9:04 AM

Bill Batson dabbed at his mouth with a napkin, grabbing his empty tray as he exited the cafeteria. His bones creaked, echoing forlornly with his every other step. The years hadn't been kind to him. His body had started falling apart shortly after he retired from superhero business.

What did he really have left, after seven decades of superheroism? His work skills were nonexistent. He hadn't gone to school since he dropped out in eighth grade. He was too old to work with his hands.

He had found some decent work as a librarian in the Queens library. He always did like books, and getting lost in their worlds. It wasn't easy getting the job, but it was worth it.

On his way back to the front, Bill saw that a doe-eyed kid was stuck in the comic book section, eyeing a stack of Captain Marvel books high on the shelf. Bill smiled.

"Here, let me get that for you," Bill said, grabbing the books. He lead the boy to the reading section, putting the books gingerly down on a table. "These are a little old for you, aren't they?"

"Yeah. But I am doing a project for school, so I need to go through, like a ton of these."

"Sounds like a lot of hassle."

"Not really. These are actually pretty cool. Corny, but cool. I mean, we all know Dr. Sivanna was a lot more dangerous in real life, but he just keeps talking about his evil plans instead of offing the Marvels once and for all. It's pretty funny."

Bill chuckled. He had to give the guys at DC some major props. He didn't think that a bunch of Jewish kids could make a war hero and a member of the Justice Society goofy enough for the kids, but they pulled that off pretty well.

"You look pretty old, mister. Tell me, do you know if Captain Marvel really used to say holey moley?"

"Is that too hard to believe?"

"That sounds like a pretty dumb thing to say."

Bill frowned. Kids were hard to please these days.

"Well, I will leave you to figure out your schoolwork, kid. Check these out with me in the front if you need to take them home."

The kid nodded, already immersed between the aged, yellowish pages.

By the time Bill returned to his place, however, there were two men waiting for him. It was Elijah Snow, dressed in his bespoke white overcoat, accompanied by a rather reluctant Freddie Freeman. And by the looks on their faces, neither of them bore any good news.

"If you come by like this in my place of work, Snow, then things must be pretty much dire," Bill said, barely caring enough to hide the vitriol in his tone.

"They are, old man. We need you to come back."

"I hung up my cape for a reason. Don't think bringing Freddie out here like this is going to make me change my mind."

"Look, Bill," Freddie began, hand scratching his stubble. "I wouldn't be here if we didn't need every last heavy we could find. And you are as heavy as they come. You killed the High, for God's sake."

"Thanks for reminding me about that," Bill said gravely. Fighting the High was something he never wanted to do, but his hand had been forced.

"I know you miss Mary, Bill. We all do. But we need to put aside our past here. We are fighting for the future."

"Alright. Can it wait ten more minutes? That's when my shift ends."

Snow and Freddie looked at each other, both of them sighing. "Age hasn't been kind to you, has it?" Snow asked, fidgeting with his lighter.

"Not all of us are Century Babies like you, Snow. Anyways. Where are we heading out anyways?"

"It's space, Bill. It's in Oa. We will be hitching a ride with some...mutual acquaintances."

"Space? Well, that will be a change. I haven't been there since the seventies."

"It's space, Batson. It's a whole bunch of blackness, signifying nothing. Except the brief forms of activity that constitutes life."

Bill nodded. He set a timer for ten minutes, pointing the other two to take their seats by a nearby table. In those next ten minutes, Bill solved the crossword puzzle and indexed the new books that had arrived two days earlier. Once he was done, he motioned the other two to follow him, greeting his replacement with a charming smile.

Once he was around fifty yards away from the front entrance, he stopped, looking to see if anyone was watching. Once he was sure that wasn't the case, he shot Freddie a hard look.

"Alright. The words. We say them together."

"You spoke my mind."

"SHAZAM!"

Twin bolts of lightning struck Bill and Freddie, and when the smoke cleared, two Captain Marvels stood in there place. Freddie whistled as he surveyed the form of the original Captain Marvel, who appeared middle aged, while Freddie still looked like he was in his mid twenties.

"You don't look a day over 102, Bill."

"Shut up, smart mouth. I am still stronger than you, as you probably remember."

"Yeah, yeah," Freddie turned towards Snow, who was as nonplussed as ever. "Snow?"

"Oh, you are done with your gloating? Sorry, I drifted off for a moment there. Door."

Elijah Snow walked in through the yellow portal that appeared in front of him, prompting the Captain Marvels to do the same.

"Freddie, tell me one thing. Does holey moley really sound dumb?"

"You don't want to hear the answer to that, Bill. We already have a Superman to fight against. I don't want to add your ego to that list."

Bill grumbled. "Kids these days."

"You ever wonder, John, if the universe was kinda messed up from the start?" Kyle Rayner asked. He and John Stewart were floating above Oa, overseeing the construction of a massive green lantern-powered energy wall, staggered with intricate designs.

"I don't have to wonder, Kyle. I know the universe was messed up from the start. It's why we have to deal with literal existential threats every other Tuesday."

"No, no, that's not what I meant. I mean, what if the universe was never supposed to work out? What if all of this was just a experiment to see how long it took for things to fall apart?"

"You are saying the universe is a crash test dummy for God, is that it?"

"Kinda. And it's like, every other universe is filled with just that different kind of chaos. You remember that one time we had to fight Nekron and the Black Lanterns? What if, in another universe, something even worse happened? What if we are the flukes? And everywhere else is turning out monumentally shitty."

"It's not that fine and dandy here anyways. What's got you in such a dour mood?"

"Nah, I was just wondering out loud. You forget that I used to be a comic book artist. I worked on some very, very dark stuff. That's kind of what losing two girlfriends to supervillains does to you.

"I see where you are coming from, Kyle. At the end of the day, we are just space cops. We catch war criminals and dictators. I don't know how we ended up fighting a rogue Superman who apparently punched a narrative engine in the gut."

"Well, guess we can ask him that question in person. Look."

Kyle pointed to the red blip flying towards them, leaving a meteor-like trail in its wake. The Green Lantern Corps steadied, and held its ground. Mogo the Planetary Lantern surged ahead, becoming the vanguard for Oa's defense.

Mogo blanketed the incoming Superman with a barrage of willpower energy. Superman, for his part, retaliated with a widerange heat blast from his eyes, the beams breaking straight through Mogo's line of fire. With Mogo momentarily distracted, Superman plowed straight through his core, hitting the sentient planet at just the right spot to knock it unconscious.

"That's...new," Kyle said, observing Superman's handiwork. "Never saw Mogo get knocked out before."

"Less admiring, more defending, Kyle," Stewart barked, morphing a highly complicated alien rifle into an even more complex form.

"Sir, yes, sir."

Thousands of beams of green light shot towards Superman, wildly differing in shape, swatting at the man with relentless fury. But Superman pushed back, and as his eyes grew red, the Lanterns braced for impact.

The battle between the Superman and the Green Lantern Corps had begun in earnest. And Kyle was damned if he had any idea about how it was going to go for both parties concerned.

The Titans and Young Justice were en route to Oa, their spaceship steadily accelerating past light speed. It would still be some thirty minutes before they caught a draft of the hyperspace residue that would catapult them to dizzying speeds.

There was still some time before they found Superman.

"Korri, you know any good prayers?"

Koriand'r, also known as Starfire, looked at Conner, curiosity dancing in her purple eyes. "I never figured you for a believer, Conner."

"I am not. I literally came from a bottle. I wasn't supposed to exist. No room in religion for that kind of asterisk."

"But you are afraid that this Superman is too big for us?"

"You weren't there with Clark when he heard the news, Kori. It hit him harder than anything he ever faced. Harder than Doomsday or Darkseid. You don't realize, that this is probably his worst nightmare come to life.

You know how the world has been so peaceful for the last couple of years? It's because we stepped up. It's because Superman stepped up. His death, and then Bruce dying and coming back. Barry dying and coming back. Even Bart there doing the resurrection thing."

"Hiii! I will join you guys later," Bart said from the next row of seats, stuffing his face with cheese puffs. "too busy eating."

"Also, can I mention that I am very thankful about you not mentioning my name, Conner?" Donna Troy said, relief flooding into her features. "Dying isn't a fun activity. Wouldn't recommend it."

Conner waved at Bart and Donna, before returning to his point. "The thing is, Superman works round the clock to keep everything safe. He isn't young anymore, no matter what he looks like. Bruce is getting up there in the years too. We are supposed to take up after them, right?"

"Yes. And we are doing a good job with it so far. You have seen futures where you, Tim and Damian take after your fathers' roles. That stuff isn't easy, but it's not as hard as it looks."

"Clark isn't really my father, more of an older big brother. But yeah. I mean, we do alright jobs in the future, I guess. But a 200 year old Clark that's still Superman? Do you understand how monumentally screwed his world must be?

Clark Kent was never supposed to do this superhero thing all his life. He just picked it up one day because it seemed like the right thing to do. But he isn't really Kal-El, like the world sees him. He works his real job at the Planet. He is really good at it, too.

This Superman's here, Kori, because he needs to be. And he is here, when he should be dead or retired. If he can survive 200 years of who knows what out there, then he can probably take the best offense we can dish out."

"Maybe. But he's still a mortal, Conner," Kori explained. "That 200 year lifespan isn't normal for humans. Maybe it is for Kryptonians, but we will never really know that."

"Actually, Kryptonians have this unspoken rule where they freeze themselves if they reach a hundred or so years," Kara said, peeking her head from behind Conner's seat. "Life gets pretty boring when almost everyone you know isn't...there anymore."

"Thanks, Kara. You see, Conner? For once, we aren't fighting some demon from hell or a cosmic conqueror from the Fourth World. We are fighting a tired old man, whose luck is probably running out.

If anyone needs prayers, Conner, I think it's probably him."

Conner nodded softly. He couldn't beat that logic.

The spaceship accelerated rapidly, latching on to the hyperspace trail it had just found. As it disappeared from the third dimension, Conner hoped that Kori was right. For everyone's sake. Even that Superman's.

Kyle waited. It wasn't an easy wait.

Superman was methodically breaking past every line of defense. For anyone else, it would have taken 50 years. For Superman, it was taking 90 minutes, at most.

He had already disarmed or deactivated over 2000 Green Lanterns. Of course, that wasn't even close to the number of Lanterns who were there at Oa, but this was the most one-sided battle Kyle had ever seen. And given his work history, that was something truly impressive.

He had already taken out Kilowog and Boodika. John was carrying out periodic excursions, using moments when Superman was gassed to land sneaky hits. Kyle wasn't sure if this tactic was working, but it was at least something.

"How long do you think he will last?" he asked John, once he was back by Kyle's side.

"Easily another hour or two. He's fighting smart. Not that Clark doesn't, but he never really has to. This one, he is fighting like he was Bruce with superpowers."

"How can we drain him? Do you think Red Sun radiation or solar vampires would work?"

John looked at Kyle as though he had said something impossible. "You want to conjure up an entire Red Sun to drain Superman?"

"Why not? It will definitely put our imagination to the test. Besides, we have around 5000 minds to work with. I am sure we will come up with something good."

"The hubris in you, Kyle. I forget that you are an artist."

"Please, you used to be an architect. Building a sun isn't that much different than building a skyscraper. It's just the material that's different."

"Alright. I will start talking with as many people as I can. I just hope we have a couple of astrophysicists in the Corps."

"I am sure you will find them. I will get started working on the solar vampires thing. Is there an official name for them?"

"Coronavores, I think."

"Right. Coronavores."

When Kyle thought of that name, he saw in the corner of his mind an inexplicable image of wild monsters downing gallons and gallons of Corona Light beer. It wasn't a pretty sight.

What he was going to create, however, were even worse.

Kyle pictured starving, hungry monsters, their sterile white bodies filled with dozens of little mouths, evolved to drain sunlight, wherever it came from. He envisioned nebulous, shapeshifting limbs, which can stretch and morph depending on the needs of the monsters. He pictured diamond-strong skin and teflon-like sinews.

With these (and a million other) details, Kyle breathed life into a pack of coronavores, which sprouted full formed from his power ring. His new pack of bloodhounds by his side, Kyle charged at Superman, willpower flowing through his every pore.

"Hi Clark. Long time no see."

Superman turned his head, swatting aside three other Lanterns, blocking their blasts with practiced ease. "Hi Kyle. Haven't you seen in the last fifty years."

"Fifty? Aren't you supposed to be, like, two hundred?" Kyle said, maintaining his distance while the coronavores went to work. "Are you saying I get to live to like, 150?"

"No, probably not. I meant that I saw one of you, Kyle. This isn't my first rodeo with the Lanterns."

Kyle's expression darkened. "How many times have you done this, Clark?"

"I don't know. More times than I would care to count. And you can call me Kal, Kyle," Superman said, wrestling with one of the coronavores as it sucked the sunlight out of him. "No one really calls me Clark anymore."

"On account of everyone else being dead?"

"Very astute. That's one way of putting it."

Kal drove his fist deep into the gut of a coronavore, twisting it hard. "You swapped out the organs of these coronavores when you designed them, didn't you?"

"Yeah. I mean, I am going up against a Superman here. I am allowed to cheat as much as I want."

"Fair enough. That means I am allowed to cheat too."

Superman zoomed past the Coronavores, who gave chase, shooting tendrils onto his back, draining him of sunlight in record speed. He struggled, his speed slowing slightly, but it was still fast enough to bring him face to face with Kyle.

"Good idea, Kal, but I am not exactly defenseless either," Kyle said, referring to the micron thin energy shield emanating off his being. "'Willpower is a pretty cool weapon, huh?"

Clark grabbed hold of Kyle's hands, rapidly closing them into fists. He pressed them tight, exerting as much force as he could against the power ring's energy.

"Kal, stop. You can't do this all day. You can kill me if you want to. But I can tell you don't really want that."

"I don't have to kill you, Kyle," Superman said, gritting his teeth, the color continuing to drain from his features. "Not when I can do this."

Superman smashed the green barrier, his hands digging directly into Kyle's knuckles. For a moment, Kyle felt as though as he was caught like a deer looking at headlights. Then the moment passed, and Superman crushed all ten fingers with one firm push.

Kyle screamed, his body succumbing to pain as his power ring flew off his lifeless fingers. The coronavores disappeared instantly. Superman grabbed Kyle by the neck, gazing fiercely into his eyes.

"Tell the others to stand down. I am only here for the Power Battery."

Superman threw Kyle towards the rest of the Lanterns. Kyle sailed straight for a mile before John raced to his aid, catching him with a gigantic oven mitt.

"On a scale of one to ten, that was a negative infinity," Kyle said, yelping as John performed first aid on his broken fingers. "He said he wants the Central Power Battery, John."

"At the rate he's going, he might as well have it."

Kyle winced as his fingers straightened and healed, bone by bone and muscle by agonizing muscle. "Do you think we should we let him have it?"

"Let's see if your crazy idea works or not."

Five thousand lantern rings acted in unison, focusing a unidirectional beam of willpower on Superman. The beams set of a chain reaction, igniting stellar fusion, a gas of swirling mass taking form in the center. A million years of stellar evolution passed in an instant, as the gas ballooned to gigantic proportions, turning yellow green and before turning dark green.

"It's not exactly a red sun, and not as big as an actual sun, but eh I will take it," Kyle said, whistling.

Superman screamed, struggling to escape the eye of the storm. But he was caught in the middle of a rapidly expanding core, catching the brunt of the simulated red sun radiation. The new star was exerting its own gravity, starting to pull nearby Lanterns in.

"Everyone, stay clear of the new sun!" John shouted, flying away with Kyle in arms. "If this works, Kyle, I am probably recommending you for a promotion."

"Thanks for the vote in confidence, chief. You know, what would they great? If the Justice League and everyone from Earth arrived at just the right time."

"The right time? This stunt is going to drain everyone's juice in five minutes. So yeah. It would be really, really great if everyone arrived, like...just about now."

Unfortunately, the Justice League didn't arrive at Oa in the next moment. Or the moment afterwards.

No, they arrived a whole thirty minutes later.

"You seeing this shit out there, Cassie?" Conner said, looking out of his window at the sea of Green Lanterns floating across Oa's orbit. "It's like a scene out of a Michaelangelo fresco or something."

Cassie nodded gravely. "J'onn, you sensing him?"

"Yes. He's on Oa right now. Fighting with the current carrier of the Ion being, Sodam Yat. Everyone else is...not available."

"Christ," Bart said. "Well, what can I say. This is what we signed up for."

It took another nine minutes for the spaceships to land near the Power Battery. By that time, Superman was already done bearing Sodam Yat into unconsciousness. He was battlescarred and drained of energy, but he was still standing.

The Flashes were the first people to reach Superman. They struck together, synching their punches to reach maximum resonance, connecting with Superman's jaw with nigh infinite momentum. Superman's jaw swung back, a squirt of blood losing free from his nose.

"Barry. Wally. Stop. I am almost there," Superman pleaded. "The Power Battery is right there. We don't need to do this anymore."

"Tell that to all the Lanterns you just fought, you schlag," Hal shouted, swinging a big fist at Superman's jaw. Simon and Jessica joined him, and along with the Flashes, they pounded the beaten and battered Kryptonian as hard as they could.

Conner watched as the Justice League, Stormwatch and Captain Marvels lead the charge, flying and running at Superman in a single file. Even Kara flew in, hitting him with a mean haymaker before laying into him with a heat vision onslaught.

Conner stood and watched. The Captain Marvels called in their lightning a dozen times, weakening Superman even further. Wonder Woman wrapped Superman in her lasso, bashing his head in with her shield.

And so it continued, for what seemed like hours on end; but Conner checked his watch, and saw that it had only been fifteen minutes.

One by one, the Justice League and Stormwatch fell. Superman knew them too well. He used Apollo to recharge his solar energy reserves, if only slightly. He tripped Barry, spraining his ankle, and Wally, he trapped in the Speed Force (but only for an hour or so, he promised). He forced a lightning strike to hit one of the Captain Marvels, turning him back into an ordinary man. The other, older Captain Marvel hit Superman the moment after, sending the Kryptonian flying. Superman hit the base of the Power Battery, cracking it slightly.

"Now would be a good time to pitch in, Kon," Kara said, grunting as she landed near Conner.

"What's the use? We are barely doing any damage. He is winded, yeah, but it took the whole Green Lantern Corps to do that."

"I thought you were the one who was all about never giving up? What happened to that?"

"I died, Kara. That changes your perspective on a lot of things. Give me some time. I am looking for openings."

"Oh. Sorry, I forget sometimes that you have half of Luthor in you too. Alright, take your time, but not too much, right?"

Conner waited, studying Superman minutely. He used his lifetime of understanding and knowing Superman, seeing if that helped him crack this future version's defenses. It did, but he still didn't see if there was any way to stop the man for good. He was driven by something greater- and more important- than himself. He wasn't going to stop, not as long as he lived.

As Conner waited, Stormwatch upped its offense, using precise tactics to evade and confound Superman. This was a newer team, lead by Jenny Quarx instead of Jack Hawksmoor, and so their strategies were new as well. But the fact that Superman took this long to fight them off bore grave tidings for them as well. It meant that this team wasn't meant to last the tides of time. Or otherwise, Superman would have counteracted them easily as well.

Leo Quintum's strange ship arrived a few minutes later. He landed a bit further than the League or Stormwatch did, carrying a huge tablet, flanked on both sides by Deena and Heelo. He approached the fight with the same caution Bear Grylls does when he approaches a Nile Crocodile.

"Aren't you supposed to be fighting as well, Superboy?" Leo asked, recording the fisticuffs from a safe distance. "You could be the one to tip the scales."

"Appreciate the vote of confidence. I am waiting for something. You shouldn't have come though. It's dangerous out here, in case you didn't notice."

"That's what makes it so exciting though! We don't get to see these things happen anymore. It's all a bit boring."

"Boring? How?"

"Well, we ended up conquering our base natures. And then we didn't need superheroes to save us all the time anymore. That eventually took care of the villain problem too."

"Really?"

"Yeah. It's actually fascinatingly similar to what your time's Lex Luthor is talking about. You know, with Humans First."

Conner groaned. He was liking the future less and less with every passing second.

And then he heard it. A cracking sound, like thunder, followed by the largest whoosh he had heard in the day so far. Conner looked up, and he saw Clark landing, his body glowing a bright blue, clothed in his old white and blue containment suit. His eyes glowed blue as well, and the only thing really recognizable about the man was his goddamned smile.

"Did you really do what I think you did?" Conner yelled, his pulse pounding.

"If you mean taking a trip to Rigel to supercharge my cells, then yeah. That's what I did."

"You are an idiot, Clark. The others have it mostly under control. You didn't need to literally bring your lifespan down by a decade for this fight."

"Relax. This will wear off after a couple of hours. Enough to deal with... whatever is going on here.

I guess you are looking for an opening, Conner. Stay focused. It's coming up right now."

Clark charged at Kal, shoving the older man clean through the sea of superheroes strewn across the battlefield. Superboy joined his side, still reluctant to throw a punch.

"You know, I was wondering where you were, Clark," Kal said, grinning half-heartedly, trading blows with his younger counterpart. "You too, Kon. Why didn't you hit me yet?"

"I don't know if I need to."

"Yeah. You don't need to. I think Clark has a plan. We will be okay."

Kara joined their side seconds later, livid. "You guys are not doing this, are you?"

"Doing what, Kara?" Clark asked, straining as he continued to push Kal towards the battery. "You have to be more specific."

"Helping him, Kal! Have you lost your mind?"

"This will be over pretty soon. Or at least, we will be elsewhere. You can join us if you want to."

Kara looked quizzically at Conner. "You know what he's talking about?"

"Not really. But I am trusting him. And you should too."

Kara's expression darkened, before relaxing slightly. "You better be right about this."

With a grunt, Clark slammed Kal against the crack in the battery, widening it even further. "I am sure you have 4D vision too. Now would be a good time to use it. That opening. Strike it."

Kal nodded. "Thank You."

Kal punched the cracked wall. And then it widened in the weirdest of ways. A sheet of whiteness overwhelmed everything, enveloping all four of the Kryptonians. When the whiteness disappeared, they were nowhere to be seen.

"Tell me that just didn't happen," Wally said, skidding to a stop by the Power Battery. "That's just anticlimactic as hell."

"Tell me about it," Jenny Quarx said, taking out her cigarette packet and lighter. "But you know what? I will take it. This is almost as good as a win."

"But it's not a win," Diana said, sheathing her sword. "All this did is transport the problem elsewhere."

"It's not our problem anymore, Wonder Woman," Jenny replied, inhaling deeply before exhaling smoke. "And Thank God for that."

"What about the Supers, though?" Bill Batson asked, rubbing his neck.

"Who knows? But hey, at least they can handle themselves. If you want to find out what happened to them, I suggest waking up some of these Lanterns and Guardians."

Wally groaned. "Good idea, that. Stick around kid."

"Sure. It's not like I have anything more to do."

Jenny floated up into the sky, surveying the wreckage across the planet. "What a waste of a good Wednesday.

I was really, really looking forward to that bubble bath too."