Red Wizard: Book 3 (A Zatanna Zatara/OC Love Story)

Away Mission

New Genesis: August 04: 00:16 UTC

Five Bugs of different coloured shells rolled forward, before uncurling their spheroid exoskeletons and stood up. One of the bugs was a squat four-armed creature with a sheddable red exoskeleton. His arms functioned both in unison and independently, a trait he used to throw off adversaries. Under his shell, he had an underskin of pink "goodgy" mass. The bug's name was, Forager. The green bug was called, Mantis. Accompanying Mantis and Forager, were three orange-shelled bugs. The four bugs saw a figure flying down to them on a flight harness. It was the New God, Orion. He stopped above the bugs.

"Hail, Orion. Mantis has the deep-cavern goods for trade." Mantis assured the New God, speaking in New Genesisian. "Does Orion have the promised books?" He asked.

"Do not rush me, Bug." Orion snapped, also speaking in New Genesisian. "First, let us see if your ground-grubbing please me." He requested. One of the orange-shelled bugs brought a trolley forward, which had two boxes on board.

Forager opened one of the boxes, revealing many blue crystals. "Worth much!" He declared. "Forager foraged best minerals for New Gods." He said proudly.

"Acceptable." Orion admitted, before he signalled two creatures who flew down on hover boards. One was a white creature with red cacoons on it's back. And the other was a grey mud-like creature. The two creatures were meta-humans. They both released similar boxes, before they flew back up, as Mantis approached one. He reached out, but it vanished, followed by the other one.

Mantis looked up at Orion. "Fakes! Orion cheats the Hive!" He shouted angrily.

"Aww, poor Bug." Orion mocked.

Mantis yelled and ran forward, followed by the three orange-shelled Bugs, who rolled forward, while Forager watched.

Mantis jumped up and tackled the grey meta-human, bringing them both down to the ground. He then ran at the meta-human again.

The other three Bugs all rolled at the other meta-human, who turned around and made his cacoons explodes, releasing an acid that burned the Bugs when it them. They all fell to the ground and screamed out in pain.

Meanwhile, Mantis was punching the grey meta-human, and raised his fists to strike, only for the meta-human to use shape-shifting to grab Mantis' arms, before re-shaping it's body to face Mantis. It raised Mantis, and used super-strength to stretch Mantis, making him yell in pain.

Forager rolled at the meta-human from behind and hit it, making it drop Mantis. But Forager's attack had no effect on the meta-human, as Forager only ended up on the ground, as the meta-human foccused on him. He got slapped away by the meta-human, getting thrown into a tree, which he broke, as he hit the ground.

The two meta-humans then flew over to the real boxes and connected them to their hover boards, before flying away.

Orion smirked down at the Bugs, before he also flew away.

"New Gods are liars and thieves." Mantis shouted angrily to the retreating Orion, as Forager walked forward.

Forager looked Mantis. "Forager thought Orion was honorable." He admitted sadly. "Like the New God, Phoenix." He added, having met Nick/Phoenix years ago.

"New Gods have no honor." Mantis growled angrily. "New Gods deserve death." He added darkly, before he walked away, following the other Bugs.

Forager looked thoughtful. "Forager wonders..." He muttered to himself, as he started to come up with a plan to fix things between the Bugs and the New Gods.