Justice League
"The Darkseid Act"
By Maru Tamehana (27/5/2019, First Draft)
Continuing on from the previous events of "Superman vs Wonder Woman – Answers To The Past" where Diana obtained a magical spear for the upcoming war with Darkseid – now that war was here, and the Justice League had gathered to battle those of Apokolips.
The war had returned. Superman had to destroy Darkseid.
They put the spear in the hall, the radiance filling the hall. It was imbued with the radiance of Apollo – and Wonder Woman had told them it would be of service against Darkseid and his armies, though she had not explained exactly how.
Steel had spent some time studying it, wondering. All his metallurgical analysis had left him more baffled than before.
Cyborg tried to go near it, but had an unexpected negative reaction, and didn't go near it again. It was almost like it and the Motherbox did not like each other. But he had lent Steel his own equipment while he recuperated in the cybernetics bay.
Wonder Woman had spent a great deal of time preparing throughout the satellite, it's defenses and other things that were a bit of a mystique.
She had installed the strange tube in the central power room – and although the instruments registered various effects, its eventual function was also unknown. Only Superman had remained, he wondered just as much as Steel. But if his microscopic vision told him anything, he didn't reveal it to the others.
One thing was certain – Diana was very busy. She brought up several Amazons to the Watchtower in the process, and seemed to be organizing an army unlike they had really seen before. Only Trevor seemed to take it with equanimity. Batman remained suspicious as always. He had had some recent bad encounters with Trevor clones and that hadn't brought the two any closer together.
Trevor was a good sort, Superman knew, he'd tell them if anything was out of sorts. As far as they could tell, this was just Diana being Diana.
The golden eagle watched from the console. They didn't know where it came from, but it watched them like the bird of prey that it was.
(*)
On a moon, the war was being waged.
"It appears the gods have rescinded some of their earlier hesitance. They will aid us in the fight." Wonder Woman told them.
Gods appeared out of the mist and battled the giant automatons with their titanic swords. Some stopped to speak with the mortals that made up the Justice League that had called them there.
"We have waged this battle in other worlds, other dimensions, in many ways. At least, our brothers did. Darkseid did not fall easily. In some cases, he did not fall at all. In these matters, he sees farther than we do. But we lend you our strength and spears."
It turned out that despite its appearance, the spear was not really a weapon, but a summoning device, that opened a gate. Many gates it seemed. Diana was pulling her own forces to meet those of Darkseid.
Even Hades had joined the fight – his helmet shrouded in darkness. His loyal dead rising to his bidding. He had been ousted at great effort. Even the gods had reason to be wary of Darkseid, and to vacate their seat of power to combat him, no light ask.
Others came out of the portals, those Diana had said were the gates of death, under the command of the forbidding and sometimes terrible god, Hades.
Ten feet large, they had grown in death more than they had in life. Superman wondered, watching Diana as she watched them – what she made of them, these giant men from a past age of Themyscira, Amazonia.
They tackled parademons and beheaded them.
Hades, it seemed, took great pleasure in beheading the parademons with his great black sword. Wonder Woman had no love of the god, though he was one of her patrons in a distant way – he was one of the gods. But he had had evil designs before.
However he was as jealous and protective of his domain against Darkseid as readily as any other, and so he had joined his brothers for the fight. Darkseid's ambitions knew no bounds, and the New Gods had their own representative of death.
Zeus' power overshone the battlefield, as he had taken on the form of clouds and thunder – for there were many places requiring his power – the throne could not be entirely vacated. If Zeus fell, it would be disastrous for the Olympians.
His clouds overtook swarms of parademons, and there was nothing but the sounds of their screams, and a cacophony of thunder. Their weapons fell from the sky. Lightning blasted through their ranks, as Zeus conjured weather even here on this distant place, thanks to the power that brought his presence.
Great hell-ships buckled, their massive engines ruptured and smoking, and several began to decrease their height, damaged by the great divine bolts.
One exploded and took out an entire flight of parademons.
Transports brought in the great hellhounds, which burst forth, sniffing for their prey – while Darkseid's tanks rolled up with columns of soldiers, his armies marching in a formation against his enemy.
Superman decided the place best for him was to tackle straight into Darkseid. Not an easy proposition – but he knew it would rest on him – and there was no other place for his powers, this was the only opportunity.
But it was likely that Darkseid had laid a trap. So he brought Wonder Woman with him, also as she had apparently wanted or anticipated. At the very least she was willing.
He had to put aside doubt or fear that told him to go alone. He needed to trust in his team-mates, she had played a crucial role so far – she might see something he didn't even with all his vision powers. Her ties to the Greek gods made her the closest thing to an expert they had.
That lasso of hers would make her a formidable weapon against Darkseid.
First, Superman had to find him – and he was the scout best equipped to find and scour him out, and put an end to him once and for all, if they were lucky.
He spotted something on the battlefield. A shimmer. And his instincts told him it was what he was looking for. He made straight for it…
… and ended up inside an Apokoliptian citadel. In front of an army.
"Oh." He was just as surprised as they were.
"We are discovered!" one of their more intelligent leaders cried. And then they were all leaping upon him, ready for a brawl.
He grinned – he was ready for one too.
(*)
"There it is. The Darkseid gate." So they were calling it. There were several great shadows looming around it.
Wonder Woman led the army to destroy it, before it could dispatch any more of Darkseid's forces from his dimension.
Gods were struck by those strange beams from the hell-tanks, floating abominations of science utlising energy from the fourth dimension. They uttered strange groans, beyond mortal throat. Their essence excruciating against that of another dimension, an after-life for gods.
Darkseid liked killing gods. But he liked imprisoning them more. He held the gods of New Genesis. He thought he could take Earth and its Justice League undefended.
Wonder Woman had helped them fill the void.
The strange new monitor ships that Darkseid had created hovered, watching – Superman could see their camera apertures opening and closing like irises, recording everything for their master. Superman's eyes narrowed, and a thin laser shot out – one by one he melted the transparent lens of the devices.
Inside, officers shrunk back from their consoles with alarm as the power feed-back began shorting out their computers.
"Superman has destroyed our devices!" they reported.
When they turned, there was a shadow. Batman had found them.
These aliens might be packing gear from a civilization thousands of years more advanced than Earth, but their soldiers were as dumb as bricks, and were foiled by a simple device like a smoke grenade, effective on any species, no matter how twisted.
You'd be surprised how well the simple things did, Batman thought to himself. Don't underestimate the value of an old-fashioned knock-out punch either, he thought, rubbing his knuckles.
The evil gods and their parademon forces remembered the Amazons it seemed. The device in the Watchtower had activated, sending a great light blasting across space, to everyone's amazement a they watched, and seemed to imbue all their weapons with some sort of power.
One of the Green Lanterns crossed himself as he watched – a light greater than all the Green Lantern corps in this time and place, he knew it in his heart, and felt the warmth on his ring, a second watcher.
The Green Lanterns were powerful, but Darkseid knew how to combat them, even through multiple realities, crossing dimensions and summoning the energies of the universe in the battle. He had studied the idiosyncrasies of all his enemies he wished to battle. And although he no longer commanded the Sinestro Corps as he once did, he had a battalion of yellow-armoured Green Lantern hunters he sent out to destroy them, the personal soldiers he had trained with Desaad, who had employed his eldritch genetic sciences to make them strong – stronger than any other breed.
The Kryptonian however – no mere soldier could withstand him. They could merely slow him down, or attempt to overwhelm him with their weapons. Darkseid knew of his weaknesses, but had not been able to procure them.
Except for one.
The Green Lanterns had fought a valiant fight, battered and wounded, but eventually overcoming their foes. Darkseid noted that his flank had fallen, and they would be turning their all-powerful rings upon him soon.
Knowing this, he pushed another button on his command console. He had foreseen every turn. He had simply needed to wear them down first. Now, his powerful war-horses, his black knights, would take to the sky with the most powerful sciences Darkseid had, save his very own.
Knights of darkness to confront those of the light.
He looked at another screen. The Amazons were overwhelming his tanks. He would send Kalibak out with additional troops to reinforce them. Steppenwolf had to be restrained, his lust for the Amazons made him make poor decisions at times. And his power and command would be needed somewhere else.
Darkseid was building enormous constructs here on this moon. Massive robots that would wipe out all resistance, unstoppable colossi impervious to the weapons of mundane civilisations.
Big Barda blasted one with her power rod, its face shattering into a million pieces from the cosmic force. Mister Miracle, who had freed himself, swooped in with a smile.
"New Genesis rejoins the battle." Came the voice, and all heard it, whether by device or hearing.
He swooped past, leaving charges of New Genesis design on the construction.
Darkseid watched as his work was brought to ruin – explosions lighting the valley. Something darker than the recesses of space he commanded crossed his undying granite features.
Scott Free… He would deal with the vagrant child another time.
(*)
Superman battled both Kalibak and Steppenwolf in one of their command ships, as it hurtled toward the surface. Its engines had taken them through another system.
It hit the ground with a thunder as powerful as an exploding star, as the armies watched in awe.
They crawled out of the wreckage, the three gods confronting the Kryptonian. Their minions were all unconscious. There was only one way back home, as another ship coasted above them.
"It is a red sun, fool!" Desaad hissed to Kalibak, pointing at the generator above, containing a miniature sun Darkseid had harnessed for this construction of war. "The Kryptonian will be weakened here!" and forced a power axe into his hand.
The next blow sent Superman sailing into a mountain, he hit it with a loud shaking boom that made all of them wince.
Then a portal appeared, and it was the New God known as Mister Miracle. Before anyone knew it, they saw the micro-sun generator explode, and the red sun radiations quickly dissipated, and the life-giving yellow sun rays returned. With deft aptitude he rescued the Man of Steel and brought him back through the portal, leaving the gods to their wreckage.
"Good timing."
(*)
Back on Earth, Trevor piloted his plane into an Apokolips generator, bailing before it hit. It exploded, and the portal flickered.
"You cannot come with me this time." She had held his face in her hands. "This battle will not go well for humans."
"You're human too, Diana."
"Today, I will not be."
(*)
The yellow sun quickly re-energised Superman, before brought back to the main battleground.
Superman ascended into orbit, there were several planetary bodies, and he found one that would work. Flying towards it at super-velocities, he took a hold of it. This will do. The creatures of the Fourth World looked up, as they suddenly saw… it… loom in the sky above them. Odd to have a moon orbiting a moon, but gravity mechanics were a little strange here.
He pushed a moon on top of the command centre. Darkseid watched as his forward citadel was destroyed by a moon. Its guns would no longer be of service.
"The Man of Steel…" the god cursed, gritting his teeth.
"A few hundred million tonnes ought to take care of that," Superman dusted off his hands, pleased with himself as he watched the explosions swallowed up by the huge mass.
A punch as big as the moon. Not as large as Earth's moon (which was more like seven times ten billion trillion tonnes and would have wiped out the entire battlefield), but still a good sized body.
When tackling the constructions of the Fourth World, you needed to think big.
Boy, sure could use Power Girl's help at a time like this – but she's safely back in her own dimension. It's just as well I guess – if I go down, at least there'll be someone to take over after I'm gone. Assuming everything else goes right.
He continued scanning the battlefield.
What would Earth do without me? Superman didn't like to think about it. But it helped to have a back-up plan.
The Green Lanterns had created a temporary inertial dampening field of their own surrounding the area while Superman was accomplishing this feat, in response to their communication. But the ground had still quaked. The Green Lanterns hadn't required any information or Justice League device, their rings were more than capable of functioning as a comms piece.
"I'm going in for Darkseid." Superman told them, pitching his voice to reach them super-ventriloquistically across the noise, just in case.
"I hear you, Superman. Good luck." Hal Jordan responded, leader of the Green Lantern flight. He and Hal Stewart returned to the field of battle, their rings responding to their willpower as they rejoined the fight.
Superman confronted Darkseid in the central hall, alone. Where he held his great fleet, his armies and war-vehicles at his command, here in the centre.
Great cosmic windows. As Superman looked at them, he could see by the way they affected his vision that they were no mere monitors, but stretched out into a very real space by Darkseid's will. Superman surmised this was how he was directing his Omega beams over the fields of battle to destroy resistance, without being present. Superman would put a stop to that.
"This cosmic carnage ends here, Darkseid," Superman said. He didn't know how well he'd be able to stand up to those Omega Beams, but for the sake of the universe, all universes, he had to be able to.
Superman picked up a power sword from one of the fallen parademons, already turned to dust. Unfortunately they had suicide programmed into them when they were defeated.
He threw the power sword with a mighty throw, and it landed straight into Darkseid's chest before Darkseid could even act. Darkseid seemed shocked for a moment, then he moved for the computer console, and found a button there.
His face twisted into a horrid mockery of a grin as he pushed it and looked at Superman.
Nothing happened. His smile faded. Superman crossed his arms. "Expecting something?" He said with an ironic, unfriendly expression. Darkseid scowled, and tried to make a run for it.
Superman intercepted him and felled him with a blow. He staggered to his feet. Superman was poised to counter his next move.
He sagged, "You… haven't won… I will return…" he grunted.
Superman reached out to him, to grab him, when he disappeared in energies Superman could only identify as some kind of new warp space technology.
Gone.
Superman clenched his fist. Escaped justice again! Darkseid will threaten all the known universe if we can't bring him to justice one day.
The Watchtower had put up a valiant defense, preventing the parademons from winning past and making it to Earth, thanks to help from a few allies. It was possible that a few made it to the ground and hid themselves, but they would be able to search for them later.
Superman and Wonder Woman found one of the parademons' flyers, and flew it out of there before the massive command centre exploded.
Mission complete.
THE END