attempted to open two more portals to the bleed. It was as if he were counter spelled or re-routed. Dawnguard tells the team of the Bleed, he tells them it is the space between parallel universes is a sub-reality known as the Bleed. There are no known native lifeforms indigenous to this dimension, an area which apparently exists only as a buffer between the Source Wall-contained parallel Earths. Travel directly through the currents of the Bleed is dangerous, with travelers finding it easy to get lost and ending up at unintended destinations. Further, long-term exposure to the environs of the Bleed often results in physical and mental changes to the exposed, similar to the effects of a mutagenic substance; these changes vary greatly from one subject to another. In fact, only one known group, a team of powerful superhumans, have traveled the Bleed effectively.   The team decided to open a portal to the Sixth Dimension. Man-Dragon couldn't help but look and got the shakes from seeing the infinite. Lucy couldn't help but look and it made her retch, she told Dawnguard that there were many pods stretching to the ceiling. Trying but failing to get the Overmonitor's attention, Spectre appeared behind Soldier and offered his help. Accepting, Spectre told the Overmonitor that he would listen to the Child of God and so the Overmonitor turned. Speaking for sometime, Gadget alerted him to the Anti-Society's transgression and their own. Then, the Monitor saw the traversal of the Anti-Society to Earth-47 from Anti-Earth and then watched as the Pre-Crisis heroes entered Earth-47 and then relayed the highlights of their lives to them. He told them of their transgressions: dimensional travel, eradicating timelines that weren't their own, and changing the course of an Earth they didn't belong in. He then agreed to take out Infinity and the Anti-Society for their crime but he admitted that he had to punish them as well. Gadget dropped to her knees and begged for mercy and as Man-Dragon asked to be shown the destruction of the Anti-Society and Infinity. The Overmonitor obliged him and showed the team their destruction and in so seeing, Man-Dragon offered his powers to the Overmonitor. With a motion, the Overmonitor took Man-Dragon's powers as Soldier prepared himself. In another moment, Soldier told the Overmonitor of duty and honor and protecting his home. Soldier told the godlike figure of their similarities the burden of duty and for it the Overmonitor made him weak but forced upon him immortality to the last spec of dust that is Earth and a burden to protect it. Gadget plead with tears in her eyes for mercy as Dawnguard offered his body as punishment for both of Gadget and himself. The Overmonitor rejected the idea but then upon negotiation agreed to the punishment for just Dawnguard and shot an Omega Beam at him and erased his living tissue as he said his goodbyes and kissed Gadget. Gadget fell to her knees as he pointed to fingers at her and choose her end. Turned to dust, Gadget was erased but her mind forced to watch another. Now, no longer alone as she'd plead to be, she re-emerged.   On Dec. 16, 1933 at 8pm a partly cloudy sky harbored the chance of oblivion but it was washed clean by the Overmonitor. Oblivion, though, still rested on the doorstep of the Freedom Society as Soldier and Man-Dragon found themselves in The Atrium battered and nearly broken.