Shadow Star, saddened by how things on her continent had progressed, spent countless hours rescuing children, and destroying the bases and strongholds of the warlords. But as you can imagine, the problem was so widespread that Shadow Star’s work at times seemed futile. She, however, refused to give up, and in a massive operation Shadow Star, with the help of Makeda, The Big Five, and members of the Sista Clique, was able to take down the hyper-villain Skorpius, who led an organization which was responsible for recruiting more child soldiers than any other group in the world.

She rescued hundreds of children, and took them to a facility where they could be un-indoctrinated, retrained, and hopefully reintroduced into regular society. Shadow Star guarded the facility with her life. However, during one especially rainy night, a bolt of lightning hit her! But she wasn’t electrocuted or killed; instead, she was transported to the alternate universe of the 5th Oblivion, in order to take part in the Empress Wars. The goddesses of the 5th Oblivion, Sedah and Nevaeh, were at odds with one another over how to develop their young goddess protege, Slate. And in order to settle the argument, each goddess teleported extraordinary and hyper-powered beings to fight on their respective sides.

Shadow Star was recruited by the goddess Sedah to be a part of the Chainmail Militia, led by Ebony Raven. They were tasked with storming the palace in which Slate was being held, and rescuing her. But they would have to fight against Nevaeh’s Daughters of Deborah, led by Enid Remington.

For what felt like months, the battles between the two sides raged on. Victories were won, defeats were costly, and heavy casualties were suffered on all sides. But no confrontation was more devastating to either army, than the battle that came to be known as the “Ebb Epidemic”, or the “Delirious Disaster”, depending on which side you asked. Ebony Raven had once again ordered an assault on the palace. They had used a number of different tactics to continue chipping away at the defenses of the enemy, but they had refrained from chemical warfare, as the instability of the air in the 5th Oblivion made things very unpredictable. Times, however, were getting dire, and many of the women were desperate to end the wars. And so Raven gave the nod to Chaos Kao Kwan and Paradise to bring a new method of pain to the game

As another battle ensued outside the palace, Shadow Star, Kwan, Paradise, and the invisible Blindspot broke away from the fray. They found an exhaust tunnel, and went to work. Kwan and Paradise would begin to contaminate the water and the air in the palace, while Blindspot and Shadow Star would sneak in to find Slate. With the forces having been thinned out by the casualties of the battles, it was now easier to sneak around the palace undetected. Additionally, Shadow Star’s cape would act as a shield and filter to keep the poison from affecting her and Blindspot.

The two Chainmail Militia members soon found their way to Slate, who was sitting inside of her ornate and elaborate palace chamber, playing peacefully with a butterfly. Shadow Star moved in to grab the girl, but of course, there were some members of the Daughters of Deborah ready to intercept her – Diabla Diaz and Balayage, to be exact. A skirmish ensued! But before too many blows could be exchanged, Diabla and Balayage began to choke on the toxic fumes that were now filling the palace. Shadow Star quickly grabbed Slate, and shielded her with her cape – she looked to grab Blindspot, too, but Balayage had used her powerful hair to wrap up the invisible woman. Shadow Star was about to go back for her, but Blindspot told her to get Slate back to the Chainmail Militia, so that they could end the war. Shadow Star obeyed, and bolted for the escape route, as Blindspot and Balayage suffocated.

Diabla, however, because she was a ghost orphan, was able to project an astral wraith of herself, and carry her own body outside of the palace and into fresh air, along with Shadow Star and Slate. Diabla immediately screamed out to the other Daughters that Slate was out in the open. Enid, Ember Brook, Magnifica and the others turned their attention to Shadow Star, unleashing a barrage of attacks! Ebony Raven, Carina, Thundersnow, the giant Tectonica, and others jumped in to counter. Tectonica’s size was impossible to deal with, and The Daughters were taking heavy losses. Finally, the book ninja Cliché was able to teleport herself onto the back of the massive woman, and in an incredible feat of metaphysical might she teleported the giant woman into the palace, where the poisonous gasses were so thick you could hardly see. Within seconds, they both began to choke and gag, until neither could breathe anymore…

With Tectonica gone, the battle outside evened out. But still, it was total and utter chaos. Through it all, Shadow Star actually found an opening and was about to escape with Slate when suddenly the Platinum City hyper-villain Deleria appeared. And within seconds, all hyper-abilities of the Chainmail Militia were nullified by Deleria’s essence. The flyers began falling out of the sky; energy blasts began drying up, and healing factors became non-existent. Sedah’s army was literally powerless. They were not, however, defeated, for Ebony Raven had a power-nullifier on her team as well – the superhero sensei Ebb.

Now both sides were depowered, but the battle was far from over, as the entire affair transformed into an even more brutal hand-to-hand brawl! And this was where Shadow Star excelled. She passed Slate off to Ebony Raven, and went to work with her superior fighting skills. She leaped in, and made short work of the depowered Lightrider and Lady Paige; parried a punch from Visor, then took her down with a vicious kick to the gut; she blasted Sultana in the face with a knee, breaking her nose and sending her reeling… But then she came face-to-face with Disa Philadelphia, Interface, Nana, and Virginia Ice. These were four women who did not rely on hyper-abilities. These were four women who were skilled beyond belief in hand-to-hand combat. But most importantly, these were four women who were among the most deadly in the universe with blades.

Shadow Star immediately found herself on the defensive, as they all came at her with ferocity and precision. Before long, she was running for her life! And that life would have been taken, if not for the timely arrival of her fellow Chainmail Militia members, Mio Sardis, Nirmala Sardis, and Disa’s own daughter and daughter-in-law, Valerie Philadelphia and Reagan Smyrna.

Throughout the entire Empress Wars, a frequent occurrence had come in the form of women who were usually teammates or friends in their normal lives being forced to come to blows against each other on the battlefield. But up until this point, Disa, the vaunted and legendary leader of The Veil, hadn’t had to battle her own children. And even more extraordinary was that Disa was fighting on the same side of her most hated nemesis, Virginia Ice. Blood and rivalries, however, didn’t matter in the 5th Oblivion. The only thing that mattered was winning the Empress Wars.

And after a brief second of sizing each other up, the two sides charged! The sound of metal clashing and flesh ripping echoed through the air, as the swordswomen tore into each other! Shadow Star and Ebony Raven regrouped with Slate, and began sprinting back toward their bush garden base of operations, but they had a number of enemies in pursuit. Shadow Star sent Ebony ahead with Slate, then turned back around to confront the oncoming Girl Six. Being a trained martial artists herself, she proved to be quite a handful.

Then suddenly, the ghost orphan Virginia Ice was able to make her way over to Ebb, and cut her down! The Daughters of Deborah now had their powers back! Girl Six burst out into six clones, and began mauling Shadow Star. Luckily, Mania! jumped into the fray, and despite her powers still being nullified by Deleria’s essence, her natural speed, agility and fighting ability made her difficult to put down. She did, however, eventually get put down.

During the fight, Shadow Star was able to catch up with Ebony Raven, but so were Enid, Virginia Ice, Disa Philadelphia, and many other members of the Daughters of Deborah. They were surrounded, with no escape. Shadow Star stepped up, and put her hands up. She was ready to accept her fate. Suddenly the sky turned dark purple, and a blast of wind nearly blew everyone away, as a new woman suddenly entered the Empress Wars – her name was Francine Fray. But she would come to be known as “Placebo”, one of the most powerful telepathic beings in the multiverse. She looked down at Slate, then turned to the Daughters of Deborah. And although she recognized Magnifica, her sister, amongst them, she waved her hand, and unleashed a massive psionic blast which blew the DoD away!

Shadow Star had never seen such a display of power. She immediately grew nervous that Placebo would turn her wrath on her and Ebony Raven next. But that did not happen. Instead, Placebo simply stood with her back to them, scanning the horizon, as if she were waiting for someone else to come at them. Shadow Star soon realized that she was standing guard, and motioned to Ebony that they should get moving.

It seemed the Empress Wars were coming to an end. Or were they…?

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