The Golden Apples

An LLS Production

Prologue: Goddess of Whim

The sky is darkening.

Above, the skies darken as a motorcycle zooms onwards down the highway. The machine is dark blue, with gold accents, and its rider smirks as he revs the engine for greater speed. Long grey hair waves out behind him as he moves on, and even at that speed his eye sees all, never missing in the sights.

Which was why, he was able to dodge the yellow projectile when it flew at him.

The man frowns at the object that due to the miracle of fast reflexes he had caught in one hand, examining the pristine gold surface of the object. It was...

...an apple?

A thumb wonderingly traced over the carved words, or word that had not been read by many mortals since millennia:

καλλίστῃ

Kallistei.

For the fairest.

Any time the Watchtower was um-manned was no time at all; the Tower remained occupied even if it was in space regardless. There were a few exceptions to 'Tower duty', but otherwise almost every member of the Justice League got to see the famed Watchtower one way or another.

Right now, some got even more hands-on experience.

Liquid floated in space, bubbling in mid-air as she laughed, the figure in a chiton of clashing colours with a wide, generous smile that stayed even as everything went wild with the smallest impossibility possible around her. Lights flickered, alarms sounded, and fights broke out between comrades in arms, and she laughed, her black locks waving as she moved her head.

Only two remained calm throughout.

The first was a woman in gleaming armour of red, blue and gold that by all rights should not be as protective as it was, with matching red calf-high boots and gold tiara.

The second was a vigilante in blacks and greys with a half-face cowl complete with pointy ears.

"Lady Eris," Diana greeted slowly. "Why hast thou seek us?"

The goddess frowned. "Enough with the archaic speech. Why would I require a reason? That is comical beyond belief, our champion."

"Goddess of Discord," Batman grimly asked. "In that case, why leave the halls of Olympus to pester us mortals?"

"I remain as long as harmony does, so why ever not?" she laughed, producing an apple from nowhere. "The king of us all has overturned the judgement, woe betide us."

"Judgement?" Diana incredulously repeated.

"The judgement of Paris," Batman grimly stated. "The precursor to the Trojan War, that was started with the golden apple of discord."

"The dark knight knows his stories well," she sighed, impressed. "And this time..."

"Another mortal?" Batman finished.

"Of course," she chirped back. "Beauty is one of those things one might not question, but then... the queen and the aegis-wearer has a chance now. It will be fun, especially since this time, the apple itself chooses the judge."

"The golden apple of earth sows discord between everyone," Diana considered. "Discord... which leads to war."

"Who knows how far that apple travels before war begins again," Batman growled.

"Who knows," Eris laughed. "It shall be a fun game, for us, that is. As one falls, so shall the rest... and the crossroads of human fate again shall lead the way. So you know, Dark Knight, I can see the creatures that walk with you."

Discordia faded away as the klaxon died off.

Batman turned to the noisily fighting crowd and glared. The temperature seemed to drop exponentially as heroes realised that they were on the receiving end of the Bat-glare and stopped, immediately. Even Dove, who had not been exempt from Eris's influence, dropped to the ground quickly.

"Clean," The Dark Knight began. "This. Place. Up."

They got to work.

"The golden apple," Diana considered. "The judgement of Paris."

"And the Trojan War," Batman nodded.

"If the apple chooses the judge... then who can it be?" Wonder Woman realised. "The judge can have anything offered by the goddesses if they so choose."

"As one falls, so shall the rest..." Batman reiterated. "The crossroads of human fate... a city is the greatest crossroads. A game... of things falling..."

"Batman," J'onn walked slowly to the pair, holding a tablet-sized screen. "There has been... appearances in–"

"Domino City," the vigilante growled. "Again."

At the door of his shared apartment, Fudo Yusei blinked at the apple that was all but shoved in his hands. "Wha–? Harald?"

"Take the thing, do something, destroy it," the European Duellist quickly stated. "I booked a flight to Japan as fast as I could once the apple landed in my hand. Quickly, Yusei."

"Wha–?" Yusei blinked as the two made eye contact and the runic mark of the ash glimmered in the other's left eye.

At the same time, Yusei's own birthmark began to burn.

"This–"

"Kallistei," Harald stated. "For the fairest. It's Greek. The Apple of Discord."

"I thought you took Norse mythology," Yusei commented as he moved side-way garage, the European following.

"Greco-Roman mythology has faint traces with the Norse," Harald replied. "In fact, the Greek Moirai, the Roman Parcae, and the Norse Norns all fulfil the same purpose–"

"I think I can live without knowing that," Yusei answered as he produced a screwdriver from a nearby toolbox to poke the apple.

The implement broke in his hand.

Yusei stared as his arm began to burn with the mark once more. "Okay... so, why is the mythical apple here?"

"Apple?" a voice chirped as the roar of a motorcycle died down and a black bike rolled into the garage, its rider pulling of a black helmet to reveal a shock of orange hair and a face with numerous yellow markings. "What apple? And what's Harald doing here?" Crow Hogan asked his friend.

"This apple," Yusei waved it.

"From how it dropped from the sky, I would gamble that chances are... that whoever holds the apple will be the next judge," Harald muttered. "And the centre of the next epic war upon which sagas will be sung about."

Crow shivered. "Tough luck. So, which unlucky sap found the apple?"

The fruit in question began to glow, a warm old light that fell from it like from a miniature sun as Yusei dropped it quickly. There was a flash, and light faded to reveal a short brown-haired youth, in a red jacket, black tee and jeans, both eyes glowing a bright gold like the light. Before him hovered a round brown beast like a puffball with white wings, and beside him hovered a demonic fiend the likes of which could not be compared. The gold eyes scanned everything in the garage, from a swallowing Hogan to a backing away Harald and down to a shocked Yusei standing before him.

"I, am the Herald of the Gentle Darkness," the youth intoned.

The serious act was quickly dropped as the youth gave a bright grin. "Hi, Yusei!"

Yusei gave him the bug-eyed look. "...Judai?"

"The one and only Yuuki Judai!" the former Duel Academia student grinned. "So, which unlucky sap got the apple?"

Batman twitched as the first thing that greeted his sight upon appearance in the new Domino City was a Duel Monsters Duel. With the players on motorcycles. Apparently, time had only increased the number of players of the game and instead of the popularity of the game waning, now there were more things to contend with. At least, Industrial Illusions had not released a card based on Batman; he had no wish to ever see the Shadow Realm ever again.

Privately, he winced as a dark-skinned female skimpily clad in green cloths like furs leapt back from an attack. The Amazonesses did not sit well with him.

Here, we are free, dark knight... and we will welcome you... but, you have duties to your world. When the sleep claims you, come join us for a drink and a yarn... we await you...

"So, we go in, grab the apple, and leave," Batman told himself as he walked into city limits. "How do I track down an apple in a city of three million and growing? Of course."

A presence appeared beside him. It was actually inaccurate to say that, since it had been in his mind, asleep, but it did, at least to him.

The warrior indicated towards the left, the city east, just as a pillar of light shot up towards the skies from that same direction.

"Okay," Judai said once the three had calmed down from the initial outburst. He eyed each of them, mutinously obeying the glare of Yubel as they silently listened. "Long story short, a few thousand years ago this goddess threw a golden apple and three goddesses competed with each other for it in a beauty contest of sorts."

He paused for breath and effect. "The judge then was called Paris, and the contestants, I mean, goddesses were Hera, Athena and Aphrodite accordingly. Hera, as Queen of the gods, promised kingship of Asia and Europe to him, Athena promised victory in every battle, and Aphrodite the most beautiful woman in the world. Paris chose Aphrodite, and got the already-married Queen Helen, so the Trojan War was started.

"However, a few weeks ago, Eris decided that the world got too boring and overturned the earlier judgement, so the apple, and the implicit title of fairest, is up for grabs again. Therefore, this time Eris wants to create discord everywhere, so she threw the apple somewhere down to earth, and I traced it all the way to here. Yeah... so, who's the unlucky chap who got it last?"

"Harald found it," Yusei frowned. "But I held it last."

Judai grimaced, a look not very fitting for him. "Er, I hope you don't have a girlfriend yet, for your sake. Be prepared to meet three women who will bribe, bully and beg for the title. Oh, yeah... there was something else..."

"Like, I'm here, so I'm not going anywhere?" Yusei dead-panned.

"Oh, yeah!" Judai snapped his fingers. "If you botch this up, chances are the next Trojan War starts here."

His face turned serious. "For all of our sakes, please don't botch it up. I'll be running damage control from the other end."

He disappeared in a pillar of light as the Wheel of Fortune wheeled into the garage.

Jack Atlas dismounted the motorcycle, looking at the three Duellists sitting there. "Did I miss something?"

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