Universe 3576: New York

There was a flicker of blinding bright light, like light suddenly being turned on in an empty dark room. The limb grabbing Karen seemed to float briefly in the air, so fast the slice had been. A tall figure in black grabbed her before Scar could react. Gently and quickly setting her on the ground, the figure had enough time for a kiss on her forehead before he flickered out of sight again. Gunshots rang out, and bullets laced with elemental energies peppered Scar's body. Smoking burns riddled the Warlock's body, while other wounds were ringed with tiny icicles. Lightning crackled over others. The voice appeared again, a man's voice, familiar and strangely comforting to Ashley for reasons unknown.

"Not yet. We're not done yet. Not until we properly kick his ass."

A man stood in front of the group, his broad back to them, black coat billowing in the breeze. He twirled his gun once, smoothly sliding it into its holster with his left hand while his right reached behind for his sword, its scabbard slung from his back. As he drew it out of its scabbard, flame flowed from his hand into its blade, and the warmth from the flames radiated gently towards the heroes behind.

Ashley was the closest to the man, and she turned to the others behind her. The warmth of the flame was clearly having an effect on the heroes. She looked, from the admiration and respect on Tim Drake's face, to the reassured faces of her siblings that all would be well, to the undisguised joy and love on her mother's face. They knew that back, had probably seen it countless times as its owner stood between them and whatever harm they had been facing.

"Van Fanell."

Keith Van Fanell said nothing, only smiled quietly in reply as the flame in his sword intensified.

"Come to save your family?"

Quick as a flash, he leapt at Scar, the downward strike a feint for the upward thrust that grazed the behemoth's cheek, leaving a nasty burnt slash. Van landed in front of the group again, the quiet smile still on his face.

"Come to reunite with them."

"I've hurt them, abused them."

The quiet smile was now tinged with pride as Van looked over at his family. "They're still standing. They know how to take care of themselves."

Scar snarled as he pawed at the fresh wound, fighting hard to keep the hate out of his voice. "You're seriously telling me you're not worried about them? I am here to kill them."

"Doesn't seem like you're doing a good job of it."

The Warlock smiled suddenly; shadow tendrils burst out of the ground, wrapping themselves around Van's family and Tim Drake. Tiny spikes, oozing with acidic slime, burst out of the ends of the tendrils, and other tendrils slithered menacingly in front of their faces. "I beg to differ. If they move, they die. Your weapons, on the floor. Now."

Van stabbed his sword into the ground in front of him, placing his gun beside it. Only Karen noticed the water trickling from the ground under the sword, forming the tiniest stream leading to the tendrils.

"Your bracelet too. The key to summoning the Blades of the Heir."

Van did so, but made no further move. The stream of water had reached the tendrils, splitting up and flowing on the tendrils keeping Karen, Tim and the kids captive, still unnoticed by Scar. Karen focused her superhuman hearing; there was no mistaking the sound of ice crackling as the tendrils began to freeze over slowly.

"Very good! So will you leave those there and take a step back?"

In reply, Van snorted out a laugh and placed his hand back on the hilt of his sword. "I'm not letting you have these."

"Oh?" Scar turned to Karen and the kids, jerking his head at them. "Then you're abandoning your family?"

"Not really," said Van coolly. "You're going to return my family back to me."

No one could miss the flicker of hatred that passed over Scar's face. "Listen, Fanell," he growled. "Trying to obtain something without giving up something else is impossible. It doesn't work in this world."

Nostalgia flooded into both Karen and Tim as they saw the familiar stubborn arrogance in Van's face as he spoke in reply, annoyed and determined to have his way. "Like I care. I will take everything I want with my own hands. That means that, as of right now, I intend to take back my wife and my children. I'm getting Tim out from your ridiculous tendril. And I'm going to wipe the ground with your face doing it."

"You couldn't do it by yourself."

Try as she might, Karen couldn't keep the grin off her face as she watched the quiet smile on Van's face turn into a smirk.

"We'll see."

Ashley couldn't believe what she was hearing. She turned to her mother beside her. "That's Dad?"

"That's the man I married," replied Karen, beaming.

The spikes on the tendril had frozen, as well as the acid dripping from them. Quick bursts of heat vision from Power Woman made short work of them, and she used her super strength to break out of the tendrils.

Her children were quick to follow suit, with the twins breaking Tim out as well. Van grabbed his weapons and bracelet and ripped out his sword from the ground, slashing at the Warlock. He abruptly broke off his attack dodging to the left, avoiding Karen's blast of heat vision in the nick of time.

"Sorry!"

Van shrugged. "I guess it's been a while, eh?"

Glyphs began to appear on the ground, Cursed Zombies and Demons rising from them. Scar was the one summoning them, but he was clearly on his last legs. This was the chance they had been waiting for. "Alex, how's Tim?"

"We gotta pull Mr Drake out of the fight, Dad! He's not in fighting shape!"

Van growled as he blocked an attack from above with his sword, firing point-blank at his attacker. "Get him back to the other heroes and put a Field-Gen on the whole lot! We'll finish this!"

"Got it! C'mon Mr Drake!" exclaimed Alex as he pulled Tim to his feet, supporting the superhero with his arm. He healed Red Robin as they moved to where Tim's friends were clustered, Jamie covering their retreat. Their parents and Ashley were fighting the Legion forces now, Van drawing most of the attention. Sword and gun lashed out relentlessly, and the Zombies were dropping like flies now as the Mithril Commander battled them.

Two Demons engaged him, their clawed hands slashing blurs. He dodged them easily, weaving to the right and to the left, waiting for an opening. He found it a second later, slapping aside the first Demon's raking claws with his gun before slashing it in half. The second Demon received a hard kick to its stomach for its troubles. Stumbling backwards, the unfortunate Demon never registered Karen hooking its neck with her arm from behind and slamming it onto the ground. She finished it off with a quick punch through its face.

Van and Karen then blasted the three Zombies ganging up on their younger daughter about ten metres away, destroying two of them. Ashley nodded in thanks before turning back to her opponent. Her uppercut connected, sending the Zombie up into the air.

Only for her twin brother to flying kick it back to the ground in a crumpled heap, where it ungraciously collapsed into a pile of ectoplasmic goop. She stared at him, mouth open.

"What?"

She shook her head in disbelief and bemusement. "I've just never seen people fight like that. It's so ridiculous. And you guys are doing it like it's second nature."

Alex shrugged. "Well, we did grow up fighting like this. And Dad did teach us most of his tricks."

"This is the craziest birthday I've ever had."

Alex only grinned as he lobbed the ball of healing energy that he had just created at his parents; the energy bursting out of it like a grenade.

"But it's turning out to be the best one ever."

His grin grew wider. He placed his hand on his sister's shoulder, sharing a bit of his energy with her.

"Except for the entertainment though. I think I've had enough of them for the day."

He laughed out loud at this last remark. "I'm with you on that one."

Scar's loud roar shook across the area, the anger in his voice clear. The twins nodded to each other, and leapt into the air, flying straight towards the rampaging Warlock. Scar had now shrank back to his original form, unable to maintain his monstrous appearance given the strain of constantly summoning fresh new fodder to attack the Fanells. Their attacks had hurt him greatly too, and though the five family members each sported injuries, they had repaid the favour in spades.

Karen was standing at the head of the line, flanked by Van and their children. The Shield-Gen device that Alex had attached to her costume was sputtering uselessly, its charge having run out a few minutes ago. Ashley's temporary Shield-Gen had also given out, and the coloured auras that had covered her and her siblings were gone.

Scar stood facing them, his shoulders hunched, his head drooping. His cloak and hood had reappeared, and all they could see of his face was a desperate manic smile. It reminded Van of Scar's progenitor Razorpoint. Van's face betrayed no emotion, but Karen noticed him gripping his weapons tighter. Her eyes flickered to her children.

They were all here; the four people who mattered most in her life. She had waited for this day, hoping against hope, optimistic one day and despairing the next. The life that she had dreamed of, the family that she rebuilt after losing Kal-L and Lois all those years ago, everything she had ever wanted was here. There was no way in hell she was going to lose it all over again.

The Warlock was chuckling, the laughter raising every hair on her neck. He was staring at Ashley. That same dark blood-red light was enveloping him. His scars were glowing. The burn marks on his shoulder, from her mother's heat vision all those years ago, were glowing. His eyes were too.

The burn scar that a four-year old Jamie had given him was glowing, and a ball of dark flame was coalescing in his hand.

The long slash wound that Van had inflicted on him 17 years ago was glowing, and the long, black jagged sword appeared in his other hand, viscous blood-red goo dripping from the edge.

Van and Jamie were channelling elemental energy into their weapons. "Get ready."

Without warning, Scar leapt at them, moving at an unbelievable speed. The five dodged his blast of heat vision, moving into position to try and surround him. Alex was in front of him now, and the Warlock made ready to throw his deadly projectile. The young medic stood his ground, clapping his hands once. "Shield-Gen, Reroute! 50, hands!"

The glow from his Shield-Gen dimmed instantly, and half of the forcefield energy covering his body flowed to gather in his hands. He gritted his teeth as the fireball sped towards him.

"BARRIER!"

He moved his hands in a spreading-out motion, and the Shield-Gen energy pooling in his hands burst forth into a rectangular barrier, the light of the forcefield blindingly bright. The fireball struck his barrier hard, its unnatural heat slowly breaking the barrier down. "Jamie!"

His elder sister was there, parrying away Scar's strike and preventing him from following up on his earlier attack. She growled as she fought back, the force of her attacks pushing the Warlock back. Van appeared beside Jamie, and father and daughter fought Scar in earnest. The two slowly forced him backwards, aided by Karen who harassed him from above with short bursts of heat vision.

Scar summoned a second blade, but even that was not enough to stop both Van and Jamie. The two both parried his attacks to the sides, giving Ashley the opening she needed to plow head-on into him. "How does it feel to be on the receiving end, Scar?" she snarled.

She kept up her pummelling, kicking him into a damaged store. He staggered out, his wounds too severe for him to keep up the fighting. Ashley stood alone by herself, the rest of her family making their way to the two of them. He looked at her, the hatred on his face barely disguised.

"So you're not as useless as you seemed. Good. It will make killing you in the future all the more pleasurable."

There was a sudden manic smile on his face; only Karen caught it.

"…should you live, that is."

A black portal appeared behind Scar his last Cursed Demon jumped straight out of the building's roof. As it hung momentarily in mid-air, the Demon's mouth opened impossibly wide, and there was a shrill humming in the air as it prepared to blast the young woman. Jamie and Van opened fire on the Demon, destroying it, but not before it had fired a single spear of dark blood-red light at Ashley.

Too stunned to move, Ashley did not notice her mother pushing her out of the way. What she did notice was Scar smirking as he limped backwards into his portal, just as the energy blast from his last Demon stabbed through Karen's gut.

"Ah."

She slumped to the ground facedown, the blood pooling rapidly around her.

"MOM!"